Chapter 370: Sweeping Arsenal and advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League

Guardiola just said he wanted to enjoy football, but after only three days, Manchester City overturned.

On March 1, in a strong dialogue at Anfield, Manchester City lost 2:3 to Liverpool and was defeated regretfully.

It started raining heavily shortly after the game started and both sides had to fight in the rain.

The slippery ground caused by the rain greatly affected Manchester City's passing and control tactics, and the players made many passing errors due to water on the ground.

On the other hand, the Liverpool players, who were determined to take revenge on Manchester City at home, played extremely bravely in this game.

They ignored the risk of injury from the slippery field and ran and sprinted desperately, using counterattack after counterattack to attack Manchester City's defense.

In fact, judging from the field, Liverpool was very passive. Their ball possession rate was only 32%, but their counterattack was very threatening.

Especially the counterattack launched from the wing after a successful defense, every hit is accurate.

In the 11th minute of the game, Henderson scored the first goal to help Liverpool take the lead.

Although Manchester City equalized the score in the 23rd minute with Lin Quan assisting De Bruyne with a long shot outside the penalty area, Liverpool scored again just three minutes later.

This time there was still a problem on the wing. Coutinho performed a wonderful dribbling performance, cut inside and used a stunning long-range shot to break through Navas' defense.

In the 75th minute of the second half, Lin Quan received a through pass from De Bruyne and successfully made an offside move, scoring a goal with a single shot, once again equalizing the score.

For the next ten minutes or so, neither team's offense was able to break through the other's defense, and it looked like the game would end in a draw.

However, in the third minute of injury time, Gerrard, the legendary captain of the Red Army who had officially announced that he would leave Liverpool after the end of the season, stood up and shot the ball into the dead corner with his signature long shot, defeating Manchester City.

After completing the winning goal, Gerrard excitedly took off his jersey, rushed to the stands with the most fans, and celebrated wildly.

His teammates also went crazy, chasing him, hugging him, kissing him, and celebrating this hard-earned victory.

As for the Liverpool fans at Anfield, they were already excited.

Before the game, the outside world was not optimistic about them at all, thinking that they could not be a match for Manchester City.

However, they slapped everyone in the face with a resounding victory.

Seeing his team being defeated by the opponent, Guardiola scratched his head, as if he had not expected such a situation to happen.

What bad luck! The game would have been over in a few seconds, but the Manchester City player who was defending Gerrard accidentally slipped because of the slippery ground, giving the opponent a chance to shoot.

Guardiola is not someone who can't afford to lose. He took the initiative to walk towards Liverpool's coach and shake hands with him.

Manchester City's loss made the outside world feel very excited, as they felt they had found a way to limit Manchester City's wing midfielder tactics.

Everyone became eager to try.

In the 28th round of the league, Leicester City was the first to come forward and try.

After summarizing Liverpool's victory over Manchester City, they believed that Manchester City's defensive weakness was on the flanks.

After the full-back moved forward to become a defensive midfielder, Manchester City's formation became 235 when attacking, with five players on the front line.

In addition to the two wingers and a center forward, the two offensive midfielders will also advance from the flanks, giving Manchester City multiple attacking points near the opponent's penalty area line.

The advantage of this is that it increases the difficulty of defense for the opponent. Even if the attack fails, you can rely on the advantage in numbers to immediately counterattack the opponent's player with the ball, disrupt the opponent's counterattack and look for opportunities for a second attack.

After Manchester City changed to the tactic of playing as a defensive midfielder on the wing, their success rate in counter-attacking at the front of the opponent's penalty area was very high. Many goals were scored by taking advantage of the opportunity of transition from offense to defense after a successful counter-attacking.

Because they are closer to the opponent's goal and have more opportunities for secondary attack after counter-attacking, Manchester City has a terrifying number of shots in every game.

With super shooters like Lin Quan and Aguero in the team, giving Manchester City so many shooting opportunities means losing a lot of goals.

In the three games before losing to Liverpool, Manchester City defeated their opponents in this way.

However, this tactic failed against Liverpool.

The reason is that Liverpool is a wealthy team after all, and their players are much stronger than those of ordinary teams.

Although Manchester City has a high success rate in on-the-spot counter-attacks, there are times when they cannot succeed.

