Although Bayern still won away from home, Bayern only scored a goal difference in this game.

The score of 1:0 remained until the end of the game.

In the other group game that ended at the same time, Manchester City finally beat CSKA Moscow with a score of 5-2.

Towards the end of the second half, the referee awarded a controversial penalty to the visitors, giving them two goals at the Etihad Stadium.

The result was a bit unsatisfactory for Manchester City, but they were immediately satisfied after seeing the score from Bayern's side.

After this round of matches, the qualification situation for Group D is very clear.

Manchester City, who have won all four games, qualified two rounds early and have a goal difference of 10, three points ahead of Bayern Munich and two goals clearer.

On the Bayern side, they have 9 points, and they can qualify as long as they draw in the next game.

With Bayern's strength, it will not be difficult to qualify.

It's just that if you want to compete with Manchester City for the top spot in the group, it's a bit difficult!

Because they will play away from Moscow next game, Manchester City will continue to host Plzen, the weakest side in the group.

Given the difference in quality between the two teams, it is likely that Manchester City will continue to extend their lead on goal difference.

Therefore, unless Bayern slaughters Manchester City by a big score at their home stadium in the last round, Manchester City can lock up the top spot in the group by virtue of goal difference.

In this regard, after the game, there were voices criticizing Guardiola in the German media.

"If Pep Guardiola hadn't been so obsessed with experimenting with his strikeless line-up away from home, Bayern would have scored more goals, and then Bayern wouldn't be so passive!"

"Pep Guardiola has been coming to Bayern for a few months now, and some of his changes to the team have not seen too obvious results so far, and compared to last season's team, Bayern seems to be missing something."

Bayern are the undisputed hegemons of the Bundesliga, so the whole of Germany has high hopes for them.

With Dortmund's European disadvantage, Bundesliga fans can only count on them to win glory for the Bundesliga in the Champions League!

However, Bayern's performance in the Champions League was a bit disappointing.

In the face of these criticisms, Guardiola himself did not come forward to respond, but Bayern's club manager Hoeness came out to speak:

"Bayern are on the right path, and under Pep Guardiola's leadership, the team has won three trophies: the UEFA Super Cup, the Telecom Cup and the Audi Cup.

In addition, Bayern are still unbeaten in the league this season, and the Champions League group stage is also very optimistic.

Although we had some bad luck at the Etihad, we will defend Bayern Munich at home, so please be patient! ”

The three trophies that Hoeness mentioned, except for the European Super Cup, are not worth mentioning.

Therefore, the outside world did not buy his refutation of rumors.

"I bet five cents, Bayern won't get the first place in the group!"

"Unless Manchester City loses the next game, Bayern will definitely not be able to win it!"

"Don't be so sure, what if Bayern beat Manchester City at home?"

"Hehe, do you think it's possible? This is Manchester City with Lin Quan, and it will be difficult to win them, let alone a bloodbath! ”

"What's wrong with Lin Quan? Last season, Barcelona was also kicked 4:0, is Lin Quan better than Messi? ”

Some were not convinced, citing the example of Bayern's victory over Barcelona last season.

"Manchester City is not Barcelona, and Bayern is not the Bayern of last season!"

……

Although Bayern may not win the group stage in the Champions League, the Bayern club has not said anything.

Rummenigge is still very patient with Pep Guardiola, and now that half a season is not over, it is too early to talk about the final result.

And Guardiola's coaching results at Bayern are not bad, Bayern won 10 and drew 2 in the first 12 rounds of the league, remaining unbeaten, and is currently the third unbeaten team in Europe.

The other two are Manchester City in the Premier League and Barcelona in La Liga.

In terms of the consistency of the league, Pep Guardiola is undoubtedly qualified.

The only problem is probably that the Champions League results have been a little up and down, but that's okay.

With Bayern's strength, as long as they don't draw the top giants in the knockout round, they can all pass.

Compared with the results of the Champions League, Bayern cares more about Guardiola's reform of Bayern's technical and tactical play.

They want to learn and integrate Spanish pass-and-control football to keep up with the current trends in world football.

Therefore, unless Pep Guardiola's results have dropped dramatically, Bayern are unlikely to turn against him.

……

Because of the Ballon d'Or, in this round of the Champions League, the performance of Ribery, Ronaldo, Messi and Lin Quan has attracted much attention from the outside world.

Ribery's form on the road has been somewhat sluggish, with neither goals nor assists in this round of fixtures, and even his post-match rating is not high, raising doubts about his form.

