Chapter 337 The Wind Direction Has Changed

“Diego Costa’s scoring efficiency makes me feel like he’s going to win the Premier League Golden Boot!”

"Be optimistic, maybe you will win the European Golden Boot!"

"It's really unbelievable that someone can surpass Lin Quan in the number of goals scored!"

"So, the Spanish striker is really strong!"

"Indeed, whoever uses it knows!"

"Torres gave a thumbs up!"

After Chelsea won four consecutive victories, the Blues fans were going crazy with joy.

When they heard that the team bought another Spanish forward and spent 50 million pounds, they all beat their hearts.

Afraid of happening like Torres!

Torres is very strong, but not suitable for Chelsea. After joining Chelsea, he only scored 46 goals in three years, and he never scored double figures in the Premier League in any season!

Chelsea fans didn't slap the word "parallel import" on his forehead, which was considered very polite to him.

"Oh, if we had Diego Costa last season, we wouldn't have missed so many opportunities!"

Thinking of their failures in the league and Champions League last season, Blues fans are a little bit upset.

"Why are you talking so much? It makes us look like resentful women. Can't we just get back what we lost last year this year?"

"Yes, I believe in Mourinho and the soldiers of the Blue Army. We will definitely get our championship trophy back this year!"

Blues fans are full of confidence and firmly believe that they can defeat Manchester City and regain their own championship trophy.

After seeing Chelsea's fourth consecutive victory, the outside world also began to build momentum.

BBC Sports published a column listing Mourinho's record so far in his second year coaching a team.

Whether in Porto, Chelsea or Inter Milan and Real Madrid, Mourinho's record in the second year after coming to the team was very good.

His team's upward momentum in the second year was very obvious. In the first year, it helped Porto stabilize the situation. In the second year, it swept all domestic honors. In the third year, it even stabilized the top of Europe!

This is the only Champions League champion from outside the five major leagues in decades!

At Chelsea, Mourinho helped Chelsea win the championship when he first arrived. In the second year, he led the team to successfully defend the title, effectively breaking Manchester United's monopoly on the Premier League championship trophy.

In Inter Milan, Mourinho won two Serie A championships. In the second year, he also eliminated the unbeatable Cosmos team Barcelona in the European War. After 45 years, he helped Inter Milan win the second Champions League trophy in team history!

Even in Real Madrid, after being humiliated 5:0 by Barcelona in the first year, they successfully avenged themselves in the second year, leading Real Madrid to set a new La Liga record with 100 points and steal the league championship from Barcelona!

Mourinho seems to have some kind of magic power. The team he coached recharged its energy in the first year, and then fully exploded in the second year, winning various honors!

However, in the third year, it began to languish, and various conflicts broke out within the team, and then they were kicked out...

Of course, it's not yet the third year, it's still the second year of Mu's second heyday, so the BBC is very optimistic about Chelsea's results this year in its column.

In British football, there are still many people who agree with the BBC's view.

Everyone agrees that this season's Chelsea is likely to be in the best shape and strongest combat effectiveness since Mourinho's second period.

So they will definitely become the main obstacle for Manchester City to defend their title in the league!

It just so happens that in the fifth round of the Premier League, the two teams are about to have a strong showdown.

In the end, it was Manchester City who defeated Chelsea and established their own Premier League dynasty.

Or Chelsea defeated Manchester City strongly and regained their own glory.

After this game, everything will be revealed.

However, before the fifth round of the Premier League begins, both teams must participate in a Champions League group stage.

The outside world can evaluate the status of both sides based on their performance in the Champions League group stages.

…

September 17, 5:30 pm, Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City ushered in the challenge of Zenit St. Petersburg, their first opponent in the Champions League group stage.

Zenit was the champion of the Russian Super League last season, while Manchester City was the champion of the Premier League last season.

So before the game, many Russian media hyped this game as a championship battle!

In the past few seasons, the Russian Super League's Jinyuan Football has been booming, investing very heavily every year, and often becoming the top player in European transfer periods.

Affected by this, the competitiveness of Russian Super League teams in the Champions League has improved a lot.

The Zenit team has also had its moments of glory.

In the 2007-2008 season, they continuously eliminated the top players in the Europa League and won the Europa League championship.

