Chapter 982: Real Madrid was defeated!
On the evening of March 27th, at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Night had just fallen and the stadium was already brightly lit.
After the renovation, the exterior walls of the stadium were painted with a layer of sky blue paint. Under the light, the entire stadium looks like a dazzling sapphire, very beautiful.
The only regret is that after the first round of expansion, the stadium's capacity still did not exceed 50,000.
But it doesn't matter. Manchester City's plan to further expand the Etihad Stadium has been put on the agenda. This time, they plan to directly increase the capacity of the stadium by more than 14,000 seats, and the total capacity will reach 62,000 people. This will surpass other teams and become the second largest stadium in the Premier League after Manchester United's Old Trafford.
At present, Manchester City's stadium expansion plan has been submitted to the Manchester Council for approval, and the possibility of approval is very high, because this project will bring hundreds of temporary jobs, add more than one hundred staff members in the long term in the future, and many more jobs, which is also good for Manchester.
One of the important reasons why Manchester City dares to expand so drastically is that the current football market in Manchester City is very hot.
With the team's rapid performance in the past two seasons, more and more fans have entered the Etihad Stadium, making it difficult to get a ticket for Manchester City, and even season tickets are in short supply.
This is actually related to Manchester City’s business strategy.
After the Abu Dhabi consortium took over, Manchester City's tickets have always maintained the top tier in the Premier League. The lowest price of 344 euros is the lowest in the Premier League, 30 euros lower than the second-ranked Aston Villa.
After the stadium was renovated, the price of Manchester City's highest-level season ticket reached 900 euros, ranking ninth in the Premier League. In fact, it is relatively okay because these are VIP seats. In comparison, Arsenal's is 2,300 euros, more than twice that of Manchester City, and Manchester United in the same city is 1,100 euros, which is also much higher than Manchester City.
The team has good results, plays good and offensive football, and has many star players, especially a superstar like Su Dong. However, the average ticket price is the lowest in the Premier League. How could the attendance of such a team be low?
In fact, overall, the price of Premier League tickets is still very high.
Even Manchester City's lowest ticket price is much higher than the lowest ticket prices of all the teams in the four major leagues. This also shows that the consumption capacity of the UK is indeed better than that of other countries. Coupled with the advantage of owning their own stadium, the match-day operating income of the Premier League teams has a very obvious advantage over teams in other leagues.
It is precisely based on this that Manchester City is determined to further expand the stadium, thereby further increasing the team's match-day revenue while keeping ticket prices unchanged.
Everyone is convinced that even if the capacity is expanded to more than 60,000, Manchester City’s home stadium will still be packed with people.
Let alone the peak showdown between Manchester City and Real Madrid.
As early as the second leg of the round of 16 knockouts was decided and Manchester City officially started selling tickets for the first leg of the quarter-finals at home, all tickets were sold out in a very short time and became hard to come by.
On the night of the game, fans from all over began to flock to the Etihad Stadium.
At this time, there were still many fans around the stadium holding up signs, asking scalpers for tickets at high prices.
It is said that outside, a ticket with the worst seat was sold for two thousand pounds, which shows how popular this game is.
According to the media, the influence of this game is no less than that of the Champions League final.
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When Manchester City arrived at the stadium by bus, the Manchester City fans who were preparing to enter the stadium outside all chased over and shouted the names of Manchester City players from afar across the fence.
Su Dong was the player who was shouted the most, and many fans were encouraging him to score goals in the game.
There were people broadcasting the game live, and they even filmed the team arriving at the stadium before the game. They were shocked by the crazy and enthusiastic fans at the scene. They had never expected that Manchester City fans would be so fanatical.
"This is not difficult to understand, because this is the first time in Manchester City's history to participate in the Champions League, and to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time is definitely a historical peak for Manchester City, which has not performed well in the past 100 years, so the fans' pursuit is understandable."
"We saw that Manchester City coach Guardiola was the first to get off the bus and he received warm applause from the fans at the scene."
"Since coaching Manchester City, Guardiola has gradually become a popular top coach in Europe. Now he has even been poached by Barcelona, but he chose to renew his contract with Manchester City and continue to coach in the Premier League."
"Captain Su Dong also led the players to get off the bus one after another. It seems that Manchester City players are in high spirits tonight and should be in good condition. Manchester City fans are shouting Su Dong's name crazily. He is the most popular player in Manchester City. He is not only the captain of Manchester City, but also the team's top scorer and spiritual leader."
Amid the roar of the fans, Manchester City players, led by Guardiola and Su Dong, walked into the player tunnel.
