Rebirth Football Simulator

Chapter 169 Bottleneck Period

Manchester City lost 2:3 away to Barcelona and suffered the first defeat of the 16/17 season.

Bravo, who made a mistake and received a red card, is undoubtedly the number one culprit in losing, and has been criticized by fans in various ways.

At the same time, Manchester City fans mentioned Joe Hart again, saying that Bravo's performance in front of the goal is not as good as Hart.

The English media also began to look for new targets for Manchester City, hyping that Manchester City is about to introduce a new goalkeeper.

But no matter how hyped it is, at least it has to wait until the winter transfer period.

In another game in the same group, Borussia beat Celtic 2-0 away.

So in the next round of the group stage, if Manchester City loses to Barcelona at home, the points may be tied by Borussia.

In other group matches, both Arsenal and Leicester City won the game smoothly, while Tottenham drew 0-0 with Leverkusen away.

There are currently three rounds of the UEFA Champions League group stage. Leicester City is the only Premier League team that has won three consecutive victories.

No one expected that Leicester City played very badly in the Premier League and was about to fall into the relegation zone, but they played very well in the Champions League.

曼城、阿森纳、热刺三队都暂时排名各自小组第二，曼城是2胜1负积6分，阿森纳是2胜1平积7分，热刺则是1胜1平1负积4分。

In general, the four Premier League teams are expected to advance to the knockout rounds.

However, the situation in Tottenham's group is relatively complicated. Although Tottenham is second in the group, the promotion situation is not optimistic.

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Back in Manchester, Manchester City quickly entered the game.

On October 10, in the ninth round of the Premier League, Manchester City ushered in a challenge from Saints Southampton at home.

As a veteran team in the Premier League, Southampton has long been known for its youth training ability.

Alan Shearer, Gareth Bale, Walcott, Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, Lallana, these are all Saints youth players who are thriving.

In addition to self-hematopoiesis, Southampton has also started resale in recent years.

In the summer of 2014, Southampton spent 1500 million euros to introduce Senegalese striker Mane from the Salzburg Red Bull. Last season, relying on Mane's outstanding performance, he won the Premier League No.6, refreshing his highest ranking in the Premier League era.

So this summer, Southampton sold Mane to the Red Army Liverpool for a high price of 4100 million euros.

Mane can be regarded as one of the more successful transactions in Southampton's resale, but he is not the only one.

Clyne, Lovren, Schneiderlin and other players are all good buys and sells that have made Southampton successful and profitable.

In addition, Southampton's Dutch central defender Van Dijk is also a potential stock. He has only joined Southampton for one season, but he has already attracted the attention of many strong teams in the Premier League.

Once Van Dijk enters the transfer market, the transfer fee will definitely be higher than Mane.

When Van Dijk was introduced from Celtic last summer, Southampton only spent 1570 million euros.

In general, Southampton can be regarded as the most successful black shop in the Premier League today.

At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City arranged the 433 formation they have been using, intending to secure three points.

"Welcome back, Captain."

Before the start of the game, Manchester City fans cheered wildly in the stands and sent blessings to the captain Kompany who returned from injury.

Since he was injured in the Champions League semi-finals last season, Kompany has been recuperating from his injuries, and he finally returned after half a year of recuperation.

It is a happy event for the captain to return from injury.

Zhang Chaoqiang also stepped forward to bless Kompany. This is the first time the two have competed together.

But after the game officially started, Manchester City's situation was not ideal.

Manchester City launched a fierce attack at the beginning, but was defended by the opponent.

Van Dijk was very active. Not only did he successfully mark Aguero in the middle, but he even had enough energy to defend against Zhang Chaoqiang who restricted the left.

Facing the famous 3G combination, Van Dijk showed his best form and wanted to give a good performance.

So after the opening onslaught, Manchester City gradually fell into the quagmire.

As the core of the midfielder, De Bruyne has not recovered his form, which makes Manchester City struggle even more.

In the 32nd minute, Southampton threatened to hit the goal through a counterattack. Bravo blocked the ball, but was still scored by England striker Nathan Raymond.

Kompany just came back, his reaction was a bit slow, and he failed to make a clearance in time.

Manchester City took the lead in conceding a goal at home, and Southampton, who took the lead, became more confident.

Then the game became an attack mode, trying to break through the dense defense.

Manchester City continued to attack until the 75th minute of the second half. Zhang Chaoqiang changed positions from the right to form a breakthrough cross. Ishinacho, who came off the bench, scored a goal and finally equalized the score.

But it was limited to this. Southampton continued to defend for the rest of the time. Although Zhang Chaoqiang created a lore opportunity by breaking through, he was caught on the crossbar.

In this way, Manchester City drew 1:1 with Southampton at home and suffered two rounds of victories in all competitions.

"There is no doubt that Van Dijk is the biggest contributor to the Saints taking a point from the Etihad Stadium. He is the well-deserved player of the game in this game."

"He's pretty much everywhere on the defensive end, always in the right place at the right time."

"Guardiola had no choice but to replace Aguero at the beginning of the second half, because the Argentine was completely lost under Van Dijk's defense and did not find a chance to shoot throughout the first half."

"For Manchester City, the only good news is that they are still at the top of the list. After all, they have been winning streak before, and their accumulated advantages are enough..."

At the end of the game, the England commentator said so.

In other matches in this round of the Premier League, both Arsenal and Tottenham tied the underdogs 0:0, while Liverpool won West Bromwich Albion 2:1.

The most attention is naturally Mourinho's return visit to his old club Chelsea, but the final result is a bit surprising. Manchester United suffered a 0:4 defeat at Stamford Bridge.

Relying on this disastrous defeat, the Red Devils successfully stole most of the limelight in this round of the Premier League.

在英超9轮过后的积分榜上，曼城以7胜2平积23分继续领跑，身后利物浦和阿森纳都20分，切尔西和热刺都是19分。

Overall, the points gap between the top five in the Premier League is not too big, only Manchester United lags behind.

After this round of disastrous defeat, Manchester United's points are still 14 points, a full 9 points behind the top Manchester City, which is already a gap of three games.

The British tabloid has drawn up the headline - "Manchester United officially withdraws from the Premier League title race".

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Manchester City's home draw with Southampton is obviously not ideal.

But Guardiola still gave the whole team a day off, let everyone rest first, and then prepare for next week's game.

In fact, the loss of points at home may be one of the reasons for the impact of the away game against Barcelona.

Manchester City's main players can take a good rest for a week, and now it's the turn of the substitute players to perform.

On October 10th, in the middle of the week, the English League Cup round of sixteen match day arrived.

According to the results of the previous draw, Manchester City will go to Old Trafford to play away against Manchester United.

This is a standard city derby, but Guardiola still arranges all substitutes to play.

Manchester United pays more attention to it. Although there is a certain rotation, it also arranges several main players such as Ibrahimovic, Pogba, and De Gea to lead the team.

After all, that is their home field.

The final result was fair. Manchester United successfully eliminated Manchester City with a 1-0 home victory thanks to Mata's goal.

This was originally just a normal rotation loss, but the English media found the topic and threatened to say: "Manchester City has reached a bottleneck period, and it is likely to lose points or even lose one after another..."

Manchester City have played 16 games since the start of the new season.

其中前11场保持全胜，但最近5场却有明显下滑，成绩仅为1胜2平2负。

Judging from the data, Manchester City seems to have indeed reached a bottleneck period.

If you can't make it through successfully, it is indeed possible to lose points in a row.

And there is no doubt that Manchester City's Champions League match against Barcelona at home will definitely be carried out within the bottleneck period.

That was an important match for the first competition in the relationship group.

(End of this chapter)