Chapter 698: Strong Premier League
With Manchester United advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League have all been settled. The Premier League has become the biggest winner. Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool, four Premier League teams participating in the Champions League, have all reached the quarterfinals, occupying half of the quarterfinals.
This also represents the full recovery of the Premier League. You know, in the past few seasons, when the Premier League was in a trough, there have been more than one situation where Premier League teams failed to reach the quarterfinals.
Once upon a time, the Premier League was also the undisputed first league, and the situation where three or even four Premier League teams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League was also a routine operation.
In the 2006-2007 season, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool advanced to the quarterfinals, while Arsenal stopped in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, three Premier League teams advanced to the semifinals, and the famous situation of the three English teams fighting Milan appeared. Unfortunately, the Rossoneri had the last laugh.
A year later, in the 2007-2008 season, a more shocking situation emerged. Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, four teams participating in the Champions League, advanced to the quarterfinals. In the battle of the top eight, Arsenal lost to Arsenal in the civil war, and three Premier League teams advanced to the semifinals again. This year, Manchester United and Chelsea defeated their respective opponents in the semifinals and met in the final. In the final rainy night in Moscow, Manchester United defeated Chelsea and returned to the top of Europe after nine years. And Ronaldo won the European Golden Ball Award and the World Footballer of the Year that year, announcing that the world football officially entered the era of peerless double pride.
In the following 2008-2009 season, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool gathered in the Champions League quarterfinals again, but Liverpool became the victim of the Premier League civil war this time, and Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal advanced to the semifinals. In the final, Manchester United was ended by Barcelona, the longest unbeaten record of 25 games in the history of the Champions League, which also announced the end of the most prosperous era of the Premier League.
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In the next decade, Premier League teams fell into a trough, and the title of the first league was taken away by La Liga in the 2012-2013 season. It was even surpassed by the Bundesliga and fell to third place.
However, since Manchester United won the Europa League in the 2016-2017 season, the Premier League team's European performance began to recover, and the UEFA points returned to second place in the subsequent 2017-2018 season.
In this season, the Premier League team's European performance has exploded, and all four teams participating in the Champions League have advanced to the quarterfinals. In the Europa League, the three participating teams, except Burnley, were eliminated early in the play-offs, and Chelsea and Arsenal also made it to the quarterfinals.
In other words, in the two-level league of UEFA, there are a total of 16 teams in the quarterfinals, and the Premier League BIG6 all entered the quarterfinals of the European war.
And the advantages of the six teams in the promotion are very obvious.
As the champion of the Premier League, Manchester United won six consecutive games in the Champions League group stage, and also defeated Schalke 04 twice in the knockout round of 16, advancing with a total score of 11:2.
Although Manchester City was suppressed by Manchester United in the Premier League, it performed well in the Champions League. In the group that gathered Juventus and Valencia, the Blue Moon achieved 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, and advanced as the second in the group. Then, in the match between a pair of upstarts in the quarter-finals, they defeated the powerful Paris Saint-Germain twice and advanced to the quarter-finals.
In Group B, which can be called the death group, Tottenham faced the three major champion teams of Barcelona, Inter Milan and Wolves. The White Lily had 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, and defeated Inter Milan with a goal difference advantage, and advanced as the second in the group. In the quarter-finals, facing another Champions League team Dortmund, they defeated their opponents 3:0 at home and 1:0 away, and made it difficult for the powerful Dortmund to score a goal.
Liverpool's group opponents were equally strong. In the end, they won 3 games and lost 3 games, and they beat the Italian giant Napoli with a goal difference advantage and advanced as the second in the group. In the quarter-finals, they faced the Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich, 0:0 at home and 3:1 away, and easily advanced.
In the Europa League, Arsenal and Chelsea both had an unbeaten record of 5 wins and 1 tie in the group stage, and both advanced as the first. Subsequently, Arsenal defeated BATE Borisov and Rennes in succession, and Chelsea defeated Malmö and Dynamo Kyiv in succession, and advanced to the quarterfinals without bloodshed.
The strength of Premier League teams in Europe this season can be seen!
