Chapter 473 You can always trust Lin Huang!
There is a saying that when people are unlucky, even drinking cold water will get stuck in their teeth.
Just when Manchester City was worrying about the busy schedule at the end of February, their opponents in the fifth round of the FA Cup were also announced.
Manchester City's luck was not very good, as their opponent was the Blues Chelsea.
Chelsea's record in the league this season is very bad and they have long lost hope of winning the championship, so this season they have set their sights on the cup competitions.
Since Chelsea was eliminated from the League Cup early, the FA Cup is the only domestic cup competition left for them to compete for.
If Manchester City had met Chelsea a month ago, they would naturally have no worries, but encountering them at this time is definitely not good news for Manchester City.
It seems to be to show his determination to win the championship so that Manchester City will give up.
Before the game started, Chelsea coach Hiddink announced the team's starting lineup in advance.
Without exception, all the players in this starting list are Chelsea's main players.
It is obviously impossible to defeat such a Blues team relying only on substitutes and a small number of main players.
If Manchester City wants to win this game, they must play like Chelsea and field all their main players.
Guardiola doesn't want to give up the FA Cup. After all, the FA Cup is much more valuable than the League Cup.
Moreover, the fifth round of the game will be held on February 21, which is 4 days away from the next game, which is relatively ample time for Manchester City.
So, Manchester City did not back down. Except for the players who missed the game due to injuries, the rest of the main players were all taken to Stamford Bridge by Guardiola.
At Stamford Bridge, Manchester City fought a very tough battle with Chelsea.
The course of this game was full of twists and turns, making the fans watching the game feel like they were on a roller coaster.
It seems that Chelsea felt that Manchester City was in poor form recently. After the game started, they took advantage of their home court and launched a fierce attack on Manchester City.
Hazard, Diego Costa, Oscar, Willian and others were all very active.
In the midfield, Matic and Fabregas frequently made attacks, and Chelsea scored in multiple areas. Chelsea scored a goal just 7 minutes into the game.
Chelsea striker Diego Costa received a wonderful pass from Hazard and helped the Blues score the first goal.
Five minutes later, it was Hazard again, completing the pass from almost the same position, and this time, it was Willian who scored.
Less than 15 minutes into the game, Chelsea were already leading by 2 goals.
This fantastic start turned Stamford Bridge into a sea of celebration. In excitement and joy, Chelsea fans almost never stopped singing. The noise at the scene was so loud that the voices of the coaches on both sides shouting at the players could not be heard.
Chelsea's goal seemed to wake up Manchester City. Lin Quan stepped forward and was the first to sound the clarion call for a counterattack.
In the 15th minute, Manchester City launched a quick attack after intercepting the ball in the midfield, and De Bruyne passed the ball to Lin Quan with a straight pass.
Lin Quan moved the ball diagonally, helped Aguero to create space and took away a defensive player, then passed the ball into the penalty area.
Aguero made a very smart reverse run and received the ball in an open space.
But Courtois reacted quickly and blocked his shooting angle immediately.
Aguero did not take credit for himself, and when he saw that he had no shooting angle, he immediately passed the ball to the right.
Lin Quan followed up and easily shot into the empty goal, helping the team to score a goal.
In the 23rd minute, Manchester City got a corner kick opportunity. Lin Quan took the corner kick himself. After the ball entered the penalty area, Van Dijk's header hit the post.
The ball bounced back and fell at Kroos' feet. Without saying a word, Tony took a long shot.
Teacher Tony's long shot was still very threatening. Not only was the angle of the ball tricky, but the speed was also very fast. Although Courtois had reacted and his body was fully stretched out in the air like a golden roc spreading its wings, he still couldn't touch the ball.
2:2!
It took Manchester City just 11 minutes to equalize the score.
The moment Kroos scored the goal, the singing at Stamford Bridge stopped abruptly.
Chelsea fans really want to curse:
TNND, is our defense made of paper?
