Chapter 329 The Battle of Old Enemies, Manchester City VS Real Madrid, Lin Quan’s Transformation Attempt
"Man City is still strong, Liverpool and AC Milan have both been defeated!"
"Indeed, I can't stand it as a Manchester City fan. They scored 7 goals against Milan in the warm-up match. It was too heavy-handed!"
"Although Manchester City did not make any big purchases during the summer transfer window, why do I feel that their substitute lineup has become stronger?"
"Indeed, the back line of the substitute lineup is so solid. AC Milan and Liverpool are a little bit unable to penetrate it. This is something I didn't expect!"
"The new big defender from Manchester City has a very strong defensive ability. The 10 million euros are really worth it!"
"Compared with the 50 million pounds spent by Paris Saint-Germain on David Luiz, it is indeed worth it!"
"Haha, PSG vividly demonstrated to us what it means to be stupid and have too much money!"
As soon as the words "Paris" came out, the Internet was filled with a happy atmosphere.
It is the summer offseason at this time, and all major leagues have not yet started.
Fans can only look for some warm-up matches and friendly matches to watch, and the International Champions Cup, which gathers giants such as Manchester City and Real Madrid, has naturally become the focus of everyone's attention.
After watching Manchester City's two games, Blue Moon fans were completely relieved.
Manchester City's strength has not declined, but has become stronger as the lineup is further integrated.
This gives them greater expectations for the team's record this season!
However, fans of other teams were not in such a good mood after watching the game!
Especially fans of the old giant AC Milan.
"Although most of this exaggerated score was scored by substitutes, it is obvious that Manchester City and AC Milan are no longer on the same level!"
"AC Milan ranked 8th in Serie A last season. Their strength is indeed at least one level behind Manchester City. It's normal that they can't play!"
"Well, the general environment of Serie A is not good, and the overall investment has also dropped sharply. Without money, naturally nothing can be done. If AC Milan had the financial resources as strong as Manchester City, why would it be like this!"
AC Milan has many fans around the world, especially those old fans who started watching football very early. They have all experienced AC Milan's glorious period.
Although the embarrassment of opening champagne at halftime on the night of Istanbul made the Milan people a little embarrassed, they still have to have the strength to reach the final to have a chance to cause such a thing.
Now look at this team that is gradually sinking in the league and the Champions League. Let alone the finals, it can't even enter the Champions League.
Thinking of this, Milan's old fans felt sad.
However, this is just the beginning.
AC Milan's chaos and decline will continue for a long time.
Compared with fans of AC Milan, fans of Red Army Liverpool are equally worried.
The team spent 150 million euros during the transfer period, but saw little effect. They still lost so cleanly when encountering Manchester City.
This makes them feel like their money is wasted!
"Liverpool's strength feels not as good as last season!"
"Well, when Suarez is here, he can be used as the core of the offense. Once he leaves, Liverpool's offense will no longer understand.
Although the performance of the opponent's goalkeeper and defender in this game was outstanding, it was definitely inseparable from Liverpool's own chaotic offensive tactics and the mess of the forwards! "
Deep love, deep responsibility.
AC Milan has just begun to sink, and their fans can't stand it anymore. How many years have the Red Army been sinking?
It’s been more than 20 years since the Premier League was established, and Liverpool haven’t even won a championship yet!
Compared with the fans of the Red Army, the fans of the Red Devils seem a little complacent.
In this International Champions Cup, Manchester United performed quite well.
They first defeated Roma, then defeated Inter Milan. In the last game against Real Madrid, Manchester United defeated their opponent 3:1 and won three consecutive victories.
This result surprised everyone, because in the last game between Manchester United and Real Madrid, both sides played their best, especially Real Madrid.
Except for Ronaldo who is not on the court, all other main players are on the court.
The result was still a loss of temper!
It is worth mentioning that in the 62nd minute of the game, Lingard replaced Rooney, completed his debut at Manchester United, and almost scored a goal.
Unfortunately, Lin Huang's feet were a bit soft and his shot was easily confiscated by Casillas and failed to pose a threat.
In the end, Manchester United won all three games and advanced to the semi-finals.
