The Dragons have qualified for the World Cup, but in Europe, some of the traditional powerhouses are still struggling.

In Group A in particular, France have largely secured top spot in the group, while Sweden are battling the Netherlands for second place in the group to qualify for the play-offs.

In fact, although Sweden is the new European champion, to be honest, no one will regard them as a world powerhouse.

This kind of explosive behavior under the leadership of super coach Pan Yi is not sustainable in the eyes of most people, just like the Greek team that also won the championship in 2004.

Greece was a European underdog before winning the European Championship and will remain an underdog after winning the championship, and their quality has not changed much in essence.

The same is true for the Swedish team, so they are not much of a problem after France, even in the minds of the Swedish people, it is considered to be in line with expectations - after all, they do not have the blessing of Pan Yi's divine power!

The bigger problem is the Netherlands.

There are now only two games left in the group stage of the European qualifiers, and the Netherlands are three points behind Sweden.

Although the Netherlands and Sweden still have a head-to-head meeting in the final round, Sweden now have a goal difference lead and will certainly have another goal difference against Luxembourg, the worst team in the group, in the penultimate round.

The Netherlands' opponent in the penultimate round of the group is Belarus, which is not strong, but not as fishy as Luxembourg.

That said, if there are no surprises, the Netherlands are close to exiting the tournament early, while Sweden will finish second in the group and qualify for the play-offs.

And for Italy in Group G, their fate seems more certain.

With two games left and five points behind Spain, can we expect Spain to lose their last two games?

Counting on both Liechtenstein and Albania to beat Spain?

It's not much less difficult than expecting the Dragons to beat Brazil at the World Cup.

So, as a four-time World Cup winner, Italy is indeed going to play the play-offs!

Although there is also a factor in the same group as a strong team like Spain, Italy really did not perform well in this qualifier.

It's okay to lose one and draw against Spain, and you can't win against North Macedonia, and you can only win by one goal against Israel and Albania, which is really unbearable for Italian fans.

Yes, the current Italian national team does feel a bit of a dim star, but in any case, the overall value is much higher than these opponents, right?

At the very least, it is necessary to ensure that these weaker opponents are won and then entangled with Spain until the end.

And not now, two rounds in advance, or even three or four rounds of surrender - then again, it doesn't seem unusual for the Italians to surrender?

In short, both the Italian media and fans are very dissatisfied with the current head coach of the Italian national team, Ventura.

"If we don't make adjustments, we will only end up losing in the play-offs!" So says Milan Sport.

What they mean by "adjustment" is, of course, the replacement of Ventura!

As for the replacement, one is Mancini, the current head coach of the Russian Premier League giant Zenit St. Petersburg, and the other is Pan Yi.

Mancini's resume is certainly qualified.

When he was a player, he was active in the old Serie A known as the "Little World Cup" in the eighties and nineties, and he also played a lot of fame as a striker.

After retiring as a head coach, he first coached Fiorentina, Lazio, Inter Milan and other strong teams in China, and of course, later went to Manchester City to lead the team to win the Premier League title, which made him famous.

Although this kind of experience is not as good as Pan Yi, it is still much better than a second-rate coach like Ventura who has never coached any big team.

Of course, in the article, "Milan Sports Newspaper" still hopes that Pan Yi, his "own person", can save Italy.

"Milan was Pan Yi's first stop in professional football, and he has also achieved success here."

"Just a day ago, he brought the weak Dragons to the World Cup, together with Lippi, the meritorious coach who won the 2006 World Cup in Italy."

"It can be said that Pan Yi has a deep relationship with Italian football, and even Lippi has been pushing Pan Yi to serve as the head coach of the national team."

"It is said that the Italian Football Federation has also sent representatives to contact Pan Yi, and we hope that their negotiations can have a good result!"

——

For Pan Yi, the Italians' overtures were of course just what he wanted.

However, he was not in a hurry to express his position, and only told the Italian Football Federation that he did intend to enter the Italian national team, but not now.

The reason is very simple, now that he has just finished the World Preliminary Tournament with the Dragon National Team, and he is still enjoying the joy of success, he is really in no hurry to start a new job immediately.

Anyway, now the situation in Italy has basically been determined, and it doesn't make a difference whether the last two rounds of games are won or lost, so let Ventura toss again, and it's not too late for Pan Yi to make another move when it comes to the critical moment of the play-offs.

Before that, Pan Yi's urgent job was to do a good job in York City, especially the Italian guys in the team, who had to practice hard.

Didn't I bring you here this season just to get you to the Italian national team to perform well?

As for the Italian coach's other "competitor" Mancini, Pan Yi was not panicked at all.

