Blackpool's Head Coach, Parks, observed Cambridge United's first-half performance and was almost certain that his team would win again today.
Although it wouldn't help their ranking much, it would be interesting to bring down a dark horse at the top of the League.
However, when the second half began, Parks was somewhat surprised.
Cambridge United displayed a completely different state from the first half! It was as if they had changed into a different team!
Fierce pressing, fearless attacks, and skilled movements—there wasn't the slightest hint of pressure on them!
Parks turned to look at Huang Hao, truly unable to see what special charm this unassuming Chinese man possessed!
Although Cambridge United's players had shed their mental burden, Blackpool was performing quite well, spurred on by over 10,000 fans at home!
Especially in terms of tackling, they were in no way inferior to Cambridge United!
Parks was only somewhat wary of Cambridge United's set pieces; there had already been multiple corners in the second half that made Blackpool's goal dangerous, but fortunately, goalkeeper Rachubka performed excellently, ensuring the goal remained intact.
In the 68th minute, Suxi's throw-in from the attacking third went awry and was directly intercepted by Blackpool!
Ewart passed the ball to Suthern, and Blackpool began to organize a counterattack.
Suthern attempted to pass the ball to Barker behind him, then distribute it to a teammate on the wing.
Who knew that as soon as Suthern stopped the ball, Lewandowski directly slid in from behind and to the side, kicking the ball to O'Connor!
O'Connor passed directly to Ayu in the attacking third without stopping the ball, and Ayu delivered a diagonal through ball!
Vardy had already started running towards the penalty area at this moment!
Receiving the pass at the edge of the penalty area, Vardy immediately surged forward!
In the ensuing chaos, the retreating Barker directly kicked Vardy's calf!
Seeing the linesman waving his flag, the referee, Probert, immediately blew his whistle for a foul!
An undisputed penalty!
Barker tried to argue with the referee but was immediately silenced by a yellow card.
Lewandowski's penalty was a clean strike!
0:1!
Cambridge United finally broke through Blackpool's defense with this penalty!
Sometimes, it seemed as if heaven deliberately wanted to test Huang Hao and the Cambridge United lads further; a dramatic scene unfolded a few minutes later at Blackpool's stadium.
In the 78th minute of the second half, Blackpool won a corner on the left side.
Cunningham directly lofted the ball towards the goal!
Clark and O'Connor tangled in front of the goal, pushing each other, trying to get to the first ball.
Clark suddenly accelerated, trying to shake off O'Connor!
However, O'Connor forgot to release his right hand, which was holding Clark's shirt!
Thus, Clark's shirt, with an extremely obvious stretch, caught Probert's attention!
The whistle blew again!
Blackpool, penalty!!!
As the saying goes, everything is fate, and nothing is up to man!
Huang Hao truly never imagined that his words of relieving pressure on the players during halftime would come true.
Cambridge United, are they really aiming for the playoffs!
What, isn't direct promotion better!!!
The team had just managed to break the deadlock at Blackpool's stadium with a penalty, and only a few minutes later, Cambridge United returned a penalty to their opponent!
Ngandoli calmly stood before the ball, waiting for the referee's whistle.
With a run-up, he directly deceived Pantilimon and scored with a shot to the middle! 1:1!
Both sides were back on the same starting line!
Huang Hao sighed, "This is fate! I accept it!"
Cambridge United's players did not collapse after being equalized; at the very least, they still had over 10 minutes remaining!
In the 81st minute, Paul Smith received a pass from Vida in the backfield, gently pulled the ball, turned, and then suddenly accelerated, directly passing in front of Cunningham!
A somewhat excited Cunningham instinctively pulled him!
Smith, who was accelerating, was undeniably pulled to the ground!
It wasn't until he heard the referee's whistle that Cunningham suddenly felt a pang of panic!
He seemed to have forgotten that he had a yellow card!
Watching Probert pull out a card and run towards him, Cunningham completely panicked and quickly went forward to grab the referee, trying to stop him from taking out the card!
However, the yellow card still appeared above his head!
Two yellows make a red, Cunningham was sent off!
Blackpool suffered a non-combat reduction in players, and the scales of victory tilted slightly towards Cambridge United!
In the subsequent game, Huang Hao looked at the scene on the field and seemed to be back at the game at Abbey Stadium a few days ago!
Blackpool, pressured by their numerical disadvantage, began to defend across the board!
Meanwhile, Cambridge United attacked Blackpool's penalty area like mad, attempting to defy fate!
Even after the fourth official held up the sign for 2 minutes of added time, Cambridge United still couldn't find a good scoring opportunity.
At this point, Birmingham's match had already ended, with a score of 2:0 holding until the final whistle.
If this score held until the end, Birmingham would claim the second-place spot with a 1-point advantage.
In the 91st minute, Cambridge United earned a throw-in on the left side of the attacking third.
Blackpool had all their players retreated into the penalty area, and with Cambridge United's attacking players, Blackpool's penalty area was overcrowded!
Sun Jihai looked at the situation inside the penalty area and abandoned the idea of a powerful, miraculous throw.
As Sun Jihai raised his hands above his head, O'Connor suddenly ran out of the penalty area!
Seeing this, Sun Jihai immediately threw the ball to O'Connor!
O'Connor directly sent the ball from the left side of the penalty area to a position about one meter from the top of the penalty arc!
Lewandowski was seen accelerating from near the center circle!