On the other side, Manchester City also fought without a fight, easily defeating Olympiakos, the last opponent in the group, 3:0, and also appeared first in the group.
So, the results of the semi-final showdown were announced:
Manchester City vs Real Madrid
Liverpool vs Manchester United
This result was completely in line with the expectations of the outside world before the game. All three teams in the Premier League advanced to the semi-finals, and all the Serie A teams were eliminated.
Although it is cruel, this does reflect the current strength gap between the Premier League and Serie A teams in the international arena.
The decline of Serie A is becoming more and more obvious!
…
On August 2, the semi-finals of the International Champions Cup began.
The first game to start is Manchester City VS Real Madrid.
There were 108,732 fans at the University of Michigan Stadium.
The huge stadium was packed to capacity!
Although the United States is not a traditional football power, the number of fans here is not large at all.
Thanks to its huge international influence over the past few decades, among the fans who came to watch the game, the number of Real Madrid fans wearing white jerseys was significantly higher than that of Manchester City fans wearing sky blue jerseys.
However, if you want to count which player has the most fans supporting it, Lin Quan will win without any suspense!
This can be seen from the number of fans wearing Manchester City's No. 10 jersey at the scene!
Although Real Madrid also has a superstar, the number of fans wearing Ronaldo's No. 7 jersey is significantly less than that of Lin Quan.
This is probably related to the scandal that Ronaldo caused in Las Vegas a few years ago!
In this game, Manchester City did not give up the experimental lineup because of the semi-finals.
Pellegrini still arranged for many substitutes to play.
However, out of respect for his opponents and fans, he put Lin Quan in the starting lineup.
This wise decision won strong support from the fans at the scene!
After the game started, the fans at the scene kept chanting Lin Quan's name and cheered him on.
And what's funny is that even some fans wearing Real Madrid jerseys are cheering for Lin Quan.
When asked why they were cheering for Manchester City players even though they were wearing Real Madrid jerseys, these fans’ answers seemed justified:
Such an outstanding player will join Real Madrid sooner or later, so we are cheering for future Real Madrid players!
If this answer reaches Ronaldo's ears, I wonder what he will think!
The two teams had only met in the Champions League semi-finals a few months ago, and they knew each other's opponent's strength very well, so there was almost no testing after the start, and they immediately began to lay out their horses and attack aggressively.
This high-level, fast-paced game made the fans who came to watch the game very excited and felt that it was completely worth the ticket price.
No wonder Europeans like to watch football matches. If they could often see such high-level football matches at home, not to mention Europeans, even Americans would be happy!
Seeing American fans so happy, domestic fans expressed envy:
"Damn it, when will we be able to enjoy such a high-level competition at our doorstep?"
"It's too expensive to go to Europe to watch football, and the level of the Chinese Super League is too low. How great would it be if I could enjoy games of this level at home every summer?"
"I think our domestic companies can also organize this kind of competition. Like the United States, we can put the competition venues in several big cities in the country, and we don't have to worry about not selling tickets!"
CCTV has also bought the broadcast rights for the International Champions Cup games, so domestic fans can also watch these games.
However, the feeling of watching the game on TV at home is completely different from going to the stadium to watch the game live.
Fans all hope to go and watch the games of these top European clubs!
In 2009, the Italians held the Super Cup in China.
This game received huge popularity in the country, with countless fans rushing to the stadium. It is said that the revenue from the tickets alone exceeded 70 million!
This is unimaginable over there in Italy!
This success has allowed European teams to see the huge potential of the Chinese market.
In recent years, many wealthy clubs have tried to come to China for training in the summer, find some Chinese Super League teams to play warm-up games, and earn some extra money on the way!
For example, last year, when Real Madrid visited China, they played a friendly match with the Chinese Super League champion Guangzhou Evergrande.
Real Madrid won that game very easily, beating Evergrande 6:1.
The strength gap between the two teams was so large that the game was almost unwatchable.
As a result, domestic fans immediately lost interest in such games.
Compared to playing against domestic clubs, they still prefer to watch games between European giants.
For example, competitions such as the International Champions Cup, where all participating teams are European giants.
