Chapter 259 See You Next Year, Boss Mei

Stoke City's will to resist today is not really strong.

They now have 42 points in the Premier League, the same as Newcastle. Because of the advantage of goal difference, they are ranked ninth in the Premier League and have successfully secured relegation early.

With only the last few games left in the league, it is still unrealistic for them to chase 14 points to reverse Tottenham and break into the top six of the Premier League.

So now Stoke City is completely in a comfortable posture of being better than the top and better than the bottom.

You say to fight for the fans, Stoke City's players have fought enough this season, scoring points crazily in the middle of the league, and have accumulated enough points for relegation early.

They can't win the domestic cup championship, but at least they can continue to fight in the Premier League next year.

Say to fight for yourself, it is difficult to beat the hard-top league first, and there is not much hope.

In this case, it is good enough for Stoke City, which lacks motivation, to fight Chelsea normally in this round of the league.

Therefore, even though Li Ang's goal made Stoke City's players feel very unhappy, they did not want to catch up, and still held the mentality of losing less and winning less.

Seeing Stoke City's lukewarm and sluggish appearance after the game resumed, many Manchester City fans in front of the TV were also disappointed.

Many rational Manchester City fans turned off the TV directly after watching the first half of the game, not wanting to make things worse for themselves.

Chelsea did not pursue Stoke City relentlessly. After all, it was a rotating lineup. The Chelsea team was already very satisfied to be able to steadily win three points while training.

However, the score of today's game has not widened.

Torres and Lukaku's happy shots in turn accounted for a large part of the reason.

Li Ang clearly learned his current personal data from Lukaku during the halftime break.

The league is 18 goals and 17 assists. With the data in the League Cup and the Champions League, he has now achieved the achievement of 27 goals and 26 assists in the season.

The double 30 data is within reach!

Li Ang thinks that he can put the goal aside for now.

After all, as long as his teammates give more penalty kicks and he works harder, he can still score three more goals before the end of this season.

But assists are hard to say.

He is sure that he can send enough threatening passes, but if the forwards can't seize these opportunities, then he can't do anything!

For this reason, he also encouraged Lukaku during the halftime break.

Unexpectedly, at the beginning of the second half, the straight pass he sent to Lukaku was directly kicked away by this kid!

Then Torres and Lukaku, like a dragon and a phoenix, performed happy shots one after another.

If Oscar hadn't seized the opportunity in the 70th minute of the second half, he received Lampard's pass and shot through Stoke City's goal again.

Li Ang estimated that they could only win Stoke City by one goal today.

Torres and Lukaku's intermittent shooting is not a recent phenomenon, it has been like this throughout the season.

The key is to train regularly, and they both performed well.

So Li Ang was really puzzled.

Fortunately, Ibrahimovic only took a break occasionally, and Li Ang had hope for the next round of knockout matches against Barcelona and the Premier League.

After the 75th minute of the second half, Li Ang was replaced by Mourinho for a rest.

In the end, Chelsea won 2-0 at home against Stoke City.

While defending the unbeaten record at home this season, it also took a solid step towards the Premier League title.

At the same time, the other seven European giants who are still playing in the Champions League knockout rounds have also ended their league journeys in this round.

Among them, there are no teams that are dragged down by the league, such as Chelsea and Bayern Munich.

A large number of rotations were sent in this round of games, so that the main players can get more rest time to wait for the work.

And the worst are naturally the current three Western Super League powers.

Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, no one dares to rotate the main players, because now they are in the most intense moment of the championship.

If they can't win this round of the league because of a rotation, and lose their temper in the stalemate with their competitors.

Then it will be fun to watch after the end of the season.

Atletico Madrid is not bad, since they have risen since last season, the management has clearly supported Simeone.

The fans of Barcelona and Real Madrid are too big, and the public opinion sensation caused is also exaggerated.

If the championship is lost because of one or two points, the head coach can basically only resign.

Martino is now in this kind of public opinion environment where he can't retreat at all.

And he also knows that he was just a substitute who was forced to take the lead when Barcelona failed to pursue Enrique.

However, he finally became the head coach of a wealthy club, and he didn't want to be driven out so easily.

Even if he can't make it to the end of the Champions League this season, as long as he can insist on leading Barcelona to win the La Liga championship and beat Real Madrid in the King's Cup final to win a double crown.

Even if the Barcelona executives are still in love with Enrique, they can't easily fire him.

A step back, with this double crown and the experience of coaching a top club in Barcelona, ​​he will have more options to coach in other leagues in the future.

So on the plane to London with the team, Martino made up his mind.

