Chapter 482: Manchester City vs. Manchester United, huge, huge mistake!
In fact, for the outside world, these matches are quite interesting.
Whether it is the feud between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, or the financial showdown between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, there are points worth hyping and paying attention to.
Both Manchester City and Paris are backed by powerful West Asian conglomerates. They have been stirring up the European football scene in recent years. This confrontation between the two tycoons will test who can spend money more effectively.
Although the consortium behind Manchester City is a pioneer and came to the top five leagues earlier than the consortium behind Paris Saint-Germain.
But when it comes to the ability to spend money, the latecomer Paris Saint-Germain is not inferior, and may even be better.
Last summer they spent 200 million euros to bring in the record signing Neymar, which directly doubled the transfer record in football.
Moreover, in the foreseeable future, unless there is a transfer of players of the level of Lin Quan or Messi, this record will not be easily broken.
Even if Ronaldo wants to transfer, it will probably be difficult to shake this record. After all, Ronaldo is old now and his value has dropped a lot. There are not many teams willing to pay 200 million euros to buy him.
Although the outside world is mocking Paris Saint-Germain as a nouveau riche, they have spent so much money but have not achieved any results.
But in fact, their spending money does have some effect.
At least in Ligue 1, the emergence of Paris Saint-Germain ended the chaos in Ligue 1, turning the league structure that was originally dominated by many teams into a one-sided one for Paris Saint-Germain.
Of course, the competitiveness of the French Ligue 1 is not very high, and being the champion here is not something to be praised. This is very different from other leagues.
Therefore, the outside world does not care much about Paris Saint-Germain's Ligue 1 title, but is more concerned about what results they can achieve in European competitions.
It is a pity that Paris Saint-Germain's performance in European competitions is not very good. They have been eliminated in the quarterfinals for three consecutive years. Since the Qatari consortium took over, they have never made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
This result is actually not bad. After all, Manchester City had a hard time qualifying from the group stage, let alone the quarterfinals. Before Lin Quan joined Manchester City, they were eliminated in the group stage every year and almost became a laughing stock in European football.
But Manchester City's record in European competitions in the past two years has been so brilliant. Not only did they win the championship, they also won the Champions League trophy twice in a row, making them the first team to successfully defend the title since the Champions League was reformed.
As a result, in the Champions League record, Manchester City quickly left Paris Saint-Germain behind.
Paris Saint-Germain's once acceptable record in European competitions suddenly became worthless.
The reason why Paris Saint-Germain made such great efforts and spent such a huge price to introduce Neymar this year is to make a breakthrough in the European competition.
But their luck was not good and they encountered the huge mountain of Manchester City.
Perhaps, Paris Saint-Germain will fall in the quarterfinals again as usual.
…
"Don't underestimate Paris Saint-Germain. The strength of Ligue 1 is indeed not as good as the Premier League and other leagues, but Paris Saint-Germain is unique in Ligue 1 and is completely not in the same league as other teams."
Given that many people in the club felt that Manchester City had drawn a good draw, they began to become arrogant and underestimate their opponents.
Guardiola felt that he had an obligation to wake them up and put an end to the idea of underestimating the enemy in their hearts as soon as possible.
"The weakness of Ligue 1 has its advantages. It will make it easier for Paris Saint-Germain to win the championship and concentrate on the European war!"
This season, Paris Saint-Germain's dominance in the league is extremely solid. After defeating the bottom team Troyes 9-0 in the 30th round of Ligue 1, Paris Saint-Germain has already secured the Ligue 1 championship 8 rounds in advance and completed its fourth consecutive league title early.
Winning the championship eight rounds in advance not only made them the fastest team to win the championship in French football history, but also broke Bayern's record of winning the top five leagues seven rounds in advance in the 2013-2014 season.
In addition, Paris Saint-Germain also made great progress in various cup competitions, reaching the semi-finals of the French Cup and the final of the League Cup.
If they can make it to the end in European competition, they will become the first team in Ligue 1 to achieve the treble achievement.
Words are not enough, so Guardiola played the video of Paris Saint-Germain's recent games and let the players watch it for themselves.
After watching the video of Paris Saint-Germain's game, the expressions on the players' faces became noticeably more serious.
