"Congratulations."

Allegri's love was terrible, but as a master, he still showed his demeanor, and after the game, he congratulated Lin Sen with a smile on his face. It's just that he didn't know that his love couldn't be hidden from Lin Sen's eyes at all.

Compared to the smile that Allegri almost squeezed out, the smile on Lin Sen's face was much more natural.

Not only because Allegri's pre-match words are almost equivalent to shooting himself in the foot at the moment, but also because of the score on the field, he is optimistic enough to be optimistic that Manchester City will advance to the next round.

Very optimistic.

Lin Sen did not rub salt on Allegri's "wound", and gently shook hands with the other party and went their separate ways.

Problem solving.

At the end of the game, Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray summed up the result of the game with Allegri's pre-match words, and the irony was certainly there, and it was far more lethal than Allegri's previous empty words.

Three to one.

The score is not too high, but if it is placed in the two-legged knockout round, plus the background of a home game, then it is enough to make many teams desperate for promotion. Of course, there are only many, not all, and Allegri, for example, does not think so.

"We had bad luck. I'm not trying to make excuses, but I think anyone who has watched the game will know that we have far more chances than our opponents, of course, the opponents are doing well, and now we are in a very bad situation, but I don't think the suspense is lost, in the second leg, we have to give it our all. ”

These are Allegri's words at the post-match press conference, in the face of what Lin Sen said, Lin Sen, who had just shook hands with him, did not fight back on the spot, he just had a smile on his face, just deaf ears.

Rhetoric or something, anyway, as long as you have a mouth, it's not difficult to say. The important thing is whether you can achieve it or not. It's just that compared with before the game, Lin Sen didn't think that Aliagri deliberately wanted to provoke himself this time, but he was not naïve enough to admit defeat when Allegri took the initiative to shake hands with him after the game.

The head coach of the team is like a commander, even if the situation is critical, the coach's flag must still be firmly there2, otherwise, what awaits them can only be defeat. So, even if AC Milan have all but lost their desperate hopes, Allegri still has to bite the bullet. Regain your team's confidence.

This, at all, has nothing to do with what he thinks.

After beating AC Milan away and returning to Manchester, what awaits Lin Sen is not a big sigh of relief, but a "no-nonsense" battle.

Having been held to a draw by Notts County in the FA Cup, City needed to play another match against their opponents, which was ultimately scheduled three days after the match against AC Milan. For the FA Cup, which is a more important competition than the League Cup, Manchester City does not have any hard requirements, and Linson is not in the habit of collecting trophies. It's good to have both, but a lot of times, you have to make trade-offs.

Of course. There is no need to give up voluntarily, after all, Manchester City exited the League Cup early, and although they have performed well in the league and Champions League, the FA Cup still has a certain place in the hearts of fans. Once Manchester City has a mistake in the Champions League and an FA Cup, it will not be an instant embarrassment from the third-tier battle to the embarrassment of going all the way.

Rematch against Notts County. None of the players who started in the game against AC Milan played, but like in the previous round, Manchester City, who didn't know what evil they had hit away from home, returned to their home stadium and once again made a big move, with a score of 5-0, and sent the Notts County Redstripe who almost eliminated Manchester City out of the game. Then in the fifth round of the FA Cup, that is, the quarterfinals, Manchester City finally did not let the opponent upset again this time, and "revenged" Aston Villa, who had beaten them in the league before, with a crisp 3-0 home game, and successfully entered the FA Cup quarterfinals.

In the next two league rounds, the Premier League leaders went back and forth between the two stadiums in the city of Manchester.

First, in the 28th round, Manchester City took the lead and was forced to draw by Fulham at home, and the leader ran from the City Stadium to Old Trafford in the 29th round, but then in the 29th round, Manchester United sent the leaders back to the City Stadium themselves, as they lost 3-1 away to bitter rivals Liverpool, while Manchester City beat Wigan Athletic.

After 29 rounds of league battles, Manchester City returned to the top position, but the competition for the league title should be said to be more and more fierce, behind Manchester City is only three points behind Manchester United, and then, there are Arsenal and Chelsea who are very close to the points, it is worth mentioning Chelsea, Chelsea after the winter transfer supplement, the state began to recover, the last two rounds of all wins. Compared to Chelsea, Arsenal's recent table is another negative textbook, originally close to Manchester City in the league standings, they failed to continue to beat the Cosmos Barcelona 2-1 at home, first lost to Birmingham City in the League Cup final, lost the opportunity to win the first title in recent years, and then suffered two consecutive draws in the league, failed to win Manchester City and Manchester United each wrestled to the advantage.

