Three to two at home and three to three away from home, Southampton eliminated the defending champion Bayern 6 to 5 in two rounds and entered the quarterfinals of the Champions League!
I have to say that these two rounds were full of topics. Bayern failed to score a penalty kick in both games, Gulacchi's two consecutive saves, Navas's red card, Suarez's four goals in two games...
In this quarter-finals of the Champions League, the most exciting and topical two rounds are the two games between Bayern and Southampton.
There is no doubt about this.
Southampton fans continue to welcome Southampton players as heroes. The opponents for the next round have not yet been announced. The quarter-finals are divided into two parts. This week only the first four games will be played.
, the last four games will be played next week, and after the games, the remaining eight teams will be drawn again.
It sounds very troublesome.
The teams that have now qualified, in addition to Southampton, are Barcelona, Paris and Atletico Madrid. Barcelona swept Manchester City 4-1 in two rounds, Paris defeated Leverkusen 6-1 in two rounds, and Atletico Madrid beat Manchester City 6-1 in two rounds.
In the round, they beat AC Milan 5-1, so it was relatively easy to win.
Southampton did not have a relaxing rest when they returned home. For them, the league game next weekend is also very important.
After all, everyone knows that in the Champions League, sometimes you can only decide where you go, because there are too many strong teams in the Champions League, and no one knows where they can go, but in the league, you can keep fighting.
of.
Therefore, in the next weekend's game, Ji Ya did not rotate much, Gulacchi still started, and other main lineups let Luke Shaw, Mkhitaryan and James Ronaldo rest, Alonso, Drinkwater
Te and Coutinho played in rotation.
In the home game against Norwich, the rotation players performed well. In just three minutes, Alonso assisted Coutinho from the wing. The Brazilian scored a long shot from the front of the penalty area, opening the scoring for Southampton.
.
Immediately after Drinkwater's forward pass, Suarez received the ball and turned around to shoot. The ball went into the net from the armpit of the opponent's goalkeeper, making it 2-0.
In the second half, through a counterattack, Lukaku went straight in and expanded the score to 3-0.
Just when everyone thought it was an easy victory, the situation suddenly changed. In the 85th and 86th minutes, the opponent scored two goals in a row. Gulacchi made a mistake when saving. After he took the shot, he was beaten by the opponent's forward.
He scored with a follow-up shot, and just a minute later, the opponent's long-range shot missed the goal again...
Noriya shook his head helplessly. This is the flaw of Gulacchi being a substitute all year round. In some games, he can perform very well, but once he stabilizes, he is also prone to making mistakes.
This requires continuous participation in a large number of games before it can be gradually reversed. However, at this moment when the league and the Champions League are impacting on both fronts, how can Ji Ya dare to use him with confidence?
Gulacchi on the court was also very depressed. He finally had such an opportunity, but he screwed it up...
However, Southampton eventually won the game. Casemiro received De Bruyne's corner kick and scored with a header before the end. Southampton defeated their opponent 4-2.
Although the process was a bit thrilling, I still won, so that’s good.
"Peter, I can only use Kelol from now on. I hope you can understand that I am the head coach and the chairman, so I can only take the interests of the whole team as the highest criterion." Ji Ya found Gulacchi,
Then say.
"Boss, I know, my performance in these games is not very good. Compared with Kailuoer, I still have a lot to learn." Gulacchi nodded, obviously,
He also knows very well what the difference is now.
Those years at Liverpool taught him patience and waiting.
Ji Ya breathed a sigh of relief. Although the choice he made was completely legitimate, he didn't want Gulacchi to get into trouble. If he couldn't figure it out, he would have no choice but to transfer him out to avoid becoming a bomb in the locker room.
Now it seems that the Hungarian goalkeeper's mentality is indeed very good.
After better training and playing more games, he will have the opportunity to be the main player in the future. Even if he is not the main player, he can be a substitute goalkeeper. Such characteristics are also very useful.
The following week, the Southampton team began to rest. After all, this weekend was the remaining four games of the second round of the Champions League. Southampton could take a good rest.
The next four games are also clearly divided between strong and weak. Dortmund, Manchester United, Chelsea and Real Madrid successfully entered the quarterfinals. It is worth mentioning that in the two rounds of games, Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals in each game. He is now
The number of goals scored in the Champions League has reached 13...
"I originally thought you could be the top scorer in the Champions League this season, but I didn't expect Ronaldo to be so good..." Noriya said to Suarez helplessly.
Suarez shrugged his shoulders. In fact, he didn't have such big ambitions. If he could score a few goals, he would score a few goals.
The value of the quarterfinals of the Champions League is quite high now. There are basically no weak teams, so everyone is looking forward to seeing what kind of dialogue between the strong teams will be in this draw.
The entire Southampton team was watching the live broadcast in the conference room, and then watched Alan Shearer, the famous player in charge of the draw, draw Barcelona for Southampton...
"Damn it, Alan is still a leader in our Southampton, how can he beat Barcelona to us?"
Southampton's players yelled one after another and fiercely criticized Shearer's irresponsible behavior.
Now it seems that Southampton's performance has really attracted the attention of UEFA. Not only did they draw Bayern before, but they also drew Barcelona this time. Barcelona's results in the Champions League in the first five seasons were quite amazing, winning twice and three times.
The semi-finals, that is to say, the worst is the starting result of the semi-finals.
Can Southampton become the first team in six years to knock Barcelona out of the semi-finals?
"Fortunately, Barcelona is much easier to deal with now than when Guardiola was here." Noriya said to the players.
The players laughed one after another. This is indeed the truth...
Barcelona has been more stable in the league this season, but in the Champions League, their performance has been somewhat ups and downs.
After all, after losing such an important head coach as Guardiola, Barcelona's dominance in the Champions League will probably decline. This can almost be said to be something predictable.
"Let's send Guardiola away first, and then send away the team he started. Tsk tsk, if we really do this, can we be considered new representatives who overthrew the old world?" Noriya continued.
The players looked at me and I looked at you, and laughed loudly together.
