Chapter 257: PK in the Premier League

Manchester City Stadium is a newly completed stadium. It was originally built for the Commonwealth Games in 2002 at a cost of 90 million pounds. It is also known as S, Eastlands and Sport City.

After the Games, Manchester City Council handed over the City Stadium to Manchester City in exchange for Maine Road. As the stadium was designed for large-scale sports events, Manchester City spent a year renovating it to suit football matches. It was officially completed at the end of the 2002-2003 season and became Manchester City's new home stadium.

Unlike other Premier League teams' home stadiums which are patched up, Manchester City Stadium is fully equipped with modern facilities both inside and outside. It can be said that among the stadiums of Premier League teams, it is very comprehensive.

However, with such modern facilities and venues, the stadium lacks the deep heritage of the ancient teams. Even though they hang albums of the team's history and photos of stars around the aisles of the stadium, these are just superficial manifestations and cannot cover up the copper-and-iron atmosphere.

Perhaps, Manchester City's move away from Maine Road is good in the long run, but at least in the short term, apart from the novelty of the stadium, there are no benefits.

After the Chelsea team's bus pulled into the City of Manchester Stadium, Wang Li followed head coach Jose Mourinho to the routine pre-match press conference.

Many reporters were already waiting there. Kevin Keegan, coach of the home team Manchester City, made a speech first: "The team's lineup is more solid this season, and the performance in the game is getting more and more stable. We are confident that we can play a wonderful game at home." After that, he turned his head and looked at Mourinho who had just entered the venue, and continued: "Chelsea is a strong team. Their results in the first few rounds of this season were very good, but our players will not be timid because of this. These outstanding boys will definitely play their strengths to make the game more exciting and work hard to win a victory at home."

After listening to Keegan's incessant chatter, the reporters in the audience immediately handed the microphone to Mourinho. Compared with the conservatism in Keegan's words, they knew that this Portuguese talent was more lovable because he always said something shocking and inexplicable, which made the work of these reporters much easier.

This time, of course, was no exception. Mourinho took over Keegan's words and said directly: "Chelsea will try its best to play. We will not underestimate our opponents because of their results. I will send out all the main players in this game. Treating Manchester City in this way is also a kind of respect. However, I believe that the final winner will definitely be Chelsea, this - no doubt! !"

From between the lines, reporters could feel the Portuguese man's strong self-confidence at this moment. This self-confidence came not only from the league results, but also from the players under him, such as the dance master sitting next to him. His offensive ability could almost guarantee Chelsea's goal efficiency. This was the confidence of a strong team.

At this time, a Chinese reporter from Sports Weekly couldn't help but ask: "Mr. Keegan, can you tell me whether Chinese player Sun Jihai will get a chance to start in this game?"

Hearing this question, Keegan turned his head to look at the black-haired reporter, a sly smile flashed across his eyes, and said: "Son is an indispensable part of Manchester City's tactical system. He performs very well in the team. As long as he can meet my tactical requirements, I will definitely give him the opportunity to show himself."

This sentence was purely official language, and what Keegan said was the same as not saying anything. As a result, all the reporters immediately lost interest in this old man, and they turned their attention to Wang Li. Compared with the two coaches, Wang Li was the real focus of the interview.

A reporter from the Manchester Morning News immediately asked, "Mr. Allen, do you think we can still score a goal in this game?"

"Of course." When someone asked him about it, Wang Li smiled and answered confidently: "I have said it before, no one can stop me from scoring goals, and the same is true for Manchester City."

"So, how many goals do you think you'll score in the game?"

Wang Li thought for a moment and said, "It depends on my condition. If I'm in good condition, I might be able to score more than 3 goals."

“What if I’m not in good shape?”

"At least one goal can be scored. This is the minimum guarantee."

At this time, a Fulham reporter who followed Chelsea to Manchester asked: "So Mr. Allen, can you tell me what is your best way to score a goal?"

This question stumped Wang Li, as he had never thought about it before. "I don't know either. I think I am good at scoring goals in any way. How I score depends on the situation of the game."

"Mr. Allen, are you confident that you can get through Sun Jihai's defense?"

"Excuse me, is your girlfriend, Princess Angela, here to watch the game?"

"When will you and Angela get married?"

