Chapter 968: Always Move Forward!

As soon as the winter break ended, Chinatown had a series of tough battles.

The first game was the first leg of the King's Cup knockout match, played at the Bernabeu Stadium.

Mourinho obviously did not take Chinatown too seriously. In the first game of the winter break, he did not send all the main players, and many main players including Diego Costa and Ozil were hidden in the snow, playing with a semi-substitute lineup.

But facing the powerful Galaxy battleship, Pochettino's team took the initiative and performed very bravely. In the tenth minute of the first half, Carvajal scored a goal, and Miranda scored another goal from a corner kick in the 29th minute.

With a 2-0 lead, Chinatown seemed to see the dawn of victory.

But Mourinho repented during the halftime break, replaced three main players in one breath, launched a fierce attack on Chinatown, and scored three goals in a row in the 68th, 70th and 78th minutes, and finally won Chinatown 3-2 at the Bernabeu Stadium.

After a hard battle with Real Madrid, Chinatown tied Atletico Madrid 0-0 at home in the league at the weekend. In this game, the team was passive and defended the goal. Players such as De Gea, Miranda and Godin performed very bravely.

Pochettino saved his strength in the league and exerted his strength in the second round of the King's Cup. He staged an offensive and defensive duel with Mourinho. Neither side could break the opponent's goal throughout the game.

Until the end of the game, Hazard received a pass from Alba on the left and forced into the penalty area. He was pulled down from behind by Arbeloa. The right back of Real Madrid received the second yellow card of the game and was sent off by the referee. Hazard personally took the penalty kick and scored a goal for Chinatown.

The total score was 3-3, but Chinatown eliminated Real Madrid with an away goal.

Mourinho was furious about Arbeloa's second yellow card after the game, angrily denouncing the referee's partiality and believing that Hazard was diving. However, both the media and the TV stations could clearly see through the video that Arbeloa did pull Hazard down from behind, otherwise the Belgian would have been in a one-on-one situation.

The elimination of the star-studded Real Madrid has brought Chinatown back into the sight of fans all over the world, especially the tenacious spirit shown in the two games against Real Madrid, which is even more impressive.

But in the 19th round of La Liga at the weekend, although Pelle scored a goal in the 88th minute to equalize the score, Chinatown eventually lost the ball in the stoppage time and lost 1-2 to Sporting Gijon away.

With one draw and one loss in two rounds of games, Chinatown's league ranking has rapidly dropped to the tenth place in La Liga, and the excitement brought by the King's Cup promotion has quickly disappeared.

In the middle of the week, the first round of the King's Cup quarter-finals was ushered in. With Aubameyang's goal, China City tied Emery's Valencia 1-1 away, and a week later, they defeated the Bats 2-0 at home, with Rakitic and Herrera both scoring.

In an interview with the media after the game, Emery expressed regret that China City's performance in these two games was better than Valencia, and it was a matter of course to advance.

However, in the middle of the two cup games, China City lost 1-4 to Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona took the lead with Puyol's goal in the 13th minute, but China City's Aubameyang quickly equalized the score. In the second half, Messi completely opened up in just ten minutes in the 54th, 60th and 63rd, performing a hat trick and surpassing the score again.

In the end, China City lost 1-4 away.

Suffering a double kill from Barcelona. China City's morale was low, and the league ranking dropped to 11th again.

As a result, the media and fans began to attack Pochettino, believing that Chinatown should not insist on fighting on two fronts, but should focus on the league instead of being distracted by the cup, especially the Copa del Rey.

But the club's general manager Armando Marcos and technical director Cantarero came out again to publicly support Pochettino's decision, saying that the club would not change its confidence in Pochettino because of the temporary ups and downs in results.

After eliminating Valencia in the Copa del Rey, Chinatown quickly defeated Sevilla 2-1 at home in the weekend league, with Rakitic and Aubameyang scoring goals.

A victory made Chinatown's league ranking soar to eighth place.

But what made the fans even more excited was that three days after defeating Sevilla, Pochettino's team welcomed Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao at home, which was the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-final.

Both teams are known for their high-pressure pressing. The game was very fierce. Chinatown used the home advantage to firmly suppress Athletic Bilbao, and in the first half, Hazard assisted Rakitic to score a goal.

After the second half, Bielsa replaced two players at once, intending to counterattack, but Chinatown relied on Pelle's assists and Aubameyang scored another goal, and finally locked the victory at home with 2-0, and stepped into the King's Cup final.

But the price of the hard battle with Athletic Bilbao was that the team had to rotate at the weekend and lost 1-2 to Granada away, but fortunately the ranking remained unchanged. However, most media and fans still couldn't understand Pochettino's strategy of insisting on playing the cup game. Shouldn't he try his best to keep the league first?

In the second round of the semi-finals, Chinatown tied with Athletic Bilbao 2-2 away from home, eliminated Bielsa's team with a total score of 4-3, and successfully advanced to the Copa del Rey final.

