Chapter 698: Strong Premier League
With Manchester United advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the dust has settled on the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League. The Premier League has become the biggest winner, with Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool, four Premier League teams participating in the Champions League, all reaching the quarterfinals, accounting for half of the quarterfinals.
This also represents the full recovery of the Premier League. You know, in the past few seasons, when the Premier League fell into a trough, there have been more than one situation where Premier League teams failed to reach the quarterfinals.
Once upon a time, the Premier League was the undisputed number one league, and it was common for three or even four Premier League teams to advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
In the 2006-2007 season, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool advanced to the quarterfinals, while Arsenal was eliminated in the round of . In the quarterfinals, three Premier League teams advanced to the semifinals, creating the famous "Three English Teams vs. Milan". Unfortunately, the Rossoneri won the final.
A year later, in the 2007-2008 season, an even more shocking situation emerged. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, four teams participating in the Champions League, advanced to the quarterfinals. In the battle of the quarterfinals, Arsenal lost to Arsenal in the civil war, and three Premier League teams advanced to the semifinals again. This year, Manchester United and Chelsea defeated their respective opponents in the semifinals and met in the final. In the final rainy night in Moscow, Manchester United defeated Chelsea and returned to the top of Europe after nine years. And Ronaldo won the European Golden Ball Award and the World Footballer of the Year that year, announcing that the world football officially entered the era of the two heroes.
In the following 2008-2009 season, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool once again reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League, but this time Liverpool became the victim of the Premier League civil war, while Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal advanced to the semifinals. In the final, Manchester United was defeated by Barcelona, ending their longest unbeaten streak of 25 games in the Champions League, which also marked the end of the most prosperous era of the Premier League.
………………
In the next decade, Premier League teams fell into a slump, and the title of the first league was taken away by La Liga in the 2012-2013 season. It was even surpassed by the Bundesliga and fell to third place.
However, since Manchester United won the Europa League in the 2016-2017 season, the Premier League teams' European performance has begun to recover, and the UEFA points returned to second place in the subsequent 2017-2018 season.
This season, the Premier League teams have performed well in Europe, with all four teams participating in the Champions League advancing to the quarterfinals. In the Europa League, all three teams, except Burnley, were eliminated early in the play-offs, while Chelsea and Arsenal also made it to the quarterfinals.
That is to say, in UEFA's two-level leagues, there are a total of sixteen teams in the quarterfinals, six of which are from the Premier League, and the Premier League BIG6 all entered the European quarterfinals.
And the six teams have very obvious advantages on their road to promotion.
As the Premier League champion, Manchester United won six consecutive games in the Champions League group stage and defeated their opponent Schalke 04 twice in the round of 11, advancing with a total score of 2:.
Although Manchester City was suppressed by Manchester United in the Premier League, they performed well in the Champions League. In the group that included Juventus and Valencia, the Blue Moon achieved 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, advancing as the second in the group, and then defeated the powerful Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals, advancing to the quarter-finals.
In Group B, which is considered the death group, Tottenham faced three champion teams, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Wolves. The White Lily had 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, surpassing Inter Milan by goal difference and advancing as the second in the group. In the quarter-finals, they faced another Champions League team, Dortmund, and defeated them 3-0 at home and 1-0 away, making it difficult for the powerful Dortmund to score a goal.
Liverpool's opponents in the group were also strong. In the end, they won 3 games and lost 3 games, surpassing the Italian Serie A giants Napoli by goal difference and advancing as the second in the group. In the quarter-finals, they faced the Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich, 0:0 at home and 3:1 away, and easily advanced.
In the Europa League, Arsenal and Chelsea both advanced to the next round as first place with an unbeaten record of 5 wins and 1 tie in the group stage. Subsequently, Arsenal defeated BATE Borisov and Rennes in succession, while Chelsea defeated Malmo and Dynamo Kyiv in succession, advancing to the quarterfinals without any bloodshed.
The strength of Premier League teams in Europe this season is evident!
………………
2019年3月15日，欧洲中部时间12点，2018-2019赛季欧冠四分之一决赛抽签仪式在瑞士尼翁的欧足联总部进行。
This year's Champions League quarter-final draw will no longer have the avoidance principle, and the division between the upper and lower halves will be clear, which means that after the draw results are released, the matchups in the semi-finals and finals can be predicted.
