On 13 March, three days after the Champions League round of 16, Chelsea travelled to take on Everton.

This is the sixth round of the FA Cup, which is also a highlight of the quarter-finals.

Now for Pan Yi and Chelsea, no matter which game in any competition, they attach great importance to it.

Perhaps, as Pan Yi said before, the Premier League, which is now leading more, is a relatively "abandoned" game.

Of course, this is also a joke, after all, there are still 9 rounds left in the league to end, and if you are not careful, there is still the possibility of overturning the boat in the gutter.

Until the final championship is in hand, you can't relax for a moment!

And the FA Cup, which is decided by one battle, cannot be relaxed.

As a result, Chelsea also used a semi-main and semi-rotational line-up to rest those who were a little tired after the game in Paris.

And players like N'Golo Kante and Virgil van Dijk who didn't feel tired at all continued to start!

Despite Everton's stubborn resistance, Chelsea were able to win the game without a hitch.

Romelu Lukaku scored a brace against his former club to help his side beat Everton 2-0 and progress to the FA Cup semi-finals.

This also means that Chelsea will once again head to Wembley Stadium for the semi-finals!

And Arsenal, who entered the quarterfinals after beating Hull City in the last round of the last round, broke out an upset in this round.

They lost 2-1 at home to Watford and were knocked out!

Crystal Palace, on the other hand, beat Reading 2-0 to reach the last four after beating Reading, the only non-Premier League team in the quarter-finals.

The final semi-final spot will be between Manchester United and West Ham United.

They played 1-1 at Old Trafford and need another play-off at West Ham United's home stadium.

Although the semi-finals were not fully produced, the draw for the semi-finals was carried out in advance.

Chelsea draw Watford, while Crystal Palace face the winner of Manchester United and West Ham United.

It can be said that Chelsea have drawn a good signing.

——

March 18, midday, Cobham training base.

In the head coach's office, Pan Yi and members of the core coaching staff sat around the coffee table, sipping melon seeds while watching the TV hanging on the wall.

On the TV, a live broadcast of the football channel was being broadcast, and the camera was in the lobby of the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Representatives of all the teams that have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League have gathered for the next stage of the draw.

As usual, when it comes to the quarterfinals, the draw will be completely random, with no seeded teams and teams from the same league not shying away.

That is, any one team could run into seven other teams.

Of these eight teams, three are from Spain, two from the Bundesliga, two from the Premier League and one from Portugal.

This can also look at the current European football, which is basically the strongest of the three leagues in West Germany and England, while the competitiveness of Serie A has been weakening, not to mention Ligue 1.

In other leagues, it is basically the Portuguese team that performs the best, with Porto reaching the quarter-finals last season and Benfica this season.

Today's draw was presided over by UEFA Affair Director Marchetti, with Ambassador Zanetti, the host of the final, as the guest of honour.

This is mainly due to the fact that there are fewer teams in the quarterfinals, and only one guest is enough for Zanetti, and Maldini is not used.

'Let me see which team is ......the most nervous,' Arteta joked from the sidelines.

On the television, the camera pans over the representatives of the eight teams.

Representing Chelsea today at the draw was CEO Ron Gurray.

But seeing him smiling, he said hello to the camera.

"I don't know who's the most nervous, but who's the least nervous, I can tell." Steve Holland said with a smile.

Obviously, as the representative of Chelsea, Ron Gurray certainly doesn't need to be nervous because his team can touch any team, but no other team wants to touch Chelsea!

This is the confidence that Pan Yi gave him.

A few days ago, Pep Guardiola made it clear in an interview that the last thing Bayern Munich wanted to meet was Chelsea.

'This is my last season at Bayern and I certainly want to take the team a little bit further.

"Now that I'm going to Manchester City next season, there will be more opportunities to play against Pan Yi in the future."

"So, try to meet him later in the Champions League this season, God forbid!"

Bayern Munich are still on a high strides in the Bundesliga this season, with a seven-point lead over second-place Borussia Dortmund after 25 rounds, and will win the Bundesliga title again.

In fact, whether in Pan Yi's past life or now, Guardiola is really very stable in the league.

Let's talk about the previous life, that is, the normal timeline, Guardiola has only lost the league championship a few times in so many seasons from coaching Barcelona to Bayern to Manchester City?

Three times.

From coaching Barcelona in 2008 to Manchester City in 2023, in 15 years, he has only lost three league titles!