If there is a chance to reverse Chelsea, he will take a small gamble. If there is really no chance, he can't waste all the main players in this round of Champions League knockouts.

Barcelona can't afford to hurt the main players now.

Especially Messi and Habaibu, the main core.

Even if they can really beat Chelsea and enter the Champions League semi-finals, if these core players are injured, it will still be an unprofitable deal for Martino.

Barcelona's main players don't have the same entanglement and concerns as their head coach.

Barcelona was beaten 2-1 by Chelsea in the first round, and it was basically on the edge of a cliff.

Stamford Bridge is not easy to conquer, as Chelsea's winning rate at Stamford Bridge this season shows.

So Barcelona's main players had made up their minds before the game to fight Chelsea to the death from the start of the game!

Without such a mentality to challenge Chelsea, any talk of a reversal would be just empty talk and a joke.

The experienced players in Barcelona still have this mental awareness.

However, determination is important, but the main players of Chelsea, who have had enough rest and are waiting for the opportunity, are much better than the main players of Barcelona in terms of physical fitness.

And Mourinho has prepared a tactical surprise for Barcelona at home...

On the evening of April 8, the Stamford Bridge stadium was already full early.

The main players of Chelsea and Barcelona quickly completed the pre-match formation ceremony in the sound of the grand and exciting UEFA Champions League theme song.

Today, Barcelona's starting players and starting lineup are no different from their last round against Chelsea at Camp Nou.

Messi still started in his most familiar right position.

Martino did not arrange Messi in the middle as he did in the previous league.

He did not want Messi to spend too much energy to entangle with Chelsea's defensive cluster in the middle.

On the Chelsea side, Kalas replaced David Luiz in the defense line.

The double defensive midfielders are Matic and Lampard, and Ramires is on standby on the bench today.

The rest of Chelsea's starting lineup is the same as the last round of the Champions League knockouts, and Li Ang continues to appear in the starting attacking midfielder position.

According to Mourinho's past tactical play, Chelsea has earned enough advantages in the first round.

In the second round, sitting at home, let alone Barcelona's coaching staff, even most of Chelsea's own fans think that Mourinho will fight back today.

As a result, as soon as the game started that night, Chelsea's entire team was engaged in an oppressive attack on Barcelona, ​​which stunned all the Barcelona players!

"Chelsea played very aggressively and actively at the beginning! Mourinho invested a lot of manpower on the offensive end. It seems that Chelsea is not going to win conservatively today!"

The commentator of Sky Sports was very surprised.

However, he was also very surprised to see Chelsea play an extremely aggressive offensive football in the second round of the Champions League knockout round.

The commentator of the Spanish Movistar Sports Channel also felt the same surprise at this moment.

Before the game, the major Spanish sports media were most afraid that Chelsea would play a turtle formation in the second round of the knockout round?

Barcelona, ​​which was attacking with all its strength, might not be the opponent of Chelsea, which was mainly counterattacking, but when it came to attacking, Barcelona was not afraid of Chelsea at all!

This was a great opportunity for Barcelona, ​​a great opportunity to reverse the situation!

Martillo wanted to be stable, but seeing Mourinho's rare "mistake" at this moment.

He was so happy that he didn't care about preserving his strength, and he quickly made tactical adjustments while standing on the sidelines!

"We will also press forward and fight for the ball with them! They don't have many defensive players in the backcourt now, we can counterattack them!"

Xavi's tactical decision was faster than Martino's.

Barcelona does not have a big center forward who can hold the ball stably in the frontcourt, but in terms of fast transmission and the speed of advancement on both wings, Barcelona is not inferior to Bayern and Real Madrid at all.

There are advantages to high-altitude attack, and the counterattack speed is not necessarily slow when walking on the ground.

As for whether the active counterattack is contrary to Barcelona's passing and controlling football tactics, Xavi and Iniesta can't care so much at this moment.

Reversal and promotion is the most important thing now. If necessary, Xavi will even take the initiative to make suggestions to the coaching staff and strengthen defense and counterattack at the last moment of the second half!

You still have to win. If you can't win the game, what can you do no matter how beautiful your football is?

They play competitive football. How can there be success and revival without a championship?

Xavi thought very thoroughly. As soon as Martino made tactical adjustments, he quickly joined Iniesta and called on his teammates beside and behind him to devote themselves to the fight for the ball.

The opportunity that appears between the attack and defense transition is that fleeting moment. Chelsea wants to seize such a moment, and Barcelona wants it even more now.

And Barcelona has never been a team that can only fight with words but not with fists.

In terms of ground entanglement and tactical fouls, they have studied and applied them more familiarly than most teams in football.

