Chapter 386: A Vision for the Future
As soon as the whistle blew at the end of the game, Atletico Madrid's substitutes and coaches rushed onto the pitch to celebrate the historic moment.
Simeone didn't forget to shake Guardiola's hand before going to celebrate with his teammates.
Compared with the elated Atletico Madrid players, the Bayern Munich players can only lick their wounds alone.
As soon as the game ended, a Bayern Munich player collapsed to the ground.
When we lost just one goal in the first leg, a lot of people felt it was an opportunity and we could knock out Atletico Madrid at home.
Unexpectedly, although they won at home, they could not change the fate of being eliminated.
The turning point occurred in the 83rd minute, because of Gao Zheng's goal......
After shaking hands with Simeone, Guardiola lowered his head and turned into the tunnel without exposing himself to the media cameras.
Although there is still a German Cup and Bundesliga title race ahead, the Champions League semi-final exit has already meant his failure in charge of Bayern Munich.
Although this game did not lose 0:4 on their home turf like two years ago, the result was no different......
It took him three years and he couldn't surpass his predecessor, Heynckes.
He was not able to replicate his own success at Barcelona.
Because of Heynckes' presence, his light at Bayern Munich has dimmed a lot, and he is almost like a loser......
In fact, his achievements at Bayern Munich are also difficult for many managers to match.
Sadly, when he leaves the position, there will probably be more talk about his Champions League defeat than about his record of seven league games ahead of schedule with Bayern Munich.
It can't be helped, football is so cruel.
Since you already have a good enough role model in front of you, it will naturally be compared to it, and if you can't do it, you will inevitably be ridiculed and criticized.
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Bayern Munich's Champions League loss, in addition to Bayern Munich fans, the saddest also includes Barcelona fans.
After being knocked out of the tournament by Atletico Madrid, they hoped that their former boss Pep Guardiola would lead Bayern Munich to avenge them.
After all, Pep Guardiola is a typical Barcelonan, how could he be indifferent to Barcelona suffering such a humiliation?
As a result, Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich was able to stop Atletico Madrid's progress and make the opponent the first team to reach this season's Champions League final!
If Barcelona had qualified, would they be the ones who have now secured a ticket to the final?
Many Barcelona fans were a little sour at this time......
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After the game, Gao Zheng showed his number and name in front of Bayern Munich fans after scoring a photo, which appeared on major websites and media.
and was crowned with titles such as "the man who killed Bayern Munich", "the man who made Guardiola leave the field", and "the Champions League hero of Atletico Madrid".
Although Gao Zheng's highlights in the whole game were not much, but the striker is like this, as long as you can score in the game, then the obscurity at other times doesn't matter at all.
Even if you spend the entire 89 minutes walking and sleepwalking, if you score the winning goal in the last minute, you can get everyone's cheers.
Of course, the premise is that you don't get replaced by the manager because of the previous 89 minutes of sleepwalking......
After scoring this goal against Bayern Munich, Gao Zheng's Champions League goal tally this season has reached thirteen. set a new high in his career.
That goal tally made him the second-highest scorer in the Champions League this season, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, who was number one.
The Portuguese has 16 Champions League goals, and one more goal would equal the record he set in 2013-2014 for goals in a single Champions League season.
It's not out of the question, as next up is Real Madrid's home game against Manchester City, and if he scores, he will equalise the record.
It will be difficult for Gao Zheng to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo, unless Ronaldo does not score a goal next, and he will have to score a hat trick in the Champions League final to tie his opponent.
But scoring a hat-trick in the Champions League is almost impossible to do...... Since the Champions League was restructured, no one has been able to accomplish this feat, not even superstars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the entire history of the Champions League, there are only three people who have scored a hat-trick in the final four times, namely Puskas, Di Stefano and Prati, of which Puskas scored two hat-tricks, one of which was a big four.
If nothing else, Gao Zheng is likely to lock up this season's Champions League Silver Boot - of course, this is not an honor, because it is not like the Golden Boot can have a trophy, and the Silver Boot will not have a silver boot trophy.
But even without accolades, being second in the Champions League single-season scorer list, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, is a remarkable achievement.
You must know that this is Gao Zheng's third Champions League season.
He scored 10 goals in his first Champions League season, the most of any player in his debut season.
He then scored eleven goals in the Champions League last season.
He has scored 13 more goals this season, one step at a time, and has made steady progress, which makes people look forward to his future.
If this trend continues, Cristiano Ronaldo's hard-earned record of 17 goals in a single season may not last long.
Just like Messi, it took a lot to equal Altafini's single-season record of 14 goals, which Cristiano Ronaldo broke in less than two years, and improved the record by three goals.
Everyone is looking forward to when this Gao Zheng will be able to break the record set by Cristiano Ronaldo.
At this time, no one raised any objections, thinking that Gao Zheng was not qualified to be compared with Ronaldo.
Through the continuous and stable performance in the past two seasons, everyone has gradually accepted the reality that Gao Zheng is probably the "third pole" player that world football is looking for, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Some people even boldly predicted that if Gao Zheng can lead Atletico Madrid to win the league championship and the Champions League, and have an outstanding performance in the Champions League final, he will be an upset at the European Ballon d'Or at the beginning of next year......
After all, by September this year, the Ballon d'Or hosted by France Football will end a six-year partnership with FIFA. The Ballon d'Or will be voted for by the managers and captains of the national teams, as was the case with FIFA, as was the case with France Football, which relied on more professional football journalists from major media outlets to vote for, rather than for the managers and captains of the national teams, as was the case with FIFA.
In this way, we can avoid the embarrassment of the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or selection, Sneijder, Xavi, Iniesta and others who performed well in the league, the Champions League and the World Cup, but finally lost to the more famous Messi, and the World Cup winner and the Champions League winner actually missed the Ballon d'Or, which caused an uproar at the time.
Since then, the impartiality of the FIFA Ballon d'Or award has been repeatedly questioned.
If FIFA still leads the selection of the Golden Ball, then Gao Zheng may win the Golden Ball Award, and the media will not say it, because if it is said, it will be shameful and considered nonsense.
But now the Golden Globe brand is back in "French Football", which makes many people see a little hope......
If only there was a Chinese player, he would be able to win the Golden Ball!
What a remarkable achievement!
It's so exciting just thinking about it that makes it hard to hold back.