The opponent is Twente. This is the fifth round of the Champions League group stage.

When I first came to this stadium, Manchester City lost 1-3, but now it is 3-3. This seems to be a real progress, but Linsen is not happy because the situation is fundamentally different. Once he had to, but this time he came with confidence, but sometimes confidence can’t be eaten.
The qualifying situation of Group A has been very strong in the first round. If Manchester City doesn’t lose this game, they can qualify smoothly according to the result of another game. Because in another game, Werder Bremen City has an advantage in winning or losing. Even if Werder Bremen wins the last two games, Manchester City can get another point. In the same score situation, Manchester City still ranks higher than Werder Bremen.
However, what Linsen wants is not qualifying. He also wants to have a final fight with Benitez in the final round to determine who is the first in the group, which means that Manchester City needs this game to ensure that they have the "qualification" to compete for the first in the group, because if Manchester City makes a mistake in this game and Inter Milan wins, the final round will become meaningless.
Now, another game is unknown, but Manchester City has stumbled by itself.
Of course, all this is not so much that Manchester City’s performance is poor as Twente’s performance is too good.
Manchester City took the lead three times in the game, and Twente equalized the score three times. Even Tomlinson had to be praised by his opponents-what a tenacious team.
McClaren has reason to be proud that Twente has continued their good season and remains unbeaten in the league. Although the draw is a little more than being temporarily relegated to Ajax in the standings, they are a little unlucky in the Champions League. Although Group A is not a death group, it is obviously not a good thing for other teams because Manchester City, which claims to be the strongest in this class, is squeezed into the third gear.
Before this game, there was still hope about whether Twente or Werder Bremen’s theory was still there. Of course, it was harsh before and they needed to win in the middle of the last two rounds, and Manchester City couldn’t win yet. For this game, McClaren didn’t stay in the Dutch team. Who doesn’t know that Dekhrolsch Stadium is a devil’s home court, not only because the fans here but also because Twente can always give a super performance here?
Just like watching this game.
At the last minute, Manchester City tried its best to fight back, but miracles didn’t happen every time. In the end, they had to accept a 3-3 draw by Twente away from home.
Lin Sen got good news and bad news when he returned to the dressing room.
The good news is that Inter Milan, which has already qualified, lost to Werder Bremen 3-0 in the away game, giving the opponent the first victory in the Champions League and keeping the first suspense of this group until the end. The bad news is that David Silva was in some trouble because of the injury during the game, because of the recurrence of the old injury.
David Silva injured this part of his left ankle. He has been suffering from chronic injury. Speaking of this problem, it can be traced back to his playing habits. Unlike other players, David Silva often refused to tie the protective foot and ankle strap when playing football as a child. It is said that this is his way to ensure the sense of the ball. If this is said to be true, it may have contributed to David Silva’s superb skills, but it also brought trouble.
Back in Manchester, David Silva’s injury also gave an exact recovery period of four weeks, that is, almost a month, which is still a conservative estimate. Lin Sen also has some reasons for this. Even if he opens David Silva, it seems that he is doomed to miss the final group match against Inter Milan on December.
In the next two rounds, Linsen tried two candidates in the Spanish position. One was the most orthodox plan to let Royce take David Silva’s place directly. However, at this stage, the German’s individual coordination ability has been developed, but it is not up to David Silva’s level. This is very obvious in the fourteenth round of the game against Stoke City. In the normal game, Royce was mostly involved in individual combat, but it was precisely his goal at the beginning of the half that made Manchester City win.
Then, in the 16th round, Manchester City won three goals at home and visited Bolton. Lin Sencai is another plan, that is, to directly put Yaya Toure in front of him. This is based on Lin Sen’s judgment that Toure has been immersed in Barcelona for several seasons. Yaya Toure has a good forward consciousness, and the fact proves that he does have this ability. In this game, his body label is still too orthodox to be orthodox. The Ivorians suddenly turned into a standard front waist, and two shots dominated almost the whole game.
Another round of two-game winning streak
At this time, the Premier League points rankings have once again turned upside down.
The first thing to bear is that Chelsea, the former leader, is no longer the leader. After two consecutive defeats, they finally stopped the losing streak. Unfortunately, they still failed to win, but then they lost two consecutive defeats and two draws. The opponents were Sunderland, Burnham and Newcastle Everton. Almost one is that the cost of the team "send warm" in the half of the current league standings is huge, which not only made their huge advantage accumulated at the beginning of the season disappear completely, but also made them hand over the top position in the league. At this time, it was the season that they surpassed them and finally surpassed them in Manchester City.
Nine wins, five draws, two losses and thirty-two points
Just one point ahead of Chelsea
However, although Manchester City has surpassed Chelsea, they have not replaced Chelsea as the leader, because Manchester United has surpassed Chelsea to reach the summit in the previous 15th round, because the game of Blackpool, which was promoted away from Manchester United, was postponed due to the weather, which gave Manchester City a chance to reach the summit.
It’s worth one thing. Sir Alex Ferguson rotated in the previous Carling Cup, and paid the price of being eliminated by losing to West Ham United four times. I don’t know if Ferguson cursed the damn weather all the way back to Manchester when he went to Blackpool in northwest England.
