Heroes of the Restricted Zone

Chapter 1319 Reaching the semi-finals for two consecutive years

Liverpool defeated Porto 3:0 at home, and they have already squeezed into the semi-finals. Their opponent in the semi-finals will be the winner between AC Milan and Manchester United.

Regardless of being completely defeated by Liverpool at home, Manchester United still has a strong competitiveness in continental Europe.

It can even be said that if it weren't for Chen Yingxiong, Manchester United would still be the overlord in England. Only Manchester City can cause them trouble. Of course, Manchester City can't do it now, and they themselves are in a mess.

As long as they don't run into Liverpool, Manchester United is still confident of winning any game.

The peak match between Manchester United and AC Milan also attracted the attention of many people.

Chen Yingxiong doesn't care which of the two teams can win. Anyway, no matter who it is, reaching the semi-finals is the end of the game. The first to enter the final must be Liverpool led by him.

After the quarter-finals of the Champions League with Porto, Liverpool will go away to challenge their No.30 opponent Birmingham in the third round of the league.

In this game, Martin O'Neill continued to rotate.Because the points advantage has already been greatly increased, he has the confidence to still rotate at this time.

For him, it doesn't matter if Liverpool loses a game or draws a few games.

The most important thing is for the players to stay fit now.

Because of the huge lead in the league, Martin O'Neill also moved more thoughts.

After Liverpool won the League Cup, what Chen Yingxiong said before the season often appeared in O'Neill's mind.

"Why do we have to have one championship a season? Why can't we win three... no, four championships a season?"

We have already won the League Cup and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but since Chen Yingxiong insists on playing with the reserve team, it may be difficult for us to win this championship.In the league, we lead No.2 Chelsea by as much as [-] points. With such a huge advantage, as long as we can continue to lead and play three more league rounds, we can win the championship early.At least two championships can be won, why not try to hit the Champions League championship?

You know, the only championship I haven't won is the Champions League.

Last season it was because I intended to give up the Champions League, this season the situation is different, there is no reason to give up at all...

Martin O'Neill has been thinking about it these days.He is not a player, he can do this on impulse, he is the head coach, he can't just satisfy his own desires, he has to be responsible for the whole team, if he decides to invest heavily in the Champions League, it's okay to win in the end , what if you lose?If some other chain reactions are triggered, leading to nothing in the end, who is responsible?Isn't it still him?He must be responsible for every decision he makes, and if it brings bad consequences, he may have to dismiss the get out of class.

So O'Neill cannot but be cautious.

He thought over and over, and observed the situation.

When the team defeated Porto at Anfield with only half of the main force, he felt that Liverpool could hit the Champions League this season.

Although the opponents in the semi-finals, whether it is Manchester United or AC Milan, are very strong, but now Liverpool's performance has brought him endless confidence.It shouldn't be a big problem to break into the finals.

As for what to do in the finals...Martin O'Neill hasn't figured it out yet, anyway, we'll talk about it after we advance to the finals.Even if you don't win the championship in the end, at least reaching the final is a great achievement.

The more O'Neill thought about it, the more he felt that it was feasible.

So he decided to adjust the team's goals.

For this reason, in the match against a weak team like Birmingham, he chose to continue the rotation, replacing more main players and letting substitute players play.

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In the end, Liverpool, who played more substitute players, reached a 1:1 tie with Birmingham in the away game. Although Chen Yingxiong started the game, he did not score this time.

The man who scored was Gareth Bale, who scored the only goal for the team with a long shot.

Although it was tied by Birmingham, this did not affect the general trend of the league.

Chelsea, ranked second, is as many as ten points behind Liverpool, and their minds are not on catching up with Liverpool, but are fighting with Manchester United, Newcastle, Arsenal, and Manchester City.

These five teams will compete for three places in the Champions League. Everyone can imagine how fierce the competition is.

No wonder Martin O'Neill was so calm. After being tied by Birmingham, he said that this result was not worth mentioning.

After being drawn by Birmingham, Liverpool went into preparations for the Champions League.

In this game, Martin O'Neill intends to continue to use the rotation, which is basically half of the main force and half of the substitute configuration.

Chen Yingxiong on the court is the guarantee of the team's victory.

Even if it is an away game, there is nothing to worry about.

He is not worried about whether Chen Yingxiong's physical fitness can bear it now.

This question is simply pointless!
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In the away game, Liverpool encountered less resistance.Because Porto can't hide and defend, if they want to advance, they have to score goals.If you want to score a goal, you have to press out to attack, and there will be a lot of gaps behind the press-out attack.

It's much easier to do it when you have time.

Liverpool comfortably played a defensive counterattack in the away game.

