City were well prepared for the game against Arsenal – the week before was the FA Cup matchday, and City did not have this game, which gave them a certain rest, and although the game against Arsenal was followed by the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, Dick still fielded a large number of players on hand in this game.

Vidal started the game, Deco was on the bench, and although Arsenal had suffered a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the previous league game, Cesc Fabregas's injury was a big factor, and their squad was much more complete in this game, and their recent form has been quite good.

However, the lack of quality at the back, without excellent defenders, Arsenal still did not get too good results, and in this game, Dick took advantage of this to beat Arsenal away from home through a head-to-head battle!

Ribery, Fernando Torres, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany each scored to make Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie useless as City beat Arsenal 4-2 away to maintain a five-point advantage over Manchester United!

Manchester United, on the other hand, beat Aston Villa 3-2 in this game and continued to chase after them.

Even if there are only seven rounds left in the league, Ferguson knows that Manchester United is not without opportunities.

After beating Arsenal away, Dick flew directly to Spain with the whole Arsenal team, and three days later it was the away game against Villarreal, and Manchester City played away first and then at home, which is good news.

This season's Villarreal and Villarreal, which became the biggest dark horse a few years ago, have changed a lot, Riquelme, a genius with a strange temper, began to make mistakes again after playing well in Villarreal for two years, and now he has returned to Argentina to play, and Forlan and Jose Mari, who formed a trident with Villarreal at that time, have also left Villarreal, and now Villarreal has a completely different set of lineups.

There are no superstars in this squad, but there is no shortage of quality players, such as Diego López, Senna, Carney, Ibargasa, Llorente...... Add to that a talented youngster, Giuseppe Rossi, and their impressive results this season are not just a matter of luck.

However, they were able to enter the quarterfinals, but there is also an element of luck, although they were in a group with Manchester United in the group stage, but the remaining two opponents are one from Denmark and one from Croatia, and they have not been able to create too much pressure on them, and after qualifying for the second place in the group, they met the weakest team in the group, Panathinaikos, and defeated the opponent over two legs to enter the quarterfinals, and Villarreal has not actually encountered too many top teams in the Champions Cup so far.

Their manager Manuel Pellegrino is well aware of this, so even at their home turf, Villarreal is mainly defending and counter-attacking, trying to get a good result at home, and then going away to fight - which is also a very good option for a weak team.

After all, for Villarreal, their only self-perceived advantage is that they are relatively experienced in the Champions League, while Manchester City have shown that this season in the Champions League has been attacking opponents, and if they encounter defense on the road, maybe they will have some emotional swings......

It's a pity that even if Manchester City don't have enough experience, with Dick, their experience won't be too much of a problem.

However, for this game, Manchester City's biggest enemy is not the opponent on the field, but luck......

After the start of the game, Manchester City encountered a stubborn defense on the road, while Villarreal took the lead through a counter-attack - a long pass from the back, Llorente's header was ferried, Rossi controlled the ball in the front of the box and then passed back, and the follow-up Senna met the ball with a beautiful world wave, the ball went over Hart's hand and flew into the corner of the goal, Villarreal took the lead at home!

This goal did not cause any psychological turmoil for the Manchester City players, after all, their tactics are offensive tactics, and it is not a big deal to concede a goal away from home, as long as they can score away from home, then it will be their opponent who will start to be disadvantaged.

However, in the next game, Manchester City's luck seems to have started to get worse, Dick originally sent Deco in this game, intending to use his experience in the Champions League and familiarity with La Liga teams, but twenty minutes after the game, in a midfield scramble, Deco fell to the ground and could not be retired, and the team doctor diagnosed that Deco had a thigh strain and had to leave the field......

Faced with such a situation, Dick frowned, and then sent Vidal, originally Deco was only a tactical target, but if it was replaced by Vidal, the impact would not be great.

However, five minutes later, Ribery's face began to change - after all, Ribery has been a core player for Manchester City since he joined, and if his injury is serious at this time, it will have a huge impact on Manchester City's next two-front battle!

"I have a sprained right ankle and need to rest for two weeks."

The doctor's report made Dick a little more relaxed, but it meant that, at least in this knockout round, Villarreal's two matches would not be able to use Ribery's power......