After half a year, Manchester City returned to the top of the list. Although there is some luck, considering the situation of Manchester City at the beginning of the season, as Martin Taylor joked in his every round of Premier League commentary programs, Manchester City executives should be grateful now. If they really fired Lin at that time, did they have a chance to regret this decision? I don’t know, but Lin will definitely make them regret it.
Martin Taylor’s compliment made Lin Sen, who watches this program every week, laugh.
He is not a narrow-minded person, and his performance in leading the team at that stage was really bad. Frankly speaking, if he had to leave at that time, he had no reason to complain that the football world didn’t pay attention to anything to make up for it, especially in the past, which was completely different from the situation when he left Atletico Madrid. Of course, regret was never something you wanted or didn’t want.
Besides, Lin Sen didn’t think that Manchester City, ranked first now, really had to talk about "regret", but the situation was much better than that at that time. Not only did it qualify for the Champions League, but it was only a League Cup that really lost the game. However, it was precisely because of the elimination from the League Cup that Manchester City was no longer so hasty in dealing with the game as it was in the season.
There is no time left for Linsen to feel that Manchester City has ushered in one of their opponents, Inter Milan, because two teams have already qualified from the group. There are two games left in Group A, and there is a suspense about who will play the Europa League between Werder Bremen and Twente, and who will qualify first in the group?
Before the game, Lin Sen deliberately watched the situation of other groups in the whole Champions League group stage. All groups except Group H still have no qualifying teams. At present, it has been confirmed that the first team in the group is Manchester United, Group D Barcelona, Group E Bayern and Group F Chelsea, Group G Real Madrid.
At present, both Schalke and Lyon have qualified in Group B, but the situation is similar to that in Group A where Manchester City is located. It takes the final round to determine who is the first in Group H. Because of an unexpected loss of Arsenal to Braga in the away game, the situation in this group is in chaos. Except for the five defeats of Belgrade guerrillas, the other three teams are likely to be the first in the final group.
However, if the situation of this two-group theory has not affected Lin Sen’s judgment, according to the worst scenario, if Manchester City loses to Inter Milan’s second qualifying at home, then according to the knockout rules, if Inter Milan and Manchester United and Chelsea in the same group are removed, it is possible for Manchester City to meet Barcelona, Bayern, Real Madrid Group B and Group H.
In this way, no matter how you look at Lin Sen, you can’t be optimistic. If Manchester City can appear in the first place in the group, it may be Valencia, Gotham, Rome, Marseille A Milan …
Then, then, Tomlinson said to himself, Give me a life-and-death reason not to play against Inter Milan in this game? to be continued
Chapter 35 Group First
Life-and-death is a murderous sound, but it actually depends on words, because it is also desperate. Why should I die and you live?
Manchester City doesn’t want to meet a team like Real Madrid and Barcelona in the first round of the knockout round. Even if it is possible, Inter Milan doesn’t want to be equal to Manchester City. This is not a fear of the same problem. If they are faced with Real Madrid and Barcelona, their answer may not be better than that of Manchester City and Inter Milan. Isn’t it because of this advantage?
It is human nature that everyone wants to pick and choose persimmons.
Compared with the fortunes of Tomlinson, it seems that the honeymoon period of Inter Milan has passed, and Benitez has had a hard time in recent years. Dominating Serie A and sweeping Europe in the season have made Inter Milan have extremely demanding requirements for this team. Under such circumstances, Inter Milan has won six games, drawn five games and lost four games this season. The real method is to satisfy Moratti and the fans more.
Moratti’s silence, pressure, harsh fans and the Italian media are best at cynicism. At this time, Benitez is nothing but it is in this situation that Benitez brought his Inter Milan to Manchester, a city he knows very well.
In the face of familiar media, Benitez is as stubborn as ever. This is an important game. Now Manchester City is undoubtedly an excellent team full of desire for victory. Maybe they are hard to beat, but I still have absolute confidence in the team’s first place in the group.
Lin Sen doesn’t know where Benitez’s confidence comes from. Compared with the first leg between the two sides, Inter Milan’s presence has not improved, and Motta, the midfield hub, is still absent. Moreover, this time they came to England with several injuries. One is their main goalkeeper Cesar, and the other is Cambiaso, who Mourinho said is a measure of a manager’s ability.
Both injuries can be regarded as indispensable figures.
Of course, Benitez’s tone is so full that he may be shooting smoke bombs at himself. Anyway, it is always right for Linsen to be honest when he is Benitez.
On December, the final round of the Champions League group stage starts. Manchester City plays at home against Inter Milan.
When Lin Sen saw the start of Inter Milan, he knew that Benitez was still stubborn because there was no Cesar or Cambiaso in the starting lineup. Even the top scorer Milito, who brought three titles to Inter Milan with four goals in the season, was not in the starting lineup. Castellacc, Montari and Eto’ o were pushed to the front line to fill his position. French teenager Biya Biani.
This is definitely not the season’s Inter Milan, nor is it the most eye-catching Inter Milan Eto’ o may replace Milito, but neither Castellacc nor Biya Biani can replace Cesar and Eto’ o in their respective positions, not to mention the important midfielder position.
