Chapter 689 The Hand of God
Between the thirteenth and fourteenth rounds of the Premier League, FIFA arranged a World Cup qualifier, and international players from all continents had to rush back to participate in the game, and clubs could not refuse.
The Chinese team is going to play Bahrain away, which is also a more important battle in the top ten, so it is also a transfer of foreign players.
Since 2005, FIFA has adjusted the World Cup qualifier system. Basically, it is a mode of playing when you are called and leaving after you are finished. There was no training time before, which will have a certain impact on the combat effectiveness of the national team. However, it can greatly reduce the consumption and pressure of interstate internationals.
For example, Yang Yang and other Chinese internationals who have studied abroad can fly directly from Europe to the Middle East this time. After meeting with the team, they will play Bahrain. After the game, they will fly directly from the Middle East to Europe and return to their respective teams. The process is a bit like playing against Israel, etc. In the Champions League away games in the Middle East, the consumption is still very large, but at least it is much less than before.
Yang Yang and the internationals are no strangers to Bahrain. They have played a few games with this team in the past few years, but this time, because the internationals traveled long distances to the away game and consumed a lot of money, the game was still difficult.
But in the end, Yang Yang still scored a goal to help the Chinese team beat Bahrain 1-0 away.
When Yang Yang returned to Europe from the Middle East, he immediately ushered in the fourteenth round of the Premier League.
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Affected by the national team game in the middle of the week, all the strong teams played very badly in this round.
Chelsea drew with Newcastle 0-0 at home.
Manchester United drew 0-0 away from Aston Villa.
Arsenal lost 3-0 to Manchester City.
All three strong teams suffered setbacks in the same round, tied or lost, and all lost points.
Among them, Arsenal's tragic away defeat to Manchester City was the most shocking. No one thought that the Gunners would lose so miserably. It can be seen that Wenger's team has really had serious problems.
Manchester United's failure to win Aston Villa is also surprising, because the Red Devils' previous results against Aston Villa were quite good, but they failed to win this time, and the game was very dull.
In contrast, Liverpool's situation is much better than the other three strong teams.
It is also affected by the national team's game, and the players are also running back and forth, but Liverpool has more European players, and the injury situation has been controlled very well this season.
For example, in this game against Fulham, Benitez excluded Mascherano, who returned to South America to participate in the national team game, from the squad, and left Yang Yang and Gerrard who played the whole game. Xavi Alonso and others were also refrigerated and placed on the bench.
The other top three not only have to play the 14th round of the Premier League this weekend, but also have to play the Champions League in the middle of the week, but Liverpool is a lot easier, because after the four-game winning streak in the Champions League, the team has already qualified in advance, and there is almost no pressure, and even Liverpool gave up No problem.
In this case, Liverpool can focus on the league and put the best players in form and fitness for the game against Fulham.
But even so, Liverpool encountered Fulham's tenacious sniping in the game.
The team dominated the whole game, and even used the home court. In the first 20 minutes, Fulham couldn't even score a shot, but they couldn't break Fulham's goal. .
Until the 75th minute of the second half, Yang Yang came on as a substitute. Eight minutes later, after cooperating with Aurelio on the left, Aurelio sent a ball behind him. Yang Yang quickly slanted into the penalty area and stopped the ball to form a single shot. With a skillful pendulum, he passed the Fulham goalkeeper Schwarzer and pushed the empty goal.
One to zero!
Liverpool finally beat Fulham 1-0 with Yang Yang's goal.
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The score is small, but the significance is very obvious.
With Chelsea and Manchester United both in a draw and Arsenal's disastrous away defeat, Liverpool was able to stand out, narrowly beat their opponents in the predicament and scored three points, enough for the Reds to widen the points gap again.
Liverpool's lead, which had narrowed due to a previous loss to Tottenham Hotspur, was expanded this time to give Liverpool a six-point lead over second-placed Chelsea and a sizable lead over third-placed Manchester United. Eleven points.
As for Arsenal, they have only got 23 points so far, 19 points behind Liverpool.
In an interview with the media after the game, head coach Wenger said publicly that the Gunners have withdrawn from the championship competition and the goal is to keep the top four. He believes that Liverpool is the team with the greatest hope of winning the championship, but must be careful of Ferguson's Manchester United.
"What Manchester United do best is the winter break and the second half. Liverpool have to overcome their ills over the past few seasons."
Wenger also highlighted Yang Yang, believing that Yang Yang's ability to overcome the challenges of the Premier League's winter break is crucial for Liverpool to win the title, and more importantly...
"If he's going to conquer the Premier League, he's going to have to do better over Christmas and the winter break."
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When Yang Yang was interviewed by the media, he also agreed with Wenger's statement very much.
