Chapter 41: Exceeding the season goal and reaching the Champions League quarterfinals
Chapter 41: Exceeding the season goal - Champions League quarterfinals
"Oh! This is a big trouble! Guardiola and Manchester City are in big trouble!
With the score at 0-2 and 15 minutes left in the game, Manchester City is likely to suffer their third home league defeat this season!
Of course, more importantly, if this score remains until the end of the game, Manchester City will have the same points as Liverpool! And because of the disadvantage in goal difference, Manchester City will have to rank behind Liverpool. "
"Haha, Liverpool fans should thank Manchester United now. They certainly didn't expect that in the fierce championship battle with Manchester City, Manchester United would suddenly come out and give them a push.
Psychologically speaking, Liverpool is now in a dominant position. As long as they can beat Manchester City head-on in the 32nd round of the league, they will most likely win their second Premier League title under Klopp's leadership!"
Sky Sports commentators have now turned the topic to the championship battle between Manchester City and Liverpool.
In the 27th round of the Premier League that ended the day before, Liverpool, who made their debut earlier than Manchester City, beat West Ham United 1-0 and earned their 63rd league point of the season.
Having played one more game, they have the same points as Manchester City, but their goal difference advantage has reversed their ranking and they are temporarily at the top of the league table.
Before the Manchester derby started, Liverpool fans certainly fantasized about Manchester United helping them snipe Manchester City.
But the possibility of this happening is really too small.
It’s not that the outside world doubts that the Manchester United team lacks the willpower to fight Manchester City hard.
But Manchester City is now too stable in the league.
Guardiola's team may not be able to beat Manchester United, who are in great form, but getting a draw at home should be no problem for them.
This was the best result that Liverpool fans had imagined before the game.
Manchester United drew with Manchester City away from home, helping them narrow the gap to one point. Then they will wait for the 32nd round of the league to face Manchester City head-on!
As a result, Manchester United gave a big "surprise" to all the fans who were watching the game!
"I bet you Michael, the people who want us to keep this scoreline the most right now are the Liverpool supporters."
Li Chen was in a good mood and started joking with Carrick again.
Carrick smiled and shook his head when he heard this.
"This is indeed a huge surprise. For Liverpool, if they can really win the championship this season, they must thank us. It's a pity..."
Carrick did not continue to say the rest.
What's a pity for him is that Manchester United clearly had the opportunity to be in the championship race.
Look at the draws Manchester United got some time ago.
If there are more talented rotation players and they can win two more games, Manchester United's points can break through the 60 mark!
In order to protect the health of the main players and continue to fight on three fronts, the Manchester United coaching staff had to give up several league results.
As one of the coaches who personally formulated the rotation plan, how could Carrick not feel pity for it? !
Thinking of this, Carrick cursed in his heart:
"CTMD Glazer! CTMD Woodward!"
Li Chen didn't have so many regretful thoughts.
After all, Sandezi, who is in power, is unwilling to buy him more talented rotation players in the winter window. As a head coach who is only responsible for training and leading the team in games, what else can he do?
If you think too much, you will only add to your mental burden in the end. It is better to look forward positively.
At least now Manchester United is firmly in the top four of the league, and it is very likely to reach the final eight of the Champions League and has a great chance of winning the FA Cup.
Compared to when he first took over, Manchester United's current situation is much better, which is also a kind of success.
"Let Diogo (Dalot), Anthony (Elanga) and Victor (Lindelof) warm up, we are going to play the final battle with Manchester City!"
After thinking for a moment, Li Chen patted Carrick on the shoulder and signaled him to wake up the players and go to the sidelines to warm up.
At this moment, the Manchester City players on the field have already put the ball back to the kick-off point, quietly waiting for the Manchester United players to take their positions and resume the game.
There is no need for Guardiola to motivate them to attack anymore.
Every Manchester City player on the field had attacking fire burning in their eyes; they simply could not accept the score and result at this moment!
If they want to wash away this shame that may be attributed to all Manchester City players, they have to attack desperately and create miracles by scoring goals!
There was no suspense at all. After the game resumed, Manchester City directly chose to press forward and launched a crazy attack on Manchester United's defense!
Li Chen's substitutions were carried out successively during this period.
