Chapter 354: Guardiola and Mourinho's feud, the super devil schedule is coming

Seeing the defensive gap on the right side of the team getting bigger and bigger, West Bromwich had to draw people to fill this gap.

But this means that other positions become a bit stretched.

In the 34th minute of the first half, Lin Quan found an opportunity and successfully broke away from the opponent in the frontcourt. After entering the penalty area, he received a pass from De Bruyne and scored Manchester City's third goal of the game.

This goal basically killed all the suspense of the game!

Seeing this goal, both Guardiola on the sidelines and Manchester City fans at the scene felt relieved.

Unless a miracle happens, West Bromwich Albion can rest assured.

After scoring the goal, Lin Quan walked to the sidelines and hugged Guardiola.

This was the first game that the two of them played together on the same team. It was very memorable for Lin Quan to score a goal in such a game.

The camera on the scene was focused on the father and son hugging on the sidelines. In the commentary booth, the commentators smiled and said:

"The two people hugging on the sidelines may be the most powerful father-son duo in the entire history of football!"

"Haha, one is the youngest and most promising superstar in football; the other is the most famous young coach in football. It's really hard to find a stronger combination than this!"

"I wonder what kind of good story this father and son will leave for us in the football world!"

"Let's wait and see!"

…

The first half of the game ended quickly. During the halftime break, Guardiola praised the players one by one, especially the young players who played for the team for the first time.

The promotion and reuse of Guardiola has greatly boosted the confidence of these young players, and they have all secretly made up their minds to repay the coach's trust with their best performance.

In the home team's locker room, West Bromwich Albion coach Pepe Meier was very angry.

If he had lost to Manchester City, where all the main players were fielded, he might not have been so angry.

But the Manchester City team on the field is just a second-tier lineup consisting of a small number of main players and a large number of substitutes and young players.

Facing this young version of Manchester City, they failed to win and were instead humiliated by the opponent with three goals.

This made Mel feel ashamed!

This is their home ground and they cannot accept such humiliation.

So, he scolded the players severely, turned on the hair dryer mode, and asked them to learn from their shame and then be brave! "In the second half, we must play with our momentum and defend the glory of our home court with goals!"

Mel's eyes were full of madness! In the second half, West Bromwich Albion's players really stepped up their attacking power.

Pepe Mel's eyes were fixed on the court, hoping to see a slight chance of improvement.

Manchester City has many young players in its squad, and these players may not show any problems when the game is going well.

But once Manchester City falls into a disadvantage, their weaknesses will be exposed.

Pepe Mel's plan is to continuously attack this weak link of Manchester City in order to open a gap.

However, what he didn't expect was that these young players of Manchester City were not easily defeated by his tactics.

Their fighting spirit was extremely high, and like the indestructible cockroaches, they persisted tenaciously.

The strength of these players is indeed not enough to support them in a stage as intense as the Premier League, at least not for the time being.

But what they lack in ability they make up for in spirit and attitude, and the main players in the team are very reliable.

When these young players encountered troubles, they relied on their experience and strong personal abilities to provide protection and assistance to the young players, helping them resolve crises time and time again.

With someone to back them up, these young players feel more secure and their performance on the court is getting better and better.

West Bromwich Albion is not a top team and their players are just a group of ordinary players.

Their individual strength is not particularly strong, although they can rely on their experience to surpass these young players.

But when they met Manchester City's main players or even some substitute players, they could not gain any advantage in terms of personal strength.

This resulted in a tense situation in the game, but West Bromwich Albion found it difficult to make breakthroughs and score goals.

Seeing that the team's attack was blocked, Pepe Mel made up his mind and fought!

In the 66th minute, West Bromwich made a substitution.

They replaced three players in a row, and all of them were offensive players.

The intention is very clear, they are going to fight Manchester City to the death.

When Guardiola saw the opponent's posture, he was immediately happy.

You can make substitutions, so why can't we? He glanced at the bench, named Lampard, Kolarov and Yaya Toure, and substituted them in one after another.

After these three players came on the field, Manchester City's defense became more solid and the hardness of the midfield also increased significantly.

