Throughout January, Manchester City have been training at a leisurely pace.

Pep Guardiola has made good on his promise by boldly rotating and fully guaranteeing rest time for his main players while giving plenty of playing time to his substitutes and young players.

Of course, this comes at a cost.

In the 21st round of the Premier League, due to the large rotation of the squad and the explosive form of the opponent, Manchester City lost 0:2 to Everton away.

But these same people have drawn their opponents in a duel with a strong opponent like Tottenham.

In the first two rounds, Tottenham beat Chelsea at the top of the table, ending their 13-game winning streak.

It can be seen from these games that Manchester City's substitute lineup is not without strength, but the state is not stable enough, and it is not surprising that it can wrestle with strong teams if it plays well, and it is not surprising that it loses to the mid-league team if it plays badly!

Maybe it's because the level of competition in the Premier League is too high and the competition is too intense!

These players have clearly performed better in the FA Cup than in the league.

City beat their opponents 5-0 and 3-0 in their two FA Cup games in January, with those substitutes playing as dominant as their main squad.

And since February, Manchester City's form has obviously improved.

They beat West Ham United 4-0 away and then beat Swansea 2-0 at home.

In the 25th round, they beat Bournemouth 2-0 away to get three consecutive wins.

In these games, Manchester City played very easily, and several main players almost clocked out after half the game, and they didn't feel tired at all.

The young players have played more games and accumulated experience, and they are obviously more relaxed on the field than they were at the beginning, their bodies and spirits are more relaxed, and they are more courageous to do some actions that they did not dare to do before.

In this way, their performance is naturally getting better and better.

It's also strange to say that when the whole team played with the burden of winning the championship before, they often encountered various unexpected situations.

Either it's a low-level mistake at the back, or the opponent is lucky to play a fairy ball, in short, when you want to win, it's very difficult to win.

On the contrary, now that Manchester City is lying flat and no longer has the idea of winning the championship, their game is getting better and better.

On the contrary, it is the leader Chelsea, who has not had a good time lately!

In this round of the game, they were upset and drawn by the weak Burnley, which surprised the outside world.

In fact, it is not surprising that as we enter the second half of the season, with injuries on the Chelsea side and fatigue building up on the main players, their form is undoubtedly declining.

The results speak for themselves, with just three wins in six games since the start of the second half, losing one and drawing two.

This scoring efficiency is much worse than when they won consecutive battles before!

If it weren't for the fact that other strong teams were not in good form during this period and failed to seize the opportunity to chase points, Chelsea's top position would have been unstable.

So, surprisingly, it is not Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur who are in second place in the table, but Manchester City, who have been lying flat in the second half.

Manchester City are now in second place with 52 points, eight points behind Chelsea, and to be honest, the difference is still huge.

But if Chelsea continue to go up and down, their title may be hanging in the balance.

However, there is good news for Chelsea that Manchester City are heading into the knockout stages of the Champions League.

Due to a poor group record, Manchester City qualified as group runners-up.

Therefore, when the Champions League was drawn for the knockout round, many giants who qualified as the first in the group were very nervous, for fear that they would be unlucky to draw Manchester City.

Fortunately, in the end, they were lucky enough to escape, and the unlucky ones who met Manchester City were Monaco in Ligue 1.

When the live camera showed the representative of the Monaco draw, he was obviously bitter in his heart, but he still had to force a smile and try to squeeze out a smile to cope with the camera.

This kind of forced smile made many fans laugh.

Monaco is so unlucky!

If Monaco is unlucky, then Paris thinks it is really unlucky!

They met Barcelona again, just like a script arranged by UEFA.

Is this to see that we have Neymar, a former Barcelona player, in the team, so crazy to give us a whole job?

Not to mention, the fans love to watch it!

According to the pre-match poll on social media, the most anticipated match in the quarter-finals was the feud between Grand Paris and Barcelona.

This is the closest match between the two teams in this round.

And the closer the strength, the more exciting the game.

