Chương 174: Chapter 174: Jersey Exchange with Guardiola
Chapter 174: Jersey Exchange with Guardiola
"This kid!"
Seeing Aguero score, Guardiola tapped his bald head in frustration.
He knew the coordination between Lin Quan and his teammates wasn't good, so he only sent someone to limit Lin Quan while he and Silva worked together.
Lin Quan also knew his coordination with his teammates wasn't good, and Silva would probably be limited too.
So he discussed with Silva a strategy: use Silva as bait to draw Guardiola's attention and then allow Silva to shield his teammates to attack.
Thus, in addition to Lin Quan and Silva, a third person appeared that Guardiola didn't expect.
Guardiola overlooked this detail.
"This kid has played a trick on me!"
After realizing this, Guardiola shook his head in self-deprecation.
If it were someone else who had done it, perhaps he would be angry, but knowing it was his son, Guardiola couldn't get angry.
Not only was he not upset, but he also felt a sense of achievement:
"Wow, this brat grows fast, even his father has been fooled by him!"
My son doesn't disappoint!
But Guardiola didn't intend to let Lin Quan lead the team's comeback. He made a substitution, taking out Ribéry and introducing Badstuber, strengthening the defense and closing Manchester City's third point.
Furthermore, this change would also serve to buy time, killing two birds with one stone.
With Badstuber on the field, Bayern's defense became more solid.
Manchester City's attack didn't even threaten the goal, and breaking through their midfield was difficult.
Finally, after 90 minutes, Bayern defeated Manchester City at home 3-2, winning this year's Audi Cup.
After the match, an interesting scene occurred: Lin Quan went to the edge of the field, hugged Guardiola, and asked to exchange jerseys.
Guardiola was bewildered for a moment, pointing to his own suit:
"You little rascal, do you like my suit?"
Jersey exchanges between players are common, but between a player and a coach, it's very rare.
In 2018, after a League Cup match between Manchester City and Bristol City, the latter's defender, Aden Flint, jokingly asked Guardiola to exchange jerseys. At the time, Guardiola rejected the request, but after the match, he sent an identical set of clothing to the player, fulfilling his wish.
Now, several years after that incident, Lin Quan was the first to act.
Cameras captured this amusing scene, provoking laughter among the spectators.
With the team's victory, Bayern fans were in a good mood.
Spectators near the bench began to cheer:
"Mr. Guardiola, give him your 'jersey'!"
"The Manchester City number 10 jersey isn't available on the market, you could get good money for it!"
Lin Quan's number 10 jersey was still in production and not available on the market.
Even if you wanted to buy it, you couldn't at the moment.
And since this was the jersey Lin Quan had worn, it was even rarer.
But Guardiola's suit cost thousands of dollars, it wasn't cheap.
"Do you think your clothes could fit my body?"
Lin Quan compared their heights and asked Guardiola.
Guardiola laughed heartily. "Okay, okay, I'll swap with you. Let's consider it a memento of our first encounter!"
The first encounter between father and son on the field was, after all, something worth remembering.
So Lin Quan took off his jersey and handed it to Guardiola, and Guardiola gave him his suit.
It was quite a peculiar jersey exchange.
After the Audi Cup, Manchester City didn't stay long in Germany.
They returned to the UK that same night by plane.
Regarding the issues that arose during the Audi Cup, Pellegrini began adjusting the team's tactics.
He knew Yaya Touré enjoyed advancing on the field, so he assigned him certain offensive tasks. But he demanded that he only do so when the team's defense was secure, otherwise, he wasn't allowed to advance easily.
And to address the problem of lack of coordination among Manchester City's forwards, he organized as many training matches as possible, allowing Lin Quan, Silva, Aguero, and others to play together in fixed combinations.
Coordination can be cultivated. After playing together for a long time and becoming familiar with each other's playing styles, coordination improves.
After a week of intensive training, Pellegrini scheduled several friendlies to assess the team's condition.
First, they would play against Fulham, a mid-table team in the Premier League, and then against Arsenal, which had a higher skill level.
Pellegrini planned to use the match against Fulham to gain confidence before facing Arsenal.
If they could beat Arsenal, the team would gain confidence and morale.
With this strategy, they could adjust their state to the maximum before the start of the Premier League.
Fulham was willing to be a sparring partner for Manchester City, but they asked to play at their stadium.
This way, they could leverage Manchester City's fame to sell more tickets and earn extra money.
Manchester City didn't need the money and wasn't concerned about ticket revenue.
The other team's requests were unimportant to them; the fact that they were willing to play a friendly match was enough.
Arsenal also agreed, but they scheduled the match later, for August 15.
They had recently returned from a tour of Asia and were recovering.
Although Wenger wasn't a fan of commercial activities, to sustain the team, Arsenal had engaged in some commercial activities this summer.
And Asia, where people are silly but have a lot of money, was a good place to earn money for Arsenal.
If it weren't for how far away it is, Wenger would want to go there every day.
But for an elite club, this kind of commercial activity could still affect pre-match preparation.
So when they engaged in commercial activities, they had to weigh the pros and cons.
Professor Wenger also understood this very well, so Arsenal's trip to Asia lasted only half a month before they returned to the UK.
This way, their pre-match preparation wouldn't be too affected.
But after playing a few matches against lower-level Asian teams, Wenger was worried about the team's condition.
So, after returning to the UK, he began looking for suitable opponents to help the team regain its form before the start of the Premier League.
Manchester City, with great strength on paper but probably a little less experienced, became the best opponent for this purpose.
Therefore, both teams agreed that Arsenal would visit the Etihad Stadium on August 15.
On August 10, Manchester City played against Fulham as the away team.
