Chapter 201: The Land of Tenderness and the Devil’s Schedule
In the eighth round of the league, Manchester City traveled to London to face the Hammers West Ham United.
Considering that Lily Collins lives near London, Lin Quan sent her a message before the game, asking her if she wanted to come to watch the game.
Lily Collins had never watched a football match before, and she was very curious about Lin Quan playing football, so she gladly accepted the invitation and came to the London Olympic Stadium.
The camera on the scene quickly captured her figure, and the director frequently switched the camera between Lin Quan and Collins.
The Hammers were mediocre in strength and did not cause much trouble for Manchester City in their home ground.
After 90 minutes, Manchester City defeated their opponents 3:1 and won eight consecutive victories.
Lin Quan performed well in this game, contributing two goals and one assist, scoring all three goals of the team, and was unsurprisingly named the best player of the game.
This achievement created a record in Manchester City's team history and was their best start since the team was founded more than a hundred years ago.
If they can beat Chelsea away from home in the next game, they will tie Chelsea's record of nine consecutive Premier League starts in the 05/06 season.
Currently, there are only three teams that remain undefeated in the top five leagues.
In addition to Manchester City, there are Barcelona in La Liga and Roma in Serie A.
Although criticized by the outside world, Martino's Barcelona has an excellent record in the league.
Neymar has integrated perfectly into the team, providing Barcelona with strong offensive firepower in the frontcourt.
As for Roma, under the leadership of the young coach Rudi Garcia, they achieved the best start in team history.
As long as they maintain this momentum, Roma has a good chance of winning the fourth league trophy in the team's history.
…
After the game with West Ham United, Manchester City players did not return to Manchester, but flew directly to Moscow from London.
This week, Manchester City will face a devilish schedule.
On the 20th they will challenge West Ham United away, on the 23rd they will challenge CSKA Moscow away, and on the 27th they will return to London and then challenge Chelsea away.
In one week, Manchester City will play three away games, one of which is located 2,500 kilometers abroad.
After this round of games, Manchester City players will be badly hurt if they don’t die.
Precisely because of the long journey and continuous fighting, the outside world is not optimistic about whether Manchester City can match Chelsea's winning streak at the start of the year.
Although Chelsea also has to challenge Werder Bremen away, Germany is much closer to the UK than Russia.
Moreover, Werder Bremen is not very strong and there is no extremely cold weather.
Therefore, even in the same away game in the Champions League, Chelsea players will consume far less physical energy than Manchester City players.
"Alas, there was a chance to break Mourinho's record of Chelsea's incredible start, but now the probability is probably less than 30%!"
"Yes, if they don't have to go to Moscow and play in another away game, Manchester City's chances of winning will be greatly improved."
"This schedule is a bit too devilish!"
"In fact, the English Football Association did help. Although they arranged two away games for Manchester City, at least these two away games are in London. After playing the away games in the Champions League, they can return to London to prepare for the game without having to travel around!"
"Last season, all the Premier League teams failed to reach the quarterfinals. This record is really unworthy of the title of the world's best league. This season, the Premier League has greatly increased its attention to the Champions League!"
…
Lily Collins usually doesn't pay much attention to football, but after learning that Lin Quan is a football player, she began to pay attention to this kind of news.
Seeing the negative comments from Manchester City fans on the Internet, she also became worried and couldn't help but send a message to Lin Quan: "I heard that your recent schedule is very difficult?"
"Yeah, so I'm so anxious now that I can't sleep!"
"Really? Why do I feel like you're lying to me?"
Lily Collins was full of doubts about Lin Quan's words. The other party was a professional player, so his mental state shouldn't be so bad, right? "Okay, I admit that I lied. The reason I couldn't sleep was because I was missing a beautiful girl!"
Lily Collins gave Lin Quan an expression with her chin in her hand, as if to say, "Go on, let me see how you perform."
"I checked. Moscow is two hours ahead of London. You may be unable to sleep because of jet lag."
Lily Collins glanced at the time. It was almost nine o'clock in London, which meant eleven o'clock in the evening in Moscow.
For a professional player, not falling asleep before 11 o'clock at night can indeed be considered insomnia.
"The female detective is very observant!"