Just watching the video of Paris Saint-Germain's game in Ligue 1 doesn't make much of a feeling, but watching their games in European competitions, especially the group stage match against Real Madrid and the two games against Chelsea in the knockout stage, you can see that this is a very strong team.
Manchester City is very aware of Chelsea's strength. Although their record this season is not good, Chelsea's foundation is still there, especially their home court. Even if Manchester City goes there, they are not sure they can capture it.
However, Paris Saint-Germain defeated Chelsea both at home and away, and played very calmly, firmly grasping the initiative of the game and leaving Chelsea helpless.
Paris Saint-Germain seems to have made a lot of progress this season and is now qualified to become a top team.
"The other team has no worries about the league and their lineup is relatively neat. We have too many injured players and are also involved in the league and cup competitions. It is difficult to concentrate all our energy on the European competition. This is our weakness."
"So, before the European war comes, we have to grab as many points as possible in the league and kill the suspense of the championship completely!"
Guardiola immediately issued instructions that Manchester City’s next focus should be on the league.
There is still half a month until the quarter-finals and they have two league games to play.
If we can win both of these games, even if we cannot win the championship in advance, the suspense of winning the championship will be greatly reduced.
…
March 20, 4pm, Etihad Stadium.
The last match of the 31st round of the Premier League, which is also the focus of this round of the league, the match between Manchester City and Manchester United started on time.
In another match that ended earlier, Leicester City won 1-1 against Crystal Palace away from home, narrowing the gap between the two teams to 6 points.
If Manchester City loses to Manchester United at home in this game, then with seven rounds left in the league, the suspense of the championship will still exist and it will be very big.
Leicester City has been performing very well in recent times.
Thanks to the superb performance of Vardy and Mahrez, they have achieved a good result of 3 wins and 1 draw in the last four rounds, and took advantage of Manchester City's loss to Liverpool to narrow the gap with Manchester City.
The team led by Ranieri has completely conquered the Premier League fans.
Regardless of whether they win the championship in the end, it is already great that they can get to this point with a civilian team lineup.
Of course, it would be even more legendary if they could go all the way and win the Premier League title.
After all, the team competing with them for the Premier League title is Manchester City, which is currently the strongest team in Europe!
"We are all Manchester United fans tonight!"
"Manchester United, you need to give it some strength!"
"It's up to you to snipe Manchester City!"
Before the game, Leicester City fans cheered for Manchester United online, hoping that Manchester United could give them a surprise.
Although Leicester City can't beat Manchester City, other teams can! If other teams beat Manchester City, it means they beat Manchester City for them. These are all opportunities!
In fact, it is not just Leicester City fans who are cheering for Manchester United. Except for Manchester City and Liverpool, fans of almost all other teams are cheering for Manchester United.
As fans of the Premier League, they don't want to see a monopoly by one team, and they don't want to see Manchester City monopolize the Premier League championship.
So now no matter who challenges Manchester City, they will get their support and sympathy.
Manchester City fans have long been accustomed to this. After all, if you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.
Although almost all fans in the UK were supporting Manchester United, when the game started, Manchester United parked the bus in their own half, adopting a defensive posture.
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Seeing this scene, the fans supporting Manchester United were so angry that their noses were almost crooked!
"Fuck, Manchester United, can you guys have some backbone? This is a Manchester City derby, what does it mean to park the bus? You have no shame at all!"
This is a crucial focus battle, and it is a hot Manchester City derby, so the fans came to watch the game with high expectations.
Everyone wants to see a passionate offensive battle, not this kind of ultimate defensive battle with a bus parked in the backcourt.
However, when the game reached the 16th minute, when Manchester United took advantage of a quick counterattack and Rashford scored a goal to help Manchester United take the lead, the fans all shut up and even changed their tune!
"Mourinho is worthy of his name. The bus is well parked!"
"When dealing with Manchester City, why bother talking about the code of conduct? Just use the Eight Gates Golden Locks to Confine the Dragon Array!"
The so-called Eight Gates Golden Locks to Traps the Dragon Formation refers to an ultimate defensive formation in which, except for the forward, the remaining eight players all stay inside and outside the penalty area to defend.