No. 406 minutes, they broke the deadlock on the field, and it was Chen Yingxiong who scored again.

After taking the lead, Liverpool's defensive counterattack became more handy.

However, Porto was helpless in the face of Liverpool's defensive counterattack.Even Manchester United fell into Liverpool's defensive counterattack, let alone Porto, which is not as strong as Manchester United?

In the end, Liverpool defeated Porto 1:0 away and won the game.As a result, they eliminated the Portuguese Super League team with a total score of 4:0 and advanced to the semi-finals.

"The game is over! Liverpool eliminated Porto and they reached the semi-finals! This is the second consecutive season they have reached the semi-finals! The last time they were eliminated by Bayern Munich! Will they be able to reach the final this time?"

Liverpool's players embraced and celebrated the moment with all their might.

Being able to reach the semi-finals for two consecutive seasons shows that their strength is not a flash in the pan, but a sustained and stable performance.

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With the excitement of reaching the semi-finals, the Liverpool team returned to England from Portugal.

A day later, their semi-final opponent was also freshly released-AC Milan.

AC Milan reached a 3:3 tie with Manchester United in the semi-finals, but because of the goal difference they had two, while Manchester United had none, so AC Milan advanced to the semi-finals.

This opponent is Chen Yingxiong, whom he has not seen for a long time. Since he left Naples, he has never played against AC Milan again.

But now he didn't consider this opponent.

There is something more important than AC Milan waiting for him, there is a game more important than the semi-finals of the Champions League waiting for him.

On April [-]th, the FA Cup semi-final, Liverpool faced Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium.

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Although the current team is in good form, Martin O'Neill did not let Chen Yingxiong go to practice with the reserve team players in daily training.

He no longer cares about what the FA Cup can achieve in the end.

Even if Tottenham were eliminated in the semi-finals, he would not be angry or disappointed.

Anyway, this is Chen Yingxiong's own decision. If he loses in the end, maybe this kid who has been going smoothly for too long will suffer a little bit, knowing that he will restrain himself.

Chen Yingxiong still trains with the first team every day, while the reserve team trains at the No. [-] training ground. The two seem to have no intersection. The only time they can train with Chen Yingxiong is in the weekly team training match.

How could it be possible to establish a tacit understanding with Chen Yingxiong?
In order to make up for this deficiency, the players of the reserve team worked very hard to watch Chen Yingxiong's game video. They had to watch every Liverpool game several times-watching it once in front of the TV during the live broadcast, and then being caught Coach Clark watched the video of the game several times, including the full version, and some specially edited by the coaching staff. He also used special computer software to analyze Chen Yingxiong's habit of running and catching the ball... In a word, It is to let the entire Liverpool reserve team firmly imprint Chen Yingxiong's various characteristics in their minds. In this way, the players of the reserve team can increase their familiarity with Chen Yingxiong, as if they have already trained together The game has been the same for many years.

This is the only way. Although the method is relatively stupid, it is the only one.

Until the day before the game, it was finally no longer as simple as playing a game with the first team. Chen Yingxiong and O'Neill appeared together at the training factory of the reserve team. This time he came to practice with the team, although only Half a day - After training, they will fly to London, stay in a hotel there for one night, and then go to the FA Cup semi-final in the afternoon.

Regarding this training session, Martin O'Neill didn't have much hope.

Because the time is too short, even if the reserve team players watched Chen Yingxiong's game video highlights, Chen Yingxiong hadn't studied the training content of the reserve team... What's the use of unilateral tacit understanding?

But when the training started, Martin O'Neal on the sidelines was stunned.

Not only him, but the head coach of the reserve team, Clark, was also stunned.

There are still many players in the reserve team who are all stunned.

Because Chen Yingxiong didn't show any discomfort at all!

He seemed to have been training with this team for a season, and he didn't need Clark to say anything, he knew what to do.

He knows the habits of every teammate in the reserve team. In the offensive routine drill, his running position makes the reserve team players very comfortable, because he can always run to the route that the reserve team players plan to pass the ball...

"He really hasn't trained in your reserve team?" Martin O'Neill frowned and asked Clark beside him.

Clark shook his head very firmly: "Absolutely not!"

"Then this is really a ghost!"

"No matter what the reason is, it's always a good thing!" Clark looked very happy after the initial stunned. "That way we have a better chance of reaching the final!"

After hearing Clark's words, Martin O'Neill frowned even tighter.

Could it be that in order to help the team reach the finals, did he have some other special training?For example, after the first team training, went to the reserve team to watch the training?That's not right... Both teams have the same training time, after the first team training is over, the reserve team training is also over.

O'Neill was puzzled...

(End of this chapter)