Capítulo 60: Chapter 262: Winning the trophy at home, we are the champions!
After defeating Arsenal, Manchester City can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Playing three games in four days, it would be a lie to say I wasn't tired.
Fortunately, they finally managed to hold it together!
The FA Cup final will start on May 17, which is one month away, which means that within a month, they will no longer have to be distracted by the FA Cup.
So next, Manchester City only needs to go all out to deal with the league and Champions League games!
On April 19, after six days of rest, Manchester City faced the challenge of West Bromwich Albion at home.
This game is likely to determine the ownership of the Premier League championship this season, so the Football Association specially brought the Premier League championship trophy to the Etihad Stadium.
Before the game, countless Manchester City fans poured into the Etihad Stadium. The stadium was packed, and even tens of thousands of fans who had not bought tickets gathered outside the stadium.
For Manchester City fans, today is their day.
They are very likely to win the second Premier League championship trophy in team history at home!
In order to ensure the fairness of the game, and at the same time create a tense atmosphere for the championship in the final stage of the league.
The FA specially arranged the three games of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea to start at the same time.
Manchester City is currently 9 points ahead of Chelsea and 10 points ahead of Liverpool.
If Manchester City defeats their opponents in this game, they will basically lock in the championship. Chelsea's championship is only a theoretical possibility.
If Chelsea wants to win the championship, it needs to meet extremely demanding conditions:
1. This game and the last three games were won, and Manchester City lost all the subsequent three games.
2. In these four games, they have to equal the 38-goal difference with Manchester City.
The probability of either of these two conditions occurring individually, let alone together, is close to zero.
In the locker room speech before the game, Pellegrini emphasized to the players, telling them that this was just an ordinary game and not to have too much psychological baggage.
The opponents in this game are not strong, as long as Manchester City plays to its due level without being arrogant or impatient.
At 18:30, the three games started at the same time.
West Bromwich Albion obviously did not want to be the background for Manchester City to win the championship, so they chose to shrink into their own penalty area at the beginning and set up a bus to defend to the death.
Manchester City has seen this trick many times in the league and already knows how to deal with it.
After the opening, Lin Quan frequently used his breakthrough ability to attack West Bromwich Albion's goal.
In order to guard Lin Quan, the opponent had to resort to double-teaming or even fouling to deal with him.
And this naturally gave Manchester City a lot of set-piece opportunities.
In the 15th minute of the first half, De Bruyne scored directly with an excellent free kick, rewriting the score to 1:0!
This goal made the Manchester City fans at the scene excited!
They are very close to the championship trophy!
"Quick, look at the score between Chelsea and Liverpool!"
Fans took out their mobile phones one after another and began to search the Internet for the results of the other two games.
"Chelsea 0:0 Sunderland at home, Liverpool temporarily leads Norwich 2:0 away!"
"Damn, why are Norwich so rubbish? They scored two goals in just fifteen minutes?"
"That's right, do these bastards want to avoid relegation? If they lose this game, they will be overtaken by Sunderland!"
The opponents of Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea in this round of games are all relegation teams.
West Bromwich Albion currently has 33 points, only 4 points away from the relegation zone.
Norwich have 32 points and are in a worse situation than West Bromwich Albion.
The worst thing is the Black Cat Sunderland. They currently have 29 points, ranking third from the bottom, and they are in the relegation zone!
So in this round of competition, all six teams want to win, and no one wants to lose.
Liverpool are two goals ahead and they should win this game.
Now look at Chelsea. If they draw or lose to Sunderland, then Manchester City can win the championship four rounds in advance as long as they win this game!
However, at this moment, bad news came from the other side:
"Damn, Chelsea are ahead!"
"Really or not, who scored?"
"Eto'o, Chelsea's quick counterattack. Eto'o used his speed to get rid of the defender and then went to the meeting alone to complete the goal."
"Hey, this guy Eto'o is already 33 years old, right? Why is he still so fierce?"
"After all, he is the only player to defend the Triple Crown. If he had no strength, he would not have achieved such outstanding results!"
"Sunderland, hold on, score one goal, just one goal!"
