Real Madrid's defeat was "very painful", and they came with the hope of "qualifying early", as they only needed to beat Millwall and Lazio did not beat Olympiacos to secure their place in the first round with eight points.

In the end, Real Madrid failed.

Losing away to Millwall is actually not terrible, Real Madrid did not come to a moment of despair, and at the same time, another news made Real Madrid breathe a sigh of relief-

Olympiacos beat Lazio 2-1 at home.

Previously, Olympiacos had two points, Lazio had three, Olympiacos was a good result, and Real Madrid was still able to rank second in the group by virtue of the advantage of winning and losing.

In turn, if Lazio wins the game, they will surpass Real Madrid in points.

It also made Real Madrid breathe a long breath.

Real Madrid is still relatively humiliating, it has nothing to do with the game against Millwall, but the overall situation of the Champions League group stage.

With only the last game left in the Champions League group stage, among the eight first-tier teams, except for Liverpool, who failed to qualify early due to poor results in the opening stage, only Real Madrid remains, and it is also a traditional giant who has not secured a place in the round of 16.

The last round becomes very important.

Therefore, Real Madrid coach Schuster said in an interview: "The situation is a little more complicated than we expected. ”

"So what we have to do now, and what we can do, is to take advantage of the home advantage and defend the Santiago Bernabeu in the final round!"

Schuster's words didn't get much response.

Defending the honor of the Bernabeu?

Look at the other boys in the Champions League, the group leaders are all seeded teams, only Group C is special, Millwall, as the second-tier team, leads the group with a unique ride, locks in the qualification two rounds in advance, and now it is determined to qualify for the first place in the group.

What about Real Madrid?

Five rounds, five points.

Although it is ranked second in the group, it is only because of the poor results of Lazio and Olympiacos, not how well Real Madrid played.

This so-called 'second' is all obtained by luck, and considering that the Bernabeu was scored by five goals by Millwall, is there any honour to defend?

————

Millwall doesn't care what happens to Real Madrid, and the team is happy to win the game, even if it is not an important game at all, but the determination of the top group is good for the draw for the round of 16, and the game will probably be better if they don't meet the seeded team right away.

Then they went back to the league.

On 1 December, Millwall travelled to Sunderland.

When the team met Sunderland, Zhang Yang still had some emotion, thinking that when he first took over the team, Sandrana dominated the Championship and was a behemoth for Millwall.

That season, Millwall continued to win and overtake their opponents in the standings, and it was only in the last game that Sunderland lost to their opponents by mistake before they won the Championship.

In retrospect, the past is still vivid.

Now the situation is reversed, Millwall has become an insurmountable opponent for Sunderland, no matter how hard they try, for decades, hundreds of years, it is very unlikely that they will surpass Millwall's current achievements.

In a few years, the positions of the two sides have changed dramatically.

It's the same with this game.

Sunderland don't have any face at home, putting on an all-10-0-0 defensive formation, and most of the time there are no players who have even crossed the halfway line.

Fans and the media took it for granted.

That's the difference between the two sides.

Millwall struggled to break down a dense defence throughout the game and eventually relied on goals from Braniff and Luca Toney to beat Sunderland by two goals away to win the round of 15.

The unbeaten run extended to 53 games does not seem to be big news, and Zhang Yang did not even mention the game after the game, but only praised a few players who performed well.

After that, Millwall welcomed their League Cup opponents, Blackburn.

It's the quarterfinals.

The League Cup has reached the quarterfinals, and it must be dealt with seriously, and at this stage, it is easy to meet Manchester United, Chelsea and other teams, Branifer is not too difficult opponents, Millwall sits at home, and easily wins the game 2-1.

2 to 1, it seems difficult, but it is actually very easy.

Zhang Yang only sent a semi-main lineup, Millwall suppressed the whole game, and also played very consistently, the backcourt players basically stayed behind, and Blackburn couldn't even find a chance to counterattack.

In the end, Blackburn's goal was also because of Zhang Yang's release.

He knew the goal and didn't pay any attention to it.

Enter and enter!

The game has been won anyway, and there is no difference between 2-1 and 2-0.

After the League Cup ended, Zhang Yang gave the whole team a day off, packed up his things the next day, and led the team to fly to Japan to participate in the FIFA World Club Cup.

————

The FIFA Club World Cup is an international football event promoted and hosted by FIFA, aiming to allow champions from all continents of the world to compete like the World Cup, so that clubs from all continents can also have a world-class competition.

Some fans mistakenly think that the Club World Cup is an extension of the Toyota Cup, but this view is not entirely correct, because the organizers of the tournament are different, the Club World Cup is FIFA, and the Toyota Cup is jointly organized by UEFA and South American football.

In 2000, when the World Club Cup was first hosted, the Toyota Cup was still in progress, and the 1998 Toyota Cup winners, Real Madrid, still had a qualification.

In 2005, when the World Club Cup resumed, FIFA had already reached an agreement with the organizers of the Intercontinental Cup (Toyota Cup) to merge the Toyota Cup and the World Club Cup.

