Manchester City's €10 million move on a young defender from the Premier League has not attracted much attention.

After all, Manchester City used to buy tens of millions of euros, and Van Dijk only spent 10 million euros, which is too small in the eyes of reporters.

How much strength can a defender at this price have?

Compared to Van Dijk, they are still more concerned about the transfer of those big-name stars in the Manchester City team.

However, with Lin Quan, Kroos and De Bruyne and others appearing on Manchester City's training ground one after another, the transfer rumors from the outside world suddenly broke down.

These stars will not return to Manchester City for pre-season training if they do want to move.

After a short training camp, Manchester City set off non-stop for the United States to compete in the International Champions Cup.

The International Champions Cup is a commercial tournament that has been held since 2009, and although it is very famous, it is a warm-up competition.

However, because most of the invitees are from some big teams, plus the teams that come to participate can get a lot of money.

So the team that is invited will not refuse in most cases, after all, you can not only make money, but also take the opportunity to complete the pre-season warm-up training, this kind of thing, why not kill two birds with one stone?

After five consecutive editions, the International Champions Cup has become more and more influential, and more and more TV stations are willing to buy broadcast rights.

In particular, almost all of the eight teams participating in this year's competition are European giants, and there is no situation where there are regional leagues participating in the number as before.

The eight participating teams are: Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma, Real Madrid and Olympiacos.

With the exception of Olympiacos, the other teams are almost all giants.

Maybe Manchester City and Roma are a little bit worse, but they are also quasi-giants.

As a result, this year's tournament attracted a large number of fans, and the organizers have just begun to open up ticket pre-sales, and tickets for each game are immediately snapped up by enthusiastic fans.

Among them, the match between Real Madrid and Manchester City attracted the most attention.

After all, only these two teams have superstars.

The organizers also understand the market and specially scheduled the finals to be held at the University of Michigan stadium.

The stadium is large and can accommodate more than 100,000 people.

If it is the final between Real Madrid and Manchester City, then the organizers can make a lot of money just by selling tickets!

According to the format, the eight teams are first divided into two groups, with the top two teams in the group advancing to the semi-finals, with the winners of the semi-finals advancing to the finals.

As the two favourites in the tournament, Real Madrid and Manchester City have been drawn in two different groups.

In addition to Manchester City, the remaining three teams in Manchester City's group are: Liverpool, Olympiacos and AC Milan.

The four teams in Real Madrid's group are Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Roma.

In contrast, Real Madrid's group is a bit more evenly matched.

Especially Manchester United, who frantically recruited in the summer, has every chance to overturn Real Madrid and grab the top spot in the group.

As for the two Serie A teams, Inter Milan and Roma, they are limited by the decline of Serie A, and the outside world is not very optimistic about them.

As for the result of Manchester City's qualification from this group, Manchester City will definitely qualify steadily, and the weakest Olympiacos will most likely be eliminated.

As for who will advance between Liverpool and AC Milan, it will depend on their results against each other.

As new Premier League and Champions League champions, Manchester City were scheduled for the opening game.

Their opponents are Serie A giants AC Milan.

Because it was a warm-up match, there were a lot of substitutes on both sides.

The main players of the two teams sat on the bench, chatting and laughing as the substitutes worked the field.

In a warm-up match of this nature, there is no need to play the main force as soon as it starts.

Because there is no limit to the number of substitutions on both sides, there is no limit to the number of substitutes on the bench.

As long as you want, you can replace all 11 people on the field in one go.

But even if it is a substitute lineup, there is still a gap in strength between the substitutes of the two teams.

After the opening, Manchester City played very proactively.

Just 11 minutes into the game, Jovetic opened the scoring for the first time.

Two minutes later, Sinclair scored another goal as Manchester City beat AC Milan 2-0.

Although it was only a warm-up game, the team fell behind by two goals in the opening 13 minutes, which made AC Milan manager Inzaghi a little embarrassed.

Inzaghi started to stand up and shouted at the players on the pitch to play a little more aggressively and positively.

It's just that his shouting not only did not work, but made the players a little overwhelmed.