Unlike Franck François Ronaldo, another favourite for the Ballon d'Or, has continued his excellent form.

In this round of the Champions League, Real Madrid challenged Juventus away, and the two teams ended up drawing 2:2.

It was their two gentlemen, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, who scored for Real Madrid.

This is Ronaldo's fourth consecutive goal in the Champions League group stage, and in the whole of Europe, only he and Lin Quan have done this.

However, Ronaldo is 3 goals ahead of Lin Quan in terms of total goals, but Lin Quan has 4 assists and can barely tie with Ronaldo.

In the current Champions League scorer list, Ronaldo ranks first with eight goals.

Ibrahimovic, who also scored one goal in this round, is second with 7 goals.

In third place is Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who scored twice in this round of games, scoring six goals with one game in hand, and equaling Cristiano Ronaldo's goal efficiency.

Lin Quan is fourth with five goals.

"The peerless duo is still strong, not only scoring goals in the league, but also scoring goals in the Champions League is as simple as drinking water."

"Both of them are in their prime, and they are in very strong teams, so now is the time for consistent output."

"Lin Huang is also a bit outrageous, the first time he participated in the Champions League, he scored four goals in a row, and the stability is terrible!"

"Yes, I am more and more convinced that he is a player of the same level as the peerless Shuangjiao!"

"It's hard to say, there are a lot of short-lived players in football, if Lin Huang can continue this excellent performance next year without too much decline in form, then it can be sure that he can really stand shoulder to shoulder with Melo."

"Tsk, I can't wait to see Emperor Lin enter his peak and kill all sides in the football world!"

"Hehe, at that time, Ronaldo and Messi were most likely at the end of their careers, and Lin Huang may have no opponents in football!"

"Neymar is not convinced!"

"Gotze can fight!"

……

Having just finished the Champions League, Manchester City had no time to rest, and the third round of the Carabao Cup began.

Manchester City will continue to play at home to Championship side Wigan Athletic.

The Carabao Cup actually started in September, but as a Premier League team, they can skip the first few rounds and go straight to the third round.

This leaves Manchester City unaffected by the Carabao Cup before.

But now that the Carabao Cup is in its third round, the Premier League teams have to play as well.

Because of the crowded schedule, there have been some differences in City's attitude towards the Carabao Cup.

'We're going to play Sunderland away in three days' time, so why don't we give up on this Carabao Cup?'

Some people think that the League Cup is just a chicken rib cup competition, and the gold content is far less than the FA Cup.

So I don't want to waste time on such a cup competition, especially with such a busy league schedule, and I can't waste the precious physical energy of the players because of a cup competition.

But some people feel that the League Cup is also a championship trophy, and the difficulty of winning the championship is not as great as the FA Cup.

What's more, by participating in the League Cup, the team can also develop new talents, so that those substitutes and young players who have been promoted from the reserve team or even the youth team have more opportunities to play.

This is of great significance for the development of new players in the team!

Both sides made sense, and Pellegrini was a little hesitant for a while.

Manchester City are known for their big purchases, but they still have some good seedlings in their own academy, and these young players are not given the opportunity to play in the first team, and usually play in the youth team or the development team.

However, the intensity of the competition between the youth team and the reserve team is certainly not as good as that of the regular cup competition.

Due to the busy schedule of the first team, Pellegrini rarely has access to these players on weekdays.

He still lacks an understanding of the quality of his team's youth and the technical characteristics of the young players.

If they are asked to play in the League Cup, it is a good time to observe their performance and see if there are any buried jades among these young people.

In the first team, Lin Quan's outstanding performance has boosted Pellegrini's confidence in young players, and he fantasizes about digging up a material that can be made.

However, the opponents are not weak, Wigan Athletic were relegated from the Premier League last season.

They are aiming to surpass this season, and the team has spent a lot of money on reinforcements, and although it is only a team in the Championship, they have the quality to not lose to the lower teams in the Premier League.

It's a bit difficult to beat them completely with a group of young players.

If you lose the first game, it won't have the effect of training the newcomers.

As a result, Pellegrini fielded a lineup that was half the main force and half the substitutes.

In this game, Lin Quan entered the squad, but did not start, but sat on the bench.

Pellegrini plans to decide whether to let him play according to the situation of the game, if the players on the field can easily solve the opponent, then there is no need to let Lin Quan, a nuclear weapon, play to waste energy.

But if the young players can't solve the battle, then they can only let Lin Quan and other main players appear.

