In the 21st round of La Liga, China City occupied 68% of the possession, with two goals from Miranda and Alex Sandro in the second half, defeated Celta Vigo 2-0 away and won two consecutive victories.

In the 22nd round of La Liga, they faced Real Mallorca at home, and in the second half, Hazard, Griezmann and Pelle scored successively to help China City defeat the opponent 3-0, and the possession rate of the whole game reached 67% again.

In the 23rd round of La Liga, away to Zaragoza, only 11 minutes later, Griezmann scored the first goal for the team, and then Pelle scored another goal, but before the end of the game, the starting central defender Varane scored an own goal, and finally won 2-1 away, and the possession rate reached 68% again.

A wave of four consecutive wins made Chinatown's league ranking rise rapidly, jumping to fourth place, only four points behind Real Madrid, which shocked the entire La Liga league, and Real Madrid felt pressure.

If China Town is really pulled down from the third place in the league, then I am afraid that it is not only Mourinho who will be sacked immediately, but even the management may have someone to step up and take responsibility to calm the anger of the members.

In the state of emergency, the management stepped in, Mourinho and the players reached an agreement, and the two sides decided to unite at a critical moment to resolve the current crisis facing Real Madrid.

In midweek, in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 knockout round, he challenged Porto away, and with 68% possession, he was defeated by Porto in the 66th minute with a counterattack by Jackson Martinez.

After returning to La Liga, the twenty-fourth round was ushered in.

Although Eden Hazard scored a goal for China City in the 18th minute, Michel equalised for Levante in the 29th minute, and the two sides eventually drew 1-1, and China City once again had 65 per cent possession.

A week later, in the 25th round of La Liga, they challenged Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao away.

This time, Chinatown was stubbornly sniped by their opponents, falling behind in possession for the first time, only 44 per cent, but thanks to goals from Antoine Griezmann, Rakitic and Eden Hazard, they beat Athletic Bilbao 3-1.

At the end of this round, Chinatown is still in fourth place in the league, but the debate continues.

Mauricio Pochettino's side are clearly getting better in terms of control, dominating opponents on the pitch and dominating possession, but often fail to open up in attack and threaten with open possession, much to the concern of many commentators, including Matayana and De la Morena.

At the end of 25 rounds, Chinatown has won 46 points, four points ahead of fifth-placed Málaga and is firmly in fourth place in the league, but it is behind Real Madrid, who have won back-to-back games recently, with 52 points.

What is the reason why China City has been able to occupy such an overwhelming advantage in passing and control, but has never been able to create a threat in attack?

A week later, in the 26th round of La Liga, the nightmare of ball possession happened again to Chinatown.

With 66 per cent possession, it was a 3-3 draw at home to Real Sociedad.

At the end of this round, Chinatown is still firmly in fourth place in the league, but the gap between them and third-placed Real Madrid has widened to eight points, which makes it very difficult for Chinatown to catch up with the top three first team.

In this case, many media that favor Chinatown have also commented, analyzing the gap between Chinatown and the top three giants in the league, and the most summarized factor is undoubtedly on the offensive end.

Judging from the statistics between Chinatown and Real Madrid, the defensive strength of the two teams is about the same, but Chinatown has scored 20 fewer goals than Real Madrid in attack, which is almost half of Chinatown's total goals so far, but in terms of possession, Chinatown is better than Real Madrid.

This has led many media outlets to believe that Chinatown should be more aggressive.

However, Pochettino and the coaching staff have not been entirely unreasonable, with an internal meeting saying that the team's lack of points is mainly due to the multi-front play and the generally young players.

Pochettino also admits he has not been able to reach his full potential in both rotation and attack, but is confident that his side will retain their fourth place in the league at the end of the season.

Cantarero made clear his support for the commitment from the coaching staff, reiterating that the management will continue to unconditionally support Pochettino's tenure at the helm, while also conveying Gaohan's opinion that Pochettino will reconsider the team's contract extension.

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On the evening of March 6, Leganes Block Stadium.

When the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game, Pochettino in front of the home team's dugout breathed a sigh of relief.

2-0, China City narrowly won Porto at home.

The strength of the Portuguese Super League team is not weak, and as a regular team in the Champions League, Porto is also very competitive.

0-1 away, resulting in Chinatown having to win the opponent at home, but surprisingly, Porto played very bravely away from home, played very aggressively after the opening, and four yellow cards in 30 minutes were enough to prove Porto's tenacious fighting spirit in this game, but the effect was also obvious.

Chinatown was disrupted from the start, and the game was very chaotic.

But at the critical moment, the strength of the players determines the trend of the game.