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When Real Madrid players walked out of the player tunnel and entered the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City players were already warming up on the field.
While Cristiano Ronaldo was walking with the team, he was paying attention to the movements of Manchester City and looking for the familiar figure among the players running around.
At this time, there were already many Manchester City fans sitting in the stands, booing Real Madrid.
Just as Ronnie walked into the grass of the Etihad Stadium, a football suddenly flew from the distance at a very fast speed and came straight towards him, which surprised the fans at the scene and the Real Madrid players were also quite surprised.
Only Ronnie went forward cheerfully, stopped the ball with his chest, and then kicked it back in mid-air.
Everyone then noticed that the ball fell back into Manchester City's warm-up training half. Su Dong stopped the ball lightly, stepped on it, and pointed his right hand at Ronnie from a distance. Pepe, David Silva, Moutinho, Marcelo and other familiar faces were also around Su Dong, waving happily at the Portuguese.
"Hey, bro."
Su Dong walked straight over and hugged Ronnie tightly.
"I almost fell to the ground just now. I'll see how you end up." Ronnie laughed and said with a proud expression, as if to say, why don't you thank me quickly? "Then your reputation as a diving Ronaldo is definitely confirmed." Su Dong said sarcastically.
In fact, he controlled the strength of that kick. Basically, there was no power when it reached Ronnie's range. Even if he missed it or was kicked, it would hardly hurt, let alone get injured.
Of course, if Ronnie had simply fallen to the ground, that would have been a different story.
After meeting Ronnie, Su Dong shook hands and hugged Kaka, Xabi Alonso, Casillas, Ramos and others. They were all old acquaintances and were familiar with each other, especially Kaka.
Sometimes Su Dong really wants to ask Kaka if he regrets not choosing Manchester City but going to Real Madrid. You know, if Kaka came to Manchester City, he might face a different career.
But to be honest, apart from Su Dong, any other superstar would probably choose Real Madrid instead of Manchester City.
Xabi Alonso also almost joined Manchester City, but eventually he also went to Real Madrid, while Guardiola brought in Busquets, and both players were successful after the transfer.
The players of both teams were familiar with each other. After exchanging polite greetings when they met, they returned to their respective half of the field to train.
…
While the players of the two teams were exchanging pleasantries on the court, the two head coaches were also talking on the sidelines.
When Pellegrini coached Real Madrid, he was hailed as Florentino's backup. As a result, on the one hand, Real Madrid never found a better head coach, and on the other hand, Pellegrini's coaching results were indeed good. He had always been closely following Barcelona and even almost defeated Barcelona, so he stayed until now.
The players also support him very much, which enabled Real Madrid to break through the round of 16 of the Champions League this season.
Pellegrini is now ambitious and wants to lead Real Madrid to move forward and achieve better results.
This is also Guardiola's first time participating in the Champions League as a head coach, so he is also looking forward to the team achieving some results.
Both head coaches were very personable and polite to each other. Guardiola was the host, but he was not good at dealing with people on weekdays, so he just exchanged routine courtesies with Pellegrini and then the two went back.
But their attention is rotating between their own team and the opponent on the court, and the focus is on observing the status of the opponent's players.
In the pre-match training, no one tried their best and it was hard to see anything. Moreover, the specific information was collected by special scouts and submitted to the coaching staff early on, so there were not too many secrets between the two sides.
“They should be on the defensive.”
As soon as Guardiola walked back to the coaching seat, Estiat came up to him and gave his analysis.
He is Guardiola's brain trust.
With two defensive midfielders and four defenders, it is normal to say that Real Madrid wants to take a defensive stance.
Of course, defense does not necessarily mean retreating.
The most typical example is Benítez's Valencia, which also had two defensive midfielders and conservative tactics. But whether it was Valencia or Liverpool, Benítez's team adopted a high-pressure and pressing tactic.
Real Madrid should also adopt similar tactics, but relatively speaking, their attitude will be more conservative.
"So, we can play more proactively in the game." Guardiola nodded.
He agreed with Estiat's judgment. He did not think Real Madrid would compete with Manchester City for ball possession away from home because Real Madrid lacked such midfielders.
It is simply a pipe dream to rely on midfielders like Kaka, Khedira and Xabi Alonso to compete with Manchester City for ball possession.
Among these three players, the only one who has the ability to play ball control is Xabi Alonso.
“But they might try to grab a spot in the opening round,” Estiat warned.
Guardiola narrowed his eyes and said fiercely: "Then beat them to a pulp!"
(End of this chapter)
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