Chapter 151: Before the Finals
The Premier League season is all over, and the standings are finally fixed.
Manchester United won the league title this season with 28 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses with 90 points, Liverpool won 26 wins, 11 draws and 1 loss with 89 points, one point difference to the second place, Chelsea was third with 83 points, Arsenal was fourth with 72 points, and the four giants of the Premier League continued to qualify for the Champions League next season.
Next up are Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham, who will represent the Premier League in the Europa League next season.
The three teams that were relegated were Newcastle United, Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion.
Although Myburgh were relegated, Myburgh fans entertained themselves in the final round by playing 'We are the only team that can beat Liverpool in the league', and Liverpool have only lost one game in the league this season, which is away to Myburgh.
At the same time, Manchester United also won the English League Cup this season, Chelsea won the English FA Cup, speaking of which, Liverpool and Arsenal of the big four have not achieved in the domestic league, but Liverpool still have a chance to compete for the Champions League.
However, if the Champions League final is also lost, then Liverpool will be the double champion of the league and the Champions League, which is certainly not a good title.
There is no doubt that Liverpool has become the team with the fewest league losses this season, losing only one game, and the second fewest losers are Manchester United, they have lost four, but unfortunately Liverpool has drawn too many and lost the title.
In this season's Premier League four-man civil war, Manchester United and the other three have only five points from six games, slightly better than Chelsea with only four points, Arsenal is second with nine points, and Liverpool, the best result, beat Manchester United and Chelsea twice, and drew with Arsenal twice, with 14 points.
Among the offensive firepower of all teams in the Premier League, Liverpool is also far ahead, Liverpool has scored 85 goals in 38 league games, Manchester United Chelsea and Arsenal have both scored 68 goals, Liverpool is the third team to concede the fewest goals, Manchester United and Chelsea have only conceded 24 goals, and Liverpool has conceded 27. Liverpool are in first place on goal difference with 58, while Manchester United and Chelsea are joint second on goal difference with 44.
Liverpool have also lost just three games so far this season, one in the league to Middlesbrough, 4-3 away at Tottenham in the English League Cup, and Aston Villa on penalties in the FA Cup.
Not counting the upcoming Champions League finals this season, Liverpool have played a total of 57 games and lost just three, undoubtedly the fewest losing team in Europe.
In terms of individual accolades, Liverpool's Fernando Torres won the Premier League Golden Boot with 20 goals, behind him Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka scored 19 goals and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo scored 18 goals, Steven Gerrard was fourth with 16 goals, Liu Ting was fifth with 15 goals and Kuyt was also in the top 10 scorers with 12 goals.
There are four Liverpool in the top 10 scorers and three in the top five, with Liu Ting, Fernando Torres, Kuyt and Steven Gerrard scoring 62 goals for Liverpool, accounting for 73 per cent of all Liverpool league goals.
In the assist list, Liu Ting won the assist king with 15 assists, and in addition to Liu Ting, only Frank Lampard and Van Persie had double-doubles, both of whom had 10 assists.
Liu Ting also became the first player to win a double 15 in his first season in the Premier League.
Liu Ting has only played in 29 league games, handed over 15 goals and 15 assists, an average of more than one goal per game, while Liu Ting also has 2 goals in the FA Cup and 7 goals and 2 assists in the Champions League.
The big four have occupied four Champions League places in a row, and Aston Villa, who were hoping to get a Champions League place in the middle of this season, but were pulled away by Arsenal in the last few rounds, expressed dissatisfaction, and Villa's manager Martin O'Neill said: "The FA should consider letting the fourth to seventh place in the league play a knockout round to determine the last Champions League place after the end of the season, otherwise it will be the big four who occupy the Champions League places every season, which is unfair to other teams." β
Manchester City, which has invested a lot of money this year, has only won the tenth place in the Premier League, and it seems that the four giants remain unbreakable, and the strange thing is that Manchester City spent so much money that they did not even qualify for the League Cup, and their head coach Mark Hughes actually sat in the position of head coach safely, and said in a big tone that he would spend a lot of money to buy which stars next season.
The oil tycoon thinks that playing football only costs money, and he doesn't even know the importance of finding a good head coach.
When asked about adding knockout rounds to determine Champions League qualification, Liu Ting said: "One season is long enough, do they want to play until the end of the world?" β
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At the end of the league, Liverpool have one last game left to play, and the most important game, the Champions League final.
A few days before the start of the final, the two sides squirted each other's spits.
Pro-Liverpool media claim that Barcelona stole qualification for the final from Chelsea, while Barcelona media say Liverpool use players developed by La Masia.
In addition to Liu Ting, there is another player in the Liverpool team who was born in La Masia, and the main goalkeeper Reina is also from La Masia.