Manchester City's two consecutive big players were injured and went down, which made Pellegrino a little more happy, because before this, Manchester City's attack had suppressed Villarreal, and Villarreal's defense had shown signs of loosening under Manchester City's suppression, and at this time, the fate of Ribery and Deco would undoubtedly have a huge impact on Manchester City's attack!

Without Deco, their passes would have one less stop, and without Ribery, they would have one less sharp knife capable of tearing through the opponent's defense!

The impact of this absence of core-level players is not so easy to eliminate!

Sure enough, in the rest of the game, City's attack began to get messy, and they were unable to create too many chances until the end of the first half!

Manuel Pellegrino felt he could have been bolder, a 1-0 lead at home was not enough security, and he didn't know if Ribery and Deco would be able to play in the second leg if they could take a two-goal lead at home......

At half-time, he switched to attacking midfielder Fernandes, trying to strengthen the attack in the second half and try to extend the lead!

However, this approach has had a bad effect, and now Manchester City's positional attack seems to be somewhat lacking, after all, Vidal's deep passing ability is not as good as Deco's, Bale's fast breakthrough is only effective on the wing, and his passing ability is far inferior to Ribery's, but when Villarreal launched an attack, Dick successfully let the team launch a defensive counterattack.

With Villarreal's backfield starting to show huge gaps, Bale's pace began to play to the fullest!

It was in the eighteenth minute of the second half that Bale forced a breakthrough with speed on the side, got rid of the defense of the opposing full-back, and then passed the ball into the penalty area, Torres, who had his back to the goal, stopped the ball on his chest, and then hung the golden hook upside down for the first time! Diego López couldn't react to such a sudden shot and the ball went under his armpit into the net!

This golden goal gave Manchester City a precious draw away from home, although it was not able to win, but a draw with goals was enough for Manchester City to have a certain advantage when they returned to their home stadium!

'The injuries to Deco and Ribery have caused us some problems...... But we still have a lot of good players and we will use a win to qualify in the next home game...... Franck Franck Ribery should be available in the first leg of the semi-finals, and we will use this match to welcome him back! ”

Dick was adamant in his post-match press conference, and when he returned to the league, Dick hid most of his main players – he was not afraid to drop points in this game with a five-point advantage anyway.

In this league, Manchester City's substitutes looked quite competitive, Manchester City was led by Fulham twice at home, but twice stubbornly equalized, and before the end, Di Natale's goalmouth shot completed the stunner, Manchester City beat Fulham 3-2, and continued to lead Manchester United by five points!

There are still six rounds left in the league, at this time, the five-point lead is quite a lot, after all, every game, Manchester United's hope of catching up is much smaller, as long as Manchester City has not been pulled by Manchester United, then Manchester City's advantage will not be shaken!

And in the second leg of the Champions Cup knockout round, Dick showed the world his shamelessness again.

Before the game, he vowed to welcome the return of Ribery and Deco with attack, but after the game began, the Villarreal team found that Manchester City were facing them with a more rigid defensive line......

In the first half, Manchester City used defense to make Villarreal's attack useless, and the forward trident of Bale, Ashley Young and Benzema sent by Dick in this game was a pure counter-attacking formation!

If it is 0-0, then Villarreal will be eliminated, in such a helpless situation, Villarreal in the second half can only helplessly launch a fierce attack, and then they swallowed the bitter fruit, Bale in the second half of the twenty-sixth minute of a counterattack to form a single knife, in the face of the attacking goalkeeper he pushed the far corner to score, relying on such a goal, Manchester City defeated Villarreal 1-0 at home, eliminated Villarreal with a score of 2-1 in two legs, and advanced to the semi-finals!

"Shameless? If you think that a manager's pre-game psychological warfare, smoke bombs, or anything can be called shameless, then I can only say that you grew up in a vacuum. A game is a game, within the scope of the rules, any means are allowed, my opponent can also lie to me, if I am deceived by them, then it can only mean that I am not good enough, and I will not babble that the opponent is shameless. It's not the Middle Ages anymore, and the kind of stupid war that sprints face-to-face with a spear has long been eliminated, and my approach is the practice of smart people, and if you don't know how to do it, it only means that you are not smart enough. ”

Dick was rather dismissive of this argument after the game, in his opinion, he was just using the least effort to win, and now that he has led Manchester City to the last four of the Champions League, he is just one step away from the final, Manchester City fans are looking forward to their first Champions League title in the club's history, and Dick is also looking forward to his huge prize money.