Author: Ant who loves watching football

On March 13, three days after the Champions League round of 16, Chelsea went away to challenge Everton.

This is the sixth round of the FA Cup, which is the focus of the quarterfinals.

Now for Pan Yi and Chelsea, they attach great importance to any game in any event.

Perhaps as Pan Yi said before, the Premier League, which currently has a larger lead, is a game that can be relatively "given up".

Of course, this is also a joke. After all, there are still 9 rounds of the league to end. If you are not careful, there is still the possibility of capsizing.

Until you win the championship in the end, you can’t relax for a moment!

And in the FA Cup, where the outcome is decided in one battle, there is no need to relax.

Therefore, Chelsea also used a half-main and half-rotation lineup for this game to allow those players who were a little tired after playing in Paris to rest.

Players like Kante and Van Dijk who didn't feel tired at all continued to start the game!

Despite encountering stubborn resistance from Everton, Chelsea won the game smoothly.

Lukaku faced his old club and scored twice, helping the team defeat Everton 2:0 and advance to the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

This also means that Chelsea will indeed go to Wembley Stadium again to participate in the semi-finals!

Arsenal, which entered the quarter-finals after defeating Hull City in a play-off in the previous round, suffered an upset this round.

They lost to Watford 1:2 at home and were eliminated!

Crystal Palace defeated Reading, the only non-Premier League team in the quarter-finals, 2-0, and also entered the semi-finals.

The last four spots will be decided between Manchester United and West Ham United.

They played 1:1 at Old Trafford, so they still need to play a play-off match at West Ham United's home stadium.

Although the top four were not completely produced, the draw for the semi-finals was carried out in advance.

Chelsea were drawn against Watford, while Crystal Palace faced the winner of Manchester United or West Ham United.

It can be said that Chelsea got a good pick.

——

March 18, noon, Cobham training base.

In the head coach's office, Pan Yi and the core coaching staff were sitting around the coffee table, eating melon seeds and watching the TV hanging on the wall.

On the TV, a live broadcast of the football channel is being played, and on the other side of the camera is the hall of the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Representatives of all the teams that have entered the Champions League quarter-finals have gathered together for the next stage of the draw.

As usual, when it comes to the quarterfinals, the draw will be completely random. There will be no seeding teams, and teams in the same league will not be avoided.

In other words, any team may encounter the other seven teams.

Among these eight teams, there are three in Spain, two in the Bundesliga, two in the Premier League, and one in Portugal.

This can also be seen in the current European football world. Basically, the three leagues of West Germany and England are the strongest, while the competitiveness of Serie A has been weakening, not to mention Ligue 1.

In other leagues, it is basically the Portuguese teams that perform best. Last season it was Porto who entered the quarterfinals, and this season it is Benfica.

Today's draw ceremony was hosted by Marchetti, the UEFA competition director, and Zanetti, the ambassador of the final organizer, served as a guest.

This is mainly because there are fewer teams in the quarter-finals. Zanetti is enough as a guest, and Maldini will not come.

"Let me see which team's representative is the most nervous..." Arteta said jokingly on the sidelines.

On the TV, the camera was scanning the representatives of the eight teams one by one.

Representing Chelsea at the draw ceremony today was CEO Ron Gurray.

But I saw a smile on his face and said hello to the camera.

"I don't know who is the most nervous, but I can tell who is the least nervous," Steve Holland said with a smile.

Obviously, as a representative of Chelsea, Ron Gurray certainly does not need to be nervous, because his team can touch any team, but other teams do not want to touch Chelsea!

This is the confidence Pan Yi gave him.

A few days ago, Guardiola made it very clear in an interview that the last person Bayern Munich wants to encounter is Chelsea.

"This is my last season at Bayern, and of course I hope to lead the team further."

"Since I am going to Manchester City next season, the chances of playing against Pan Yi will increase in the future."

"Then, try to meet him as late as possible in the Champions League this season, God bless!"

Bayern Munich is still making rapid progress in the Bundesliga this season. After 25 rounds, it is 7 points ahead of second place Dortmund. If nothing else, they will win the Bundesliga championship again.

In fact, whether in Pan Yi's previous life or now, Guardiola is really very stable in the league.

Let’s talk about the past life, that is, the normal timeline. From coaching Barcelona to Bayern to Manchester City, in so many seasons, Guardiola only let the league championship fall by the wayside a few times?

three times.

From the time he coached Barcelona in 2008 until Manchester City in 2023, he only lost three league titles in 15 years!

