On the evening of March 6, in the 29th round of the Premier League, Manchester City faced Wigan Athletic at home.
After the team threatened several consecutive attacks but failed to score, Su Dong received a pass from his teammate at the top of the penalty area in the 32nd minute, then turned around and sent a wonderful pass with his left foot.
David Silva passed through Su Dong, went straight into the penalty area, and shot low with his left foot. The ball passed between the legs of goalkeeper Habsi and scored the only goal of the game for Manchester City.
.
In the end, Manchester City defeated Wigan Athletic by one goal.
…………
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On the evening of March 10th, Kiev, Ukraine.
Shevchenko was sitting on the team bus heading to the Nobarovsky Stadium, looking out the window at the rainy Kiev. He couldn't help but think that the UK at this time should be similar.
It rains all year round in that country.
Kiev is different. Shevchenko has lived here since he was a child. He knows that the cold winter here is about to turn into hot summer.
It rarely rains in Kiev in March, but I don’t know if it’s because the Premier League team is about to welcome the Premier League team, but it started to drizzle today. This made the city where the temperature always hovers around zero degrees even more.
Partially chilly.
However, this may not be suitable for teams from the UK.
It's getting warmer in the UK, but it's still cold in Kiev.
Just like in the past two years, Shevchenko's state of mind is still in the cold winter months.
When he went to Chelsea from Milan with great ambition, he encountered the first waterloo in his career. He returned to Milan for a while, but there was no improvement either. In the end, he chose to return to Dynamo Kiev.
It's already the second season, and he still hasn't gotten over that nightmare.
He returned with the full expectation of Dynamo Kiev fans. Everyone hoped that he could play a role and lead the team to defeat Shakhtar Donetsk. However, as a result, they lost to their opponents last season and handed over the championship. This season
After only twenty rounds, we were already ten points behind our opponents, and the possibility of a reversal was almost zero.
Fortunately, Dynamo Kyiv reached the top 16 in the Europa League, which is barely a consolation.
In the two seasons since arriving at Dynamo Kiev, Shevchenko has achieved nothing so far.
And he also felt the antagonism among the fan base, especially the hostility between Kiev and Donetsk.
It wasn't just a derby rivalry between bitter rivals on a football level, it was much deeper.
There is nothing Shevchenko can do about all this.
He is no longer the Ronaldo who dominated European football.
Now he is just a veteran who is about to retire and is riddled with injuries!
…
The Nobarovsky Stadium is packed tonight.
Although everyone thinks that it is unlikely that Dynamo Kyiv will defeat Manchester City and advance to the quarterfinals of the Europa League, Dynamo Kyiv is confident enough in this stadium. For example, in 2003, they were in the Champions League
During the game, they defeated the all-powerful Arsenal at home.
This also makes Dynamo Kiev fans look forward to tonight's game.
At the same time, many people are looking forward to the showdown between Shevchenko and Su Dong, the new and old top scorers in Europe.
Everyone can see that Su Dong is at the top of his game and Shevchenko is already old. But the nuclear warhead is the hero of this city and this country. The fans here still believe that he is more powerful than Su Dong.
…
When Dynamo Kyiv's bus arrived at the Nobarovsky Stadium, Manchester City had just arrived.
They arrived in Kiev yesterday on a chartered flight from Manchester.
For a Europa League, only Manchester City, which has deep pockets, is willing to invest so much.
The players from the two teams entered the locker room, packed up, and were about to walk into the stadium for pre-match training when they happened to meet at the exit of the players' tunnel.
"Hey, Su." Shevchenko saw Su Dong first, smiled and raised his hand to say hello.
"Hello, Andrei." Su Dong came forward, shook hands with Shevchenko first, and then the two hugged.
When Shevchenko was playing for AC Milan, he actually had a lot of contact with Sudong. The two had two or three common sponsors and often met at some events. However, later because of Chelsea and the media hype,
This resulted in some embarrassment between the two.
There is no conflict with each other, and they all understand that it is the media's hype and Chelsea's operation, but they just feel embarrassed.
From then on, even when we met in some public places, we were basically polite and courteous, but became a bit unfamiliar.
But Su Dong had not seen Shevchenko for two years, and there was even very little news about him in the newspapers. The nuclear warhead seemed to have disappeared from the world of European mainstream media, which was really embarrassing.
This is also the sadness of stars as they age!
Professional football has always only heard newcomers laughing, and no one cares about the old ones crying.
How many fans of Shevchenko were there back then? They would care about every game he played, every goal he scored, and even his every move off the field. But now? Who still cares?
On the contrary, at this time, when the two met, they seemed to be close to each other.
