Chapter 560: Manchester City in a slump

Italy is not a weak team. After losing the ball, they immediately launched a counterattack and tried to equalize the score before the end of the first half.

Italy's attack did achieve certain results. In the final stage of the first half, Italy's offensive was like a tide, and the initiative on the field was completely in the hands of the Italians.

There was a panic in front of Spain's goal, giving people a shaky feeling.

Unfortunately, Italy did not have much time left. Although their attack improved significantly, they were unable to seize the last bit of time to score a goal.

The score of 0:1 remained until the end of the first half.

After the start of the second half, the Italians, who had been mobilized in the locker room, continued their strong attack at the end of the first half, trying to defeat the Spanish team, equalize or even reverse the game.

But the Italians seemed to have forgotten that Spain's formation today was prepared for defensive counterattacks.

The consequence of the Italians' massive attack was that they were frequently met with quick counterattacks from Spain.

In the 55th minute of the second half, Spain launched a counterattack, and the process of this goal was almost identical to the goal in the first half.

To make matters worse, Buffon, the Italian team's mainstay, made a mistake when saving the ball, causing the ball that should have been saved to fly into the Italian goal.

The score also became 2:0!

The Italians at San Siro Stadium were going crazy.

What is going on? Why can't we defeat Spain every time we meet them?

Ever since Italy lost to Spain on penalties in the quarter-finals of the 2008 European Cup, it seemed as if someone had cast a spell on them, and they were bound to lose every time they met Spain.

Is Spain really the natural enemy and nemesis of us Italians? Buffon silently got up from the ground, put his hands on his hips, looked at Lin Quan who was celebrating with his teammates on the side of the court, and sighed helplessly.

He is already 38 years old this year, and it is still unknown how long he can play in the professional arena.

He has always wanted to climb the mountain of Spain with his teammates in the national team.

But unfortunately, they lost again! Although there was still more than half an hour left in the game, the probability of Italy's comeback was almost negligible as they were two goals behind.

The opponent is Spain. Once this team takes the lead, it is almost impossible to turn the tables.

It seems that before I retire, I will never see Italy defeat Spain.

Although the morale of the team suffered a big blow, the Italians still did not give up and continued to try to attack.

In the 82nd minute, a Spanish player handballed in the penalty area and the referee awarded Italy a penalty.

De Rossi scored the goal in one fell swoop.

This goal boosted the morale of the Italians for a while, and they seemed to see hope of winning, but Spain's solid defense quickly shattered their hopes.

In the end, Italy lost 1:2 to Spain at home and unfortunately lost this crucial battle for the top spot.

After the game, the Spanish coaching staff breathed a sigh of relief.

Beating their direct rival Italy gave them a clear advantage in the race for first place in the group.

As long as they don't make mistakes in the next games and don't give up their advantage, they will be in the leading position before they meet Italy again in September next year.

Of course, we can’t take it lightly now. Although the pressure in the upcoming games is not great, we must have a correct attitude and take it seriously.

If they lost to a weak team, wouldn't all the efforts for the victory be in vain? Three days later, at Albania's home stadium, with goals from Diego Costa, Morata and Lin Quan, Spain beat their opponent 3-0, winning three consecutive group matches and firmly occupying the first place in the group.

On the other side, the Italian team, visiting North Macedonia, almost suffered an upset.

Even after they scored the first goal, their opponents equalized the game with two goals in a row. If it weren't for Immobile's winning goal in injury time, they would have been tied by their opponents.

Seeing that Italy was unable to score points steadily against other teams as expected, the Spanish people felt more relieved.

…

After the match with Albania, the national team announced its disbandment and the players returned to their respective clubs to prepare for the intense league and Champions League matches.

In October, there was a situation of extreme contrast between the national team and the club.

The Spanish national team has won consecutive victories in the World Cup qualifiers, while Manchester City is struggling in the Premier League.

After losing to Tottenham away in the last round, Manchester City, playing at home, was tied by Everton in this round.

The whole Manchester City team was in bad form in this game. How bad was it?