After all, he knew that in his previous life, Italy had been plagued by Ventura until he was completely eliminated from the World Cup and replaced Ventura with Mancini.

Mainly because Mancini at this time, in fact, has just arrived at Zenit St. Petersburg this season, and has only been in office for a few months, and naturally he is also under contract.

Later, after three-way negotiations, Zenit announced that he would terminate his contract with the head coach early and let Mancini go to the Italian national team.

Besides, now that Pan Yi has expressed his intentions, no matter how stupid the Italian Football Association is, it knows that it has to wait.

What level are you Mancini, can you compare with Pan Yi?

So, just be patient.

Anyway, the final round of the European qualifiers will be over around October 10th, so that's almost a month later, and the verdict will be settled! ——

After the international break, York City's schedule suddenly became more dense.

The reason is very simple, the group stage of the Europa League has begun!

This season's Europa League is divided into 12 groups of four teams each, and after playing a double round-robin, the top two teams in the group qualify, with a total of 24 teams entering the round of 32.

Some say that the Europa League doesn't really start until the round of 32, because at this stage, teams that have previously finished third in the Champions League group stage will be relegated to the Europa League.

And among these teams, there are often some giants and strong teams!

However, for a team like York City that qualifies for European competition for the first time in history, getting past the group stage first is the most pragmatic goal.

After all, their grouping is also very average.

In addition to York City, the other three teams are Atalanta in Italy, Lyon in France, and Apollo Limassol in Cyprus.

This Apollo Limassol team does look weak, but Atlanta and Lyon are not good ones!

Therefore, if York City wants to qualify, it must do its best.

Of course, it's not just the European competition that will be challenging, as York City will also face tough rivals in the domestic league and cup competitions during this time.

In the eighth round of the English Championship, they will host the "Yorkshire Derby" against Leeds United, the long-time representative of Yorkshire.

And before this game starts, they will meet the mighty Manchester City in the third round of the Carabao Cup!

It can be said that it is really a "good thing" that has happened to Yorktown.

This is actually an important reason why Pan Yi decided to postpone his trip to the Italian national team.

He's going to stay at the club and help the team through this difficult schedule with all his heart!

And when Pan Yi was still participating in various celebrations in the Dragon Kingdom, York City suffered a blow in the league, which made a bad start for this devil's schedule.

On September 9, in the sixth round of the Championship, Wolves played York City at home.

This Wolves team can also be said to be full of future stars, including future Liverpool striker Diogo Jota, as well as Ruben Neves who went to Riyadh Crescent, Matt Doherty, who played in Tottenham and Atletico Madrid, plus captain Coady, it can be said that there is also a Premier League level.

It was a bit of a tough game away from home against such a strong team, and the international break also affected the form of York's young players to a greater or lesser extent.

In the end, thanks to a header from Portuguese striker Diogo Jota after the opening 10 minutes, Wolves beat York City 1-0 at home.

It also gave York City the first defeat in the Championship of the new season.

This defeat also gave York City the top spot, finishing second behind Cardiff City, and closely behind York City was the city's rivals Leeds United, and Wolves, who had just beaten York City!

This result also made York City obviously a little uneasy, and in the third round of the League Cup three days later, they lost 0:3 to Manchester City, who played with the main force, and were eliminated.

At this time, Pan Yi had returned to the UK, and after such two consecutive defeats, he also went to the training ground to talk to the players in person.

In fact, he didn't emphasize skills and tactics or anything, he just told the players what he had done in the Dragon Country national team in the past two weeks, and then inspired them:

"Look at it, even the Dragon Country team, which had one draw and three losses at the beginning, has entered the World Cup, will these two consecutive defeats knock you down?"

Everyone felt that it made sense.

What's more, after the Dragon State has Pan Yi, it can enter the World Cup, then York City will always have Pan Yi, let alone worry about anything!

The boss's motivation really worked.

In the next seventh round of the Championship, York City took on Queens Park Rangers away and finally ended the decline with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Baker and Tonali.

Then came the first group stage of Group E of the Europa League.

York City challenged Atalanta away, scored three goals in a row after conceding one goal first, and finally won 3:1 and won the first European victory in the team's history!

Such two consecutive wins have regained confidence in York City.

This is very important for the club.

That's because, in the next game, York City will face Leeds United, also from Yorkshire's arch-rival!

And it's not just a local derby.

In the seventh round of the Championship just past, in addition to York City's defeat of QPR, Leeds United also defeated Birmingham City 2-0, while Cardiff City, the original top team, lost 0:3 to Preston North End.

This makes York City once again at the top of the current Championship standings, with a record of 6 wins and 1 loss and 18 points.

In second place is Leeds United, who are unbeaten with 5 wins and 2 draws, and they are only one point less than York City!

