Chapter 419 The European War knockout rounds are coming

Manchester United, Leicester City and Watford, who were soaring all the way, were unable to stop their progress and lost with scores of 0:3 and 0:2 respectively.

With Chelsea being held to a 1:1 draw at Burnley, Manchester United has established a double-digit points advantage in the Premier League standings after 25 Premier League games.

By this time, many people understood that it was only a matter of time before the Red Devils regained their place in the Premier League.

In fact, Chelsea, the blue team led by Conte, has performed well this season. They have scored 25 points in 60 league rounds, averaging 2.4 points per game, which translates to 91.2 points for the entire season.

This kind of performance is an excellent performance in any league.

However, facing Manchester United, which has been on a tear since the beginning of this season, Chelsea has to face a situation of being 10 points behind.

At the beginning of the season, the media and experts generally believed that the Premier League title race this season would be unprecedentedly fierce. In particular, the arrival of Mourinho and Guardiola would greatly increase the difficulty of winning the Premier League title. They are also regarded as the most popular.

Nearly two-thirds of the way through the season, this guess was proven to be half correct.

Mourinho's team indeed showed an unstoppable momentum, but Guardiola seemed a little acclimated. Blue Moon, which was 21 points behind the top of the list, not only withdrew from the competition for the league title early, but also had a huge loss in the Champions League seats. Difficulties.

In comparison, Conte's team is already very good. After all, they are the only team that still poses some threat to Manchester United's position.

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After 25 league rounds, the Premier League standings look like this:

Manchester United has 23 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and firmly occupies the first place in the standings with 70 points.

Chelsea has 19 wins, 3 draws and 3 losses, ranking second in the standings with 60 points.

Ranked third is Tottenham. Baili's record is 14 wins, 8 draws and 3 losses, with 50 points.

The fourth-ranked team is still a familiar figure. Arsenal, who are fighting for the top four, have 15 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses and scored 49 points, beating Manchester City with a goal difference advantage.

Manchester City also had a record of 15 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses, but because of a lower goal difference than Arsenal, they were squeezed into fifth place.

Followed by Liverpool, the Red Army scored 48 points and ranked sixth.

Generally speaking, starting from third-place Tottenham, these teams that are at least 20 points ahead of the top spot have actually missed the chance to compete for the league title this season.

This season's Premier League championship will be fought between Manchester United and Chelsea. It can even be said that Chelsea's hope of winning the championship is very slim.

The Blues' only advantage is that they don't have the energy involved in the European war, but Manchester United is about to face huge pressure on the fourth front.

As time enters mid-February, the European war has entered the knockout stage, and Manchester United will usher in the Europa League quarter-finals.

Coupled with the FA Cup and the upcoming League Cup final, Manchester United's schedule will become extremely dense.

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曼联13次主场面对来自法国的球队10胜3平不败，近15个欧战主场比赛12胜3平，另外本赛季的21个正赛主场比赛保持全胜。

这是继1977-78赛季优胜者杯首轮双方对战后的再次遭遇，当时曼联队在客场1-1与圣埃蒂安队战平，之后回到主场2-0胜出，从而以总比分3-1淘汰对手晋级，不过值得一提的是在客场对阵圣埃蒂安时由于红魔球迷发生骚乱俱乐部还被罚了30000瑞士法郎。另外红魔在此前欧战赛场与来自法国的球队交锋26次，取得了13胜11平仅2负的不俗战绩，其中最近的16战更是拿到9胜6平1负。

Compared with the defeat of Watford, Mourinho made two adjustments. Romero and Fellaini replaced De Gea and Gundogan in the starting lineup.

Although Saint-Etienne was once the dominant team in Ligue 1980 and is still the team that has won the most Ligue 1981 championships, their last championship in Ligue 36 was in the distant 4-0 season, years have passed since then. Well, the current Saint-Etienne is just a mid-range team in Ligue and cannot stop Manchester United from moving forward. Veteran Ibrahimovic showed his prowess in the game, scoring a hat trick, and Bruno scored a goal. Manchester United swept their opponents : at home, almost killing the suspense of the two-round knockout round.

In the away trip a week later, as long as Manchester United does not lose by a big score, they will be the one to advance.

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On the afternoon of February 2, in the fifth round of the FA Cup, Manchester United visited Ewood Park to challenge the notoriously violent Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

Manchester United continued to use a 4231 formation for this game, with Rashford serving as the single arrow and Ibrahimovic taking a rest as a substitute. Lingard, Gundogan and Bruno form the second offensive echelon, with Carrick and Herrera as the defensive midfielders. On the back line, Smalling and Rojo partnered as central defenders, Damian and Ashley Young were on the left and right, and Romero was the goalkeeper.