In that Europa League, Zenit's 4-0 home victory against Bayern was regarded as a model by their fans and as a great shame by Bayern.

What makes them even more proud is that in the subsequent European Super Cup, they defeated the Champions League champions Manchester United 2:1 and reached the top of Europe!

But that's all in the past. Zenit's record in recent years is far less crazy than before.

Even though they paid a high price to buy Hulk, the main forward of the Brazilian team, they failed to achieve further breakthroughs.

Therefore, the British media does not buy into the Russian hype!

In their view, this was a shameless act by the Russians.

At the level of the Russian Super League, do you dare to compare with our world's number one league?

Manchester City is not only the champion of the Premier League, but also the champion of the Champions League.

You, Zenit, were lucky last season. You made it into the knockout round with 6 points. Do you really think of yourself as an onion?

Before the game, British fans were very much looking forward to seeing Manchester City teach the arrogant Russians a lesson at their home court and let them know that the sky is the limit!

Pellegrini was not affected by the outside world, and he still prepared for this game at a normal pace.

Considering that they will face the challenge of the league title rival Chelsea at home in a few days, Zenit's strength in this game is not strong.

Therefore, Pellegrini used a large number of substitutes, and Van Dijk was also reused by him, replacing Demichelis who was resting.

This is not the first time that Van Dijk has played in the Champions League as a starter. When he was with Celtic last season, he was the team's main central defender.

He also represented the Celtics and played in all 6 group matches. Unfortunately, the Celtics had a poor record and were eliminated at the bottom of the group with 1 win and 5 losses.

This season, coming to the stronger defending champion team, Van Dijk is full of expectations for the Champions League results in the new season.

Lin Quan originally thought that the other party would feel nervous in such an occasion, but after observing for a while, he found that not only did Van Dyke not feel nervous, but he was actually a little eager to try.

The Manchester City fans who came to the scene saw Van Dijk, the winner of the game, on the field, and they also enthusiastically gave him encouragement.

The winning header at Arsenal's home court in the last game made many Manchester City fans remember this tall man.

If Van Dijk can perform as well as in the last game, his status in the hearts of Manchester City fans will definitely be further improved.

In Zenit's lineup, there is a player who is very familiar to Manchester City fans - Xavi Garcia.

He was still a member of Manchester City last season. This season, in order to seek more playing time, he chose to transfer and leave.

The team he joined was Zenit St. Petersburg.

It was such a coincidence that his first Champions League game after joining Zenit was to return to the stadium where he had fought.

While waiting in the player tunnel to enter, Javi Garcia walked up to Lin Quan with some anxiety and seemed to want to explain something:

"Lin, I..."

"Come on, play hard, and try to qualify together!"

Lin Quan roughly guessed what he was going to say, so he took the initiative to give him a warm hug, patted his back and encouraged him.

"Yes, I will!"

With encouragement from Lin Quan, Javi Garcia felt a big stone in his heart fell to the ground.

When the players entered the stadium, Manchester City fans who came to the scene held banners with slogans welcoming Javi Garcia's return to the Etihad Stadium.

This scene moved Xavi Garcia very much. After the game started, he played very actively in the midfield.

In the 4th minute, Javi Garcia sent a fatal through ball in the middle.

Hulk seized the opportunity of Manchester City defender Mangala's defensive error, dribbled the ball into the penalty area, and blasted the ball into the Manchester City goal.

The scene was in an uproar!

Blue Moon fans are a little unbelievable. In just 4 minutes, Manchester City fell behind?

After assisting his teammate to score a goal, Javi Garcia restrained himself from participating in the celebration.

But Hulk rushed to the camera in the corner, roaring and beating his chest like a real Hulk.

Pellegrini was very dissatisfied with Mangala's mistake. The opponent was Manchester City's biggest signing this summer.

But judging from the opponent's performance in the past few games, it is difficult for Pellegrini to have enough trust in him.

To be honest, his performance is not even as good as Van Dijk, whose transfer fee is only a quarter of his.

But it's less than five minutes, and it would be too aggressive to replace him so quickly.

Substitution before the first half is finished represents the head coach's extreme dissatisfaction with the players. This kind of behavior often leads to conflicts between players and coaches.

So Pellegrini decided to take another look!

