Chapter 389 The Chinese players in the quarter-finals
After the European leagues ended their weekend games, they ushered in a new European competition.
There will be two second-leg matches in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Porto United plays North London Wanderers at home, and Alvara plays Ruerrhein away.
On Wednesday, Manchester United will play two Champions League games away from Catalonia, and Madrid Pirates will play Stan Park Rangers at home.
Porto United drew 0:0 with North London Wanderers in the first round. Back at home, they actively attacked and wanted to defeat North London Wanderers, but the latter used counterattacks to score two goals in a row.
Team morale took a heavy blow.
Although they got a goal back in the 79th minute, it was too late.
In the end, Porto United was defeated by North London Wanderers 2:1 at their home court. They fell behind their opponents in the total score and missed the Champions League quarterfinals.
Considering that the strengths of Porto United and North London Wanderers are about the same, although Porto United has the home advantage, North London Wanderers' tactics are more correct.
So in fact, it is normal for whoever wins and who loses, and it is not surprising for whoever is eliminated.
But another game was an upset.
Ruerlein, who lost to Alvara 0:1 in the first round, returned home and wanted to eliminate Alvara.
They did take a two-goal lead in the first half - both goals scored by Janus Edman.
His personal number of Champions League goals this season has also risen to six.
Ruerrhein, which leads with a total score of 2:1, seems to be in good shape to advance to the quarterfinals.
After all, this is their home field.
Moreover, the Ruerrhein's home stadium, the Figner Arena, is a famous "devil's home stadium" in Europe. The fans here are very good at creating a home atmosphere. The Figner Arena is the stadium with the largest attendance in the entire Bundesliga.
Although the strength of Ruhr Rhine is not as good as that of Blue and White Munich, the fans of Ruhr Rhine are more fanatical and pure than those of Blue and White Munich.
This is somewhat similar to the difference between Kings of Madrid and Pirates of Madrid - Kings of Madrid are a world-famous La Liga giant, and they have the same status as Blue and White Munich in the Bundesliga. They have many fans around the world who like them.
But the Madrid Pirates have more support from local fans, and these local fans can naturally create a more fanatical and terrifying stadium atmosphere.
The Kings of Madrid and Blue and White Munich are somewhat worse in this regard.
Ruhr Rhein has the greatest influence in the Ruhr region, and their fans are almost all industrial workers in the Ruhr region.
Ruerrhein, which plays at its home court, seems to have some kind of special buff and often performs very well.
Especially a competition like the Champions League.
Today's game is no exception.
An important reason why they were able to score two goals in the first half and reverse the lead was the fanatical home atmosphere.
The players were as if they had been given a shot of blood.
Trailing by one goal in the total score, they rushed forward and hit hard.
Alvara's players were overwhelmed and lost one goal and then another.
It looked like he had been beaten to the point of "discarding his armor".
The huge advantage in the first half made all Ruerrhein fans think that it would be easy to win the opponent, and they would definitely win this game.
Maybe the Ruerrhein players think so too.
So after the start of the second half, Varvara's counterattack caught Ruhrlein off guard.
They got a goal back in the 59th minute!
Evened the total score!
The total score is 2:2!
If the away goals rule had not been abolished, Alvara could even directly eliminate Ruerrhein and advance to the quarterfinals with this score.
Now, they can only drag the game into overtime.
Therefore, after equalizing the total score, Alvara cannot take it lightly and must continue to deal with Ruhrlein carefully and tenaciously.
Xia Xiaoyu once again pestered John Seter in the game like he did in the first round, using his diligent running to curb Setter's performance.
In the second half, the Alvara players were united and performed better than the first half and better than their opponents.
In the end, the game was dragged into overtime.
No one scored in the half-hour overtime.
The game was again dragged into a penalty shootout.
Ruerrhein, playing at home, took a two-goal lead in the first half, but was stubbornly forced into a penalty shootout by their opponents. Their mentality was about to collapse.
In a penalty shootout, an unstable mentality is the most likely to cause problems.
Sure enough, after five rounds of penalty kick contests, Ruhrlein scored two free throws and missed two. The team did not even wait for John Sett, who took the fifth penalty kick, to come on the scene and the team was eliminated...
Although Janus Edman was the first to represent the team and scored the first penalty kick, he was unable to change the final result of the game.
Edman, who was eliminated, threw himself into Seter's arms and cried sadly.