Except for the time when he first joined Werder Bremen, Lin Quan rarely played as a substitute.

Sitting on the bench in this game gave Lin Quan a feeling that he had not felt for a long time.

After the opening kick-off, Manchester City's players took advantage of the home advantage to launch an attack on Wigan Athletic's goal.

Wigan Athletic is not a vegetarian either, and after withstanding Manchester City's three-board axe, they also frequently counterattacked.

Youngster Boyata who almost made a big mistake at Stamford Bridge before this game turned into a pinning for Manchester City on the back line.

Under his solid defence, Wigan Athletic's forwards came home once and couldn't find any chances.

Seeing Boyata's outstanding performance, Pellegrini nodded slightly and said to the assistant coach on the side:

'Boyata's technique and quality are good, but the mental quality may be a little bit worse, if his mentality can be as solid as his compatriot Kompany, then we have a solid substitute at the back!'

'Yes, but it probably has something to do with his age, after all, he's only in his early 20s, and he hasn't played much for the first team before, so he doesn't have a lot of experience in major tournaments and is prone to mistakes.

Speaking of this, the assistant coach subconsciously glanced at the direction where Lin Quan was.

The same young players, or even younger players, these problems have never appeared in Lin Quan.

I really don't know how he developed such a mature and steady mentality, and his mentality even surpasses that of many veteran players who have played for many years.

In addition to Boyata, back-up goalkeeper Pantilimon was also a key focus of the Manchester City coaching staff.

Joe Hart's performances in the league and Champions League have been inconsistent, and although he has a save success rate of over 60 per cent, Joe Hart has made several mistakes when facing long-range shots.

If City are to go further this season, they will have to focus on improving the consistency of their backline.

After undergoing an early season adjustment, Manchester City's backline has gradually taken shape and its defensive ability has improved.

However, the performance of the goalkeeper has always been a little unsatisfactory.

As a result, Manuel Pellegrini plans to give the second and third a try and see how they far.

If the back-up goalkeeper performs as he expects, he may replace Joe Hart and bring in either Pantilimon or Wright to start.

Judging by the first half of the game, Pantilimon was outstanding.

He made three effective saves, two of which were from distance by opponents.

With a height of 2.03 meters, he has a big advantage when defending high-altitude balls.

The Manchester City coaching staff were very pleased with his saves and Manuel Pellegrini intends to try him out in the next league game against Sunderland.

If it works out, then City's starting goalkeeper will be his.

The team had no problems defensively, but there were problems on the offensive end.

After the front court was missing Lin Quan and Aguero, the players' offense seemed to be unable to find the backbone, and the one they played was called a plate of loose sand!

Until the end of the first half, the score on the field was still 0:0, and the two teams exchanged blanks.

"Do you want to change Lin Quan?"

Seeing that Pellegrini's face was not good-looking, the assistant coach on the side tried to ask.

"No need, wait and see!"

However, after 20 minutes of the second half, the score was still 0:0.

Wigan Athletic can't break down Manchester City's defense, and Manchester City can't do anything about them.

Seeing that the regular season is coming to an end, Pellegrini really can't stand it now.

In the 75th minute, he made a substitution.

Manchester City brought on Sergio Aguero for the underperforming Lopes.

Sergio Aguero is a good striker and he comes on very aggressively looking for chances.

However, the Wigan Athletic players were very closely marked against him, leaving him no space at all.

Sergio Aguero played 10 minutes and City's attack continued to struggle, with less than five minutes left before the end of the regular season.

Pellegrini is angry, can't he go to Aguero?

Manchester City fans watching the game are also starting to get anxious, is it possible for the team to be forced to draw at home by a Championship team?

Prior to the encounter with Wigan Athletic, Manchester City had a clean home record.

If a Championship team breaks their winning streak, Manchester City will lose face.

So they started making noises and asking Pellegrini to replace Lin Quan.

"Lin, we need Lin!"

"Let Lin play!"

Pellegrini glanced at Lin Quan, only to see that the other party had sat up straight, and his expression became very serious.

Lin Quan thought that they could win this game steadily, but he didn't know that his teammates were scoreless and wasted so many opportunities, but they couldn't score goals for a long time.

This gave him a sense of crisis, a boiled duck can't fly, right?

It was at this moment that he heard Pellegrini's words:

"Lin, go warm up and get ready for overtime!"

Lin Quan shook his head: "No need to warm up, just change people!" ”

(End of chapter)