Coaching legend

As soon as the list of the top eight teams in the Champions League came out, England was in a state of excitement.

The most embarrassing thing was the Italian football world. Serie A, known as the Little World Cup, only had one club enter the top eight of the Champions League this season. That is Roma.

Unfortunately, Roma's draw was not very good, and they ran into Arsenal, the nemesis of Serie A clubs.

Arsenal has faced Italian teams several times in recent years, and each time they have an absolute upper hand. Even when they faced Juventus twice in the death group, they stepped on Juventus.

Although Serie A still has many world-class stars, the decline in Serie A's competitiveness is unquestionable. Moreover, Roma's ability to break through the group stage has a lot to do with Blackburn, which has already secured the first place in the group stage, not paying much attention in the last round of the group stage.

Barcelona is still counting on Blackburn to beat Roma. In this way, they can appear with the advantage of goal difference, but George does not have that awareness. Otherwise, as long as George pays attention, Roma will really find it difficult to break through the group stage.

In the 1998-99 season, there were still two Serie A clubs in the Champions League quarterfinals. In the 1999-00 season, there was only one club in the Champions League quarterfinals. As for last season's Champions League, no club made it out of the group stage.

Serie A has gradually fallen from the small World Cup.

As for other leagues, they are different.

La Liga, the world's strongest league, has only one place, which is the powerful Real Madrid. Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruna, who participated, were both eliminated in the group stage.

And the Bundesliga has two clubs in the Champions League knockout stage. Bayern and Leverkusen.

Only the Premier League has three places in the Champions League quarterfinals for two consecutive seasons. And these three places happen to be the Premier League places for the Champions League. Starting from next season, the Premier League will have four Champions League places.

Since Manchester United won the Champions League in 1998-99, the Premier League has inadvertently formed a group advantage in the Champions League.

In the past three seasons, the fewest Premier League clubs in the Champions League quarterfinals was the year before last, with two clubs. But Blackburn also won a League Cup that year. After that, there have always been three places. Although Manchester United has not won the Champions League since it won the Champions League in 1999. But the strength of the Premier League is evident.

And all along, in the Champions League, Manchester United has been the only team to carry the flag. Arsenal basically just played soy sauce.

But I don’t know if Manchester United’s winning the Champions League inspired the English team. Since then, English clubs have been accurate in the group stage. Look at Arsenal, which has always been weak in the Champions League. They were able to break through the two death groups last year.

This season’s death group is drawn together with four European powerhouses. But Arsenal stepped on Juventus and Deportivo La Coruna and entered the Champions League quarterfinals.

Now there is a strong team like Blackburn.

The Premier League is getting stronger and stronger in the Champions League.

Therefore, the English media is very excited.

…………

But after half a month, the English media was not only excited. It was crazy. The entire English media was crazy.

Because half a month later, on April 11, after the second game of the Champions League quarter-finals, the list of the Champions League semi-finals came out, and the whole of Europe saw what strength is. What group advantage is.

First, Blackburn tied with Panathinaikos in an away game on April 3, 1:1.

Many people saw that Panathinaikos from Greece is not a weak team that can be bullied by everyone. But George was very happy because he got a draw away from home and scored an away goal. George is confident about the home game.

George's confidence is definitely not aimless. It is based on the strength of the two teams.

Of course, in order to prevent the same thing as last season, George was very cautious about the second game.

He thought about everything that could happen. Then he analyzed them one by one. George analyzed almost all kinds of emergencies. There were seven or eight emergency plans, which made Evan and Carl next to him laugh and cry.

But they can understand George.

Last season, in such a favorable situation, Valencia turned the tables. It is understandable that George was a little worried.

Fortunately, the game went very smoothly.

At home, Blackburn did not give Panathinaikos any leeway. At the end of the first half, they were already leading 2-0. George even played the returning Klose in the second half. After Klose came back, his condition was not very stable.

George hoped that Klose could recover his condition as soon as possible.

In the second half, Pires scored another goal and defeated Panathinaikos 3-0 cleanly.

In this way, Blackburn defeated Panathinaikos 4-1 in two rounds. And Blackburn entered the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in history.

All the media expected Blackburn to enter the Champions League semi-finals. After all, Blackburn's strength is there. A Premier League champion team faces a Greek champion team. If it fails, it will be an upset.