They lost to Real Madrid in 2011-2012, Liverpool in 2019-2020 with 99 points, and his first season at Manchester City.

And the season when he won the championship often raised the score to a very high threshold, such as a few times when he was in Barcelona, 99 points, 100 points to win the championship.

After arriving at Manchester City, the history of winning the Premier League with more than 80 points in the past is almost impossible to reproduce, and if you don't score more than 90 or 100 points, you are embarrassed to say hello!

- Here you can check the psychological state of Liverpool fans who won the Premier League runner-up with 97 points.

And even in the three seasons when he didn't win the championship, the team he led was in the top three, and had a strong impact on the championship.

It can be said that at least in the field of the league, there is really no second person in world football who is more stable than him.

He has won a lot of domestic cup competitions, winning the Copa del Rey twice at Barcelona, Bayern twice, and three League Cups and one FA Cup at Manchester City.

The only thing Pep Guardiola has been criticized for is his lack of prowess in the Champions League, but the fact is that he is also a two-time champion and a six-time semi-finalist – with a good chance of adding another title in 2023.

And a coach of Pep Guardiola's level would actually say in public that he didn't want to run into Chelsea, which shows how big the psychological shadow Pan Yi has caused him.

Of course, this is inseparable from the good relationship between the two.

They often exchange tactical details and make a lot of jokes when chatting, so it doesn't hurt to make some jokes in front of the media, both true and false.

For example, Guardiola will say that Pan Yi is from time in time, otherwise how can the players be so accurate?

And Pan Yi was not to be outdone, saying that Guardiola is the one who really has the FM system, and he can definitely see the potential of the player!

Then the two laughed and continued to talk about tactics.

To be honest, the jokes of these two people are also half-truths.

Guardiola feels that Pan Yi is understandable, and Pan Yi also really suspects that Gua Shuai is also a man with a system, at least in his previous life.

First of all, Pep Guardiola is the manager with the most tactical changes, not one of them.

Although it is often said that he is a big player, this also proves from another aspect that there are so many formations and playing styles that can be applied in his hands.

Isn't this a bit similar to Pan Yi's situation in this life?

And Guardiola's contribution to promoting the style of play is really incomparable to other coaches.

From possession, to pressing up front, to goalkeeper playing, to full-backs adducting, to the use of a 3-2-4-1 formation, and so on, either he pioneered or carried it forward.

Secondly, many players were not considered the world's top stars before coming to Pep Guardiola, but they often played.

Take the latest Manchester City squad as an example, in this lineup, except for a few players such as Haaland and Grealish, who were very popular and sought-after before they came, most of them are the same.

For example, at the back, what Ake, Akanji, Ruben Dias, John Stones...... Including goalkeeper Ederson, who was also brought in from Portugal.

The same is true for the B seat in the midfield, even De Bruyne was bought back from the Bundesliga with the reputation of "Premier League parallel import", and many people feel that he cannot adapt to the Premier League.

And then to the young Alvarez, Lewis......

This has to make people suspect that Guardiola is playing FM with nuclear weapons, and they can see the potential value and hidden mental attributes of these players, and I believe that they will definitely be able to become talents.

The players who fell under his hand seemed to be the original goalkeeper "Regent" Bravo, and a competition for the "Prison King" Mendy, and then basically disappeared.

If you look at Manchester United next door, the contrast is even more pronounced.

What Sanchez, Falcao, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sancho ...... They are all bought by big names, but they don't have much effect, at least they don't improve their grades.

Manchester City and Manchester United are the best in comparison, Dortlai is the best. The people who come out of Dort, the good ones wear blue, and the bad ones wear red. If it doesn't work, wear red and blue......

Because of this, Guardiola has also become one of the few managers in world football who has never been sacked.

Not only that, but his employer was going to lick him.

Manchester City president Hosni Mubarak's famous dog-licking quote is: "Our job is to make Pep Guardiola happy." Pep Guardiola is happy and so are we. ”

Listen, what is this? Is that what the President can say? It's outrageous!

The "Süddeutsche Zeitung", which represents the mouthpiece of Bayern Munich, said more vaguely, and also expressed regret for Guardiola leaving Bayern:

"Pep Guardiola is like a beautiful and sexy but crazy lover to Bayern, you wake up every morning and look at her proudly, but you never know what mood she will be in when she gets up. Bayern tried a lot to make the somewhat eccentric bride a good companion for themselves, but it didn't work out. ”

In short, it is such an open-minded head coach, and when he meets Pan Yi who is really open-minded in this life, he can only bow his head and admit defeat in the end;

Then, he became Pan Yi's friend and admirer, and then hungrily drew more nutrients from Pan Yi......

