There is a saying that when people are unlucky, they even stuff their teeth when they drink cold water.

Just as Manchester City were worried about a packed fixture schedule at the end of February, their opponents in the fifth round of the FA Cup were also revealed.

Manchester City were less fortunate as they faced the Blues Chelsea.

Chelsea have had a terrible season in the league and have long since lost their title hopes, so they are aiming for the cup this season.

With Chelsea out of the Carabao Cup early, the FA Cup is the only cup to compete for in the domestic cups.

If they had met Chelsea a month ago, City would have been unfazed, but meeting them at this time would certainly not be good news for City.

It seems to be to show their determination to win the title so that Manchester City will be able to retreat.

Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink announced his starting XI ahead of the game.

The players in this starting line-up, without exception, are all Chelsea's main players.

It is obviously impossible to defeat such a Blues with only substitutes and a small number of main players.

If Manchester City want to win this game, they will have to do the same as Chelsea and play their main role.

Pep Guardiola does not want to give up the FA Cup, after all, the FA Cup is much more valuable than the League Cup.

And the fifth round of matches is on February 21, with four days to go before the next game, which is quite plenty of time for Manchester City.

As a result, Manchester City's side did not hesitate, except for the players who missed the game due to injury, the rest of the main team were all taken to Stamford Bridge by Guardiola.

At Stamford Bridge, Manchester City played a very tough battle against Chelsea.

The process of this game can be described as twists and turns, making the mood of the fans watching the game like riding a roller coaster.

It seems to have felt that Manchester City's recent form has been poor, and after the game began, Chelsea launched a fierce attack on Manchester City with the advantage of their home field.

Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Oscar, Willian and others were all very active.

In midfield, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas stepped in frequently, and Chelsea blossomed more, scoring in just seven minutes.

Chelsea striker Diego Costa latched onto Eden Hazard's clever pass to set the Blues into the opener.

Five minutes later, it was Eden Hazard again, completing the pass in almost the same position, and this time, it was Willian who scored.

Less than 15 minutes into the game, Chelsea were already leading by two goals.

It was a fantastic start to the season that turned Stamford Bridge into a sea of celebration, with the excitement and joy of the Chelsea fans barely stopping to sing, and the noise was so loud that the coaches on either side could not hear the players shouting.

Chelsea's goal seemed to wake City up, with Lin Quan stepping up to blow the horn of the counter-attack.

In the 15th minute, Manchester City played a fast attack after breaking the ball in midfield, and De Bruyne handed the ball to Lin Quan with a through ball.

Lin Quan moved diagonally with the ball, helped Sergio Aguero open up space and took a defender with him, before passing the ball into the box.

Sergio Aguero made a very clever reverse run and received the ball in the open space.

However, Courtois reacted quickly and struck to block his shot angle.

Sergio Aguero was not greedy and immediately crossed to the right after seeing that he did not have a shot angle.

Lin Quan, who followed up, easily pushed the empty goal and helped the team pull a goal back.

In the 23rd minute, Manchester City won a corner kick opportunity, Lin Quan took the corner kick himself, and after hanging into the penalty area, Van Dijk's header hit the post.

The rebounding ball fell to Kroos's feet, and Mr. Tony didn't say a word and fired a long-range shot.

Toney's long-range shot was still very threatening, the ball was not only at a tricky angle, but also very fast, and Courtois had already reacted, and his body was fully stretched out in the air like a winged Jinpeng, but he still failed to touch the ball.

2:2！

It took just 11 minutes for City to equalise.

The moment Kroos scored, the Stamford Bridge song came to an abrupt halt.

Chelsea fans are tempted to scold their mothers:

TNND, is our backline papier-mâché?

A 2-goal lead that was wiped out in ten minutes?

Manchester City fans who came to cheer for the team at this time applauded vigorously and shouted loudly to cheer for the team.

Ten minutes earlier, when the Chelsea men scored in quick succession, they were all sweating over their team's sluggish form.

