Chapter 248 Returning to Camp Nou, Lin Quan and Messi’s first showdown!

"My poor factory has been slaughtered again!"

"Have we been slaughtered so many times this season? Real Gunners fans are used to it!"

"Alas, they fall short in March every year. They were still a championship contender in January, but things started to go wrong in February, and they fell short in March. They were in dire straits in April, and then they managed to secure fourth place by miracle in May..."

"Otherwise, why is he called the Fighting for the Fourth Crazy Demon?"

When the words "the maniac fighting for the top four" are mentioned, the internet is immediately filled with a happy atmosphere!

Many netizens thought of happy things: "No insider, let's have some Arsenal jokes!"

"I advise you not to be a jerk without any scruples, pretend to be a jerk with a gun, be a jerk without any scruples!"

"God comes first, I come second, I don't know who comes third, but fourth belongs to Arsenal - Mourinho!"

"Our biggest fear comes from Arsenal, who are fighting for the top four - Winston Churchill!"

"If there is only one team that is loyal to fourth place, that team is Arsenal - Van Persie!"

"Only a team that has not won a championship in ten years is qualified to be fourth!————MacArthur!"

"Arsenal who don't want to fight for the top four are not good gunners - Napoleon!"

"Whether you fight or not, we are always fourth, no more, no less.————Tsangyang Gyatso!"

"Haha, sooner or later I'm going to be laughed to death by you guys!"

Lin Quan, who was bored and saw these, also laughed when he saw this.

There is only one stone of football jokes, and Arsenal accounts for eight of them.

Based on his feelings about the match against Arsenal, Lin Quan felt that Arsenal's collapse in the second half of the season was not difficult to understand.

The team's lineup is thin and unable to cope with multi-line operations, the players are too young, and their psychological fluctuations are too great. These are all objective reasons.

But he felt there was another very important reason, this Arsenal team lacked blood.

Wenger's team is just like his personality, gentle and gorgeous, but like fine porcelain, it will break at the slightest touch.

This season, Arsenal's winning rate in strong confrontations is very low. They were beaten 6:2 by Manchester City away, 5:1 by Liverpool away, and 6:0 by Chelsea away.

The fact that all these big-score massacres happened in one season is very telling.

If we add the 1-0 away loss to Manchester United, Arsenal has not won a single away game against the top league teams this season.

In fact, it is not only difficult to win away from home, but also at home.

This season, Arsenal have only beaten Liverpool at home, and were tied against Chelsea and Manchester United.

They will face Manchester City in the next game. If Manchester City goes all out, Arsenal, who have just been slaughtered, may not be able to compete with them at all.

However, Arsenal is lucky because they have to take the Champions League into consideration. Manchester City plans to send out a substitute lineup in the next game. Their main players will go to Barcelona two days in advance to prepare for the game against Barcelona two days later.

After hearing the news, Wenger felt relieved.

Although Arsenal can miraculously maintain their top four finish every season, no one knows how long this good luck will last.

Currently in the standings, Everton and Tottenham are chasing closely behind them.

Everton is only 6 points behind them, and Tottenham is only 7 points behind. If Arsenal loses two more games, they will probably be caught up.

If Manchester City goes all out in this game, then if Arsenal loses, their lead will immediately shrink to 3 points and 4 points.

With six rounds left in the league, the point difference is just a matter of one game.

What's more, after the game with Manchester City, Arsenal will face Everton in the next game.

Given their poor away record, Wenger is not sure he can lead his team to defeat the Toffees.

If they lose two games in a row, Everton's record will surpass them and Arsenal will fall to fifth place.

However, when everyone, especially Arsenal fans, thought that the game was secured, fate played a joke on them.

Jovetic and Nasri scored goals in the 2nd and 5th minutes of the game, shocking Arsenal.

Is this Manchester City's substitute lineup? The Gunners fans at the Emirates Stadium were all stunned. This plot was very different from what they had imagined.

They were looking forward to seeing a resounding victory at home, but Manchester City's two goals made them wake up instantly.

The other side is Manchester City! This is the leader of the Premier League. Even their substitute lineup is better than the starting lineups of many mid- and lower-level Premier League teams!

Seeing the bright red score on the scoreboard, they had the illusion of being at Stamford Bridge.

This is how they were defeated in the last game against Chelsea!

