Full-level pass, please call me the speaker of the Three Lions

Chapter 529: Double victory over Barcelona, ​​Champions League semi-finals!
4 month 6 day.

The first leg of the 17-18 Champions League quarter-finals has been completed.

What no one expected was that the scores in all four games were one-sided:

Manchester United beat Barcelona 4-0 at home!

Real Madrid beat Juventus 3-0 away!
Bayern Munich beat Roma 3-0 at home!

Liverpool beat Manchester City 3-0 at home!

This may be the most one-sided Champions League quarter-final in the past twenty years!

You know, except for the obvious strength gap between Bayern and Roma, the other three matchups can be said to be evenly matched on paper!

However, no one would have thought that Barcelona, ​​Juventus and Manchester City, the three top clubs with luxurious lineups, would all be knocked to the ground and had no ability to resist at all!

Such a result really surprised UEFA and the fans.

What happened to the powerful dialogue that was promised?

What about the promised fight between dragon and tiger?

Why are you top wealthy families so vulnerable? !

Of course, if we had to choose the best player in the first leg of the quarter-finals, it would definitely be the Red Devils No. 7 Ling Feng who performed a hat trick!

First of all, he is the only player to score a hat trick in four games!

Secondly, his opponent is La Liga leader Barcelona, ​​led by five-time Ballon d'Or winner Messi!
This season, Barcelona has not lost a single game in the league and the Champions League!
However, the La Liga overlord that had been killing it in La Liga and the Champions League was defeated by Manchester United led by Ling Feng!
In this head-to-head confrontation, Messi's performance was really unsatisfactory.

Especially under Ling Feng's wonderful personal performance, it seems very inconspicuous.

In comparison, it seems that Ling Feng is the GOAT who has won the most Golden Ball Awards in football, winning five times.
This head-on confrontation also aroused heated discussion among the public.

The first point of concern is - has Messi started to decline?
After winning the treble in the 14-15 season, Barcelona has been eliminated in the quarterfinals for three consecutive years.

Moreover, Messi and Barcelona were beaten 4-0 by their opponents in away games for two consecutive years!

As the player who has won the most Ballon d'Or awards today, Messi's performance in the key Champions League battles in the past three years has always been not good enough, or even very poor.

This also made the media and fans who had praised Messi countless times couldn't help but sigh:
Could it be that the once omnipotent Argentine flea has begun to decline?
On the other hand, Ling Feng, who broke the monopoly of Messi and Ronaldo, is a well-known big-scene man!

Since his debut, he has given stunning performances in almost all key battles!

of course.

In the world of sports competition, there has always been a constant stream of talented people emerging from generation to generation, with the new generation pushing the old generation forward.

Secondly, another focus of the public is whether Ling Feng can become the ruler of the football world in the post-Messi and Ronaldo era?
During the period when Ronaldinho dominated the football world, Messi was just his little follower.

Now, with Messi and Ronaldo getting older, Ling Feng is rising strongly, and it seems very reasonable to take over the banner of dominating the football world from the two great players.
. . .

After defeating Barcelona at home, Manchester United also ushered in a game in the league that may determine the league championship this season:
Manchester derby second round!
After being defeated 3-0 by Liverpool in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Guardiola's Manchester City's first Champions League journey seemed to have come to an end.

Therefore, with the possibility of being eliminated from the Champions League very high, Manchester City can only pin their hopes of winning the championship on the league!

On the eve of the second league match of the Manchester City derby, Manchester United had 88 wins and one draw in games, with points, ranking first in the league;

Manchester City has 84 wins, draws and losses in games, accumulating points and ranking second in the league.

With two games less, Manchester United is still 4 points ahead of its city rivals!
In fact, with six rounds left in the season, the possibility of Manchester City overtaking Manchester United and winning the championship is very slim.

Unless Manchester United loses four of the next eight games, Manchester City will have a chance to overtake and win the championship.

Of course, even if the possibility is very low, Guardiola and his disciples still cannot give up easily.

They couldn't control Manchester United's other games though.

But being able to shorten the points gap with the opponent in the second match of this league also allows them to retain the last glimmer of hope for the championship!

Besides, Manchester City has not beaten Manchester United so far this season.

even once!
This is also one of the driving forces for the team to go all out!

Therefore, at the pre-match press conference, Guardiola also confirmed that the team would not consider the Champions League in a few days and would focus 100% on the game.

On the other hand, Manchester United is in a more advantageous position.

Considering that a few days after this Manchester derby, they will fly to Barcelona, ​​Spain, to play the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals against Barcelona.