They missed two penalties in one game!

De Bruyne missed a penalty in the first half, and Aguero missed another in the second half.

Just when Manchester City missed penalties one after another, Lukaku from Everton scored a goal.

This kid's performance in the national team was terrible, but he started to kill all the teams when he returned to the club, giving people the feeling that he was not working hard in the national team! Guardiola couldn't stand it and substituted Lin Quan, who was supposed to be rested.

After Lin Quan came on the court, he quickly revitalized Manchester City's offense and assisted Son Heung-min to score the only goal for Manchester City in the 78th minute of the second half.

In the end, Manchester City, playing at home, failed to beat their opponent and drew with Everton 1:1.

Manchester City, who have not won in two rounds, has slipped to second place in the league standings.

Arsenal came from behind and surpassed Manchester City with the advantage of goal difference, temporarily topping the Premier League table.

Tottenham missed a good opportunity to reach the top and was tied by West Bromwich Albion away from home.

Liverpool, who had won four consecutive games before, drew with Manchester United in the home derby, resulting in a goalless draw and both sides suffered losses.

This result was difficult for both sides to accept, and Liverpool's upward momentum was interrupted.

Missed a good opportunity to catch up with Manchester City and Arsenal.

Manchester United is also very depressed. Including this game, they have not won for 2 rounds, and their ranking in the standings has even slipped to 7th place.

This is far from their goal of winning the championship set before the game! If two rounds of defeats in the league are not enough to prove that Manchester City's form has declined, then the performance in the Champions League is enough to prove it all.

On October 20, the third round of the Champions League group stage kicked off.

In this round of matches, there is a focus battle in Group C - Barcelona vs. Manchester City!

This is the first time the two teams have met in a year and a half since they met in the Champions League final in the 2014-2015 season.

Barcelona is full of fighting spirit for this game and they are ready for revenge at home.

At the start of the game, it was obvious that every Barcelona player had a burning fighting spirit.

Especially Messi and Suarez, their killing intent could no longer be concealed! In the 17th minute of the first half, Messi received an assist from Iniesta and helped the team score the first goal!

Barcelona's cooperation in this goal was very wonderful. Iniesta's condition had obviously recovered a lot and he made a beautiful pass. Messi's handling after receiving the ball was even more masterful. He stopped and dribbled, easily dribbled past the defender and pushed the ball into the dead corner.

Camp Nou has fallen into a carnival. More than 90,000 fans made a deafening sound, which made people's eardrums hurt, as if they were in the Shura hell.

Compared with the opponents' fiery form, Manchester City seemed to be still asleep and was in extremely poor condition.

In order to stop the opponent's attack, they committed fouls one after another and received cards while defending.

He received three yellow cards in just half an hour.

To make matters worse, in the 32nd minute of the first half, De Bruyne was injured and Manchester City had to make a passive substitution.

Five minutes later, David Silva also strained his thigh in a scramble and was substituted.

Something was wrong with the game at this point. Manchester City players were injured one after another, the morale of the players on the field was low, and some cooperation that could be easily completed on normal days could not be performed at this time, and even mistakes occurred.

The Barcelona players, who were playing at home, became even more motivated after seeing this, and their offensive momentum became stronger and stronger.

With the attitude of kicking the man when he is down, they will not let go of this great opportunity.

During the half-time break, Guardiola gave some guidance to the players and adjusted the team's tactical play.

He knows that under such circumstances, it is somewhat unrealistic to expect Manchester City to defeat Barcelona at Camp Nou, so he hopes that the players can keep a calm mind, do a good job of defense and prevent the opponent from scoring more goals.

Guardiola's adjustments had a certain effect. After the start of the second half, Manchester City once curbed Barcelona's offensive, and the situation on the field gradually returned to a balance.

But in the 61st minute, a huge turning point occurred.

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Manchester City's goalkeeper made a mistake in his attack and knocked Messi to the ground. The referee showed the red card without hesitation and sent Navas off the field.

This red card almost sentenced Manchester City to death.