Although Blackburn faced huge relegation pressure in the British Championship, their performance against Manchester United was not conservative at all. They took the lead in scoring in the 17th minute of the game. Emnes forced a breakthrough in the middle and turned around. Cairo Ho sent a wonderful direct pass after defending. Graham hit the upper right corner from the left wing of the penalty area. Blackburn led Manchester United 1:0.

But the game was immediately taken over by Manchester United. When the game ended, Manchester United's ball possession rate had risen to 75%. It was very difficult for Blackburn to pass the center circle. Manchester United was basically playing a game. Half-time offensive and defensive drills.

In the end, with Bruno, Rashford and Ibrahimovic scoring a goal each, Manchester United reversed the score 3:1 in the away game and advanced to the quarterfinals of this season's FA Cup.

However, in the subsequent FA Cup quarter-final draw, Manchester United's luck was not good, and they were drawn against an opponent that Manchester United people least wanted to face: Chelsea, the blue team!

The other three pairs of opponents are Middlesbrough at home against Manchester City, Arsenal at home against Lincoln City, and Tottenham at home against Millwall.

It can be said that Manchester United got the worst draw result. Even if they get past Chelsea, the opponents they face in the semi-finals are also the top teams in the Premier League.

After all, you can hardly expect the likes of Middlesbrough to beat the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham.

According to the schedule, Manchester United will visit Stamford Bridge Stadium on the evening of March 3th, local time in the UK, to challenge Chelsea for a ticket to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

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On the afternoon of February 2, in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, Manchester United visited Stade Guichard to challenge Saint-Etienne.

Since Manchester United defeated its opponent 4-0 at home in the first round, it is almost half a foot into the door to the top of the Europa League. In addition, Manchester United will face Southampton in the League Cup four days later. This season's first championship title, Mourinho made extensive rotations of Manchester United's lineup. Many main players, including Bruno, did not go to France with the team.

Despite this, Manchester United, who went to France with most of their substitute lineup, defeated their opponents 1:0 in the away game, thus doubling their opponents in two rounds and advancing to the Europa League quarterfinals with a total score of 5:0.

In the subsequent Europa League quarter-finals draw, Manchester United was drawn by the Russian team Rostov.

This is not a good signing for Manchester United.

On the one hand, Rostov, as a powerful Russian team, is not weak. On the other hand, it is an expedition to Russia. The distant journey will be a huge test for Manchester United, which has a dense schedule.

Finally, there is the issue of climate. Manchester has ushered in a warm spring in March, but Rostov, deep in the Eurasian continent, is still cold in March, and may even be a land of ice and snow.

By then, Manchester United's two rounds of games may not be easy.

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For the Premier League, it is not just Manchester United who is in a bad situation, other teams are not much better either.

Of the teams competing in the Europa League, Manchester United is the only one left.

Although West Ham United passed the third round of qualifying, they lost to Romanian team Astra in the play-offs and were eliminated; Southampton could only place third in the group stage and was eliminated directly.

Among the four teams competing in the Champions League, Tottenham ranked third in the group stage and was relegated to the Europa League. Then they lost to Gent in two rounds and bid farewell to the European competition.

Many teams have opinions about Tottenham's poor performance in the European war but strong performance in the league. They believe that this is a typical foreign war outsider but a domestic war expert, which has lowered the Premier League's European war points.

When Manchester City encountered Barcelona in the group stage, Guardiola's team could only advance to the knockout rounds as second place in the group. Although they were lucky enough to encounter the French Ligue 5 team Monaco, in the first round of the game that had already been played, , but they fought their opponents 3:3 at home. Although they seemed to have secured the advantage, giving their opponents away goals posed a huge hidden danger.

Of course, the most unlucky one is Arsenal. Although the Gunners defeated Paris Saint-Germain and Basel in the group stage and ranked first in the group, they met their old enemy Bayern Munich in the first round of the knockout round and were defeated by the Bundesliga South King 5 in the first round at the Allianz Arena. :1 Bloodbath, basically announcing early elimination.

On the other hand, the defending champion Leicester City, who performed poorly in the league, performed well in their Champions League debut and advanced to first place in the group stage. Although they were defeated by the King of the Europa League in the first leg of the first knockout round, In the match against Villa, they lost 1:2 away from home, but there is still a lot of hope of promotion.

Even, in extreme cases, it is very likely that there will be no Premier League team in the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League and Europa League.