Midfielder

Liverpool, an opponent that has met three times in a row in the Premier League, I don’t know what kind of mood Chelsea fans are preparing to watch the semi-final confrontation. Anyway, many people are already considering whether to book tickets for the final in advance. .

Even many Liverpool fans feel a little melancholy about their future opponent after they eliminated Juventus. After all, Chelsea has left them too many painful memories this season. After the final, he was knocked down again by his opponent.

When Liverpool eliminated the "Old Lady", many Liverpool fans sang the team anthem in the away game, as if their Red Army era had come again. Shankly's soul once again made God favor Liverpool, and they wanted to give it up again. The reputation of the Red Army echoes in Europe!

Mourinho and Benitez have to accept this kind of face-to-face duel this time, but surprisingly, after Liverpool eliminated Juventus, Mourinho did not mention his opponent in the interview, he just He told reporters that he would prepare well for the semifinals.

Anyway, reporters in England don’t seem to have many opinions on who can win the semi-finals. What excites them is that after a few years after Manchester United won the Champions League, there is finally another Premier League team that can stand on the field. The Champions League final is here.

As for whether Liverpool will be the lucky one or Chelsea will be a representative, there is not much difference. After all, for the Premier League, they need the Champions League trophy so much now. They want to use such a trophy to prove one thing. The Premier League is definitely the number one league in the world now!

Aren't the giants in Serie A and La Liga often laughing at the era when the Premier League, except for Liverpool, couldn't find anything that could dominate the European arena? Now Chelsea and Liverpool have to shoulder the important task of winning the championship, let those people take a good look at how terrifying the rise of the Premier League is!

Many times, it takes more courage to admit reality than to oppose reality. The reality is that a Premier League team is destined to enter the 2005 Champions League final, and the semi-finals two weeks later will be turned into an outright defeat by Liverpool and Chelsea. English Derby".

There have never been two British teams entering the Champions League semi-finals at the same time. Only Leeds United and Celtic in 1970 and Liverpool and Dundee United entered the last four in 1984, but those were the English and Scots. Cooperation is not the history of English clubs.

But now those English fans can finally roar at the Serie A and La Liga giants that once dominated the European arena. I have come back! John Bull's horns have now defeated you guys who are blocking your way, now it's time for Premier League dominance!

Many times, facing reality is more painful than escaping from reality. The pain is that Juventus only needs a 1:0 at home to successfully advance to the top four, and the game process once seemed infinite. They were close to this goal, but the "old lady" led by Capello, after experiencing ten offside penalties at home, died like a terminally ill person having their painful nerves removed.

This time Liverpool won this strong dialogue in the most Chelsea way. They used a steel-barrel-like defense to kill the delusions of the Italian fans. They also wore away Del Piero and others in this strangling battle. Human spirituality won the ticket to the semi-finals with the most unappreciable playing method. After the game, some reporters from England even wrote in their reports that we used Italian tactics to kill them.

But those Italian reporters and commentators lamented helplessly at the end of the game. Juventus was now too weak to kill a team that ranked seventh in the Premier League. They not only lost the game , which caused Serie A to lose another fortress.

When it officially emerged from the Premier League model, Serie A was being chased and blocked by its opponents because of its gradually weakening economic conditions. Perhaps more than a decade ago, they could still laugh at the backwardness of the English. Even Zola and Vialli could not play in Serie A. The main players can make a difference in the Premier League, which makes many Italian fans look down on this Premier League where the poor suddenly become rich.

But in just ten years, the Premier League has now become so strong that the Italians are desperate, especially when Chelsea began to rise rapidly with the support of a lot of money, the gap between the Premier League clubs and the Serie A giants has gradually gradually of reduction.

Just look at the European competitions in the past two years. Chelsea has reached the semi-finals for two consecutive years, but last season no team in Serie A appeared in the semi-finals. Maybe you will say that it was an accident, but this The season is still the same. There are now two Premier League teams in the semi-finals, but only AC Milan is left in Italy. As long as they can make it to the final, they must meet their opponents from England head-on.

"The demise of the Mini World Cup is inevitable. The financial gap has made Serie A no longer a gold rush for players. Only the Premier League can attract high-level players to join. Maybe this situation will further increase in the next ten years. , until we are completely desperate.”

This is the prediction of the Italian media for the future. With the influx of foreign funds into the Premier League, Italy's attraction to world-class stars is declining year by year. Even wealthy clubs like AC Milan and Inter Milan have to guard against their players being Poached by the Premier League.

This is not alarmist, but a real situation. Compared with the Premier League clubs that spend tens of millions of euros to acquire players, it is estimated that only Inter Milan in Serie A can afford to invest so much money, and that is because of the crazy chairman Moratti.

