On January 18, the 18th round of the 2004-05 Premier League season was contested at Ewood Park, between Blackburn Rovers and Norwich City. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

It was a game of great disparity, far less intense than Blackburn's last Premier League fixture - in the previous 17th round of the Premier League, in the absence of Ibrahimovic, Blackburn held a 2-2 draw away to Arsenal, who were chasing points behind them, and remained unbeaten in the season.

The reason why this Blackburn and Norwich game will be the focus is because of the arrival of the Ballon d'Or.

Accompanied by the team song, the home team players entered the stadium, and the most eye-catching was Ibrahimovic, who smiled and held the golden ball to show it to the crowd at Ewood Park, and the Blackburn fans were also excited, they chanted "Ibrahimovic, Ibrahimovic", and in the stands, Blackburn Rover's senior management, including chairman Arthur, also stood up and applauded Ibrahimovic.

Of course, Ibrahimovic also knew that the Ballon d'Or was not just an honor for one person, and in the end, he placed the Ballon d'Or in front of his teammates and took a photo together.

Blackburn fans came to pay tribute to their champions, and in the Ewood Park stands, a huge Ibrahimovic pattern was particularly prominent, covering the four floors of the Ewood Park stands. Coupled with the transmission of hundreds of fans, the movement is extremely shocking, and the Blackburn fans pay their respects and worship to the new Ballon d'Or Mr. Ibrahimovic in this way.

Ibrahimovic quickly responded to the fans with a performance, and after captain Duff created a penalty opportunity, Ibrahimovic hit the penalty and received applause from the fans in the stadium and even the opposing fans.

Subsequently, Ibrahimovic also sent an assist to help Cristiano Ronaldo score, and just after 30 minutes of the game, Ibrahimovic had both goals and assists. Just when the fans were expecting Ibrahimovic to continue to be invincible in the second half, Blackburn made a substitution on the sidelines, replacing Ibrahimovic with Drogba!

For Blackburn, it is rare to replace Ibrahimovic after half-time, which has fans vaguely worried about Ibrahimovic.

Subsequently, a number of media in England disclosed the reason why Ibrahimovic was substituted, and some said that Ibrahimovic was replaced because of injury, but the situation was not serious. Some revealed that Ibrahimovic was slightly unwell in his muscles and was replaced to prevent injury. Ibrahimovic also updated his social network for the first time, but did not mention the reason for the substitution.

After the game, Arthur learned from the team doctor that Ibrahimovic was too tired in the previous sprint to win the Ballon d'Or, and the accumulated minor injuries have not been healed, so after ensuring the victory of this game, Mourinho decisively replaced Ibrahimovic, and the Blackburn laboratory also prescribed a diagnosis that he needed to recuperate for a week.

However, Blackburn's lack of Ibrahimovic, who have a staggering depth in the Christmas schedule, has hardly been affected in the slightest, as the positions of Didier Drogba and Larsson can make up for Ibrahimovic's short-term absence.

However, although Ibrahimovic was unable to play, Arthur still included Ibrahimovic in Blackburn's squad for the Toyota Cup, simply because he needed the new Ballon d'Or to attract more Asian fans to Blackburn.

The Toyota Cup, which is an annual competition between the winners of the European Champions Cup and the Copa Libertadores and other continental champions, was formerly known as the Intercontinental Cup. Since 2005, the Toyota Cup will be replaced by the FIFA World Club Champions Cup, so this Toyota Cup is also the last, and Blake is considered to have caught the last train.

Blackburn's opponent in the Toyota Cup is a little-known club Caldas.

Can you imagine a team from an unsung town in the Alps who wiped out Real Madrid, Juventus and Arsenal in the Champions League and won the Toyota Cup? This is probably even more incredible than the myth of the European Championship created by Rehhagel.

However, this is a fact that happened in the last edition of the Copa Libertadores, where the protagonist was named 'Caldas'. It was probably not until the Toyota Cup came into the limelight again that many people heard the name for the first time.