Fortunately, at the most critical moment, the man stepped up, otherwise, Manchester City would have lost this game again.

"Manchester City can't live without Lin Quan, just like the West can't lose Jerusalem!"

"What is the Dinghaishen Needle, this is!"

"You can always trust Emperor Lin!"

Manchester City fans seemed to be happy a little early, and the first half of the game was not over yet.

However, it seems that the four goals in the first 20 minutes have drained all the luck of both teams, and in the following time, neither team has achieved anything.

In first-half extra-time, Oscar burst into the box and fell, and the referee awarded a penalty.

Just when Chelsea fans thought they were going to end the first half with a one-goal lead, Oscar's penalty was saved by Keylor Navas.

After saving Oscar's penalty, Navas roared domineeringly.

This kind of magic flutter is very morale-boosting.

On the other hand, on the Chelsea side, Oscar, who missed the penalty, was stupid, holding his head in disbelief, as if he didn't expect the penalty to be saved.

And his teammates had similar looks on their faces.

Why is Manchester City so hard to bite?

Obviously, they have created so many opportunities, and even took the lead at one point, but why haven't their opponents been defeated?

Even, even a small probability event such as a penalty has appeared, can it be said that even God is on Manchester City's side?

The penalty, as if it was the last grass that broke the camel's back, dealt a huge blow to the morale of the Chelsea people.

In the second half, they were not as sharp in attack as they were in the first half.

On the other hand, Manchester City's form has fully recovered after half-time adjustments.

The players worked steadily, gradually controlling the tempo of the game, and then using their familiar attacking routines to play Chelsea.

In the 67th minute, Lin Quan's free kick was hoisted into the penalty area, and Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany beat Chelsea's captain John Terry, flicked his head at close range and headed the ball in, which was also the last goal of the game.

In the end, after a hard-fought battle, Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-2 to advance to the next round.

Although the team won this game, Guardiola's face was ugly.

In the 65th minute of the second half, just as he was about to make a substitution, Sergio Aguero was injured.

And looking at the painful look on his face holding his knees, Guardiola knew that the situation was not good.

Sergio Aguero's injury has actually been going on for a long time, intermittently, and has always been a bad one.

When Sergio Aguero retired, a large part of it was due to injuries, and part of it was due to Barcelona's suffocating operation when dealing with his good friend Lionel Messi.

Professional players basically have injuries on their bodies, and they are inevitably injured when they play too many games.

Sergio Aguero's problems are centred on his ankles and knees, both of which are crucial for the players.

I was injured this time, and I don't know how long it will take to recover.

Sergio Aguero is Manchester City's main striker, and his injury will definitely have a negative impact on the team's squad and quality.

Fortunately, during the winter break, Guardiola has made reinforcements in advance, but I don't know if these new additions can perfectly fill the void left by Aguero.

Counting David Silva, who was injured before, the number of injured players in Manchester City's front court is a bit high.

Fortunately, Lin Quan, the only true nucleus in the team, has always been healthy, and there have been no injuries, which makes Guardiola feel a lot more relieved.

He couldn't imagine that if Lin Quan was also injured at this time, how would Manchester City play?

Manchester City couldn't be happier, and Chelsea were even more heartbroken.

You took the league championship, and the cup championship was not given to us?

We have fallen to 10th in the league standings, let alone the champions, and according to this point, we will not even be able to participate in the Europa League next season.

The thought of this makes Chelsea fans feel a complete grudge against Manchester City.

Since the rise of Manchester City, Chelsea's life seems to have been difficult all of a sudden.

With such a huge drop in Chelsea's results this year, there are some concerns about whether they will be able to slump from now on.

Just when the Blues fans were worried, Abu stepped up and publicly stated that he would not abandon the team and would continue to support the team as always.

Abu's statement was a reassuring relief to Blues fans, and although the team's results have temporarily declined, they believe that the Blues will rise again sooner or later as long as the owners continue to support them.

