Chapter 384 Gerrard breaks out, Manchester City regains hope of winning the championship!
Barcelona, inside the Barca club.
After beating Real Madrid 3-0 at home, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was very proud.
Real Madrid's strength is no secret to Barcelona. Enrique does not think that he will be overturned by the opponent in the away game with such a huge lead.
Therefore, he no longer took the next game seriously in his heart, and even started to study his opponent in the final.
"In the other match, Manchester City defeated Bayern. Although their 2-goal lead is not as good as ours, as long as Guardiola doesn't commit suicide, Bayern's hope is very small. Manchester City will most likely advance to the final!"
When Enrique thought that his opponent in the final might be Guardiola, he couldn't help but feel a little excited.
When Guardiola was still at Barcelona, he was just the coach of the B team, and his identity and status were completely incomparable to Guardiola.
But who would have thought that in just three years, Enrique would have climbed to this position and was even about to achieve achievements comparable to Guardiola.
When Enrique took over the Barcelona coaching position, the outside world, especially Barcelona fans, were generally skeptical about him.
Some Barcelona fans even think that he will not be able to stay in the head coach position for long and will soon be fired by the club.
Other fans are looking forward to the club inviting Guardiola back.
This deeply hurt Enrique's heart, and he wanted to prove to the world that he, Enrique, was no worse than Guardiola.
"As long as I can lead Barcelona to defeat Manchester City in the final, then Barcelona fans will naturally know that I am better than Guardiola, and then my position as Barcelona coach will be secure. I will even become famous in one battle and become a top coach in football, just like Guardiola did back then!"
Enrique's coaching record is not good. He has only coached four teams so far, Barcelona B team, Serie A's Roma, La Liga's Celta and the Barcelona he is currently coaching.
Compared with the world's top coaches, he lacks honors and has not won any championship so far.
At his age, Guardiola and Mourinho both had two Champions League trophies, but he didn't even win a league championship trophy.
Therefore, if one wants to become one of the world's top coaches, it is obviously not enough to just accumulate honors and trophies slowly. He needs to defeat his opponents in direct competition and step on these top coaches to get to the top.
The extremely strong Barcelona team in his hands gives Enrique the confidence to defeat any strong enemy.
With Messi, Neymar and Suarez, who can stop Barcelona? "Guardiola, don't let me down, I will be waiting for you in Berlin!"
…
"Ahhh!"
At Manchester City's Carrington training base, Guardiola, who was instructing the players on some tactical details on the sidelines, couldn't help but sneeze.
"Coach, are you okay?"
The players on the side hurriedly asked with concern. After Pellegrini's retirement due to illness, they had a psychological trauma about the head coach's sudden illness and absence from the game, and they were afraid that Guardiola would do the same thing before the final battle.
More than five months after joining the team, Guardiola has completely conquered these players.
They feel that under Guardiola's guidance, their understanding of tactics has been greatly improved.
Moreover, Guardiola can use the rich experience accumulated during his playing career to teach them by example and instruct them on how to play football. This can be said to be invaluable guidance for the players in Manchester City, especially those in the midfield and backcourt.
Under Guardiola's guidance, young players such as De Bruyne, Kroos, Kante, Rudiger and Van Dijk have improved very quickly.
Moreover, Guardiola is a very kind person in his daily life, he doesn't put on airs and can easily get along with the players.
This allows the players to not feel nervous or alienated when facing the coach, and they can be more relaxed during training and receiving guidance, and sometimes they can even have a few discussions with the coaching staff.
Guardiola is also very open-minded. He has a very open mind towards daily tactical discussions and will listen carefully to the players' suggestions and opinions.
Of course, once on the field, after Guardiola has formulated the tactics of the game, he will no longer allow the players to change the tactics at will, and requires the players on the field to firmly implement the tactics he has formulated. If anyone refuses to implement or fails to implement them properly, Guardiola can immediately tear his face off and replace the opponent without any scruples.
This practice can easily hurt the players' face and self-esteem, making them lose face and leading to conflicts.
When he was at Bayern, Guardiola had conflicts with several players in the team because of this, and Mandzukic was cleared out by him because of this.
However, the situation is a little better at Manchester City because of Lin Quan's presence. He has a better relationship with the players, and under Lin Quan's persuasion, Guardiola also noticed his own shortcomings of being autocratic.
Therefore, he deliberately communicated more with the players, built good relationships with them, and tried his best to enhance mutual understanding.
In this way, after the players understand Guardiola's personality and temper, there will be no conflicts due to poor communication.
"It's okay, it's okay. It might be the dust outside that irritated him!"
Guardiola rubbed his nose and waved his hands to indicate that he was fine.
The second leg of the Champions League semi-final will be held on May 14, and before that, they still have a league game to play.
Fortunately, the next game is at home, and the opponent is Queens Park Rangers, who are at the bottom of the league and have already been announced to be relegated.
The opponent is not very strong and has no hope of relegation. They are fighting purely for honor. It is easy to imagine how much fighting power such an opponent can have.
I guess their players are now worried about their future next season. After all, the salary cap of Championship teams is much lower than that of Premier League teams. If the team is relegated, their wages will definitely drop.
Therefore, this summer, Queens Park Rangers players are expected to leave in large numbers and look for other Premier League teams to join.
Facing such a team with no fighting spirit, Manchester City should be able to win easily.
Thinking of this, Guardiola decided to give more opportunities to young players when arranging the lineup, so that the main players can rest more and accumulate physical strength to prepare for the next Champions League semi-final.
On May 10, the 36th round of the Premier League kicked off.
Before the start of this round of the league, Chelsea temporarily led Manchester City in the standings with a slight advantage of 1 point.
But this lead is too small and there is no room for error. As long as they make the slightest mistake, Manchester City will be able to overtake in the standings.