Is this tragedy going to happen again? The camera lens was on the professor on the sidelines. Wenger seemed to feel a little hot and tried to take off his coat shivering, but the zipper of the coat would not come down.

Alas, the professor is old! Seeing this scene, the Gunners fans felt very uncomfortable.

The score of 2:0 remained until the end of the first half.

With Wilshere and Walcott both out due to injuries, Arsenal's offense has become a difficult problem.

They had more shots in the first half, but just couldn't convert them into goals.

In the second half, Wenger made some adjustments to the team's offense, increasing the midfield's involvement in the offense.

This adjustment paid off in the 53rd minute. Flamini, an old Arsenal player who returned to the Gunners as a free agent last summer, stepped up. He seized the opportunity of a Manchester City player's pass error, intercepted the ball, and used a long shot to help the team recover a goal.

After scoring the goal, Flamini was very active. He did not choose to celebrate, but rushed into the goal as soon as possible and ran back with the ball, trying to seize the time to continue attacking.

Seeing this scene, Arsenal fans stood up and applauded him.

Flamini is not a talented player. He does not have much talent and does not have strong physical fitness.

He relies on his diligent attitude and tenacious fighting spirit, takes root in defense, and works tirelessly to do all the dirty work that belongs to a defensive midfielder.

He only scores a few goals a season and this was his first goal since returning to Arsenal.

But this goal was as valuable as gold! Flamini's goal ignited Arsenal's morale and sounded the clarion call for their counterattack.

In the next 40 minutes, Arsenal launched a fierce attack around Manchester City's goal.

After all, Manchester City only sent out a substitute lineup, and their strength is indeed not as good as Arsenal.

After falling into a passive position, they failed to form an effective counterattack to threaten Arsenal's defense, resulting in an increasingly passive situation.

In the 85th minute, after nearly 30 minutes of attack, Arsenal finally equalized the score with a goal scored by Chamberlain, who came on as a substitute.

In the last game at Stamford Bridge, Chamberlain became the team's culprit for his handball in the penalty area.

But in this game, he stood up and helped the team to a difficult draw with Manchester City at home.

Getting one point is certainly not ideal for the Gunners, but considering that they fell behind at the start of the game, this result is acceptable.

However, in another game, Everton beat Fulham 3:1, narrowing the gap between them and Arsenal to 4 points.

Now, the situation has become difficult for Arsenal again! …

The Manchester City main players who were far away in Barcelona were all very surprised to hear that the substitutes almost defeated Arsenal away.

"Is this true? Is Arsenal so weak?"

"Really? Jovetic and Nasri scored two goals in the opening minutes, almost pushing Arsenal into a desperate situation. Unfortunately, the team's tactics were a bit conservative afterwards, and the defensive counterattacks didn't work, and in the end they were tied by Arsenal!"

"Haha, one point is not bad. We all thought we were going to lose, so getting one point is an unexpected surprise!"

"Well, there is another good news. Chelsea lost 0:1 to Crystal Palace away!"

As soon as the news came out, the morale of Manchester City players who were about to step onto the Camp Nou stadium was instantly boosted.

"Doesn't that mean our lead has expanded to 9 points?"

"Yes, that's a three-game advantage!"

"Hey, I remember we still have a make-up match to play. If this is counted, we are now 12 points ahead of Chelsea!"

With a 12-point lead and the dozens of goals they now have, wouldn't it be possible to win the championship four rounds in advance? Seeing his teammates enthusiastically discussing the Premier League championship situation, Lin Quan silently put down his phone and did not mention that Liverpool had risen to second place in the standings.

With Chelsea's loss, Mourinho's team only has a theoretical hope of winning the championship.

But after defeating Tottenham 4-0 at home, Liverpool came from behind and surpassed Chelsea in points to move into second place.

Their current points are 71, 7 points less than Manchester City.

The gap is not small, but there is still a direct confrontation between Manchester City and Liverpool, and it will be at Liverpool's home ground.

Liverpool's home record this season is very terrifying. In the 16 home games played at Anfield, Liverpool only lost one game and drew one game. They won all the remaining 14 games, many of which were big wins of three or even four goals or more.

If we talk about the team with the best home record this season, Liverpool can definitely compete with Manchester City.

