Chapter 602: Four crowns in five years, monopolizing the Premier League, Manchester City won the cha

"The kid on No. 47 is called Foden, right? He looks too young. Is he really 18 years old?"

On the bench, several of Manchester City's main players were pointing at the young player on the court who had a baby face and looked like a child.

"Almost eighteen years old. I heard it was in May 2000. I will be eighteen in a few months."

"This kid's skills with his feet are good, and he can occasionally perform impressively, but his physical confrontation is a bit poor, but his attitude is more positive and he runs very aggressively."

The 18-year-old Foden is far less powerful than he was five or six years later.

Now he is still an immature rookie. He still needs to continue to practice, accumulate more game experience, and then learn lessons from actual combat, find his own shortcomings, clarify his own strengths, make up for his shortcomings, strengthen his strengths, so as to make himself better. Stand out from the fierce competition.

This is not something that can be accomplished in a short time, especially for a player like him who has to serve as the team's midfield commander or the core of the offense. He still has a long way to go.

"So, what do you think of this kid?"

Lin Quan touched De Bruyne, who was sitting next to him, with his arm and asked him.

Foden's position on the court is very similar to De Bruyne's, but their styles are very different.

Foden's position is further forward and he plays more like a false nine. He participates in more attacks and undertakes fewer organizational tasks. His role on the field is actually a bit like Lin Quan.

"He is fast, has good control over the space on the court, and has good movement ability without the ball. The physical confrontation is a bit lacking, but for a player of his age and size, he is already pretty good."

De Bruyne is quite optimistic about Foden. After all, he is a talent that the head coach values, and he is definitely not an ordinary person who can catch Guardiola's eyes.

Lin Quan basically agrees with De Bruyne's point of view. Foden cannot be the core of the organization, he is more like the core of the offense.

Therefore, he is most likely to become his substitute in the future. Considering that the age difference between the two is not big, Lin Quan is only four years older than Foden.

Therefore, if Foden, the crown prince of Manchester City, wants to take over, he may have to wait a long time.

…

Guardiola's anger still had an effect. After the substitute players on the field were woken up by the scolding, they immediately began to intensify their opponents.

In the 51st minute of the second half, Seat B received a through ball from Gundogan, cut inside the penalty area, and hit the goal from a small angle, turning the score into 2:1.

But the opponent soon scored. In the 71st minute, Foden made a mistake. Basel intercepted the ball and formed a quick counterattack in the frontcourt. Their forward leaned on the Manchester City defender on the penalty area line and knocked the ball back to The wing-back stepped in and the latter volleyed the goal.

The score became 2:2.

This time Guardiola did not curse anymore, but directly replaced Foden.

Foden was crestfallen when he came off the field. He knew that he had done something wrong, so he was worried. He didn't know if the coach would be disappointed in him because of his mistake.

"Don't worry, coaches usually don't curse!"

Seeing Foden's anxious look, Lin Quan comforted him.

"Well, unless you make a huge mistake, and once the coach starts scolding you, you can't stop!"

Aguero on the side made a stab with an expressionless face, and Foden's expression fell instantly.

That’s it!

Foden seems to have seen the fate that awaits him.

After Foden came off the field, the score on the field did not change. At the end of regular time, the score was still 2:2. The two sides seemed to shake hands and make peace.

However, in the second minute of stoppage time, substitute center back Aymeric Laporte, who had just transferred from Athletic Bilbao during the winter break, jumped up high to overwhelm his opponent during a contention in the penalty area. The defender headed the ball into the goal and scored his first goal since joining Manchester City.

With this goal, Manchester City finally defeated their opponent 3:2 in a thrilling way.

As a result, they eliminated Basel with a total score of 7:2 and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.

The next day, as the last knockout round of the Champions League quarter-finals came to an end, the list of teams that reached the quarter-finals was released.

They are Manchester City and Liverpool from the Premier League, and Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​and Sevilla from La Liga.

Juventus and Roma from Serie A, Bayern Munich from Bundesliga.

Although all five teams in the Premier League entered the knockout rounds, most of them lost after the first round of knockout rounds.

