The match between Millwall and Manchester City ended 2-0, with Millwall winning the 34th round.

The victory was not unexpected.

The Millwall fans were still happy after the game because the victory brought them closer to the title.

At the end of the game, the TV commentator also had a positive assessment of Millwall's performance, "In the late stages of the league, many teams have been affected, and their performance has not caught up with the first half of the schedule, but Millwall's performance seems to be more stable." ”

"It speaks to their growth. Judging by the game, we can all start to look forward to next season. ”

"If nothing else, next season Millwall will be no worse than they are now! In the title race, we also had to add the name of Millwall......"

After the game, Zhang Yang shook hands with Pierce, Pierce was very interested in Zhang Yang, he didn't care about the outcome of the game, but wanted to learn from Zhang Yang, "I don't know how Millwall succeeded, but I'm sure that there must be something to learn from your success." ”

Zhang Yang suddenly had a slight impression of Pierce.

The two walked and chatted until they reached the press conference.

As the losing party and the unnoticed side, few reporters were interested in Pierce, he answered a few questions and left, and when it was Zhang Yang's turn, the atmosphere was also hot, and the reporters scrambled to ask questions.

Zhang Yang didn't talk about the game again, and there was nothing to talk about the win over Manchester City, he just mentioned Curtis Weston, "I'm happy to see that our young players can also score, Curtis's name will be unfamiliar to many people, but I believe he will be Millwall's future!" ”

This positive comment was enough to put Weston on the media pages, and it attracted more media attention than his goal.

Then Zhang Yang talked about the team's situation, "We have to participate in the FA Cup tomorrow, and this game also makes the competition intensive, to be honest, there is a lot of pressure on the team, and it is not easy to play two games in two days." ”

'Everyone can feel the pressure from the packed schedule, the players, the coaching staff and the rest of the staff at the club. But that's the way it is in professional football, if you want to go further, you have to overcome the pressure. Tomorrow's game is more important and I hope everyone can stick with it and try to do better. ”

Journalists hurriedly wrote it down.

They took the rhetoric as 'a declaration of competition for the league and FA Cup'.

After the game, some media reported that "Millwall has a chance to win the double championship!" Maybe we have always had our eyes on the league before, but Millwall have also reached the last four of the FA Cup, and they are against Middlesbrough...... Sorry, that may seem disparaging to Middlesbrough, but that's the case, how many more scrappy games can that team have? ”

The media reports appeared to be satirizing Middlesbrough, but those in the know know that they were satirizing Mildersbrough manager McClaren.

McLaren was fired.

The FA has identified McClaren to take over the vacancy left by Eriksen, and McClaren will start leading England after the World Cup.

For the world's top coaches, leading England is not a big deal, but for an ordinary Premier League team and English manager, leading England not only means high-status work, but also symbolizes the honor of playing for the country.

McLaren's mood can be imagined.

Perhaps it was this excitement that led McClaren to leave his 'current job' at Middlesbrough behind, and since Christmas, Middlesbrough has dropped from eighth in the league to 14th.

Such a large drop made the media have no good evaluation of McLaren.

After the press conference, Zhang Yang was about to go back to the locker room when he met several Chinese reporters in front of the door.

At the press conference, there were a few Chinese reporters, Zhang Yang didn't pay much attention to it, because basically every game will appear Chinese reporters, and they will occasionally have the opportunity to ask questions, but at the press conference just now, the number of questions from reporters was not much, and the press officer did not specifically point to Chinese reporters.

Zhang Yang didn't want to talk much, he wanted to let the players rest well and prepare for tomorrow's game, but a reporter's question made him stop slightly, "Mr. Zhang, can you talk about Sun Jihai's performance?" ”

"Sun Jihai?"

In the game, Zhang Yang also noticed Sun Jihai, after all, he is also Chinese, and it is not easy to meet in English football, but he didn't care too much, because Sun Jihai can only be regarded as a qualified defender and a Manchester City player, but the reporter asked, and he said while walking, "Sun Jihai is a good player, I saw his performance, the defense is very tough, and the defensive running position with teammates is also good, which has caused a lot of interference to our attack." ”

This is a neutral assessment.

But Zhang Yang knew what the reporters wanted to hear, so he continued, "You know, it's not easy to get this review. The Premier League is the best league in the world, and a qualified defender in the Premier League is strong and good enough to play for any national team. The most important thing for a defender is not to stand out, but to be consistent, to defend steadily, not to make mistakes, more than anything else. ”

This comment made the reporter next to him laugh.

They just want to hear Zhang Yang's positive evaluation of Sun Jihai, and they can make a report that attracts fans when they go back.

Zhang Yang is not 'good for reporters', he is saying from his heart, being able to start for Manchester City is enough to prove Sun Jihai's ability, there are so many defenders in world football, how many can play in the top arena? Sun Jihai can be recognized by Manchester City and become the main player, which is enough to prove his ability.

Divided into levels of defenders in the Premier League, those big-name defenders, such as Ferdinand, Terry, Carragher and others, must be world-class, they represent the highest level of world football defenders, Sun Jihai is worse, and he can also be ranked second-rate.

This can also be seen from his worth.

Zhang Yang paid attention to Sun Jihai's value assessment, Sun Jihai's transfer from China to Manchester City is worth 2.45 million pounds, and in January, "French Football" listed the value of Premier League players, and Sun Jihai was assessed at 2.8 million pounds, which is much higher than when he transferred.

"French Football" comments on the value of players, generally only look at strength and performance, relatively speaking, it is relatively low, 2.8 million pounds worth of players, when you really want to transfer, the cost is much higher, the lowest can exceed the level of 3.5 million pounds.

£3,500,000!

This value level is already second only to big-name players, and it can catch up with Millwall's main players.