Receiving the pass, Lewandowski took one touch forward and then unleashed a powerful shot from outside the penalty area!!!
Cambridge United players in the shot's path immediately created a gap!
As Rachubka rose to dive towards the right side of the goal, Lewandowski's shot was already nearing the goal line!
Blackpool's stadium instantly fell silent!
A few seconds later, Cambridge United's bench and The U's Army behind the goal all erupted!!!
Lewandowski's speculative shot ultimately paid off!
1:2!!! Cambridge United, who were equalized at the last moment in the previous game, staged a dramatic last-minute winner in this round!
With less than 30 seconds remaining in the match, Lewandowski's long-range shot brought victory back to Cambridge United!
Blackpool's players sat directly on the grass; although the result of this match was irrelevant to them, losing their final home game in such a manner felt truly unfair.
This time, Cambridge United made a strong presence in London's major media outlets!
The television was broadcasting the crazy scene of fans at Abbey Stadium yesterday.
Fans in the stands, like an avalanche, swarmed down, all rushing to the center of the field.
Security personnel had all disappeared at this moment; all that remained were Cambridge United's frenzied fans.
Of course, Cambridge United's players were once again stripped bare this time.
Compared to their panic last time, Cambridge United's players were clearly much more experienced this time, even proactively taking off their jerseys before the fans could even get to them.
If promotion to League Two, League One, or even the EFL Championship had not caused too much of a stir, then Cambridge United's ascent to England's top League became explosive news.
Four promotions in four years, a shabby and simple training base and stadium, a small team that avoided bankruptcy only through fan crowdfunding—all of this sounded incredibly fantastical!
Cambridge United's club news office phone was almost ringing off the hook, all from various media outlets requesting exclusive interviews with Huang Hao.
However, this time, Huang Hao was unusually low-key.
Whether it was major newspapers like BBC and Sky Sports or various miscellaneous small magazines, Huang Hao instructed Mia in the office to politely decline them all.
Huang Hao knew that the series of chain reactions triggered by promotion to the Premier League would all erupt in a concentrated manner in the near future.
It seems this summer is destined to have no vacation!
Player contract renewals, Premier League transfers, and even the possibility of developing a new stadium—none of these could be resolved with just a few words.
After the match, the first person Huang Hao contacted was Li Jianqin.
Li Jianqin had returned to China several months ago, fully responsible for the club's business development in China with Ouyang.
"This trip to China, I really owe it to you.
But you're going to be busy again soon."
Huang Hao's lips curled into a smile, thinking mischievously of Li Jianqin on the other end of the phone.
"Damn it, you black-hearted boss are too exploitative?! I'm flying back and forth every day, I don't even have time to be with Ouyang!"
Upon hearing this, Li Jianqin complained to Huang Hao again.
"Alright, this matter, it still has to be you."
Seeing that he couldn't resist, Li Jianqin could only accept his fate.
"Alright, alright, big boss, you speak, you speak.
Seriously, back in school, I would've never thought I'd be working my butt off for you!"
Li Jianqin thought about it, still feeling a bit resentful.
"Hahaha! This is called 'what goes around comes around'.
Did you arrange me any less back then?"
After some playful bickering, the two returned to the main topic.
"Feifei, there are two things this time: one is the naming rights for the team's jersey.
Now that we're in the Premier League, we should be able to negotiate a good price."
"The other thing is that you can try to communicate with the big players in China and see if there are any plans to name our stadium."
"Holy crap! You're planning to build a stadium?!"
Upon hearing this, Li Jianqin directly jumped out of his chair.
"That's right, but this is just a plan for now, after all, we only have hundreds of thousands in profit in our account.
After the FA Cup, the prize money is only a little over 1 million.
It's definitely not enough to build a stadium."
"So I want you to look for naming sponsors to see if they can help us cover some of the costs."
"Oh, right."
Huang Hao seemed to remember something else.
"What?"
"Don't look for Wang Dong, hahahaha!"
"Go to hell!"
Li Jianqin hung up the phone, grumbling.
While arranging for Huang Hao to be responsible for domestic business, Adams was also assigned to select UK sponsors.
Abbey Stadium only has 8,130 seats, while the Premier League's entry standard is 12,500 seats.
Clearly, resolving the stadium issue was urgent.
However, this matter was not something Huang Hao could handle alone, and the most realistic solution was to temporarily lease a new stadium.
In London, a place with over a dozen clubs of varying sizes, this matter was not difficult to handle.
The first things to be resolved were the stadium and contract renewals.
These two matters directly related to Cambridge United's survival next season.
Especially with the new stadium not yet in the substantial stage, quickly securing Cambridge United's home ground for next season became the first problem facing Cambridge United.
As the center of England, the Greater London area has dozens of football stadiums, something unimaginable in any province in China.
Despite being mentally prepared, when Adams brought the distribution map of London teams and stadiums, Huang Hao was still stunned!
In the Greater London area, where every inch of land is precious, the map was densely marked with as many as 31 football clubs.
Aside from a few small clubs that shared stadiums, these 31 clubs had 29 professional football stadiums behind them!
However, most football stadiums, like Abbey Stadium, could not meet the Premier League's entry requirements.
After some searching, apart from the unapproachable exclusive stadiums of a few wealthy clubs and Wembley, there weren't many options left for Cambridge United.
This matter naturally fell to Adams.
Unexpectedly, one day later, Adams directly reported the result!