When Xie Lan came home from get off work, she met Li Ziqiang who had just parked his car in the underground parking lot, so she warmly extended an invitation to Li Ziqiang:
"Hey Lao Li, come to my house and watch the Europa League final together!"
"I won't bother you with this..." Li Ziqiang wanted to refuse.
"Hey, it's not troublesome, it's not troublesome! There are so many people watching football games in the middle of the night and I'm not sleepy, there's nothing to trouble about!" Xie Lan waved his hands repeatedly.
"That's what I said, Sister Xie. But every time I go to your house to watch football, you have to treat me to dinner..."
"That's not troublesome. It's just an extra pair of dishes and chopsticks. Besides, our two families live a lonely life without our children around us and don't often move around. Don't you think so?"
The two of them walked into the elevator while talking.
Li Ziqiang knew that he could not refuse Sister Xie's enthusiastic invitation, so he nodded: "Then I'll bother you. But it's still early..."
Xie Lan shook his head: "It's not early, it's not early. It's only twenty days. It's gone by in the blink of an eye, but it's so fast!"
Li Ziqiang lowered his head and said nothing. How can you still call him fast after twenty days?
※※※
Twenty days goes really fast.
For Leeds City, it's just two games.
On Monday, May 10, in the 37th round of the Premier League, Leeds City challenged Thorton Town away.
Although he had just experienced the Europa League final against London Bridge, Clark did not arrange a rest for the main players in this game.
After all, there won't be any competitions next, so the opportunity to compete is particularly valuable at this time.
This is because it is necessary to prevent the main players from finding their form after not playing for too long.
This is what Leeds City's players hope for. With three games left before the end of the season, Lasky has not yet completed the tasks assigned to him by boss Clark.
A brace in the second leg of the Europa League semi-final brought Lasky's total season goals to 18.
There are still two goals left to complete the goal.
In order to ensure the completion of the task, of course, the sooner the goal is scored, the better.
You can’t wait until the Europa League final to complete this task, right?
Therefore, playing Thorton and letting all the main players play will help Laski complete the task.
In this game, the entire Leeds City team was trying their best to create opportunities for Laski.
But perhaps because he wanted to score so much, Laski's performance in this game was not as relaxed as in the last Europa League semi-final.
His teammates created many opportunities for him, but he also wasted many opportunities.
Until the end of the game, he failed to score.
Leeds City finally relied on Hulay's brace to defeat Thorton Town 2:1 away from home.
After the game, everyone in the locker room comforted the depressed Lasky and told him not to worry too much about not scoring in this game.
In the last round, Leeds City played relegated Sandwell at home, so he still had a chance.
※※※
On Sunday, May 16, the 2026-2027 Premier League season will finally come to an end.
At this point in the league, the suspense of championship and relegation has ended. The league championship belongs to Manchester Athletic, and the three relegated teams have also been confirmed.
They are Helmer, ranked 18th, Sandwell, ranked 19th, and Northumbria, ranked last.
Among them, Northumbria performed well in the Premier League last season and even almost qualified for the European competition.
As a result, this season's performance plummeted, with only six wins, two draws, and 29 losses in thirty-seven league games. Nineteen goals were scored, 63 goals were conceded, and the team was relegated early with 20 points.
Helmer, ranked 18th, has 28 points, 11 points behind Burley, which is 17th in the league, and was confirmed to be relegated very early.
The only suspense in the league at present is qualifying for the European competition.
The most fierce competition is to qualify for the Champions League.
The top four in the league are Manchester Athletic with 89 points, Stan Park Rangers with 70 points, Wijston Town with 69 points, and London Bridge with 68 points.
Tramed, who is fifth in the league, has 67 points.
It can be said that except for the league champion Manchester United, the other four teams are very likely to qualify for the Champions League next season.
In order to ensure fairness and justice, the final round of the league kicks off at the same time.
But these have nothing to do with Leeds City.
They only care about one thing, and that is whether Lasky can complete the league's goal of 20 goals in this game.
Captain Pete Williams even wanted to talk to Lasky specifically, hoping to reduce his pressure and stop him from having too much psychological burden.
But he was persuaded by Hu Lai: "The more you do this, the greater the pressure will be on him! Can a professional player not even be able to withstand such a little pressure?"
"Then what do you think we should do?"
"You can play how you want to play. Instead of avoiding pressure, it is better to face it head-on. I believe Dominic can withstand this level of pressure." Hu Lai looked at Peter who seemed to be hesitant and asked: "Why?
,don’t you trust your teammates?”
Pete shook his head quickly: "No, I believe it."
Hu Lai spread his hands: "Isn't that the end?"
Then he patted Pete on the shoulder: "Pete, you are going to be the leader of this team in the future. No matter what, you must believe in your teammates. This is very important."
Peter was lost in thought.
※※※
From the first minute of the game, Leeds City, playing at home, launched a fierce attack on Sandwell's goal.
Sandwell, who had already been relegated early, lacked fighting spirit.
So the game completely fell into Leeds City's rhythm.
