Rebirth 1994: Football Situation

Chapter 742 The Harmonious Quarterfinals
"Three to two, Newcastle secured the win, beating Aston Villa at home for their sixth consecutive win. The win keeps them a point clear at the top of the pack... as the scores show. , Newcastle's victory was not easy. They equalized twice when they were behind twice, and finally relied on captain Shearer's header to win the game. The dissatisfied teenager Lennon played for Newcastle for the first time and performed well. Shearer's goal was due to his precise cross from the right. Lennon once set the record for the youngest player in the Premier League in Leeds, but after moving to Newcastle, he has not been able to occupy the first team. A position, appearing in the Premier League after a lapse of a year, Lennon's performance proved that he is still the young winger who makes people shine..."

After the end of this round of the game, the major media in England used enough pages to exaggerate Lennon’s appearance. From this, it seems that there is something in common between the English football media and the Chinese football media—— —They are very patriotic, but also very troublesome.

Rao Mourinho has seen everything, but he still underestimated the enthusiasm of the English media for Lennon's first appearance on behalf of Newcastle. In his opinion, although Lennon is outstanding, it is not yet possible for him to play the role. When he was the main force, he was only 1.6 meters tall and his ability to fight was weak. At the same time, his breakthrough method was still relatively monotonous. At least at this stage, he was incomparable with Nie Fei, and even Dyer was comparable. He is much more experienced.

Mourinho has never liked to praise or kill players. He hates the media blowing up the sky when a player performs well. If he does not perform well, he will go to the [-]th hell. I can only say the bad things, why do you say that?

But Lennon is no rookie anymore. After all, he played in the Premier League more than a year ago and set a record that is difficult for people to catch up with. Naturally, he will not be as excited as a young man who has never seen the world. (Although he is just a young man), he still participated in training as usual, and Mourinho was relieved to see it.

In fact, at this time, even if Lennon has any signs of flying, Mourinho can only postpone it one step later. The reason is simple-the quarter-finals of the Champions League are about to begin.

To say that Pei Wei has never hated UEFA so much since he was born—including the time when he was reborn—although after entering the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the game must basically be tough, but Newcastle’s luck It seems too bad. In the draw, although they were not drawn with Chelsea in the same league, they met another European super giant - the Bundesliga Hollywood Bayern Munich.

The top eight matchups are like this. In the first half, Chelsea played against Juventus first away and then home;

The most eye-catching game in the quarter-finals was replaced by the Milan Derby, but Mourinho will not pay attention to the matches between these two teams now-the Milan Derby is in the lower half. two teams.

During the trip to China before the start of this season, Newcastle once played against Bayern, but it was only in a friendly match. Compared with the official match, there is still a considerable gap. In that match, the two sides drew three Three draws, Mourinho is still very careful about Bayern's attack power.

And this relationship also brought a certain friendly atmosphere before this game. After all, Pei Wei and Beckenbauer, the helmsmen of the two clubs, still have a certain personal relationship, but Bayern's new coach Magath arrived this season. When London was interviewed, he showed strong self-confidence.

"We hope to break through the gate of Newcastle first. Now we are stronger than Newcastle in terms of physical condition, so this determines that we must adopt more physical combat methods. Due to the winter break, I think our physical fitness There are more reserves than Newcastle."

"Newcastle have been unbeaten at home and in the Champions League since Jose Mourinho took office? I think any record has to be broken, why not this game? For us, there is no record in the past. Significantly, for the record, German teams have always been dominant against English teams."

In this regard, Mourinho will naturally not let him easily take advantage of his lips: "I agree with Mr. Magath that past records are meaningless for the current game... the German team played against the English team. Advantages are meaningless. Football is not about physicality and Bayern have a lot of technically good players, but I doubt they will be able to show that in the game."

The implication is that Magath will only use simple and crude tactics in the game, and cannot let his technical players play their specialties.