Thus, Mourinho faces a critical decision:

Should we use the main lineup in the away game against Manchester City for the title?
Or should we send in the substitute lineup and give up strategically?
And this decision did not take Mourinho too much time to make:

The Champions League is the main one, followed by the league!
At this critical moment of fighting on two fronts, the leading advantage accumulated in the league before was reflected!

Even if they lose this six-point battle with Manchester City, they are still one point ahead of Manchester City with two games less.

As long as they can win the two make-up games, they will never let the Premier League championship slip away from their fingers!
But the Champions League is different!

Although they beat Barcelona 4-0 at home in the first leg, their chances of advancing are very high.

However, the opponent is Barcelona after all, and they have Messi, one of the strongest players in football, as well as world-class stars such as Suarez, Iniesta, Busquets, etc. The second leg will be held at the opponent's home court, so we must not take it lightly!
So, one hour before the start of the 33rd round of the championship battle, Manchester United announced their starting eleven!
What is surprising is that compared to the previous Champions League match against Barcelona, ​​in this game's starting lineup, except for the unshakable captain Ling Feng, the other ten players have all been replaced!

Even in the goalkeeper position, Argentina's national goalkeeper Romero also had his fourth chance to start in the league!

However, Manchester United's full substitute lineup, led by Ling Feng, was able to fight on equal terms with Manchester City, which had most of its main players, away from home.

Although Manchester City seized an offside opportunity, De Bruyne assisted Aguero to score and took the lead in the first half.

However, Ling Feng took advantage of a set-piece opportunity, made a smart cross, and assisted Smalling to score with a header to equalize the score.

Both sides attacked and defended throughout the game, but it was difficult to tell who was better.

Ling Feng was also more focused on feeding the ball to his teammates and did not hold the ball for too long to attack the goal.

In his opinion, he has scored too many goals this season, which is a bit beyond the KPI of a midfielder.

Since I have scored so many goals, I have to feed more balls to my teammates and gain some experience.

After all, the stronger his teammates are, the easier it is for him to play, and he may even win without much effort.

In the end, at the Etihad Stadium, the two sides tied 2-2!

For Manchester United, the best performance in this game was the team captain wearing the number seven jersey.

Ling Feng started the game and played for 60 minutes, completing two assists before clocking out;
For Manchester City, Aguero and Sane each scored a goal, and De Bruyne contributed two assists.
If Ling Feng had not been substituted in the 60th minute, Manchester United would even have a chance to win the game!
However, the result of this game actually does not have much impact on the overall league championship situation.

For Mourinho, even losing the game is acceptable.

Of course, even though we suffered our second league draw of the season at Etihad.

However, they did not allow Manchester City to narrow the points gap, and at the same time, they also gave the main lineup a rest and the substitutes some playing time. It can be said that they killed two birds with one stone at the lowest cost!
However, for the media, this draw almost ended the last suspense of this season's league championship.

Because, with only a few league games left, Manchester City's chance of overtaking and winning the title is only a theoretical possibility.

It is only a matter of time before the Red Devils Manchester United defend their Premier League title.
. . .

A few days later, Barcelona.

Champions League quarter-final second leg, Barcelona vs Manchester United!

The Camp Nou stadium is bustling with people!
Back in his home stadium, Camp Nou, and with the cheers of more than 80,000 fans in the stadium, the "King of Barcelona" Messi finally stopped sleepwalking on the court!

"Messi, get the ball!"

"Start breaking through!"

"It's over!"

In the first half, Barcelona's No. 10 frequently took the ball and created threats.

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

Messi is also very clear that the team has reached the edge of the cliff.

If they take another step back, they will fall into the abyss again.

Since other teammates are unreliable, I have to do it myself!
Messi is indeed one of the most threatening players in today's football world when it comes to dribbling and breaking through.

When he was in good form, Barcelona's attack was even more lethal than in the first leg.

From the beginning of the game, whether he was dribbling or organizing passes, Messi seemed very active on the court.

He used to just stroll in the frontcourt, but in this game he roamed around in open spaces and retreated to the midfield area many times to receive passes from his teammates.

However, under Manchester United's aggressive and intensive defensive tactics, Messi's outburst seemed a little lonely.

Football is always a team sport.

Even Messi needs the help of his teammates to play smooth teamwork.

What's more, Messi today is no longer the man who can resolve the battle single-handedly.

Moreover, in this game, Mourinho made a very crucial move in terms of defensive strategy.
That is to let Kante defend Messi alone!
No matter where Messi goes, Kante will follow!

