Green Journey

The two chatted for a while, Guardiola seemed to suddenly think of something, and said: "Chu, you will not be able to play against Southampton in two days' time."

Chu Zheng was stunned for a moment, and then immediately began to counter-offer.

He raised five fingers and said, "Head, five ten minutes, I only play five ten minutes, OK?"

Guardiola was directly annoyed, and after hesitating for a while, he nodded helplessly and said: "I will decide whether you will start based on your physical fitness assessment report, but Chu, I will give you half-time at most, you know, we The next game is not easy, you need to get enough rest."

Chu Zheng nodded and gestured for OK.

He knew that Guardiola's starting point for him to rest was to prepare for the next intensive schedule.

Although the match against Dortmund was only postponed for one day, the impact on Manchester City can actually be said to be great.

This makes Manchester City's next schedule even more tense.

Two days later, on April 4, was the game against Southampton.

After playing the 33rd round of the Premier League, April 4 is the second round against Dortmund.

Immediately following April 4, the FA Cup semi-final will be played against Arsenal.

Then on the 25th is the 34th round of the Premier League, and the schedule can be said to be very dense.

Encountering such a dense schedule at the end of the season is really not a good thing, and there will be large-scale injuries if you are not careful.

Therefore, for Manchester City, the relevant rotation plan must be properly arranged.

……

On March 4, the 15th round of the Premier League kicked off.

In the opening game, Tottenham sent their opponent Bournemouth a 4-0 disastrous defeat, which made a good start for the top six in this round of the Premier League.

Immediately afterwards, Everton also defeated Burnley, who came from afar, 3-1.

Did not let these relegation teams be overturned in the gutter.

But there was a tie in another Premier League focus game.

Crystal Palace drew 2-2 with Leicester City, who had just returned from the European war and was exhausted physically and mentally.

When Leicester and Atletico were drawn together a month ago, the reaction in England was generally pessimistic.

This is indeed the case. Leicester City, which changed coaches on the spot, was completely suppressed by Simeone's caravan at the Civitas Metropolitan Stadium in Spain in the first round.

Although the score was only 1-0 and one goal was conceded, Leicester City was really miserable on the scene.

Leicester City's ball possession rate in the whole game was only 29%, and the number of passes was only 289. Compared with the 638 times on the opposite side, it was only 45% of Atletico Madrid.

In terms of shots, Leicester City only had 4 shots, all of which deviated from the range of the goal frame, and none of them were on target.

They couldn't even get Atletico goalkeeper Oblak to make a single save.

Although the score gap is very small, the English people still have no confidence in Leicester City.

Although Ranieri is gone now, coach Shakespeare is still using Ranieri's tactical system.

However, expecting a latecomer to achieve results on the basis of the pioneer's tactical system in such a short period of time is undoubtedly wishful thinking.

Therefore, the decision of Leicester City executives to fire Ranieri at this critical juncture is undoubtedly a dizzy move from the outside world.

At 17:30 local time, the match between Manchester City and Southampton started at St. Mary's Stadium.

In this game, Chu Zheng, Stones, Walker, Sane, Aguero, Edson and others were collectively rotated.

When the city fans saw that Bravo was starting again, everyone was relieved, their mouths were crooked in anger, and they cursed Guardiola for death.

Some media even thought of the title of the post-match report, such as "Guardiola is so determined to go his own way, he just wants to prove his choice is right!" "

But it turned out that Guardiola was wrong.

In the 26th minute of the first half, Southampton sent a right corner kick. Van Dijk, who has become more and more famous in the middle of the goal, jumped up and hammered the ball directly into the Manchester City gate.

This made countless city fans dumbfounded.

Temiao came again, the first time he shot on target, he went in directly.

For a moment, countless people grinned at them.

Relying on Van Dijk's excellent performance, Manchester City's offense in the first half was organized by De Bruyne and did not get too many opportunities.

During the intermission, Guardiola fulfilled his promise and replaced Fernandinho with Chu Zheng.

So Manchester City's goal came naturally.

