Chapter 391 Defending the Premier League Champions, First Meeting with James (Transition Chapter)
On May 24, the last round of the Premier League kicked off.
In this round of the game, Manchester City will face the challenge of Southampton at home.
Because Chelsea unexpectedly lost to West Bromwich Albion in the last round, Manchester City won the championship one round in advance.
So before the game started, officials from the English Football Association came to the Etihad Stadium with the league championship trophy, ready to present the award to Manchester City after the game.
In other words, no matter how Manchester City plays in this game, it will not affect their outcome of winning the championship.
Therefore, Guardiola continued to rotate the main players and still arranged a large number of substitutes and rotation players to appear.
Yaya Toure, Lampard and Demichelis, the veterans who are about to leave the team, still qualified for the starting lineup in this game.
Lampard continued his excellent performance in the previous game and scored the first goal in the 38th minute of the first half to help Manchester City take the lead.
Aguero, who came on as a substitute in the second half, scored the second goal for Manchester City in the 88th minute. In the end, Manchester City defeated their opponents 2:0 at home, bringing a perfect end to this season.
After the competition, the on-site staff quickly got busy, preparing to set up the podium for the subsequent award ceremony.
By the time Manchester City players changed into new jerseys and reappeared on the field, the podium had almost been built.
Officials from the English Football Association were waiting around the podium with the trophy, smiling and shaking hands with the Manchester City players who lined up to present the awards.
This is Manchester City's third Premier League title. Since they miraculously won their first league title in the 2011-2012 season, Manchester City has unknowingly won three Premier League titles in the past four years.
Even in the year when they didn't win the championship, they finally finished second.
Such outstanding results made the world realize that a new giant is rising.
And this giant club is likely to dominate the Premier League like Manchester United did in the past.
However, what outsiders don’t know is that Manchester City’s ambitions are not just to win a league title.
Their ambition is to become one of the top European teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern.
To achieve this goal, it is obviously not enough to rely on just a few league titles, they also need to win more Champions League titles!
…
While Manchester City won the league title at home, several traditional Premier League giants were having a hard time in other stadiums.
At Stoke City's Britannia Stadium, after the game, looking at the bright red 6:1 number on the scoreboard, Gerrard, Liverpool's legendary captain who has played for the team for nearly 20 years, couldn't help but sigh.
This was his last game for Liverpool wearing the red jersey.
They wanted to say goodbye with a victory, but unexpectedly, Liverpool, with its morale low, collapsed in the first half.
From the 22nd minute when the opponent scored the first goal until the end of the first half, Stoke City scored five goals in a row, stunning the entire Liverpool team.
Although Liverpool launched a counterattack in the second half and Gerrard scored a goal himself, they were still unable to turn the tide.
In the final moments of the game, with tall Crouch's header breaking through Liverpool's goal again, Gerrard's farewell game for Liverpool turned into a tragedy, which can't help but make people sigh.
At the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal is another long-declined and established powerhouse.
At the end of the game, Wenger clenched his fists excitedly and couldn't help but wave them vigorously.
Walcott finally broke out in this game! He performed a hat trick in the first half, showing his talent to the fullest.
In addition to Walcott, Wilshere and others also performed very well.
By winning this game, Arsenal secured the third place in the league.
This time, the team not only managed to maintain its fourth place, but also moved up one place in the rankings, so they won’t have to play in the Champions League qualifiers next year.
In addition, what makes Wenger most excited is that they are about to go to Wembley Stadium to play the FA Cup final.
With Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and other giants being eliminated one after another, their opponent is the weaker Aston Villa.
This is Arsenal's best chance in 11 years. As long as they defeat Aston Villa, they can end their 11-year championship drought!
Wenger seemed to have seen the FA Cup championship waving to him. How could he not be excited? At Hull City's home ground, Manchester United, which had spent a huge amount of money on signings at the beginning of the season, ended all its games this season with a chaotic and terrible game.