This match attracted about 20,000 spectators to the stadium.
The farmers' stadium was relatively small, and although some seats were added, the capacity didn't reach 30,000 people.
For a friendly, an attendance of 20,000 people was quite high.
Among the fans who attended the stadium, many were there to see Lin Quan.
People were very interested in this man who was said to be on par with Messi and wanted to see for themselves if he was as strong as rumored.
Not only were the fans interested, even Fulham players paid close attention to Lin Quan.
When he was in the player tunnel, Lin Quan noticed that the players from the other team were constantly looking at him and seemed to be discussing something from time to time, probably about him.
"Be careful, they're planning to use foul tactics against you."
David Silva was quite close to Lin Quan. By deliberately paying attention, he heard snippets of the conversation from the other side and then seriously warned Lin Quan.
"Got it!"
Lin Quan nodded. It wasn't surprising that Fulham players had that kind of thinking.
After all, when he came to the Premier League, the British media labeled him as "not suited for physical combat."
Maybe the players on the other side thought the same?
During the pre-match handshake, the left-back from the other team, Richardson, squeezed Lin Quan's hand without letting go and fiercely threatened him:
"Kid, be careful with your legs when you're on the field!"
Lin Quan squeezed harder, changing Richardson's facial expression to a liver-red tone:
"I'll return the favor, watch your own legs!"
He had always believed in reciprocity in actions. If someone wasn't kind to him, he wouldn't be kind to that person either.
"Haha, you've got a mouth on you, but this is the Premier League, where only real men play... Ouch, let go, crazy!"
Seeing the other continue to babble, Lin Quan squeezed even harder, distorting Richardson's facial features.
"Try and see!"
Lin Quan shot a look at Richardson and moved on to the next opponent.
Fulham's defensive midfielder, Sidwell, saw his teammate being squeezed by a pale hand and swallowed saliva with a dull noise.
Could he just not shake hands?
But Lin Quan's hand had already reached out.
Sidwell could only muster up courage and extend his own hand.
After touching Lin Quan's hand, he quickly withdrew it as if he had been shocked.
He was afraid that if Lin Quan grabbed his hand, he would end up like Richardson.
The other side's reaction left Lin Quan a little puzzled. After understanding the reason, a smile formed on his face.
Leaving that impression on others wasn't bad news for him.
At 7:30 p.m., the match officially began.
Fulham attacked Manchester City from the start, without showing the typical caution and prudence when facing a strong team.
It seemed they were determined to play on equal terms with Manchester City.
Well, it was just a friendly match, not a real competition.
They wanted to justify the ticket price for the fans who had paid.
If Fulham retreated to their half of the field, the fans would boo them to death.
Manchester City's current weakness was in defense, but their attacking line was not weak at all.
Fulham decided to openly confront them, which was just what Manchester City wanted.
Therefore, Manchester City also launched an attack, pressing into Fulham's area.
It was the first time Lin Quan faced a Premier League team, even if it was just in a preseason match.
But both teams were authentic Premier League teams, and even the referee was a Premier League main referee.
Therefore, the intensity of this match didn't differ much from a real Premier League match.
Only after playing it oneself did one realize how fast the pace of the Premier League was.
But this kind of speed wasn't like the quick counterattack of a strong team; mid-table Premier League teams liked to play with high balls.
When they had the ball, they didn't like to advance along the ground; they preferred to send high balls to their forwards and let them fight for them, or if they didn't succeed, they quickly regrouped to prevent a counterattack.
Wasn't this an outdated tactic of long and high balls?
How was it possible that someone still used this tactic in this era?
Lin Quan was surprised. The offensive effectiveness of this tactic was low.
There were many players in the rear of Manchester City, and it wasn't easy for rival forwards to reach the dropping point of the ball.
Even if they succeeded, they couldn't always successfully pass the ball to a teammate.
And once they lost possession, a quick counterattack from Manchester City awaited them.
As expected, in the 13th minute of the first half, taking advantage of an opponent's mistake, Manchester City stole the ball in their own half and quickly passed it to the wing.
The ball quickly reached Lin Quan's feet.
Lin Quan had already noticed that Fulham's defense was quite unprotected. Without saying anything after receiving the ball, he quickly ran towards Fulham's area.
Richardson, Fulham's left-back, ran towards Lin Quan fiercely, without even looking at the ball, simply colliding with him.
Fulham fans in the stadium widened their eyes, with expressions of anticipation on their faces.
They were ready to admire how their defender easily brought down the number 10 player!
It was said that to bring this little Spaniard, Manchester City not only paid a large sum of money in the transfer fee, but also offered the highest salary in the football world. They could be considered spendthrifts.
But to think that the number 10 player from the other team would be easily defeated by a fairly common Premier League defender, Fulham fans were eager to mock Manchester City people for being fools and having too much money!
Does having so much money serve any purpose?
Won't they end up being intimidated by us, Fulham?
Apart from Fulham fans in the stands, there was a mysterious spectator.
Arsenal's coach, Wenger, was also present to watch Manchester City's match and, above all, Lin Quan's adaptation to the Premier League.
Fulham and Arsenal were both London teams, so for the professor, it was no problem to come here to watch a match.
He had always had a great opinion of Lin Quan and had been very interested in signing him.
Although he ultimately failed, that didn't affect his appreciation for Lin Quan at all.
However, Wenger also understood how intense Premier League matches could be.
He himself wasn't sure if Lin Quan would adapt to the pace of the Premier League.
At this moment, seeing Fulham's defender running towards Lin Quan fiercely, Wenger's heart involuntarily tightened.
Lin Quan was a genius; he hoped he wouldn't get injured!
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