After Manchester City defeated Barcelona in an away game, it won a lot of applause, but there were not many waves within Manchester City.
After the team returned to Manchester from Barcelona, they immediately ushered in the 31st round of the Premier League.
This time the opponent is Black Cat Sunderland.
Gao Shen continues to make significant rotations, devoting more time and energy to the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals next Wednesday. After all, that is his next highlight.
Martin O'Neill's Sunderland adopted a three-midfield tactic in the away game, guarding tightly and successfully blocking Manchester City's attack in the first half. However, in the second half, as the players' physical exertion increased, Sunderland began to hold on.
Can't stand it any longer.
In the 52nd minute, former Sunderland player Jordan Henderson assisted Hazard and shot low into the left rib, breaking Sunderland's goal and opening the scoring for Manchester City.
After that, Manchester City launched continuous offensives.
In the 75th and 76th minutes, Manchester City attacked twice in just two minutes. Hazard dribbled the ball and forced his way into the penalty area. After attracting the defensive attention, he assisted David Silva and Henry respectively.
Dessen scored.
In the 81st minute, David Silva assisted Sturridge to score.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Sunderland 4-0 at home.
…
April 3, Manchester Intihad Stadium.
In the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Manchester City faces Barcelona at home.
What Gao Shen didn't expect at all was that Guardiola would completely subvert his first-round formation in this game, and instead adopt a three-four-two-one tactical play.
Yes, that's the same tactic used in the last half hour of the second half at Camp Nou.
The difference is that he replaced Vargas with Sanchez.
This was something Gao Shen didn't expect at all.
Especially when he saw Thiago Motta, Busquets, Puyol and Pique appearing in Barcelona's starting lineup, he already had this hunch.
When he actually arrived at the stadium and saw the Barcelona players arranging their formation, he was really surprised.
"Why do I feel like he is angry with someone?" Even Carlo noticed something unusual.
Who in the right mind would adopt this kind of three-back play when facing Manchester City with such strong offensive firepower from the wing?
Who would believe that Guardiola does not have this understanding?
The only possibility is that he is competing with someone.
Gao Shen thought so too, but he didn't know exactly what was going on.
Speaking of La Liga, Barcelona defeated Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home after losing to Manchester City.
Judging from the current situation, it is not a big problem for Barcelona to win the La Liga championship.
Guardiola was indeed criticized by the media after losing the first round, but with his character, he probably wouldn't compete with the media. The only way to bet on this is from within Barcelona.
For example, the management, or the locker room.
But that's unlikely in the locker room either.
Then there is only one answer left.
Rosell and Bartomeu are really the gravediggers of Barcelona.
Various actions taken by these two guys after they came to power have gradually caused Barcelona to sink.
Even though Russell sounds like he's going to cut spending and budget, what he's actually doing is much more than that.
For example, Neymar's transfer directly led to his resignation.
This is a complete misunderstanding. How much money Barcelona spent has never given a clear explanation from beginning to end.
The only thing that is certain is that it is far beyond what Barcelona has announced.
As for the things Bartomeu did later as president...
If I don’t say it anymore, if I say too much, it will make people think that I am deliberately trying to discredit Barcelona.
It is really possible that these two guys would fall out with Guardiola.
"Never mind this, let's stick to the old rules and grab a wave at the beginning." Gao Shen calmed down and didn't think any more.
It's useless no matter how much he thinks about Barcelona.
…
The huge advantage of leading 3-0 away from home allowed Manchester City to completely relieve their psychological pressure and let go of the game.
Especially Gao Shen told the players before the game to try their best to create goals after the game.
This made the Manchester City players very excited. After the opening, they launched a fierce press against Barcelona. The players also played particularly hard and the game was very unrestrained.
How bold do Manchester City players play?
Only one and a half minutes into the game, Javi Martinez pressed forward to the edge of Barcelona's penalty area to exert pressure, interfering with Busquets' pass. After Robben successfully intercepted the ball on the right, he decisively moved forward to ask for the ball.
, rushed into the right side of the penalty area, and then knocked the ball back with his heel.
Robben followed, inserted into the right side of the penalty area, and used his right foot, which he was not good at, to cross to the penalty spot.
Suarez followed up with a push shot into the lower left corner of the goal.
Barcelona goalkeeper Valdez was positioned to the right and was out of reach of the shot.
One to zero!
Another goal after the opening kick!
Manchester City scored at the beginning of both games, and both took the lead from the beginning.
One game can be said to be accidental, but if it is like this in both rounds, it must be Barcelona's own problem.
When Suarez scored, Gao Shen cheered excitedly for a while, then looked at the visiting team's coaching bench, only to find that Guardiola had been sitting in the coaching bench and did not appear on the sidelines, which made him even more puzzled.
He can almost conclude that Guardiola must be in trouble.
