Reborn Liverpool

Chapter 431 It's time for the quarterfinals of the Champions League again

The quarter-finals of the Champions League in the 18-19 season were decided in March, namely Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Barcelona, ​​Juventus, Ajax and Porto.

The Premier League once again occupies half of the country, which is both joyful and worrying, because in the quarter-finals, the team draw will no longer be classified, and any avoidance principle will no longer be valid. Each team may compete with the remaining seven teams. One meets.

This season's UEFA Champions League knockout round has been restructured. After the top [-], the quarterfinals will qualify. Since the draw of the quarterfinals, there will be no re-drawing.

On March 3th, the ceremony will be held in Nyon, Switzerland. The results of the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League will be announced. Liverpool has won the upper lottery. The opponent in the quarter-finals is Porto, which is recognized as the weakest among the eight teams.

This season's quarter-finals are divided into two halves, the first half includes Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League), Manchester City (Premier League), Ajax (Eredivisie) and Juventus (Serie A), the second half There are Manchester United (Premier League), Barcelona (La Liga), Liverpool (Premier League) and Porto (Portuguese Super League).

The "Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City" battle in the upper half is undoubtedly what all Liverpool people want to see the most. When the two powers meet, there must be a fierce battle. Even if Liverpool can't be the crowd, they can still benefit from it. Just ask you what is going on with Manchester City?
Check out this schedule:
First leg: April 4 (Wed) 10:03 (Tottenham Hotspur home court)
Second round: April 4 (Thu) 18:03 (Manchester City home)
After receiving the 34th and 35th rounds of the Premier League in a row, Klopp can imagine that Guardiola has more toothaches!
This season Tottenham struggled in the first half of the season, and went through an off-season with no changes in team members, waiting for Tottenham to have a series of injuries.

But even if they are stretched in scheduling, Tottenham led by coach Pochettino is still enough to cause big trouble for Manchester City.

Recently, Kane, the team's offensive core, has returned from injury, and Ali, another absolute main force, has also returned to the game. For Tottenham, which is relatively weak on the offensive end this season, the gradual completion of the lineup will be the biggest timely rain.

On the other hand, Tottenham's defense has recently maintained a firm stability. Since they scored three goals in the loss to Wolves at the end of December last year, Tottenham have not conceded more than two goals in a game.

In addition, in the two rounds of the UEFA Champions League round of [-] against Bundesliga leader Borussia Dortmund, Tottenham were able to keep their opponents clean. Such a strong defense is a great weapon to always keep in the league's fourth-best group.

However, Manchester City has been slow to heat up this season. Fortunately, relying on the strong lineup depth and coach Guardiola's training, the team has always maintained its competitiveness and reached the peak at the critical stage of the recent competitions.

Manchester City is currently only one point behind Liverpool, and the Champions League round of 10 is even more devastating with a total score of 2-04 against Schalke [-].

It is worth noting that the past two months were also the biggest wave of injuries for Manchester City this season. As a result, Manchester City not only survived this stage with a record of unanimous victories, but also during the league break on the international match day, many of Manchester City's main players will Returning to the line of fire, including De Bruyne, Kompany, Mendy and midfielder Fernandinho, with the backbone of the team Aguero, Bernardo Silva and Sterling, almost completely Manchester City do look stronger.

This "Premier League civil war" battle combination, in terms of the style of the two teams, coaching ability, and past results, will never be a boring competition.

From the perspective of Manchester City, the two sides have successfully won the four confrontations recently. In terms of momentum, they won first. In addition, Guardiola and Manchester City are always labeled as "king of the country" and "not good at European wars". Opponents in the same league who don't need to fly abroad may be easier to maintain a normal mentality.

On Tottenham’s side, although the results of their matches have tended to be at a disadvantage recently, the formation that is good at quick counterattacks and has a top center like Kane is the type that Manchester City is relatively not good at dealing with. If it is enabled, there must be an extremely fanatical home atmosphere, and momentum is a major factor in the outcome of the knockout round.

To sum up the two teams, in addition to the Champions League matches, they are also facing fierce competition in the league. Manchester City is chasing the championship with Liverpool, and Tottenham is also fiercely competing with Manchester United, Arsenal, and Chelsea for the Champions League next season. Coincidentally, After the UEFA Champions League match, the two teams will meet again in the league immediately. This series of "three-in-a-row battles" will surely become the hottest topic in April.