In the 23rd minute, Keylor Navas scored another goal to extend City's lead to three.

Four minutes later, Manchester City doubled the score again, and the score on the pitch had become 4-0.

That's not all, in the 32nd minute, Jovetic scored another goal, Manchester City 5:0 AC Milan.

Seeing that the team was about to be beaten out of the game, Inzaghi couldn't sit still.

He replaced four main players in one go and tried to turn the tide.

However, the substitutions did not work well, with centre-back Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who were making their first appearance for Manchester City, performing well in the game, denouncing AC Milan's attacks on a number of occasions.

Especially Keylor Navas, whose god-level saves made AC Milan players almost doubt their lives.

Fortunately, Muntari managed to pull a goal back in the 42nd minute, allowing AC Milan to save a little face.

But after the start of the second half, City also began to make substitutions.

The likes of David Silva, Kroos, Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne began to make their debuts.

As soon as these people came on the pitch, the situation on the pitch changed dramatically, from AC Milan besieging Manchester City to Manchester City besieging AC Milan.

AC Milan also made personnel adjustments immediately, Inzaghi once again replaced 4 main players, and AC Milan on the field at this time was almost the main lineup.

And on Manchester City's side, at least half of the main players are still sitting on the bench and have not moved!

The fans who came to the scene saw more and more stars on the field, and the game became more and more exciting.

One by one, the emotions were mobilized, and the sound of cheering and shouting began to become enthusiastic.

However, the atmosphere was not at its peak yet, as more than 50,000 fans were waiting for the man to appear!

"Change Lin Huang!"

"Let Emperor Lin play!"

"We're going to see Emperor Lin!"

Seeing that the game was almost 70 minutes, Manchester City delayed Lin Quan on the stage, and the fans at the scene were unhappy.

They began shouting Lin Quan's name at the top of their voices as a way to put pressure on the tournament organisers and Manchester City's coaching staff.

The team had a big lead and completely suppressed AC Milan on the field.

This made Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini very happy, and after hearing the cries of the fans, he turned his head to the side with a smile and asked:

"Lin, do you want to warm up?"

Lin Quan nodded, although the overall situation of the game has been decided, but as a fan maniac, he has always taken good care of his fans.

So, in the 75th minute, Lin Quan was substituted.

Seeing that Lin Quan finally appeared on the stage, the fans at the scene gave a warm cheer.

"Lin!"

"Lin!"

More than 50,000 fans chanted Lin Quan's name in unison, and this movement felt like they were greeting their football emperor!

The fans cheered so much, and Lin Quan couldn't help but express it.

After he came on the pitch, he scored directly with a free kick to help the team further extend the score.

At the last moment of the game, after Lin Quan received the ball on the side, he evaded the interception of many AC Milan defenders one after another.

Inspect almost the entire AC Milan back line, then burst into the box and calmly finish the goal!

This goal completely detonated the whole game, and the fans were all impressed by Lin Quan's wonderful performance!

In the end, Manchester City bloodied AC Milan with a score of 7:2 in the opening game.

Although it was a warm-up match, the score difference was still outrageous.

In the post-match handshake session, AC Milan's new coach Inzaghi looked ugly when he shook hands with Pellegrini.

His predecessor Seedorf was fired by AC Milan because of his poor performance in leading the team, and he had just taken office when such a tragedy occurred.

This makes Inzaghi a little pessimistic about his future at AC Milan!

This Milan is too far from the Milan team I played at the time!

The two Milan heroes are unlucky together!

Manchester City has just bloodied AC Milan on this side, and on the other side, Inter Milan has also fallen at the feet of Real Madrid.

However, compared to AC Milan's crisp defeat, Inter fought until the last moment, but unfortunately they were unlucky and fell to the penalty shootout.

There is no draw in the International Cup, and a draw is followed by a penalty shootout.

In other matches, Manchester United beat Roma 3-2 and Liverpool beat Olympiacos 1-0.

Premier League teams are unbeaten in all three games.

The Serie A team has lost all three games, showing its decline.

This makes the Serie A fans who watch the game, especially those who have experienced the most glorious era of Serie A, extremely sad:

Alas, it seems that Serie A is really in decline!