As a result, West Bromwich Albion's offensive coefficient was blocked outside their own goal by Manchester City players.

In the end, the score of the game was fixed at 3:0. Manchester City, with a large number of substitutes, achieved a big victory away from home.

Guardiola's debut was a complete success!

After the game, Guardiola was chased by many reporters.

"Coach Guardiola, what do you think of this game?"

"Coach Guardiola, may I ask why you arranged this starting lineup? Do you look down on the opponent?"

"Coach Guardiola, who do you think is the best player in this game? Is it Lin Quan?"

…

The reporters almost stuffed the microphone into Guardiola's mouth, which made Guardiola sigh that British reporters are really scary!

"My players played very well in this game and I am proud of them. If I had to choose the best player, it would undoubtedly be Lin Quan!"

Guardiola did not shy away from suspicion and gave this honor to Lin Quan.

This was not entirely unexpected by the reporters.

"As for my feelings about the game, this game made me feel the passion of Premier League fans and the intensity of the league!"

These answers from Guardiola are all standard and there is nothing wrong with them.

But suddenly a reporter interrupted and asked: "Mr. Guardiola, what do you think of Mourinho's remarks before the game?"

At a press conference before another game earlier, a reporter asked Mourinho what he thought about Guardiola joining Manchester City.

Mourinho replied: "Pep is an excellent coach. I have no conflicts with him, but I am not optimistic about his future in Manchester City. This is the Premier League, not La Liga!"

Mourinho first said that he was not targeting Guardiola, but only made such a conclusion based on facts.

"The games in the Premier League are much more intense than those in La Liga. There are many strong teams here, the schedule is tight, and the style of play is tough. Only the truly strong can adapt here!"

The implication is that Guardiola is not a strong man.

The playing styles of La Liga and the Premier League are indeed very different, but it would be an exaggeration to say that Guardiola is completely unable to adapt to the style here.

So not surprisingly, his remarks immediately caused huge controversy.

With the help of the news media who are eager to watch the fun, this interview video went viral on the Internet.

The feud between Mourinho and Guardiola can be traced back to the 2009-2010 season.

That season, the two sides met four times in the Champions League, with Guardiola having the upper hand with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, but it was Mourinho who had the last laugh.

The Inter Milan led by him eliminated the arrogant Barcelona with a total score of 3:2 in the semi-finals, successfully entered the finals, and finally won the Big Ear Cup, creating a triple crown.

The defeat that season made many Barcelona fans feel very regretful and disappointed. If they had not been eliminated by Inter Milan in this Champions League, Barcelona might very well have achieved the feat of winning the Champions League for three consecutive times.

Moreover, they were very dissatisfied with the away loss to Inter Milan.

At that time, due to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano in Europe, Barcelona was unable to fly to away games.

The players had to take a bus and travel for more than ten hours to travel to away games.

The long journey consumed a lot of the physical energy of the Barcelona players and greatly affected their condition.

Read the error-free version on 6Ⅹ9Ⅹ bookⅩ bar! 6Ⅹ9 book bar first publishes a novel.

So, in the first leg away game, Barcelona was beaten 3:1 by Inter Milan!

If the volcanic ash has the same impact on both sides, then whoever loses loses, there is nothing to complain about.

By the time Inter Milan visited Camp Nou, the impact of the volcanic ash had decreased and they were able to take a plane.

Inter Milan, whose form was not affected too much, withstood Barcelona's crazy attack at Camp Nou.

Although Barcelona defeated Inter Milan 1-0 at home, they were eliminated due to the disadvantage in the total score, causing them to miss the opportunity to defend the Champions League title.

This is not only a regret for Barcelona, ​​but also a regret for Guardiola.

Coupled with a series of remarks made by Mourinho during the game, a grudge was created between the two.

Moreover, after leading Inter Milan to win the championship, Real Madrid immediately invited Mourinho to the Bernabeu, hoping to rely on him to lead the team to stop Barcelona.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are sworn enemies, and the relationship between them is as hostile as fire and water.

As the head coaches of the two teams, the feud between Mourinho and Guardiola has further deepened.

