Chapter 572 The Rise of Juventus
This season's Premier League can be described as a mixture of joy and sorrow.
The Blues returned to the championship throne, Tottenham failed to win the championship, the Red Devils failed to revive, and Liverpool returned to the Champions League...
In addition to these, the biggest highlight of the final round is the battle for fourth place between Arsenal and Liverpool.
In the last round of the league, Arsenal was two points behind Liverpool and four behind in goal difference.
In other words, if Arsenal want to maintain their fourth place, they not only have to defeat their opponents, but also pray that Liverpool lose.
The games of both sides were played at the same time. Arsenal fought particularly hard in this game. Even though one of their players was sent off with a red card less than 20 minutes into the game, the Gunners still attacked tenaciously.
After a hard battle, Arsenal defeated Everton 3:1 at home and got the three points that were essential to maintaining the fourth place.
But Arsenal's hopes were soon dashed as the score of another game soon came.
Liverpool easily defeated Middlesbrough 3-0 at home, extinguishing Arsenal's last glimmer of hope.
After the game, many Arsenal fans were reluctant to leave the stadium for a long time. They sang the team song over and over again and stood with the team.
Wenger walked slowly into the stadium to comfort the players who were crying.
Arsenal's performance this season has been very good. In the end, they got a high score of 74 points. In previous years, this score was enough for them to get a place in the Champions League.
But this year their luck was a bit off and unfortunately they failed to continue their previous tradition of entering the Champions League every year.
Wenger really wants to say sorry for this. One incompetent general can lead to the exhaustion of the entire army.
He felt that he was a burden to the team, so he chose to leave after the end of this season.
I hope that after I leave, the club’s top management can find a suitable successor!
…
The end of the league is a relief for Manchester City.
Finally, we can get rid of the unfavorable situation of fighting on multiple fronts!
This season their league result hit a new low in nearly four years, finishing third, which is a bit embarrassing for Manchester City, which is used to winning championships.
However, winning the Premier League in the increasingly fierce competition will probably not be an easy task from now on.
This is especially a huge challenge for a team like Manchester City that needs to exert efforts on multiple fronts at the same time.
This season, due to personnel changes, Manchester City's performance has fluctuated, and both the league and the Champions League have been affected.
They lost the league title and failed to get first place in the Champions League group stage.
Fortunately, the subsequent games went relatively smoothly and they easily defeated Monaco in the quarter-finals.
Another double win against Dortmund in the quarter-finals!
Although they did not draw their most desired opponent in the semi-finals, they did draw Juventus, an opponent that was neither good nor bad, which at least did not add any extra difficulty to them.
At least compared to the other giants that advanced to the semi-finals, Manchester City's road to promotion was relatively smooth.
Despite being favored by everyone, Real Madrid was beaten 2:1 by ten-man Bayern in the second round at home and was almost overturned at home.
Fortunately, in the overtime period, thanks to Ronaldo's two goals, Real Madrid advanced to the semi-finals without any danger.
As for Atletico Madrid, the outside world was optimistic that they would continue to keep their opponents scoreless, but they never expected that Atletico Madrid was almost overturned by Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
Although Atletico Madrid won in the end, Leicester City was only ranked 12th in the Premier League. Such a team is not a strong team.
It was so difficult to win against Leicester City, so it is difficult for the outside world to have too high expectations of Atletico Madrid.
So for Real Madrid, which drew Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, the outside world believed that Real Madrid was guaranteed to advance to the final.
Considering that Real Madrid's strength has improved this season, while Manchester City's strength has declined.
If Real Madrid really makes it to the final, this year will be their most promising year! On May 3, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final will begin.
Real Madrid played at home and beat Atletico Madrid 3-0 thanks to a hat trick by Cristiano Ronaldo.
As expected by the outside world, it is difficult for Atletico Madrid to pose any threat to Real Madrid.
This score basically sentenced Atletico Madrid to death, and also meant that Real Madrid had advanced to the final in advance.