And this round is Manchester City's chance, because Chelsea's opponent is the Red Army Liverpool.
At 5:00 p.m., the match between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers kicked off.
Although Manchester City did not field all of their main players at home, under the leadership of Lin Quan, they still beat their opponents without any chance of fighting back.
In the fourth minute of the first half, Lin Quan scored the first goal.
Jovetic also scored in the 12th minute. Lin Quan and De Bruyne scored in the 18th and 32nd minutes respectively.
Before the first half was over, Manchester City had already ended the suspense of the game.
After the start of the second half, Lin Quan and De Bruyne were both substituted, and the field was basically full of substitutes.
But the opponent had completely collapsed. With Manchester City's players all substitutes, not only did they fail to counterattack them, but they conceded two goals to Manchester City's substitutes.
In the end, Manchester City defeated their opponents 6:0 at home without any bloodshed.
After winning the game, Manchester City players did not leave, but watched another game in the locker room.
After the Manchester City game ended, the Chelsea and Liverpool game started immediately.
Chelsea's opponents in the last two rounds are West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland. Both teams are very weak and it is difficult for them to pose a threat to Chelsea.
Therefore, their match with Liverpool may be directly related to the winner of this Premier League.
If Chelsea beat Liverpool at home, the league title will most likely be theirs.
But if they lose or are tied by Liverpool, Chelsea will most likely lose the championship.
Chelsea naturally knew the importance of this game, and Mourinho fielded the strongest lineup he could to face Liverpool.
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Chelsea's owner Abramovich came to the scene in person and sat in the stands to cheer for the team.
Stamford Bridge was filled with Blues fans. Tens of thousands of fans gave deafening cheers, making this famous devil's home ground in the Premier League look like the Colosseum in ancient Rome, making the Chelsea players excited and their opponents tremble with fear.
With the help of this powerful momentum, Chelsea launched a violent and fierce attack on Liverpool right after the start.
Hazard, Diego Costa, Fabregas, Mikel, William and others took turns to attack Liverpool's goal. Finally, in the 5th minute, Terry scored a goal using a corner kick opportunity.
This goal came very early, and the Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge were completely excited when they saw their captain head the ball into the opponent's goal.
"Liverpool are so weak. How come they were scored so quickly?"
Seeing this goal, the Manchester City players in the locker room were disappointed.
We had originally hoped that Liverpool could stop Chelsea, but now it seems that Liverpool cannot accomplish this task.
"Alas, Stamford Bridge is already difficult to conquer, and now they are behind after five minutes of the game. This game will be difficult for Liverpool!"
"Chelsea's morale has risen. If they continue the previous wave of attacks, Liverpool will probably be overwhelmed by them!"
"Will the Reds be slaughtered by the Blues away from home?"
"Alas, if Chelsea wins, we can only watch them win the championship!"
There was a lot of sighing in Manchester City's locker room. The players seemed to have sentenced Liverpool to death and almost no one was optimistic about them.
In addition to Lin Quan:
"Don't worry, Liverpool is very resilient and they won't be defeated so easily. The game has just begun and there is still enough time for them to turn the tables!"
Lin Quan stared at the TV calmly. The camera was focused on a player wearing a red No. 8 jersey.
It's Liverpool captain Gerrard!
He was walking back to his own goal silently, fishing the ball scored by Terry out of the net, holding the football, greeting his teammates along the way, signaling them to return to their respective positions and prepare to continue fighting.
Gerrard is leaving Liverpool this summer and these are the last three league games he can play for Liverpool.
He didn't want to leave any regrets! He wanted to pass on the Red Army's spirit of never giving up and persevering to the end.
Chelsea is strong, but the Reds are unbeatable.
Want to defeat Liverpool with just one goal? Haha, dream on! Encouraged by the captain, Liverpool's players quickly recovered from the blow of losing the ball.
Yes, they are the Red Army’s players. When did the Red Army ever give up?
Even in Istanbul, when they were three goals behind AC Milan at halftime, they never gave up!
Now it was just one goal, it was too early to defeat the Reds! The game soon resumed, and Chelsea fans thought that their team had opened the scoring early, and they should have won the rest of the game with ease.
But the situation on the court was beyond their expectations!
Not only were Liverpool's players not defeated, but they were like chicken blood, running, pressing and tackling desperately.
The opponent's fierce style of play made Chelsea's players a little afraid, and they were constantly violated and fouled.
For a moment, Chelsea's players had trouble holding onto the ball, and if they held on to it for a few seconds longer they would surely be brought down.
In just 9 minutes, 3 Liverpool players received cards for fouls.
The opponent's style of play does not seem like they are here to play football, but more like they are here to fight.
Chelsea's players were intimidated by their opponents' momentum for a moment and played timidly, as if this was the opponent's home court and they were the away game.
By the time they came to their senses and withstood Liverpool's crazy pressing and attack, there was not much time left in the first half.
Although we didn't take advantage of the favorable situation in the first half to expand the score, at least we didn't lose the ball.
Seeing that the time in the first half was about to run out, Chelsea players couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
They were not used to the opponent's aggressive style of play and they just wanted to end the first half quickly and go back to the locker room to catch their breath.
However, just as they were gradually letting down their guard, Liverpool launched a counterattack.
Captain Gerrard scored against Chelsea with a signature long shot from outside the penalty area.
Courtois was still in the action of saving the ball. He turned his head and looked at the football rolling in the net in disbelief.
There was deathly silence at Stamford Bridge, the score on the scoreboard became 1:1, and Gerrard scored in the 45th minute of the first half!
Chelsea maintained their lead for nearly 40 minutes, but were equalized before the end of the first half!
Manchester City, which seemed to have lost hope, now sees hope of winning the championship!
(End of this chapter)