"Don't give me that. I'll tell you a few methods. Try them. If they work, go to bed!"
"What if it doesn't work?"
"Then I can't save you!"
Lin Quan sent a pouting expression.
After seeing this, Lily Collins sent him a head-banging emoji.
Lin Quan quickly typed out a line of words: "Come on, miss, I can bear it, no need to be gentle with me!" and added a struggling expression.
"Can't you be more serious?"
Lily Collins responded with an eye-roll and sweat-wiping emoji.
"I'm always very serious in front of others!" Lin Quan responded with a smug expression.
Hooligan!! In a private house somewhere in Surrey County, the 17-year-old girl couldn't help but curl her lips when she saw the other party's reply.
Immediately, her expression became restrained and serious: "Okay, stop making trouble."
“Find a piece of music with a slow beat, play it on loop, and then lie down in a position that is most comfortable for you.
After lying down, empty your mind, don't think about anything, keep a calm mind, take a deep breath, and exhale slowly..."
"How is it, is it effective?"
"No!"
Lin Quan responded with a grin.
Lily Collins was so angry that she waved her fists and wanted to rush to Moscow to beat someone up.
"Why didn't it work? Didn't you do what I told you to do?"
Lily Collins sent several questioning emojis.
"I can't find this kind of music on my phone, why don't you call me and sing it for me!"
"You wish!"
Although he said that, the next second, Lin Quan's phone rang.
…
The next morning, Lin Quan got up early.
I glanced at my phone and found that it was out of battery as expected.
After charging his mobile phone, humming a tune and singing a song, Lin Quan went out in a happy mood.
Thinking of Lily Collins singing for him last night, Lin Quan felt warm in his heart, and it seemed that even the temperature in Moscow had risen by several degrees.
However, his teammates thought that Moscow was a terrible place.
Before the game, Pellegrini specifically asked his assistant about the weather conditions. For Manchester City, the most difficult part of this game was not the opponent on the field, but the climate factors outside the field.
"According to the weather forecast, the temperature will drop to around zero degrees Celsius at night!"
“Will it snow?”
"It's hard to say. It's possible. If it really rains or snows, we'd better pray that it's snow. In this temperature, rain is more troublesome than snow. If the players get wet, they will definitely get sick!"
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As the rain keeps falling at a temperature close to zero degrees Celsius, the team members will lose body heat quickly, and if this continues for a long time, they may even get frostbite.
"Well, we have to change our tactics!"
Pellegrini made a decision. He didn't dare let the players fight for a long time in such temperature, so he planned to launch a fast break at the beginning, try to establish the leading advantage as soon as possible, and then replace the main players with some young players to launch a backhand counterattack.
Doing so can reduce the physical exertion of the main players as much as possible, ensuring European results while also saving energy for the next game against Chelsea.
However, the opponent had the same idea as them! "GOAL!!!"
"After only thirteen minutes of the game, CSKA Moscow broke through Manchester City's goal. The goal was scored by their winger Tosic!"
"It's unbelievable. Facing the powerful Manchester City, CSKA Moscow did not play it safe. Instead, they chose to attack Manchester City and seized the opportunity to score the first goal. Now the pressure is on Manchester City!"
In the commentary booth, the guests were all very surprised by this result.
Before the start of this game, the outside world was more optimistic about Manchester City, which had won ten consecutive victories on all fronts and had just defeated Bayern Munich in the previous round of the Champions League group stage.
However, they did not expect that CSKA Moscow's combat effectiveness would be so strong that they could suppress Manchester City in their home court.
"If Manchester City loses this game, there may be three teams with 6 points in Group D, and they will win and lose against each other, and the situation of qualifying will become complicated and confusing."
"This is good news for Bayern Munich, but for Manchester City fans, I'm afraid it's not what they want to see!"
On the sidelines, Pellegrini and the assistant coaches were discussing something.
"The temperature is too low. The warm-up before the game has lost its effect. The players' bodies have cooled down and they need to warm up again. The opponent's ability to adapt to the cold environment is better than ours. It's a bit risky for us to play against them at the beginning!"
"That's right, we should have held back a little and waited for the opponent to attack us before attacking!"