Manchester City fans have begun to pray for Sunderland. For your relegation, show up with courage and stand shoulder to shoulder. As long as you hold Chelsea back, you can get out of the relegation zone!
As if hearing the shouts of Manchester City fans, Sunderland quickly equalized the score.
In the 18th minute, Sunderland took a corner kick to the outside. Alonso fired a semi-volley from 25 yards and the goalkeeper made a save. Wickham grabbed the edge of the small penalty area and scored before Terry.
The Black Cats tenaciously equalized the score in the away game!
"Well done, Sunderland!"
"Well done, Wickham!!"
"Keep it up like this and don't let Chelsea score again!"
The sudden burst of cheers in the Etihad Stadium left the players of both teams on the field a little confused. The score is still 1:0, has it not changed?
What are the fans celebrating?
Shaking their heads, the Manchester City players ignored this and returned their attention to the game.
The hardest thing to break through a dense defense is the first goal. Once you take the lead, the opponent cannot continue to defend and has to take the initiative to attack!
After West Bromwich Albion fell behind, they had to attack in order to avoid relegation.
In the 22nd minute, after Manchester City defended West Bromwich Albion's offensive, they immediately launched a counterattack towards the opponent's penalty area.
During the counterattack, De Bruyne looked up at Lin Quan's position and the position of the opponent's defender, and then sent a fatal through ball.
The ball penetrated the opponent's defense. Lin Quan received the ball and easily entered the penalty area. Facing the attacking goalkeeper, he calmly scored the ball.
2:0!
Manchester City sealed the victory!
The Blue Moon fans at the scene saw their team score another goal, and everyone cheered happily and celebrated.
Now, after taking a two-goal lead, their own game is considered stable, and now they can focus on the results of the other two games without any distractions.
Unfortunately, until the end of the first half, the results of the other two games did not change.
In the second half, West Bromwich Albion wanted to start the attack again, but were directly pushed to the ground by Manchester City.
The game quickly turned into a half-time offensive and defensive drill for both teams!
In the 50th minute, Lin Quan assisted Aguero and scored another goal, rewriting the score to 3:0.
At this moment, West Bromwich Albion is completely hopeless.
The Manchester City fans at home were singing and dancing, and they had already begun to celebrate the victory.
As long as Black Cat Sunderland persists for another forty minutes and the other game ends in a draw, Manchester City will win the championship four rounds in advance!
So, although everyone was sitting in their own stadium, their thoughts drifted to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.
At Stamford Bridge, the score on the field is still 1:1. This score is very unfavorable for Chelsea.
Mourinho stood on the sidelines with a livid face.
Mourinho couldn't sit still since he learned at halftime that Manchester City led West Bromwich Albion 2-0 in another game.
Manchester City's lead means that Chelsea must win this game to retain the last theoretical hope.
But if they lose, they can only sit back and watch their competitors win the championship!
On the coaching bench, several assistant coaches were whispering to each other.
"How was the game at Manchester City?"
"No need to look, Aguero scored another goal, and now the score is 3:0!"
"Well, West Bromwich Albion is also a relegation team after all. Doesn't it mean that the relegation team is very powerful at the end of the season? How come they were slaughtered by Manchester City so easily?"
"There is no way. The strength gap between the two teams is too big. West Bromwich Albion wanted to defend but failed. After falling behind, they were completely passive. The game actually ended when De Bruyne scored the first goal!"
Mentioning De Bruyne, several assistant coaches couldn't help but feel a little sad.
When this player was at Chelsea, he was abandoned by Mourinho and couldn't even make the bench.
But when he arrived at Manchester City, he was entrusted with an important task by Pellegrini and became the offensive engine of Manchester City's frontcourt.
He used scalpel-like passing to help Manchester City open up the situation many times and made great contributions to Manchester City's victory.
The key is that De Bruyne's performance in Chelsea was noticed by many people, and it did not meet the team's requirements.
But why did he become so outstanding after arriving at Manchester City?
In the box at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich also came to watch the game.
When he learned that Manchester City was leading their opponents 3:0, his face became very ugly.