…
"How's it going? I read the information and said that you are not going well this season." Su Dong asked with concern.
Shevchenko is already thirty-four years old. Unless he is an alternative like Maldini and Costacurta, Shevchenko is basically in the twilight of his career at this age.
After returning to Ukraine, Shevchenko's attendance rate was actually not high, and he spent a lot of time resting during the season.
In fact, it's no wonder that after suffering such a heavy blow like Chelsea's, and at that embarrassing age, it's basically impossible to recover.
"Last year at the beginning of the season, I injured my knee." Shevchenko looked at Su Dong and smiled awkwardly when he said this. "You know, it's an old problem and it never got better. At the end of the year, I accidentally injured my back.
I have a strain, so I have been off for more than a month this time."
Su Dong heard what he said simply, but he could also understand his mood at this moment.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! At his age, how can such a simple thing be possible?
"Don't be miserable. After you came back, you scored in two consecutive rounds of the Europa League. You contributed a lot to Dynamo Kyiv's advancement. I think you seemed to be holding back your bad luck and preparing to score in our goal tonight."
." Su Dong chuckled.
Shevchenko smiled. After returning from injury, his condition is indeed good.
The most important thing is that he let go of many things, relaxed his mind, and coupled with the team's tactics and the support of his teammates around him, his goals came out.
"You have a strong momentum this year. I have been paying attention to it. Winning the Premier League is a high probability event. If you make up for it during the winter break, you may even want the Europa League in the second half, right?" Shevchenko asked with a smile.
Su Dong didn't deny it either.
Manchester City introduced several high-level players during the winter break. How is that possible if they don't want to get involved in the Europa League or win more championships?
No one would believe it if I told you.
After laughing, Shevchenko smiled bitterly and said: "You have a better career plan than me!"
Su Dong suddenly didn't know how to answer.
Although he has never worked with him and Shevchenko is not his idol, he really respects this senior.
Of all the players who can make a name for themselves in European football, none is simple, let alone a ruthless player like Shevchenko, who was once close to the Ballon d'Or.
Su Dong once studied Shevchenko's career plan with Nuno Cruz and others. From a purely competitive perspective, his transfer from AC Milan to Chelsea was a failure.
This is not because he did not succeed at Chelsea. In fact, it was difficult for him to succeed at Chelsea.
While playing for Milan, Shevchenko began to transform into a scorer or a second forward due to injuries and other reasons, focusing on running and scoring.
But there is a premise, that is, AC Milan had an excellent midfielder at the time, especially Pirlo and Kaká.
The existence of these two players gave Shevchenko very strong support, allowing him to complete such a role transformation.
But in Chelsea, everyone knows the Blues midfielder, let alone Kaka, even a passer like Pirlo can't be found. This causes Chelsea's forwards to take the initiative to get work.
That is to say, it is difficult for a center like Drogba to play a role like Shevchenko.
If Shevchenko was in his prime, there would still be room for his speed and skills to be used, but the problem is that he has already been seriously injured.
It can be said that this transfer was destined to be a tragedy from the beginning.
Not only Shevchenko, but in fact, the current Torres, Manchester City technical department, Su Dong and Nuno Cruz are basically pessimistic, feeling that he is still copying Shevchenko's performance back then.
trajectory.
Of course, in the world of professional football, there is never just football.
The transfer of Shevchenko and Torres to Chelsea is likely to be a failure from a football perspective, but if analyzed from a profit perspective, it may be the opposite.
Just like Shevchenko, given his age and condition at the time, even if he continued to stay in Milan, how long could he last? Transferring to Chelsea could just make a lot of money and earn a pension for himself. Isn't it also a kind of
success?
Precisely because he understood this, Su Dong's words of praise for Shevchenko had mixed feelings.
Many times, players are actually helpless.
Especially professional players.
Everyone can only make the optimal solution for the moment, but has no way to control their own future.
It's like no one can guarantee that in the next game, you will suddenly encounter a stupid young man and give you such a kick that you will retire directly.
Of course, such a small probability event rarely happens, but what if it is so unlucky?
Su Dong didn't know what to say for a moment, so he put his arm around Shevchenko's shoulders, smiled and sighed.
"You have to be gentle tonight."
Shevchenko was also happy, "You should be merciful."
"It's too cold in Kiev, some of us forgot to wear long sleeves." Su Dong laughed bitterly.
The unfortunate guy who forgot to wear long sleeves is David Luiz.
This guy probably didn't read the notice from the coaching staff carefully. The temperature here in Kiev is at zero degrees, and it may even go below zero at night.
Thinking of this, Su Dong felt chills all over.
Shevchenko also noticed that David Luiz was wearing short sleeves and immediately laughed.