"Okay, let's play like this from now on. We'll launch an attack after 20 minutes and try to equalize the score!"
Manchester City's coaching staff quickly reached a consensus and then conveyed their latest instructions to the players on the field, asking them to play steadily.
So, after the restart, Manchester City players did not rush to launch an attack, but passed the ball patiently, getting every player moving and completing warm-up as quickly as possible.
After CSKA Moscow succeeded in the opening attack, they planned to retreat and launch a defensive counterattack.
But after they got into position, they found that Manchester City was not in a hurry to attack, but instead passed the ball back in the backcourt.
This puzzled the CSKA players: Did they give up? If the opponent gave up, should we seize the opportunity to attack a few more times and try to score more goals? The players were a little confused, and CSKA Moscow coach Slutsky was also a little confused on the sidelines.
After playing for more than ten minutes, this was the feeling Manchester City gave him.
He didn't think the opponent was very strong, at least much weaker than Bayern Munich whom they had met before.
Considering that their goal difference was negative before this game, if they fail to score a few more goals in this game, even if they beat Manchester City, they will probably fall lower in the standings due to the goal difference.
Therefore, Slutsky hesitated again and again, and finally decided to strengthen the attack to see if he could score another goal! Regardless of Manchester City's real fighting power, they had to try to score more goals in this game while the opponent was in poor form.
In this way, even if the goal difference is not as good as Bayern, they can at least suppress Manchester City.
The fans at the scene were extremely excited when they saw the home team launch a massive attack and suppress the Premier League leader on the field.
"See? This is the strength of the Russian Premier League champions. The Premier League champions are no match for us!"
"Haha, the Premier League brags all the time about being the best league in the world, but is their number one only this good? In my opinion, the Premier League may not even be as strong as our Russian Premier League!"
"Don't even mention Manchester City. Last season, Real Madrid came to our home ground and didn't get any advantage. Here, we are invincible!"
The score plus the advantage on the field made the Russian Premier League fans full of confidence and they felt very proud.
In recent years, the Russian Premier League has received crazy investment from oligarchs. Under the storm of money-driven football, many teams have upgraded their weapons, introduced a large number of stars, and made great progress in strength.
However, because Russia is far away from the center of Europe, the attention they receive is far from comparable to that of the five major leagues.
This made the fans of the Russian Premier League very dissatisfied. They had long wanted to teach the teams from the top five leagues a lesson and prove their strength! Manchester City was just an appetizer. When Bayern Munich came to visit them at home next month, they would overturn the defending champions and shock fans all over the world! Not only were the fans of CSKA Moscow arrogant, their players also felt full of confidence at this time.
In the 23rd minute, CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda organized an attack.
Seeing Lin Quan pressing towards him, he did not choose to pass the ball to his teammate. Instead, he became competitive and tried some fancy moves in front of Lin Quan, intending to play a trick on his opponent.
Keisuke Honda is very dissatisfied with Lin Quan. He feels that his strength is not inferior to that of the other party, but just because he does not play for a top team in the top five leagues, he does not have as much attention and external evaluation as the other party.
To this end, the Japanese star plans to transfer to Serie A giants AC Milan to prove himself.
But before the transfer, he had the opportunity to defeat Lin Quan in a one-on-one duel and show his strength to the world in advance.
"Ooooh, get past him!"
"The Beckham of the East, let this kid know how powerful you are!"
Seeing their star player going to challenge Lin Quan, the fans of CSKA Moscow were excited.
They are very confident in Honda Keisuke's ability, and as for Lin Quan, they know that their opponent is very famous.
But after watching the first half, I felt that the opponent was nothing special and did not show the strength that matched their reputation.
Therefore, they were all full of confidence in Honda Keisuke's one-on-one challenge and wanted to see Lin Quan being defeated.
Lin Quan saw that Honda Keisuke did not pass the ball immediately, but planned to pass him, so he rushed over without saying a word.
With a loud bang, Lin Quan knocked the Japanese who were doing tricks to the ground like a bulldozer.
Honda Keisuke was stunned, and the fans at the scene were also stunned.
This script is wrong!
However, before they could react, Lin Quan had already rushed towards CSKA Moscow's half with the ball! (End of this chapter)