Compared with the clear-cut matches in the upper half, the matches in the lower half were much more tense than outsiders expected.
Although Manchester City beat their opponent at home in the first leg, the score was not good.
They only have 1 goal difference and conceded 2 away goals to their opponents.
In the era when away goals had not yet been abolished, the score of 3:2 could even be considered a victory for the away team to some extent.
Juventus was very satisfied with the score, although judging from the score, they did not lose much.
But in fact, Juventus played very ugly in this game. They only had 33% ball possession in the whole game, and the number of shots was pitifully small, with only 5 shots.
But Juventus was very lucky, or perhaps their striker Higuain was in very good form.
In this game, Higuain scored two goals with three shots, which was amazingly efficient! The two assists for him were all from Juventus' right wingback Alves.
Although Alves is old, after leaving Barcelona, he has proved with practical actions that he is still one of the best right backs on the planet!
Compared to Juventus, Manchester City is naturally very dissatisfied with this score.
Guardiola rarely got angry after the game and severely criticized the players who performed poorly on the field.
It's no wonder he's angry. Manchester City has already lost the league title. If they don't win any more titles in the Champions League, they will lose all four major titles this season.
The score of 3:2 was really dangerous. It seemed that they were leading by one goal, but the opponents' two away goals were like a thorn in the throat, making Manchester City feel extremely uncomfortable.
The opponent returned to the home court, and only needed an economical 1:0 to send Manchester City home! Judging from the efficiency of the opponent's forward line in this game, it is not difficult for Juventus to score at home.
Therefore, the current situation is very unfavorable for Manchester City.
They didn't seize the opportunity at home, so they had to fight a desperate battle away from home, but away games are not easy to play, so they need to prepare for the worst.
…
On May 8, the entire Manchester City team arrived in Turin three days in advance to prepare for the second leg match against Juventus.
Juventus fans were very "enthusiastic" about Manchester City. After they arrived, the other side quickly determined the location of the hotel where they were staying, and then a group of people came and tried all kinds of ways to fight, such as beating drums and gongs and setting off fireworks.
In short, they tried their best to make noise and prevent Manchester City players from having a good rest.
Although the team had anticipated and prepared for this situation before arriving, the team's preparations were still inevitably affected.
Affected by this, the morale of the entire Manchester City team seemed a little low.
Compared with Manchester City, Juventus can be said to be in high morale.
It has been 15 years since they last entered the Champions League final, and 21 years since Juventus last won the Champions League! The entire Juventus team is eager to step onto the final stage again and win the Champions League again! Although, they know that it is very difficult to achieve this goal!
But they have climbed over mountain after mountain, overcome obstacle after obstacle, and are now only two steps away from their final goal!
As long as they win two games, Juventus will get what they want! And these two games happen to be the most difficult games for Juventus in all their games throughout the year! They have to beat Manchester City first, and then Real Madrid, to realize this dream!
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Is it difficult?
Of course it is difficult. In the entire football world, few teams dare to guarantee that they can beat Manchester City and Real Madrid!
Winning one team might be possible by luck, but defeating two of the top teams in football in a row is not something that can be achieved by luck.
Juventus needs to show all their strength, best form and go all out to have a chance! May 10, 2017, 19:45, Juventus Stadium.
The game kicked off with the deafening cheers from the fans of both sides! As soon as the game started, the two sides started a fierce battle on the court.
He who controls the midfield controls the world. This is the experience summed up by countless people.
Therefore, the battle between the two sides in the midfield was particularly fierce and even tragic.
In the 10th minute of the first half, the first injury incident occurred on the field.
In the battle with Manchester City's midfielder, Khedira was injured and fell to the ground. After examination by the team doctor, it was confirmed that he could not continue and was forced to be substituted.
Khedira's departure was a heavy blow to Juventus.
The German, who dares to fight and fight, is a key link in Juventus' midfield.
Although he is not a defensive iron gate, he is highly committed to his work, has a large running range, and is very daring and fighting. With him on the court, the players feel much more at ease psychologically and can often perform at a better level.