Eleven minutes after the kick-off, when Kamara broke into the penalty area from the wing, he was dragged to the ground by Sandwell's defender. The referee decisively blew the whistle and sentenced Sandwell to death.
Hulay, who was originally the team's top penalty taker, directly stuffed the football into Lasky's arms.
"Come on, Dominic."
This scene surprised the commentators.
Without knowing the inside story, it is really difficult for them to understand why Hu Lai gave this penalty kick.
Could it be that after missing out on the Premier League Golden Boot this season, the pot has been broken?
Before this round of league games, Hulay basically said goodbye to the competition for the Premier League Golden Boot this season. His 20 league goals are seven points away from Stones' 27 goals. There is no way he can score in this last round.
Score eight goals in one game, right?
Peter saw Hu Lai so casually stuff the football into Lasky's arms, then he didn't care about Lasky's surprised expression, waved his hand, turned around and exited the penalty area.
He remembered what Hu Lai said to him before the game.
You have to trust your teammates...
So he shouted to Laski, who was still in a daze: "Dominique!"
Lasky was called back to his senses and looked up.
"Come on, you can do it!" Pete clenched his fist and waved.
He noticed that the expression on Lasky's face changed little by little, and in the end he nodded vigorously towards himself.
Then he turned around and went to place the football.
After placing the football, Lasky stood up and backed away, then looked at the goal. He felt unprecedented pressure.
He felt as if he was facing the most crucial goal in the penalty shootout of the Europa League final.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
I remembered that Hu Lai gave the penalty kick to himself without saying a word.
I also think of Peter’s encouragement to me.
Thinking about the help the whole team has given him this season...
How can there be no pressure?
But how could you be afraid of pressure?
When the whistle sounded, he opened his eyes, exhaled, took a running approach, and kicked off!
The football was whipped towards the center... by him!
Sandwell's goalkeeper dives to the right!
Amid huge cheers, the football flew into the goal!
"Beautiful! Only twelve minutes into the game, Leeds City took the lead! Lasky scored his twelfth league goal this season! Second only to Hulay, he ranked third in the Leeds City team.
two!"
After scoring the goal, Lasky did not run wildly to celebrate, but stood on the spot with his head raised and roared, venting all the pressure of not scoring in the previous round of the league.
Immediately afterwards he was overwhelmed by the swarm of Leeds City players.
Everyone cheered loudly in his ears.
The Leeds City players on the bench were even more excited. They were shouting: "One more to go! One more to go!!"
※※※
After Laski opened the scoring for Leeds City, Leeds City scored again in the 36th minute.
The goal this time was Hulay.
He suddenly shot a cold arrow at the front of the penalty area and shot a long shot through Sandwell's goal.
Leeds City leads 2:0!
After taking a two-goal lead, there was basically no suspense for Leeds City to win the game.
The players began to feed Lasky the ball constantly, hoping to help him achieve the goal of twenty goals in this game.
Their actions were so obvious that the commentators were a little confused and couldn't understand why Leeds City players were trying so hard to create opportunities for Laski.
If they create opportunities for Hu Lai, it is somewhat understandable. Although Hu Lai is no longer expected to win the Premier League Golden Boot, what if it is to allow him to rank higher in the Premier League scorer list?
What is the purpose of creating opportunities for Lasky?
Can Laski still hit the Premier League Golden Boot?
Or is Laski's popularity within the Leeds City team already so good?
You must know that not only other Leeds City players are creating opportunities for Laski, but even Hu Lai is doing the same. Leeds City's first goal of this game, Laski's first goal, is Hu Lai.
Lejan gave him a penalty kick opportunity!
Everyone can’t understand it, which is normal. After all, no one would have thought that Leeds City players would work so hard for a meal...
The actions of the Leeds City players deeply irritated the Sandwell players, who regarded it as a "provocation" to themselves.
So they strengthened their defense against Lasky.
Although they have no idea why Leeds City are so insistent on letting Laski score...
In the 72nd minute, Hulera got the ball after leaving the penalty area, and he sent a very rare through ball!
This caught Sandwell off guard. After all, when had he seen Hulay organizing an attack outside the penalty area before?
Laski ran into the space, received Hulay's pass, and shot directly!
The football rolled from the Sandwell goalkeeper's feet into the net!
"Lasky! Lasky finally scored again! He looked very excited after the goal. He ran to Pete Williams who passed the ball to him, hugged him, and was then followed by more Leeds City
The players gathered around... All the Leeds City players looked very excited and excited, which somewhat puzzled us... But anyway, Leeds City scored again! They led Sandwell 3:0 at home! Use
A clean victory brings an end to this league season!"
Matthew Cox shouted and wondered.
Because after Laski scored, the Leeds City players were particularly excited. It felt like they had won the league championship...
In the stadium, even the Leeds City players on the bench rushed out and ran towards their teammates who were celebrating, joined them and continued to celebrate.
Sam Randall nudged Clark with his elbow: "Here's going to bleed again!"
Clark did not speak, but answered him with a hearty laugh.