Of course, Mourinho on the sidelines could not hear the fans' praise for him online. After seeing Rashford send the ball into Manchester City's goal, he excitedly did a slide celebration, completely forgetting that he was still wearing a suit.
This goal was really important. The defensive counterattack formation was not afraid of the opponent's attack. The closer the opponent pressed forward, the more opportunities they had for counterattacks in the backcourt.
Now that they are ahead in the score, their opponents will definitely strengthen their offense, which will further amplify the power of their defensive counterattack tactics.
If Manchester City is not careful enough when defending, the second and third goals will probably come soon.
When Guardiola saw Manchester United score the first goal, he couldn't help but shook his head.
The injuries to two main central defenders have had a huge impact on the team.
When Rudiger was defending, he rushed forward to steal the ball. Although he chased back immediately after being overtaken, he was still a step too late and the ball was passed away by his opponent. This was the main reason for the loss.
Guardiola has been observing Rudiger for a long time.
He has an impulsive personality and is not calm enough. Although he is very fast at turning around and chasing back, because of this, he is overconfident in his abilities and always likes to steal.
If the robbery is successful, it will be fine, but if it fails, it will easily lead to a disaster.
This is completely different from another main central defender Van Dijk. If we have to make an analogy, he is a bit like Paris Saint-Germain's central defender David Luiz.
The talent pool at the back seems to be somewhat insufficient, and it seems that it needs to be strengthened during the transfer period, especially now that Demichelis is confirmed to leave the team, there is indeed a shortage of people in this position.
Although the score was temporarily behind, Guardiola was not panicked, and the home Manchester City fans did not lose their composure either.
They still sang loudly and faithfully played the role of the team's 12th man.
As Mourinho expected, Manchester City further strengthened its attack after falling behind.
This gave Manchester United a chance to counterattack! In the 23rd minute, Pogba made a through pass from the wing, and Martial rushed to receive the ball and had a single shot.
Manchester City's goal once again faced a severe test!
However, Martial failed to adjust the rhythm and shoot immediately. When he wanted to shoot again the second time, the shooting angle had been blocked by Navas. He barely kicked the ball, but it hit Navas and bounced out of the baseline.
On the sidelines, when Pogba made a through pass, Mourinho had already raised his hands, ready to celebrate.
As a result, Martial almost sent him away with one kick!
This kid, such a good opportunity, but he didn't score! If this ball had gone in, the game would have been secured! Missing an opportunity will be punished! In the 25th minute, Lin Quan saw that the opponent's frontcourt pressing and marking were very tight, so he knocked the ball back to Kroos. Kroos took the ball to the midline, and the opponent's frontcourt players did not come forward to interfere immediately.
He then tilted his body, drew his bow and arrow, and sent out a signature long pass of more than 40 meters, accurately delivering the ball to Son Heung-min on the left.
After receiving the ball, Son Heung-min quickly made a cross from the bottom, and Jesus and Lin Quan both shot at the goal. Jesus missed the ball by a few inches, and finally Lin Quan shoveled the ball into the goal from the back point.
In less than ten minutes, Manchester City quickly equalized the score! A warm cheer broke out at the scene. Manchester City fans were jubilant, shouting Lin Quan's name and cheering for the King of Etihad.
On the sidelines, Guardiola happily waved his fists, ran a few steps, and hugged several assistant coaches tightly.
This ball was played beautifully, especially the long pass by Kroos just now. This kid's passing vision is too wide. He can see such a long distance and pass the ball accurately.
Son Heung-min's cross was of high quality. If it was a high ball, Lin Quan and Jesus would probably be powerless given their height, and the ball would have been cleared by the opponent's central defender.
However, the ball was a low pass, and the opponent's tall defender was helpless and did not dare to kick it at will for fear of causing an own goal. In addition, the smaller players were more flexible and started faster, so they were able to kick the ball into the goal before the opponent cleared the ball.
On the other side, Mourinho's face turned pale. He was happy for less than ten minutes and he was no longer happy.
Damn it, how could the defense line that I carefully trained be so weak? What were these guys doing just now? Why didn't anyone focus on that guy? Jesus was just a young player, Mourinho didn't take him seriously, he was concerned about Lin Quan, his team's defenders actually missed Lin Quan, this is a huge mistake! (End of this chapter)