——

And just as a couple of Chelsea coaches were laughing and chatting, the draw ceremony on live TV began.

The first team to be drawn by Zanetti was Atletico Madrid, followed by Barcelona, also from La Liga!

"I think there must be a civil war." Arteta said, "The chances of the three teams in La Liga are not low. ”

"The matchup between these two teams is interesting." Pan Yi nodded and smiled, "The ultimate ball control offense meets the ultimate defensive counterattack, it should be quite interesting." ”

The first team to be drawn in the second game was Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich.

'I hope it's Real Madrid, or Manchester City.' Pan Yi laughed mischievously.

Pan Yi himself actually doesn't really want to touch Bayern Munich, after all, he is friends with Guardiola, isn't it good to keep it until the final and then decide the winner?

But he also doesn't want Pep Guardiola to make it easy, so it's interesting to give Bayern a bite to the bone like Real Madrid or Manchester City.

As a result, what I didn't expect was that Zanetti pulled out the ball, handed it to Marchetti, and unscrewed it to take a look.

"Manchester City!"

Pan Yi and the others all wowed, and then they all laughed again.

"Boss, you are doing what you say, whatever team you say, you can be on any team." Arteta leaned over and said.

"I see, this is still a gimmick by Ouzu Lenovo." Steve Holland snorted and a conspiracy theory popped up, "What could be more newsy than Pep Guardiola's face of his old club ahead of schedule?" ”

"I should send him a text message to congratulate him." Pan Yi laughed.

Pep Guardiola's luck should really buy a lottery ticket, after all, Manchester City is still very strong, at least better than Wolfsburg and Benfica, who have not yet been drawn.

Saying that, Pan Yi really took out his mobile phone and sent a text message to Guardiola, just a few words: "Congratulations, you met the new owner early." ”

Soon, Guardiola sent him a text message back: "Thank you. Thank goodness I didn't draw you guys. ”

Well, Pan Yi wanted to make fun of Guardiola, but he didn't expect Guardiola to really think that he had drawn a good lot.

Perhaps in his mind, Chelsea is really the only one who is the most formidable opponent.

The draw on TV continues.

Now there are only four teams left, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Wolfsburg and Benfica.

Obviously, a lot of people are already praying for Chelsea to draw Real Madrid......

Even if Real Madrid can't stop Chelsea from moving forward, at least it will not be so easy for them, and they will have to peel off their skin!

And the first team to be drawn in the third game was Chelsea.

"Who could it be?" Arteta looked a little nervous.

Pan Yi smiled calmly on the surface, but in fact, he was also a little expectant in his heart.

After all, as long as Real Madrid are not drawn, Chelsea will undoubtedly have much less pressure in the quarter-finals, which is still very meaningful for Chelsea who are fighting on multiple fronts and entering the final sprint of the season.

In the live TV footage, Zanetti once again reached into the ball tank, took out a small ball, showed it to all the guests present and the live TV camera, and then handed it over to Marchetti.

Marchetti twisted his hands, opened the ball, took out a note from it, looked at it, and flipped it over with a smile.

"Benfica!"

Wow!!

There was a cheer in the coach's office.

Even if Steve Holland and others have already experienced a lot of battles, they are still very happy about this draw.

Although it is said that they can enter the quarterfinals of the Champions League, there is no weak team in the strict sense.

But compared to Real Madrid, of course it would be better to play Benfica.

And how to put it, sometimes it depends on some luck if you don't make it to the quarterfinals.

For example, Juventus, who were eliminated by Bayern in the round of 16, did they play poorly? They played to extra time with Bayern.

Benfica, on the other hand, defeated Zenit St. Petersburg, who were relatively weak in the round of 16.

So, sometimes it depends on the signing.

And Chelsea's signing this time is very good!

Perhaps Chelsea have indeed been in transit in recent times, whether it is the League Cup, FA Cup, or the Champions League quarter-finals, it seems that the goddess of luck is favored.

The rest of the matchup did not require a draw, with Real Madrid meeting Wolfsburg.

Then, in the center of the TV screen, the final matchup situation appeared:

Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid.

Bayern Munich vs Manchester City.

Chelsea vs Benfica.

Real Madrid vs Wolfsburg.

At the same time, the schedule for the next matches has also been confirmed.

