Chapter 229: Champions League knockout draw, a fateful showdown! [Update]
"Half-time champion in hand, who can stop Manchester City?"
"The new Premier League team has been unbeaten for 16 games, breaking the best start in the Premier League again!"
"Hat-trick defeats the Gunners, Manchester City's No. 10 wins over Walcott!"
"Wenger intends to strengthen the forward line, Suarez may join Arsenal!"
After the end of this round of the league, major British media all started to praise Manchester City.
Manchester City achieved 14 wins and 2 draws in the first 16 league games, once again breaking their previous record of the best start in the Premier League.
And after defeating Arsenal, they have already secured the half-season championship three rounds in advance.
Although there is still a long time until the end of the season, there is no doubt that Manchester City has taken the lead in the championship battle.
As long as they don't let down, given the huge advantages they have, they have great hopes of winning the championship.
The Blue Moon is very likely to win its second Premier League trophy! However, compared to the outside world's praise, Manchester City people themselves appear to be very humble.
"Our team still has some shortcomings, and we need to continue to strengthen it during the winter break!"
When facing reporters, club chairman Fahim expressed the team's determination to continue recruiting players.
Head coach Pellegrini also has this idea:
"Yes, our squad is not deep enough to cope with multiple fronts, and we still need to continue to strengthen."
In the summer, Manchester City spent a lot of money in the transfer market and bought a large number of players.
Some of these have proven to be very good bargains.
Like Fernandinho and Navas, they quickly secured their places in the starting lineup after joining the team and became Manchester City's absolute main force.
However, some of the signings in the frontcourt seem to be less cost-effective. Negredo is okay. He is a qualified substitute for Aguero and can sometimes even start.
But the same cannot be said for Jovetic. After coming to Manchester City, he has had almost no chance to play. The 26 million euro signing now seems a bit of a waste.
What Pellegrini needs now is not a striker, he wants an organizer.
David Silva can play as a central midfielder, but he will be more threatening if he is placed on the wing, which is also the position he is more familiar with.
Therefore, Manchester City needs a real organizational core to liberate Lin Quan.
This is also the opinion of the big boss Mansour. Even if Pellegrini does not make a move during the winter break, the club will still buy players.
Manchester City's outstanding performance on all fronts this season has made Mansour very happy. He has never been a person who is stingy with money.
As long as it can make the team stronger and allow the team to go further on all fronts, he will not hesitate to spend any amount of money.
As a result, before the winter break even arrived, many stars had already been linked with Manchester City.
According to sources, Manchester City has set its sights on the main midfielders of Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona and other teams.
Once the transfer window opens, they will make these teams an offer that they will find difficult to refuse.
The truth of this news is still unknown, but the several wealthy families involved in the scandal seem a little nervous.
If an ordinary team came to poach them, they would probably just laugh it off.
But if Manchester City comes to poach players, that’s different!
The reason is simple, Manchester City is too rich.
In the past, Manchester City was just a wealthy upstart, but this year, they have been making great strides in both the league and the Champions League.
After Lin Quan joined Manchester City, everyone could see that Manchester City was already qualified to challenge for the Champions League trophy.
This means that other players joining Manchester City can not only get extremely high salaries, but also continue to pursue honors.
This undoubtedly dispelled the concerns of many people and greatly lowered the threshold for them to join Manchester City.
At this time, once Manchester City makes an offer that is difficult for both the club and the player to refuse, these big clubs will be a little worried that they will not be able to control themselves.
There is no way, Manchester City gave too much!
Therefore, after rumors of an affair between their own players and Manchester City broke out, they were filled with a sense of crisis and began to look for suitable alternative options in the transfer market in advance.
In this way, when Manchester City really waves a check to poach players, they will not be without backup options.
…
After finishing the league match with Arsenal, club chairman Fahim and head coach Pellegrini rushed to the UEFA headquarters to attend the draw ceremony for the 2013-2014 Champions League quarter-finals.
This is the first time that Manchester City has made it to the knockout stage. They are extremely nervous and worried, fearing that they will draw a bad lot.
However, the strength of the second place teams in this year's group is not very strong. The Serie A champion Juventus, which had the potential to become a spoiler, was unexpectedly eliminated by a Turkish Super League team in the group stage and missed the knockout stage.
Among the remaining runners-up in the groups, except for Arsenal in the Premier League and AC Milan in Serie A, the remaining teams are very weak.
