Chapter 947 Come to Manchester City!
After playing the league game against Arsenal, Manchester City faced the last round of the Champions League group stage in the middle of the week.
At home against Inter Milan.
Manchester City actually let up in this game, still playing with rotation and substitute lineups, focusing more on observing substitutes and young players. All the main players, including Courtois, rested.
But even so, Manchester City defeated the visiting Inter Milan 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
Su Dong, sitting in the stands, could swear to heaven that Manchester City really let the team win. Even Guardiola didn't think about winning before the game, so he spoke very low-key during the interview.
The fans are also well aware of this, so they all remain calm during the game.
But who would have thought that we would win!
Inter Milan showed an aggressive momentum from the beginning and really suppressed Manchester City, but in the end, Inter Milan could not pose any threat, which made Su Dong in the stands couldn't help but worry about them.
After attacking for more than 30 minutes, Inter Milan failed to score and instead lost their own goal.
A quick counterattack, with Aguero assisting Moutinho to score, opened the scoring for Manchester City.
After conceding the goal, Inter Milan started to counterattack, but in the 52nd minute of the second half, the defense failed again and Manchester City seized the opportunity. Milner scored a goal and scored another goal for Manchester City.
Now the game becomes interesting.
Inter Milan seemed to have been drained of all their strength and only made one substitution throughout the game, obviously accepting the result.
Manchester City unexpectedly defeated Inter Milan 2-0 at home.
…
At another stadium, Dortmund defeated Villarreal 2-0 away from home.
The Yellow Submarine has really given up the Champions League and is focusing on the domestic La Liga.
After getting these three points, Dortmund finally reversed Inter Milan's defeat at the Etihad Stadium and advanced as the second in the group just behind Manchester City.
I have to say that the final result of the group of death was indeed a bit surprising.
The two strong teams ranked in the first and second tiers were eventually defeated by the teams ranked in the third and fourth tiers. This is really surprising.
What is even more surprising is that in another group, Premier League giants Manchester United lost 1-2 to Basel away from home when a draw would have allowed them to qualify. They conceded a goal in the first eight minutes of the game, and after that, no matter how hard they attacked, they were unable to turn the situation around.
In the end, they lost 1-2 and handed the Champions League qualification to Basel.
Ferguson did not show any anger at such a humiliating defeat. Obviously, he was more or less mentally prepared for the team's current situation. He believed that Manchester United failed to stand out from the group stage and the team exposed serious problems that needed to be resolved during the winter break.
It is reported that Ferguson is inviting Scholes to return to the team to alleviate Manchester United's current poor midfield organization.
…
Manchester United was eliminated from the Champions League, and there was a fire in the backyard.
Mino Raiola, the agent of Paul Pogba, a young French player who is highly favored in European football and is known as Vieira II, made public comments in the media, saying that Manchester United's frivolous attitude of being reluctant to make a contract renewal commitment has made his players very unhappy, and Pogba is seeking the possibility of leaving the team.
French legendary defensive midfielder Vieira also supported Pogba's departure in an interview with the media. He said that Manchester United would not give such a young talent a chance. "Ferguson would rather recall Scholes, use the sick Fletcher, and use Anderson, rather than give a talent like Pogba a chance. This has already shown his attitude."
Vieira believes that Ferguson will not easily use young players in order to maintain Manchester United's performance.
"According to the information I have received, another talented young player Morrison has already started the process of leaving the team and may leave during the winter break. I believe that the day when Pogba leaves Manchester United will not be too far away."
As for which team he would choose after leaving Manchester United, Vieira said that his first choice would be Juventus, because Juventus is in great need of midfielders. Arsenal is also a very good choice because the team has a good French football gene.
"In addition, Manchester City can also consider that the technical and tactical style of this team is very consistent with Pogba's characteristics, but he must be mentally prepared to compete with the best midfield in the world."
The rumors were spreading like wildfire outside. At this critical moment, Su Dong suddenly changed his behavior and came out to be interviewed by a Guardian reporter. He was "asked" about the rumors about Pogba's transfer to Manchester City.
"I have watched his games and football videos. I think he is a very capable midfielder, but he has been placed in the defensive midfielder position in several games for Manchester United. This is not good. He is not suitable to play as a defensive midfielder. He should be more forward, unleash his characteristics and tap his potential on the offensive end."
"A word to Pogba? I want to tell him, if you want to be the best midfielder in the world and want to play with the best players in the world, come to Manchester City!"
After Su Dong's interview was reported by the Guardian, it quickly attracted strong attention from the entire British media and even the European football world.
