"Congratulations to Manchester City, they won the game away from home. ”

The television footage showed Manchester City's 4-1 win at Fulham. In the 14th round of the English League, Manchester City won 4-1 away, and Yang Fan made one pass and one shot in the game.

However, the course of the game was not as easy as the score suggested, Manchester City took an early 4-0 lead, but in the second half of the game in the face of Fulham's counterattack, the team looked exhausted, if it were not for Fulham's attacking players to squander the chances of scoring, Manchester City could not say that they could not win the game, but it was impossible to get three clean sheets.

After the game, the Manchester City Evening News analyzed that the tired Manchester City struggled to achieve a big victory. As the Manchester City mouthpiece media said, this game exposed the biggest problem of this Manchester City team at the moment, exhaustion!

Although Manchester City's current squad is relatively strong, the difference between the strength of the main squad and the substitute squad is relatively obvious, so the head coach Mancini almost plays the world with a set of lineups, and because the English League Cup started earlier, now Manchester City is already a third-tier battle, so Manchester City's main players have now begun a wave of fatigue.

There are also voices in the media criticizing Mancini, believing that the Italian coach will only squeeze the physical fitness of the main players, and cannot achieve rotation well, you know, in a long season, especially in the case of multi-front operations, rotation tactics and ability are also a manager's must have.

Mancini looked very depressed in the face of these criticisms, those reporters and critics really stood and talked without back pain, and now the substitute lineup of Manchester City is indeed very substantial, but there is a big gap with the strength of the main lineup, especially Yang Fan, Yaya Toure, Silva and Kompany and Colo Toure, there are no replacements at all. These players are almost full-time. And now it is about to enter the Devil's schedule during the Christmas period, which is also the stage of grabbing points that cannot be taken lightly, let alone rotated. Therefore, although Mancini also knows that the main squad is tired, there is no way, he can only hope for a winter transfer, hoping to bring in a group of top stars by then.

Three days later, the Champions League group stage was rekindled, with Manchester City visiting Milan to face Serie A giants. Before this group stage match, Manchester City is two wins, one draw and one loss, with 7 points, Real Madrid is also two wins, one draw and one loss with 7 points, and the two teams are tied for the first place, AC Milan is one win, two draws and one loss with 5 points, and Ajax is one win, three losses and 3 points.

It looks like Manchester City and Real Madrid have a good chance of qualifying together, but in the last Champions League group stage matchday, there was a clash between Manchester City and Real Madrid, with a number of players from both sides being sent off and banned, which was a huge blow for Manchester City and Real Madrid.

Especially for Manchester City, Yang Fan was banned, which is a huge loss for Manchester City, Milan Sports Newspaper bluntly said when looking at this game, Yang Fan's absence will make Manchester City's attack power drop by at least one notch, in addition, De Jong's ban has also made Manchester City's midfielder's interception hardness decrease, and Milner's ban has made Manchester City's side assault slightly sharper.

In this game, Yang Fan did not go away with the team, not only did he not go, but De Jong and Milner, the two players who were also banned, did not go out away, which is also Mancini's arrangement, since it is impossible to play, it is better not to go away, otherwise the fatigue of the journey can only increase fatigue. It's better to save your energy in the league at the weekend.

In the end, Yang Fan watched the match between Manchester City and AC Milan in front of the LCD screen of his villa, which was as large as a small cinema, and watched the team lose 1-2 away.

Yaya Toure scored for Manchester City, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho each scored to give Milan a 2-1 victory. Ibrahimovic's roaring celebration after the goal, and Robinho's wanton celebration after the goal, which stimulated Yang Fan in front of the TV, but the most painful thing is this, this is not the kind of pain that has the intention to kill the thief and is unable to return to the sky, it is more torturous than that pain, because he is in the suspension period and is not even eligible to play.

In the other game in this group, Real Madrid, who are also short of major generals, beat Ajax 1-0.

In this way, after five games in the group stage, Real Madrid has three wins, one draw and one loss, accumulating 1o points, while AC Milan has two wins, two draws and one loss after winning, accumulating 8 points, Manchester City has two wins, one draw and two losses, accumulating 7 points, and Ajax has one win, four losses and accumulating 3 points.

Ajax exited early, securing the bottom spot in their group one round earlier and failing to qualify for a single Europa League.

Real Madrid are three points ahead of Manchester City, but the La Liga giants have not been able to secure a place in advance, but they are in the best position to qualify, and only need to draw at home to AC Milan in the final round of the group stage to secure the top spot in the group.

AC Milan's fate is also in their own hands, as they can also qualify for the group with an away win over Real Madrid in the final round of the group stage, and they will also finish as top of the group. As for AC Milan's draw with Real Madrid in the last round, it will depend on whether Manchester City can beat Ajax.

For Manchester City, their fate is now in their own hands, and if they want to reach the knockout stages, they will have to beat Ajax in the final round of the group stage, and they will also have to expect AC Milan to beat Real Madrid.

This kind of situation where the fate is not in one's own hands is undoubtedly very worrying and depressing. All City can do is play their own game, and the rest will be left to fate.

Manchester City were unable to get away from Milan's San Siro with a satisfactory result, but the players were tired from the long journey and Silva was injured in the game, so to speak, returning to Manchester from Milan was a standard tired division.

In this way, three days later, Mancini arrived at Stoke City with his exhausted team to face Stoke City, the opponent of the 15th round of the English football league in the 2o1o2o11 season.

