Chapter 55: Chapter 257 Champions League draw, the opponent in the semi-finals is Real Madrid!
The moment the whistle blew, the Manchester City fans at the Etihad Stadium burst into excitement.
"we won!"
"We're going to the semi-finals!"
Manchester City fans are undoubtedly happy, they can witness history at home.
The Barcelona fans who traveled thousands of miles to watch the away game shed tears of regret at this time.
If we can win Manchester City at home, we will probably be the ones to advance at this time!
On the court, Messi put his hands on his hips and stared at the bright red number on the scoreboard, remaining motionless for a long time.
Barcelona lost and fell into the Champions League again.
The last time they fell to the semi-finals, this time they fell to the quarter-finals.
This record is getting worse year by year.
Thinking of this, Messi sighed and turned to look at the other half.
Over there, the excited Manchester City players were throwing Lin Quan, their hero of the game, into the air and celebrating crazily.
Iniesta walked up to Messi, patted him on the shoulder and comforted:
"Leo, don't be sad, we will definitely come back next year!"
Messi nodded, but couldn't help but have some doubts in his heart.
Barcelona's lineup is getting older year by year, and Xavi is probably going to retire next season in this state.
Without Xavi, Barcelona's strength will be further compromised.
Can we really come back next year?
For the first time, Messi had doubts about the future.
Lin Quan's jersey was reserved by Xavi early in the last game. This time, after the game, Fabregas found him immediately and wanted to exchange jerseys with him.
"Lin, congratulations!"
Fabregas took off his jersey and handed it to Lin Quan while chatting with him.
To be honest, Xiaofa was a little envious of Lin Quan.
During the winter break, Manchester City had scandals with him.
But the transfer failed to come to fruition, and Manchester City bought De Bruyne and Kroos.
If Barcelona and Manchester City had reached a deal at that time, then I would probably be among Manchester City's celebration team now!
It's a pity that there is no if!
"Thank you, and I wish you success in winning the league!"
Lin Quan quickly took off his jersey, exchanged it with Xiaofa, and also sent his blessing.
"Haha, I hope so!"
Facing Lin Quan's blessing, Xiaofa showed a wry smile.
With Barcelona's current state, he is pessimistic about winning the league.
In the last round, they will face Atletico Madrid at home. Judging from Atletico Madrid's state this season, Barcelona has no confidence in defeating the opponent.
Simeone's team's high press and iron-blooded defense somewhat restrained Barcelona. Under the pressure of falling behind, they had to go all out to attack at home.
And their offense may be playing into Atletico Madrid's hands.
Therefore, if the score cannot be reversed before the last round of games, from lagging behind Atletico Madrid to leading Atletico Madrid, then Barcelona will lose the championship if they fail to win in the last round of games.
How great this kind of pressure is, Xiaofa has experienced it several times when he was at Arsenal.
…
In this game, Manchester City's boss Mansour also came to the scene.
In the box, Mansour was very happy to see the team eliminate Barcelona at home and reach the semi-finals historically.
After investing so much money in this team, I finally saw some gains today.
On such a happy day, you have to share your joy.
So, he asked his assistant to bring over several suitcases that he had prepared in advance.
The suitcases contained all cash, a total of 5 million pounds!
He planned to treat this money as a bonus for Manchester City's entry into the semi-finals, and take it to the team's locker room and distribute it to the players!
When the Manchester City players ended their celebration and returned to the locker room, they saw the pile of cash piled up like a mountain.
"Holy shit! So much money!"
"Who robbed the bank? Where did you get so much money?"
"By the way, if I take some secretly, no one will notice, right?"
Negredo looked like he was interested in making money, facing everyone, but secretly taking the money with his hands behind his back.
"There is no surveillance here. As long as you can hide it from our dozens of pairs of eyes, then take it as you like!"
Kolarov and others stared at him, making Negredo feel uncomfortable.
"Hey, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. How could I, a good, upright, honest, and friendly person like me, do such a thing?"