They lost to Real Madrid with 100 points in the 2011-2012 season, Liverpool with 99 points in the 2019-2020 season, and his first season at Manchester City.

In the seasons when he won the championship, he often raised his points to an extremely high threshold, such as when he won the championship with 99 points and 100 points several times in Barcelona.

After arriving at Manchester City, the past history of winning the Premier League with more than 80 points is almost impossible to repeat. If you don't score more than 90 or 100 points, you will be embarrassed to say hello to others!

——Here you can check the psychological state of Liverpool fans who won the Premier League runner-up with 97 points.

Even in the three seasons when he did not win the championship, the teams he led ranked among the top three and had a strong impact on the championship.

It can be said that, at least in the league, there is really no other person in world football who is more stable than him.

He also won a lot of domestic cup competitions. He won two Copa del Reys with Barcelona and two with Bayern. He also won three League Cups and one FA Cup with Manchester City.

The only thing Guardiola has been criticized for is that his results in the Champions League are not outstanding enough, but in fact he has also won the championship twice and entered the semi-finals six times - it is very likely that he will win another championship in 2023.

And a coach of Guardiola's level actually expressed in public that he did not want to meet Chelsea, which shows how much of a psychological shadow Pan Yi has caused on him.

Of course, this is inseparable from the good private relationship between the two.

They often exchange tactical details with each other and make a lot of jokes when chatting, so it doesn't hurt to make some true and false jokes in front of the media.

For example, Guardiola would say that Pan Yi came from time travel, otherwise how could he be so accurate when looking at players?

Pan Yi, not to be outdone, said that Guardiola is the one who truly owns the FM system and can definitely see the potential of the players!

Then the two laughed and continued talking about tactics.

To be honest, the joke between these two people was half true and half false.

It is understandable that Guardiola felt that Pan Yi was a time traveler, and Pan Yi also truly suspected that Guardiola was also a man with a system, at least in his previous life.

First of all, Guardiola is the head coach with the most changeable tactical formations, no one.

Although some people often say that he is not good at competitions, this also proves from another aspect that he has many formations that can be used in his hands.

Isn't this similar to Pan Yi's situation in this life?

And Guardiola's contribution to promoting formation play is really unmatched by other coaches.

From advancing with the ball, to pressing in the frontcourt, to goalkeepers releasing the ball, to full-backs moving in, including the use of -1 formation, etc., they were either pioneered by him or carried forward by him.

Secondly, many players were not actually considered the world's top stars before they came to Guardiola, but they often became successful.

Take the latest Manchester City lineup as an example. Except for a few players such as Haaland and Grealish who were very popular and popular before they arrived, most of this lineup is just the same.

For example, those on the defense line, including Ake, Akanji, Ruben Dias, Stones... including goalkeeper Ederson, were also acquired from Portugal.

The same is true for the B seat in the midfield. Even De Bruyne was bought back from the Bundesliga with the reputation of being a "parallel importer of the Premier League". Many people think that he cannot adapt to the Premier League.

Then to the young Alvarez and Lewis later...

This has to make people suspect that Guardiola is playing FM with nuclear weapons. He can see the potential value and hidden mental attributes of these players, and believe that they will definitely become talents.

It seems that the only players lost under him were the original goalkeeper "Prince Regent" Bravo, and Mendy who was competing for the "Prince King", and then basically disappeared.

If you look at Manchester United next door, the contrast is even more obvious.

Sanchez, Falcao, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sancho... they were all big name purchases, but they didn't have much effect, at least they didn't improve their performance.

Comparing Manchester City and Manchester United, Dortmund is the best in evaluation. Those who come from Dortmund, those who work well wear blue, those who don’t work well wear red. Those who sometimes work well and sometimes don’t work well wear red and blue...

Because of this, Guardiola has become one of the rare head coaches in world football who has never been fired.

Not only that, his employer also wants to lick him.

Manchester City chairman Mubarak's dog-licking quote is: "Our job is to make Guardiola happy. Guardiola is happy, and we are happy."

Listen, what are these words? Is this what a chairman can say? It is simply outrageous!

The "Süddeutsche Zeitung", which represents Bayern Munich's mouthpiece, was more subtle and expressed regret for Guardiola's departure from Bayern:

"Guardiola is like a beautiful, sexy but crazy lover to Bayern. Every morning you wake up and look at her proudly, but you never know what her mood will be like when she wakes up. Bayern has put in a lot of effort,

I hope to make this somewhat eccentric bride a good partner for me, but I failed."

In short, even such a cheating head coach met the real cheating Pan Yi in this life, and in the end he could only bow his head and admit defeat;
To be continued...