In the other game, Manchester United played against Leverkusen.

Ferguson's Manchester United was in a very poor state in the Premier League this season. At the end of the season, it was 20 points behind Blackburn. What a huge gap. But they are still very strong in the Champions League.

In the first game on April 4, we challenged Leverkusen away. In history, Leverkusen was very strong this season. And it was also the famous Sanya King. In the Champions League, it was invincible and reached the Champions League final.

Unfortunately, Leverkusen ran into the experienced Ferguson.

Ferguson is really strong. Especially when it comes to such an important game, he is even stronger. In the away game, he actually defeated the powerful Leverkusen 2-1.

In the second game on April 10, Manchester United defeated Leverkusen 1-0 at Old Trafford.

In this way, Leverkusen, which was originally extremely powerful in history, could only stop in the quarterfinals. Manchester United entered the Champions League semi-finals with a total score of 3-1 in two rounds.

This is not the end.

Arsenal's game against Roma was even easier for Arsenal.

It should be said that Wenger's Arsenal would find it difficult to win against Capello, the boss of utilitarian football. But the process was not like this.

Arsenal defeated Roma 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome in the first game. And after returning to the home court, they beat Roma 3-1, which made Roma cry and go home.

Even George couldn't figure out why Roma, coached by Capello, was defeated by Arsenal so badly.

Anyway, when the game was over and the results came out, everyone was stunned.

The Premier League has completed three seats in the top four of the Champions League. The Premier League is completely a situation of three heroes fighting Lu Bu for Real Madrid.

No one expected this.

Even The Times wrote a headline like "Premier League Prosperity!"

"Fourteen years after the Heysel tragedy, the Premier League overlord Manchester United won the Champions League again on behalf of the English team."

"After that, the Premier League teams began to exert their strength in the Champions League. Last season, there were three places in the quarterfinals and one team entered the Champions League semi-finals. And this season, there are already three teams in the Champions League semi-finals."

"Europe, we are back!"

"We were once the English League One, and now we are back in the name of the Premier League!"

It is really very aggrieved to talk about the English football world. When the English League One swept the European football world, Liverpool, Villa, Nottingham Forest, Everton and other teams were all European powerhouses. How powerful the English League One was at that time can be shown with the simplest data.

It took eight years from Liverpool winning their first Champions League in 1977 to Liverpool winning their fourth Champions League in 1984. In these eight seasons, the English League One clubs won seven of the Champions League titles.

Liverpool won four, Nottingham Forest won two, and Aston Villa won one. What kind of dominance is seven Champions Leagues in eight seasons

Of course, in 1985, when the Heysel tragedy occurred, Liverpool was still the strongest team in Europe at the time, and finally entered the Champions League final. At that time, Liverpool was highly favored to win the fifth Champions League title, and many people believed that Liverpool had the strength to do so. However, man proposes, God disposes. A tragedy that no one could have imagined occurred, and of course there was a controversial penalty kick in the game, and Liverpool eventually lost the game.

It was that abominable "Heysel tragedy" that seriously damaged the vitality of English football.

This is a watershed. The English First League has gone from being the world's first league and dominating European football to becoming a league for the English to entertain themselves.

In particular, the ban made it impossible for English football to attract world-class superstars. It also made English football stay away from European football because of its isolation. In the end, it slowly fell behind European football. It was not until the ban was lifted and they participated in European competitions that people in the English football world realized that they had fallen far behind European football.

It took almost ten years for the English football world to recover and stand in front of European football again.

As the originator of modern football, the English football world is proud. However, the Premier League's unsatisfactory performance in Europe has made the English football world a little depressed. They are all waiting, waiting for the Premier League to stand firm in Europe.

Now they have waited.

Since Manchester United won the Champions League, the performance of Premier League clubs in the Champions League has been getting better and better.

This season's Champions League semi-finals are even more like three teams besieging Real Madrid.

If we don't show off at this time, we are not the English media.

The Times is just a representative. All the English media are reporting this grand occasion.

The entire English football world is like a festival.

Those so-called English football celebrities who usually don't know where the cat is, also came out one after another. They also came out to celebrate together. Everyone means the same thing. English football is finally back!