Guardiola only had one substitution slot left and had to replace a striker with a substitute goalkeeper.

Playing away from home and with one player sent off, Manchester City's hopes of even equalizing the score were slim.

This substitution indicated that Guardiola had accepted the result of losing.

But will Barcelona let Manchester City go easily?

The answer is no!

With the numerical advantage and the opponent's main goalkeeper being sent off, Barcelona's attack became bolder and more ferocious.

In the 63rd minute, Messi broke into the penalty area again with an unstoppable dribble, easily dribbled past the goalkeeper and shot into the empty goal.

The score became 2:0!

Five minutes later, it was Messi again. This time he received a pass from Suarez and completed a hat trick! More than 90,000 fans at Camp Nou stood up and shouted Messi's name, cheering and paying tribute to the king in their hearts.

Messi ran to the sidelines while kissing the team logo on his chest.

Seeing his action, Barcelona fans became even more excited.

For countless Barcelona fans, this scene is worth remembering forever.

Led by their most beloved player, Barcelona defeated their arch-rivals who had always been pressing on them and achieved the revenge they had long dreamed of at home.

Isn't this the best scenario? Many Barcelona fans were happy and proud.

Even if Guardiola and Lin are gone, so what? We have Messi, that's enough! On the sidelines, Guardiola held his forehead with his hand, frowning.

In this game, Manchester City didn't even play to 50% of their full strength, and the loss was really unfair.

He can accept the team losing, but not losing in this way.

Since he took over as coach of the team, it has been rare to see a game where they lose by three goals.

What's more, it was at Camp Nou, a stadium that means so much to him.

But what can we do now?

All substitutions have been used up, and we are also short of a striker, with both of our front-line players being injured.

The only hope is to rely on Lin Quan’s strong personal strength.

But is this reliable? Can he challenge the entire Barcelona team alone?

This season, Lin Quan has actually become very Buddhist. Not only does he play more like a midfielder, he also gives many scoring opportunities to his teammates.

This is true in the club and in the national team.

But this time, when his teammates around him fell, he knew that he had to stand up.

After the restart, when everyone thought Manchester City would pass the ball back as before, Lin Quan knocked the ball to Sane and sprinted forward decisively.

Sane passed the ball with difficulty under the pressure of Suarez.

The pass was not very good, so Lin Quan had to slow down to catch the ball.

Rakitic thought this was a good opportunity to steal the ball, so he rushed over without hesitation.

However, he did not expect that the opponent would penetrate his crotch and pass the ball to him.

Mathieu behind Rakitic was shocked and hurried forward to fill the position, but Lin Quan was faster than him. He passed him in two or three moves with a flick and a dribble.

Mathieu's heart was shocked, and he subconsciously reached out and pulled Lin Quan, knocking him to the ground.

The referee decisively showed him a yellow card. If he had not committed a foul just now, Lin Quan would have brought the ball into the penalty area.

Lin Quan's solo breakthrough surprised the Barcelona players.

They didn't expect that the other party would dare to charge alone, and almost succeeded.

However, no matter how powerful the opponent is, they cannot reverse Manchester City's overall decline.

As a result, Barcelona was only slightly startled and soon returned to its previous offensive rhythm.

In the 71st minute, Kante intercepted the ball in the backcourt. Under the pressure of two opposing players, he hurriedly passed the ball to Gundogan next to him.

Gundogan had no time to observe and could only glance at it with the corner of his eye, then made a long pass to the side.

Sane was sprinting, but he was quickly stopped by the opponent.

Sane, who always keeps to himself, actually took the initiative to pass the ball this time.

When Lin Quan received the ball, he was already being double-teamed by two center backs of the opposing team.

Umtiti and Mathieu blocked Lin Quan's way from the left and right.

Barcelona fans breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their central defender complete the double-team and block the opponent's dribbling route.

If it were someone else, they wouldn't be so nervous.

But the opponent was Lin Quan, who had performed miracles many times and scored against Barcelona, ​​so they had to be nervous.

(End of this chapter)