This time the Champions League is undoubtedly dominated by the Premier League teams.
Manchester City eliminated Villarreal, Manchester United eliminated Porto, and Arsenal and Chelsea were fighting each other. In the end, Chelsea had the last laugh. The Premier League occupied three seats among the top four, forming an encirclement and suppression trend against Barcelona!
But Barcelona is also a strong contender for the Champions League this season. In the knockout round, they swept Bayern 4-0 at home in the first round, showing strong fighting spirit and confidence.
The matchup situation in the semi-finals was that Manchester United and Manchester City, two Manchester teams, started a Manchester derby in the semi-finals. In another game, Chelsea once again encountered Barcelona - even if they are not coached by Murry anymore. Neo, however, the feud between Chelsea and Barcelona still makes this game very interesting.
"Playing three games with Manchester United in a short period of time, I think it is easy to get tired. Although everyone hopes to see the first Manchester derby in the semi-finals, after all, after the two knockout rounds, we will meet again in the league. I think Sir Alex Ferguson would be bored too."
After the match, Dick smiled and said in an interview that the semi-finals will be played on April 30 and May 6, and on May 10, Manchester City and Manchester United will compete in the league. Confrontation, three consecutive games is indeed easy to make people tired, but the good thing is that there is not a game against Manchester United between the two Champions League games, which would be even more tiring.
After advancing to the semi-finals, Manchester City continued to advance in the league. Dick knew that this was not the time to take a breath, but one thing that was beneficial to them was that before facing Manchester United, the three opponents in the league were not strong. Liverpool Chelsea and Arsenal have already been defeated, and their final biggest opponent is only Manchester United!
And Manchester United is gritting its teeth and chasing Manchester City closely in the league. Ferguson also knows that this is not the time to take a breath!
In the 33rd round of the league, Manchester City defeated West Bromwich Albion 4-2 at home, while Manchester United beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 away from home with some of their main players hidden. This victory allowed Manchester City to continue to lead by five points. lead, and the league championship is getting closer and closer to them.
In the thirty-fourth round of the league, with the Champions League about to usher in, Manchester City still let most of the main players play. In the end, they defeated Everton 2-1 away from home, and Ferguson was the main player who recharged his energy. All played, and they finally swept Tottenham 5-2 at home, laying the foundation for the next decisive battle!
On April 30th, Manchester City challenged Manchester United away!
In this game, Manchester United almost played a perfect game at home. They almost completely blocked Manchester City's offense throughout the game. Coupled with Edwin van der Sar's outstanding performance and a certain amount of luck, Manchester City had a shot. On the crossbar, Torres's close shot in the penalty area was miraculously saved by Edwin van der Sar. Manchester United relied on Rooney's one-shot kill to complete the only goal. Manchester United was 1-0 at home. Beat Manchester City and won the first round!
This is Manchester City's first defeat in the Champions League this season! Their results in the group stage were four wins and two draws. After entering the knockout rounds, they eliminated Inter Milan and Villarreal with two wins and two draws. However, in this game, Manchester United showed It showed their top level and gave Manchester City their first defeat in the Champions League!
When the game ended, Manchester United fans celebrated the victory crazily. Although they won at home, they only won by one goal, but they did not allow Manchester City to score. In the next game in the away game, as long as they can score one goals, then Manchester City will have to score three to reverse Manchester United!
This kind of score is actually very advantageous for the home team. In the two rounds of the game, it is very important that the home team does not concede a goal. Moreover, Manchester United's defense is also quite good now, with top defenders and their offense. They are also strong. If they score against Manchester City at home, it would be really difficult to score three goals against Manchester United
Dick also had his own thoughts about this game. In this game, the two sides were evenly matched and both were in excellent condition. However, during the game, Manchester United was almost watertight defensively, whether it was Manchester City's Whether it is the front trident, Yaya Toure, Vidal and others who insert in the back row, or even Alves and Barnes who insert assists, any offensive method is focused on by Manchester United, and in the offense On the top, it relied on the cooperation of Rooney and Ronaldo to complete the final blow. This approach is already very close to the top Serie A teams. First, they use defense to make themselves invincible, and then attack through the attack. The superstar's personal performance will kill you with one hit!
? ?In Dick's opinion, this kind of tactics is a bit outdated. After all, the players' personal abilities are now very close. However, it is this slightly outdated tactic that gave Manchester United the upper hand in this game. I have to say that the personal abilities of Rooney and Ronaldo played a key role!
