The day after Manchester City's match against Inter Milan, all the Champions League group stages were over and all the teams that qualified were revealed.

For Manchester City, they don't need to think about the other group winners, at least not for the time being, and the eight group runners-up, namely Inter, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan and Arsenal, according to the rules, without one Inter and one Arsenal, Manchester City's opponent can only be one of the other six teams.

Among these six teams, the most troublesome is AC Milan, which has been ambitious this season, as one of the most brilliant teams in the whole of Europe, the current Serie A leaders will be relegated to second place, not because of their bad performance, but because they have met an opponent who is more troublesome than them: Real Madrid, especially Real Madrid, a former Inter coach who is familiar with them. In addition to AC Milan, Roma and Lyon are both regulars in the Champions League, with the former being known in Europe for his wolf pack tactics during the Spalletti era, while the latter eliminated the Galacticos Real Madrid in the knockout rounds last season. The other teams are not easy to match, of course, compared to the dreaded group top, the situation is still much better.

The official draw for the quarter-finals will take place a week later, on December 18, and after beating Inter Milan, Manchester City are generally optimistic about the next round from top to bottom, and the draw will be preceded by another round of Premier League matchups, and the highlight of this round will undoubtedly be Manchester United and Arsenal's rivals.

The man who decided the game was one who surprised Linsen, South Korea's Park Ji-sung, who missed a penalty for United in the game, but Nani missed it. Ferguson made just one substitution throughout the game. And it was in the final stage of the game, which can also be seen that although the score of this game is small, Manchester United won not thrilling.

For Linsen, what can make him wary of this game is not the direct impact of a game on points, but the stability of Manchester United.

Due to the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United had a fluctuation in results last season, and the league title was also "snatched" by Manchester City, which is certainly not something to be happy for Manchester United fans. But actually. Manchester United fans should be thankful that they still have Alex Ferguson, and as long as the old Scotsman is around, no one is likely to have much impact on this team. Linsen, who knows what United will find after Alex Ferguson's retirement, knows this in particular.

For many teams, the departure of a World Footballer-level core will most likely lead to a series of seismic impacts, after all, let alone the impact on the tactical level, even if it is simply to find a replacement of comparable strength. It's almost impossible. Ferguson couldn't completely undo it in a short period of time, but he minimized it, so last season. Manchester United remain in the top three of the league and have not lost their contention for the league title for a long time.

And now, Lin Sen can already think that Ronaldo. For Manchester United, it is a thing of the past.

Manchester United beat Arsenal, while Chelsea, who had drawn two in a row, changed that number to three after this round. Forcing them to draw is another London team, fifth-ranked Tottenham Hotspur, that is, the top five teams in the league standings, four of them collided together in this round, and the only one who sat on the mountain to watch the tiger fight was the leader Manchester City.

Manchester City's opponents are West Ham United, who were second-to-last in the league, and West Ham United, who did not "come ashore" until the last minute last season, have lost eight of their previous sixteen games, only slightly better than the vice-captains Wolves, who have lost eleven games.

Manchester City, who finally ushered in a three-game winning streak, did not give West Ham any chance of an upset, although Linson rotated his squad in this game, and the rotation was very thorough, and the final score was 3-1, and the goals were scored by Adriano, Reus and Cahill. Lin Sen's rotation is also preparing for the next devil's schedule.

Christmas is an important holiday for Westerners, and for players in other major leagues, Christmas also means the beginning of a rare holiday, but this holiday, for players in the Premier League, means the beginning of the devil's schedule. This year is no exception, and it can even be said that it has intensified. In addition to the normal matches in this round and the next round, there will be three league games in the Premier League in the last five days after Christmas.

An interesting fact is that when Wenger first came to the Premier League, he accused Ferguson of complaining about the schedule, but Ferguson said that he was only from Japan, what did he know? In the following two years, Arsene Wenger did join the group of complaining about the fixtures. In this regard, Lin Sen, who has been in the Premier League for less than two years, already feels the same way, and there is no winter break, which is too cheating.