There is also a pair of Ajax vs Juventus in the upper half. The Eredivisie powerhouse Ajax has long lost its former reputation and is currently only ranked second in the Eredivisie league.

And Juventus, which owns Ronaldo, is currently the leader in Serie A. It is inevitable to win the league for eight consecutive times. Therefore, Juventus' most important goal this season is to win the Champions League.

With such a clear-cut matchup in strength, the outside world is naturally optimistic about the "Bianconeri"-Juventus.

Therefore, in terms of overall strength, Manchester City and Juventus are the two dominant teams in the two battle combinations, while Juventus is under less pressure, and Manchester City is likely to "miserably win" and advance.

Not to mention the combination of Juventus and Ajax, the "Premier League Civil War" combination is the real highlight.

Since both Manchester City and Tottenham have already known the basics, they both have backhands in their response to the play style. It is expected to be a very exciting two rounds. Even though Manchester City has the upper hand in the battle and lineup, Tottenham will be less pressured in the Champions League. On the one hand, the quarter-finals are already the best in team history, and they have no pressure to lose. On the contrary, Manchester City has always been unable to shake off the title of "domestic king" in recent years. The expectations given by the outside world are the greatest pressure.

As far as the overall development of the upper half is concerned, Juventus still has the best chance of entering the final among the four teams.

First of all, in terms of experience in the Champions League, it is undoubtedly the best of the four teams. In the past four seasons, the Champions League finals have been missed twice. .

And Manchester City is under a lot of pressure under the two-line championship. Guardiola will appear from time to time in the away game of the two-round knockout round. It is still difficult for the Blue Moon Legion to qualify from the upper half.

The lower half where Liverpool is located is not much to watch. The Red Army has caught Porto, a weak chicken, and it is no problem for Barcelona to clean up the Red Devils who have lost their glory.

曼联vs巴塞罗那：首回合：4月11日(四)03:00(曼联主场)；次回合：4月17日(三)03:00(巴塞罗那主场)。

Manchester United only achieved 17 wins, 7 draws and 5 losses in the first 5 rounds of the league this season. Mourinho was fired after a disastrous defeat to rival Liverpool, and Solskjaer served as interim coach.

After taking over the team, Suo Shuai's coaching skills were immediately demonstrated. Since he took office, he has achieved an excellent record of 11 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, helping Manchester United return to the top four in the league.

La Liga giants Barcelona are still performing steadily this season. At present, with nine rounds left in the league, they are far ahead of the second-ranked Atletico Madrid by 10 points.

In addition, the team has achieved a [-]-game unbeaten streak in the near future, including two consecutive defeats in the league and the Copa del Rey against rival Real Madrid, which is enough to show its fiery state.

The team's top star Messi has scored 41 goals and sent 15 assists in all competitions, and is still the most important core of Barcelona's offensive line.

The development trajectories of these two super giants in recent years can be described as very different:
Barcelona still maintains its dominance in the country, and it has always been a favorite in the Champions League. The players have experienced the baptism of various big scenes and have an absolute advantage in competition experience.

On the other hand, Manchester United has not only experienced large fluctuations in league results in recent years, but even missed the Champions League twice, so most of the young players in the team have little experience in participating in the Champions League knockout rounds.

Therefore, in this group of matchups, Barcelona will have an absolute advantage in terms of experience and psychology. In addition, the situation of the two teams in the domestic league is also very different:
Barcelona's leading advantage in La Liga allows the team to have room for error tolerance and rotation, allowing players to focus more on the Champions League knockout rounds;

And Manchester United is currently in the fierce stage of the league's fourth-place competition, and there must be no mistakes in every game, so the team may face a situation where the league and the Champions League will burn at both ends.

In general, due to Barcelona's strong pass control and midfield control, they will occupy most of the ball in these two rounds of the game, and try to break through Manchester United with delicate frontcourt cooperation in the positional battle. The goal; and the Red Devils are mostly based on solid defense, and then wait for opportunities to find Barcelona's pass errors for a quick counterattack.

The combination of Liverpool vs Porto is the least suspenseful in the quarterfinals. Some football professionals even claimed: "If Porto can sell a few players after two failed games, it will be a victory!"