Of course, regardless of whether the recent table is good or bad, the first group in the Premier League table this season is still the same four teams from last season, and Liverpool after the change of manager, although the recent results are excellent, and even staged a good home victory over Manchester United in this round, but this does not change the fact that they fell behind in the league, because the hole they dug before was too big, until now, the gap between them and the fourth place Chelsea is still as much as 13 points.

On March 10, Manchester City welcomed AC Milan again at home.

Although there were some "sorry" home fans who once again burst the City Stadium, Linson adopted a completely different game strategy in this game, which was to defend and counterattack. Andy Gray angrily dismissed Linson's choice as conservative, while Martin Taylor laughed and said it was a smart choice.

The words of the two commentators are actually reasonable, and the lead is defensive? Isn't that conservative? But from another angle, the advantage is in your own hands, and it should be the opponent who is in a hurry, so why rush to attack at this time?

Of course, the two understandings, the final right or wrong, but also let the result of the game be judged.

If Linsen's "conservatism" fails to allow Manchester City to withstand Milan's attack, then, Linsen is burying the good game, but if Linsen's "conservatism" allows Manchester City to finally advance, then, Linsen's choice is smart. And in this game, Lin Sen was not lucky to be a smart person.

In fact, it is conservative, and Linson just made a minor adjustment in the lineup, that is, Vidal replaced David Silva's position, adding a layer of concrete to the original impregnable midfield barrier.

From the first half to the second half, AC Milan, who had no way out, attacked most of the game, but still failed to get even a decent chance, but in the 73rd minute, Manchester City "stole" a goal, and the goal was scored by AC Milan's old acquaintance, Adriano, which was a powerful long-range goal.

The score became 1-0.

The aggregate score became four to one.

With less than 20 minutes remaining, and in a period of time that is by no means short for the current scoreline but not long for the aggregate, AC Milan will have to replicate what another English side did to them in Istanbul and score three goals in the second half if they are to progress.

Only then will they be able to get back on the same page as Manchester City.

Allegri's side saw a glimmer of hope when Pato scored a goal to make it 1-1 in the 80th minute, but even then they were still two goals apart, and the time they had been on the opposite side since the start of the game would not give them any favor.

Time will only get less and less.

When the whistle was at the end of the game, the City Stadium erupted in applause.

The score was still 1-1 and the overall score was 4-2.

In the two legs, AC Milan scored the first goal and the last goal, but it was Manchester City who advanced.

Knocking out AC Milan, Manchester City became one of the first four teams to qualify for the quarter-finals, after the unfortunate Arsenal failed to withstand Barcelona's comeback at the Camp Nou to exit the Champions League first, while Roma, who lost 3-2 to Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg, also failed to make it back on the road, losing a crisp 3-0 defeat. In addition to Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk, it was German side Schalke 04 who appeared on the day with Manchester City, and they were eliminated by Valencia in La Liga.

As for the other four games, although the game will not be played until a week later, in fact, the suspense of the qualifying teams in these four games is not great, because except for the game between Inter Milan and Bayern, which can be regarded as similar in strength, and Real Madrid and Lyon because of last season's feud, the other two games are really disparity, so disparity is so great that almost from the moment the draw results come out, you can almost conclude who will qualify. Coupled with the fact that there were no upsets in the first leg, these games have become even more suspenseless.

Manchester United v Marseille, Chelsea v Copenhagen.

If there are no surprises, it is clear that there will be three Premier League teams and two La Liga teams in the quarter-finals.

Of course, Linson cares about the outcome of other matches not because of how enthusiastic he is about other English teams, but because there will be no rules for the draw in the next knockout round, the quarter-finals. In other words, there is no principle of avoidance of the same country, there are no seeded teams to speak of, and even the home and away order will be decided by draw.

In that case, Manchester City could face any opponent.

Including Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, including Pep Guardiola's Barcelona and, of course, Mourinho's Real Madrid, if Mourinho's team can get through. (To be continued......)