Chapter 560 Manchester City is in sluggish condition
Italy is not a loser. After conceding the goal, they immediately launched a counterattack and tried to equalize the score before the end of the first half.
Italy's offense still achieved certain results. In the final stage of the first half, Italy's offensive was overwhelming, and the initiative on the field was completely in the hands of the Italians.
There was a tremor in front of Spain's door, giving people a shaky feeling.
Unfortunately, there was not much time left for Italy. Although their offensive improved greatly, they were not able to seize the last moment to score a goal.
The score of 0:1 remained until the end of the first half.
After the start of the second half, the Italians, who mobilized in the locker room, continued their strong attack at the end of the first half, trying to defeat the Spanish team, equalize or even reverse the game.
But the Italians seem to have forgotten that Spain's formation today is prepared for defensive counterattacks.
The result of the Italians' aggressive pressure was that they frequently encountered rapid counterattacks launched by Spain.
In the 55th minute of the second half, Spain launched a counterattack, and the process of this goal was almost exactly the same as the goal in the first half.
The leak happened overnight. Buffon, the Italian team's talisman, also made a mistake when saving. As a result, the ball that should have been saved ended up flying into the Italian goal.
The score also became 2:0!
The Italians at San Siro were going crazy.
What's going on.
Why can't we beat Spain every time we meet?
Ever since losing to Spain in a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals of the European Cup in 2008, Italy has been like being slapped on the head. It must lose every time it encounters Spain.
Is Spain really the natural enemy and nemesis of us Italians?
Buffon silently climbed up from the ground, put his hands on his hips, looked at Lin Quan who was celebrating with his teammates on the side of the court, and sighed helplessly.
He is 38 years old this year, and he still doesn’t know how long he can play in the professional arena.
He has always wanted to climb the Spanish mountain with this group of teammates from the national team.
But unfortunately, they lost again!
Although there is still more than half an hour left in the game, Italy, which is two goals behind, has almost a negligible chance of coming back.
The opponent is Spain. Once this team takes the lead, it is almost impossible to overturn.
It seems that before he retires, he will never want to see Italy defeat Spain.
Although the morale of the team has been hit hard, the Italians still have not given up and are still trying to attack.
In the 82nd minute, a Spanish player handed the ball in the penalty area and the referee awarded Italy a penalty kick.
De Rossi scored the ball in one stroke.
This goal once boosted the morale of the Italians a lot, and they seemed to see hope of victory, but Spain's solid defense quickly dashed their hopes.
In the end, Italy lost to Spain 1:2 at their home court, regrettably losing this crucial first-place battle.
After the game, the Spanish coaching staff breathed a sigh of relief.
Defeating Italy, their direct competitor, gave them a clear advantage in the race for first place in the group.
As long as they don't make mistakes in the next games and don't give away their advantage, they will be in the lead before meeting Italy again next September.
Of course, we cannot take it lightly now. Although the pressure in the next game will not be great, we must have a correct attitude and take it seriously.
If we lose to a weak team, wouldn't all the hard work we put in for this victory be in vain?
Three days later, at Albania's home court, with goals from Diego Costa, Morata and Lin Quan, Spain defeated their opponents 3:0 and won three consecutive group stage victories, firmly ranking first in the group.
On the other side, the Italian team visited North Macedonia and almost suffered an upset.
When they scored the first goal, they were beaten by their opponents twice. If it weren't for Immobile's winning goal in injury time, they would have been tied by their opponents.
Seeing that Italy, as expected, could not score points stably when facing other teams, everyone in Spain suddenly felt more relieved.
…
After the match against Albania, the national team announced its disbandment, and the players returned to their respective clubs to prepare for intense league and Champions League matches.
In October, there was a tense situation between the national team and the club.
The Spanish national team has won consecutive victories in the World Cup preliminaries, but Manchester City is struggling in the Premier League.
After losing to Tottenham on the road in the previous round, Manchester City played at home and was tied by Everton in this round.
The entire Manchester City team was in terrible shape in this game. How bad was it?
They missed two penalties in one game!