Cardiff City on 16 points, Ipswich Town and Sheffield United on 15 points, and Wolves on 14 points.

In other words, this matchup between York City and Leeds United is not only a battle for the top spot in Yorkshire, but also a battle for the top spot in the Championship!

——

Leeds United, is a football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, and its home stadium is Elland Road Stadium.

They are not a traditional powerhouse in England, after all, they only rose in the sixties and seventies, and the extent of their rise was limited.

It was Don Levy who was the head coach and won two First Division titles, one FA Cup, one League Cup, two European Fair Cups, one Second Division and one Charity Shield.

But after Don Reevie's departure, Leeds United began to decline and fell out of the top flight.

In 1990, Howard Wilkinson led Leeds United back to the First Division, winning their last League One (now the Premier League) title in 1991-92.

And this is also the last big title for Leeds United.

Dragon country fans began to have an impression of this white team, and it was around 2000.

Leeds United had Jonathan Woodgate, Alan Smith, Colwill, Bowyer, Mark Viduka, Leo Ferdinand, Robbie Keane and many other talented young players in the team, and reached the semi-finals in the Champions League.

At that time, Leeds United was considered one of the best teams in Europe, and coupled with the passionate style of "home alone", they were also dubbed the "Young Guard" by the domestic media at the time.

Of course, the "Young Guards" were also relegated a few years later due to financial crisis, and since then they have been up and down in the second and third divisions for many years, and have not been able to return to the Premier League for more than a decade.

However, the nickname "Young Guard" is an exclusive title given to them by the Dragon Kingdom, and even "White Rose" is also.

In fact, Leeds United's real nickname in the UK is the "White Legion", or the "Peacock Army", not the "White Rose".

That's because the "White Rose" is a symbol of Yorkshire in England, and no British media or fans call Leeds United the "White Rose".

It can be said that as long as it is a Yorkshire team, it can theoretically be a "white rose", including the same for the York City team.

So why do domestic media and fans call Leeds the "White Roses"?

Without him, although their results are not comparable to the traditional powerhouses Manchester United and Liverpool, they are already the best and most outstanding in Yorkshire - at least when the Dragons can watch the Premier League on live TV, Leeds United is definitely the representative team of Yorkshire.

For a long time, Leeds United was also the most appealing and popular team in Yorkshire.

In the list of Leeds United's sworn enemies, in addition to Manchester United, which represents the "Red Rose" Lancashire, is Huddersfield and Bradford, both West Yorkshire.

The grudge with Manchester United is mainly the historical enmity between the two regions and the two counties, and it can also be seen from here that these two teams are the representative teams of the two regions.

With Huddersfield Town and Bradford, it is the relationship between the city and the competition for fan resources.

Leeds United is of course in the lead in this race, after all, neither Huddersfield nor Bradford, nor the size of the team, nor the size of the fans, can compare with Leeds United.

But now, Yorkshire has quietly developed a strong rival – and that's Yorktown!

As the representative of North Yorkshire, it is clear that York City has included the people of the north in their fan base.

And their appetite apparently doesn't stop there.

After beating four Premier League teams in a row to win the FA Cup last season, York City's popularity across the UK has never been greater.

Especially after Pan Yi recently supported Scarborough Athletic, an amateur team in fellow North Yorkshire, York City's big mind also made people in all walks of life feel that this is what a local team should look like, and it is a boss!

As the most populous West Yorkshire city in terms of geography and location, it is clear that people here are also starting to pay attention to this "hometown team".

This is understandable.

It's like you have a team in your county, but that team is only playing in the ninth or tenth league (let's say you're in Tieling, the big city of Liaoning).

And next door there is another strong team, playing in the top league, or winning an important championship (for example, Dalian Wanda in Liaoning that year).

In this case, in addition to supporting your local Tieling team, you will naturally pay attention to Dalian Wanda.

Then after watching a few games, you find that this "Dalian Wanda" team played beautifully and the players were also very energetic, so you slowly liked it and became their fans.

This is the reason why Pan Yi is also doing charity in the surrounding area and beating the reputation of York City!

The results are good, the image is good, and the fans in the neighborhood will naturally be endless.

And that's exactly what Leeds United don't want to see.

They were supposed to be the giants of Yorkshire, and no team could threaten their position.

Now, I don't know where to get a new kid who wants to grab the position of the Yorkshire talker?

Even if it's a two-talker, it's not good!

Because of this, Leeds United also attaches great importance to this direct confrontation with York City.

Their head coach, Danish Christinsen, said early that he wanted York City to see who could really represent Yorkshire's team!

Leeds United's radical fan group "Service Gang" even claimed to let these dirt buns from York City understand what a Yorkshire derby is!