The two teams did not live up to expectations, and on February 15, in the first leg at the Parc des Princes, Paris beat Barcelona 4-0 at home thanks to goals from Neymar, Di Maria and Cavani.

Truth be told, no one could have imagined this score before the game.

This is Barcelona, the cosmos team Barcelona who just defeated the defending champion Manchester City at home not long ago!

How easily was it so easy to be washed in blood by Grand Paris?

All of a sudden, the news quickly spread throughout Europe, shocking the entire football world!

Many people, especially Barcelona and Messi fans, can't accept this result!

Messi's performance in this game was terrible, not to mention not scoring a goal, and there were many mistakes throughout the game, which did not deserve the expectations of the fans for him.

Although Messi said after the game that he would perform a miracle at home, to be honest, the outside world is not very optimistic about them.

In the history of the Champions League, there has never been a team that has come back from four goals behind, not once.

Although Barcelona is strong, but Paris is not muddy!

Barcelona need to score at least 5 goals to beat the opponent, and if the opponent scores another goal, then the number will increase to 6!

Is this possible?

It can't be!

Therefore, after this game, the outside world thinks that Barcelona is out, and the next game is just a process.

In fact, in this round of the game, in addition to Barcelona being completely carried away, the Premier League giants Arsenal were also beaten by Bayern.

Bayern Munich blossomed more and swept Arsenal 5:1.

The whole Arsenal team seemed to have been beaten and lost their souls, and Sanchez, the team's first thigh, even took a penalty.

They trailed by four goals in the first leg, although they had an away goal in their hands, and the situation was slightly better than Barcelona's.

But the problem is that the gap between Barcelona and Paris is far less than that between Arsenal and Bayern!

Facing a bitter master of the level of Barcelona for three years and Bayern for five years, Arsenal really can't beat it.

I really tried my best, but I couldn't beat it.

It's not completely hopeless to get them back home and score four goals, but it's impossible to keep Bayern attacking and keep them from scoring a single goal.

So as soon as this result came out, Arsenal fans immediately understood, and the team once again stopped in the round of 16.

It's strange to say, Arsenal keeps four every year, enters the Champions League every year, and can always qualify for the group when they enter the Champions League, even if it was such a difficult situation last season, they qualified, you just say that inspirational is not inspirational, right?

However, Arsenal's ceiling is also very low, and they are unable to make further breakthroughs, often stopping in the last 16.

Compared with Bayern and Paris, Benfica and Real Madrid, who also won in the first round, are much more normal.

Benfica beat Dortmund 1-0 at home to gain a certain advantage, but the advantage was not very big, and in the next leg at the Westfalen Stadium, Benfica may not be able to withstand the attack of the Hornets.

Real Madrid beat Napoli 3-1 at home, which is not a small advantage, and considering the strength of the opponent, Real Madrid has one foot in the quarterfinals.

Strange to say, the home team won all four games in the first half.

But in the second week, after the start of the second half of the competition, the style of painting was different.

Bayer Leverkusen lost 2:4 at home to Atletico Madrid and was basically out.

Porto lost 0:2 to Juventus, and was sent off by one person, and the next game is likely to be more than lucky.

Seeing that the first two home teams lost, the Champions League newcomers Leicester City said excitedly, it's my turn!

As a result, Sevilla, a regular in the Europa League, was beaten 2:1 at home!

In fact, the game was very different, and Leicester City were far worse than the final score.

They managed just eight shots in the game compared to 26 for their opponents, and they won just one corner in total, compared to eight against them.

They made a measly 251 passes, compared to 655 for their opponents, more than twice as many as them.

As for possession, Leicester City had just 27 per cent of the ball, almost a third of their opponents!

After Leicester's defeat, the British media wailed.

Tottenham failed to qualify for the group stage, Arsenal was abused by Bayern, and Champions League newcomers Leicester City were beaten by Sevilla without a defense.