Tottenham, whose bench was slightly thin, lost to Juventus 3:4 in a tough battle and was unfortunately eliminated.

Chelsea lost to Barcelona 1:4 and were eliminated.

As for Manchester United, the draw from Sevilla, which was not very strong, was a good draw for them.

Moreover, they drew their opponents away from home in the first round, and the situation seemed to be good.

However, in the second round at home, Manchester United lost 1:2 to Sevilla. It was frustrating to watch their opponents step on their corpses and break into the quarterfinals.

As a result, the biggest winner in the quarter-finals is La Liga.

Three of their teams made it to the knockout rounds, and all of them advanced to the next round. The advancement rate was ridiculously high.

On the contrary, for the Premier League, which is so popular, the final result was unsatisfactory, which was a bit disappointing.

However, after the list of the top eight was released, everyone no longer felt sorry for the teams that were eliminated. Everyone was concerned about the next round of showdowns.

Will UEFA arrange a match like Manchester City against Real Madrid?

In many previous Champions League matches, there were rumors that UEFA was secretly manipulating the matchups.

Many matches between teams are actually scripts arranged by UEFA in advance.

The purpose is to attract attention, let more people participate in the discussion, and then watch the Champions League games.

Real Madrid and Manchester City were the two sides that faced off in last year's Champions League final. If they were to meet in the quarter-finals this year, it would be a classic revenge battle.

This kind of powerful dialogue is almost at the level of the Champions League finals, coupled with the revenge relationship between the two teams, this game is simply full of gimmicks!

By then, even if you are not a fan of these two teams, I am afraid it will be difficult to refuse to watch such an anticipated and exciting peak showdown, right?

However, to their disappointment, UEFA did not arrange such a script.

They seem to be worried that if the two most powerful teams encounter each other prematurely, the excitement of the subsequent semi-finals and even the final and the expectations of the fans may be affected.

This is very detrimental to the ratings and commercial value of the game!

In the end, the matchup in the quarterfinals was as follows:

Real Madrid drew the Serie A hegemon Juventus. Real Madrid has a slight advantage in terms of physical strength. However, Juventus has improved every year in the past few years. It is only slightly behind Real Madrid. The suspense of the game is still very high. The outside world thinks that it is almost 64. situation.

The Bundesliga giant Bayern drew Sevilla, the weakest team in the quarter-finals. There should be no suspense in this game. The outside world is unanimously optimistic that Bayern will advance to the semi-finals.

Barcelona drew Roma, which is also relatively weak, which is considered a very good draw. Therefore, outsiders predict that Barcelona will advance to the semi-finals.

As for Manchester City and Liverpool, there is a situation that the two teams and even the entire Premier League fans least want to see - the two teams are drawn together.

Seeing this result, Liverpool coach Klopp, who came to attend the draw ceremony, couldn't help shaking his head and laughing.

Liverpool had just had a fierce battle with Manchester City in the league and did not get any benefits. Now they have to face each other in the Champions League. This game is a disaster for Liverpool.

Liverpool is out of luck. Among these eight teams, the one Liverpool least wants to encounter is probably Manchester City.

Even if they were to play Real Madrid, it would be better than playing Manchester City.

At least Real Madrid has played against them relatively few times and doesn't know their style and strength very well.

But Manchester City and them are both frequent opponents in the league and very close neighbors. They know each other well and they have no secrets in front of Manchester City.

When encountering such an opponent, even if you want to make a surprise move, it will be difficult to work.

Compared to Klopp's wry smile, Guardiola was not in a good mood either.

Liverpool are smelly and hard, and they are often prone to explosions. They accidentally gain momentum and then get out of hand.

To be honest, they don't want to encounter such an opponent.

However, the draw to Liverpool is not entirely bad news. At least for Manchester City, it is very convenient to go to Liverpool. There is no need to travel and travel, which will consume much less physical energy for the players.

There is no chance of going to an away game early and being harassed by home team fans without being able to rest.

After all, Liverpool is only a few dozen kilometers away from Manchester. They can take the bus there before the game starts, and the opposing fans can't do it even if they want to cause trouble.