Although he had known for a long time that it was basically impossible for Chelsea to win the championship, he still had a little luck in his heart. After all, Mourinho once led Chelsea to great success at Stamford Bridge.
Abu still has a little expectation for him!
But now, all expectations have turned into disappointment, and he once again developed a dislike for Mourinho, just like when he fired Mourinho.
But this time Abramovich was not impulsive. It would be easy to fire Mourinho, but it would be difficult to find a suitable replacement.
The man he wants most is unlikely to come to Chelsea any time soon.
Therefore, until there is no better choice, he can only hold his nose and tolerate Mourinho.
Give him another year. If Chelsea harvests nothing again next year, then Abramovich may really run out of patience.
…
After leading 3:0, Manchester City began to retreat.
Pellegrini replaced Lin Quan in the 67th minute and De Bruyne in the 72nd minute.
This substitution is obviously in preparation for the weekend's Champions League semi-finals. Facing the powerful Real Madrid, Manchester City must seize the advantage of playing at home in the first round and see the opponent defeated.
If they cannot win the opponent at home, their Champions League journey this year will basically come to an end!
In this game, Real Madrid still sent a scout to watch the game live. Seeing Manchester City's powerful offensive firepower, his expression was also very serious.
Manchester City is really difficult to deal with!
Shortly after Manchester City completed the substitutions, news came again from another game.
Norwich scored two goals in the 67th and 72nd minutes, miraculously equalizing the score!
"Ah, what's wrong with Liverpool?"
Manchester City fans were a little surprised when they learned the news.
Can a 2:0 lead lead to overturning?
"Don't underestimate the determination of a relegation team!"
Thinking of this, Manchester City fans are inevitably a little worried.
Will his own team also be overturned?
As soon as this thought occurred, West Bromwich Albion scored.
In the 76th minute, West Bromwich Albion took advantage of a corner kick to recover a goal.
This made Manchester City fans couldn't help but think of the result of another game, and they felt uneasy in their hearts.
However, Manchester City did not give their opponents a chance. They began to control the rhythm of the game, limit the opponent's offense, and contain West Bromwich Albion's counterattack.
The game was back under Manchester City's control, which made the Manchester City fans breathe a sigh of relief.
In the 81st minute, news came again from Liverpool.
Sterling broke out and scored another goal, completing a hat trick and helping Liverpool take the lead again.
After Suarez was suspended, Sterling's outbreak prevented Liverpool's offensive firepower in the frontcourt from being greatly affected.
Sterling himself has also won the attention of many wealthy clubs with his outstanding performance in these games.
Just when Manchester City fans lamented that Liverpool was lucky enough to take the lead again, the latest news came from Chelsea - Chelsea fell behind!
In the 82nd minute, Altidore, who came on as a substitute for Sunderland, broke into the right side of the penalty area and fell down under the defense of Azpilicueta. The referee Mike Dean decisively awarded a penalty kick, but the slow-motion replay on the big screen showed that , the penalty of this ball is controversial.
Tens of thousands of Blues fans at Stamford Bridge collectively booed the referee, and black whistles were heard one after another.
Mourinho was so excited on the sidelines that he wanted to talk to the referee. At this time, he gave his opponent a penalty kick, which almost killed the game!
This is indeed the case. Borini, who was in charge of taking the penalty, made it in one fell swoop and rewritten the score to 2:1!
This penalty hit the Chelsea players' mentality very hard, causing them to become unbalanced in the final stage. When Torres grabbed the ball in the frontcourt, he almost fought with the opponent and received a yellow card.
In the end, Chelsea, playing at home, took the lead at the start but suffered a reversal from their opponents.
By losing this game, Chelsea not only lost their hope of winning the championship, but were also overtaken by Liverpool in the standings, falling to third place.
When the news reached the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City fans suddenly burst into loud cheers!
"we won!"
"we are the champion!"
At this time, the game on the field was not over yet. The referee looked at it for a while and found that there were only the last ten seconds of injury time left.
Seeing West Bromwich Albion's lack of fighting spirit, the referee blew the whistle early to end the game.
The moment the whistle sounded, tens of thousands of fans in the audience went crazy.