De Bruyne missed one free throw in the first half, and Aguero missed another in the second half.
Just when Manchester City missed penalty kicks one after another, Everton's Lukaku scored.
This kid's performance in the national team was disastrous, but when he returned to the club, he started killing everyone again, giving people the feeling that he was not working hard in the national team!
Guardiola really couldn't bear it and replaced Lin Quan, who was supposed to take a rest.
After Lin Quan came on the field, he quickly revitalized Manchester City's offense and assisted Son Heung-min to score Manchester City's only goal in the 78th minute of the second half.
In the end, Manchester City, playing at home, failed to win their opponent and made a 1:1 draw with Everton.
Manchester City, which was winless in the second round, slipped to second place in the league standings.
Arsenal came from behind and overtook Manchester City with their goal difference advantage to temporarily top the Premier League list.
Tottenham missed the chance to reach the top and were tied with West Bromwich Albion away from home.
Liverpool, which had previously won four games in a row, had a goalless draw with Manchester United in a double-header match at home against Manchester United.
This result was unacceptable to both sides, and Liverpool's upward momentum was interrupted.
Missed the opportunity to catch up with Manchester City and Arsenal.
Manchester United is also very depressed. Counting this game, they have not won in 2 rounds, and their ranking in the standings has even dropped to 7th place.
This is far from the goal they set before the game to win the championship!
If two rounds of winlessness in the league are not enough to prove Manchester City's decline in form, then the performance in the Champions League is enough to prove it all.
On October 20, the third round of the Champions League group stage began.
In this round of competition, there is a focus battle in Group C-Barcelona VS Manchester City!
This is the first time the two teams have met in a year and a half since they met in the Champions League final in the 2014-2015 season.
Barcelona are full of fighting spirit for this game and they are ready for revenge at home.
When the game started, it was obvious that the burning fighting spirit was evident in every Barcelona player.
Especially Messi and Suarez, the murderous intent in them can no longer be concealed!
In the 17th minute of the first half, Messi received an assist from Iniesta and helped the team open the scoring!
Barcelona's cooperation in this goal was very exciting. Iniesta obviously recovered a lot and sent a beautiful pass. Messi's handling after receiving the ball was even more masterful. He stopped and dunked easily. He freely passed the defensive player and pushed the ball into the blind corner.
Camp Nou has fallen into a carnival. More than 90,000 fans made a deafening sound, which made people's eardrums hurt, as if they were in Shura Hell.
Compared with the fiery state of their opponents, Manchester City seems to have not woken up, and their state is ridiculously poor.
In order to prevent the opponent's attack, they committed consecutive fouls and received cards while defending.
I got 3 yellow cards in just half an hour.
To make matters worse, in the 32nd minute of the first half, De Bruyne was injured and Manchester City had to make passive substitutions.
Five minutes later, David Silva also strained his thigh during a scramble and was replaced.
Something is wrong at this point in the game. Manchester City players have been injured one after another, and the morale of the players on the field is low. Some coordination that can be easily completed in normal times is actually not possible at this time, and even mistakes are made.
The Barcelona players who were playing at home became more motivated after seeing this, and their offensive momentum became stronger and stronger.
In line with the attitude of beating up the lost dog, they will not let go of this excellent opportunity.
During the halftime break, Guardiola enlightened the players' mentality and adjusted the team's tactics.
He knows that under such circumstances, it is somewhat unrealistic to expect Manchester City to defeat Barcelona at Camp Nou, so he hopes that the players can stabilize their mentality, do a good job of defense, and prevent their opponents from scoring more goals.
Guardiola's adjustments had a certain effect. After the start of the second half, Manchester City once contained Barcelona's offensive, allowing the situation on the field to gradually return to balance.
But in the 61st minute, a huge turning point occurred.
Manchester City's goalkeeper made a mistake and threw Messi to the ground, who was attending the meeting alone. The referee did not hesitate to show a red card and expel Navas.
This red card almost sentenced Manchester City to death.
Guardiola only had the last substitution left in his hands and had to bring on the backup goalkeeper and replace a forward.