Therefore, as long as Manchester City is not too unlucky, they can basically draw a good lot.
But for Bayern, who finished second in the group, this season's Champions League will be difficult.
The top teams in the other groups are either top clubs in each major league or strong teams.
No matter who they meet, it will be a fierce battle.
Of course, the same goes for other teams.
No one wants to meet last season's defending champion in the first stage of the knockout stage!
This resulted in the head coaches of the major clubs who came to the scene to participate in the draw ceremony generally having nervous expressions on their faces.
They were all cursing Bayern in their hearts. The damn defending champions didn't play well and made us so nervous.
At 7 o'clock in the evening on December 16, the drawing ceremony officially began.
UEFA Secretary General Infantino, Competition Director Marchetti and Figo, the ambassador of this season's Champions League, will work together to draw eight teams from two pools representing the first and second place in the group.
In the group stage, the eight teams that finished first in their groups were: Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris, Manchester City, Chelsea, Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona.
These eight teams will enjoy the advantage of playing away first and then at home, which is obviously a reward for them for finishing first in the group.
The second place in the group were: Leverkusen, Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Bayern, Werder Bremen, Arsenal, Zenit St. Petersburg and AC Milan.
As the second in the group, they need to play at home first and then away. The schedule is not friendly to them. If they don’t play well at home, they will even lose hope of advancing.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Figo was the first to pick out Manchester City.
Seeing that his team was drawn out, Fahim sat up straight, and Pellegrini could not help but cross his hands together.
Obviously, both of them were a little nervous.
"Manchester City has been making great strides in both the league and the Champions League this season and has not lost a single game so far. Who will be their opponent?"
The host said this with a smile, but the second place winners of each group couldn't laugh at this time. Obviously, no one wanted to be drawn against Manchester City.
Maldike drew a team from the pool of second place in the group, and when he unfolded it, he found that it was the logo of Arsenal.
According to UEFA regulations, teams from the same national league and teams in the same group will automatically avoid each other in the Champions League round of 16.
So this draw did not count. After the re-draw, a team with a green background and a white letter W logo was drawn.
If Lin Quan were here, he would be able to recognize which team this was at a glance - Werder Bremen!
Seeing this draw, Fahim and Pellegrini were stunned for a moment, and then both breathed a sigh of relief.
Werder Bremen is not the weakest second-place team in the group, but their strength is not strong either. In addition, Germany is not far from the UK, so it will not be too difficult for them to play away.
So for Manchester City, this is a good draw!
The broadcast camera was turned to Werder Bremen's head coach Schaff. Compared to the relaxation and excitement on the Manchester City side, Coach Schaff's expression was obviously much more serious.
The team Lin is in? He couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart: Is this UEFA's bad taste?
This is a good draw for Manchester City, but for Werder Bremen, this draw basically sentenced them to death.
"Damn, UEFA really knows how to play tricks. They actually let Manchester City meet Werder Bremen!"
"If this wasn't a script, I would have eaten the computer alive!"
"This draw is very friendly to Manchester City, basically announcing their entry into the quarterfinals!"
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"Yes, Bremen's strength has declined a lot this season. It is difficult for them to pose a threat to Manchester City!"
"With Bremen's strength, it will be difficult to play against anyone. Relatively speaking, it might be better to face Manchester City. At least Emperor Lin will not kill them!"
"I am a Werder Bremen fan, welcome Lin Quan home!"
“Welcome home!”
Bremen fans have a lot of affection for Lin Quan. Werder Bremen's decline has been going on for a long time.
If he and De Bruyne hadn't led Bremen all the way to second place in the league last season, Werder Bremen would have no chance of entering the Champions League.
This season, after losing Lin Quan and De Bruyne, Werder Bremen was suddenly beaten back to its original form. Their league points ranked fifth from the bottom in the Bundesliga, just one step away from the relegation zone.
In this situation, Werder Bremen cannot take the Champions League into consideration at the same time and they have to fight for the team's relegation.
It is for this reason that the fans of the Parrot Army miss their former twin stars even more.
If these two people were still there, the team's record would never have fallen to this point.
…
The second team drawn is Barcelona, and their opponent is Arsenal.
When Wenger saw the draw, his expression suddenly changed.
He seriously suspected that this was a shady deal of UEFA, otherwise why would Arsenal always face Barcelona in the knockout rounds?