Even AC Milan said before the end of this season that they might not introduce any big-name players in the summer transfer market, and Galliani's work focus should be on the renewal of the players. In the case of the economic depression of Serie A, even big-name teams like AC Milan can only tap the potential in their own league. Buying players? The transfer fee of tens of millions is indeed a big burden.

Especially Chelsea's checkbook, which has been opened for a long time, has put pressure on many teams. No one knows what kind of storm these crazy people are going to stir up in the transfer market. Now that tens of millions have been spent, it is difficult for you to even hear a sound. This is the helplessness of Serie A teams.

Maybe in the past, Serie A fans could still laugh at the English people's rough and careless way of playing on the court, but since this season, they have felt the changes in the opponent's tactics and playing style through real games. Those English people have become smarter.

Especially after Mourinho joined Chelsea, it seems that many Premier League teams suddenly became enlightened. They know how to weigh the pros and cons in the game. Some stupid mistakes are gradually disappearing from the Premier League teams, and they are also beginning to become unusually smooth in the European arena.

Fully defend, reduce mistakes, and strangle the opponent's control. This kind of play has gradually penetrated into the tactical play of the Premier League teams. Maybe now the Italians should look up and see that when the Premier League teams meet them, they will also play a more concrete defense than them.

After Liverpool eliminated Juventus, many Serie A fans have now placed their last hope on AC Milan. They can only hope that this red and black army that has been galloping in Europe for many years can kill those rude English people in the final in Istanbul.

However, they must first overcome the hurdle of PSV Eindhoven. After 120 minutes of hard fighting, the Lyon team, which many people were optimistic about, failed to make it to the Philips Stadium. The French team, who were still looking forward to reaching the semi-finals again, finally fell in the penalty shootout.

This is also the first time that a penalty shootout has appeared in the knockout stage of the European Champions Cup this season. In the first half, Lyon led PSV Eindhoven in the twelfth minute with Wiltord's goal, but the team led by Hiddink fought back strongly in the last ten minutes.

In the almost life-and-death attack, PSV Eindhoven gambled successfully. Before the end of the game, they relied on Alex's goal in front of the goal to penetrate the goal guarded by Coupe, and also dragged the PSV Eindhoven team, which was on the verge of death, back to the battle for the semi-finals.

However, in the subsequent games and overtime, although both sides had fierce offensive firepower, they ultimately failed to knock on the opponent's goal. They could only enter the final penalty shootout with a total score of 2:2 in two rounds. That was no longer a battlefield where strength determined everything.

But the French have never taken any advantage in penalty shootouts, from the national team to the club. Perhaps only when Zidane led the team could they have some luck in penalty shootouts, but such good luck did not pass on to the Lyon team.

Two of four penalties, this is the penalty score of the Lyon team. After Coupe tried his best to save Beasley's penalty, his teammates were not able to fight for it. No matter how long Lyon had dominated the game, in the end they could only leave the Netherlands with a depressed look.

However, Hiddink did not seem to be very excited about his team's victory. No wonder, this Dutch old man who could lead the South Korean team all the way to the World Cup semi-finals did not need to cheer for such a result in the Champions League semi-finals, and he also knew that this was already the limit.

"The gap between us and AC Milan? Perhaps the quality of the trophies in the honors display rooms of the two teams can explain everything." This is what Hiddink said to reporters after the game. The Dutchman knew very well that PSV Eindhoven's entry into the semi-finals was largely due to luck.

Want to black AC Milan? Just like what Deportivo La Coruna did last year? I guess Hiddink himself has thought about it, but his brain is still clear. This time Ancelotti's team will definitely not make the same mistake as last year, and PSV Eindhoven has no chance.

The semi-finals, one is already a miracle. Maybe now PSV Eindhoven fans should put aside all distractions and prepare to enjoy the semi-final with AC Milan. After all, guys like Kaka and Shevchenko don't often come to the Philips Stadium.

For the duel between AC Milan and PSV Eindhoven, it seems that there won't be too many surprises. Now there may be only a little suspense in the duel between Chelsea and Liverpool, but how big this suspense will be, maybe after the first round of the game, the answer will be revealed.

Lin Yi looked at the first round of the semi-finals and turned to Mourinho and said, "This season, we have to let Liverpool remember how painful it is to be knocked down five times by the same person."

Is there any suspense? Maybe, but for Lin Yi, all this is not a problem. . .

(I don't know what Mourinho is feeling now. In Real Madrid, he really doesn't have too many tactical options. Alas.)