So the rhythm of the two teams' fight in the midfield quickly became chaotic as the confrontation actions were released and the intensity increased.

This scene made countless neutral fans in front of the TV dumbfounded.

Could this be a battle between the first team in the Premier League and the first team in La Liga?

A second ago, Xavi and Alves had just moved up and down to turn the ball over from Hazard's feet.

A second later, Xavi passed the ball to Iniesta who was retreating to meet the ball, but Lampard immediately slid and tackled him!

The key point was that the ball was quickly under the control of the Barcelona players, so the referee did not call Lampard for a foul.

However, facing Li Ang's fierce close confrontation, Xavi, who was holding the ball, could not get rid of it no matter how he turned around, and finally he could only pass the ball back to Pique who raised his hand.

In the tenth minute of the first half, Alves, who was advancing, was very bold and wiped out the double-teaming and pressing of Hazard and Matic in succession.

With his strong personal ability, he helped Barcelona get a great counterattack opportunity!

If Messi had not been forcibly pulled on the jersey by Lampard, he would have stayed in place by committing a tactical foul.

Barcelona's attack this time would have threatened Chelsea's core hinterland.

However, Lampard did not receive a card, but only received a severe verbal warning from the referee.

Seeing this, Li Ang breathed a sigh of relief and had a clear understanding of the referee's whistle today.

Barcelona's players were too busy to surround the referee and put pressure on him.

They sent a quick set-piece in the frontcourt, and finally Neymar cut in from the left and shot a cold arrow to end the attack.

Cech held Neymar's volley steadily in his arms.

At this time, Li Ang had withdrawn from the frontcourt. He gestured to his teammates on the back line to move away first, and then went to receive Cech's hand-thrown ball.

Controlling the ball and turning around, Li Ang quickly scanned the situation in his own half.

Then he used a 360-degree circle in front of Xavi to directly avoid Sanchez's pressing.

Iniesta touched the back of his head, looked at Li Ang, and then looked at Xavi. The questioning look made Xavi helpless.

Xavi admitted that Leon's escape moves were indeed very similar to his own, but he really hadn't taught Leon a single move!

At this moment, Leon, who had dodged Sanchez's pressing, strode forward with the ball.

He pulled away, and his teammates who followed him forward on both sides also helped him take away the Barcelona players who wanted to double-team him.

However, Leon didn't rush directly with the ball as he did in the past.

Before he was about to face Xavi, he sent a lob pass.

The football just passed directly from the midline to the half of the field where Barcelona had a large number of defenders, and ran to the front of the arc of Barcelona's penalty area!

Ibrahimovic, who had been pulled out to respond, opened his hands and carried Pique behind him.

After stopping the ball steadily with his chest, Ibrahimovic passed the ball to Hazard who was running forward on the right side of his body.

If it was Ibrahimovic who was not yet 30 years old in the early years, he would have chosen to turn around and play the ball himself.

But now Ibrahimovic is getting more and more adept at using his body, and his ability to get the ball with his back is becoming more and more prominent.

Pique squeezed Ibrahimovic for a long time but couldn't move him, and in the end he could only watch Li Ang use Ibrahimovic as the axis to radiate the ball to his own side.

This time, Hazard only had to face Alves.

Hazard was very unhappy with the treatment of being double-teamed many times before, and now he has the opportunity to get back on Alves, and he doesn't want to miss such a good opportunity!

In one-on-one offense and defense, Hazard has not reached his peak strength, so he may not be able to take advantage of Alves now.

But young players have one good thing, they are high-spirited and not afraid of failure.

Hazard is not a wild technical winger, but he also has a pride in his heart that is not inferior to any genius.

Hazard was very daring in his moves against Alves, and his two consecutive attempts at changing direction were completed very smoothly.

Alves could have fought and retreated, waiting for Xavi to return to defense or Busquets to double-team him, so that Hazard could have tasted the feeling of being sandwiched again.

But he chose to solve the problem himself, and rushed forward to engage in a hand-to-hand fight with Hazard!

Alves underestimated Hazard's ability to fight.

Although Hazard is not tall, his chassis is very stable and his core strength is also very strong.

In addition, he has been baptized by melee in the Premier League for almost two seasons. It is not difficult for Hazard to resist Alves' close interference one-on-one.

So a scene that shocked Barcelona fans appeared at Stamford Bridge!

Hazard faced Alves' close interference and cut inside to the edge of Barcelona's penalty area!

Before, Alves could knock Hazard down with a tactical foul.

But now when he realized that something was wrong, he didn't dare to make any tactical fouls.

Martino was furious watching from the sidelines.