The third team drawn is Atletico Madrid, and their opponent is AC Milan.
This matchup is full of suspense. AC Milan is the strongest among the remaining six group runners-up, while Atletico Madrid is a relatively weak team among the group leaders.
When the two teams meet, the outcome of the game may be difficult to predict, and the hopes of both sides advancing should be similar.
Subsequently, the opponents of Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Dortmund were also announced one after another.
Paris Saint-Germain drew Leverkusen, and with their strength they have great hopes of advancing.
Real Madrid drew Olympiacos, and there is almost no suspense in this group. The Greek team can hardly pose a threat to Real Madrid.
Manchester United drew Galatasaray, which was neither good nor bad for Manchester United.
The opponent is not strong, but it will be a big challenge for Manchester United players to travel all the way to the Turkish Super League's hellish home ground to fight.
Dortmund drew Zenit St. Petersburg, an opponent that is not strong, and they qualified with the lowest points in the history of the Champions League, so the outside world generally believes that Dortmund will advance.
There are only two teams left in the draw pool. Even if we don’t draw, everyone knows the result of this final matchup.
Figo still went through the procedure and drew out the last two teams.
The final match was between Chelsea and Bayern Munich! After the result came out, the director gave two cameras to Bayern's head coach Guardiola and Chelsea's head coach Mourinho respectively.
These two are the most popular top coaches in football today. They have been engaged in a strong confrontation in the Champions League and La Liga for many years.
I thought that after they left La Liga one after another, the number of encounters between the two would decrease.
But what is unexpected is that the bond between the two is so deep that even though they came to two different leagues, they still met in the first stage of the knockout stage.
This result is not good news for both sides. Mourinho's Chelsea and Guardiola's Bayern were the Champions League champions last season and the season before last respectively.
Both teams are very strong and were among the favorites to win the championship before the group stage.
However, the early encounter between the two teams means that one of them will inevitably miss the quarterfinals.
Mourinho and Guardiola both looked unhappy after seeing the result.
Mourinho's face was livid and his eyes were fixed on UEFA's Secretary General Infantino.
The madman had long suspected that the Champions League draw was a pre-arranged script, and now he was even more certain of it.
He could guess that this match was deliberately arranged by UEFA for traffic and gimmicks.
Previous quarter-finals were not exciting or interesting because of the disparity in strength between the two teams.
But Bayern and Chelsea are different. Not only are the two teams very similar in strength, but they also have various grudges and hatreds.
Bayern Munich's revenge on Chelsea, revenge for their defeat in the final two years ago, plus the fateful duel between Mourinho and Guardiola...
What a gimmick and attraction! Guardiola's expression was also very serious. He had confidence in Bayern, but he did not want to encounter such a strong team in the first stage of the knockout stage.
Chelsea's defense is very strong, and Bayern has a disadvantageous schedule because they have to play at home first.
Based on his understanding of Mourinho, the opponent will definitely adopt a defensive posture at the Allianz Arena and launch an extreme defensive counterattack.
If Bayern fails to beat Chelsea at their home ground, their hopes of winning at the opponent's home ground will probably be very slim.
The reporters and spectators at the scene were obviously well aware of the grudge between the two, so after the result came out, a heated discussion immediately broke out at the scene.
Other teams, especially the giants, all took a gloating attitude and watched the fight between the two giants from the sidelines.
For teams aiming to win the championship, such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, this result is obviously what they very much want to see.
Because they didn't need to take any action, one of these two strong teams was eliminated.
And even if they are the winning side, they will definitely suffer heavy losses after experiencing such a brutal battle.
Meeting them in the quarter-finals will greatly boost other giants' hopes of winning.
According to the official schedule announced by UEFA, Manchester City will visit Weser Stadium on February 19, 2014 to face Werder Bremen.
The second leg between the two teams will be held at the Etihad Stadium on March 13.
Judging from the strength of the two teams, Manchester City may end the suspense of the game in the first round.
However, some fans believe that Lin Quan is likely to show mercy when he returns to the Weser Stadium for the first time after leaving Werder Bremen.
Lin Quan is the offensive core of Manchester City. If he had shown mercy, Werder Bremen might not have lost at home.
Manchester City 4:0 Real Madrid, can you believe it? In the final against Inter Milan, it feels like Manchester City can already open the champagne in advance! The premise is that Guardiola doesn't mess around~~ (End of this chapter)