After four league games, Manchester City are about to travel to play their first Champions League group stage game away.

They will be away to take on Czech giants Plzeň.

Plzeň is not a strong team, although they are very strong in the domestic league, but Czech football is not too strong in Europe, and the Czech league is also not ranked in Europe.

Therefore, the only difficulty in this game for Manchester City is the distance.

After the fourth round of the Premier League, they are on their way to the Czech Republic, thousands of kilometres away, and City only have three days to prepare between the two games.

This is also one of the reasons why Gao Bo made a rotation in the fourth round of the league.

Following City's arrival in the Czech Republic, journalists will of course pay more attention to defending champions City in their pre-match press conference.

"Mr. Gao Bo, what are City's goals in the Champions League this season?"

A reporter stood up and asked.

"We are defending the championship, and of course the goal is to go for the final championship!" Gao Bo was blunt.

For the current Manchester City, there is no possibility of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger.

It's impossible for an elephant to hide behind a mouse, and if someone says that Manchester City are weak, it will be a joke.

However, Gao Bo's unadorned championship declaration also made the reporters present look at each other.

"Since the Champions League was restructured, no team has successfully defended the Champions League, what do you think about that?" A local reporter asked.

"Of course, the Champions League is really difficult, but it's man-made. We were able to win the Champions League last season, so why can't we this season? I don't believe in any spells, all spells are just because of lack of strength. Gao Bo said.

"Do you think Manchester City is good enough?"

Gao Bo looked at the reporter, then nodded and said: "I have the best players in the world, and my team is naturally the best team, they can beat any opponent!" ”

Next, after the reporters asked a few more questions, Gao Bo left the press conference.

.....

The next day, before the start of the match, the media reported on the match and emphasized Gaobo's "extraordinary confidence".

"Coach Gao Bo seems to be too confident in his team, we know that there are many strong teams in history, some of them are even more dominant than Manchester City now, but they can't complete the task of defending the Champions League, and the probability of Manchester City wanting to accomplish this is too low."

"When many teams succeed, they become the target of public criticism, all opponents will study their style of play and develop tactical measures, and the desire for the title is unrivalled before winning the Champions League, and after winning the Champions League, the desire for the title will inevitably decline."

A similar sentiment has been expressed in many media outlets.

In fact, this is not unreasonable.

Many teams may encounter this problem after winning the championship, and that is the problem of the hunger and thirst of the main players.

Football is a sport that requires full dedication and passion, and when teams don't have passion, no matter how strong they are, they can be beaten by their opponents.

......

It is impossible to say that Gao Bo is not at all worried about the team's declining hunger for victory.

He was thinking about that before the end of last season.

In the first few rounds of the Premier League, the team performed very well. But the teams we met in the first four rounds were not strong teams, so we couldn't see anything coming out.

Before the start of the game, when the players returned to the dressing room after warming up from the pitch.

As is customary, Gao Bo carried out the final battlefield mobilization before the start of the game.

The players tidy up their gear.

The main players change into jerseys, put on their boots and lace up.

Gao Bo watched the players busy.

When the players were almost finished, Gao Bo waved.

The players were quick to take a look, too.

Gao Bo looked at these young eyes, these are the players he has chosen, and he believes that these guys have definitely not lost their desire for the championship and victory.

"Some people say that after we win the championship, we will be content with the status quo, and we will lie on the credit of the past and will not want to get up." Gao Bo said.

"But I won't believe that, because I know you guys very well. Every single one of you is my player, and every single one of you is a fighter! ”

"You will not wallow in the glory of the past, and you will not be tired of victory!"

Gao Bo said with a finger outstretched.

"Now, tell me, am I right?"

"To !!"

The players collectively replied loudly.

........

Gao Bo's system also doesn't have a race hunger tester.

So he can only observe from the game.

Although the game was played away from home, it was not long before the Manchester City players got into the groove.

In the fifth minute of the game, after a few minutes of acclimatization to the away environment, Manchester City began to try to attack.

David Silva received the ball on the right side of the backfield and turned around and dribbled across half court!

Antoine Griezmann pulled from the middle to the wing and helped David Silva lead the way through the middle.

And while David Silva continued to dribble the ball down the middle, Pearson's players had to shrink down the middle!

In the nick of time, David Silva passed the ball to the unguarded Antoine Griezmann!

A simple dribble forward can throw the opponent's defense into chaos.

Gao Bo shook his head from the sidelines.

Such an opponent cannot test anything.

It was too easy for City to win against a team like Plzeň.

In fact, this time in the attack, Manchester City scored a goal.

Antoine Griezmann dribbled forward, and when Pearson's defence moved to this side, Griezmann picked the ball to the back post!

Sanchez rushes straight to the back post and volleys with his right foot!

The football flew into the goal without any suspense.

Manchester City opened the scoring, 1-0!

And once you score, the rest is much simpler.

City slowly controlled the tempo of the pitch, mobilizing Plzeň's movement with passes.

In the 28th minute of the game, Griezmann faked a shot on the line of the penalty area, and immediately volleyed with his right foot after bursting into the penalty area with the ball!

The ball whizzed in from the top corner of the goal and crashed into the net!

Two to zero!!

In the 73rd minute of the second half, David Silva was violated with the ball in the penalty area and fell to the ground, and the referee awarded a penalty.

Antoine Griezmann scored from the penalty spot and the score became 3-0!

In the end, Manchester City won 3-0 away at Pearson to claim their first Champions League group stage victory.

And just how strong is the desire of Manchester City's players for the title... I'm afraid it still needs to be tested by a strong team.