Real Madrid cultivated a talented goalkeeper Casillas, and Barcelona, who has been against Real Madrid, is of course not to be outdone, and also wants his own Casillas, so the talented goalkeeper Reina of La Masia's training camp was driven to the shelf, and made his debut at Camp Nou at a young age, Reina started in the 00/01 League Cup semifinals Barcelona vs. Liverpool, and it may be too nervous to play such an important game for the first time, Reina failed to seize the opportunity in the game, but performed badly, He became the sinner of Barcelona's elimination by Liverpool, and was loaned out to Villarreal at the end of the season.
La Masia is never short of talent, and after Reina's departure, Barcelona soon found another talented goalkeeper, ValdΓ©s, and Reyna was gradually forgotten by Camp Nou fans.
Benitez fell in love with Reina who played for Villarreal when he was coaching in Spain, and after a season in Liverpool, he was fed up with Liverpool's nerve knife goalkeeper Dudek, when Dudek performed well, just like the Champions League final in Istanbul, the nuclear warhead Shepchenko was saved by him for two must-scores, and in the penalty shootout, he saved Shepchenko's penalty, Liverpool won the championship Dudek contributed greatly, but he said that when he was bad, he dared to lose any goal.
A season later, Benitez, who had established himself, bought Reina, who soon became Liverpool's main goalkeeper with a good performance, and Dudek, the hero of the Istanbul miracle, went to Real Madrid to be Casillas' backup goalkeeper.
Speaking of which, Reina is also deeply involved with Barcelona.
On the Spanish side, Barcelona's Piquepi said to reporters: "We are not nervous, we are fully capable of beating them, Barcelona will win the treble and make those two traitors regret." β
The traitors Pique is naturally referring to Liu Ting and Reina, they don't care why they go to other teams, anyway, they are traitors to Barcelona.
An interesting thing also happened in La Masia some time ago, when the youth team coach Carlos who fired Liu Ting was fired because of Liu Ting's outstanding performance, a few months later he went to Barcelona's rival Espanyol to find a new job, or as a youth team coach, and then another talent of La Masia, Tello did not renew his contract after the end of his contract with La Masia, and went directly to the Espanyol team to find his mentor, La Masia's genius turned to the rival team, which is also a small news for Barcelona.
The final time is gradually approaching, the Chinese media and fans are still more concerned about Liverpool's squad, whether Zheng Zhi will enter the final eighteen-man squad, as long as he enters the eighteen-man squad, even if he sits on the bench for a whole game, he is also the first Chinese to participate in the Champions League final, and at the same time the first Asian to participate in the Champions League final.
Although Park Ji-sung won the Champions League medal last year, he did not make the eighteen-man squad, so strictly speaking, Park Ji-sung did not participate in the Champions League final.
Three days before the final, Liverpool gave the final 18-man squad, and Zheng Zhi was impressively listed, which is something that deserves a lot of publicity in the Chinese media.
Bordeaux went on to win Ligue 1 this season, and Liu Ting's former mentor Blanco was also asked about the Champions League final: "I always knew he was going to be a star, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. I'm sure Liu will play a key role in the final, he's the kind of player who always goes the extra mile in the big games. β
For such an important game as the Champions League final, the European betting industry naturally has to focus on taking care of it and offering a variety of odds.
In terms of odds to win the championship, Barcelona is slightly lower than Liverpool, with Barcelona's odds of winning the championship being 2.61 and Liverpool's odds of winning the championship being 2.69, which is considered comparable.
The lower the odds, the more favourable they are.
In addition, there are various odds, such as the odds of the player of the two teams scoring the first goal first, among which Gerrard has the lowest odds, indicating that he is the most favored, and Liu Ting is the second lowest in the Liverpool team, that is, the player who is second favored. On Barcelona's side, the African cheetah Oto'o is the most favored, followed by Messi.
This odds are related to the experience of the final, Gerrard was the main player in the 05 Champions League final and also scored a goal, Oto'o also participated in the 06 Champions League final to help Barcelona win the championship, although Messi also won the 05/06 Champions League title, but Messi was injured before the final, strictly speaking, this is Messi's first Champions League final.
There are many other bets about the final, such as whether Zheng Zhi will play in the final, whether Liverpool will get cards for defending Messi, whether Messi will fake falling in the final, whether Liu Ting will clash with Barcelona players in the final, whether the coach of both sides will be sent to the stands, etc.
Of course, the most concerned odds are the odds of the Champions League Golden Boot, at present, Messi's 8 goals are temporarily at the top of the scorer list, Liu Ting and Gerrard are tied for second with 7 goals, anything can happen in the final, and it is not clear who will win the Champions League Golden Boot.