May 27, 2018, Olympic Stadium, Kyiv.
The 2017-2018 UEFA Champions League final will be held here.
The weather in Kiev is very good today, with the temperature at night around 15-17 degrees Celsius and a breeze of 1-3.
This kind of weather is perfect for a football match.
The two teams in the final, Manchester City and Real Madrid, have already arrived at the stadium and are making final preparations before the game.
In Manchester City's locker room, Guardiola leaned against the wall near the door, calmly watching his disciples sort out various equipment and make final preparations.
Usually, before a major game begins, the head coach of each team will give a mobilization speech, telling the players what to do and so on.
But today, Guardiola doesn't intend to do that.
After sitting for a while and seeing that all the players had almost packed up, Guardiola opened the door of the locker room, allowing the noise from the stadium to pass through the player passage into the locker room.
The players all noticed Guardiola's move. After all, he had been staying by the door, and it was impossible for everyone not to pay attention to him.
"Did you hear that?"
Seeing the players all looking at him, Guardiola asked.
Everyone nodded, although they didn't know what Guardiola wanted to express.
"Go ahead, conquer this stadium with your performance, let the fans here and around the world remember your appearance and your demeanor on the field. Two hours later, I hope that each of your names will echo over the stadium, and let all the fans here be impressed by you!"
Guardiola said just one sentence and made way.
Although he did not give a long speech, standing on this kind of stage, the players themselves would feel their blood boiling and would not need anyone else to cheer them up.
Guardiola stood at the door, high-fived every player who passed by, and said: You are the best, keep it up! When Lin Quan passed by, Guardiola still said this to him, but Lin Quan could hear that this was definitely not just encouragement, but a sincere affirmation! In Guardiola's mind, Lin Quan is the best, no doubt! When the Manchester City players left the locker room, the door of the Real Madrid locker room next door also opened.
As they passed by, they could hear the Real Madrid players shouting slogans in unison.
The game time has not yet arrived and players from both teams are standing in the player tunnel waiting to play.
An emotion called tension began to spread among the 22 people. Even the old players who had rich experience in finals were infected by the atmosphere and couldn't help but become nervous.
As the captain of Manchester City, Lin Quan stood in the first row.
Opposite him was Real Madrid captain Ramos. Ronaldo was right behind Ramos. Although he was only one body length behind Lin Quan, it was this one body length that determined that he could only look up at Lin Quan's back.
Although he led the team to defeat the opponent on the field last year, Ronaldo couldn't help feeling nervous when they met again on the final stage.
Manchester City is so strong this year, so strong that Real Madrid, which has regarded Manchester City as its biggest imaginary rival since the beginning of the season, feels more nervous and uneasy the closer it gets to the final.
They have not yet found a way to defeat this Manchester City team, so they can only try their best to play to their strengths and do the best they can.
As for the final victory or defeat, we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate!
Born in 1985, Ronaldo is 33 years old this year.
At this age, the condition of professional players will inevitably begin to decline.
No matter how much he refuses to accept aging, the laws of nature cannot be avoided.
C Ronaldo is an extremely self-disciplined person and is very strict with his training and diet on weekdays.
This self-disciplined lifestyle always keeps him in a very high competitive state.
But the impact of age began to gradually show, Ronaldo's dribbling ability, explosive power and absolute speed began to decline.
In another year or two, his physical strength will probably decline rapidly, and by then it will be questionable whether he can still play the entire game.
Moreover, Real Madrid's attitude towards Ronaldo is rather ambiguous. Ronaldo's contract is about to expire, but the contract renewal negotiations between the two sides are not going smoothly.
Ronaldo wants a higher annual salary to match his superstar status. After all, the annual salaries of the other two superstars in their respective clubs are higher than his, and much higher.
From Ronaldo's perspective, his request is reasonable.
But from the perspective of Real Madrid Club, they felt that this request was a bit too greedy.
Ronaldo is already 33 years old. It is difficult for such an old player to get a big contract. It is already very good for him to maintain his original salary without a pay cut. He actually wants a pay raise.