Facing such a home team, Manchester City has no absolute certainty of defeating them.

Manchester City and Liverpool will play on April 12, the day after the second round of the Champions League quarter-finals! Liverpool doesn't have to worry about the Champions League, they have 7 days to recuperate after the league, but Manchester City can't.

From April 10th to April 13th, Manchester City has three very important games. First is the second leg of the Champions League knockout match against Barcelona, ​​followed by the game against Liverpool. After the game with Liverpool, they will immediately go to a neutral stadium to play the FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal.

This is the disadvantage of fighting on multiple fronts. As the season gets closer, there are more games and the time intervals become shorter.

It is precisely because of this that those teams that can complete the feat of winning the Triple Crown while fighting on multiple fronts are so remarkable!

In view of Manchester City's schedule, Lin Quan felt that it was not time to be happy yet.

However, the big battle was approaching, and he did not pour cold water on his teammates at this time.

Manchester City needs to go to Camp Nou to face Barcelona with the highest morale! …

After Manchester City arrived in Barcelona, ​​they borrowed the training base of Espanyol in the same city to prepare for training.

The Spaniard's training base is called Dani Jarque Sports City. It is located in Sant Adrian de Besos in the northeast corner of Barcelona and covers an area of ​​about 60,000 square meters.

Compared with Barcelona's training base, Espanyol's base is much smaller, about one-seventh of its neighbor's.

However, although the sparrow is small, it has all the organs.

Basically everything that is needed is here, and it can fully meet Manchester City’s daily training needs.

As a team in Barcelona with a low presence, Espanyol does not receive much attention as the spotlight is almost entirely attracted by Barcelona, ​​their city rival.

However, after Manchester City arrived, a large number of fans and reporters came to the training base, which was originally deserted.

Among them were local news media in Barcelona as well as Barcelona fans who came to spy on military intelligence.

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Obviously, the whole of Barcelona is paying special attention to Manchester City which has come from afar.

After being eliminated in the semi-finals for two consecutive seasons, Barcelona has attached much more importance to the Champions League this season.

They hope to reach the Champions League final, win the Champions League again and create new glory.

To achieve this goal, they must first eliminate Manchester City, otherwise they won’t be able to reach the finals, let alone the semi-finals.

However, Barcelona is still full of confidence in defeating Manchester City.

The Barcelona of this era was not the Barcelona of later generations, whose performance plummeted, whose players were seriously aging, whose core players were purged, and whose team faced reconstruction.

That Barcelona team couldn't even qualify for the Champions League group stage, but this Barcelona team has reached the Champions League semi-finals for six consecutive seasons and won three Champions League trophies in eight years.

They are one of the most successful clubs in Europe, you can even take the word "one" off it!

Although they were brutally defeated by Bayern last season, Barcelona's strength has been questioned to a certain extent.

But the tiger still has its power after falling, and the tiger of Barcelona has not fallen yet.

So it’s no surprise that Barcelona have such confidence.

Facing the powerful Barcelona, ​​everyone in Manchester City was a little nervous.

In order to relax the players' spirits, Pellegrini did not arrange too complicated tactical training.

Instead, we tried to arrange some easy training subjects and carried out targeted set-piece training.

This puzzled the reporters and fans who came to spy on the situation: Did Manchester City intend to defeat Barcelona with these tactics?

Or did they know they couldn't beat Barcelona, ​​so they surrendered early? The news reached Barcelona coach Martino, who suspected that Manchester City was releasing a smokescreen.

If we were Manchester City, if we wanted to defeat the powerful Barcelona, ​​we would definitely not be unprepared.

Therefore, the more they do this, the more likely they are to cover up their true intentions.

Thinking of this, Martino did not dare to be careless.

He led the coaching staff to seriously discuss the tactics that Manchester City might adopt, and then discussed some targeted countermeasures.

Finally, Martino made a concluding speech:

"Manchester City is not as weak as the outside world thinks, so we must not take it lightly!"

Martino hopes to use his home advantage to resolve the fight in the first round.

In this way, they can focus on the league and deal with the competition from Atletico Madrid.

Barcelona just defeated Real Madrid 4:3 away from home, temporarily widening the points gap between them and Real Madrid.

Currently in the standings, Barcelona is only one point behind Atletico Madrid.

