Chapter 377: Top Eight Opponents
As early as more than two years ago, Abramovich paid special attention to Zhang Tiehan, it can be said that Zhang Tiehan is the only player who has been concerned by Abramovich in the lower league, Abramovich's impression of Zhang Tiehan can be imagined, but Zhang Tiehan's transfer was interrupted twice because of Mourinho's relationship.
The result?
Chelsea were eliminated from the Champions League, and Liverpool beat Benfica to advance to the quarterfinals thanks to two goals from Zhang Tiehan!
Is there anything else Mourinho can say?
Not only that, Zhang Tiehan has also brought constant goals to Liverpool, if it weren't for the injury for three months, the Premier League's top scorer would undoubtedly fall to Zhang Tiehan, and the Champions League Golden Boot is difficult for others to compete for even now.
Zhang Tiehan's appearance is so eye-catching, and compared with Chelsea, who was eliminated, Abramovich's mood can be imagined.
According to some media insiders, after the Chelsea and Barcelona match, Abramovich asked Mourinho for the first time, "Can Chelsea only be the king in the Premier League?" If signing a superstar can bring both great performances and business opportunities, why turn it down? ”
The Russians specifically asked Florentino about the reason for his resignation, and explicitly asked CEO Kenyon to build a blue "galaxy battleship" based on the combined success of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
There is only one ultimate goal, which is to conquer Europe!
No one doubts that Jose Mourinho is a world-class manager, but Roman Abramovich has never understood why the Portuguese has shown no interest in seeing Samu Eto'o and strongly opposed the introduction of Zhang Tiehan and Shevchenko when it is said that Chelsea's forward line cannot be called perfect.
It is said that Chelsea's football lacks virtuosity, why Mourinho disdains Ronaldo, and doesn't even want to look at Robinho's information.
Many of Abu's investment dreams and passions have been thwarted by the Portuguese theory of football as a whole. The Blues built a central midfield with not very economical euros, but in the end they were crushed by the talents.
The two had an argument.
This is an unmistakable fact, and some reporters even photographed Abramovich pointing at Mourinho with one hand, and many media outlets did not pay attention to Chelsea's defeat after the game, and they saw something else from the quarrel between the two -
I'm afraid that in the summer, Mourinho is leaving Chelsea!
After the two quarreled. Liverpool were also affected, and the next day Roman Abramovich sent out to the media a flashy list of stars to be bought in the summer, including Zhang Tiehan, Gerrard, Shepchenko, Ronaldinho and more.
'I'll pay a big enough fee, a big enough contract, as long as they choose Chelsea! They should have belonged to Chelsea! ”
Such domineering words, I'm afraid only Abramovich can say it.
Then Gerrard and Zhang Tiehan were interviewed by the media, asking them to say some thoughts on the 'transfer to Chelsea', in the eyes of the media, even if the two are important to Liverpool, but Liverpool has always had problems with the economy. It is also impossible to refuse Abramovich's magnanimity.
It can be said that as long as one of the two is sold, then Liverpool's economic situation will be good.
Liverpool are affected by more than that.
In the round of 16 of the Champions League, Arsenal 0:0 Real Madrid, with a score of 3:0 over two legs, advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and Real Madrid was eliminated.
After this game, there was a change in the top management of Real Madrid.
Florentino Pérez announced his resignation as president. Thus, the creators of the Galactic Battleship ended their six-year reign at Real Madrid.
Calderón, the newly appointed president of Real Madrid, announced to fans that he would bring more famous and powerful stars to Real Madrid. Not only the star, Calderon also promised to bring back the world coach who belongs to Real Madrid, so Benitez was selected.
Benitez and Real Madrid have always had a relationship.
He is originally from Madrid, and he also played for Real Madrid's junior team as a teenager, although he was eventually abandoned by Real Madrid due to his poor progress. But in any case, it also gave him the label of Real Madrid - a Madridian who played for Real Madrid's junior team.
Now Benitez's coaching career is very successful, Real Madrid selects a coach, and Benitez is the first to be considered.
Few coaches in the world can resist the temptation to coach Real Madrid, and the Spanish media have even figured out a way back to Real Madrid for Benitez, who Calderón has also said if Benitez is willing to return to Real Madrid. Then Real Madrid will pay liquidated damages to Benitez and Liverpool.
So tempting
Most media believe that it is really difficult for Benitez to refuse this temptation, after all, Real Madrid's offer is too good, so Liverpool is affected again.
To sum up, after the round of 16, Liverpool faced all kinds of poaching.
However, the media was noisy, and the Liverpool team was very peaceful, Benitez politely rejected Real Madrid's invitation at the press conference, expressing his determination to coach Liverpool, and then he left Liverpool to participate in the Champions League quarterfinals.
After the round of 16, eight teams were eliminated, and the remaining eight teams are Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Lyon and the dark horse Villarreal.
Liverpool could meet any of the seven teams.
In comparison, the dark horse Villarreal is definitely a soft persimmon, they can play so far, it is definitely related to luck, their opponent in the round of 16 is Rangers, and the other games are all strong confrontations.
With the exception of Villarreal, none of the three Serie A teams are easy to mess with, with Arsene Wenger's Arsenal having a strong Champions League table this season and they are also not easy to mess with, as for Ligue 1 champions Lyon and Barcelona, who are widely regarded as the best team in the world, there are no teams to look forward to.
In short, this lottery is not easy to draw.
But the result came down that night, with Liverpool facing Barcelona, who had just knocked out Chelsea.
Sign down!
The draw has only just come out, and the Liverpool media have already given the definition, they have drawn a good draw in the round of 16, and now it is definitely the worst draw, The Independent said, "Liverpool are not always lucky. ”
The opponent is Barcelona, and Liverpool's luck can be said to be extremely bad!
It's not just Liverpool who are sad, AC Milan are not so lucky, their opponents are Lyon.
As early as last season's Champions League quarter-finals draw, Galliani said: "The last thing they want to touch is Lyon, in fact, they are the strongest team. "This time the voices in the Milan squad generally didn't want a Champions League derby, but they ran into Lyon.
Judging from the record since the start of the Champions Cup, Lyon is currently ranked first among these 8 teams, with 6 games in the group stage and 2 in the knockout round, Lyon has won 7 games, and only drew one Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, but in this game, Lyon has a chance to win Real Madrid away. In 8 games, Lyon scored 18 goals and conceded only 4 goals, only one less than Barcelona to rank second, conceded 2 more goals than Arsenal, and tied for second with Barcelona, Liverpool and Villarreal.
In terms of numbers, Lyon is the "leader" of this season's Champions Cup so far.
AC Milan's luck against such an opponent is not very good, but because of this, it is even more unlucky for Liverpool, because AC Milan, Lyon and Liverpool, and Barcelona belong to the same zone, that is, the winner of Liverpool and Barcelona will meet the winner of AC Milan and Lyon in the semi-finals.
It's been a sad schedule.
After coming back from the draw, Benitez looked stern, and he knew that he was not in a good mood, but it was normal to be in a bad mood when he drew such a lot.
But the result is unlikely to change and Liverpool have no time to digest the difficulties they face, with five league games to play in March, plus an FA Cup and the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals at the end of the month, Liverpool's schedule is still quite dense.
On the third day of the match with Benfica, the whole Liverpool team did not have time to rest, so the whole team went to London, which was on March 12, the 29th round of the English Premier League, Liverpool challenged Arsenal away. (To be continued......)