Even if Kante cannot stop Messi, as long as he can slow down Messi's speed of dribbling and breaking through, Ling Feng will be able to rush to the scene at an extremely fast speed, thus forming a double defense.

Although Kante can't keep up with Messi's speed.

But Ling Feng can do it!
Even so, Messi assisted Dembele to score in the first half and equalized the game.

He also took advantage of a free kick opportunity to shoot a wonderful arc ball directly into the blind corner of the goal.

However, the wonderful passing and shooting could not prevent the Barcelona defense from leaking everywhere.

Just ten minutes later, Ling Feng made a through pass to assist Lukaku to score, widening the advantage in the total score again.

Want to reverse course?

nonexistent!

After entering the second half, Messi's physical strength declined significantly and he was no longer as unstoppable as in the first half.

Without Messi to attract the defense, Suarez, Dembele, Iniesta and others found it difficult to pose much threat to Manchester United's goal.

On the contrary, because the formation was too aggressive, it gave Manchester United more room to counterattack.

If the first half was Messi's time, then the second half became Ling Feng's assist performance time!
Ling Feng first used a wonderful ground pass to help Rashford equalize the score.

He then took advantage of a corner kick opportunity to assist Maguire to score a header and complete the reversal!

In the end, with Ling Feng's assist hat trick, Manchester United conquered Camp Nou again after a year and won the game in a reversal!

At this point, Manchester United eliminated Barcelona twice with a total score of 7 to 2, becoming the first team to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League!

The second team is Liverpool from the same league!

The second leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Manchester City and Liverpool will be held at the same time.

Returning to their home court for the second leg, Manchester City did not give up.

However, even though they had the advantage in ball possession and shooting data, Manchester City was still unable to score.

The defense line led by Van Dijk resisted the impact of the Blue Moon time and time again and provided a backup for the frontcourt.

Although De Bruyne brought a glimmer of hope to Manchester City with a long shot.

However, Liverpool's quick counterattack penetrated the Blue Moon's goal twice.

With Salah and Mane flying on both wings and Firmino focusing on passing the ball in the middle, the Red Arrows are beginning to show their potential!
In the end, Liverpool completed a double kill against Manchester City in this season's Champions League at the Etihad, and avenged their defeat in the league!
At this point, Manchester City was eliminated and stopped in the quarterfinals.

Liverpool has reached the Champions League semi-finals again after ten years!
In another second-leg match where the team was also three goals behind, Juventus died more gloriously than Manchester City.

The Zebras travelled to the Bernabeu with the unfavourable situation of being three goals behind, and their opponent was the powerful Real Madrid. In addition, they were playing away, which meant they had the maximum buffs.

In the desperate situation of a do-or-die battle, the Italians united as one and burst out with amazing strength!
Just over seventy seconds into the game, Mandzukic scored, sounding the clarion call for a reversal.

Then, Pogba scored a world-class goal with a long-range shot, and Matuidi scored with a follow-up shot in front of the goal.

In the regular 90 minutes, Juventus staged a wonderful Hollywood show of never giving up and tied the total score!
However, when the game entered the injury time, Real Madrid, who had the advantage in physical fitness, took advantage of a corner kick opportunity, and Ronaldo completed the redemption with a header!
It was this desperate header that once again lifted Real Madrid into the semi-finals of the Champions League, but it also once again shattered the Champions League dream of "young player" Buffon!
After the game, the scene of Ronaldo comforting Buffon with red eyes also moved countless people.

As one of the best goalkeepers in the world football today, Buffon, like Ronaldo, has never touched the Champions League trophy.

For Buffon, who is already 40 years old, this may be his last chance to win the Champions League.

However, life is often like this.

There are always some regrets that make people unforgettable for a long time
As for the match between Bayern and Roma, it was also full of ups and downs.

After returning to their home court, Roma did not give up, but showed tenacious resilience.

Dzeko scored a goal and successfully created a penalty, helping captain De Rossi to score a goal.

After recovering two goals, Bayern also woke up from their dream.

"The world's best inside cutter" Luo showed his strength again, cutting in from the left and making a straight pass. Muller made a ghostly move and gently pushed the ball in front of the goal, scoring a goal that stabilized the morale of the team!
In the end, although Bayern lost 1-2 away from home, they still successfully advanced with a total score of 4-2!
Just like that, the top four teams of the UEFA Champions League in the 17~18 season are all out!

It is worth mentioning that these four teams are the ones who won in the first round!

They are:
The big devil of the Premier League, Manchester United!

Galacticos Real Madrid!
Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich!
And the rebirth of Liverpool!
(End of this chapter)