This is also the first time in Chinatown’s history that it has advanced to the Copa del Rey final.

This time the opponent is Guardiola's Barcelona.

After advancing to the Copa del Rey final, the team's morale was greatly boosted. In the subsequent game against Real Mallorca, Caparros' team scored a sneak goal in the fourth minute, but Pochettino sat at home and quickly adjusted the situation. , Pellet assisted Aubameyang to equalize the score.

In the 55th minute of the second half, Illarramendi scored a long shot to give Chinatown the lead, and then forward Pelle scored a goal. In the end, Real Mallorca was reversed 3-1, but the league The ranking remains unchanged.

A week later, Pochettino rotated for the Champions League in mid-week. Chinatown lost 0-1 to Athletic Bilbao in an away game. Bielsa's team avenged their elimination from the Copa del Rey at home and It pushed Chinatown's league ranking to ninth place.

Unexpectedly, on Wednesday at Lyon's Parc Olympique, Chinatown conceded a goal in just eight minutes. Youngster Lacazette opened the scoring for Lyon, and the Ligue 1 powerhouse scored with the first shot.

After that, Chinatown was completely trapped within the iron walls of Lyon.

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Pochettino stood in front of the visiting team's coaching bench at the Olympic Park Stadium, with his suit open and his hands on his waist, revealing a white shirt, but the stubble on his face made him look very rough.

He hadn't taken good care of his appearance for more than a month, and his hair was as messy as a bird's nest.

Since the winter break, the team has been on a roll, competing on three fronts: the Copa del Rey, the League and the Champions League. Every game is a tough battle. Chinatown played very hard, and the players worked very hard, and the pressure was very high. .

As the team's head coach, Pochettino is especially so.

Lyon, the opponent in this game, is a regular in the knockout rounds of the Champions League and has good strength. Although the young coach Garde has just taken office this season, he has served as a youth training coach and first-team assistant coach in Lyon for many years, assisting Legane, Houllier and Puel and other former Lyon coaches, and his appointment also won the trust of the management, intending to rejuvenate the team.

Lacazette, who scored in this game, was promoted from the youth team by him.

The four-three-three formation is currently the mainstream in Europe. Garde also adopts this style of play. The goalkeeper is Lloris, the defense is Sissoko, Chris, Lovren and Reviere from left to right, and the midfielder is It's Fofana, Karlstrom and Gourcuff, and the frontcourt is Bastos, Lacazette and Briand.

Garde obviously put a lot of effort into this game. He studied Chinatown's play style in depth and adopted a regional defensive strategy against Hazard, who was the most active and most capable player in the frontcourt, trying to avoid the ball as much as possible. The team fell into a one-on-one defensive situation, which prevented the Belgians from getting very good opportunities throughout the game.

Aubameyang is the team's leading scorer, fast and powerful, so Garde asked Sissoko to stay close to him. The left back performed well in this game and did not give Aubameyang any chance. What a great opportunity.

The game lasted for 75 minutes. Chinatown had a ball possession rate of 60% and shot three times as many times as Lyon. However, they were still unable to break through Lyon's goal and their shooting efficiency was very poor.

The home team has made one substitution, but the visiting team has not. Pochettino knows that everyone is waiting for his decision.

Zero to one in the away game is actually an acceptable result.

After returning to the home court, Chinatown can completely play more targeted according to the layout of this game.

This idea came to Pochettino's mind, but soon, he desperately suppressed this tempting idea because another voice emerged in his mind.

“Be fearless and always move forward, this is the purpose of our Chinatown competition!”

"We will never be afraid of any opponent, nor will we bow to any difficult challenge. No matter who the opponent is, we must dare to swing our sword."

This is what Gao Han said to Pochettino. It was deafening.

At this moment, it sounded in Pochettino's mind, but it made the Argentinian a little ashamed.

With about twenty minutes left and the team trailing 0-1, he actually felt satisfied!

If Mr. Gao Han were here, he would be ruthlessly searching for his opponent's weaknesses at this moment, finding a weapon to restrain his opponent and turn defeat into victory, but he would never give up.

Not to mention losing, a draw is not an option for Gao Han. He has always had only one goal, and that is to win.

Pochettino slapped his face hard with both hands, exhaled heavily, turned around, and shouted to the assistant coach Jesus Perez behind him, "Show me this scene." Detailed analysis of the game.”

Jesus Perez was stunned for a moment, then reacted quickly, immediately found the data analyst, and quickly walked to Pochettino's side with a tablet computer, which was opened by Gao Han and Sergio. I began to study the data analysis software carefully created by Sergio Garcia.

Through the club's data analysis software, everything about the game was clearly presented to Pochettino. At this moment, he calmed down and many details that he had previously overlooked reappeared within his field of vision. After a little organization, the outlines immediately emerged in his mind.

"Lyon's loophole is here!" Pochettino said with gritted teeth.