Caldas is located in the city of Manizales in the foothills of the Andes, after winning the Colombian league championship for the first time, got the third chance to participate in the Copa Libertadores, and finally won the championship, including the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Brazilian duo Santos and Sao Paulo, in the two-legged final after a penalty shootout defeated the defending champion Boca Juniors, the most commendable, won the reputation of "giant killer".

In fact, the biggest hero in the "killer" is the goalkeeper, the 32-year-old Hainao saved Boca's first four penalties in the final penalty shootout, and suddenly became a national hero in Colombia. In the final match for the Colombian domestic league title, Hainao also saved four penalties and scored one of his own, and the fans gave him the nickname "New Iquita".

However, after winning the championship, many main players in the Caldas team were lost, the main striker Valentino went to Saudi Arabia to pan for gold, Sergio Rey went to the New York Metropolitans, and the scorer Agudero was expelled for being found to be smoking ******, and Caldas, who had greatly reduced his strength, returned to his dwarf nature, with a mediocre record in the domestic league, with 8 wins, 4 draws, 6 losses, and 28 points, ranking 7th among the 18 teams in the league.

Coach Montoya, who is accustomed to the 4321 formation, told the media before leaving Bogota that he has carefully studied the characteristics of the opponent Porto team and will continue to play a defensive counter-attack in the Toyota Cup. In order to defend the honor of Colombian football, his players will fight on the pitch until the last minute.

In the face of such an opponent, even if Blackburn's main rotation lineup only played half time, Ronaldo, Deco and Robben scored three goals in the first half, and Bentley, who came off the bench in the second half, added icing on the cake, and finally won the championship trophy of the last Toyota Cup with a score of 4:0!

After returning home, Blackburn Rovers began their crazy streak of winning points in the league again: in the 19th round, 1:0 Aston Villa; Round 20, 2:0 Portsmouth; Round 21, 1:0 Liverpool; Round 22, 2:0 Middleston; Round 23, 2:0 Tottenham; Round 24, 3:0 Portsmouth.

In the final round of the Champions League group stage during the league period against the Greek powerhouse Olympiacos, Blackburn also defeated the opponent who had no hope of qualifying 3:0.

In the domestic cup competition, Blackburn Rovers also easily defeated Watford with a score of 5:1 over two legs and successfully entered the final of the English league.

While Blackburn Rovers were triumphant in the fourth-tier arena, they also quickly completed a deal after the winter transfer window opened, signing Dutch defender Edgar Davies from Serie A giants Inter Milan, and the latter was only a free transfer for Blackburn Rovers at no cost.

Davis is not tall but physically strong, full of energy, explosive, and aggressive on the field, so he has the nickname "Bulldog", but Arthur is more familiar with the nickname "Wild Boar" given to him by domestic fans in his previous life.

Davis suffers from glaucoma, so he has to wear sports glasses on the court. This unusual pair of glasses and his perennial pigtail hairstyle make him one of the most eye-catching players on the pitch.

As he grew older, Davies was unable to agree on an annual salary with Juventus last season, and ended up on loan at Barcelona during the winter transfer window, helping Barcelona become the best La Liga team in the first half of 2004. This summer, after the expiration of his contract with Juventus, the two sides were still at an impasse over salary, and Davies chose to leave.

A champion player like Davis never worries about running out of buyers. This summer, between Milan and Barcelona, Davies opted for Inter Milan because the latter's high salary offer attracted the Dutchman, who also wanted to straighten out Inter's chaotic midfield line.

But this time it was Davies who was wrong, the cronyistic Mancini believed in the veteran Stankovic he brought from Lazio, the Serbian and the black firmly occupied a main position, and the other midfield position was competed by Davies and the team's soul Zanetti, Davies and the Inter captain did not have the slightest advantage in the competition.

Feeling deceived, Davis frequently complained to the media, which completely broke his relationship with Mancini. Halfway through the season, Davis was completely left in the cold.

At this time, Blackburn Rovers made an offer to buy, and Davies joined Blackburn as a free agent after negotiations with Inter Milan.