Compared with the verbal confrontation between the coaches, the players seem to be much more peaceful. Kufuor, who has played for Bayern for eight years, expressed his gratitude to Bayern in an interview, but he still believes that , After these two Champions League quarter-finals, "Newcastle is undoubtedly" in the semi-finals.

Ballack, who has become the soul and core of Bayern, expressed his gratitude to the chairman of Newcastle Pei Wei, "It is he who made me from an amateur player to where I am now, and he did not stop me from returning to Germany and participating in the Bundesliga. The league, for me, he is the most important person in my football career, more than anyone else."

At the same time, the core of the German national team also said that he "looks forward to playing against Nie Fei, his former midfield partner in Yunjiatianyu." Possibly), it will be the first contest between the two in the European arena-in the past, although the teams played by Nie Fei and Ballack have often been able to play in the Champions League, the two have never Never met.

Seeing that the atmosphere of the two clubs was very good from the chairman to the players, except for the two head coaches who were a little bit of gunpowder - I guess the UEFA people were very moved by seeing it - there shouldn't be any trouble now, right?We also want to build a harmonious society, how nice of you to be so kind.

When thinking in this way, the adults of UEFA have completely forgotten how they have racked their brains to arrange matches between enemies and confrontations between enemies in order to attract attention and increase ratings...

It is estimated that when the conflict between Newcastle and Barcelona broke out, some people were still secretly laughing in their hearts-there is another pair of enemies, and they can make gimmicks again in the future. Every year a rising tide raises all boats.

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For Mourinho, this game is really difficult to play. Although Magath's words are motivating and exaggerating his own advantages, there is one sentence that is true-the Bundesliga has more than a month of winter. There is a rest period, and the Premier League not only does not have a winter break, but there are many more games than usual during the New Year's period. In terms of physical fitness, Bayern does have a great advantage over Newcastle.

However, Mourinho is not unprepared for this situation. In fact, in the last league game against Aston Villa, he took a risk and hid four main players, otherwise it would not be so difficult to win. Even Mourinho himself was terrified of fear.

After the adventure is successful, you will naturally reap the fruits. At least in this game, the four absolute main players, Lucio, Makelele, Nie Fei and Ibrahimovic, can play in the best state. Their good state is Mourinho The greatest confidence.

Twenty minutes before the start of the game, Mourinho reported the squad for the game.

The main 11 people: goalkeeper Petr Cech, defenders Maicon, Lucio, Dawson and Bernard, midfielders Essien, Makelele, Ribery, Nie Fei, forwards Ibrahimovic and Drogba.

Seven substitutes: goalkeeper Given, defenders Trabelsi and Kufuor, midfielders Janus and Stewart, forwards Shearer and Larsson.

Bayern's lineup is like this, goalkeeper captain Kahn, four defenders are Sagnol, Robert Kovac, Demichelis and Lizarazu, five midfielders, Saliha on the right Mijic, Roberto on the left, the three in the middle are Hargreaves, Frings and Ballack, and the lone striker is the Dutch striker Makai - another striker Pizarro played in the league last week Injured and absent, this is why Magath changed the customary [-] to [-].

In the away game, use a five-man midfielder to increase the thickness of the defense. On the offense, try to rely on the personal ability of the super shooter Ma Kai. Magath played the wishful thinking.

"It seems that Magath is not as confident as he says."

After seeing Bayern Munich's lineup, Pei Wei said to Mourinho with a smile.

"That's natural." Mourinho nodded: "Rhetoric words can only stimulate the morale of the team, but this alone is not enough to win the game...Although Bayern does have an advantage over us in terms of physical fitness, but In only two rounds of the game, this advantage is not so easy to show. On the contrary, Bayern is much worse than us in terms of personnel uniformity-playing [-] to strengthen defense and counterattack can only show that Ma Jia He knows the time well."

At this time, Magath, who Mourinho called "aware of current affairs", also walked out of the locker room and sat down on the visiting team's coaching bench.

Players from both sides are scattered on the court, and the game is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)