Originally, this conflict should have eased after both sides left La Liga.

But last season, Guardiola first defeated Mourinho in the European Super Cup and then eliminated Mourinho's Chelsea in the Champions League knockout round.

The conflict between the two sides not only did not ease, but instead deepened.

Now that Guardiola has come to the Premier League, the chances of the two teams facing each other in the league and domestic cup competitions have greatly increased.

The feud between Mourinho and Guardiola is likely to reignite and intensify.

After hearing the reporter's words, Guardiola was silent for a while.

He actually doesn't like to comment on or even attack the head coaches of other teams.

But Mourinho's words made him feel very uncomfortable, and if he didn't respond, he would feel very unhappy.

Moreover, Mourinho took the initiative to challenge, so he naturally could not show weakness.

So, Guardiola said seriously: "The Premier League is indeed not La Liga, but for the truly strong, they can win anywhere!"

The reporters wrote down Guardiola's answer quickly.

This is his response to Mourinho's challenge!

After learning of Guardiola's response, Mourinho, who led his team to defeat West Ham United and defended Chelsea's top position, responded with a relaxed look: "I am looking forward to the day when Mr. Guardiola leads the team to visit Stamford Bridge. At that time, I will do my best to be a good host and entertain him and his team well!"

The next match between Manchester City and Chelsea will be in the 23rd round of the Premier League, when Manchester City will challenge Chelsea away.

The outcome of the new round of competition between the two will be determined by the outcome of this game.

But before that, since Mourinho's Chelsea is temporarily leading the standings, he now seems quite calm.

He has been in the Premier League much longer than Guardiola and has suffered all the losses he deserves.

Guardiola has just arrived and has not started teaching yet.

When he starts paying tuition, he will know that it is not so easy to get into the Premier League! …

After defeating West Bromwich Albion away, Manchester City returned to Manchester without stopping.

Two days later, they will face Burnley at home.

With such a busy schedule as the Christmas Express, the players don't have much time to rest.

Fortunately, they don't have to think about the Champions League during this period, and they were eliminated from the League Cup early, which also saved them the consumption of a cup competition.

However, because of the coming of the Club World Cup, Manchester City has to be distracted.

After returning to the training base, Guardiola did not have time to rest. He immediately convened an internal work meeting to discuss the schedule and game plan for the next period of time.

"From now until January 10, we have six games to play, two Club World Cups, three Premier League games and one FA Cup game!"

"The 19th round of the Premier League on December 28 and the Club World Cup on December 29 are too close, so we must give up one of them strategically!"

On Manchester City's schedule, the time of each game is circled in red.

Almost every other day, there is a red circle! Just by looking at the date of the competition, you can tell how busy their schedule is.

"We can't give up on the Club World Cup, we have already won five trophies, and we only need this last one to achieve the feat of winning six titles.

If we give up now, all our previous efforts will be in vain. After all, we don’t always have the chance to win six titles! ”

"We can't give up the Premier League game easily. We are now behind Chelsea in points. If we give up the Premier League game at this time, the points gap will probably be further widened, and it will be difficult to catch up with the opponent!"

"What's worse is that if we win the semi-final of the Club World Cup, the date of the final will conflict with another Premier League game..."

Everyone was speechless. Completing 6 games in 12 days is really too devilish!

Even if we remove the two Club World Cup matches, this schedule will be too much to handle.

Due to the influence of the World Cup, this year's Club World Cup was specially postponed by 10 days.

This was originally intended to take care of those players who participated in the World Cup and did not have enough time to rest.

This allows them to play in the Club World Cup with peace of mind during the winter break when there are no league and cup matches to compete on multiple fronts.

As a result, such good intentions turned into a nightmare for the Champions League champions Manchester City.

The main reason is that the Premier League is too unique!

While the teams in other major leagues are on vacation, they don’t have any holidays. Not only do they have no holidays, they also have to speed up the league!

In this case, Premier League teams will suffer a great disadvantage if they participate in the Club World Cup.

For Manchester City, the question now is, should they keep the league or do their best to fight for the six championships? (End of this chapter)