A salary increase would be fine, but considering that Ronaldo is a meritorious player of Real Madrid, it is not impossible for the Real Madrid club to make some appropriate concessions.
But Ronaldo wants too much. He hopes that his salary at the club will be comparable to that of Lin Quan and Messi, which is absolutely unacceptable to Real Madrid.
As a result, the first negotiation between the two sides broke down.
Later, both sides took a step back. Ronaldo no longer insisted on an annual salary of 50 million, but only asked for an annual salary of 25 million after tax plus a Champions League bonus of 7.5 million.
This is already a huge concession in Ronaldo's view, but Real Madrid is still dissatisfied with this request.
In particular, Florentino has his eyes on Neymar of Paris Saint-Germain and seems to be planning to exchange Cristiano Ronaldo for Neymar with Paris Saint-Germain.
As we all know, Paris Saint-Germain has been pursuing a superstar, but to no avail, and finally had to buy Neymar at a high price.
Neymar is indeed very strong, but after Paris Saint-Germain introduced him, they have not achieved much in the past few seasons, which makes the Qatari consortium behind Paris Saint-Germain feel a little fed up.
So they started to think about using Neymar as a bargaining chip to exchange for superstars from other teams.
The only team that can accept this condition is probably Real Madrid.
Lin Quan is not for sale at Manchester City, and Messi is not for sale at Barcelona for the time being.
It is unlikely that both of them will leave the team at the moment, and Real Madrid has long had their eyes on Neymar. They even competed with Barcelona for Neymar, but in the end Neymar chose Barcelona.
Now that Neymar has grown into a top star, it proves that Real Madrid’s original vision of him was not wrong.
In addition, Neymar is still very young. As long as he does not suffer major injuries, he can maintain his peak period for at least six or seven years.
Replacing the old with the young, and the ones getting former Barcelona players, can deal a huge blow to Barcelona's morale, just like what happened to Figo.
Such a transaction is a very good deal, both from the perspective of the long-term development of the team and from the political perspective of suppressing direct competitors.
So, after learning the news, Ronaldo was very angry. He felt that this matter was most likely true.
How could he, who has always been proud, allow himself to be used as a bargaining chip by the club as a transfer bonus? Therefore, Ronaldo's team has issued an ultimatum to Real Madrid.
If Real Madrid does not meet the demands of Ronaldo's team before the end of June, they will seek a transfer.
Judging from the current reaction of Real Madrid Club, they are making a lot of noise but doing little. On the surface, they appear to be doing their best to retain the team's meritorious players, but in fact they have not made any substantial concessions.
To put it bluntly, Real Madrid has no sincerity.
This also basically determines the ending between Ronaldo and Real Madrid: unless there are any accidents, this summer is the time for Ronaldo to leave Real Madrid.
In other words, this game may very well be Ronaldo's last game for Real Madrid.
Thinking of this, Ronaldo's determination to win became even stronger.
Since it is my farewell match at Real Madrid, I must win beautifully.
Let Real Madrid remember the man who brought them two Champions League trophies and was omnipotent on the field! …
At 20:40, under the leadership of the referee, the 22 starting players of both teams began to appear on the court.
The moment they stepped onto the stadium, huge cheers erupted from all directions, surging like a tide, completely surrounding and engulfing them.
The fans here are really enthusiastic! It's a pity that in a few years, this place will become a battlefield.
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Lin Quan thought with some regret that there were several strong teams in the Ukrainian Super League, such as Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kyiv.
These teams have entered the Champions League many times and are even frequent participants in the knockout stage.
Although they don't have as many stars as the giants in the top five leagues, with the advantage of home court, they can compete with any visiting team!
In the coin-guessing session before the game, Manchester City chose ball possession and Real Madrid chose half-time.
At 20:45, with the referee's order, the game between the two sides officially began.
Aguero gently kicked the ball to Lin Quan, who immediately passed it back to De Bruyne behind him.
