Chapter 501: Champions League Draw
Eight goals are still less, Wang Dalong can say it, these words undoubtedly sprinkled another handful of salt on Galatasaray's wounds, but Wang Dalong felt very good.
Galatasaray shocked the entire football world by swallowing eight eggs. Although I had a hunch that the result of this match would be very surprising, it was not a big surprise.
"After beating Liverpool 6-5 in the league and beating Galatasaray 8-0 in the Champions League, Manchester City announced to the world that they have returned to the king, and any opponent will tremble! The Chinese king's strong performance in the game was the key to the big victory, and he has been the key to Manchester City's victory. ”
The scoreline was terrible, but City's dominance in the game was even more terrifying, and the same Manchester City team that other teams feared before the start of the season finally appeared, showing the world the worst form in the penultimate round of the Champions League.
Now the Manchester City team really has a state of killing gods and killing Buddhas, and their next opponent probably wants to cry and faint in the toilet, playing at the Etihad home and Manchester City, now it will definitely be a huge nightmare, no matter who the opponent is, it has to be weighed, and the tragedy is the Wolves.
Wolves, the name is certainly very good, but it seems that Manchester City is the wolf, they are just sheep......
The big win in the Champions League allowed Manchester City to get ten points, sit in the first place in the group, and successfully qualify from Group B, and only who is second in Group B remains.
Parma won 1-0 at home to Ajax in this round, reaching 6 points and in third place, Galatasaray although they lost to Manchester City away, they still have 7 points in their hands, and the two sides will face off in the final round, and whoever wins will finish second in the group.
Fate is in their hands, and no one can help them.
In addition to Manchester City's first group qualification, there are several teams that have qualified strongly, the defending champion Real Madrid won all five games and won the group early, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are the first to qualify in the group, that is to say, three of Spain's four teams are the first to qualify in the group, and the strength is quite strong.
Germany's Bayern Munich also did not face any opponents, also topping the group, Ligue 1's Paris Saint-Germain also did not waste much effort, and England also had Manchester United and Liverpool.
The traditional strong teams have basically qualified strongly, and some such as Chelsea, Inter Milan, etc. still have to look at the results of the final round.
Overall, this year will be another year for traditional powerhouses to continue their strong performances......
"It's nice to finish first in the group, but if it's second in the group, who knows if they will meet Manchester City early?" Real Madrid's new coach Robert Lotpaigi bravely admitted in an interview with the media that he did not want to meet Manchester City too soon.
Real Madrid are now the second most attacking team in Europe after Manchester City and the defending champions, aiming to defend the Champions League this season and win the Champions League for the fourth time in a row.
If these two teams meet early, it will be Mars hitting Earth......
The coach of another La Liga team, Barcelona, expressed a different opinion, Valverde appeared very calm: "If you want to win the Champions League, you have to beat all the teams, Pep Guardiola's team is certainly very good, but Barcelona also has great hopes this year, and both sides will meet sooner or later." ”
I don't know where Valverde got his confidence, but has he forgotten the pain of last season at Roma so quickly? Even Roma can't figure it out, how can they get Manchester City.
Among the major spinach companies in Europe, Barcelona is still not favored by spinach companies, they are only in seventh place in the odds to win the championship, behind Manchester City, Real Madrid, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United and Bayern Munich, which seems to be the lowest ranking in these years, and they were basically in the top three before.
Perhaps, as Messi ages, Barcelona will also fall further!
The teams that finished second in the group were low-key as they first had to secure a place from the group before considering knockout opponents, such as Inter Milan, Roma and Parma......
In the league weekend, Pep Guardiola didn't let the team go on a rampage.
Wolves were lucky, Pep Guardiola had no interest in starting another slaughter, because he wanted to rest the main players, only retaining the core of the front and back in the starting lineup, Aguero replaced Wang Dalong as the center forward, in midfield, De Bruyne and Silva were both on the bench, and Stones and Walker at the back did not start.
Wang Dalong simply didn't even enter the squad, he was so willful, so Chiguoguo 'looked downon' the Wolves.
In addition, Pep Guardiola also brought two players from the youth team to the bench and gave the youth team players a chance.
But even so, Manchester City still won 2-0 at home. Wolves didn't need the main force of Manchester City to show up at all, and they had already raised their hands and surrendered.
However, the lottery players who bought Manchester City's big win didn't buy it, and they were miserable by the Manchester City team, thinking that the Manchester City team would continue to fry the Wolves by four or five goals, but I didn't expect the score to be so dirty.
If it were any other team, a 2-0 score would have been impressive, but for Manchester City, it doesn't seem to fit their identity......
In any case, getting a win is the most basic goal of the Manchester City team, and Manchester United next door has not fallen behind, although the score is not conspicuous, but there is no gap in the standings. Although Manchester City's two games were beautiful, the low-key Manchester United seemed even more terrifying.
Pep Guardiola always feels that Jose Mourinho's side have been eyeing Manchester City, and as long as Manchester City is careless, Manchester United will complete the comeback, and the two teams are now the same number of points, but the number of goals is different.
Both sides were waiting for the other to make a mistake, and now both teams can't make a mistake! The state is all in pretty good shape.
Then the Europa League once again entered the international break, and Euro 2020 qualifiers were back in action, with members of each club's national team returning to play for their countries.
After returning, it is inevitable that someone will be injured. It's just that Manchester City has not been under pressure recently, and Guardiola can almost put out two main lineups.
Wang Dalong had no games to play on the national team day, and the Chinese team had too few games, so he got plenty of rest, and under his leadership, Wang Dalong dragged the semi-main force to easily win the league opponent Huddersfield away from home.