Negredo put down the stolen money nonchalantly, feeling annoyed as to why he was wearing a jersey.
Whoever designed this damn jersey doesn't even have any pockets, so there's no place to hide any money you want.
Seeing Negredo playing tricks here, deputy captain Zabaleta hit him on the head and said with a smile:
"According to our boss's style, this should be the bonus given to us by the big boss, right?"
Zabaleta has been with Manchester City for six years and came to the team the year the Middle East consortium took over.
Therefore, he is quite familiar with the behavior of the team's generous boss.
To take out so much money at once, it could not be anyone other than the big boss.
"Bonus? Hey, does that mean we can share it equally?"
As soon as they heard that this was a bonus, the players' eyes immediately lit up.
You said this, I'm not sleepy anymore!
Bang bang!
At this moment, Pellegrini walked in.
"The distribution of bonuses will be based on the contribution made to the team in these two games. Do you agree?"
Everyone took a look and saw that standing next to Pellegrini was the club's chairman Fahim.
Obviously, this arrangement means the latter.
So everyone nodded, indicating that they had no objection to this distribution.
The more you work, the more you gain. Everyone still understands this simple truth.
Therefore, Pellegrini distributed the money according to starting time, goals, assists and performance on both offense and defense.
Lin Quan and other main players got the first tranche, 300,000 pounds.
Those who were not starters but played in games received the second tier, £100,000.
Finally, there are those players who did not play, £50,000 each.
The remaining £1 million for the coaching staff!
In this way, the 5 million pounds have just been distributed.
After dividing the money, everyone was beaming with joy.
I really hope that such a good thing can happen in every game. In that case, the bonuses alone can almost catch up with their annual salary!
Of course, for players like Lin Quan with an annual salary of up to 20 million pounds, these bonuses are still a bit small.
"Okay, after you get the money, go back and rest early. We are going to Anfield Stadium as a guest the day after tomorrow. I don't want to see any of you scandals on the headlines of tomorrow's newspapers!"
After Pellegrini gave some instructions, he walked out of the locker room.
Manchester City's players are also very obedient. They haven't won the league championship yet, so they can't relax at this time.
At least they won't be able to breathe a sigh of relief until they defeat Liverpool in the away game!
After quickly taking a shower and changing clothes in the locker room, Lin Quan drove back to his home.
On the way back, he took a look at the score of another game.
Manchester United was beaten 3:1 by Bayern at the Allianz Arena and was eliminated with a total score of 4:2 in the two rounds.
Bayern showed great dominance in this game. They took an early 2:0 lead in the first half. Robben scored another goal in the second half, extending the lead to 3 goals.
Guardiola began to make substitution adjustments after the 75th minute, replacing all the main players such as Robben Ribery.
This kind of substitution gives the feeling of not treating Manchester United as a human being.
As a result, the angry Manchester United launched a counterattack and finally scored a goal in the 85th minute of the second half.
However, Manchester United's counterattack stopped there. They failed to stage a miracle comeback at the Allianz Arena and were unfortunately eliminated.
At this point, Manchester United has been completely defeated on all four fronts this year.
The Champions League has stopped in the quarter-finals, ranking 7th in the league, 7 points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, and basically missing out on next season's Champions League.
The League Cup and FA Cup were also eliminated early. This season, Manchester United has lost all four majors and gained nothing.
This record makes both the Red Devils fans and the club very dissatisfied. It is rumored that the Scotsman has entered the final countdown to leaving Old Trafford.
But what about after sacking Moyes?
Who will Manchester United hire to coach?
Whether they admit it or not, Ferguson's departure marks the end of an era for Manchester United.
Moyes can't lead Manchester United to good results, will it really work if other coaches come?
Lin Quan is not very optimistic about the future of Manchester United. After all, Manchester United has been struggling for ten years in that position, and it may not be over yet...
…
After Manchester City beat Barcelona at home and away, the entire football world was shocked!
The Internet, TV stations, newspapers and media, etc., are all abuzz.