In fact, Blackburn is not short of people in the position of defensive midfielder, Makelele and Cambiaso are fully capable of rotation, and Li Tie can also be qualified as the team's substitute midfielder.

However, this season has been progressing smoothly on many fronts, Arthur's ambitions have also risen, not only hoping for the team to win the league and Champions League, but also the League Cup and FA Cup.

With Davis available at little to no cost, Arthur was moved and personally finalised the transfer.

And in Arthur's previous life, Davies also did a very good job after joining Tottenham Hotspur, making the team's midfield completely upgraded to a notch, usually one person does two or three people's things. Arthur didn't worry at all that he would spend money to keep Davis for nothing.

After Davies joined the team, Blackburn Rovers soon faced a tough battle against Chelsea, who are currently second only to Blackburn Rovers in the table.

This summer, the champion coach Louis van Gaal arrived, accompanied by his own descendants, the Dutch gang, and the owner Abou is also fully supportive, and it seems that the authority of the Dutch coach in the team will not be disobeyed.

But reality reminds us that any change that seeks to change the old order will inevitably be resisted. Louis van Gaal's arrival at Chelsea to promote his philosophy will not be smooth either. The Daily Mail was unshy about judging at the start of the season that Louis van Gaal might need to make some surprising moves to intimidate Chelsea's old forces and assert his authority.

As we all know, there has been no shortage of stars in the dressing room at Stamford Bridge since Abramou took over, and they all have an unusually high level of self-esteem, but now Chelsea stars should realise that no one can feel that they are more important than the club in front of Louis van Gaal, which means that no one dares to call themselves big names in front of Louis van Gaal.

When Van Gaal first arrived at Chelsea, the Chelsea team was full of stars and some of them were fighting in silos, and in order to establish his authority in the team's dressing room, Van Gaal spent more than two months battling various big names, and in the end, the Dutchman, whose willpower was as hard as steel, finally established himself as the biggest big name.

The most dramatic and representative part of this process was Van Gaal's taking off his pants and treating Spanish striker Morientes.

Morientes has been in astonishing form since joining Monaco last season and has become Chelsea's transfer champion this summer, believing that he is extremely important to the team, and the two have inevitably been at odds with the arrival of Louis van Gaal.

Van Gaal's first game fell to the heart of the team, Morientes, who wanted to play the role of the team's bridgehead, but Morientes was only willing to be the goalkeeper.

As a result, Van Gaal publicly criticized Morientes for not having a sense of teamwork: "If he wants to play alone, then he should play tennis, not football. ”

Louis van Gaal spent 10 games making changes to his previous line-up, a period when the team seemed to be leaderless and his own coaching ability was questioned. In the first four months, Louis van Gaal did not look like a match for Chelsea, and even the impact of Mutu's drug addiction prevented Chelsea from even finishing in the top four of the table.

There was even speculation at the time that Louis van Gaal would be sacked if Chelsea lost to Blackburn Rovers in the round of 10.

However, with four minutes left in the game, the score was 1-2 with Blackburn Rovers ahead. Van Gaal unexpectedly replaced centre-forward Morientes with defender Hut, putting the original centre-back Gallas into the centre-forward position, and the 69,000 home fans booed wildly, but the boos did not fall, and it took only two minutes for Gallas to head home to help the team come back to life, which also became a turning point in the team's season.

Despite the chaos of the start of the season, and although the favourites to win the title are still Blackburn Rovers, Louis van Gaal has clearly found a cure for Chelsea, and the veteran players and staff alike can feel that he has helped Chelsea gain confidence.

But now his work on and off the pitch has left many players and executives regretting that Ferguson should have been hired to take over as soon as he retired in May 2013.

Chelsea are now second in the table and will be in contention with Blackburn Rovers and Arsenal in the new year.

Stamford Bridge supporters believe the club's mood and confidence are improving thanks to the charismatic personality of the former Ajax and Barcelona boss.

In the next round of the league, Blackburn, the "old king" of the British league for the past few years, is about to welcome the most competitive challenger in the next few years. (To be continued.) )