Liverpool's performance this season is very outstanding, not only temporarily topping the Premier League (leading by 1 point), but also suppressing the momentum of old rival Manchester City in various cup competitions.

The new aid Alisson sits at the gate to make the team's defense more stable. It is currently the team with the fewest goals conceded in the Premier League.

Although in order to balance offense and defense, Liverpool changed their unrestrained offensive mode last year and became more conservative this season, resulting in a decline in the number of goals scored.

Especially at the end of January and early February this year when Zhang Mai was absent, the Red Army fell into a low ebb. There were four draws in seven games, which wiped out the 14-point lead in the league. The state of the game has been supported, and it has played its true role as a new super giant.

The Portuguese super giant Porto is currently ranked second in the league and is in a state of burning at both ends of the league and the Champions League.

Recently, they have been in a three-game winning streak, especially in the second round of the Champions League round of sixteen. After defeating the strong opponent Roma 3-1 at home, they advanced with a total score of 4-3, and their morale was boosted.

Generally speaking, Porto has the usual technical style of the Iberian Peninsula, and has a strong physique. With two former Real Madrid veterans Cascias and Pepe in the backcourt, they still have the strength to be upset.

However, the difference in strength between this group of matches is relatively large. The two teams faced each other in the round of 5 last season. At that time, Liverpool won 0-[-] in the away game, and it was even a trial match when they returned home in the second leg.

However, this time the battle is over again, and Porto veteran Cassias has already said "Liverpool must respect us".

Although the Red Army has the upper hand, there are hidden worries. In the first game, they face the influence of the main left-back Robertson’s accumulative yellow card suspension. Whether the substitute Moreno can withstand Porto’s powerful wing attack is a point of view. The second leg is a guest at the Fire Dragon Stadium. The Red Army’s away game in the Champions League this season is weak It is also difficult to say whether the weakness of the game will be manifested again.

The battle in the lower half showed a "clear strength and weakness" situation. It is generally expected that Liverpool can easily advance, and Barcelona and Manchester United will play good games, but Barcelona is still the dominant side.

The combination of Manchester United and Barcelona, ​​Barcelona is more favorable in terms of strength, schedule pressure, and not having to be distracted from the league. Manchester United has been in full swing since Suo Shuai took office. The quiet Old Trafford stadium has once again become the home of the devil. However, Manchester United can give it a go in the Champions League. After all, after going through the dark period of "Mourinho's third year", it is very rare for the team to come here, and every extra step is a surprise.As for Liverpool and Porto, due to the large gap in strength between the two teams and the gap of five goals in the match last season, relatively little attention has been paid to Liverpool. Liverpool is expected to squeeze into the semi-finals of the Champions League for two consecutive years.

The two teams in the bottom half that have a chance to compete for the final ticket are Barcelona and Liverpool.If the two armies face each other in the semi-finals, it will definitely be a fierce battle.

In view of the grievances and grievances between Barcelona and Liverpool in the transfer market, the treatment of Suarez and Coudinho's "going home" is also the focus of watching the game.

On the whole, Barcelona is the team with the best chance of entering the final in the second half, but Liverpool's crazy attack line, the intensity of the midfield fight, the more balanced offense and defense, and the home court advantage are all things that cannot be underestimated. Half-district forecasts are more variable.

……

The whole of Europe is arguing about the upcoming quarter-finals of the Champions League. With the exit of Real Madrid and the strength of Juventus and Barcelona in their respective leagues, the defending champion Liverpool is only tied for third with Manchester City in the odds list of the Champions League. Ranked first and second are Barcelona and Juventus respectively.

"The old era is over. Ronaldo and Messi are no longer willing to get involved in the Champions League, and their status and results will only get worse and worse."

Zhang Mai couldn't laugh or cry when he heard the latest UEFA odds list, and he was decisive when answering Crott's inquiry:

"If you want to buy the UEFA Champions League, it's best to win alone with Liverpool. Don't ask why. If you ask, you can't win two consecutive championships. I won't leave this summer!"

"Don't say that, I believe you are, but don't tie winning and transfer together, and believe that no one in this world can beat you."

Crott is skeptical, but he understands Zhang Mai's determination to compete for the Champions League this time.

(End of this chapter)