Once the counter-attack fails and the opponent launches a counterattack, Manchester City's two wingers and even the five players on the front line will not be able to retreat in time.

Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of their own goal.

When Manchester City's four defenders and a defensive midfielder retreat, they will shrink inward and form a trapezoidal defensive formation in front of the penalty area.

The advantage of this formation is that the defense is more layered and will not be penetrated all at once.

The downside is that the flanks are empty, and when the opponent makes a cross or cuts inside from the flanks, it is difficult for Manchester City players to stop them in the first place.

Moreover, when playing against Liverpool, it rained heavily at Anfield, and the field conditions were not favorable for Manchester City, which is more technical.

Finally, Gerrard's extremely lucky winning shot made Manchester City suffer a bitter defeat.

However, Leicester City has none of these favorable factors.

Therefore, they chose to use Liverpool's tactics against Manchester City, and the result was naturally a miserable death.

The game lost its suspense before the first half was even over.

Manchester City is already leading their opponents 3:0.

In the second half, Lin Quan, who was supposed to be substituted, was not put on the bench by Guardiola.

Lin Quan's absence means Manchester City has not given up the attack.

So, Leicester City was in trouble.

When Lin Quan was substituted, the score had become 5:0. Leicester City was defeated and their players all began to doubt their lives.

Why did we play according to Liverpool's correct answer, but it didn't work at all, and we lost so badly? On the sidelines, seeing the team get out of the shadow of the previous loss with a big win, Guardiola became very happy.

He sat in the coaching seat and started communicating with Lin Quan who had just been substituted.

"The opponent's winger seems pretty good?"

Lin Quan took a sip of his energy drink, glanced at the player wearing the No. 26 jersey of Leicester City that Guardiola was pointing at, and asked, "Are you talking about Mahrez?"

"Um!"

Guardiola nodded, and asked as if he was interested in his talent: "What do you think of his ability?"

"He has good strength, delicate technique, and good breakthrough and inside shooting abilities. He should be able to play the role of winger and wide midfielder. If he grows up, he will have no problem being a pillar in a weak team!"

Lin Quan thought for a moment and made this comment.

He remembers that in Leicester City's title-winning year, Mahrez's performance for the Foxes was quite explosive.

He scored 17 goals and made 11 assists, and was voted the MVP of the Premier League that season.

Of course, that was Mahrez a year later, and the current Mahrez is obviously not that good.

But Guardiola's vision is very good. He can tell from just one game that this guy is no ordinary person. No wonder he rarely makes mistakes when buying players.

He guessed that the reason why Guardiola took a fancy to Mahrez was probably because he was attracted by the opponent's skills.

A coach like Guardiola has a preference for players with delicate footwork. Except for Haaland, all the players he recruited are those with delicate and comprehensive skills.

“I see!”

Guardiola couldn't help thinking.

Manchester City's right winger is Navas, who is already 30 years old, not young, and he is often a substitute for Lin Quan, so he has the idea of ​​leaving.

Guardiola needs to find an outstanding right winger for the team.

The previous offer for Salah was made to Chelsea with the intention of buying Salah to replace Navas.

But unfortunately, Chelsea was unwilling to sell players, so Guardiola's intention failed.

Now seeing Mahrez, who is about the same age as Salah, Guardiola is thinking of poaching him again.

Mahrez only cost £500,000 when he moved to Leicester City last year.

He has performed well in the past two seasons and has made obvious progress, so his value has also risen.

If Manchester City wants to take him away, Guardiola feels that it would be unlikely without £20 million.

Spending 20 million pounds to buy a currently unknown player seems like a gamble!

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So, should I buy it?

"We can sell him for less than 30 million pounds. Of course, it would be even better if we can buy Salah!"

Lin Quan saw Guardiola's hesitation and spoke.

In the right winger position, the Egyptian Pharaoh was still a little stronger in his prime.

After a cordial exchange between father and son, Guardiola's originally hesitant heart immediately became firm.

Buy! Having saved so much money in the winter break, how can we justify ourselves and the Manchester City fans if we don’t buy more players in the summer window?

Leicester City's loss made other teams confused for a while, wondering whether they could still copy Liverpool's homework.

Some teams are backing off, but others are refusing to give up.

The 29th round of the Premier League begins.

