On the evening of March 27th, Manchester Etihad Stadium.
Night has just fallen and the stadium is already brightly lit.
After the renovation, the exterior walls of the stadium were painted with a layer of sky blue paint. Under the light, the entire stadium looked like a bright sapphire, very beautiful.
The only regret is that after the first round of expansion, the stadium's capacity still failed to exceed 50,000.
But it doesn’t matter. Manchester City’s plan to further expand the Etihad Stadium has been put on the agenda. This time, it is planned to directly increase the stadium’s capacity by more than 14,000 people. The total capacity will reach 62,000, which will exceed other stadiums.
team, becoming the second largest stadium in the Premier League after Manchester United's Old Trafford Stadium.
At present, Manchester City's stadium expansion plan has been submitted to the Manchester Council for approval, and it is very likely to be approved, because this project will bring hundreds of temporary jobs, increase more than a hundred staff in the long term, and more jobs in the future.
jobs, which is also good for Manchester.
One of the important reasons why Manchester City dares to expand in such a drastic way is that Manchester City's current football market is very hot.
As the team's performance has improved by leaps and bounds in the past two seasons, more and more fans have entered the Etihad Stadium, making it difficult to get tickets for Manchester City, and even season tickets have become in short supply.
This is actually related to Manchester City's business strategy.
After the Abu Dhabi consortium took over, Manchester City's game tickets have always been at the top of the Premier League. The lowest price of 344 euros is the lowest in the Premier League, lower than the second-ranked Aston Villa.
Still thirty euros lower.
After the stadium renovation, the price of Manchester City's highest-end season ticket reached 900 euros, ranking ninth in the Premier League. In fact, it is relatively good because these are VIP seats. In comparison, Arsenal's is 2,000 euros.
Three hundred euros is more than twice that of Manchester City, while the price of Manchester United in the same city is eleven hundred euros, which is much higher than Manchester City.
The team has good results, a good style of play, offensive football, and a lot of stars, especially with superstars like Su Dong sitting in the team, but the average ticket price is at the bottom of the Premier League. How is it possible that such a team has an attendance rate
Will it be lower?
In fact, overall, Premier League ticket prices are still very high.
Even Manchester City, which has the lowest price, is much higher than the lowest price of all the teams in the four major leagues. This also shows that the UK’s spending power is indeed better than other countries, coupled with the advantage of owning its own stadium.
, which gives Premier League teams a very clear advantage in match-day operating income over teams in other leagues.
It is precisely based on this that Manchester City is determined to further expand the stadium, thereby further increasing the team's match-day income while keeping ticket prices unchanged.
Everyone is convinced that even if it is expanded to more than 60,000, Manchester City's home attendance will still be full.
If nothing else, take a look at the peak showdown between Manchester City and Real Madrid.
As early as the second leg of the top 16 knockout round had just been decided and Manchester City officially started ticket sales for home games in the first leg of the top 8 knockout round, all the tickets were sold out in a very short period of time, making it difficult to get a ticket.
On the night of the game, fans from all over began to pour into the Etihad Stadium.
At this time, there were many fans around the stadium holding cards high and asking scalpers for a ticket at a high price.
It is said that outside, a ticket with the worst position was sold for two thousand pounds, which shows how popular this game is.
According to the media, the influence of this game is not inferior to that of the Champions League final.
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When Manchester City arrived at the stadium by bus, the Manchester City fans who were preparing to enter the stadium outside the stadium chased after them, shouting the names of Manchester City players from a distance through the fence.
Su Dong is the player who gets the most shouts, and many fans encourage him to score goals in the game.
There was a live broadcast of the game, and they even filmed the grand scene of the team arriving at the stadium before the game. As a result, they were shocked by the crazy and enthusiastic fans at the scene. They did not expect that Manchester City fans would be so enthusiastic.
"This is actually not difficult to understand, because this is the first time Manchester City has participated in the Champions League, and they have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League in their first participation. This is absolutely amazing for Manchester City, which has not performed well in the past 100 years.
It can be regarded as the peak of history, so the fans’ pursuit is understandable.”
"We saw that Manchester City coach Guardiola was the first to get off the bus, and he received warm applause from the fans at the scene."
"Since coaching Manchester City, Guardiola has gradually become a popular top coach in Europe. Now he is even poached by Barcelona, but he chose to renew his contract with Manchester City and continue to coach in the Premier League."
"Captain Su Dong also led the players off the bus one after another. It seems that the Manchester City players are in high spirits tonight and should be in good condition. However, the Manchester City fans are shouting Su Dong's name crazily. He is the most popular player in Manchester City.
The player I welcome is not only the captain of Manchester City, but also the team's leading scorer and spiritual leader."
