Chapter 556: Manchester City Derby Reappears, Ibrahimovic's Challenge

It turns out that Liverpool's fighting power is indeed overestimated.

After losing to Burnley in the second round, Liverpool was tied by Tottenham in the third round. After three rounds, Liverpool only had one win, one draw and one loss, with 4 points, ranking 11th in the league . This start is even worse than last year.

Two rounds of failure to win have led to increasing criticism of Liverpool, especially against its weak defense.

Experts from all walks of life are surprisingly consistent in their views, all of them believing that if Liverpool does not strengthen their defense, it will be difficult for them to improve their performance this season.

Liverpool's manager Klopp certainly understands this, so he further raised his offer for Van Dijk to £75 million! To be honest, it is incredible to spend so much money on a defender. Although Van Dijk is good, is he really worth £75 million?

However, what is even more shocking is that in the face of such astonishing figures, Manchester City remained indifferent and once again rejected Liverpool's offer.

The fans are confused by the actions of the two clubs. The world must be sick, otherwise why would it be so strange? Compared with Liverpool's slump, the performance of the Blues Chelsea is amazing.

In this round of the game, Chelsea played at home and defeated Burnley, who had defeated Liverpool in the previous round, 3:0.

There is no harm without comparison. Compared with Burnley as a reference, it becomes clear which side is stronger, the Blues or the Reds.

Last season's dark horse, Leicester City, which had not won in two rounds, finally made a breakthrough in this round.

They beat Swansea 2:1 at home and got their first victory of the new season.

Arsenal, who also had no wins in two games, defeated Watford 3:1 away from home and got their first victory.

Manchester United also won. Playing away from home, they relied on Rashford's goal in injury time to defeat the opponent and continue their winning streak.

Manchester City, the last team to play, easily defeated West Ham United 3:1 at home. Lin Quan scored a goal in each half, and Fernandinho, who came on as a substitute, also scored a goal.

After the third round, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United are still leading the Premier League standings.

Among them, Chelsea overtook Manchester United with the advantage of goal difference and came to the top of the standings. Manchester City followed closely behind and ranked second. The previous top Manchester United slipped to third place.

However, the top three clubs have the same points and the gap is not that big.

…

After the third round of matches, the results of the 2016-2017 UEFA Champions League group stage draw were announced.

Manchester City was lucky enough to be drawn into Group C, which contains two weaker teams that will find it difficult to pose a challenge to Manchester City, so their qualifying situation is very good.

But in addition to these two weak teams, there is also a very strong old rival in the group, that is Lin Quan and Guardiola’s former club Barcelona.

Enemies always meet again. Manchester City and Barcelona have already faced each other several times in the Champions League!

Except for last season when the two teams did not meet, they met in the 2013-2014 season and the 2014-2015 season.

One of them was in the final. It can be said that Manchester City stepped on the corpse of Barcelona to ascend to their throne! So seeing the result of the draw, it can be expected that the two teams will fight fiercely in the group stage, and neither side will show mercy.

The draw luck of the four Premier League teams is not bad, maybe Tottenham's group is slightly worse.

There are no strong giants in Group E where Tottenham is located, but there are no weak teams in this group either.

Leverkusen, Monaco and CSKA Moscow are all strong teams in their respective leagues and are not easy to deal with.

Tottenham has not participated in the Champions League for five or six years and does not have much experience in the Champions League. They are also facing fierce competition in the Premier League. Fighting on two fronts, it is a big question mark how far they can go.

After all, Tottenham's current squad does not have enough depth.

Tottenham were in bad luck, but their city rivals Arsenal were happy.

Arsenal has good luck in the draw this year. Except for Paris Saint-Germain, the remaining two teams in the group are cannon fodder and cannot pose a threat to them. Qualifying is a piece of cake. Even if they play well at home, they may be able to snatch the first place in the group from Paris Saint-Germain.

The Champions League newcomer Leicester City also had good luck in the draw. The only team stronger than them in the group may be Portuguese Super League giants Porto. The other two teams are from the Belgian First Division and the Danish Super League, and their strength is not very strong. They have great hopes of qualifying.

In general, the four Premier League teams have good luck in drawing the teams this year and all have hopes of qualifying.

But on the other hand, two of these four teams are newcomers, especially Leicester City.

Considering their poor start to the season, one has to worry about their Champions League journey.

After the third round of matches, FIFA's match day arrived.

As the World Cup qualifiers are imminent, Bosque has arranged a friendly match with the European Red Devils Belgium in addition to team training.

Although Belgium's performance in the European Cup is not very good, their international ranking has risen instead of falling, jumping to fifth place, second only to Spain, Argentina, France and Germany.

Belgium is famous, and Spain is the world's hegemon. The two teams have never played against each other during the European Cup, so the two sides hit it off and took this opportunity to see each other's strength.

This is the most intense training that both sides can do before the World Cup qualifiers start! After learning from the lessons of the European Cup, Bosque called Costa into the team this time and decisively put him in the starting lineup, forming a double arrow with Morata to solve the problem of weak striker.

This move achieved good results. In the first half, the two players cooperated very well, exerting huge pressure on the opponent's defense line, and also successfully made a cross cooperation, which was scored by Diego Costa.

In the second half, Bosque replaced Morata with a single striker and focused on the wing. This move also achieved good results. David Silva and Lin Quan scored goals in succession, changing the score to 3:0. Belgium was badly beaten, and the team was in great chaos under the heavy pressure. In the end, they relied on Hazard's breakthrough to force a goal and save face.

Belgium lost badly in this game, not only in terms of score, but also in all the statistics.

They had only 37% possession, a paltry 3 shots, and 448 passes, while Spain had 828, almost twice as many.