Everyone knows that Su Dong is the captain of Manchester City and he doesn't accept interviews easily. Therefore, every interview of his has a purpose and most of them are arranged by Manchester City.
Then the meaning this time is very clear.
Manchester City has decided to enter the competition with many giants for Pogba.
Many media outlets believe this is not surprising.
On the one hand, there is Pogba’s talent and potential, and on the other hand, there is his status as a local youth training player.
According to the regulations, as long as a player is registered with an English club for three years before the age of twenty-one, he or she can be counted as a local youth training player.
Although it is not a household registration, it is also a valuable local youth training place.
Of course, if Pogba transfers to a team in another league, he will lose his qualification for local youth training in less than three years.
Manchester City has always been troubled by local quota restrictions, so they will naturally not let go of players like Pogba easily.
If not now, when? ...
If Ferguson was suffering after Manchester United was eliminated from the Champions League group stage, then Chelsea's Villas-Boas felt like he had survived a disaster.
Chelsea's performance in the Premier League this season is not ideal. It is still fighting for the top four in the league. Even in the Champions League group stage, Chelsea is playing in danger.
But unlike Manchester United's poor performance in the last group match, Villas-Boas learned from his mistakes this time and started Terry and Drogba, two veterans who had been sentenced to death by him. The result was that Drogba scored twice to help Chelsea beat Valencia 3-0 at home, successfully getting the precious three points and qualifying as the group leader.
This battle made Boas experience both ice and fire.
On the one hand, with these three points, Chelsea advanced to the group stage and Villas-Boas' situation became a little easier. But on the other hand, the one who saved him was Drogba, whom he had sentenced to death long ago. This was definitely a slap in the face for Villas-Boas.
So much so that after the game, the British Daily Mail issued a soul-searching question to Boas.
"Are you really going to send this player away?"
"Without Drogba, you're out now!"
Such remarks irritate Chelsea fans and make them increasingly skeptical of Boas.
There is nothing wrong with rejuvenation, but the problem is that before you get rid of the old players, you should at least have suitable young players to fill the void. But what about Villas-Boas? Torres' performance still did not improve under him. After he rejected Drogba, who can he rely on to fill Drogba's vacancy?
Anelka has already signed with a Chinese Super League team, Torres has not performed well, who else can Boas rely on besides Drogba?
The Sun even directly questioned Villas-Boas in its pages, believing that the Portuguese had completely lost the support of the locker room.
"Drogba's two goals, during the celebration, Chelsea players didn't even have the slightest interaction with the home team's coaching bench. The locker room has completely lost trust in Villas-Boas."
The Sun believes that the victory against Valencia helped Chelsea advance from the group stage, which only bought some opportunities for Boas. The real test will be the game against Manchester City at the weekend.
"The Blue Moon has won 14 consecutive games. If they beat Chelsea again, it will create the longest winning streak in Premier League history. At the same time, Chelsea's hope of returning to the top four of the league will be shattered again, which will shake Boas's position as coach."
The Sun analyzed that Abramovich and Chelsea management have lost more and more patience with Boas. Chelsea's poor performance this season has made them completely lose their trust in Boas.
"The Portuguese can only extend his coaching career at Chelsea if he proves himself in the next period of games. Otherwise, he is likely to be fired before the winter break."
But how easy is it for Chelsea to beat Manchester City? The odds given by the three major bookmakers before the game basically put Chelsea at a disadvantage, and Manchester City also gave up half a goal.
In other words, most people are optimistic that Manchester City will win by one goal.
After all, Chelsea just had a tough battle with Valencia in the middle of the week, while Manchester City played against Inter Milan with a full rotation and substitute lineup. The physical fitness and condition of the players on both sides were obviously not at the same level.
More importantly, Manchester City's performance this season has been so stable and outstanding, coupled with the numerous goals scored by Su Dong in the previous game, Manchester City has made progress on all fronts, leaving basically no chance for other competitors.
In this case, can Chelsea, who are in poor form, beat Manchester City at home? However, the Manchester Evening News also reminded Manchester City that Chelsea is not a pushover either.
The Blues have always become stronger when facing stronger teams, and they have performed well against the top six teams in the Premier League this season, which means that Chelsea may not be without the possibility of an upset at home.
Guardiola revealed at the press conference announcing the match squad that it is very important to score first in a game like against Chelsea when visiting Stamford Bridge.
"We will try our best to score first away from home," Guardiola said confidently.
(End of this chapter)
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