In this way, the last hope of the Premier League in the Champions League this season has fallen to Manchester City.

Why are you always there?

Manchester City said I don't want to either, it's really other people who are too angry.

But if you can support it a little, how can it be so easy to get to the familiar link - Manchester City has become the only seedling in the Premier League!

Considering that City's form seems to be problematic this season, they have lost significantly more games than last season.

Therefore, some unfounded Premier League fans have even begun to worry about whether Manchester City will be eliminated.

Fortunately, Manchester City did not disappoint Premier League fans.

In the home game against Monaco, Manchester City were in hot form, winning 5-2 and getting a three-goal difference.

As long as you don't lose three goals in the next round, you will most likely be able to advance.

However, it can also be seen from this score that Monaco is not as weak as the outside world thinks.

At the Etihad Stadium, Monaco did not hold back like other teams, but instead put on a posture to play a head-to-head game against Manchester City.

Although they still lost in the end, they earned the respect of Manchester City fans.

It's rare to see such a team in Europe.

For Monaco, since they can score Manchester City's goal on the road, they may not really have a chance to return to home.

After all, they still have two away goals in their hands, and as long as they can keep scoring against Manchester City, those two away goals will be very important.

Manchester City's big win came as a relief to Premier League fans as well as the Manchester United next door.

Don't get me wrong, Manchester United aren't going to cheer for City's victory.

They just saw that Manchester City had suffered such a huge drain in the Champions League, and they were just happy in their hearts.

Three days later, Manchester City will host Manchester United in what is the second Manchester derby of the season.

If Manchester City were in their prime, Manchester United's chances of coming to the Etihad Stadium were really slim.

But City's form has already declined to a certain extent this season, and with the fact that they have just experienced such a big attrition in the knockout stages of the Champions League, it is a great opportunity for Manchester United.

Mourinho has taken an in-depth look at City's current state and concluded:

The opponent has just experienced the intense attrition of a big battle, and there must be a big problem with the fitness of the players.

So once the game starts, they will definitely take advantage of the home field and launch a fierce attack on Manchester United in the first half when the players are still fit, trying to take and extend the lead, so that they can play more conservatively in the second half.

In that case, then what Manchester United have to do is very simple, put on a defensive posture, catch the opponent's mistakes and counterattack.

Jose Mourinho's side don't pay attention to things like the number of passes and possession.

You don't need to have too many chances, just grab those three or two chances and successfully complete the fatal blow.

I have to say that Mourinho is worthy of being a good friend of Guardiola, and he knows Guardiola's mind too well.

His conjectures were all true!

Manchester City did launch a fierce attack on Manchester United in the first half, and it was a wave after wave of strong attacks.

However, Manchester City's attack did not take advantage of Manchester United, who were united in their efforts to defend with all their might.

Even if they hit 18 shots in the first half, it didn't work!

The best chance of the first half came in the 35th minute, when Lin Quan passed the ball to Aguero on the side, and Aguero was closely defended by the opponent's close defender and did not find a chance to shoot, so he chose to return the ball to Lin Quan.

Lin Quan met the ball and shot directly from a distance, the ball hit very suddenly, but he was unlucky and hit the crossbar and bounced out.

It was the closest City had ever come to finding the back of the net in the first half, and there were no other chances to find the back of the net beyond this one.

As the game wore on in the second half, City's fitness began to come to the fore and Mourinho's plan seemed to be on the verge of success.

Just an unexpected twist occurred.

Manchester United's midfielder Marouane Fellaini was ejected after receiving a red card for a malicious foul in a defensive session.

This change disrupted Mourinho's arrangement, and although Manchester United, who were at a numerical disadvantage, tried to launch a counterattack, the numerical disadvantage still affected the quality of their counter-attack.

After a few failed attempts, and with City making substitutions and new players starting to attack United's defence, the situation was once again clearly deadlocked.

In the end, the two sides exchanged blanks and played a game that made both sides depressed.

(End of chapter).