Amid the roar of the fans at the scene, Manchester City players, led by Guardiola and Su Dong, walked into the player tunnel.
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When Real Madrid players walked out of the tunnel and entered the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City players were already warming up on the field.
While Cristiano Ronaldo was walking with the team, he was paying attention to the movements on the Manchester City side, looking for familiar figures among the players running around.
At this time, there were already many Manchester City fans sitting in the stands, and they all booed Real Madrid.
Just when Ronnie walked into the turf of the Etihad Stadium, a football suddenly flew from the distance. The ball was very fast and came straight towards him. This made the fans at the scene speechless in surprise, and the Real Madrid players were also quite surprised.
Surprised.
Only Ronnie stepped forward cheerfully, stopped the ball with his chest, and kicked the ball back with a volley.
Only then did everyone notice that the ball fell back into the half of Manchester City's warm-up training. Su Dong stopped the ball lightly, stepped on it, and pointed his right hand at Ronnie, while Pepe and David Silva
, Moutinho, Marcelo and other acquaintances were also around Sudong and happily waved to the Portuguese.
"Hey, brother."
Su Dong walked straight over and hugged Ronnie forcefully.
"I almost fell to the ground just now. I'll see how you end up with it." Ronnie laughed and said, that arrogant expression seemed to say, why don't you thank me quickly?
"That will definitely confirm your reputation as a diver." Su Dong said sarcastically.
In fact, he controlled the force of the kick. Generally speaking, he had no strength when it reached Ronnie's range. Even if he didn't catch it or was kicked, it would basically not hurt, let alone get injured.
Of course, if Ronnie fell to the ground directly, that would be a different matter.
After meeting Ronnie, Su Dong shook hands and hugged Kaká, Xabi Alonso, Casillas and Ramos. They were all old acquaintances and no strangers to each other, especially Kaká.
.
Sometimes Su Dong really wants to ask Kaka if he regrets not choosing Manchester City and going to Real Madrid instead?
You know, if he comes to Manchester City, Kaka may face a different career.
But frankly speaking, except for Su Dong, it is estimated that any other superstar would choose Real Madrid instead of Manchester City.
Xabi Alonso also almost joined Manchester City, but in the end he also went to Real Madrid, while Guardiola introduced Busquets, and both players succeeded after their transfers.
The players from the two teams were all familiar with each other. After meeting and greeting each other, they returned to the half court to train.
…
While the players from the two teams were chatting politely on the court, the two head coaches were also talking on the sidelines.
When Pellegrini coached Real Madrid, he was known as Florentino's backup. As a result, on the one hand, Real Madrid never contacted a better head coach, and on the other hand, Pellegrini's
His coaching performance is indeed good. He has always been closely following Barcelona and even almost defeated Barcelona, so he has stayed here until now.
The players also support him quite a bit, which allowed Real Madrid to break through from the top 16 of the Champions League this season.
Pellegrini is now very ambitious and wants to lead Real Madrid forward and achieve better results.
Guardiola is also participating in the Champions League as a head coach for the first time, so he is also looking forward to the team's success.
Both coaches are very personable and very polite to each other. Guardiola is the host, but he is not good at dealing with people on weekdays, so he just exchanged routine politeness with Pellegrini and the two went their separate ways.
gone back.
But their attention is rotated between themselves and the opponent on the court, and the focus is to observe the status of the opponent's players.
In the pre-game training, no one tried their best, and it was difficult to tell. Moreover, specific information was collected by specialized scouts and submitted to the coaching staff early, so neither of them had too many secrets.
"They should be on the defensive."
As soon as Guardiola returned to the coaching bench, Estiarte came up to him and gave his analysis.
He is Guardiola's brain trust.
With two defensive midfielders and four defenders, it is normal to say that Real Madrid wants to be on the defensive.
Of course, defense does not necessarily mean retreating.
The most typical example is Benitez's Valencia, which also had double midfielders and conservative tactics. However, whether it is Valencia or Liverpool, Benitez's team adopts high-position pressing tactics.
Real Madrid should also adopt similar tactics, but relatively speaking, the attitude will be more conservative.
"So, we can be more proactive in the game." Guardiola nodded.
He agreed with Estiarte's judgment. He did not think Real Madrid would compete with Manchester City for possession of the ball in the away game because Real Madrid lacked such midfielders.
It is simply a fantasy to rely on midfielders like Kaká, Khedira and Xavi Alonso to compete with Manchester City for possession of the ball.
Among these three players, the only one with the ability to control the ball is Xavi Alonso.
"But they might make a grab at the opening," Estiarte warned.
Guardiola narrowed his eyes and said harshly: "Then I'll cripple them!"