i want to be king

Chapter 982 Disabled Real Madrid!

On the evening of March 27, Manchester's Etihad Stadium.

As night fell, the stadium was already brightly lit.

After the renovation, the outer wall of the stadium was painted with a layer of sky blue paint. Under the lighting, the whole stadium looks like a bright sapphire, very beautiful.

The only regret is that after the first round of expansion, the capacity of the stadium still failed to exceed [-].

But it doesn't matter, Manchester City's plan to further expand the Etihad Stadium has been put on the agenda. This time, it plans to directly increase the capacity of the stadium by more than 4000, and the total capacity will reach 6. This will surpass other teams and become the second largest stadium in the Premier League after Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium.

At present, Manchester City's stadium expansion plan has been submitted to the Manchester Council for approval. The possibility of passing is very high, because this project will bring hundreds of temporary jobs, and in the future, more than 100 staff will be added in the long term, as well as other more jobs. This is also good for Manchester.

One of the important reasons why Manchester City dared to expand so drastically is that Manchester City's current football market is very hot.

With the rapid improvement of the team's performance in the past two seasons, more and more fans have walked into the Etihad Stadium, which has made it difficult for Manchester City to find tickets, and even season tickets have become in short supply.

This is actually related to Manchester City's business strategy.

After the Abu Dhabi consortium took over, Manchester City's tickets have always maintained the first tier of the Premier League. The lowest price of 340 euros is the lowest in the Premier League, [-] euros lower than the second-ranked Aston Villa.

After the renovation of the stadium, Manchester City's highest-end season ticket price has reached [-] euros, ranking ninth in the Premier League. In fact, it is relatively good, because these are all VIP seats. In comparison, Arsenal's price is [-] euros, which is more than twice that of Manchester City, while Manchester United's price in the same city is [-] euros, which is also much higher than Manchester City.

The team has good grades, good style of play, offensive football, and a lot of stars, especially with superstars like Su Dong in charge, but the average ticket price is at the bottom of the Premier League. How can such a team have low attendance?

In fact, on the whole, the ticket price of the Premier League is still very high.

Even Manchester City, the lowest, is much higher than the lowest ticket prices of all the teams in the four major leagues. This also shows that the consumption power of the UK is indeed better than other countries. Coupled with the advantage of owning the stadium, this gives the Premier League teams a very obvious advantage in matchday operating income over teams in other leagues.

It is precisely based on this that Manchester City is determined to further expand the stadium, so as to further increase the team's match day income while keeping the ticket price unchanged.

Everyone is convinced that even if the expansion reaches more than 6, Manchester City's home attendance will still be full.

Not to mention anything else, just look at the peak matchup between Manchester City and Real Madrid.

As early as the second round of the knockout round of the top [-] had just been decided, and when Manchester City officially started the sales of home tickets for the first round of the knockout round of the top eight, all the tickets were sold out in a very short period of time, making it hard to find a ticket.

On the night of the game, fans from all directions began to pour into the Etihad Stadium.

At this time, there are still many fans around the stadium holding up their cards, asking scalpers for a ticket at a high price.

It is said that outside, a ticket for the worst position has been fired for [-] pounds, which shows how popular this game is.

According to the media, the influence of this game is not lost to the Champions League final.

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When Manchester City arrived at the stadium by bus, the Manchester City fans who were preparing to enter the stadium outside the stadium all chased after them, shouting the names of Manchester City players from a distance through the fence.

Su Dong is the player who is called the most, and many fans are encouraging him to score goals in the game.

There was a live broadcast of the game, and they even filmed the grand occasion of the team's arrival at the stadium before the game, but they were shocked by the crazy and enthusiastic fans at the scene. They didn't expect that Manchester City fans would be so fanatical.

"This is actually not difficult to understand, because this is the first time Manchester City has ever participated in the Champions League, and reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time. For Manchester City, which has not performed well in the past 100 years, it can definitely be regarded as the pinnacle of history, so the pursuit of fans is also understandable."

"We saw that Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola got off the bus first, and he received warm applause from the fans at the scene."

"Since coaching Manchester City, Guardiola has gradually become the hottest top coach in Europe. Now he has even been poached by Barcelona, ​​but he chose to renew his contract with Manchester City and continue to stay in the Premier League to coach."

"Captain Su Dong also led the players off the bus one after another. It seems that the Manchester City players are in high spirits tonight and should be in good condition, while the Manchester City fans are chanting Su Dong's name frantically. He is the most popular player in Manchester City. He is not only the captain of Manchester City, but also the team's top scorer and spiritual leader."

