"Matt and Adam have been warming up on the sidelines for a while now. The first half is almost over. It seems Luton doesn't plan to make any substitutions in the first half!" Wright Atkinson said from the commentary booth.
Gao Bo also didn't plan to make substitutions in the first half, especially since the players he planned to replace included Hassan Ali.
Hassan Ali had just gained confidence recently. If he were substituted now, this young player that Gao Bo had painstakingly nurtured would be ruined....
Furthermore, it was Gao Bo who pushed Hassan Ali forward and made him try to steal the ball from these Arsenal players with excellent footwork. His struggles in the front field were not Hassan Ali's fault; it was due to Gao Bo's improper tactical arrangement. Therefore, Gao Bo would not let the player lose confidence because of his own mistake.
Fortunately, now that Hassan Ali's role had changed, he was performing very well.
Agile and full of stamina, Hassan Ali stuck to Fabregas like glue, making it so the midfielder, who had performed quite well in the first half, barely touched the ball during this period.
And facing Arsenal's attack, the Luton players also did well after dropping back. They showed great resilience!
When selecting players, Gao Bo liked to put players with very strong mental attributes in the starting lineup. Facts proved that a team composed of such mentally strong guys was not so easily defeated!
Wenger thought Luton would push forward in the final stage of the match, but they didn't.
This made the old Frenchman feel a bit regretful, but the current situation of the match was still favorable to Arsenal, so he didn't mind too much.
The first half quickly came to an end. Seeing that Luton had no intention of attacking in the final moments, Arsenal instead pushed forward again in the last few minutes to try an attack. In the end, Arsenal didn't score again, and Luton seemed to have no means of threatening Arsenal's penalty area. They could only passively defend in their own half!
Luton did have a few chances to win the ball back, but the counter-attacks didn't materialize. Vardy was caught in a double-team by Kolo Toure and Silvestre, making it difficult for him to do anything.
After all, they were outnumbered...
Luton's coaching bench and substitutes' bench were shrouded in gloom, but this did not include Gao Bo.
In fact, from Luton's several successful tackles, Gao Bo saw hope for scoring in the second half!
The tackle success rate card he currently had equipped significantly increased the number of successful tackles made by Luton's players, especially for players like Kante, who were already good at defending. Under the boost of this card, his tackle success rate became very high!
As Van Persie dropped back to the midfield to receive the ball and turned, his long-range shot went high over the crossbar, and the referee blew his whistle three times, signaling the end of the first half.
"The first half is over!! Arsenal leads Luton one-nil. Luton created a miracle by reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup this season. This is the first time they have been trailing in the FA Cup. Can they ultimately turn the score around? We'll be back in fifteen minutes!" Wright Atkinson said, gripping the microphone in the commentary booth.
Can Luton turn it around?
Even the most die-hard Luton fans wouldn't dare answer "yes" to this question...
However, the Luton fans didn't seem too upset about the team being behind in the first half. As the players walked towards the tunnel, passing by the stands, the Luton fans started cheering for the players.
The Luton players' expressions were solemn, but in response to the fans' enthusiasm, they still raised their hands to applaud.
There was also a group of people in the stands watching this team.
They were Chinese reporters sitting in the media section.
A Chinese coach leading a League Two team into the FA Cup semi-finals!
This news ignited the domestic football scene.
Who is Gao Bo?
This question made domestic fans incredibly eager to know. It could be said that if any media outlet could first release an interview video of Gao Bo and reveal his identity, that media outlet would gain unparalleled traffic!
In this internet era, traffic is money.
Therefore, many media outlets sent reporters, but the reporters couldn't get an interview with Gao Bo at Luton because Gao Bo had been busy preparing for the FA Cup semi-finals during this period. He instructed Luton's staff to decline all media requests for exclusive interviews.
Whether from England or China.
"Isn't he just a League Two coach? What's there to be arrogant about?" A middle-aged man wearing glasses sat in the stands and curled his lip, saying to a young man next to him.
They were reporters from "Sports Daily," a widely circulated newspaper in China. A few days ago, they went to request an exclusive interview but were directly refused by Luton.
"You can't say that, Editor. I heard they are about to get promoted," the young man said. "And they didn't reach the FA Cup semi-finals just by luck. They eliminated Chelsea and Manchester City to get to the semi-finals! This shows that this coach still has some skill."
"Tch... Skill my foot..." the middle-aged man said. "Don't I know the level of football in our country? Can a famous coach emerge from this crappy football environment? Is that possible? Even if Luton reached the FA Cup semi-finals, it's because the English players are amazing, it has nothing to do with him as a coach..."
"Little Men, let me tell you, a coach who doesn't know how to handle relationships like this will only be popular for at most three years!!" the middle-aged man said. "Just wait and see. Once they are eliminated from this match and the hype fades, who will still remember him?"
Little Man, however, had a different opinion because he had carefully researched Luton's information. He knew what the team was like before Gao Bo arrived at Luton. But he didn't dare argue loudly with this colleague who was a generation older than him. After all, the other person was an old hand who had worked at the newspaper for almost twenty years, while he was just a young reporter who had only been at the newspaper for a year. How could he afford to offend the other party?
However, there was one point he agreed with, and that was that Luton basically had no chance in this match. Having conceded the first goal to Arsenal, they would have to attack heavily in the second half to equalize, and attacking heavily would give Arsenal more space. With Arsenal's strength, scoring another goal or two in the second half was completely not a problem.
The conversation between the two reporters, of course, did not affect Gao Bo's plans for the second half.
After comforting Hassan Ali, he announced that Adam and Matt would be substituted on at the start of the second half. They would replace Hassan Ali and Lewis Emmanuel.
The players thought the coach was preparing to push forward and attack heavily in the second half, but Gao Bo's arrangement was not like that.
"After coming on and getting the ball, look for Eboue more. This full-back makes a lot of fouls!" Gao Bo said, putting his arm around Adam, "Make him foul!"
Adam nodded vigorously. He hadn't had a chance to start recently. Limited by his stamina, a player who could only play for half a match couldn't be a regular starter for the team.
Gao Bo actually very much hoped that Adam would improve his stamina as soon as possible, but this wasn't something that could be done in a day or two. Perhaps next season, he could slowly try putting him in the starting lineup and see if he could play for sixty or seventy minutes...
"We'll create more free kicks in the second half!! We'll target their heads!!"
Gao Bo stood up, looked around at the players, and said.