Chapter 617: Making Great Progress
In the Champions League group stage, QPR also played very smoothly.
Since it was the first time in history to participate in the Champions League, they were naturally classified as a fourth-tier team, in Group B with Schalke 04, Olympiakos and Benfica.
Generally speaking, if a strong team is classified as a fourth-tier team, it is easy to create a death group.
For example, this year's Group D of Dortmund, Real Madrid, Ajax and Manchester City is a proper group of death.
However, QPR's luck is pretty good. The three teams in the same group are all teams with certain strength, but not too strong.
Basically, the media are optimistic that QPR can qualify from the group.
But whether they can qualify first in the group depends on the on-the-spot performance of QPR players. After all, this is their first time playing in the Champions League, so they may lack experience.
However, in the first round of the group match, QPR defeated Benfica 2:1 away from home and got a good start.
Next, they defeated Olympiacos 4:1.
After this game, the media basically have no doubts, and QPR will not have many twists and turns in qualifying.
In the third group match, they drew 2:2 at home with Schalke 04, the strongest team in the group. With 2 wins and 1 draw, they accumulated 7 points, temporarily ranking first in the group.
The second place in the group is Schalke 04, who scored 5 points.
In addition, in the quarter-finals of the English League Cup, QPR, where the youth team played, defeated Arsenal 2:1 at home and entered the top 8.
It can be said that in the first half of the season, QPR performed well on all fronts, making the fans very satisfied.
In the 11th and 12th league rounds, QPR won two more games in a row, but in the 13th league round, their winning streak ended.
Because their opponent this round is Manchester United.
The two sides started a fierce battle at Old Trafford. In the end, Rooney and Liccardo each scored a goal, ending the fierce battle at the top of the table with a draw.
After this round, Manchester United still retains the top spot with 10 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, and 31 points. QPR has 9 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, ranking second with 30 points.
Manchester City ranks third with 29 points. Chelsea has a poor record in these three rounds and currently ranks fourth with only 25 points.
After this game, QPR won 6 consecutive victories in the league. It was not until the last game before the New Year that they lost 0:2 at home to visiting Liverpool.
After 20 league rounds, QPR had 15 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, with 48 points, still ranking second.
Because Manchester United's record is even more variable, they have 6 wins and 1 draw in these seven games. Currently, they have a total of 16 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, with 50 points, ranking first.
QPR did not play well. If it were previous years, they would probably have won the half-time championship at this time. But the problem is that Manchester United is playing really well this season.
Manchester United introduced Robin van Persie, Butner, Shinji Kagawa and Powell. The investment was not large, but the effect was very good. Van Persie has almost seamlessly integrated into Manchester United's style of play and has an excellent chemical reaction with Rooney. In the scorer list, he has scored 16 goals, ranking second.
The first one is of course Ricardo who scored 29 goals.
Last season, Van Persie was also the second-leading scorer at Arsenal. This player is one of the best strikers in recent years. His addition also made the Red Devils fans' longing for Liccardo slightly alleviated.
Manchester City and Chelsea have both fallen behind. One is 7 points behind QPR, and the other is 11 points behind QPR. Both have almost lost hope of competing for the championship.
The British media all believe that the championship this season will be decided between Manchester United and QPR.
The Champions League group stage is finally over. QPR drew with Schalke 04 1:1 away, defeated Benfica 2:0 at home, and tied Olympiakos 1:1 away. The final record was 3 wins, 3 draws and 12 points, ranking first in the group. Yizhi qualified, and the other team in the same group that qualified was Schalke 04. They had 2 wins and 4 draws, with 10 points, ranking second in the group.
Of the four Premier League teams, only two made it to the top 16, with Chelsea and Manchester City both being eliminated.
This way we can almost guess QPR's next opponent in the Champions League. The remaining seven teams ranked second in the group are Porto, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donznec, Valencia, Galatasaray and Celtic.
As long as Real Madrid is not drawn, QPR's chances of entering the top 8 will be very high.
In the EFL Cup, QPR defeated Bradford 3:1 away from home and entered the semi-finals.
It can be said that the goals set before the season are being steadily advanced.
After the winter transfer window opened, Modric, Nainggolan, and the outstanding young player Pogba have all received a large number of offers. However, the military morale is still relatively stable and the players have not strongly requested transfers. Li Cardo will naturally not agree to other people's acquisitions. At this time, the most important thing for QPR is to maintain stability.
Ricardo communicated with Simeone and asked if he needed supplements.
Simeone believes that all aspects of the team are now very mature and strong and do not need reinforcements for the time being, so QPR announced early that there will be no action in this winter transfer window.
Based on the team's performance in the first half of the season, it can be said that Liccardo is still QPR's most stable scoring point, and half of the team's goals are related to him.
Neymar's performance is a bit up and down. It seems that he is still not adapted to the rhythm of confrontation in the Premier League. Sometimes he will perform superbly, and sometimes he will be mediocre throughout the game, unable to sustain his highlight performance stably.
But this is based on Liccardo's standards.
In fact, the media has almost put Neymar on the altar, believing that Neymar has injected a stream of technology into the Premier League and that QPR has made a good deal.
The performance of the two midfielders, Modric and Nainggolan, has become increasingly outstanding. It can be said that they are the top 5 organizational midfielders and the top 5 B2B midfielders in the world. They are both worth more than 40 million pounds.
The most exciting thing is Pogba. His performance after being loaned to Crystal Palace last season was very good. This season he has exploded. He is tall and strong, has very delicate skills with his feet, and has a good overall view. He has a good performance. His organizational skills and frontal defensive ability are not bad either. Among all-round midfielders of the same age group, he can definitely rank first. His value has also skyrocketed as a result. He originally joined for free and his current transfer price has reached as high as 20 million pounds.
Fernandinho and Alex Sandro are also continuing to improve, as well as Miranda, who joined this season. Although he does not have many playing opportunities, his performance is very stable every time he plays. His flexibility is currently QPR 4 The tallest among the central defenders, Simeone attaches great importance to his role in certain tactical situations.
Forward, Ronaldo's physical fitness is further declining, but his scoring efficiency is still very high. He has played 11 times, scored 6 goals and assisted 3 goals. It is hard to believe that he is already over 36 years old.
Klose also performed very steadily, and his fulcrum role was very obvious.
However, Vardy, who Ricardo values very much, did not get many opportunities to play and could only use the opportunity to come on the bench to gain experience points.
In general, the team is now in excellent condition and the atmosphere in the locker room is also good. Liccardo is very confident that he can challenge for the championship on all three fronts in the second half of the season.