The powerful Space Team collapsed like this?
"Man City are awesome. They beat Barcelona twice. That's awesome!"
"Haha, before the game, the media were all touting Barcelona's rich heritage and cosmic team, looking down on Manchester City. Are they being slapped in the face now?"
"Who would have thought that a team that has never reached the knockout stages of the Champions League can defeat the powerful Barcelona, who has the world's number one player in the team, Messi!"
"But Manchester City also has King Lin. King Lin scored 3 goals in the two rounds, which is more goals than Messi!"
"One thing to say, Lin Huang can't be said to be a complete success in this match, but he did perform better than Messi!"
"Messi seems to be in bad shape in this game. I looked at the technical statistics after the game. He only ran a total of 6,000 meters in the whole game. Is this too little?"
"It is indeed a bit rare. If modern players want to play the whole game, they will have to run not only 10,000 meters, but also 9,000 meters, right?"
"Maybe it's because Messi is an offensive player and does not undertake defensive tasks, so he runs less distance?"
"Maybe it's because Messi's physical fitness is not good? I see that he often walks on the field."
"Speaking of which, what is Lin Huang's running distance? I see that he often sprints back and forth. His running distance should exceed 10,000, right?"
"Breaking ten thousand? Haha, if you add another three thousand to it, it's almost enough!"
"Thirteen thousand meters running distance? Could it be that the technical statistics are wrong? Isn't this number too exaggerated?"
"It should be right, that's the number I saw too!"
"Huang Lin is so good at running, isn't he? This number is more than twice that of Messi!"
"It's simply scarier than Park Sanfei back then!"
…
Before the start of the two rounds of the game, the outside world was unanimously optimistic about the traditional giant Barcelona, but Manchester City severely slapped everyone who looked down on them in the face!
A double win against Barcelona at home and away proved that their victory was well-deserved and not a coincidence!
If they hadn't really surpassed Barcelona in terms of hard power, how could they have captured the Nou Camp, and how could they have completely destroyed Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium?
After the game, the media who had been slapped in the face not only did not feel ashamed, but shamelessly began to praise Manchester City.
The media in Fleet Street, in particular, began to use their special skills to blow the whistle.
"The Guardian": Manchester City's elimination of Barcelona is not an upset. They seized the opportunity and won the game. We are witnessing the birth of a great team!
"The Times": Manchester City, full of ambition, courage and hunger, won the victory, congratulations to them!
This time Messi failed to become Barcelona's savior. He was more like a spectator, while Lin Quan was the hero of Manchester!
"BBC": Barcelona played very painfully. If it weren't for the help of the goalpost, they would have been bloodbathed by Manchester City in the first half. Manchester City's victory was a victory of hard power and tactics. They may have provided the world with a way to restrain Barcelona's legend. Tactics for controlling football!
"World Sports News": Failure is always bitter, but for Barcelona, this season's competition is not over yet, and there are still five final rounds of league games to play. I hope Barcelona can get out of the shadow of failure, recover as soon as possible, and complete the league. Defend the title!
"Daily Sports": Barcelona wasted too many opportunities at the Etihad Stadium. If we had a super forward on the front line to help Messi share the offensive pressure, then the result of this game may be completely different!
Because at the press conference before the game, Martino once publicly stated that he would submit his resignation to the club if he lost the game against Manchester City.
Therefore, after the game, many reporters bothered him with this question.
Martino's words like that were originally meant to slap these reporters in the face with a victory.
Unexpectedly, his failure to fill the cup actually caused him to suffer backlash. Faced with the reporters' difficulties, he was a little unable to get off the stage, and finally broke up on bad terms.
The reporters were obviously not prepared to let him go like this. In the next day's report, they criticized Martino thoroughly.
Bad words such as conservative tactics, arrogance, and arrogance were all given to him.
What the media said is not completely unreasonable. Martino will definitely take the blame for Barcelona's loss.
His tactics, employment, and ability to adjust on the spot are indeed substandard.