A 2-goal lead was completely lost in just 10 minutes? The Manchester City fans who came to the away game to cheer for the team applauded and shouted loudly to cheer for the team.
Ten minutes ago, when Chelsea scored goals one after another, they were all worried about the team's poor performance.
Fortunately, the man stood up at the most critical moment, otherwise Manchester City would probably lose the game again.
"Manchester City can't live without Lin Quan, just like the West can't lose Jerusalem!"
"What is the Dinghai Shenzhen? This is it!"
"You can always trust Emperor Lin!"
Manchester City fans seemed to be happy a little too early, as the first half of the game had not yet ended.
However, it seemed that the four goals in the first 20 minutes used up all the luck of the two teams, and in the following time, both teams made no further progress.
In the first half of extra time, Oscar broke into the penalty area and fell, and the referee awarded a penalty.
Just when Chelsea fans thought they were going to end the first half with a one-goal lead, Oscar's penalty was saved by Navas.
After saving Oscar's penalty, Navas roared domineeringly.
This kind of amazing move is very morale-boosting.
On the other hand, Oscar, who missed the penalty for Chelsea, was completely stunned, holding his head in disbelief, as if he did not expect that the penalty would be saved.
His teammates had similar expressions on their faces.
Why is Manchester City so difficult to beat? They have created so many chances and even took the lead, but why didn't their opponents collapse? Even a small probability event like saving a penalty kick occurred. Could it be that even God is on Manchester City's side?
This penalty kick seemed to be the last straw that broke the camel's back, dealing a huge blow to Chelsea's morale.
In the second half, their offense was not as sharp as in the first half.
On the other hand, Manchester City's condition has fully recovered after adjustments at halftime.
The players played steadily and gradually controlled the tempo of the game, and then used their familiar offensive tactics to attack Chelsea.
In the 67th minute, Lin Quan's free kick was sent into the penalty area. Manchester City captain Kompany overpowered Chelsea captain Terry and headed the ball into the goal from close range. This was also the last goal of the game.
In the end, after a tough battle, Manchester City defeated Chelsea 3:2 and advanced to the next round.
Although the team won the game, Guardiola looked very unhappy.
In the 65th minute of the second half, just as he was about to make a substitution, Aguero was injured.
And seeing him holding his knee with a painful look on his face, Guardiola knew that the situation was not good.
Aguero's injury has actually lasted for a long time, on and off, and has never been well.
When Aguero retired, a big part of the reason was injury, and another part was because of Barcelona's suffocating treatment of his good friend Messi.
Professional players basically have injuries. As they play more games, injuries are inevitable.
Aguero's chronic problems are mainly concentrated on his ankles and knees, and these two positions are very critical for the player.
I don’t know how long it will take me to recover from this injury.
As Manchester City's main striker, Aguero's injury will definitely have an adverse impact on the team's lineup and strength.
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Fortunately, Guardiola had already strengthened the team during the winter break, but I don’t know whether these newcomers can perfectly fill the vacancy left by Aguero.
Including the previously injured David Silva, Manchester City has a lot of injured players in the frontcourt.
Fortunately, Lin Quan, the only real core of the team, has always been in good health and has not suffered any injuries, which makes Guardiola feel a lot more at ease.
He couldn't imagine it. If Lin Quan was also injured at this time, how would Manchester City play? Manchester City people were not happy, and Chelsea people were even more heartbroken.
You took the league title, but you won't give us the cup title? We've fallen outside the top ten in the league, let alone the championship. With this amount of points, we won't even be able to participate in the Europa League next season.
When they thought of this, Chelsea fans completely hated Manchester City.
Since the rise of Manchester City, Chelsea's days seem to have suddenly become difficult.
Chelsea's performance this year has dropped so much that people are a little worried. Will they never recover from this setback? Just when the Blues fans were worried, Abramovich stood up and publicly stated that he would not abandon the team and would continue to strongly support the team.