In the 55th minute of the game, De Bruyne took a free kick from the left rib at the top of the arc, and Van Dijk shook his head to make a clearance.

30 meters ahead of the top of the arc, Navas followed up with an angry shot, and the ball was once again saved by Southampton goalkeeper Foster sideways to the bottom line.

In a blink of an eye, Silva took a left corner kick, and the ball crossed a C-shaped arc over the penalty area and fell straight into the middle.

On the small restricted area line in the middle of the goal, Chu Zheng dunked Yoshida Maya with a header under him after taking off. The ball bounced into the net and the score was equalized.

But the Manchester City fans were happy for less than 10 minutes. Ward-Prowse and Mr. Pu silently turned on the plug-in mode and kicked the free kick as a penalty.

On the left side of the top of Manchester City's arc, Mr. Pu's unsolvable banana ball hit the dead corner of the goal, and Manchester City fell behind again.

On the coaching bench, Guardiola was paralyzed.

"Go in again, the second shot on target!" Beside Guardiola, Arteta had a hellish expression.

Although Ward-Prowse's penalty was too tricky for this ball, why can't other goalkeepers touch this kind of free kick?

So, Bravo is toxic.

Seeing that the team hadn't equalized in the 75th minute, Guardiola was a little anxious.

So he immediately replaced Silva with Sane, and presupposed Chu Zheng's position.

So Manchester City's second goal came.

In the 77th minute of the game, De Bruyne, who kicked the side midfielder today, received a clearance ball from the backcourt with his back.

Faced with the upsurge of two Southampton players behind him, he used his right heel to stuff the ball directly from the gap to Jesus outside the arc of the right center circle.

Jesus retreated to take the ball with his back, but was blocked by Van Dijk who followed behind him and couldn't turn around, so he took advantage of the opportunity to pass the ball across the middle.

Chu Zheng followed up in the middle.

Seeing that De Bruyne had already advanced along the right rib after passing the ball, he received the ball with his left foot, and it was a flamboyant through ball, which instantly lifted Southampton to the defensive line on the center line. wear.

At the same time, Sane on the other side of the rib also immediately started to run diagonally towards the middle.

Van Dijk really couldn't keep up with Sane's off-ball sprint speed.

In the right rib area at the top of the arc, in order to ensure a 100% success rate, De Bruyne selflessly passed the ball diagonally to the left of the penalty spot.

Then things are simple.

After Sane followed up, he easily pushed the empty goal and succeeded.

2-2!

After scoring the goal, Sane and De Bruyne hugged each other, and then gave thumbs up to Chu Zheng who ran up together.

Chu Zheng also gave two thumbs up in return.

On the sidelines, watching the interaction of the three on the field, Guardiola smiled like a slut.

For this goal, as the initiator of the attack, Chu Zheng's through ball was really perfect, which happened to allow De Bruyne to get the ball in the 30-meter area of ​​the front rib.

Before that, De Bruyne didn't need to slow down at all, just like that, he got rid of Maya Yoshida behind him alive.

De Bruyne and Sane also performed full marks, one selflessly assisted, and the other calmly pushed the ball into the net before Van Dijk's back tackle.

Everything is perfect.

In the 86th minute of the game, Manchester City's winning goal came. De Bruyne suddenly picked the ball back after receiving a direct pass from Gass in front of the bottom line in the penalty area.

Jesus missed the ball under the defense of two Southampton defenders, and the ball was cleared after being headered by Van Dijk.

As a result, the ball just landed at the feet of Chu Zheng, who followed up from the left side of the top of the arc into the penalty area.

So with no one marking, Chu Zheng followed up and swung his right foot to blast the ball directly from the upper right corner of the goal.

3-2!

Manchester City also won the game in a thrilling way with Chu Zheng's brace.

After the game, Guardiola was once again criticized by the media.

This time even Manchester City fans complained a little bit about him, saying that he shouldn't play so many tricks at this juncture of the championship, he should completely abandon Bravo, and don't give him another chance to try to prove anything.