In the 43rd minute, the combination of Eden Hazard, Alex Sandro and Isco gave Isco a chance to get his feet in the box and scored the first goal of the game.

A goal brought the two sides back to the same running line and greatly relieved the pressure on Chinatown.

After the rematch in the second half, China City continued to maintain their passing advantage on the field, while Porto held on to the defensive counterattack and waited for China City to make a mistake, but what they waited for was a goal from Pelle in the 57th minute.

After taking a two-goal lead, Chinatown took the initiative to qualify, but it also greatly stimulated Porto.

In the last half hour, the Portuguese Super League team launched a steady stream of attacks towards Chinatown like crazy, and Jackson Martinez, supported by Devoor, Varela and other teammates, attacked the goal of Chinatown again and again.

Mauricio Pochettino's side had to switch to defensiveness, with Godin and Miranda withstanding the attack from Porto, making it difficult for Porto to face the goal directly and holding on to a 2-0 scoreline.

Especially in the 89th minute, Porto player Devore received a second yellow card, and after being sent off with a red card, the pressure on Chinatown was relaxed, and finally narrowly won 2-0, and the aggregate score was 2-1 to successfully reverse Porto to advance.

After advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League again, the whole of Chinatown fell into a carnival, and all the substitutes rushed into the stadium one after another, in front of more than 10,000 fans, celebrating the team's promotion.

But coach Pochettino, who was standing on the sidelines, frowned because he was well aware of the team's problems.

Lack of offense!

It stands to reason that Porto's defense is not tight, and the back line led by Mangala is also very young and inexperienced, if Chinatown's attack plays better, the game can be played more easily, and even a big win is not impossible, but now it is so dangerous to win.

The most obvious is reflected in the first leg, when China City was in the ascendancy, but the opponent scored through a counterattack, which was a painful blow to both the players and the coaching staff.

In the second leg of the game, the coaching staff learned from the pain and began to adjust their tactics, no longer obsessing with passing in the midfield, but allowing players to pass through the midfield quickly, and try to play goals more easily and efficiently.

The second goal basically reflected this line of thinking of the coaching staff, launching a quick counterattack after breaking the ball, driving directly to the front court to find Pelle, and then Pelle used his stable back-to-back ball technique to unload the ball and launch an attack.

On the other hand, the first goal was a typical Barcelona goal.

But it's clear that Pochettino feels his side should pursue the second.

"Michelle, it's time for us to make adjustments and changes. ”

Pochettino said to the assistant coach next to him, Michel D'Agostino.

He also knew in his heart that this choice also represented the first disagreement between him and the management led by Gao Han and Cantarero.

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While China City struggled to defeat Porto 2-1 at home and successfully broke through from the round of 16 knockout round, Gao Han also led Paris Saint-Germain to advance.

According to the rules of the Champions League knockout round, the first leg of the group leader is away, and China City beat Celtic 3-0 away without any suspense, and Suarez opened the scoring for Paris Saint-Germain just three minutes into the game.

Di Maria and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then scored to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the first leg.

Back at the Parc des Princes in Paris, PSG played more relaxedly.

Neymar opened the scoring after just five minutes, before the Brazilian added to the net in the 39th minute.

After going into the break with a 2-0 scoreline, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added another goal in the 55th minute to make it 3-0, followed by three successive substitutions, but Marcelo's goal in the 84th minute sealed the game.

With a score of 4-0 and an aggregate score of 7-0, Paris Saint-Germain defeated Celtic by great strength and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.

This also made Paris Saint-Germain famous in European football again, becoming the strongest and sharpest attacking team in the two legs of the round of 16 knockout rounds.

However, Paris Saint-Germain was able to stand out, but there were also teams that were eliminated.

Arsenal met Bayern Munich in the round of 16 and were eliminated by Heynckes' side, who ultimately failed to qualify.

Manchester United and Inter Milan also performed poorly in the knockout rounds and failed to advance, especially Inter Milan, who did not play very well in the group stage this season, and in the round of 16, they were defeated by Barcelona and missed the promotion.

The Nerazzurri's problem is mainly in terms of metabolism, as the team built by Gao Han is gradually aging, and Adriano on the front line is over 30 years old, and the state is difficult to guarantee, the team's attack and defense have also been in crisis.

That is, the midfield, and players such as Hamsik and Marchisio are struggling to support, and the problem is not obvious.

However, after opening a new stadium this season, Inter Milan's income has increased significantly, and Moratti has already threatened to increase his transfer efforts this summer after his heavy elimination, especially in the forward and defensive lines.

And after playing the Champions League round of 16 knockout round, everyone has also set their eyes on Nyon, Switzerland.

This is where the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League will be made.

(End of chapter)