Playing away from home, one player was sent off. In this case, Manchester City's hope of evening the score was slim.
This substitution indicates that Guardiola has accepted the result of losing.
But will Barcelona let Manchester City go easily?
the answer is negative!
With a numerical advantage and the opponent's main goalkeeper being sent off, Barcelona's offense became bolder and more ferocious.
In the 63rd minute, Messi once again reached the penalty area with an unsolvable dribble, easily passed the goalkeeper and then pushed the shot into the empty goal.
The score became 2:0!
5 minutes later, it was Messi again. This time he received a pass from Suarez and completed a hat trick!
More than 90,000 fans at Camp Nou have stood up collectively, shouting Messi's name, shouting and paying tribute to the king in their hearts.
Messi ran to the sideline and kissed the team logo on his chest.
Seeing his action, Barcelona fans became even more excited.
For countless Barcelona fans, this scene is worth remembering forever.
Led by their most beloved player, Barcelona defeated the arch-enemy that had always been on top of them and achieved the coveted revenge at home.
Isn't this the best script ever?
Many Barcelona fans couldn't help but feel proud while being happy.
Even if Guardiola and Lin both leave, so what?
We have Messi and that's enough!
On the sidelines of the court, Guardiola held his forehead with his hand and frowned.
In this game, Manchester City failed to show even 50% of its 100% strength, and it was really frustrating to lose.
He can accept the team losing, but not in this way.
Since he took charge of the team, it is rare to see a game losing three goals in a single game.
What's more, he is still at Camp Nou, a stadium that means a lot to him.
But what can we do now?
All substitutions have been used up, and there is one less forward, and both frontcourt points are injured.
The only hope is to rely on Lin Quan's strong personal strength.
But, is this reliable?
Is it possible for him to challenge an entire Barcelona team by himself?
Lin Quan has actually become very Buddhist this season. Not only does he play more like a midfielder, he also gives up many scoring opportunities to his teammates.
This is true in the club and also in the national team.
But this time, when his teammates around him fell, he knew he had to stand up.
After the restart, when everyone thought Manchester City would pass the ball back as before, Lin Quan knocked the ball to Sane and sprinted forward decisively.
Sane passed the ball with difficulty under Suarez's pressure.
The ball was not passed very well, so Lin Quan had to slow down to catch the ball.
Rakitic thought this was a good opportunity to steal, so he rushed over without hesitation.
Unexpectedly, he was pierced in the crotch by the opponent, and a personal ball passed.
Mathieu behind Rakitic was taken aback and quickly came up to fill the position, but Lin Quan moved faster than him, flicking and buckling, and passed him in two or three strokes.
Mathieu's heart was shocked, and he subconsciously stretched out his hand to pull Lin Quan down to the ground.
The referee decisively showed him a yellow card. If he had not fouled the ball just now, Lin Quan would have brought the ball into the penalty area.
Lin Quan's solo breakthrough surprised the Barcelona players.
They didn't expect that the other party would dare to charge into the battle alone, and almost succeed.
However, no matter how powerful the opponent is, they cannot reverse Manchester City's overall decline.
As a result, Barcelona only woke up a little, and soon returned to the previous fierce attack rhythm.
In the 71st minute, Kanter stole the ball in the backcourt. Under the pressure of two opposing players, he hurriedly passed the ball to Gundogan beside him.
Gundogan didn't have time to observe. He could only glance with the corner of his eyes, and then hit the ball to the wing with a long pass.
Sane was sprinting, but he was quickly stopped.
Sane, who has always been a loner, actually took the initiative to pass the ball this time.
When Lin Quan received the ball, he was already surrounded by the opponent's two central defenders.
Umtiti and Mathieu blocked Lin Quan's way.
Barcelona fans were relieved when they saw that their center back had completed the double-team and blocked the opponent's dribbling route.
If it were anyone else, they wouldn't be so nervous.
But the opponent was Lin Quan, a man who had performed miracles many times and scored Barcelona goals, so they had to be nervous.