When there was no buffer at the beginning of the game, the two goals were indeed that both teams entered the rhythm of the game, but this is the city stadium, not Mei Yacha.
Pre-emptive strike means that anything but victory will make this game meaningless. Manchester City aims at assists and does not defend the big block behind Mai Kong to make up for Mai Kong. Sadie failed to spell Bell in speed and drove straight into the Welsh. Suarez fed a goal and assists in the middle.
In this game, Lin Sen did not continue an away game against Inter Milan, but returned to Inter Milan. Lin Sen, the only starting striker, chose Suarez Fa Erkao and Adriano and sat on the bench.
In many cases, the single striker formation pays attention to a fulcrum. From this point of view, Fa Erkao is still tall and technically Adriano is more suitable for a single striker than Suarez. However, Lin Sen does not intend to have a fulcrum in this game. He wants to be a striker who can make the opponent’s defense uncomfortable.
Because of this game, although he missed David Silva, he got another player who is important to his health, that is Luo, which allowed Lin Sen to abandon the high-to-high English style and play a more elaborate ground attack. Bell, Suarez and Luo can support the left, middle and right attacks.
Of course, there is another reason why Tomlinson did this.
Although there are various injuries in the center and frontcourt, the defense line of Inter Milan is complete. Of course, the goalkeeper position is deducted from left to right. Chivu, Samuel, Lucio and Mai Kong, although the success of Inter Milan this season cannot be attributed to a certain position, it is precisely because of such a steel defense line that Inter Milan can reach the top of Europe.
Today, the defense line is still steel, but it is not necessarily steel. Sometimes, without that tone, many things can be changed, just like the starting point of a goal. If Mai Kong is not so big, Bell may still be able to break through, but it is definitely not so easy. Suarez, the opposing central defender Lucio, has a nickname of "Lu Forward".
It’s not a bad thing for the central defender to have a forward consciousness. Manchester City and Kong Pani also have this habit. From a good point of view, the defense can temporarily increase the number of midfielders, and the attack can be delivered from time to time. But everything is good and bad. If the central defender can do midfieldwork casually, there is no need to distinguish the positions so clearly. If the attack and defense change when "forward", or worse, the ball is broken from his foot, it is very likely to face the disadvantage of less defense and more defense.
It is one reason why Suarez, who just scored, can easily score the ball into Bell, and it is also one reason why Lucio failed to defend. Otherwise, Lucio and Samuel Suarez, no matter how good their skills are, can’t score so easily.
After successfully taking the lead, Tomlinson, who was sitting on the bench, turned his eyes to Benitez on the sidelines. At this time, the Spaniard was stopped by him and Mai Kong didn’t know what to say.
Although he knew that Benitez was mostly calculating his own team, Linsen was not worried. Frankly speaking, he was not too optimistic about the game before the game. Inter Milan was not Inter Milan last year, as Linsen knew, but Manchester City in the league is not equal to the Champions League, otherwise there would be no so-called Champions League experience, but he calmed down after the game started.
Because his eyes told him that unlike a trip to the Meazza Stadium, Manchester City is on the right track today, or that Manchester City is in which league today, but the state of Inter Milan is worse than last time, except for Eto’ o, almost half of the teams are not in the best state.
Inter Milan’s poor condition actually does not need Lin Sen’s "eyes" to verify that Inter Milan lost three of the last four games, not counting the previous Champions League defeat to Werder Bremen, and one of the three defeats still has a unique symbolic Milan Derby.
One good for one bad.
The goal is just an affirmation for Lin Sen’s calm.
Speaking of it, it seems that Benitez, a recognized tactician, is copying himself every time. When he first arrived in Liverpool, he tried to turn Liverpool into a Premier League Valencia. Now he has come to Inter Milan. The most he has done since then is to try to turn Inter Milan into Serie A Liverpool, but this time he forgot that Serie A is not the Premier League.
Behind Inter Milan tried to fight back, but in Manchester City Yaya Toure and vidal Harvey Martins, three midfielders jointly strangled Sid, but they didn’t have enough tactics to play the role of "Harvey Alonso". Montari made frequent mistakes, while another midfielder Sati was more like a universal patch, almost all of them were trying to patch up the attack, not to mention the fact that these midfielders could not be connected in series. The effect of their respective battles between Pandev and Biya Biani can be imagined.
Inter Milan was hit again at half time.
This time, Bell solved the battle by himself, which was almost exactly the same as the first goal. Mai Kong assisted Sati to fill the position and Bell destroyed Inter Milan’s right defense. But this time, Bell didn’t have a goal because it was different from before. This time, Suarez was stared at by Samuel and Lucio didn’t lose his position.
The score became two-to-one, and Manchester City dominated the scene.
Andy Gray read out the half-time statistics of the game at half-time. The shooting times were seven to three, the success rate was 90% to 60%, the possession rate was 60% to 40% … This may not be one-sided data, but obviously it didn’t meet the fans’ expectations of the game, but it seemed to be in response to this expectation. Inter Milan scored only five minutes after half-time.
The goal scorer is the best Inter Milan player Eto ‘o.