Real Madrid players were all rushing out, Ronaldo had already crossed the midfield and was heading straight for De Bruyne.
Facing Real Madrid's charge, Manchester City played calmly, as if they had already anticipated Real Madrid's move.
De Bruyne continued to move backwards and kicked the ball to his own central defender Van Dijk.
Van Dijk's position was a little bit forward. He took a few steps sideways and transferred the ball to the wing.
At this time, Real Madrid's overall formation had been stretched because of the players' rushing forward.
Manchester City's left-back Walker received the pass from Van Dijk and passed the ball to David Silva who retreated to receive the ball.
After stopping the ball, David Silva looked up and observed the opponent's position. He found that there was a space behind Benzema, next to Isco, and in front of Modric where he could pass the ball.
With almost no hesitation, David Silva immediately kicked the ball towards this area.
Lin Quan, who was moving on the right side, had already started moving when David Silva looked over here.
When the football flew over, he ran to the right position, exactly as if he had already anticipated the opponent's passing route.
On the sidelines, Real Madrid coach Zidane smiled when he saw David Silva pass the ball.
But when he saw Lin Quan's running position, his smile froze immediately.
This kid's basketball IQ and sense of space are so good that he actually started moving in advance, causing the carefully set trap to fail.
The gap in Manchester City's eyes was actually a flaw deliberately exposed by Real Madrid.
The purpose is to attract the opponent to pass the ball here, and then the moment the opponent passes the ball, Modric hiding behind will quickly intercept it and catch the opponent off guard.
Modric has strong running ability and covers a wide range of activities.
He is also a player who actively participates in defense. In many cases, Modric is the outermost line of defense of Real Madrid. It is his active fighting and interception that resolves the opponent's attack.
The moment Lin Quan received the ball, Modric had already run behind him. If Lin Quan had not moved in advance, the ball would most likely fall into Modric's control.
In this situation, Modric got the ball, and he was directly facing the direction of attack. In addition, several offensive players of Real Madrid had already passed the half-court. In this case, Manchester City's goal was likely to face a fatal test.
Although this place is in Real Madrid's half, with Real Madrid's forward passing ability, it only takes three or two passes for the ball to reach Manchester City's penalty area, allowing top shooters such as Benzema and Ronaldo to complete the shot.
Real Madrid has completed too many such attacks this season.
But unfortunately, the first step of their plan did not go smoothly.
The ball is still at the feet of the Manchester City player, and he is the one who poses the greatest threat to Real Madrid's defense.
Modric had almost no hesitation and immediately fell to the ground and made a tackle after realizing he couldn't get the ball.
Although Modric is famous for organizing offense, few people know that he is also a defensive stalwart.
He has very strong anticipation and positioning abilities, but what is even more commendable is that Modric is very strong in tackling.
Lin Quan couldn't help but frown when he saw Modric's tackle.
He felt that the opponent's tackle was aimed at his ankle. Was it a fake tackle, but was it really a tackle? Considering his position in the Manchester City team, if Modric really injured him, then Manchester City would have a hard time playing the next game.
The game has only been going on for less than two minutes, and Manchester City, which lost its offensive core early, has a high probability of losing the game.
As for Modric, he may get a card for this foul, but the probability of a red card is relatively small, and the probability of a yellow card is higher.
Using a yellow card to replace the opponent's core player will greatly increase your team's chances of winning.
Such an exchange is undoubtedly a huge profit.
So, was this Modric's own decision, or was it Real Madrid's overall tactical arrangement? While Lin Quan was brainstorming, he did not stop moving.
He flicked the ball and then avoided Modric's tackle.
Modric touched the ball, but not completely. His studs scraped the edge of the ball, so that although the ball was kicked away, it did not roll too far.
Modric, who had already made the tackle, obviously had no way of getting the ball before Lin Quan who was still standing.
Modric's plan failed, and the ball was still under Lin Quan's control. The first encounter between the two sides ended with Lin Quan's victory. (End of this chapter)