"Abu is such a good boss!"

"Indeed, in addition to having a bad temper, an impatient personality, and a penchant for firing the coach squid, he is indeed a good boss!"

Blues fans have mixed feelings for Abu and at first they were resistant to the Russian oligarch.

But Abu has spent so much real money for so many years, leading Chelsea from an ordinary team to a Premier League giant, winning several league titles, and even one Champions League title.

Abu was also often seen in the fan stands, watching Chelsea games like a regular fan.

After more than a decade of doing so, more and more Blues fans have embraced him, and one day if Abu is ousted from Chelsea, the fans may miss him.

……

After the away win at Chelsea, leaving the injured Sergio Aguero back to the club to recuperate, Pep Guardiola took his team directly to Heathrow Airport on a chartered flight to Kiev.

Four days later, they will face Champions League knockout opponents Dynamo Kyiv there.

"Ahh

"It's so cold!"

At the end of February, the weather in Kyiv was still very cold, and the outside temperature was below freezing.

As soon as the players got off the plane, they felt a chill.

This temperature, for the people of Manchester City who came all the way from the UK, there is a feeling of dreaming back to winter.

Due to the influence of the North Atlantic Current, the temperature in Manchester in winter is actually not too low, and it is rare to fall below freezing.

But here in Eastern Europe, sub-zero temperatures are commonplace.

The winters here are not only cold, but also very long.

Manchester City have been placed in a group with a Russian Premier League team, and if they are unlucky, they can even drop to minus ten degrees Celsius if they play at the home of a Russian Premier League team in December.

If you're unlucky, you'll even get snow during the race.

Coupled with the fact that Russia is too big and too far away from other countries, it would be a death for a European team to travel long distances to Russia to play an away game.

Therefore, in order to avoid fatigue and reduce the probability of injury to the main players, many teams will sometimes give up the away game and only send some substitutes if they have a relatively large lead.

With the climate and the advantage of waiting for work at home, the Russian Premier League team has a good record in the Champions League, and basically every year there are teams that can successfully qualify for the group and reach the knockout stage.

If it is understandable that a country with a core region in Europe, such as Russia, will be included in UEFA, then it is a bit unreasonable that a country like Kazakhstan, which is located entirely in Asia, should also join UEFA.

The key is that Kazakhstan still has a place in the European competition, and whoever is assigned to a group with them will have to fly more than 10,000 kilometers back and forth to play a game!

Of course, to compensate, Kazakhstan's team is very weak and basically unthreatening.

If you meet them in the Champions League again, except for the slightly more expensive journey, there is no problem in other aspects, which is equivalent to picking up 6 points for nothing.

Dynamo Kyiv fans were clearly unwelcome to Manchester City's arrival, greeting the players with various slogans, using various gestures, and some swearing at them in words that the players did not understand.

There are plenty of Manchester City players to see in this game, and Dynamo Kyiv's only hope is on their home turf if they want to qualify for the next round.

If they can't win at home, their chances of returning to their home stadium will be even slimmer when they return to their home stadium in the next leg.

So, their fans will definitely do whatever it takes to disrupt Manchester City.

Sure enough, on the night of the team's arrival in Kiev, the opposing fans beat gongs and drums outside the hotel, and even set off a lot of fireworks, causing the Manchester City players to not have a good night's rest.

When I woke up the next morning, many people had turned panda-eyed and were very depressed.

"This morning's training was canceled, those who didn't rest well went back to rest, and the others were doing their own activities in the hotel!"

Seeing this, Guardiola did not force the players to go to training.

I set off after the game last night, and when I arrived in Kyiv, it was almost early in the morning, and I was so troubled all night, let alone the players, even he didn't have a good rest.

What worries Guardiola even more is that he doesn't know if these people will come over tonight to make trouble?

If they make trouble like this every day, it will definitely not work!

(End of chapter)