Chapter 329: Battle of old rivals, Manchester City vs. Real Madrid, Lin Quan's transformation attempt
"Manchester City is still strong, Liverpool and AC Milan were beaten!"
"Indeed, even I, a Manchester City fan, can't stand it. They scored 7 goals against Milan in the warm-up match. That was too heavy!"
"Although Manchester City did not make a big purchase during the summer transfer window, why do I feel that their substitute lineup has become stronger?"
"Indeed, the substitute lineup's defense is so solid that AC Milan and Liverpool are unable to penetrate it. I didn't expect that!"
"Manchester City's new big defender has strong defensive capabilities. The 10 million euros are really worth it!"
"Compared to the 50 million pounds Paris Saint-Germain spent on David Luiz, it was really worth it!"
"Haha, Paris Saint-Germain has vividly demonstrated to us what it means to be stupid and rich!"
As soon as the three words "Paris Saint-Germain" came out, the Internet was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.
It is the summer offseason and the major leagues have not yet started.
Fans can only watch some warm-up matches and friendly matches, and the International Champions Cup, which gathers giants such as Manchester City and Real Madrid, naturally becomes the focus of everyone's attention.
After watching Manchester City's two games, the Blue Moon fans were completely relieved.
Manchester City's strength has not declined, but has become stronger as the lineup has been further integrated.
This makes them have a greater vision for the team's performance this season! However, after watching the game, fans of other teams were not in such a good mood! Especially the fans of the old giant AC Milan.
“Although most of this exaggerated score was scored by substitutes, it is obvious that Manchester City and AC Milan are no longer on the same level!”
"AC Milan was ranked 8th in Serie A last season. They are indeed at least one level behind Manchester City in terms of strength. It is normal that they cannot beat them!"
"Alas, the overall environment of Serie A is not good, and the overall investment has also decreased sharply. Without money, nothing can be done. If AC Milan had as much financial resources as Manchester City, it would not have come to this!"
AC Milan has many fans all over the world, especially those old fans who started watching the game very early. They have all experienced the glorious period of AC Milan.
Although the embarrassing incident of popping champagne at halftime in Istanbul night made Milan a little embarrassed, they would have to have the strength to reach the final to have the chance to do such a thing.
Now looking at this team that is gradually sinking in the league and the Champions League, let alone reaching the final, it can't even enter the Champions League main competition.
When they thought of this, Milan’s old fans felt very sad.
However, this is just the beginning.
AC Milan’s chaos and decline will continue for a long time.
Compared to AC Milan fans, fans of the Red Army Liverpool are equally worried.
The team spent 150 million euros in the transfer period, but saw little effect, and still lost so easily to Manchester City.
This makes them feel frustrated that their money has been wasted!
"Liverpool's strength seems to be worse than last season!"
"When Suarez was there, at least he could be used as the core of the attack. Now that he is gone, Liverpool's attack is no longer clear.
The opponent's goalkeeper and defenders performed very well in this game, but it was also related to Liverpool's chaotic offensive tactics and the messy play of the forwards! "
The deeper the love, the more severe the criticism.
AC Milan has just started to decline, and their fans can't stand it anymore. How many years have the Reds been declining?
The Premier League has been established for more than 20 years, and Liverpool has not even won a championship! Compared with the fans of the Red Army, the fans of the Red Devils seem a little complacent.
Manchester United performed quite well in this International Champions Cup.
They first defeated Roma, then defeated Inter Milan, and in the last game against Real Madrid, Manchester United defeated their opponent 3:1 and won three consecutive victories.
This result was beyond everyone's expectations, because in the last match between Manchester United and Real Madrid, both sides fielded their main players, especially Real Madrid.
Except for Cristiano Ronaldo, all other main players were on the field.
The result was still a miserable defeat!
It is worth mentioning that in the 62nd minute of the game, Lingard replaced Rooney and made his debut for Manchester United, and almost scored a goal.
Unfortunately, Lin Huang's feet were a bit weak, and his shot was easily caught by Casillas and failed to pose a threat.