The pomp and circumstance of the mini-World Cup no longer exists!

After a three-day break, the second round of the tournament began quickly.

This round of Manchester City ushered in a Premier League civil war, and their opponents were the Red Army Liverpool.

There are a lot of grievances between the two teams, so this game is full of gunpowder from the start.

In order to be able to win this game, Pellegrini arranged a semi-main lineup.

Virgil van Dijk and Keylor Navas continued to start, while Milner, Fernandinho, Kolarov, Jovetic and Sergio Aguero also featured.

It's a similar situation for Liverpool, with neither side wanting to lose.

The game was a tight one, with neither side scoring in the first half.

In the 53rd minute of the second half, Jovetic opened the scoring to finally break the deadlock.

However, City's lead did not last long, and in the 57th minute, Jordan Henderson's goal equalised for Liverpool.

Subsequently, the two teams began to make substitutions.

In less than ten minutes, all the players on the field were replaced by the main lineups of both sides.

However, on Manchester City's side, Van Dijk was still kept on the pitch by Manuel Pellegrini.

The Chilean engineer seems to have high hopes for the young man, and did not hesitate to accelerate his growth in the form of such pressurized exercises.

"Is that really good? If he makes a mistake in the game and we lose, it could be a big blow to his confidence! ”

The assistant coach said with some concern that he felt that Van Dijk should not be subjected to such pressure so early.

"It doesn't matter, it's just a warm-up game, if you can't withstand the pressure of this kind of game, can you withstand it in the league and the Champions League?"

Manuel Pellegrini explained, staring at Van Dijk to see what kind of surprise he could bring him.

Unlike goalkeeper Keylor Navas, Van Dijk has not played in the top five leagues before.

And the intensity of this game has undoubtedly reached or even exceeded the intensity of the five major leagues.

And all his teammates around him are main players, only he is a substitute, and he is a newcomer who has just joined the team for a short time.

This made Van Dijk feel a lot of pressure and nervousness.

But he's not the kind of person who is afraid of his hands!

In the face of tremendous pressure, Van Dijk's performance not only did not decline, but played better and better.

On several occasions in his defense, he froze not only Sturridge but also Balotelli.

Balotelli may not have a normal head, but he is world-class from the head down.

His strong physical fitness, ordinary defenders really can't bear it.

But in front of Van Dijk, Balotelli did not take any advantage and was guarded to death!

Seeing Van Dijk's solid performance, Manchester City's coaching staff breathed a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, Liverpool's manager Brendan Rodgers is confused.

Where did City's big defender come from?

Why is he not impressed?

After inquiring with his assistant, he found out that Manchester City had just bought it from Celtic.

And it only cost 10 million euros!

Can 10 million euros buy a defender of this level?

Rogers had 10,000 grass and mud horses galloping through his heart!

This kind of good thing, why can't we Liverpool take their turn?

If he had known that Celtic had such an excellent defender, let alone 10 million euros, even if it was 15 million or even 20 million euros, he would have grabbed it!

There are really fewer and fewer good defenders now, and they are getting more and more expensive!

It's all to blame for the fool of Paris Saint-Germain, the three defenders he bought are more expensive than the other, which directly raises the value of defenders in the transfer market!

After the backline withstood the opposition's attacking pressure, Manchester City's powerful midfield began to shine!

Under the onslaught of Lin Quan, Sergio Aguero, De Bruyne and others, Liverpool's defense collapsed.

In the 67th minute, Lin Quan scored a goal to help the team regain the lead.

Eight minutes later, Sergio Aguero scored again from Kevin De Bruyne's through ball to seal the win.

In the last moments of the game, Liverpool tried to launch a counterattack, but was quickly counterattacked by Manchester City, and Lin Quan assisted David Silva to score another goal to set the score at 4:1.

City have won two games in a row to get them out of the group one round early.

And with 11 goals scored in two games, this terrifying offensive firepower also made the other teams participating in the competition feel terrified!

Manchester City's strength has not decreased at all, but has become stronger!

(End of chapter)