Can't a large group of Liverpool fans come to Manchester to cause trouble?

Do you really think local Manchester City fans are vegetarians?

There is still almost a month until the Champions League quarter-finals, and both sides have plenty of time to prepare.

For both sides, the most important thing now is to score as many points in the league as possible.

One wants to win the championship early, and the other wants to defend its top four position in the league and secure its Champions League seat next season.

…

On March 13, Manchester City, who returned to the Premier League, defeated Stoke City 2:0 in the away game, once again accumulating their winning streak to 7 games.

Liverpool were very unlucky. In the away game against Manchester United, they lost 1:2 to Manchester United. Not only did they not expand their lead over Chelsea, but they allowed Chelsea to chase three points back.

Now Liverpool is only 4 points ahead of Chelsea. With 8 rounds left in the league, their situation is quite dangerous.

In the 31st round, Manchester City continued to advance. They defeated Brighton 3:1 at home and won their eighth consecutive victory.

Manchester United was blocked by the Hammers in the away game, and the battle ended in a 0:0 draw, which once again widened the point difference between the two sides.

After 31 rounds, Manchester City has 29 wins, 2 draws and zero losses, accumulating 89 points.

Manchester United has 20 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses, with only 66 points.

With only 7 rounds left in the league, Manchester City's lead has reached 23 points.

This also means that Manchester City has declared the championship 7 rounds in advance.

It's a pity that Manchester United's game time is later than Manchester City's, otherwise, they would have won the championship trophy at home today.

April 1, Everton Goodison Park Stadium.

Everton players stood on both sides of the stadium's entrance channel and lined up to welcome the new Premier League champion Manchester City.

This is the tradition of the Premier League. When a team wins the championship early, the home team needs to line up to welcome the visiting team.

The relationship between Everton and Manchester City is neither good nor bad, so when their players do this, some people really admire Manchester City's feat of winning the championship seven rounds in advance.

There are also some people who are envious and jealous of Manchester City winning the league title again. After all, it has been more than 30 years since Everton's last league title.

They have not tasted the taste of a championship for more than 30 years, and they almost go crazy thinking about it.

Looking back at Manchester City, they have won 4 league championships in the past five years, and they are just short of engraving the words "Exclusively for Manchester City" on the Premier League championship trophy.

It’s really a drought that kills people, and a flood that causes waterlogging!

If the behavior of Everton's players is normal, then the fans in the stands are very disrespectful.

From the moment Manchester City entered the game, they were booing almost non-stop.

This made Manchester City's players unable to help but raise an unknown fire, and then Everton was unlucky.

Only 20 minutes have passed in the first half, and the score on the field is already 0:3. The home team is in front and the away team is in behind.

Mbappe took the lead in scoring in the fourth minute, Aguero scored again in the seventh minute, and in the 17th minute, Lin Quan scored directly from a free kick, extending the score to 3:0.

The booing at Goodison Park finally stopped, and the Everton fans in the stands were stunned.

God, am I dreaming?

I seem to have dreamed that our team was treated like a pig and killed by the other team. We were beaten so hard that we had no ability to fight back.

However, this dream was so real that they couldn't help but start to wonder whether it was a dream or reality.

They have no doubt that if they continue to play like this, there will definitely be a tragedy today.

The 33-year-old Rooney put his hands on his hips, breathing heavily, and looked at the numbers on the scoreboard with a blank expression.

He couldn't understand it. When he was running around at Manchester United, the Manchester City next door was just a small party.

How could it have grown to this point in just a few years?

The world is changing so fast that he can no longer keep up.

Thinking of this, Rooney suddenly had the idea of ​​​​retiring.

His body was drained by alcohol and sex, and he became increasingly unable to compete with the intensity of the Premier League.

Instead of continuing to waste time and energy like this, it would be better to stop and retire.

Rooney is also a very proud person. After all, he once stood on the top of a mountain.

Guardiola saw that the players performed so well and was worried that they consumed too much energy during the game, so he told them to control the rhythm and reduce consumption.

They still have a lot of tough battles to fight next. Since the outcome of this game has been decided, there is no need to continue to waste money. (End of chapter)