"There is no doubt that Christmas in the Premier League is the most challenging schedule. I haven't been able to perform well in this period for the past two years, but I think this year I am ready."
Benitez also expressed his trust in Yang Yang, and even revealed that in order to better prepare for the Christmas schedule, Yang Yang not only changed his training during the summer preparations, but also kept adjusting the training program in the middle of the season.
"He's the most work ethic player I've ever played with, and I never have to worry about whether he's going to do his best, whether he's disciplined, because he's always hungry and competitive, and I have confidence in him."
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After playing Fulham, we ushered in the Champions League in midweek.
Liverpool at home against Marseille, Benitez adjusted the team, and finally relied on in the 23rd minute, Harvey Alonso assisted Gerrard's goal, 1-0 victory over the Ligue 1 powerhouse.
With five consecutive victories in the group stage, Liverpool are still quite dominant in the Champions League.
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Weekend, the fifteenth round of the Premier League.
It was another tough round.
Manchester United just played a 0-0 away game against Villarreal in midweek. The two teams were red-faced in order to compete for the first place in the group, but the Red Devils have never been able to win Pellegrini's team.
The two teams currently have the same points, but Manchester United leads by goal difference, but this is indeed quite unsafe for the Red Devils. Once ranked second in the group, it will be extremely unfavorable for Manchester United's Champions League trend.
And two consecutive games failed to score, Manchester United's offensive ability has also been questioned, especially Cristiano Ronaldo's state has become very unstable.
He can score twice in two consecutive games, but when the team needs him, he can not score in a row. During the derby, the Portuguese finally couldn't hold their emotions.
On the one hand, Yang Yang's momentum since the start of this season is broken, and on the other hand, his state is not good. Especially in this Manchester derby, Manchester United occupied an overwhelming advantage and completely suppressed Manchester City.
In the 42nd minute of the first half, Carrick shot a long-range shot. After being saved by goalkeeper Joe Hart, Rooney picked up a missed shot from close range and broke the deadlock on the field.
In the second half, after changing sides and fighting again, Cristiano Ronaldo became more and more impatient. In less than ten minutes, he first got a yellow card for a foul on Wright Phillips, and then he was fouled by handball when he was fighting for a corner kick. Two yellows changed to one red, and a direct red card was sent off, resulting in Manchester United fighting one less person in the next half hour.
In the end, Manchester United beat Manchester City 1-0 away.
However, after the game, Ronaldinho's red card caused a huge controversy. Most British media believe that the Portuguese are still very immature, whether it is emotional control or concentration during the game. It is reassuring that it is undoubtedly very difficult to compete with Yang Yang for the European Ballon d'Or and World Player of the Year with such performance.
There are even many British tabloids who have ridiculed that this is the hand of God in a smashed version.
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In the highlight of this round, Chelsea ushered in another strong dialogue, but once again lost at home, losing 1-2 to the Gunners Arsenal. This is Chelsea's three consecutive home defeats to the Premier League semi-finals.
Bullying the soft and fearing the hard, this has almost become the label of the Scolari team.
The Blues were able to win over the underdogs, but they suffered disastrous defeats in all three dialogues between the strong and the strong, which is absolutely fatal.
Liverpool played against West Ham in this round. In just six minutes, Yang Yang made a cross from the left. West Ham defender Ilunga committed a handball foul, but the referee refused to award a penalty on the grounds that Ilunga used his hand to protect himself. face.
After a little protest, Liverpool also accepted the referee's explanation.
Just three minutes later, it was Yang Yang who made a forcible breakthrough from the left and made another pass. The result was Irunga's close-range handball. This time, the referee was very careful and directly awarded a yellow card and a penalty kick.
Yang Yang took the initiative to give in. He didn't like penalty kicks. Gerrard calmly took the initiative and scored a goal for Liverpool.
It was also the only goal in the game.
Liverpool finally beat West Ham 1-0 and scored another three points.
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After fifteen rounds, Liverpool top the Premier League table with 42 points.
Chelsea lost this round, still 33 points, nine points behind Liverpool.
Although it is temporarily ranked second, in fact everyone thinks that the possibility of Chelsea winning the championship is very small, because after entering December, Manchester United will usher in a traditional advantageous time period. The Red Devils start from December every year. Powerful.
And, with Chelsea's poor power-to-play this season, the chances of winning the title are slim.
Manchester United won Manchester City, third with 31 points, and the Gunners ranked fourth with 26 points.
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After the fifteenth round of the Premier League, we will usher in the quarter-finals of the League Cup in midweek.
But just before the game, on the first day of December, a flight from Paris, France, landed slowly at Manchester Airport.
French football magazine's new editor-in-chief Denis Chaumir and the royal photographer appeared in a hurry in Manchester.