The score difference is very small, but the smaller it is, the more Barcelona must not let down.

Otherwise, Barcelona will be in a very unfavorable position when they face Atletico Madrid at home in the last round of the league.

At the pre-match press conference, the head coaches of both teams were very polite.

They both complimented each other, with Pellegrini praising Barcelona as a great team and Martino saying Manchester City were a respectable opponent.

The two looked at each other and understood each other's implication: Old man, prepare to fight to the death! ...

In the evening of April 2nd, at Camp Nou.

The Camp Nou, which can accommodate 100,000 people, was packed. Before the game even started, the crazy Barcelona fans were already creating a terrifying noise and putting pressure on the Manchester City fans who came to the scene.

Compared with the large number of Barcelona fans, the 5,000 Manchester City fans are like a small boat on the sea, surrounded by strong winds and huge waves, and in danger of capsizing at any time.

With a gurgling sound, a Manchester City fan couldn't help swallowing.

Although there were thousands of security personnel separating them from the Barcelona fans, the ferocious expressions on the other side's faces, their roars and waving fists still made them feel a little nervous.

If a fight really breaks out, the more than 90,000 Barcelona fans will definitely overwhelm them in an instant.

But soon, the focus of Barcelona fans shifted from Manchester City fans to the stadium.

Players from both teams are already standing in the player tunnel, ready to enter the field.

Standing in the player tunnel of Camp Nou, I could feel the thunderous cheers from outside.

Lin Quan had a strange feeling!

He grew up in Barcelona and joined the Barcelona youth training at the age of 6, so he is no stranger to the Camp Nou stadium.

However, this is his first time appearing as an opponent at the Camp Nou.

I don't know what's waiting for me? Will it be boos all over the place?

Or the abuse and slander from the fans?

Just as he was thinking about this, Lin Quan felt someone patting his shoulder.

I looked back and saw it was Barcelona's captain Xavi.

"Lin, can we exchange jerseys after the game?"

Xavi smiled and said to Lin Quan that Lin Quan has a good relationship with many players in the Barcelona team.

So there must be a lot of people waiting to exchange jerseys with him. If you don’t act in advance, you may miss the opportunity later.

"No problem, Captain!"

Lin Quan nodded and happily agreed to Harvey's request.

“Haha, welcome back to Camp Nou. Do your best in this game and try to give everyone a wonderful game!”

"Yes, I will!"

Lin Quan clenched his fist and nodded heavily.

Xavi didn't say anything else and returned to the Barcelona team, chatting and laughing with Iniesta behind him.

Seeing Lin Quan looking at him, Xiaobai blinked at Lin Quan and greeted him with his eyes.

Behind him, his national team teammates including Fabregas, Pique, Busquets, Pedro and others also nodded to Lin Quan.

Although they play for different clubs, they are rivals on the field.

But in private occasions, everyone is friends, and our positions do not overlap, so there is no competition.

Of course, not everyone is so friendly to Lin Quan. Several Brazilian players in the Barcelona team, such as Neymar and Alves, look at Lin Quan with hostility.

Especially Neymar, from the blazing flame of revenge burning in his eyes, you can feel how much he wants to avenge the defeat in last year's Confederations Cup! Lin Quan shrugged indifferently, ignoring Neymar's gaze. Neymar is quite strong, but if he regards him as an opponent, it would be a bit of a loss of face.

Just as he was about to look away, Lin Quan felt a real gaze cast upon him.

Looking in the direction of the sight, as expected, I saw Barcelona's number one superstar - Leo Messi.

The noisy noise in the player tunnel disappeared the moment the two looked at each other, and players from both sides noticed the abnormality between them.

This game is not only a duel between Manchester City and Barcelona, ​​but also a collision between two superstars, Lin Quan and Messi.

This was the first time the two had met in a formal competition, and both had been looking forward to this matchup for a long time.

Messi, let me test you to see if you still have some of the strength you had in your peak period!

Messi was also eager to fight: Lin, let me try and see if you are qualified to be on equal footing with me! Lin Quan smiled and nodded, and Messi also nodded, and the murderous aura between the two of them disappeared instantly.

At this time, the referee also began to lead the players from both sides onto the court.

The Champions League quarter-final match between Manchester City and Barcelona is about to start!

Please give me a monthly ticket!

(End of this chapter)