Anyone who watched this game would probably have a feeling that the two teams are simply not on the same level.

Spain is the world's best team, but the question is, what merits did Belgium have to rank in the top five? Are the people at FIFA blind?

Of course, considering that this is just a friendly match, not a formal match.

The result of the friendly match does not mean anything, so we cannot arbitrarily deny Belgium's strength.

At least there are still many strong players in their lineup, but the head coach is not capable enough to shape the team and allow these stars to play to their full potential.

…

On September 6, Spain played at home against its first opponent in the World Cup qualifiers - Liechtenstein.

This is a very, very, very weak team. There are no professional players in the entire team. Almost all of them are amateur players.

Facing such an opponent is almost a gift of points for Spain.

The same was true of the result of the game. The Spanish team, which played with half main players and half substitutes, scored 5 goals in the first half.

The opponent was too weak and couldn't even do basic defense. As long as the Spanish team could get into the 30-meter area, they would have a good chance of scoring.

Although the players had tried their best to show mercy at the request of the head coach, they were helpless because the opponent could not stop them even if they let the opponent go.

The Spanish fans in the stands began to change sides at this time. Together with a dozen Liechtenstein fans who came from afar, they cheered for this team that was ranked last in FIFA.

During the half-time break, Bosque further relaxed the game and directly used up three substitutions, replacing the few main players on the field.

Now Spain is almost entirely subbed in. Don’t say I don’t give them opportunities. I gave them opportunities, but it’s up to you whether you can seize them! However, even with all substitutes, the gap in strength between the two sides is still shockingly large.

After these substitutes came on the court, they scored 4 more goals and changed the score to 9:0. It was too cruel. Bosque was too embarrassed to watch it and quickly stopped the attack and asked the players to control the pace of the game and not score any more goals.

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You are the world's number one. Do you think it is glorious to score ten goals against such a last-ranked team?

No, it's embarrassing! The more goals we score against a team like this, the more it feels like humiliating ourselves.

The Liechtenstein players fought very hard. They didn't expect to win the game, but hoped to score a goal.

If they can score a goal against the world champion, it will become a topic of conversation and even a source of pride for them for a long time to come.

But unfortunately, the Spanish players were unwilling to be a background player. It would be a very embarrassing thing to have their goal scored by such a team.

At the end of the game, Spain won 9:0. Liechtenstein had only one shot in the whole game, which missed the target.

Spain completed 16 shots and scored 9 goals, with an astonishingly high scoring efficiency.

Morata was in high spirits after the game. This kid completed his first hat-trick in his career in this game and he was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling!

When Lin Quan saw Morata's smug look, he wanted to avoid him. It was because he couldn't afford to lose face in front of him.

After the game, the Liechtenstein players turned into fans and ran to exchange jerseys with the Spanish players, and even asked for autographs and photos.

The Spanish players had won by too much, so it was hard to refuse. Both sides quickly exchanged jerseys and took photos together enthusiastically.

If it were any other team, they would probably be ashamed to death if they were beaten by such a big score difference.

But Liechtenstein was used to being beaten badly by weak opponents, and suffered heavy defeats in almost every game, so they were mentally prepared before the game and didn't think it was a big deal.

So many strong teams can't beat Spain, can they still expect a group of amateur players to defeat Spain?

What a joke! After the World Cup qualifiers, the Spanish national team also announced its disbandment, and the players went back to their respective homes.

On September 10, the fourth round of the Premier League kicked off.

The focus of this round of the league is the Manchester City derby between Manchester City and Manchester United, which is also a battle for the top spot.

This is a game worth 6 points. Whoever wins will have an advantage over the opponent in the competition for the championship.

What's more, this also involves a derby in the same city, so there is no doubt that both teams attach great importance to it, put all their main players into a desperate battle! In this game, Manchester United's formation is 4231, while Manchester City's formation is 433.

Although they were playing away, Guardiola showed signs of launching a massive attack.

At Old Trafford, Manchester City took the initiative and launched a fierce attack on Manchester United from the start.

In the 15th minute of the first half, De Bruyne made a long shot outside the penalty area, breaking through De Gea's defense and helping the team take the lead.

20 minutes later, Lin Quan received an assist from De Bruyne and scored another goal after breaking into the penalty area, extending the score to 2:0. Old Trafford was dead silent, and the Red Devils fans all fell silent.

Why is it that every time, the damn Manchester City can cause trouble in our home ground?

This is Old Trafford, we are Manchester United, how can we tolerate such insolence? The fans shouted and sang angrily, pushing the atmosphere of the home stadium to a climax.

The encouraged Red Devils players were all red-eyed and launched a fierce attack on Manchester City under the roar of head coach Mourinho.

Rooney, Ibrahimovic, Lingard, Martial, Pogba and others took turns to attack Manchester City's penalty area.

Finally, in the 42nd minute of the first half, Ibrahimovic seized the opportunity in the chaos and scored a goal with a stunning scorpion kick, changing the score to 2:1. Ibrahimovic's shot was very beautiful and crucial, which immediately ignited the entire Old Trafford stadium.

Countless Red Devils fans shouted his name, cheered for him and applauded him.

"Zlatan!"

"Zlatan!"

"Zlatan!"

Ibrahimovic was also very proud and waved to the fans in the stands with a smile.

He has not been at Manchester United for long, but he has already won the love and support of the Red Devils fans.

The scorpion tail swing is his famous skill, and no one else can perform it except him.

Ibrahimovic was extremely happy to score such a wonderful goal in such an important game as the Manchester City Derby! The next thing to do is to seize the opportunity and defeat Manchester City in one go! Ibrahimovic's eyes passed through the crowd and fell on Lin Quan, full of fighting spirit! (End of this chapter)