This is also the reason why Khedira can gain a foothold in Real Madrid and Juventus. At first glance, this guy seems to have shortcomings everywhere, but in fact, he is very important to the team.
Therefore, his absence greatly weakened Juventus' midfield strength! Without Khedira's cover, Pjanic, Alves and others played very uncomfortably, and even Dybala had to reduce his offensive investment and put more energy into defense.
Although Juventus' midfield was temporarily at a disadvantage, their forwards were in great form.
Mandzukic, who has left Bayern for several years, has not forgiven Guardiola until now.
Every time he meets Guardiola and his team on the field, Mandzukic is extremely excited, as if he has been injected with chicken blood.
He just wanted to prove himself, to slap Guardiola in the face, to let the world know that it was not that Mandzukic was incompetent, but that Guardiola was blind.
The previous times when Juventus met Manchester City, due to the huge gap in strength between the two sides, Mandzukic failed many times and failed to complete his revenge.
But today, at Juventus' home ground, they may face the weakest Manchester City team in the past three years. On the other hand, Juventus' strength has steadily improved after a long period of running-in, and the gap in hard power between the two sides has reached the smallest level in the past few years.
Therefore, this game was a great opportunity for Mandzukic! He did not disappoint the fans. In the 33rd minute of the first half, he seized the opportunity to break the deadlock with his best header and changed the score to 1:0!
This goal was very crucial because it made the total score between the two sides a tie, and Juventus had taken the initiative to advance because of two away goals.
If Manchester City cannot equalize the score, Juventus will be able to realize their dream of reaching the final!
"Juventus has something. It seems that the score in the last game was not a surprise!"
"Queshi, even though the statistics are not good, the fact that they were able to score two goals at Manchester City's home stadium is enough to show their ability!"
"Could it be that the two teams in this season's Champions League final will be Real Madrid and Juventus?"
"Don't jump to conclusions so quickly. The game isn't over yet. You have to have some confidence in Manchester City. Besides, even if you don't believe in Manchester City, you have to believe in Lin Huang!"
"That's right. Real Madrid had such a huge advantage, but they still advanced in the end. Don't underestimate these top teams. No one can predict the outcome until the last minute."
On the Internet, fans of both teams are discussing the issue heatedly. In addition to being interested in the outcome of the game, they are also concerned about whether there will be another upset.
In this season's Champions League, many top teams that were favored before the game unexpectedly failed, such as Barcelona, which beat Manchester City to win first place in the group.
Many people think that Barcelona is the favorite to win the Champions League this season because of the game where Barcelona defeated Manchester City at home.
Unexpectedly, they were ruthlessly eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain before even making it to the quarter-finals.
Paris Saint-Germain, which won a 4-0 victory over Barcelona at home and finally prevented Barcelona from staging a miracle comeback and advanced to the quarterfinals, is also considered by many to be the favorite to win the championship after eliminating Barcelona.
The result? They were eliminated at lightning speed against Juventus, and the score difference was huge, which seemed to show a clear gap in strength.
Football matches are full of unexpected events. Even top teams, even those with high financial value, can still fail.
Moreover, which team that can enter the Champions League semi-finals is a weak team? Even if there is a gap in strength between the two teams in the semi-finals, the gap will not be too big.
After Juventus scored the first goal, the situation was indeed developing in their favor.
But this does not mean that Juventus is really sure to win.
After Khedira left the field, Juventus' midfield problems began to gradually expose, while Manchester City's advantage in the midfield was expanding little by little.
Whoever controls the midfield controls the world. When Manchester City's advantages accumulate to a certain level, their attack has become somewhat unstoppable.
In the final stage of the first half, Juventus was already in a passive situation on the field. Manchester City created threats continuously in a short period of time, causing panic in front of Juventus' goal.
If it weren't for the outstanding performance of young player Buffon, who resolved the crises one by one, the score might have been tied.
But, Juventus’ good luck will eventually run out! (End of this chapter)