Among the Millwall team, the most valuable is Darren Bent, who is certainly worth more than 10 million pounds at the moment, and the actual transfer will cost at least 20 million pounds, followed by Jody Morris and David Livermore.

The special emphasis here is on David Livermore, Livermore's performance is recognized by many, a strong body, stable defense, and a long-range shooting midfielder, there will always be a 'hot commodity' in the transfer market, if Livermore wants to transfer, it will be more attractive than Darren Bent, and there will definitely be top giants in the competition.

Secondly, it belongs to Braniff, Josh Simpson, Darren Ward and others, they are all worth between three million pounds and ten million pounds, there is no real transfer, no one knows how much the transfer fee is, but only compared to the value, Sun Jihai has surpassed most of Millwall's players.

If you really make a comparison, Sun Jihai is basically comparable to Darren Ward.

This is also due to the consistency of Darren Ward, whose value has skyrocketed from hundreds of thousands of pounds to millions after a season, and Darren Ward is the absolute main defender of Millwall.

Some time ago, many media also believed that "Darren Ward's continued stable performance may be called up to the national team and become an England international." ”

It can be seen that Sun Jihai is quite good.

Of course, no matter how good Sun Jihai is, he is also a Manchester City player, and it has nothing to do with Zhang Yang, his job is to lead Millwall, and when he returns to the club, the work continues, and the members of the coaching staff study together until 10 o'clock in the evening, work out the details of tomorrow's game, and analyze what to pay attention to against Middlesbrough.

The next morning, the coaching staff told the players the results.

Zhang Yang also specially printed a few copies of the content and distributed one to each player, so that they could look at it on the bus, which could also be used as something to pass the time.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Millwall's bus drove into the city of Birmingham and arrived at the destination of the trip, Villa Park, half an hour later.

Villa Park, home of Premier League side Aston Villa, has a capacity of 45,000 spectators, and the size of the stadium makes it a bit small to hold the FA Cup semi-finals, as there are more than 30,000 fans from both teams.

The semi-final between Millwall and Middlesbrough also attracted local Birmingham fans, but most fans were unable to buy tickets and would not be interested in the game if they could not attend the game in person, after all, Millwall and Middlesbrough were not the teams they supported.

This game is more appealing than the league.

In English football, the old FA Cup has always had a lot of meaning, and the semi-finals are enough to attract a lot of attention, and for Millwall, Wilkinson has also come to the pitch to help with some things and hope to celebrate with the team.

After the team was arranged, Zhang Yang and Wilkinson walked together and went to the mixed area to be interviewed by some reporters, which is equivalent to 'taking care' of Wilkinson and having more contact with British media reporters, so as to facilitate the club's external publicity activities.

After about the same time, Zhang Yang went to the press conference.

In front of the venue, Zhang Yang met McLaren, the two are the head coaches of the two teams, and they are directly hostile, but the two sides have known each other for a long time, and the atmosphere of the meeting is quite harmonious.

McLaren smiled at Zhang Yang and waved hello.

Zhang Yang also smiled back and said, "It's so early, how about it?" How much did you prepare? We are confident that we will be in the final. ”

This is a bit provocative.

McLaren smiled and didn't care, but replied, "Before you talk about the victory, you better go in and deal with those reporters!" ”

McLaren was harassed.

McClaren had previously entered the venue for an interview, and the reporters' questions about him had nothing to do with the game at all, all about Middlesbrough's league results.

McLaren was tired of coping, because Middlesbrough's decline in results was obvious, and he couldn't even refute it, so he could only keep saying, "Injuries and fixtures and other problems have made the team tired, and in the second half of the schedule, there is no way to drop the results." ”

He then emphasised the environment, "This is Villa Park and I want you to ask questions about the game. ”

McLaren's repeated emphasis on the game is actually trying to divert the subject and get reporters to focus on the confrontation with Millwall, rather than Middlesbrough's declining league results.

And...... Does that make any sense?

Outside of the eighth place in the league, all the way to 17th place, the difference is only a small amount of TV broadcast costs, that is something to consider at the club level, Middlesbrough's decline in results has little impact on the team, in short, they will definitely not be able to pass the league results to get a place in the European competition.

The FA Cup is crucial.

If they can beat Millwall and reach the FA Cup final, they will surely qualify for next season's Champions League by passing the FA Cup.

That's all that matters!

But does McLaren care? In fact, he doesn't care, because he will not continue to be the manager of Middlesbrough, whether Middlesbrough reaches the final or not, whether he can participate in European competitions next season is certainly not his lead.

McClaren has already started thinking about taking charge of the England team.

McLaren was harassed by the reporters, he felt that the reporters were difficult to deal with, but it was different if it was Zhang Yang, when Zhang Yang appeared at the door of the venue, the reporters immediately burst into enthusiasm, and their questions to Zhang Yang were basically --

"The FA Cup title should also be Millwall's goal, right?"

"Which team do Millwall want to meet in the final?"

"About this match, Mr. Zhang, can you talk about it? Also, how many balls do you think is normal to win? ”

"How do you rate Middlesbrough's results getting worse?"

"Can you tell us more about the progress of the new contract negotiations?"

'Have Millwall started to work on reinforcements? Do you have a set goal now? ”

“……”

The reporters' questions were rarely targeted, all of them wanted Zhang Yang to talk about his views or reveal some news, about the FA Cup, which opponent Millwall hopes to meet, which is equivalent to saying, "Millwall will definitely reach the final." ”

If McLaren had heard it, he would have vomited blood.

In fact, the British media generally believe that Millwall will definitely reach the final, not because Millwall has been too good lately, but because Middlesbrough has performed too poorly.

Everyone knows that McClaren's mind is on the England team, but how much fighting spirit will Middlesbrough have to play?