At the beginning of the season, they declared that they would take revenge on Manchester City and regain the top spot in the Premier League, but their final result was fixed at fourth place in the league.
This result is a slight improvement over last year, and at least we can play in the Champions League next year.
However, after spending so much money to recruit players, only to get such results, how can we be satisfied?
Di Maria, who joined the team with a transfer fee of 75 million euros but had a poor performance, naturally received the greatest criticism.
He was substituted after playing for only 23 minutes in this game. The cold and damp weather in Britain and the rough fouls in the Premier League made him in a very bad state.
Di Maria felt extremely regretful and thought he should not have come to Manchester United.
After wasting a year at Manchester United, he missed his time in Madrid very much.
Thinking of this, Di Maria made up his mind that he would submit a transfer application and leave Manchester United.
As long as the offer is not from a Premier League team, it doesn't matter where he goes! Di Maria is not the only one who wants to leave. After the game, Manchester United's board of directors couldn't wait to announce the sacking of Van Gaal and asked the Dutchman to pack up and leave.
After firing Van Gaal, Manchester United immediately invited Mourinho.
Mourinho, who was unemployed at home, accepted the invitation without hesitation and the two sides signed the contract quickly.
Perhaps no one could have imagined that Mourinho, who once fought fiercely with Ferguson in the league, would one day move into Old Trafford and become the head coach of Manchester United?
…
The outside noise has nothing to do with Manchester City. After the league ended, Guardiola gave the players three days off, allowing them to have a good rest and share the joy of winning the championship with their relatives and friends.
After they have rested, Manchester City will regroup and prepare for the Champions League final on June 7.
Holidays are rare, and Lin Quan doesn't want to stay at home and be tortured by the cold and wet weather in Manchester.
So I bought a plane ticket to the United States, ready to see Lily Collins.
Lily Collins was very surprised by Lin Quan's sudden visit.
She watched the live broadcast of Manchester City's game yesterday and saw Lin Quan and his teammates holding up the championship trophy. She didn't expect that the other team would show up at her doorstep the next day.
The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, just like a long drought meeting a sweet rain, or dry wood meeting a raging fire...
…
May 27, Cleveland.
In Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers faced the Hawks at home.
Since the Cavaliers had already taken the match point 3:0, if the Cavaliers won this game, they would sweep their opponents and advance to the NBA Finals.
As a result, countless Cavaliers fans flocked to the small city of Cleveland, filling the Cavaliers' stadium.
Before the game, fans found two familiar figures among the more than 20,000 people.
"Isn't that Lin Huang from the Premier League? Why is he here to watch the NBA?"
"Who is that woman next to Emperor Lin? She looks like Audrey Hepburn!"
"I know this woman, her name seems to be Lily Collins, and she seems to be Lin Huang's girlfriend!"
"It seems to be true. She even went to the stadium to watch Lin Huang play football."
After being reminded of this, more and more people reacted.
"Damn, Emperor Lin is truly a winner in life. He has honor, money, and women. I'm so jealous!"
"I feel he is not as good as Cristiano Ronaldo. He changes girlfriends as fast as he changes clothes, and all his girlfriends are supermodels, with great figures and looks!"
…
Lin Quan and Lily Collins, who were on the court, naturally could not see the discussions of netizens.
The game hasn't started yet, and the two are discussing something in a low voice.
"Who do you think will win?"
Lily Collins asked in a testing tone.
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Because she studied in the United States, she watched more basketball than football.
Therefore, she still has some knowledge about basketball.
As for Lin Quan, Lily Collins felt that as a football player, he might not know much about basketball.
"The Cavaliers and the Hawks couldn't limit James, especially in the third game when James scored a triple-double of 37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists, which crushed their confidence.
You see, before the game even started, the Hawks players looked serious, while the Cavaliers players looked relaxed. "
Because of his height, Lin Quan doesn't play basketball often, but he still watches basketball games occasionally.