Whenever Manchester City launched a smooth offensive and was about to siege Manchester United, Li Chen would replace a player to interrupt Manchester City's entire team's offensive momentum.
By the time he had used up the remaining three substitutions, the game had almost reached the 87th minute of the second half.
The Manchester City fans at home were extremely dissatisfied and booed Li Chen's "rogue" behavior!
But for Li Chen, the angry boos from the opposing fans are the greatest compliment to his work.
And because of his disruptive substitutions, Manchester City's offensive in the final stage was no longer as rational as before, and all that was left was impatience.
The several young players who came on later on Manchester United's side were in outstanding physical condition. After seizing the ball, they all dribbled into Manchester City's flanks, protecting the ball and heading straight for the corner flag area.
The game finally ended with Dalot and Lingard working hard to protect the ball!
When the whistle sounded, the players on Manchester United's bench excitedly rushed onto the field, passionately hugged their hard-working teammates, and high-fived and cheered!
Li Chen seemed much calmer at this time and once again took the initiative to walk towards Guardiola.
"It was a great game, congratulations."
After shaking Li Chen's hand tightly, Guardiola patted Li Chen on the shoulder and sincerely congratulated Li Chen.
A game lost is a game lost. Guardiola doesn't want to make any excuses for the team's defeat, and his congratulations to Li Chen are sincere.
But Li Chen's response surprised him and made him feel much better.
"To be honest, we took advantage of a lot of things. Your main players haven't had a large-scale rest for a long time, but we were well rested and our luck in scoring goals was much better today.
I look forward to playing against you again next season, Pep, and I hope I can make more tactical adjustments on the offensive end by then."
After saying this, Li Chen took the initiative to hug Guardiola, and then turned around and joined the team's victory celebration.
Guardiola took a deep look at Li Chen's departing back, then turned and walked towards his players.
They lost a crucial league game, but it's not the end of the world, there are still many important games waiting for them to play.
Now it's time to put my heart back on track and express my gratitude and apology to the fans at home...
At the post-match press conference, Li Chen and Guardiola both gave high tactical evaluations of each other.
Reporters also agree that this match is definitely one of the top three in terms of technical and tactical content in the Premier League this season!
Li Chen has once again proved with his actions that there is no so-called single advanced tactic in the football world. The trend of tactical development is objective, but whether a tactic is useful and can play its maximum effect depends on whether it is suitable for the team using it.
After this battle, Li Chen basically secured his position as the number one tactical master among the younger generation of young coaches.
However, many Manchester City fans have objections to the tactical adjustments made by Li Chen during the game.
"This is naked utilitarian football and ugly football! Li is killing the essence of football progress. We must never praise such a young coach!"
"More than a decade ago, Mourinho relied on this kind of utilitarian football and big investments to dominate the football world, but where is he now?"
"I regret Lee's tactical choice. Manchester United could have played a more exciting game with us, but their half-time delay and malicious substitutions before the end of the game ruined it all!"
……
A few days later, some nosy media reporters took advantage of the critical comments from Manchester City fans and found an opportunity to interview Li Chen.
But Li Chen, who was leading his team to prepare for the match against Tottenham, just smiled and said, "Thank you for the compliments."
Such a reply only further stimulated Manchester City's supporters.
But Li Chen has already devoted himself to the upcoming key matches against Tottenham and Atletico Madrid, and has no time to pay attention to the development of public opinion.
This month, Manchester United will face three strong teams, Manchester City, Tottenham and Atletico Madrid, which is definitely a huge challenge.
When faced with such a situation, most head coaches would probably choose to fight every game in order to avoid being blamed in the public opinion field.
But for Li Chen, who now has a clear goal and is not afraid of the influence of public opinion, he had already decided on a rotation strategy earlier.
The two games against Manchester City and Atletico Madrid must be won, there is no room for negotiation.
As for the game against Tottenham in the middle, it is of little importance to Manchester United at the moment.
However, considering the factor of playing at home, Li Chen still sent out most of the main defenders and the main striker pair of Ronaldo and Sancho to start.
It's a defensive counterattack, an unwavering defensive counterattack. It depends on whether Tottenham dares to take the risk and go all out!
But after the game officially started on March 3, Li Chen discovered that Conte was also planning a defensive counterattack.