Then it comes to the final round of the Champions League, and Manchester City can still do not need to play the main game, because they have already secured the right to qualify for the top of the group.
In the Netherlands, Manchester City still beat Ajax, got 13 points, and still won the group.
However, Wang Dalong was ridiculed by the English Times that day, and instead of following the team to the Netherlands, he flew to Italy, where he witnessed Parma defeat Galatasaray at home to qualify for the knockout rounds as group runners-up.
The Times bluntly said: "The king of Manchester City still thinks he is a Parma, but he has played for Manchester City for almost half a season, doesn't he feel ashamed, why does this make Manchester City fans embarrassed?" ”
In the face of the Times' sarcasm, Wang Dalong directly countered: "I go to watch which team to play during my vacation, do I still have to get the consent of the Times?" I just like Parma, what's wrong with the team? Could it be that I went to see the London City team and they would be satisfied? ”
"But don't worry, we'll be in the city next week to say hello."
Next week? Naturally, it is Arsenal at home, and Wang Dalong will definitely start as the main force at that time, so that there is no need to worry about running out of topics.
However, there are two things to do for Wang Dalong at the moment, the first thing is to fly to UEFA headquarters to meet Pep Guardiola, and then go to France......
The first, of course, is the draw for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, and the second is to participate in this year's European Ballon d'Or ceremony.
The 16 teams that made it to the knockout round are:
Group top: Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid;
Group runners-up: Roma, Chelsea, Juventus, Sevilla, Inter Milan, Porto, Parma, RB Leipzig.
The second place in the group is very tight, and this year's group first is too strong for anyone to provoke, but the most difficult to provoke should be Manchester City.
In second place in the group, Chelsea, Sevilla and Juventus are the stronger ones. Other teams, more or less weak, especially Inter Milan and Parma, who are back in the Champions League, may not be under pressure to be the top of the group.
Regardless, the draw made every manager's heart beat up and down.
The first group to be drawn was Atletico Madrid, and their luck seemed to be good, and they actually drew RB Leipzig!
No one was left with luck, followed by Bayern Munich, who drew Porto.
Liverpool were drawn out by the third, after which their opponent quickly surfaced that it was Sevilla, and it was not a good match! Both teams have distinct characteristics and are teams that are not afraid of any opponent.
Then, they drew Real Madrid, and their luck was terrible, or Chelsea's luck was terrible, and the two teams actually met.
Manchester United ran into Roma.
Juventus vs Paris Saint-Germain.
Barcelona drew Parma......
Finally, Manchester City vs Inter Milan.
"It's a tragedy......" Crespo of Parma was visibly frustrated, not expecting to run into the mighty Barcelona.
For Parma, they beat Barcelona in the first round, and their fate is indeed too tragic, and there is no more tragic ending than this, but who is not the same? None of the opponents who won the group were easy to provoke.
Parma plays the same against anyone, and it's actually similar to change opponents, didn't Roma also overturn Barcelona last season?
Although Barcelona are the favourites every year, they have not reached the last four in the last five years......
Of course, Parma were not as unlucky as Inter Milan, who met the strongest Manchester City.
After the knockout rounds, Manchester City topped the title table, followed by Real Madrid and then Manchester United.
Manchester City's two recent games with big goals have put the whole of Europe in the spotlight, and no one wants to touch Manchester City.
Overall, the knockout rounds were fairly balanced, with the exception of Real Madrid vs Chelsea and Juventus vs Paris, which met a bit prematurely.
Inter Milan is now a Chinese-controlled club with a wide fan market in China itself, and for Chinese fans, this is the last thing they want to see. The palms and backs of the hands are full of meat, but if they are allowed to choose, they will naturally support Wang Dalong.
Because Wang Dalong is the only hope for Chinese football.
For Manchester City, it doesn't matter if they draw any opponent, Manchester City's goal is to win the Champions League, so they have to win all their opponents, just like last year, Real Madrid killed all the strong opponents on the way to the third consecutive title and won the final title, this year's Manchester City will do the same, no matter who is in the way, so they are the easiest.
Facing Inter Milan in the quarter-finals, they actually have one foot in the threshold of the quarter-finals.
After a trip to Nyon, Switzerland, Guardiola accompanied Wang Dalong to France.
At the 2018 European Ballon d'Or ceremony in Paris, France, Wang Dalong was shortlisted for the final top five, but his call for victory was not the highest.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the first, Neymar is second, and Messi, Salah and Wang Dalong are vying for third. Wang Dalong's performance in the World Cup is higher than Messi and Salah, so he has a great chance of finishing third.
And the odds offered by the spinach company are also very consistent with reality, at the door of the Golden Globe Awards party, for the first time, so many Chinese media and British media gathered, for China, this is the first time, and for England, for the first time, two players have been shortlisted for the top five of the Golden Globe Awards, although Salah and Wang Dalong are not British, but they are both successful in England, Wang Dalong Although only half a season, but the British are also glorious.
It's a pity that Messi didn't come to Paris this year, a few days before the awards party, the Barcelona club informed the organizing committee that because of the busy event, Messi didn't have time to come, but everyone knew that Messi didn't participate in the game at all, and there was only one reason for him not to come, that is, he fell out of the top three.
For Messi, it can even be said to be a shame, because he has never fallen out of the top three over the years, no, it should be the top two, this time there is not even the top three, which means that he is one step away from the stage.
Cristiano Ronaldo is still the most glamorous figure, if he wins the Ballon d'Or again, it means that he will get the sixth, surpassing Messi and becoming the guy who has won the most Ballon d'Or in football history......