The two legs of the quarter-finals will be played on 5/6 April and 12/13 April;

The draw for the semi-finals took place on 15 April, with the two legs taking place on 26/27 April and 3/4 May.

The final will take place on May 28 at the San Siro Stadium in Milan!

As soon as the lottery results came out, Pan Yi soon received a text message.

In a text message, Pep Guardiola asked: "Did you top up UEFA?" I always thought you were going to draw the strongest opponent. ”

Pan Yi looked at it and laughed, and replied: "It's not much, only 998." ”

But it is.

From the Champions League group stage to the round of 16 knockout rounds, Chelsea's signings have not been ideal.

They are in the strongest group of the Champions League group stage overall, and Paris Saint-Germain are also the best team in the group of 16.

Including when Pan Yi took Hamburg and was in Milan, he also fell into the group of death again and again.

It seems that as Pan Yi's grades are getting better and better, even UEFA has begun to take care of him!

After a while, Guardiola replied: "Let's work together to reach the final!" ”

"Okay, we'll see you at the San Siro."

——

As soon as the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was announced, the world's media certainly focused on it.

If it is said that the media and fans have long been mentally prepared for the civil war between the two giants in La Liga, then Bayern's draw to Manchester City and Chelsea's draw to Benfica have made many people feel bored.

Some tabloid media outlets even began to speculate without responsibility:

"Bayern vs. Manchester City, Guardiola faced his old club in advance, this is definitely the biggest focus of this round, UEFA drew them together, and the traffic was full."

At this time, Chelsea will not be able to steal the limelight, so they arranged for them to play the weakest Benfica and let them pass easily. Their role will be saved for the next round! ”

"This is also UEFA's god-making sport, and they are secretly helping Pan Yi to reach the Champions League again!"

But many people still think that this is just a lottery based on luck.

Their argument is that if Chelsea are to make it all the way easily, they will not be "assigned" to the strongest group runners-up, Paris Saint-Germain, in the round of 16.

"Is PSG strong? Didn't they get an 8-0 by Chelsea? ”

"You can't use the results to reverse the process...... How did you think that such a strong conversation would be such a scoreline before they played? ”

"That's right, it only shows that Chelsea are too strong, and whoever draws them is a tragedy!"

Then there are all kinds of verbal wars on the Internet.

Of course, in addition to these two games, the match between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid is also very concerned.

And the media and fans are also more optimistic that Barcelona can reach the last four.

The reason is simple, Barcelona's MSN combination is getting better and better, and they also have the advantage in the La Liga title race.

What's more, Barcelona won 2:1 in both legs of their matches with Atletico Madrid this season, which is a double kill!

And Real Madrid's match against Wolfsburg, of course, is one-sided that Real Madrid will pass.

Wolfsburg's performance this season is certainly very good, but in front of such an "old Jianghu" as Real Madrid, it is still a little tender.

In an interview, Pan Yi still solemnly said that this is not good luck as the outside world says, because Benfica is a team with excellent strength.

'Benfica have produced a lot of good young players in recent years and they have a lot of potential.

'To be honest, I don't really think the team that can get to the quarter-finals of the Champions League will be any weaker.

"We must not relax in the face of them, otherwise we will definitely be punished."

These statements do not conform to Pan Yi's sometimes high-profile style.

The main reason for this is that Pan Yi needs his players to calm their mentality at this time and deal with every game seriously.

Now that the Carabao Cup is in hand, Chelsea are still in the FA Cup, the league and the Champions League, and their morale is boosting, which would have been a good thing;

But the problem is, young players are easy to be proud, and if the media fans are "smug" as soon as they praise them, then what's the point?

In this case, the players are likely to become slack.

The season is a long process and every player has to strain their nerves, and once that nerve is loosened, it is likely that it will never be tightened again.

And now, with Benfica drawn in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, arguably the weakest of the eight teams, almost everyone even believes that Chelsea will make it through, including the players themselves.

Coupled with the praise of the outside media, the atmosphere of the team is a little too optimistic.

In this case, where does Pan Yi dare to be high-profile?

It's like playing FM, if the team plays a difficult game, then praise it vigorously;

If you don't win the game you should have won, then you have to scold hard;

And if there is too much praise and the player is a little floating, then you should immediately beat it to make everyone stop being proud......

In short, it is necessary to grasp a degree.

Under such a "degree" that is neither high nor low, the team's game state can be maintained to the best!

(End of chapter)