Amidst the roar of fans at the scene, Manchester City players, led by Guardiola and Su Dong, walked into the player tunnel.

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When the Real Madrid players walked out of the tunnel and entered the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City's players were already warming up on the pitch.

Cristiano Ronaldo walked with the team while paying attention to the movements of Manchester City, looking for the familiar figure among the players running around.

At this time, many Manchester City fans were already sitting in the stands, and they all booed Real Madrid.

Just when Ronnie walked into the turf of the Etihad Stadium, a football suddenly flew in the distance. The ball was still very fast and came straight towards him. This surprised the fans and the Real Madrid players were also quite surprised.

Only Ronnie went up cheerfully, stopped the ball with his chest, and kicked the ball back in the air.

Only then did everyone notice that the ball fell back to the half of Manchester City's warm-up training. Su Dong stopped the ball lightly, stepped on his feet, and pointed his right hand at Ronnie, while Pepe, David Silva, Moutinho, Marcelo and other acquaintances also waved happily towards the Portuguese around Su Dong.

"Hey, brother."

Su Dong came straight over and hugged Ronnie tightly.

"I almost fell to the ground just now, and I'll see how you end up then." Ronnie laughed and said, that arrogant expression seemed to say, don't you hurry up and thank me?
"That will definitely confirm your reputation as a diving star." Su Dong said sarcastically.

In fact, he controlled the strength of that kick. Generally speaking, when he reached Ronnie's range, he had no strength. Even if he missed it or was kicked, it would basically not hurt, let alone get injured.

Of course, it would be a different matter if Ronnie fell directly to the ground.

After meeting Ronnie, Su Dong shook hands and hugged Kaka, Harvey Alonso, Casillas, Ramos and others. They were old acquaintances, and they were no strangers to each other, especially Kaka.

Sometimes Su Dong really wanted to ask Kaka, would he regret not choosing Manchester City and going to Real Madrid?
You know, if you come to Manchester City, Kaka may face a different career.

But frankly speaking, apart from Su Dong, it is estimated that any other superstar would choose Real Madrid instead of Manchester City.

Javi Alonso also almost joined Manchester City, but in the end he also went to Real Madrid, while Guardiola introduced Busquets, and both players turned out to be successful after the transfer.

The players of the two teams were no strangers to each other. After meeting and exchanging polite greetings, they went back to the half court for training.

……

When the players of the two teams exchanged polite greetings on the court, the two head coaches also chatted on the sidelines.

When Pellegrini coached Real Madrid, he was hailed as Florentino's spare tire. As a result, on the one hand, Real Madrid never got in touch with a better head coach. On the other hand, Pellegrini's coaching performance was indeed good.

The players are also quite supportive of him, which allowed Real Madrid to break through from the top sixteen of the Champions League this season.

Pellegrini is now ambitious and wants to lead Real Madrid to continue to move forward and achieve better results.

Guardiola is also the first time to participate in the Champions League as a head coach, so he is also looking forward to the team's gains.

The two head coaches are very personable, and they are very polite to each other. Guardiola is the host, but he is not good at dealing with people on weekdays, so he just had a routine courtesy with Pellegrini, and the two went back separately.

But their attention is always rotating between their own side and the opponent on the court, and the focus is to observe the state of the opponent's players.

In the pre-match training, no one did their best, and it was difficult to see anything. Moreover, the specific information was collected by special scouts and submitted to the coaching staff early, so neither of them had too many secrets.

"They should be on the defensive."

As soon as Guardiola walked back to the coach's bench, Estiat greeted him and gave his own analysis.

He is Guardiola's brain trust.

Double defensive midfielders, four defenders, it is normal to say that Real Madrid wants to be defensive.

Of course, defense does not necessarily mean retreating.

The most typical example is Benitez's Valencia, who also had double midfielders back then, and his tactics were conservative, but whether it was Valencia or Liverpool, Benitez's team always adopted high-position pressing tactics.

Real Madrid should also adopt similar tactics, but relatively speaking, the attitude will be more conservative.

"So, we can play more proactively in the game." Guardiola nodded.

He agrees with Estiat's judgment. He doesn't think Real Madrid will compete with Manchester City for possession in the away game because Real Madrid lacks such a midfielder.

Wanting to rely on midfielders like Kaka, Khedira and Xavi Alonso to compete with Manchester City for possession is simply a dream.

Of these three players, the only one with the ability to play and control the ball is Xavi Alonso.

"But they might try to grab it in the opening game," Estiat reminded.

Guardiola narrowed his eyes and said harshly: "Then beat them to my knees!"

(End of this chapter)