At present, in the league standings, Manchester City is the leader, Stoke City is ranked eighth, generally speaking, the competition between teams with such a ranking is generally not too intense, because the strength of the leader is there, and the team ranked around ten is generally not a big problem with relegation at the end of the season, and there is no need to fight with strong teams.

However, this is not the case now, because despite the fact that Stoke City are eighth in the league, they have a record of six wins, one draw and seven defeats, accumulating 19 points, which is only four points more than Wigan Athletic, who are in the 18th place in the relegation zone. Suffice it to say, this season's relegation battle will be extremely brutal, so don't look at the fact that it's only 15 rounds of the league, teams like Stoke City want to be relegated and need to do their best every game.

In fact, that's what Stoke City manager Pasley said to his players.

The day before the whole Manchester City squad left for Stoke City, it started to rain, and it was pouring down.

By the time City arrived at Stoke City, the rain had stopped, but it was still overcast. As he acclimatised to the pitch before the game, Mancini frowned as he looked at the pitch in front of him.

Stoke City's Britannia Stadium doesn't seem to have a good drainage system, with the whole stadium looking a little muddy, and although the stadium says they are doing their best to drain it, it will be a mud pool for tomorrow's game if the rain comes again......

The players craned their necks and looked at the pitch with some blankness. Can this kind of venue really allow them to swing their best?

You know, now the whole Manchester City team is tired, which has already made the team's combat effectiveness decline, and if you encounter another terrible field, it will be really fatal.

At the pre-match preparation meeting, Mancini also knew that it was a difficult game, and he emphasised two points, one is that he must win this game, and the other is to avoid injury, playing on such a bad field, the players are tired, which will increase the chance of injury for the players.

Thank God it didn't rain when the game was about to start. Although the dark clouds have been overwhelming the city. But the rain that feared the people of Manchester City the most was that it never landed on their heads.

Mancini breathed a sigh of relief.

However, when the players warmed up on the field, there was a problem, that is, although it did not rain on this day, the field condition of the stadium was not much...... To be precise, it gives them the impression that the situation of the venue is even worse.

The field was more slippery and muddy.

"Damn the Stoke people. ”

Everyone is not stupid, and immediately understand the reason, this must be a conspiracy of the people of Stoke City, it can be judged with certainty that Stoke City not only did not drain the water in time, looking at this posture, Mancini has every reason to doubt that the people of Stoke City secretly poured water into the field again......

"They must have done it on purpose. Manchester City's assistant coach said indignantly.

The situation after the start of the game also confirmed his suspicions.

From the start of the game, Stoke City warned league leaders Manchester City with an extremely dangerous shot that they were not soft persimmons to pinch.

Pennant crosses from the bottom and Jones heads just wide.

In the muddy field, Stoke City's players moved freely and aggressively. On the other hand, Manchester City's players, including Yang Fan, are a little unsuitable for this place, it is too slippery...... It's like playing in a swamp.

The ground is slippery, and with a little force, there will be a shot of people turning over on their backs. Obviously there is a chance to shoot, but because the support foot slips, he shoots the football directly into the stands behind the goal. Barely kicked the football, but also shot weakly.

Manchester City are a team that emphasises attacking from the ground, but in such conditions, it becomes difficult for them to play a decent attacking combination.

What about Stoke City? They held high the tactical banner of long passing and rushing, and the attack was in full swing.

This is also the reason why they made the pitch so slippery, this is a traditional English team with a long pass and rushing style, and the bad pitch did not affect their tactical swing at all, while Manchester City, a team that began to become more and more technical, fell into trouble in such a bad field.

"This is a ...... place," Mortenson was a little speechless.

"It's Stoke City. Lineker also smiled, "It's a city in the sky." As he said this, Stoke City won a set-piece in front, Etherington's free-kick was unleashed, and the 189cm tall Hut's header went just over the crossbar, shocking the City people into a cold sweat.

Sky City, the nickname given to Stoke City by the media and fans, is the most famous team in England to adhere to the traditional English style of long-passing, and the team is characterized by 90 minutes of playing time, with close to 70 minutes of playing time, and football flying in the sky.

Of course, there is another reason for this nickname, which is that almost more than half of Stoke City's players are high-ranking guys. A team with an absolute advantage in height.

Commentator Mortensen was also interested in announcing the list of Stoke City players at this time.

"Goalkeeper Begovic is 78.3 inches 199 cm tall, central defenders Hutt and Faye, one is 74.4 inches 189 cm, the other is 74 inches 188 cm, defender Collins is also 74.4 inches 189 cm, and full-back Shawcross is also 72.4 inches 184 cm...... Jones on the front line is also 74.4 inches tall.189 "The only dwarf player is Pennant, who is 66.5 inches and 169 cm tall and feels like a dwarf on this team...... It's because Stoke needs Pennant's degree and passing. ”

The nearly 30,000 fans who came to cheer on the home team packed the stadium stands, and their enthusiasm even dried the stadium's stagnant water. The game was played in the evening, and it was already a bit chilly, but there were some sturdy fans who were shirtless, riding on the railings of the stands, waving their scarves and clapping loudly. Shout for Stoke City, every action of the Stoke City players will bring them earth-shattering cheers.

Far from being unpleasant, Stoke City fans are proud of the team's nickname Sky City, and they find it very domineering.

Therefore, every time the high-altitude bombardment of Stoke City ends, the fans in the stands will shout in unison as if they have been beaten with chicken blood: Castle in the sky, oh oh, we are Castle in the sky!