As for this game, he remembered that the Cavaliers swept the Hawks by a large margin, and then made it to the finals and were sanctioned by the Warriors.
Lily Collins is actually more optimistic about the Cavaliers, but she knows that in a game of the level of the Eastern Conference Finals, the probability of a 4:0 result is very low.
Even if the Cavaliers are very strong, it is difficult for them to shut out their opponents. What's more, the Hawks have a better record in the regular season than the Cavaliers, so they may not be without the ability to fight.
However, after the game started, the situation was completely one-sided.
At the end of the first quarter, the Cavaliers had already taken a huge 12-point lead.
In the second quarter, the Cavaliers fought harder and harder, extending their lead to 17 points.
At the end of the third quarter, the score had become 85:60, and the Cavaliers' lead expanded to 25 points.
The game entered garbage time before the fourth quarter even started.
The distraught Hawks failed to perform a miracle in the fourth quarter and ultimately lost to the Cavaliers 88:118 and were swept.
After the game, the fans of the Cavaliers were extremely excited. They had once again made it to the finals and could make another bid for their first championship in team history.
After the game, some fans who recognized Lin Quan came to ask for his autograph.
Although football is not the most popular sport in North America, there are still many people watching it.
As the hottest superstar in today's football world, Lin Quan is still very well-known in North America.
Because there were too many people leaving and they couldn't get out for a while, Lin Quan did not refuse and patiently signed autographs for these North American fans.
On the other side, as the biggest contributor to the victory, James was surrounded by a large group of fans asking for his autograph.
He enjoys the feeling of being respected and loved. After all, he betrayed Cleveland in pursuit of the championship. Now that he has returned to the team, his biggest worry is that the Cavaliers fans will not forgive him.
Fortunately, such worries did not become a reality, especially after he led the Cavaliers to the finals again, he once again became a hero in Cleveland.
However, as he was signing, James realized that something was not right.
Why are there so few fans around him?
Logically speaking, shouldn't I be surrounded by people?
James looked around with a puzzled look on his face, and soon found Lin Quan surrounded by a large group of people.
“Who is that person that attracted so many fans?”
James was shocked and walked over curiously, then he recognized who the person who was surrounded was.
"You are, Lin?"
Although James does not love football as much as Kobe, his attention to this world's number one sport is just as great.
He even bought part of Liverpool's shares a few years ago and received a very generous return.
Because of his investment in Liverpool, James often watches Premier League games, so he recognized at a glance that the person surrounded was Lin Quan.
Lin Quan also noticed James walking towards him, so he greeted him:
"Hey LeBron, congratulations on your victory!"
"Haha, thank you. I also want to congratulate you on winning the league championship!"
Although the two are not very close, as superstars in the fields of football and basketball, they can be said to have known each other for a long time.
James enthusiastically took Lin Quan to visit the Cavaliers' training ground, locker room and honors showroom, and presented Lin Quan with a basketball and a jersey with his autograph.
Lin Quan gave the other party a jersey and a football with his autograph in return.
After the visit, James extended an invitation to Lin Quan: "Lin, here are the tickets for the finals. I hope to see you here again!"
The NBA finals will have several games, and if it drags on for a long time, it may take half a month.
This is different from a football final, where the winner is basically decided in one go.
"Okay, I'll come over when I'm free. I wish you and your team a great start and hope you win the championship trophy!"
"Haha, thank you for your blessing. I also wish you can successfully defend your title and win your second Champions League trophy!"
James laughed and looked confident.
Looking at James's confident look, Lin Quan couldn't help but sigh for him in his heart.
The Warriors this season are not so easy to deal with. James, who wants to be the hero of Cleveland, is likely to be disappointed.
However, this has little to do with him. All he has to do is seize the opportunity that belongs to him.
So after taking a photo together, the two separated and walked towards their respective stages.
Lin Quan did not stay in North America for long. As soon as the three-day holiday was over, he returned to Manchester City and began preparing for the Champions League ten days later.
(End of this chapter)