The guest for the draw was Cesar, Inter Milan’s treble winner.
After the draw, Liverpool and Juventus got the best draw, drawing Porto and Ajax respectively, Tottenham and Manchester City staged a Premier League civil war, and Manchester United PK Barcelona. The first leg of the quarter-finals will be held on April 4 and April 10 Beijing time, the second leg will be held on April 4 and April 11, the two-legged semi-final will be held in early May, and the final will be held in the early morning of June 4.
The four teams in the upper half are Manchester United vs. Barcelona, and Ajax vs. Juventus; the two groups in the lower half are between Liverpool vs. Porto, and Tottenham vs. Manchester City.
According to the match situation, if Manchester United can beat Barcelona, their opponent in the semi-final will be the winner between Juventus and Ajax.
The media is full of conspiracy theories about UEFA's draw results.
The Guardian said that Bruno and Manchester United's road to defending the title will be full of thorns. Bruno must first defeat Yosi and then fight Ronaldo before he can stand on the stage of the Champions League final. And their opponents in the Champions League final are likely to be the powerful Liverpool or Manchester City.
These two teams are undoubtedly the strongest teams in Europe at the moment.
………………
Yes, in the eyes of the British, the three strongest teams in Europe this season are Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
Of course, the British have absolute confidence to say this.
In the domestic arena, these three teams are hard to beat.
Manchester United has achieved great success in the past three seasons, not only winning 15 championship trophies in a row, but also creating a world-shaking 69 unbeaten league games and 21 unbeaten Champions League games. This season, the Premier League has 30 points in 79 rounds and eight wins in eight Champions League games, making it hard to find an opponent.
曼城本赛季已经夺得联赛杯冠军，联赛也在30轮拿到72分，欧冠则是8战5胜1平2负，表现非常优秀。
Liverpool is not far behind, having scored 30 points in 73 league games and 8 wins, 4 draw and 1 losses in 3 Champions League games. Their performance was especially shocking, especially in the quarter-finals where they eliminated the giant Bayern Munich.
In any league, if a team performs like this, it can be considered a success, but in the Premier League, there are three such teams at the same time. Who dares to deny the strength of the Premier League?
What's more, the Premier League also has the London trio of Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal, which are performing equally well.
It can even be said that with the performance of the Premier League's BIG6 this season, when Serie A was at its peak, the so-called Seven Sisters of Serie A did not perform at the same level.
Although due to the poor performance of Premier League teams in European competitions in the past few seasons, there is still a big gap between the Premier League’s UEFA points and La Liga, but all professional football people understand that the first league is already the Premier League!
After all, the league with the highest points in UEFA is the comprehensive performance of the past five seasons.
………………
In fact, in the past two seasons, the UEFA points of the Premier League are much higher than those of other leagues.
In the 2017-2018 season, because both Manchester City clubs advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Manchester United won the Champions League, Arsenal and Liverpool also advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League, the Premier League teams obtained a total of 20.857 UEFA points, which was 1.143 points higher than La Liga, and the advantage was very obvious.
So far this season, the UEFA points of the Premier League teams have reached 19.571, and it is highly likely that they will exceed the points of last season. However, La Liga has only got 18.333, and they only have one team advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League and two teams advancing to the semifinals of the Europa League, so the space for points is far less than that of the Premier League. The advantage of the Premier League this season will be greater than last season!
In fact, Bruno knows that the next few seasons will always be the peak era of the Premier League. They will soon erode the advantage of La Liga in UEFA points, and then reverse the disadvantage in one fell swoop during the epidemic, truly regain the throne of the first league, and gradually expand their advantage.
La Liga is on the decline. With Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid and Yosi set to leave in a few years, La Liga will not only lose its title to the Premier League but will also be surpassed by Serie A.
Of course, this is something that will happen gradually in the next few seasons. At present, La Liga, with Yosi, can barely compete with the Premier League.
………………
Bruno didn't pay too much attention to these things because he and Manchester United would have their next game at the weekend, an FA Cup away game against Wolves.