...As the questions become more and more numerous, it has deviated further from the track of football. Compared with Wang Li's views on the game, perhaps reporters are more concerned about his private life. As the saying goes, beauty goes with a hero, and Wang Li's love life is definitely a gossip that the English media are concerned about.

………On October 3rd, at 3:30 pm, the stands of the Manchester City Stadium were already packed with people. In addition to more than 5,000 Chelsea fans who followed the team to Manchester and more than 30,000 local Manchester City fans, there were also some neutral fans, some of whom were Manchester United fans, or simply non-fan groups who came to watch the fun.

In the past, Manchester City's home games were generally not full, and the purpose of these neutral fans today was obviously to see what was so outstanding about Chelsea, which had been winning since the beginning of the league. The purpose of Manchester United fans coming here was obviously to "spy on military intelligence", because in the 10th round of the league, Manchester United will go to Old Trafford for a strong confrontation with Chelsea.

Except for the east stand which was composed entirely of Manchester City fans, the cheering in other directions of the stadium was very chaotic. The Manchester United fans who came were of course cheering for Chelsea. They wanted Manchester City to lose as much as possible and be relegated this season. Many neutral fans were cheering for the home atmosphere and some even shouted - "Come on Manchester City, come on Chelsea, come on everyone!"

This silly slogan drew contempt from the fans nearby. In England, people who do not have a firm belief in football are definitely discriminated against.

………At this time, the commentator on the scene has already started to introduce the starting lineup according to his hand:

"Chelsea lined up in a 4321 formation, with young goalkeeper Petr Cech and Didier Drogba at the front, followed by dancing masters Allen and Damien Duff, midfielders Lampard, Makelele and Joe Cole, and defenders from left to right are Paulo Ferreira, captain Terry, William Gallas and Wayne Bridge."

"Today, Mr. Keegan used a standard 442 formation, with James as goalkeeper, Mills, Thatcher, Dunn, Distin as defenders, Sun, Phillips, Reina, Sinclair as midfielders, and Anelka and Fowler as forwards..."

"Oh my God, Barton didn't play today, and he was replaced by Sun from China! It seems that Mr. Keegan is still worried about Chelsea's right-wing attacking ability, so he replaced him with our all-round boy. I hope that Sun, who also has Chinese ancestry, can cause some trouble for Alan."

…………After the players from both sides came out, Manchester City got the right to kick off, and the game finally began with a whistle from the referee.

After several days of research, Kevin Keegan has not come up with any effective defensive methods against Wang Li. Whether it is Aston Villa, Liverpool or other teams, all experiments in this regard have failed. Keegan is very self-aware. He does not think that his ability is better than Liverpool's Benitez, and there is also a gap between Manchester City's strength and Liverpool.

Therefore, before the game, he decided to remain unchanged in the face of all kinds of changes. Apart from asking Mills, a full-time defender, to pay attention to marking Wang Li, he did not give any instructions to other players. He just told them to play to their strengths in this game and to play with Manchester City's momentum. He thought that even if Manchester City lost the game, the media would take it for granted.

Therefore, on the pitch, Manchester City did not launch a surprise attack or make any strange arrangements as predicted by the media. Except for Sun Jihai replacing Barton on the right, the formation and playing style were almost unchanged. This puzzled the reporters present. How could they expect to beat Chelsea with such a normal style of play! ?

However, under the instructions of head coach Kevin Keegan, the Manchester City players' mentality of not asking for anything and not caring about the outcome of the game may have allowed them to play more casually and perform better. In the first 20 minutes of the game, with steady offense and tight defense, Chelsea didn't even find any chances. Perhaps this was related to the fact that Wang Li didn't perform too well on the right, but even an ordinary performance was enough to show that Manchester City played well!

It is worth mentioning that in the 7th minute of the game, the Chinese media finally saw the scene they had been waiting for for a long time. On the court, Wang Li received Lampard's diagonal pass and suddenly made two large-angle changes of direction. Just when the fans were sweating for his small waist, he also shook Mills so much that he didn't know which way was which. Then Wang Li dribbled the ball through easily, and the next person he faced was Sun Jihai from China.

Wang Li had heard about the so-called "different Chinese derby" from the Chinese media, and he had a good impression of this compatriot from the ancient country of China, but now on the court, Wang Li would not show mercy because of his compatriots. At this time, almost all Chinese media used their cameras to focus on this scene - the first PK between Chinese compatriots and representatives of the Overseas Chinese in the Premier League! !