Perhaps in Conte's view, Manchester United had just defeated Manchester City, their morale was boosted, and they were playing at home, so they were likely to take the initiative against Tottenham's challenge.
But after seeing Manchester United's starting 11 and starting formation that day, he realized that he was overthinking.
"This is so practical!"
Looking at Manchester United's 4231 defensive counter-attack formation, Conte couldn't help but complain in his heart.
The two teams on the field seemed to be worried about the ball and wanted to give the initiative to the opponent so that they could launch a counterattack when they were well rested.
So throughout the game, the two teams showed a tacit understanding.
This tacit understanding reached its peak in the second half of the game after Li Chen and Conte successively replaced Ronaldo and Kane.
Li Chen was unwilling to fight hard in the so-called battle with Tottenham, which would only increase the team's physical consumption. Conte was also unwilling to fight Manchester United to a lose-lose situation.
So both head coaches accepted the final result of a 0-0 draw.
At this point, the 29th round of the Premier League this season has ended, and the top 6 in the standings have stabilized.
Liverpool and Manchester City both have 66 points, ranking first and second, Manchester United is third with 58 points, and Chelsea is fourth in the standings with 57 points.
Arsenal, in fifth place, has 54 points, and Tottenham, in sixth place, has 52 points.
Except for the top two teams in the standings, the points gap between the third to sixth place teams in the Premier League is not that big.
Therefore, it is easy for the ranking to change after one or two rounds of competition.
Up to now, the race for the championship and the top four in the Premier League sprint stage has become more and more exciting.
Manchester United also needs to be alert. It is not uncommon for them to be overtaken by Chelsea and fall to fourth place in the league.
But if Chelsea and Arsenal overtake us one after another, the losses will be huge!
However, Li Chen has no such worries at all. Even though he will have to face head-on matches against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in the future, he is full of confidence in the team.
His confident mentality eventually influenced the entire Manchester United team.
After completing their preparations step by step, they faced the challenge of Atletico Madrid at home.
Having lost 0-2 in the first leg, Atletico Madrid had no way out. As soon as the second leg started, they chose to launch a strong and proactive attack!
Originally, Simeone thought that Li Chen would choose to use a more stable defensive counterattack tactic in the second leg, which would help Atletico Madrid to gain control of the midfield more quickly.
But to his surprise, Li Chen finally chose to fight Atletico Madrid at home!
Therefore, once the tempo and intensity of the game are raised, it becomes extremely difficult to lower them.
Simeone regretted at one point during the game, thinking that the team should play counterattack and use a rhythm they are more familiar with to break through Manchester United's defense.
But now that things have come to this, he failed to guess Li Chen's tactical intentions, so Atletico Madrid can only go all the way on the offensive.
Otherwise, wouldn't their preparations and drills over the past few weeks be in vain? !
Atletico Madrid used a 352 starting formation and used Griezmann and Phoenix to start the game, which really caught Manchester United off guard from a tactical perspective.
This led to Atletico Madrid scoring the first goal for Manchester United in the 24th minute of the first half, and it was Griezmann who scored the goal!
However, before the Atletico Madrid team could continue to intensify their offensive, Manchester United seized the opportunity to launch a quick counterattack and Cristiano Ronaldo scored in front of the goal to equalize the score!
In the first half stoppage time, Sancho's series of beautiful passes on the right side of Atletico's penalty area caused Reinierdo to foul with his head!
Manchester United got a penalty kick and Ronaldo scored in one fell swoop, successfully overtaking the score!
In the second half of the game, Atletico Madrid's crazy siege gave Manchester United another chance to score.
This time it was Rashford who came on as a substitute, received a pass from Martial, turned around and dribbled through Atletico's entire defense line and scored with a single shot!
Once the ball went in, Atletico Madrid was powerless to recover.
Even though Griezmann scored a free kick in the frontcourt in the end, they still had to suffer the bitter consequence of a 2-5 defeat in two rounds.
After defeating Atletico Madrid twice and successfully advancing to the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League, Manchester United players celebrated wildly at home!
Li Chen also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He has exceeded his goal of winning the Champions League this season.
Next comes the battle for the top four in the league and the last three games of the FA Cup.
(End of this chapter)