Burnley, which is ranked second from the bottom in the Premier League and urgently needs 3 points to save its life, stubbornly chose to copy Liverpool's homework at its home ground.

And then nothing happened.

At the end of the game, the score of 4:0 made Burnley players cry.

This was also the result of Manchester City replacing a large number of main players after the start of the second half in order to prepare for the Champions League knockout match in the middle of the week and retaining their strength.

If they opened fire at full capacity, a massacre would be inevitable.

In this round of the game, Chelsea, who ranked first, and Southampton, who ranked fourth, had a direct contest.

However, surprisingly, even though Diego Costa scored at the start of the game, Chelsea failed to win the game.

Matic's foul in the penalty area gave the opponent a penalty kick, helping Southampton escape from Stamford Bridge.

After the draw, Chelsea's lead, which had been widened after Manchester City lost to Liverpool, was reduced to 1 point. The originally good situation for winning the championship began to become precarious again.

To make matters worse for Chelsea, in the second leg of the Champions League, Chelsea, playing at home, was tied by Paris Saint-Germain.

For Chelsea fans, this game is bound to give them sleepless nights.

Their team finally broke through the opponent's goal in the 81st minute of the game. This goal at this time point gave them hope of winning.

However, David Luiz's goal in the 86th minute extinguished the Blues fans' dreams, and the two sides ended in a 1:1 draw.

Since Chelsea also tied with their opponents 1:1 at Paris Saint-Germain's home ground in the last game, both sides had the same number of goals scored and away goals.

So the game was dragged into overtime.

In the extra time, Chelsea scored the first goal again. Hazard's goal made the Blues fans at Stamford Bridge completely excited, and Mourinho also roared excitedly to celebrate.

However, another PSG defender stepped up.

Thiago Silva helped Paris Saint-Germain equalize the score again in the 114th minute of extra time! The two sides tied 2:2, but the fatal point for Chelsea was that the opponent had two away goals.

In the final stage of the game, the Blues players tried their best to attack the opponent's goal, but failed due to the stubborn defense of Paris Saint-Germain.

Finally, with the referee's whistle, the game ended.

Chelsea was eliminated at their home ground and watched the opponent advance to the quarterfinals, while they once again suffered a humiliating defeat in the round of 16.

"Mourinho is having a hard time at Stamford Bridge!"

"Haha, who made him so crazy before!"

"Given Abramovich's temper, if Chelsea doesn't win the league title this season, I bet 50 cents that Magic Bird will be fired!"

"After being fired by Real Madrid and Chelsea, I don't know which team will want him!"

"I think it's better for him to go to Manchester United. Van Gaal did worse than Mourinho at Manchester United!"

"What a good idea! I support Mourinho to go to Manchester United again and destroy Manchester United completely!"

After Chelsea was eliminated, public opinion was very unfavorable to Mourinho.

It now seems that none of the promises he made to the fans when he returned to the Blues have been fulfilled.

Since winning the Champions League, Chelsea has been eliminated once in the group stage and twice in the round of 16. The team's record has been getting worse and worse.

Chelsea now does not seem to be on the right track, but rather seems to be on the verge of collapse.

Moreover, it has been five years since their last league title.

If they don't gain anything else, it would be a shame for their status as a wealthy family.

This makes the Blues fans very worried, they don’t want to see their team go ten years without a championship like Arsenal did!

Manchester City fans are completely unaware of the concerns of Chelsea fans.

In the second leg of the Champions League, Manchester City easily defeated Arsenal 2:0 at home and advanced to the quarterfinals with a total score of 5:1.

Since achieving a breakthrough in the Champions League last year, Manchester City's luck in the Champions League has suddenly improved.

Last year they faced the three strongest clubs, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Rennes, in a row. But this year, not only were they assigned to a very weak group, but even their opponents in the first round of the knockout stage were easy to play against.

Arsenal is well known to Manchester City and they are located very close to them, so there is no need to travel too much to play against them. The team will not be exhausted after the game, and there is no consumption of League Cup and FA Cup.

Manchester City can face the next round of opponents in the best condition!

Apart from Chelsea, there were no upsets in this round of games.

Strong teams such as Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Juventus and others have advanced to the quarterfinals.

On March 19, the draw ceremony for the quarter-finals of the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League was held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

With so many top teams among the top eight teams, the outside world is expecting a fierce battle! (End of this chapter)