In the end, Manchester United won all three games and advanced to the semi-finals.
On the other hand, Manchester City also easily defeated Olympiacos, the last opponent in the group, 3:0 and also emerged as the first in the group.
So, the semi-final matchup results are out: Manchester City vs Real Madrid Liverpool vs Manchester United This result is completely in line with the outside world's expectations before the game. All three Premier League teams advanced to the semi-finals, and all Serie A teams were eliminated.
Although it is cruel, it does reflect the current strength gap between Premier League and Serie A teams in international competitions.
The decline of Serie A is becoming more and more obvious!
…
On August 2, the semi-finals of the International Champions Cup began.
The first match to start is Manchester City vs Real Madrid.
The University of Michigan Stadium had 108,732 fans.
The huge stadium was packed! Although the United States is not a traditional football powerhouse, there are still many fans here.
Thanks to its huge international influence over the past few decades, among the fans who came to watch the game, there were obviously more Real Madrid fans wearing white jerseys than Manchester City fans wearing sky blue jerseys.
However, if we were to count which player has the most fans supporting him, Lin Quan would win without a doubt!
This can be seen from the number of fans wearing Manchester City's No. 10 jersey! Although Real Madrid also has superstars, the number of fans wearing Ronaldo's No. 7 jersey is significantly less than Lin Quan.
This is probably related to the scandal that Ronaldo caused in Las Vegas a few years ago! In this game, Manchester City did not give up the trial lineup because of the semi-final.
Pellegrini still arranged a lot of substitutes to play.
However, out of respect for his opponents and the fans at the scene, he put Lin Quan in the starting lineup.
This wise decision won the strong support of the fans! After the game started, the fans kept shouting Lin Quan's name and cheering for him.
And what’s funny is that even some fans wearing Real Madrid jerseys were cheering for Lin Quan.
When asked why they were cheering for Manchester City players even though they were wearing Real Madrid jerseys, these fans responded confidently: Such an excellent player will join Real Madrid sooner or later, so we are cheering for the future Real Madrid players! If this answer reached Ronaldo's ears, I wonder what he would think!
The two teams had met in the Champions League semi-final a few months ago, and they were very clear about each other's strength, so there was almost no probing after the opening, and they started to show their strength and attack in a big way.
This high-level, fast-paced game made the fans who came to watch the game in person very excited and felt that the ticket price was completely worth it.
No wonder Europeans love watching football games. If they could often see such high-level football games at their doorstep, not to mention Europeans, even Americans would be happy! Seeing American fans so happy, domestic fans expressed envy: "Damn, when can we also enjoy such high-level games at our doorstep?"
"It's too expensive to go to Europe to watch football, and the level of the Chinese Super League is too low. How great would it be if we could enjoy this level of football at home every summer?"
"I think our domestic companies can also organize this kind of competition, like the United States, and put the stadiums in several major cities in China, and there will be no worries about not being able to sell tickets!"
CCTV has also bought the broadcasting rights for the International Champions Cup, so domestic fans can also watch these games.
However, the feeling of watching the game on TV at home and watching the game in person are completely different.
Fans all hope to be able to watch the games of these top European giants! In 2009, the Italians held the Super Cup in China.
This match was very popular in China, with countless fans rushing to the stadium. It is said that the revenue from tickets alone exceeded 70 million! This is unimaginable in Italy! This success has made European teams see the huge potential of the Chinese market.
In recent years, many wealthy clubs have tried to come to China for training in the summer, play warm-up matches with some Chinese Super League teams, and make some extra money! For example, last year, when Real Madrid visited China, they played a friendly match with the Chinese Super League champion Guangzhou Evergrande.
Real Madrid won that game very easily, beating Evergrande 6:1.
The gap in strength between the two teams was so great that the game was almost unwatchable.
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As a result, domestic fans immediately lost interest in such games.
Compared with playing against domestic clubs, they still prefer to watch games between European giants.
Take the International Champions Cup for example, where all participating teams are European giants.