Ibrahimovic actively advanced, and he looked like he was ready to shoot at any time. Seeing this, Pique and Mascherano dared not leave the Swedish magic tower.

And Hazard also completed the cross at the moment when Busquets rushed towards him!

This was a cross that floated outside the Barcelona penalty area.

When Ibrahimovic tied up the two central defenders in the Barcelona penalty area, Lampard, who came in from the middle, forced Xavi to not move.

Leon, who came in from the right side of the Barcelona penalty area, jumped slightly, unloaded the ball with his chest, and then led the ball into the Barcelona penalty area very smoothly!

The old goalkeeper Pinto was numbed at this moment!

"Stop him!"

Mascherano roared, Jordi Alba left De Bruyne behind, and quickly rushed inward!

But Leon's action to connect the shot was one step faster!

After stopping the ball with his chest and taking a step forward with his right foot, Leon directly shot a push shot with the arch of his foot!

It was almost exactly the same shot that had deceived Joe Hart in the Premier League before!

Pinto, who abandoned the goal, was completely guarding against Leon's explosive shot.

As a result, Leon pushed the ball lightly, and the football quickly passed between Pinto's open legs!

The ball went through the gates and finally went into the near corner of the goal behind Pinto!

After completing another bold and beautiful shot, Li Ang opened his arms and strode towards the corner flag area where Barcelona's half was located!

After completing a handsome sliding celebration, Li Ang stood up, put one hand behind his ear, and made a listening celebration gesture to the Stamford Bridge stands that were already cheering wildly!

De Bruyne was the first to hug Li Ang tightly from behind, followed by Ibrahimovic, Lampard, and Hazard who ran over with laughter...

Chelsea's players on the field hugged passionately near the corner flag area, roared, and celebrated excitedly without paying attention to others!

Mourinho, who had been standing on the sidelines watching the development of the game, also raised his arms high at this time, constantly waving and cheering at the boiling and carnival Blues fans behind him!

"Chelsea is going to establish their winning momentum! Li Ang completely dominated the two rounds of the knockout game! With two goals and one assist, Chelsea is already 3-1 ahead of Barcelona in the total score!

Going against the current, defeating two strong enemies, who else but us!"

He Wei's commentary made the Chinese fans who were watching the game at the moment extremely excited!

This rebuilt Chelsea has been successful from the beginning of the season to now!

In a dignified battle, they dared to fight against Barcelona and scored a goal first, which is enough!

The Blues fans at Stamford Bridge felt even more refreshed and proud!

Martino got angry on the sidelines, but it was only for a while, and Barcelona was increasingly short of time.

"Fortunately, Chelsea played more freely today. We actually still have a chance and time..."

Barcelona's assistant coach was still very responsible to comfort Martino's emotions at this moment.

The Barcelona players on the field may have thought so too. Sanchez even took the initiative to hug the ball and ran to the kick-off point first.

The Barcelona players had no time to be frustrated and complain. They still held the hope of a comeback.

Two goals!

As long as Barcelona withstood Chelsea's offensive and scored two more goals, they would at least have the opportunity to play overtime with Chelsea!

There were still more than 70 minutes left in the game, so there was definitely hope, and it was not a moment of despair.

However, after all the Chelsea players finally ended their carnival celebrations and slowly returned to the half.

Messi, who was standing on one side, soon discovered that something was wrong.

Because Li Ang did not stand in the previous position, he retreated to the back, and his position was almost parallel to Matic.

After the game resumed, the scene that Barcelona fans least wanted to see finally appeared.

"Leon retreated, Lampard didn't seem to reach the front midfielder position, Chelsea shrank their formation, Mourinho finally chose to play a defensive counterattack!"

The Sky Sports commentator's tone was very happy.

Originally, he was worried that Mourinho would continue to attack Barcelona and give Barcelona a chance, but now it seems that he was just overthinking.

Mourinho probably planned to disrupt Barcelona's tactical rhythm with an active attack at the beginning.

It would be best if he could steal a goal, but it doesn't matter if he can't. Anyway, Chelsea will directly switch to defensive counterattack at a certain time point in the game!

This is the Mourinho that all fans and commentators are most familiar with!

Martino watched Chelsea's smooth tactical formation changes on the sidelines and was so angry that he almost spit out blood!

But Chelsea's tactical intention to grab the start has been achieved.

No matter how much Barcelona pressed forward to give Chelsea opportunities, Chelsea remained indifferent.

Lampard stood slightly forward and formed Chelsea's first interception line with Hazard and De Bruyne who retreated.

When Barcelona's offensive was fierce, Lampard could retreat directly and form a three-back midfielder with Li Ang and Matic.