This is not an easy opponent to deal with. Newly promoted Wolves are the dark horse in the Premier League this season. After 30 rounds of the league, Wolves ranked seventh, just behind the BIG6.
In the FA Cup quarterfinals, Wolves ranked second only to the two Manchester City teams. The remaining five teams are Watford, Brighton and Crystal Palace, as well as the two Championship teams Swansea and Millwall.
Manchester United's luck in drawing Wolves among these seven opponents is already very bad. In comparison, Manchester City's luck is much better. They drew Swansea, which is currently ranked 13th in the Championship, which can be said to be a very good draw.
In fact, Manchester United's game at Molineux Stadium was also very difficult.
Bruno did not start the game. In Mourinho's plan, if everything goes well, Bruno will be given a rest in this game. Because Bruno will not only return to the Portuguese national team to participate in the European Cup qualifiers, but Manchester United will also face another round of tough schedule after the international match day.
Manchester United controlled the game after the opening, and Wolves retreated to compress the opponent's offensive space. In the first half, both sides attacked and defended, but neither side was able to break through the opponent's goal, and the game ended in a 0:0 draw.
During the half-time break, neither side made any personnel adjustments.
Wolves broke the deadlock in the 70th minute. Moutinho broke through the penalty area on the left side in a 1-on-3 situation and passed the ball. Jimenez did not get a chance to shoot due to Smalling's defense, but Mata failed to steal the ball. Jimenez turned and shot from 14 yards into the bottom left corner.
Six minutes later, Wolves extended the lead. Neves passed the ball in a counterattack, Diogo dribbled past Luke Shaw and broke into the penalty area from the left side and shot into the near corner from 6 yards, changing the score to 12:2.
Conceding two goals in just six minutes put Manchester United in a desperate situation.
………………
Although Manchester United has won the FA Cup for three consecutive years, Mourinho still attaches great importance to this historic cup competition and he will not give up as long as possible.
Especially when the tournament has reached the quarter-finals and Manchester United only needs three games to compete for the championship.
When Wolves celebrated their second goal, Mourinho, who couldn't sit still, made a substitution decision. He replaced Mata with Bruno, replaced McTominay with Harry Kane, and replaced Rashford with Lingard.
Mourinho used up all three substitutions at once, obviously deciding to fight to the death.
Starting from the 2016-2017 season, the FA Cup quarter-finals will no longer have a replay. If the two sides are tied in regular time, they will go directly to extra time. If they are tied again, a penalty shootout will be held to determine the winner.
Manchester United made three substitutions in the 77th minute of the game. Mourinho's plan was to try his best to see if he could equalize the score in the remaining 15 minutes or so, and then seek an opportunity for overtime.
Of course, it would be best if they could reverse the opponent in regular time. However, this possibility is very small. Wolves are not weak. It is too difficult for Manchester United to score three goals in about 15 minutes!
Fighting for overtime and then completing a reversal in overtime is undoubtedly the most practical option.
………………
Mourinho only had one arrangement for Bruno, which was to run around, stretch the defense, and strive to score goals.
After Bruno came on the pitch, he made a strong breakthrough on the left with his first touch of the ball, but was cleared by Wolves center back Boly when he passed the ball into the penalty area.
But just three minutes later, Bruno suddenly started and cut inside with the ball after receiving a pass from Herrera.
Rashford understood the hint and retreated from the front, seemingly to support Bruno, but in fact he pulled out Boly.
Bruno passed the ball diagonally with his right foot, Mahrez quickly cut into the penalty area, stopped the ball, and shot in one go, and the football went into the net!
1: 2!
In the 81st minute, Manchester United scored a goal with Bruno assisting Mahrez!
Manchester United equalized the score in the 95th minute. Bruno passed the ball in the middle, Luke Shaw passed the ball from the left side of the penalty area, and Rashford turned and shot into the bottom right corner from 10 yards, 2:2.
The game went into overtime.
Time was passing quickly, and Wolves played very tenaciously at home, hoping to drag the game into a penalty shootout.
In the 109th minute, the chance finally came. Bruno broke through the Wolves' goal after a series of breakthroughs.
3:2, Manchester United finally completed the reversal!