The fans' calls attracted the attention of some domestic sports event operators, who tried to contact the organizers of the International Champions Cup in an attempt to introduce this event into the country.
…
Amid the cheers of more than 100,000 fans, the two teams launched round after round of fierce attacks.
In a competition of this nature, neither side has any pressure on performance.
Therefore, the game was played very unrestrainedly, with both sides investing far more manpower in offense than in defense.
In the 21st minute of the first half, Manchester City scored the first goal, the goal was scored by Manchester City striker Aguero.
Aguero, who performed poorly in the national team games, regained his form in the club and transformed himself into the invincible god of war.
Real Madrid quickly responded, with Bale performing his signature move of running down the wing in the 27th minute.
The Welsh player relied on his speed to eat up several Manchester City defenders and suddenly shot the ball from behind the penalty area to make the score 1:1. This goal was very exciting and the fans at the scene gave applause to the Monkey King without hesitation.
Bale seemed very excited after scoring the goal. Every time there is a match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the outside world always compares Lin Quan with Ronaldo and habitually ignores him.
This made Bell very unhappy!
Bale, who has always had the ambition to be the team's boss, is not the kind of person who is willing to be inferior to others for a long time.
He has long wanted to replace Ronaldo's position in Real Madrid!
So, the cheers from the fans at the scene made Bale very happy.
As long as I keep performing like this, I will be able to bring that guy down from the altar sooner or later!
Seeing Bale's arrogant expression, Ronaldo was very unhappy.
He waved to Modric, Isco and others, asking them to pass the ball to him more often.
In such a crucial situation, as the number one star of Real Madrid, how could he not score a goal?
Leaving aside Modric, Isco was very obedient and passed the ball to Ronaldo several times.
However, the Portuguese's condition does not seem to have fully recovered from the slump in the World Cup, and he wasted all the good balls passed to him by Isco.
This made Isco's face turn bitter: Brother, don't be so deceiving! Bale, who was standing by, saw him passing the ball to Ronaldo frequently and began to express his dissatisfaction with him.
What does it mean?
You only pass the ball to Ronaldo and not to me, right? Ronaldo is your big brother, so I am not your big brother?
…
Unlike Real Madrid players who were competing to improve their stats, Manchester City players played in harmony.
Lin Quan, who is not very keen on scoring goals, will not shoot immediately when he gets a good opportunity. Instead, he will first observe the position of his teammates to see if they have a better chance.
If his teammate is in a better position than himself, he will pass the ball without hesitation.
Aguero's goal was assisted by Lin Quan. In the 42nd minute, Lin Quan had a one-on-one opportunity and passed the ball back to De Bruyne who was following up, assisting the latter to score another goal.
"Why don't you just shoot it yourself?"
After scoring this goal, De Bruyne asked with a curious look on his face.
In his impression, Lin Quan almost never made any mistakes in his one-on-one attacks.
Although Casillas blocked it just now, with Lin Quan's strength, it seemed not difficult to send the ball into the goal, but he passed the ball anyway.
"Because you are in a better position and it's almost an open goal, it makes more sense to pass the ball to you!"
Lin Quan said as a matter of course.
As the top scorer in the World Cup, Champions League and Premier League, Lin Quan no longer deliberately pursues goals.
Moreover, in a game of this nature, there is no point in scoring goals.
No matter how many goals he scores in a game like this, it won’t help him improve!
On the contrary, it would be more meaningful for Lin Quan and the entire team if he could further improve his organizational skills.
And this is also the successful transformation path proven by Messi.
In 2019, Messi completely transformed into a free man in the middle, taking charge of organization, attack and finishing, and truly realizing the single-core leadership of the team! This successful transformation has greatly developed Messi's organizational talent.
His ability to read the game, his vision, his accurate passing, and his amazing free kicks have all been greatly improved! Without this successful transformation, Argentina might not have won the World Cup trophy a few years later! Of course, we have to thank Paris Saint-Germain. Without Paris Saint-Germain's healthy football, Messi might not have had enough physical strength to play in the World Cup if he had been playing for Barcelona!
(End of this chapter)