It's just that Ferguson has complained for so many years, and he can still only "go against the grain" in this regard, what can Lin Sen do?

On December 18, all eyes of European football turned to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, as the draw for this season's Champions League quarter-finals was underway.

In the huge conference room, a few families are happy and a few are sad.

The 16 teams are drawn from the blue ball on the left side of the group, while the white ball on the right side is the secretary general of UEFA and has a striking eye, and on the other side is the head of the UEFA competition department, Marchetti, who has been drawn on the big screen behind them.

And Manchester City's name is among them.

It is still Gary Cook and Marwood who appear here on behalf of Manchester City, at this time Gary Cook's face is a little dignified, and Marwood's face is smiling, but when the camera flashes, anyone can see the far-fetched smile on his face, and on the other side, the two who represent another club are much more relaxed.

Sixteen teams, eight heartbeats.

But City didn't have to wait long as they were in the hands of Marchetti when they drew the second round.

Opponent, AC Milan.

Inter Milan in the group stage and AC Milan in the knockout round.

This season's Manchester City seems to have a special fate with Milan City. It's just that for Manchester City, this can really be regarded as a signing, because among all the second teams, AC Milan is undoubtedly the most difficult to deal with. As for AC Milan, although they did not pinch Shakhtar Donetsk or Schalke 04, the softest in the group, they did not meet a giant like Barcelona or Bayern Munich, so this is definitely not a signing.

For this draw, Sky Sports has set up a special program, hosted by Martin Taylor, next to Andy Gray and Lineker, who participated in the Europa League draw last year, there are four English teams in the round of 16, as the only English team that has been drawn so far, Manchester City has undoubtedly become the focus of discussion.

For Manchester City's signing, the three people have a consensus, that is, Manchester City is unlucky, AC Milan is almost the only team closest to the top of the group, but it was drawn to Manchester City. On the other hand, there is some disagreement over who has the upper hand in this contest. Andy Gray and Lineker share the same opinion, believing that this knockout match between Manchester City and AC Milan can only be played by four or six, Manchester City four, and AC Milan six. Their view is that AC Milan has too much experience in European competitions, and in the case of not lagging behind Manchester City in the squad, in the Champions League, where experience often plays a large part of the odds of winning, AC Milan's advantage is incomparable to Manchester City.

Martin Taylor, on the other hand, has the opposite view, believing that the odds are still four or six open, but the target should be reversed, and Manchester City have the advantage. Andy Gray believes that experience will be the decisive factor, while Martin Taylor is more pragmatic, and he believes that Manchester City have an advantage in the squad that AC Milan does not have, and that AC Milan's attacking power may be a danger to Manchester City, but comparatively speaking, Manchester City's attacking line will be a greater test for AC Milan's defence.

Of course, disagreeing views doesn't mean that a few people are red-faced, and the three of them are like a few fans who are together together, and the easy chat is the main way, and then quickly cross the topic of Manchester City and move on to the next one, because Manchester City are not the only English team.

Lin Sen is also watching the live broadcast, which is precisely Sky Sports.

Naturally, he also heard the discussion of several people, but he did not express an opinion on this, whether it was flat or optimistic, Manchester City's opponent was AC Milan, as Tang Hua "expected".

As early as before the draw began, when several people were discussing, Tang Hua said that Manchester City was likely to draw AC Milan, the strongest of the second in the group, originally theoretically, among the six teams that could be drawn, the probability of AC Milan should be the same as the other five teams, but Tang Hua, who was "superstitious" about probability, still gave such a conclusion, because he has his own calculation methods, including UEFA's manipulation.

At the time of the group draw, Tang Hua did not make such a prediction, because there were too many teams at that time, and it was really meaningless to spend a lot of energy to make such a prediction, and the knockout round was different, plus the rules, there were only a few teams, and the prediction was naturally much simpler.

Unfortunately, his prediction came true.

After the draw, the next day's media immediately reported on the draw, and instead of the pessimism that Inter Milan drew last season's Champions League final opponent Bayern Munich, the "Milan Sport" gave a simple review headline for AC Milan's draw against Manchester City.

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