Although his contract with Barcelona has not yet expired, looking at this situation, if Barcelona loses the league title, Martino will definitely pack up and leave.
I just don't know whether he will choose to terminate the contract with the club on his own initiative, or accept the club's liquidated damages compensation and be fired.
After the game between Manchester City and Barcelona, the next day, the other two games in the Champions League quarter-finals also started one after another.
Real Madrid, sitting at home, easily defeated Paris Saint-Germain 2:0 and entered the semi-finals.
In this game, Real Madrid once again showed the world the power of 200 million flying together.
Especially Bell, he is almost unmatched on the wing, and his lightning speed makes the Paris players miserable.
Bell scored in the 3rd minute, which put Paris into a passive position from the beginning.
Paris Saint-Germain needs to score at least 2 goals to advance!
Under the leadership of Ibrahimovic, Paris Saint-Germain launched a tenacious counterattack in an attempt to change their fate.
But Ronaldo's goal in the 57th minute completely killed their hopes of advancement!
In the end, at the Bernabeu, Paris was defeated by the powerful Real Madrid and became a small Paris, and fell on the way to the semi-finals.
In another game, Atletico Madrid showed an extremely tenacious style when they returned to play at home.
He used tenacious defense and mad-dog pressing to limit Dortmund's offense, and in the second half, he took advantage of a counterattack opportunity and scored a goal by Diego Costa.
This was the only goal scored by both teams in the two rounds.
But it was with this priceless goal that Atletico Madrid successfully broke into the semi-finals.
After the game, Simeone's steel defense shocked the entire Europe.
Looking across Europe, there are only a few teams capable of preventing Dortmund's offense, and even teams as strong as Real Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona and others may not be able to do so.
However, Atletico Madrid kept their opponents clean in two rounds, which shocked the outside world about their defensive capabilities.
No wonder Atletico Madrid can become the leader of La Liga and seize the opportunity to win the championship in the hands of the two top giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. Their strength should not be underestimated!
After this game, Simeone and Atletico Madrid, which he coached, became famous in Europe, and Atletico Madrid began to enter the ranks of the top teams.
Of course, compared with Manchester City's elimination of Barcelona, Simeone and Atletico Madrid are still much less popular.
After the game on April 11, the draw for the Champions League semi-finals began soon.
After Manchester City ended the day's training, Pellegrini summoned the players to watch the draw ceremony at the club.
The first one to be drawn out is Bayern, and their opponent is Atletico Madrid.
Bayern manager Hoeness, who came to the scene, breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the signing and seemed to think the result was not bad.
No wonder he thinks so. Real Madrid's current strength has amazed the whole of Europe. No one wants to encounter them until the last minute.
Bayern naturally doesn't want to touch this brow!
As for Manchester City, Bayern had encountered them before in the group stage.
Bayern suffered a draw and a loss in the two rounds of home and away games, and did not take any advantage at all.
Although Bayern's strength is not necessarily worse than Manchester City, they do not want to encounter Manchester City again.
Therefore, among the three opponents, only Atletico Madrid is the most suitable for them.
After the duel between Atletico Madrid and Bayern was announced, the remaining two teams were naturally divided together.
Manchester City will face the powerful Real Madrid in the semi-finals, and according to the schedule, they are home and then away, and the schedule is very unfavorable to them.
Seeing this draw result, the smile on the face of Manchester City Chairman Fahim who came to the scene froze.
On the other side, Real Madrid chairman Florentino's expression was a bit unpleasant.
What the hell is UEFA doing?
Just because there were rumors about Lin from Real Madrid and Manchester City, why did you draw us together?
But this result is not bad. Among the three opponents, the most suitable for Real Madrid may be Manchester City.
The last thing they want to encounter is Atletico Madrid, followed by Bayern.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid met twice this season, with one draw and one loss. The loss was at their home court.
Simeone's Atletico Madrid is like a smelly stone in a pit, smelly, hard, and difficult to beat!
Happy Children's Day everyone, and may you all become younger and younger!
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