After this game, in the next thirty-fifth round of the league, Manchester City suffered their second defeat in the league this season. They lost to Tottenham 1-2 away from home, while Manchester United also lost 2-2 away from home. Zero defeated Middlesbrough. Such a win and a loss narrowed the point gap between Manchester United and Manchester City to two points!
Almost in an instant, Manchester City, which was originally in a good situation, was surrounded by dangers from all sides!
There are only two points left in the league lead, and there is still a direct confrontation with Manchester United. In the Champions League, we are behind in the away game in the first leg. If we cannot beat our opponents at home, we will also be eliminated from the Champions League
Many people have even imagined the next scenario - Manchester City failed to defeat Manchester United at home and was eliminated by Manchester United. Then, disappointed, they lost to Manchester United on the road again in the league and were overtaken by Manchester United. Manchester City took advantage of the situation to win the league championship and Champions League championship. Completely Suppress Manchester City!
Of course, this is the scene that Manchester United fans have begun to long for. Although Manchester City fans are worried, at this time, they still give Manchester City huge support and motivation!
Even Mansour called Dick and said that he was very satisfied with Dick's coaching in the past two seasons. Even if he did not win a championship this season, he would continue to let Dick coach at Manchester City. .
Dick¡¯s reply was: ¡°Thank you, boss.¡±
But no matter what, Dick never lost confidence.
"Our situation may be a bit bad in the Champions League, but don't forget that in the league, we still have an advantage! Although we lost the last round, that game was when both sides were in the best form. In the game, Manchester United cannot be in such good condition. In any case, we still have a huge advantage in the league. What we have to do now is to win Manchester United at home and then enter the Champions League final. Then all the difficulties and Controversies will be solved easily!¡±
"Both of us performed perfectly in the first round. However, such a perfect performance is unlikely to happen again. After all, players are not machines and cannot perform perfectly all the time. So the second round is important. It's not defense, it's offense - we must keep this in mind. There will be a lot of goals in this game. We don't expect to beat Manchester United 2-0. We have to be prepared to score a lot of goals. What we have to do is no matter how many goals we score, we must at least score two more than Manchester United!¡±
Dick waved his fist at the team meeting and said that at this point in the game, it can be said that it has reached the most critical moment. For this reason, he hid most of the main players in the midweek league and let the main players Save your energy and concentrate on this game. No matter what, you must bring this game into a goal battle and let the game enter a rhythm that Manchester City is more familiar with!
Manchester City is now the team with the strongest offensive ability in the Premier League. They have now scored 90 goals - this number is far more than other teams. It does not seem to be too big to score 100 goals this season. The problem is, apart from Manchester City, the team with the most goals is Liverpool. They only scored 69 goals, while Manchester United scored 65 goals, which is more than 20 goals less than Manchester City. ball.
Therefore, if this game is included in the rhythm of a goal battle, it will be more beneficial to Manchester City.
"What we have to do now is to give Ferguson a little surprise in the game. If the ball is conceded in the game, don't worry. We only need to worry about not scoring, and we don't need to worry about conceding the ball launch an offense in the game, A bold step in. When the game ends, if we score two more goals than Manchester United, then we will win!¡±
In the silence of the news, Manchester City has spent the most difficult week. Regarding this silence, many media believe that Manchester City has become nervous. After all, the current situation is very beneficial to Manchester United. If Manchester City cannot win next As for Manchester United, they will suffer heavy setbacks on both fronts - this is a situation that Manchester City has almost never encountered, and it is also a situation that has never happened since Dick coached Manchester City!
Under such circumstances, it is time to test Dick and Manchester City.
May 6 finally arrived as scheduled. Manchester City fans rushed to the City Stadium very early, waiting for the start of the game with some anxiety.
Two hours before the start of the game, the media got the starting lineups of both sides.An hour before the game started, fans began to know the starting lineups of both sides.
From the moment they knew Manchester City¡¯s starting lineup, huge cheers began to ring out from the sky above the City Stadium!
Goalkeeper Hart, defenders Alves, Kompany, Samuel, and Barnes, midfielder Yaya Toure, Vidal, Ashley Young, Ribery, forward Torres, Di Natale!
It¡¯s not 433, but 442 or 424. Dick sent two wing attackers in the game, plus two outstanding forwards, to set up a strong offensive formation!
The mentality of burning the boat has been shown from the beginning! Manchester City will use offense until the last moment in this game and score goals to determine their own destiny!
Although we don¡¯t know what the next outcome will be, the momentum displayed by Manchester City is enough to make Manchester City fans feel sincerely happy!
Dick did not choose to be conservative, but chose to attack vigorously!