The first Club World Cup was held in 2000 with eight teams: Manchester United, Corinthians, Vasco da Gama, Necaxa, Real Madrid, Al Nacer, Laga Casablanca and South Melbourne.

In the end, Corinthians won the championship, Vasco da Gama was runner-up, and Necassa beat Real Madrid on penalties to finish third, with Real Madrid fourth.

At that time, the Club World Cup was not well received by the outside world, especially at the height of the European competition.

Champions League winners Manchester United failed to finish in the top four, while Real Madrid finished fourth.

In 2005, FIFA successfully merged the Club World Cup and the Toyota Cup, and the Club World Cup was re-emerged, and in 2005 and 2006, the two Club World Cups were won by six teams, i.e. on six continents.

This year there is a change.

FIFA decided to add one more place to the tournament's hosts, bringing the number of participating teams to seven, but it had no impact on European teams, as according to the rules of the World Club Cup, the champions of European and South American clubs can play directly in the semi-finals, with the other five teams competing for the remaining two semi-final spots.

Millwall, who won last season's Champions League, naturally qualified for the Club World Cup, and also qualified directly for the semi-finals of the Club World Cup as a European club.

The Club World Cup is a winner-or-loser.

Millwall have to play two games, lose in the semi-finals, and have to fight for the third and fourth places with another team that did not make it to the final, and win the semi-finals to enter the final to compete for the title.

Zhang Yang doesn't think 'third' and 'fourth' have any meaning.

The World Club Cup has little impact, not because of the FIFA organization, he doesn't even want to participate in it.

To fight for the 'third', 'fourth'?

That doesn't make any sense.

So when he led the team to Japan, Zhang Yang set a goal - the championship.

Can only be a champion!

When Millwall arrived in Yokohama, Japan, he was warmly welcomed by Japanese fans, who came to pick him up a few kilometers away.

It is also a reflection of Millwall's growing influence.

If you go back to a few years ago, there would not be a few Japanese fans who knew about Millwall, but now it is different, Millwall won the Premier League in a row, and won the Champions League last season to become the 'treble', and the influence is naturally huge.

Just three weeks ago, Millwall broke Arsenal's unbeaten record and set a new unbeaten record, which was also wildly reported by the world media.

When the Millwall players walked out of the airport passage, many Japanese fans on both sides were screaming.

"That's Vardy!"

"I know him, Sneijder!"

"Braniff, I like him the most!"

"Behind Braniff is Weston, who is also a good striker."

"Livermore!"

Somewhat unexpectedly, Japanese fans seem to prefer Livermore, or rather, Japanese female fans prefer it, and when Livermore walks out, a large number of female fans frantically shout his name.

Livermore was a little incredulous, and communicated with Simpson in front of him, "Are they calling me?" That name seems to be mine. ”

"Of course it's you, you're really liked by female fans!"

Simpson is definitely sarcastic.

Livermore could hear it, but didn't think too much about it, because he was dazzled by the scene in front of him, and when he was in London, he was not a small fame, but certainly not as good as his teammates.

For example, Morris.

Like Jamie Vardy.

Now he seems to be the most ...... Female fans welcome people.

What's going on?

However, no matter how loud the cheers Livermore received, it could not be compared with Zhang Yang, and when Zhang Yang walked out with his luggage, the fans on both sides erupted in the highest cheers, and many fans shouted his name-

"Publicity!"

"It's flamboyance!"

He waved to the fans on both sides with a smile, which immediately caused even greater cheers.

The players in front are used to it.

Everywhere he went, the biggest cheers from the fans were the flamboyance, because he was Millwall's biggest star.

Seeing that Livermore was still struggling with the issue of being popular with female fans, Zhang Yang walked over and explained, "David, did you forget that you had an extra income last month? So, of course you are the most popular. ”

"What?"

Livermore was a little confused, but he remembered that last month seemed to be an extra income, and it was not a small income, nearly 200,000 pounds, and the agent said that it was the advertising fee for the event.

He didn't care.

Now the popularity seems to be because of that income? It's not bad to think about, you have an income, and you can still be popular.

When the bus carrying the entire Millwall team drove into the streets of Yokohama, Livermore didn't think so.

I saw that the posters on both sides of the street were printed with a red fruit upper body, full of muscles, he was handsome, white, handsome, with the Millwall team emblem printed on the top of his head, and the football he kicked still had Mars, and the other position of the poster was the World Club Cup advertisement.

The Millwall players in the bus were stunned, and then laughed--

"This poster is so handsome! Livermore, you're so handsome! ”

"Kick out the soccer ball with Mars!"

"Are you participating in a beauty pageant?"

"No wonder it's liked by female fans...... Your muscles, your handsomeness...... I can't help it! Hahaha...... David turned out to be handsome......"

In the collective laughter of his teammates, Livermore's face turned dark, and he almost vomited three liters of blood in his heart, and decided to change his agent when he went back and never accept similar advertisements again.