…
After Manchester City scored the first goal, their morale was high and they continued to attack Barcelona.
Barcelona also quickly organized a counterattack and formed a shot, but it was confiscated by Neuer.
In the fifteenth minute, Manchester City launched another attack.
Lichtsteiner and Robben on the right formed a two-on-one coordination on the wing. Lichtsteiner decisively inserted diagonally to the right side of the front edge of the penalty area, spotted the opportunity, suddenly kicked off, and hit a heavy bombardment.
Door.
The ball went straight to the goal with lightning speed.
In the penalty area, Barcelona's central defender Pique stepped aside to block the ball. When his body could no longer block the ball, he stretched out his right hand to block the ball.
The referee clearly understood the situation and immediately blew the whistle to signal that Barcelona defender Pique committed a handball foul and gave him a yellow card and a penalty kick.
The Barcelona players were so angry that they gathered around and tried to find an explanation from the referee.
However, the referee did not show any weakness and kept signaling to the Barcelona players to step back. However, the Barcelona players who were in high spirits still stepped forward to block the situation, so the referee took out the card again.
Both players Busquets and Alves received yellow cards.
The referee also issued a warning that if he was surrounded again, it would be a red card immediately!
"Barcelona players should stay calm at this time."
"According to UEFA's latest rules, the maximum penalty for besieging the referee is a red card."
"Their current actions are indeed a bit irrational. They received two yellow cards for no reason. This will also greatly weaken Barcelona's defense."
Captain Puyol, Xavi and others rushed to pull their teammates away, but when negotiating with the referee, the referee clearly told them that this was a handball.
"It can be clearly seen from the slow-motion replay that Pique reached out his hand intentionally. The referee only gave him a yellow card, which was actually very polite."
"Barcelona's players are obviously taking a chance."
"In the past, they often besieged the referee and profited from it. At the same time, they often profited from some controversial decisions, which led to some fluke mentality among their players, but now, it is obviously different."
"Just like Pique's handball just now, it was actually unnecessary. Even if Lichtsteiner was allowed to kick, he might not be able to score a goal. But now, he is getting a yellow card and a penalty kick, and the gain outweighs the gain."
Robben stood at the penalty spot without hesitation. After the referee blew his whistle, he quickly took a run and scored a goal for Manchester City in one fell swoop.
Two to zero!
The total score is five to zero!
It can be said that there is no suspense about the outcome of the game.
The Barcelona players' loss of control just now also comes from this.
The 0-3 loss in the first round made them lose confidence. Now their only hope is to score more goals.
But now, conceding a goal and then a penalty kick really made them completely collapse!
And throughout the whole process, from beginning to end, Guardiola sat in the coaching bench, as if he turned a blind eye to it all.
…
The first half ended 2-0.
Manchester City only had 35% of the ball possession rate, far behind Barcelona, but in terms of the number of shots, they only gave Barcelona one shot.
Yes, it was the one not long after the show started.
Apart from this, Barcelona hardly posed a threat to Manchester City and failed to shoot.
This is obviously very surprising.
Gao Shen is also puzzled by this, but he personally guesses that Barcelona's internal problems are more serious than external problems.
In other words, when the team's performance is poor, internal problems are constantly amplified, affecting the team's performance on the court.
After changing sides in the second half, Gao Shen signaled the team to stay focused and patiently defend the counterattack.
But as soon as the game started, Manchester City started to attack.
In the 48th minute, just three minutes into the second half, Manchester City got a corner kick opportunity.
David Silva took a corner kick and Kompany beat Puyol with a header from the back post, giving Manchester City another victory.
Three to zero!
After that, Barcelona's offense obviously lost confidence, while Manchester City played steadily.
In the 76th minute, Manchester City stole the ball in the midfield and launched a counterattack. Robben dribbled the ball from the right and tried to break through but failed. Suddenly he cut inside, first getting rid of Vargas, then dunking past Puyol and kicking.
When the curve ball hit the goal, it was blocked by Thiago Motta.
The ball rebounded back to the penalty spot of the penalty area. Suarez got the ball first and moved it to the left side of the penalty area.
Gareth Bale came in from behind and hit the ball directly with his left foot.
The ball hit the goal diagonally at extremely high speed and went into the bottom of the net.
Four to zero!
The total score is seven to zero!
After that, Barcelona was still trying to attack, and Manchester City also made several counterattacks after continuous substitutions.
Yaya Toure, who came on as a substitute, even had a chance to get an excellent opportunity to kick off an empty goal in front of the goal. However, the Ivorian failed to seize the pie falling from the sky and directly missed the empty goal.
Afterwards, Yaya Toure was so angry that he beat the grass and felt full of regret.
Gao Shen shook his head helplessly and smiled bitterly on the sidelines.
If this goal had been scored, it would have been 5-0.