The voices of fans attracted the attention of some domestic sports events operators. They tried to contact the organizers of the International Champions Cup in an attempt to introduce this event into the country.
…
Amid the cheers of more than 100,000 fans, the two teams launched fierce attacks one after another.
In a competition of this nature, neither side has much pressure to perform.
Therefore, the game was played very unrestrainedly, with both sides investing far more troops in offense than in defense.
In the 21st minute of the first half, Manchester City took the lead in scoring, and it was Manchester City forward Aguero who scored.
Aguero, who performed abnormally in the national team competition, regained his form in the club and transformed into the invincible god of war.
Real Madrid soon retaliated, and Bell performed his specialty of running from the wing in the 27th minute.
The Welshman just relied on his speed to eat up many Manchester City defenders, and suddenly shot from behind the penalty area to make the score 1:1.
This goal was very exciting, and the fans at the scene gave the great sage unstinting applause.
Bell seemed very excited after scoring the goal. Every time there is a match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the outside world always compares Lin Quan with Cristiano Ronaldo, and habitually ignores him.
This made Bell very unhappy!
Bell, who has always had the ambition to be the boss of the team, is not the kind of person who is willing to stay under others for a long time.
He has long wanted to replace Ronaldo's position in the Real Madrid team!
Therefore, the cheers of the fans at the scene made Bell very happy.
As long as I continue to perform like this, I will be able to knock that guy off the altar sooner or later!
Seeing Bale's stinky expression, Cristiano Ronaldo expressed his displeasure.
He beckoned to the likes of Modric and Isco to pass more passes to him.
On such a critical occasion, as the top star of Real Madrid, how could he not score?
Modric aside, Isco was very obedient and sent a few passes to Ronaldo.
However, the Portuguese's state does not seem to have fully recovered from the World Cup downturn, and all the good balls passed to him by Isco were wasted by him.
This made Isco's expression turn bitter: Brother, don't be so deceptive!
Bell on the side saw him frequently passing the ball to Ronaldo and had already begun to express his dissatisfaction with him.
what does it mean?
Just pass the ball to Ronaldo and not me, right?
Cristiano Ronaldo is your eldest brother, so am I not your eldest brother?
…
Unlike Real Madrid's players who are scrambling to collect statistics, Manchester City's football team is playing in a harmonious manner.
Lin Quan, who is not very keen on scoring goals, will not shoot immediately when he gets a good opportunity. Instead, he will first observe the position of his teammates to see if they have a better chance.
If his teammates are in a better position than him, he will pass the ball without hesitation.
Aguero's goal came from Lin Quan's assist. In the 42nd minute, Lin Quan, after getting a single shot, passed the ball back to De Bruyne who followed up and assisted the latter to score a goal.
"Why don't you shoot it yourself?"
After scoring the goal, De Bruyne asked curiously.
In his impression, Lin Quan almost never made any mistakes with his single sword.
Although Casillas just blocked it, with Lin Quan's strength, it didn't seem to be difficult to send the ball into the goal, but he passed the ball.
"Because you are in a better position and there is almost an empty goal. It makes more sense to pass the ball to you!"
Lin Quan said matter-of-factly.
As the top scorer in the World Cup, Champions League and Premier League, Lin Quan no longer specifically pursues goals.
And in a game of this nature, scoring goals is meaningless.
No matter how many goals he scores in this kind of game, it won't help him improve!
On the contrary, it would be more meaningful for Lin Quan and the entire team if he further improves his organizational skills.
And this is also a successful transformation path proven by Messi.
In 2019, Messi completely transformed into the core of the free man in the middle, focusing on organization, assault, and finishing work, truly realizing a single-core leadership!
This successful transformation has greatly developed Messi's organizational talents.
His ability to read the game, wide vision, precise passing, and his amazing free kick ability have all been greatly improved!
Without this successful transformation, I am afraid there would be no World Cup trophy for Argentina in a few years!
Of course, we have to thank Paris Saint-Germain. Without the healthy football of Paris Saint-Germain and being a father and mother all the time in Barcelona, Messi may not have enough physical fitness to play in the World Cup!