On the sidelines, members of the coaching staff, including the players sitting on the bench, all rushed to the court and hugged their teammates excitedly in celebration.
Lin Quan and De Bruyne looked at each other with happy smiles on their faces.
This is the first league championship trophy in his life. The regret of failing to win the championship with Werder Bremen last season has finally been made up for here at Manchester City.
When the players saw Pellegrini coming up, they immediately rushed to him. Without saying a word, they lifted him up and threw him high into the air!
As the biggest contributor to Manchester City's championship this season, Pellegrini deserves such treatment.
The Chilean's first season at the Etihad was very successful. He won the league and the League Cup, reached the FA Cup final, won the championship soon, and entered the semi-finals of the Champions League...
These records have all reached the pinnacle of Manchester City's team history. They have achieved results that were difficult to achieve in the past this season.
"Okay, okay, okay, kids, put me down quickly, I'm getting dizzy!"
After all, Pellegrini was over 60 years old. After being thrown around by the players a few times, he felt a little overwhelmed and had to beg for mercy.
"Ha ha!"
When the players heard the coach begging for mercy, they burst out laughing and finally let him go.
Then, they focused on Lin Quan again!
When Lin Quan saw his teammates looking at him, he already felt something was wrong.
However, before he could start running away, his teammates rushed up and lifted him up regardless of anything.
As the core of Manchester City, Lin Quan has stepped forward many times to help the team overcome difficulties at critical moments. Lin Quan is undoubtedly the second greatest contributor to the team. In some ways, he is even more important than Pellegrini. .
When he originally came to Manchester City with the highest salary in history, many players in the team were skeptical or even dissatisfied with him.
But after one season, no one will question Lin Quan's strength anymore.
With his outstanding performance for one consecutive season, he conquered all his teammates and convinced them of Lin Quan.
Without his joining, Manchester City would never have been able to go so far on multiple fronts this season!
"Okay, okay, that's almost it. We have to go to the dressing room to change and get ready to go on stage to receive the award!"
Seeing that the players were almost done playing, Pellegrini quickly reminded them.
Everyone left Lin Quan and dispersed, and Lin Quan fell to the lawn with a thud.
These heartless guys are so deceitful!
Lin Quan touched his butt and was about to get up from the ground when he saw a hand handed to him.
He looked up and saw it was De Bruyne.
"You are quite interesting, kid!"
Lin Quan stretched out his hand unpreparedly, and De Bruyne pulled hard with a wicked smile on his face. Just when Lin Quan was about to stand up, he suddenly let go.
So, with a bang, Lin Quan fell down again!
Lin Quan: "???"
OK, De Bruyne also learned bad things!
Back in the locker room, the players put on the club's unique jerseys to celebrate the championship.
By the time they appeared in the player tunnel, the staff on site had already set up the awards stage.
Officials from the Football Association also appeared at the Etihad Stadium with the trophy symbolizing the Premier League championship!
There was warm applause at the scene. Manchester City players came out one after another, walked through the blue arch erected and entered the stadium.
Amid cheers from the fans, Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudmore presented medals to the Manchester City soldiers.
When presenting Lin Quan with the award, Scudmore patted Lin Quan on the shoulder and said to him:
"Lin, congratulations to you, your performance is impressive and you deserve this medal!"
Lin Quan lowered his head slightly, let the other party wear the medal around his neck, and then shook hands with the other party: "Thank you for your congratulations, Mr. Richard. I hope to see you again at this time next year!"
Scudmore smiled. Lin Quan's implication was that he wanted to defend the league championship?
This is not easy. The competition in the Premier League has always been very fierce. Manchester City won the championship this season and will definitely become the target of public criticism next season.
When Lin Quan came to the podium, the team members pushed him to the C position. Lin Quan declined a few times. Seeing that everyone was very determined, he had to stand in the middle position.
Just in time, captain Kompany appeared last at this time and walked under the podium holding the trophy.
The Manchester City players opened their hands towards the trophy. Kompany turned around with the trophy in his arms, turned his back to the players, shouted three two one, and raised the trophy with a whoosh!
"we are the champion!"
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