Abramovich's statement gave the Blues fans peace of mind. Although the team's performance has temporarily declined, as long as the boss continues to support them, they believe that the Blues will rise again sooner or later.
"Abu is such a good boss!"
"Indeed, apart from his bad temper, impatient personality and his penchant for firing coaches, he is indeed a good boss!"
Chelsea fans actually have complicated feelings towards Abramovich. At the beginning, they were very resistant to this oligarch from Russia.
But Abramovich has invested real money over the years to take Chelsea from an ordinary team to a Premier League giant, winning several league titles and even a Champions League title.
Moreover, Abramovich often appears in the stands and watches Chelsea's games like an ordinary fan.
After more than ten years of this, more and more Blues fans have accepted him. One day in the future, if Abramovich is kicked out of Chelsea, the fans may miss him.
…
After defeating Chelsea away, Guardiola took the team directly to Kiev on a chartered flight from Heathrow Airport, leaving the injured Aguero to return to the club to recuperate.
Four days later, they will face their Champions League knockout opponent, Dynamo Kyiv, there.
"Ahhh!"
“It’s so cold!”
The weather in Kiev at the end of February was still very cold, with the outdoor temperature below zero degrees.
After the players got off the plane, they immediately felt the chill.
For the Manchester City people who came all the way from the UK, this temperature felt like a dream back to winter.
Affected by the North Atlantic Current, the temperature in Manchester in winter is actually not too low, and it rarely drops below zero.
But here in Eastern Europe, temperatures below zero are commonplace.
The winters here are not only cold, but also very long.
Manchester City was once placed in the same group with a Russian Premier League team. If they are unlucky and play at the Russian Premier League team's home stadium in December, the temperature there can even drop to minus ten degrees Celsius.
If you are unlucky, it may even snow during the competition.
In addition, Russia is too large and too far away from other countries. For European teams, traveling a long distance to Russia to play an away game is simply a matter of life and death.
Therefore, in order to avoid long journeys and reduce the probability of injuries to key players, many teams will sometimes give up away games and only send out some substitutes if they have a relatively large lead.
Thanks to the climate and the advantage of being at home, Russian Premier League teams have a pretty good record in the Champions League. Basically every year there are teams that qualify from the group stage and make it to the knockout stage.
If it is understandable that a country like Russia, whose core area is in Europe, is included in UEFA, then it is a bit unreasonable for a country like Kazakhstan, which is completely located in Asia, to join UEFA.
The key is that Kazakhstan still has a place in the European competition. Anyone who is put in the same group with them will have to fly more than 10,000 kilometers back and forth to play a game!
Of course, as compensation, the Kazakhstan team is very weak and poses little threat.
If we meet them in the Champions League again, apart from the slightly more tiring journey, there will be no problem in other aspects, which means we can pick up 6 points for free.
The fans of Dynamo Kyiv were obviously not welcoming to Manchester City's arrival. They held various banners and used various gestures to greet the Manchester City players. Some people even cursed at them in words that the players could not understand.
Manchester City players have seen this scene many times. If Dynamo Kyiv wants to advance to the next round, its only hope lies in their home court.
If they cannot take advantage of their home court to beat Manchester City, their chances will be even slimmer when they return to Manchester City's home court in the next round.
Therefore, their fans will definitely try every possible means to interfere with Manchester City.
As expected, on the night the team arrived in Kiev, the opposing fans beat drums and gongs outside the hotel and even set off a lot of fireworks, which prevented the Manchester City players from getting a good rest all night.
When they woke up the next morning, many people had black eyes and looked very lethargic.
"Today's morning training is cancelled. Those who didn't get enough rest can go back and rest. The rest of you can do what you want in the hotel!"
Seeing this, Guardiola did not force the players to train.
They set off after the game ended last night, and arrived in Kiev almost at dawn. After being in such a mess all night, not only the players, but even he didn't get a good rest.
What worries Guardiola even more is that he doesn't know if these people will come over to make trouble again tonight. If they make trouble like this every day, it will definitely not work! (End of this chapter)