If his performance hasn't improved, it won't be too late to replace him during the halftime break.

However, Mangala quickly proved with his actions that Pellegrini's decision was wrong!

In the 22nd minute of the game, Mangala made another fatal mistake. He jumped up in the penalty area and leaked the ball to the opponent's midfielder Witsel.

The latter seized the opportunity and swept the ball into the goal with a sweep.

Navas had nothing to do with the ball. The opponent's shot was too close to the goal.

If the first goal was lost, Manchester City fans just felt that something was not right about the team's state, and did not feel much worry or panic.

So as they conceded the second goal in the first half, Manchester City fans really started to panic.

The team's defense is like tofu, and the guy wearing the No. 15 jersey feels like an undercover sent by the opponent.

How can we win with such a shabby defense?

This goal was conceded at a very bad time. Before conceding the goal, Manchester City continuously attacked Zenit's goal and almost equalized the score.

But after conceding the second goal, Manchester City's offensive stagnated and the team's morale was seriously damaged.

Looking at Zenit, after they scored the second goal, the entire team fell into madness.

We actually scored 2 goals at the home court of the defending champion!

We're going to beat the defending champion!

On the sidelines, Pellegrini's face was ashen.

He called Demichelis up, and after giving him some instructions, he was about to replace him on the field.

In the 25th minute, Manchester City made personnel adjustments.

Demichelis came on to replace Mangala, who was in poor form.

The latter was obviously in a bad mood when he came off the field, ignoring Pellegrini who was standing on the long side.

This scene was caught by reporters at the scene!

The reporters' eyes lit up, and they wrote hundreds of words in their minds, trying to analyze the disagreement between Manchester City's generals and the huge contradiction in the locker room.

After Demichelis came on, Manchester City's defense stabilized.

Zenit's offense no longer achieves as good results as before!

In this game, although Mangala's performance was poor, Van Dijk's performance was remarkable.

Without his solid performance on the defensive line, Manchester City might have conceded more than two goals!

After the back line was stabilized, Manchester City's offense finally improved.

In the 38th minute of the first half, Lin Quan made a sudden pass, seized the loopholes in the opponent's defense, and hit the upper left corner of the goal with a long shot from outside the penalty area, helping Manchester City recover a goal.

At halftime, Pellegrini returned to the dressing room angrily.

I planned to have a good exchange with Mangala, but found that the other party was not in the locker room at all.

This made him angry and his blood pressure suddenly increased!

It seems that this guy won’t be able to survive without dealing with it!

In the second half, the team changed sides and fought again, and Manchester City continued to make substitutions.

David Silva comes on, replacing Milner.

This substitution had an immediate effect. Taking advantage of David Silva's advantage this time, Manchester City launched successive strong attacks from the left.

In the 58th minute, David Silva sent a cross from the left. Aguero, who was outflanking the goal, missed the first point. The opponent's goalkeeper also made a misjudgment and failed to touch the ball after attacking.

Lin Quan, who was playing from behind, caught the mistake, easily extended his foot and put the ball into the goal.

The score became 2:2 and Manchester City equalized.

After the equalizer, Lin Quan did not waste time to celebrate. Instead, he immediately stood up, rushed into the goal, fished out the ball, and returned to the center circle with the football in hand to prepare for the restart.

Zenit's players watched their victory fly away, and every one of them looked very frustrated.

Javi Garcia couldn't help but sigh. With Lin here, Manchester City is still so difficult to defeat!

Seeing that the situation was not going well, Zenit's head coach immediately made a gesture for the team to retreat and defend a draw.

You can't get 3 points, you must not lose this 1 point!

However, after Manchester City completely gained momentum, it was not so easy to maintain the tie.

After Zenit retreated to defend with all its strength, Manchester City's attack became more intense.

In the 78th minute of the second half, Cross' long shot helped the team reverse the score.

Five minutes later, De Bruyne scored directly with a free kick, setting the score at 4:2.

Manchester City finally won the new Champions League season at their home court.

But this victory was different from what many outsiders expected, especially when Chelsea next door defeated Schalke 04 4-0.

Manchester City's hard-fought victory was completely outclassed!

So, before the big battle between Manchester City and Chelsea, the outside world changed.

There are more voices optimistic about Chelsea!