This is the second consecutive season that he has fallen outside the threshold of 16th and 8th place, and it is indeed a huge blow to him.
The young genius who wants to surpass Mark Becker's status in Ruerrhein may have to reconsider whether to stay in Ruerrhein... After all, this summer, he originally had the opportunity to go to Madrid Kings.
While the Ruerrhein players were dejected, the Alvara players were running wildly in celebration.
Xia Xiaoyu is also among them.
The Chinese commentator saw this scene and said excitedly:
"Congratulations to Xia Xiaoyu! Congratulations to Xia Xiaoyu! He became the first Chinese player to participate in the Champions League quarter-finals this season! This is also his first time to participate in the Champions League quarter-finals! And he is still a main player! In the two rounds of the quarter-finals
, he performed very well and diligently completed the defensive tasks assigned to him by the head coach... Especially in the second half of this game, he was very successful in restricting Set. He proved with practical actions that he is not only
He is a deep-lying organizational midfielder who can also defend well!
"After many years of experience in Europe, Xia Xiaoyu has made significant progress, especially in his physical confrontation ability. He did not fall behind in the confrontation with Ruhr Rhein players! We wish him to go further and further in the next Champions League! Of course!
, if possible, it is best not to meet Hu Lai in advance... Ha!"
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In fact, Hu Lai can be regarded as having entered the quarterfinals in advance, because they defeated Stan Park Rangers 3:1 in the first round away from home, and returned to their home court in the second round. Is it possible that they can still overturn?
Hey, it almost turned over in the end.
In the game against Valentia, Maxi Carey was injured and was unable to last the game and was substituted.
The news that came after the game is not a big injury, but it will definitely not be able to catch up with the next Champions League game against Stan Park Rangers, and it may not even be able to catch up with the weekend's league game against Sarria.
The Pirates, who were missing Maxi Carey, were a little arrogant and underestimated their opponent when they faced Stan Park Rangers at home.
I always think that I can beat my opponent 3:1 on the road, and I can win no matter what when I return to home. No matter what, I can qualify.
It’s just that Stan Park Rangers in this game and Stan Park Rangers in the previous round are already two different teams.
Head coach Scott Brooks made adjustments to the lineup in this game. The most important adjustment was to let Jimmy Stokes start as a central midfielder.
At the same time, South African forward Tristan Villani, who had missed many games due to injury, also returned to the starting lineup.
Stan Park Rangers, who had strengthened their midfield and strikers, had a last-ditch away game and played very proactively.
And also got a goal back in the first half, changing the total score to 2:3.
In yesterday's two Champions League games, the visiting team eliminated the home team and advanced to the quarterfinals.
This goal also gave many Madrid Pirates fans and Chinese fans a bad association - Madrid Pirates will not really overturn at home and be eliminated, right?
Fortunately, Madrid Pirates has an advantage that the two eliminated teams yesterday did not have:
They have Hu Lai!
At the beginning of the second half, Hulay scored to help Madrid Pirates reestablish their two-goal lead in the total score.
The goal was a heavy blow to Stan Park Rangers' morale.
Throwing the ball when they are at the height of their momentum is like throwing a red-hot iron ingot into a cold pool.
Although Stan Park Rangers still worked very hard, they were obviously confused - inevitably some people would worry about whether Hu Lai would score another goal behind them when they pressed forward...
If Hu Lai scores another goal, they will really be doomed.
This is Hu Lai's tactical role... No, this should actually be regarded as Hu Lai's "strategic nuclear deterrence" role.
A player like him can intimidate his opponent for one minute on the court.
Only by replacing him can the opponent truly breathe a sigh of relief.
Therefore, even if there are double games in a row, head coach Parotti keeps Hulay on the court.
Fortunately, Hu Lai recovered quickly enough after each game, otherwise Parotti would not have dared to use him to death like this.
After Hulay's goal, the Madrid Pirates players gradually stabilized their mentality.
No matter how hard Stan Park Rangers fought, they would not be in a hurry like they were in the first half.
The commentator on German TV watched this scene and sighed:
"If Ruerrhein could have an efficient striker like Hu, yesterday's game wouldn't have been completely helpless against the defensive Alvara..."
At the end of the game, neither team was able to score again, and the score in the second round was fixed at 1:1.
Madrid Pirates eliminated the last Champions League runners-up Stan Park Rangers with a total score of 4:2 and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Hu Lai became the second Chinese overseas player to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League this season.