This defensive strength is simply too respectful to Barcelona.

At the end of the first half, countless neutral fans nodded with satisfaction as they watched the 11-2 shooting ratio between Barcelona and Chelsea in the first half.

"That's right, this is the normal rhythm of the game between Chelsea and Barcelona!"

But at this moment, Barcelona fans would rather not have this seemingly dominant offensive data.

In the entire first half, only Messi's shot after cutting in from the right was threatening.

There was not a single shot in the Chelsea penalty area!

Even if the shooting number is doubled, what's the use?

Barcelona fans would rather see Chelsea press forward like they did at the beginning of the first half, constantly threatening Barcelona's defense.

In this way, at least Barcelona will not lack offensive opportunities!

Unfortunately, Chelsea set up a luxury bus in the second half of the game.

Ibrahimovic was replaced by Mourinho early in the 60th minute of the second half.

Lukaku, who came on as a substitute, didn't play like a center forward at all. He ran back and forth on the defensive end, very actively, and directly kicked himself into a "shield striker"!

And the defensive effect is really good.

He can keep up with the speed. Even if he can't stop Messi and Neymar when he goes to the wing to disrupt the game, as long as he is closely guarded, Messi and Neymar can only suffer a loss in the confrontation.

In the 70th minute of the second half of the game, when Messi wanted to forcibly take over the rhythm of the game, Chelsea's foul tactics were also used directly.

Of course, it is not necessary to play Li Ang directly when playing this tactic.

Lampard and Hazard first received a yellow card and a verbal warning.

Just when Messi wanted to use Lampard as a gap to create a breakthrough again, Mourinho simply replaced Lampard...

This rogue trick made Messi a little angry.

But there is no way, Chelsea will not use this trick against other Barcelona offensive players anyway, just determined to make Messi unable to threaten in the last moment.

Mourinho actually hadn't thought about doing this before the game, and used this shameless defensive trick because of Li Ang's suggestion.

But Li Ang also has something to say.

Messi's personal ability to force breakthroughs and cause damage in the past few seasons is still at its peak, and it has only slowly declined since the next season.

From the 2008-09 season to now, how many games should Barcelona have lost points, but they all relied on Messi's rampage to forcibly save the decline?

Moreover, if Chelsea faced Real Madrid in this round of knockout matches.

Then Li Ang would also suggest taking frequent tactical fouls against Ronaldo in the last moment to completely break the rhythm of the game.

To deal with such superstars, you can't always keep an eye on their performance.

Then use the smallest cost to prevent their outbreak before they can perform.

Now the facts have proved that this trick is indeed very useful.

Lampard, Hazard and Ramires, who came on later, all received yellow cards from Messi, but so what?

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, no Chelsea player felt that it was not worthwhile to pay such a price to obtain a stable qualification for promotion.

Winners take all!

Chelsea won, so they still have the qualification to fight for their tickets to this year's Champions League final in the next round of the Champions League knockouts.

Barcelona can only go home with regret.

Amid the thunderous carnival at Stamford Bridge, Messi lifted up his jersey to wipe the sweat off his face, and looked at Leon who was walking towards him with fatigue and calmness.

"I won again, Leo."

Looking at Leon's familiar smiling face, Messi quickly rolled his eyes at him, and then stretched out his hand to him.

The two clapped and hugged, and the reporters on the sidelines quickly captured this scene that was destined to be on the front page of tomorrow's headlines.

"Seriously, don't you ever consider leaving Barcelona? Come to Chelsea and build a dynasty with me?"

Leon joked, and Messi didn't bother to respond.

After the two exchanged jerseys again, Messi punched Leon in the chest, then put his jersey on his shoulders and turned away.

Li Ang seemed to have known Messi's answer long ago.

He smiled and shook his head, put Messi's jersey on his shoulders, and then turned around with the same firm steps to find his teammates.

From Li Ang's point of view, if Messi transferred to Manchester City next season, Guardiola might really work with Messi to do a great job in the Premier League and the Champions League in advance.

In today's football transfer market, when there is no inflation, Manchester City may not spend 200 million euros to directly start negotiations with Barcelona.

All they need is Messi's nod. With Guardiola's relationship, Manchester City will give Barcelona more money in private, and Barcelona's top management may really agree.

But in Messi's heart, Barcelona still has a lot of weight, far beyond Li Ang's expectations.

Li Ang didn't really think that Messi would come to Chelsea to help him.

They are destined to be good rivals, just like Messi and Ronaldo. Competition leads to greater progress. It would be boring to play brotherly football together.

"What a pity. See you next year, Boss Mei. I hope to meet you in the Champions League next year..."