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On March 15, 2019, at 12:00 Central European Time, the draw ceremony for the 2018-2019 Champions League quarter-finals was held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
This year's Champions League quarter-final draw has no avoidance principle, and the division between the upper and lower half will be clear, which means that after the draw results are released, the matchups in the semi-finals and finals can be predicted.
The guest of the draw is Cesar, Inter Milan's triple crown hero.
After the draw, Liverpool and Juventus got the best draw, drawing Porto and Ajax respectively, Tottenham and Manchester City staged a Premier League civil war, and Manchester United PK Barcelona. The first leg of the quarter-finals will be held on April 10 and April 11, Beijing time, the second leg will be held on April 17 and April 18, the two-legged semi-final will be held in early May, and the final will be held in the early morning of June 2.
The four teams in the upper half are Manchester United VS Barcelona, and Ajax VS Juventus; the two groups of duels in the lower half are between Liverpool VS Porto and Tottenham VS Manchester City.
According to the matchup situation, if Manchester United can defeat Barcelona, their opponent in the semifinals will be the winner between Juventus and Ajax.
The media is full of conspiracy theories about the UEFA draw results.
"The Guardian" said that Bruno and Manchester United's road to defending the title will be full of thorns. Bruno must first defeat Yossi and then face Cristiano Ronaldo before he can stand on the stage of the Champions League final. Their opponent in the Champions League final is likely to be the powerful Liverpool or Manchester City.
These two teams are undoubtedly the strongest teams in Europe at the moment.
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Yes, in the eyes of the British, the three most powerful teams in Europe this season are Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool.
Of course, the British dare to say this with absolute confidence.
In the domestic arena, these three teams are hard to beat.
Manchester United has achieved great achievements in the past three seasons. Not only has it won 15 consecutive championship trophies, but it has also created a world-shocking 69 unbeaten league games and a 21-game unbeaten run in the Champions League. This season, they scored 79 points in 30 rounds of the Premier League and won eight out of eight games in the Champions League, with few opponents.
Manchester City has won the League Cup this season and scored 72 points in 30 rounds. In the Champions League, they have 8 games, 5 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, which is a very good performance.
Liverpool is not far behind, scoring 73 points in 30 rounds of the league. They have 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses in 8 Champions League games. Especially in the quarter-finals, they eliminated the giant Bayern Munich. Their performance was shocking.
In any league, the appearance of a team with such performance can be regarded as a success, but there are three such teams in the Premier League at the same time. Who dares to deny the power of the Premier League?
What's more, the Premier League also has the London top three of Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal who perform equally well.
It can even be said that based on the performance of the Premier League BIG6 this season, when Serie A was at its peak, the so-called seven sisters of Serie A did not perform at the same level.
Although the Premier League's UEFA points are still far behind La Liga due to poor performance in European competitions in the past few seasons, all professional football people understand that the first league is already the Premier League. Got it!
After all, the league that ranks first in UEFA points is based on the comprehensive performance of the past five seasons.
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In fact, in the past two seasons, the Premier League's UEFA points have been much higher than other leagues.
In the 2017-2018 season, because Manchester City both advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League, Manchester United won the Champions League, Arsenal and Liverpool also advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League, the Premier League team scored a total of 20.857 UEFA points, which is higher than La Liga Scored 1.143 points, the advantage is very obvious.
So far this season, the UEFA points scored by Premier League teams have reached as high as 19.571. It is highly likely that they will exceed last season's points without any accident. However, La Liga only got 18.333, and only one of their teams advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and two teams advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League. The room for scoring points is far less than that of the Premier League. The Premier League's advantage this season will be greater than last season!
In fact, Bruno knows that the next few seasons will always be the peak era of the Premier League. They will quickly erode the European La Liga advantage in UEFA points, and then reverse the disadvantage in one fell swoop during the epidemic, truly regain the throne of the first league, and gradually expand their advantages.
La Liga is in decline. As Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Real Madrid, Yossi will also leave in a few years. La Liga will not only be deprived of the title of the first league by the Premier League, but will even be surpassed by Serie A.
Of course, this all happened gradually over the next few seasons. At present, La Liga, with Yosi, barely has the strength to compete with the Premier League.
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Bruno didn't pay much attention to this, because he and Manchester United ushered in the next game on the weekend, the FA Cup away game against Wolves.
This is not an easy opponent to deal with. The newly promoted Wolves are the dark horse in the Premier League this season. After 30 rounds of the league, the Wolves ranked seventh, just behind the BIG6.
In the FA Cup quarter-finals, Wolves are ranked second only to Manchester City. The remaining five teams are Watford, Brighton and Crystal Palace, as well as the two English Championship teams Swansea and Millwall.
Manchester United was very unlucky to draw Wolves among these seven opponents. In comparison, Manchester City's luck is much better. They drew Swansea, currently ranked 13th in the British Championship, which can be said to have drawn a high-quality team.
In fact, Manchester United also had a very difficult game at Molineux Stadium.
Bruno did not start this game. In Mourinho's plan, if everything goes well, Bruno will be given a rest in this game. Because Bruno will not only return to the Portuguese national team to participate in the European Cup qualifiers, but Manchester United will also face another round of devilish schedule after the international competition.
As a guest, Manchester United controlled the game after the start, and the Wolves recovered and compressed the opponent's offensive space. The two sides exchanged offense and defense in the first half, but failed to break through the opponent's goal, and the game ended in a 0:0 draw.
During the halftime break, neither side made any personnel adjustments.
The Wolves broke the deadlock in the 70th minute. Moutinho passed the ball from the left side of the penalty area in a 1-on-3 situation. Jimenez failed to get a chance to shoot under Smalling's defense, but Mata's counterattack failed. Jimenez 14 He turned around and volleyed into the lower left corner of the net.
Six minutes later, Wolves extended the lead. Neves passed the ball in a counterattack. Diogo shook off Luke Shaw and broke into the penalty area from 12 yards on the left side and shot into the near corner. The score on the field was rewritten to 2:0.
Losing two goals in just six minutes put Manchester United in a desperate situation.
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Although Manchester United has won the FA Cup for three consecutive years, Mourinho still attaches great importance to this historic cup competition. As long as it is possible, he will not give up.
Especially when the competition has reached the quarterfinals and Manchester United only needs three games to compete for the championship.
When Wolves celebrated the second goal, Mourinho, who could not sit still, made a decision to make substitutions. He replaced Mata with Bruno, replaced McTominay with Harry Kane, and replaced Rashford with Lingard.
Mourinho used up all three substitutions at once, and he obviously decided to fight to the death.
Starting from the 2016-2017 season, the FA Cup quarter-finals will no longer be replayed. If the two sides are tied in regular time, they will go directly to overtime. If they are tied again, a penalty shootout will be held to determine the winner.
Manchester United made three substitutions in the 77th minute of the game. Mourinho's plan was to try his best to see if he could equalize the score in the remaining 15 minutes or so, and then seek a chance for overtime.
Of course, it would be the best thing if he could reverse the opponent in regular time. However, this possibility is very small. Wolves are not weak. It is too difficult for Manchester United to score three goals in about 15 minutes!
Fighting for overtime and then completing the reversal in overtime is undoubtedly the most practical choice.
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Mourinho only has one arrangement for Bruno, that is, interspersed running, stretching the defense, and striving for goals.
After Bruno came on the court, he formed a strong breakthrough on the left with his first touch, but was cleared by Wolves defender Boly when he passed the ball into the penalty area.
But just three minutes later, Bruno suddenly started after receiving Herrera's pass and cut inside with the ball.
Rashford understood and retreated from the front, seemingly to meet Bruno, but in fact he pulled out Boly.
Bruno passed the ball diagonally behind him with his right foot, Mahrez quickly cut into the penalty area, stopped the ball, shot, and the ball went into the net in one go!
1:2!
Manchester United scored a goal in the 81st minute with Bruno assisting Mahrez!
Manchester United equalized the score in the 95th minute. Bruno passed the ball in the middle, Luke Shaw passed the ball on the left side of the penalty area, and Rashford turned and shot into the lower right corner from 10 yards, 2:2.
The game entered overtime.
Time was passing quickly, and Wolves played very tenaciously at home, hoping to drag the game into a penalty shootout.
When the game reached the 109th minute, the opportunity finally appeared. Bruno broke through the Wolves' goal after continuous breakthroughs.
3:2, Manchester United finally completed the reversal!