Super Marshal

In the 21st round of La Liga, Chinatown, with 68% of the ball possession, relied on Miranda and Alex Sandro's two goals in the second half to win 2-0 away from home. Defeated Celta Vigo and won two consecutive victories.

In the 22nd round of La Liga, they faced Real Mallorca at home. Still in the second half, Hazard, Griezmann and Pelle scored successively to help Chinatown defeat their opponents 3-0. The ball possession rate throughout the game once again increased. Reaching 67 percent.

In the 23rd round of La Liga, they challenged Zaragoza away from home. In just 11 minutes, Griezmann scored the first goal for the team, and then Pellet scored another goal. However, before the end of the game, starting central defender Va Rané scored an own goal and eventually won the away game 2-1, with the ball possession rate once again reaching 68%.

A wave of four consecutive victories has caused Chinatown's league ranking to rise rapidly, jumping to fourth place, only four points behind Real Madrid. This shocked the entire La Liga, and Real Madrid felt the pressure from top to bottom.

If Chinatown is really knocked down from the third place in the league, then it may not only be Mourinho who is fired immediately, but someone from the management may even have to step up and take responsibility to calm the anger of the members.

Under the state of emergency, the management came forward, and Mourinho and the players reached an agreement. Both parties decided to speak out at the critical moment to resolve the crisis currently facing Real Madrid.

In the middle of the week, in the first round of the Champions League knockout round of the top 16, they challenged Porto away from home. Although they had 68% of the ball possession rate, they were defeated by Porto in the 66th minute with a counterattack by Jackson... Martinez scored the winning goal and returned from the away game in despair.

After returning to La Liga, we ushered in the twenty-fourth round.

Although Hazard scored a goal for Chinatown in the 18th minute, Michel equalized the score for Levante in the 29th minute. The two sides ended up drawing one to one, and the whole audience in Chinatown The ball possession rate was once again as high as 65%.

A week later, in the 25th round of La Liga, they challenged Bielsa's Athletic Bilbao away.

This time, Chinatown encountered a tenacious sniper attack from the opponent. For the first time, it fell behind the opponent in terms of ball possession rate, only getting 44%. However, it relied on the achievements of Griezmann, Rakitic and Hazard. The ball reversed Athletic Bilbao 3-1.

After this round, Chinatown is still ranked fourth in the league, but the debate continues.

Pochettino's team is obviously getting better and better in terms of control. It suppresses opponents on the scene and has an advantage in ball possession. However, it is often unable to open up the situation on the offensive end. It has no ball possession but cannot create a threat. This makes players including Many commentators, including Matayana and de la Morena, are worried.

After twenty-five rounds, Chinatown scored 46 points, four points ahead of fifth-placed Málaga, and firmly ranked fourth in the league, but lagging behind Real Madrid, which has recently won consecutive victories. The player scored fifty-two points.

What is the reason why Chinatown can have such an overwhelming advantage in passing and control, but has never been able to create a threat on the offensive end?

A week later, in the 26th round of La Liga, the ball control nightmare happened again to Chinatown.

With a 66% ball possession rate, they were beaten 3-3 at home by Real Sociedad.

After this round, Chinatown is still firmly ranked fourth in the league, but the point gap with third-placed Real Madrid has widened to eight points. This has made Chinatown’s desire to catch up with the top three first-team players become increasingly difficult. It's been very difficult.

Under this situation, many media that favor Chinatown have also commented, analyzing the gap between Chinatown and the top three teams in the league. The most summarized factor is undoubtedly the offensive end.

Judging from the data between Chinatown and Real Madrid, the defensive strength of the two teams is similar, but Chinatown has 20 fewer goals than Real Madrid on the offensive end, which is almost the total goals scored by Chinatown so far. Half of the number, but in terms of ball possession rate, Chinatown is better than Real Madrid.

This has also led many media to believe that Chinatown should play more aggressively.

However, Pochettino and the coaching staff’s explanation for this is not completely unreasonable. In an internal meeting, he said that the reason why the team is in a situation where they are in a strong position and cannot score is mainly due to the multi-line battle and the fact that the players are generally relatively young and capable. relation.

Pochettino also admitted that he failed to fully realize the team's potential in rotation and offense, but he expressed confidence that the team will maintain its fourth place in the league at the end of the season.

Regarding the commitment from the coaching staff, Cantarero clearly expressed his support and reiterated that the management will continue to unconditionally support Pochettino's coaching in the team. He also conveyed Gao Han's opinion and hoped that Pochettino would reconsider the team's coaching. Contract renewal.

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On the evening of March 6th, Leganes Brok Stadium.

When the referee blew the final whistle, Pochettino breathed a sigh of relief in front of the home team's coaching bench.

Two to zero, Chinatown narrowly won Porto at home.

The strength of the Portuguese Super League team is not weak. As a regular player in the Champions League, Porto is also very competitive.

The away game was zero to one, so Chinatown had to win the opponent at home. But surprisingly, Porto played very bravely in the away game. They played very actively after the start. Four yellow cards in thirty minutes were enough to prove it. Porto's tenacious fighting spirit in this game, but the effect is also obvious.

Chinatown was disrupted from the beginning and the game was very chaotic.

But at critical moments, the strength of the players determines the trend of the game.

In the 43rd minute, the continuous cooperation between Hazard, Alex Sandro and Isco gave Isco a chance to kick in the penalty area and scored the first goal of the game. Goal.

A goal brought the two sides back to the same starting line and greatly eased the pressure on Chinatown.

After changing sides in the second half, Chinatown continued to maintain its advantage in passing and controlling the field. Porto focused on defensive counterattacks and waited for Chinatown to make mistakes. But what they were waiting for was in the 57th minute, Pellet's One goal.

After taking a two-goal lead, Chinatown took the initiative to qualify, but it also greatly stimulated Porto.

In the last half hour, the Portuguese Super League team launched a continuous offensive towards Chinatown like crazy. Jackson Martinez, with the support of teammates such as Defour and Varela, attacked again and again. Chinatown goal.

Pochettino's team had to switch from offense to defense. The central defender composed of Godin and Miranda withstood the attack from Porto, making it difficult for Porto to face the goal directly and clinging to the score of 2-0.

Especially in the 89th minute, Porto player Defour received his second yellow card and was sent off with a red card. The pressure on Chinatown was relieved. In the end, they almost won 2-0, with a total score of 2. Biyi successfully reversed Porto and advanced.

Once again advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League, Chinatown was in a state of carnival. All the substitute players rushed into the stadium and celebrated the team's promotion in front of more than 10,000 fans.

But head coach Pochettino, who was standing on the sidelines, frowned because he was clearly aware of the team's problems.

The attack is weak!

It stands to reason that Porto's defense is not tight, and the defense headed by Mangala is also very young and inexperienced. If Chinatown's offense plays better, the game can be played more easily, even one game. A big victory is not impossible, but now it is so dangerous.

The most obvious thing is that in the first round, Chinatown had the advantage, but was scored by the opponent through a counterattack. This was a painful blow to both the players and the coaching staff.

In the second round of the game, the coaching staff learned from the experience and began to adjust their tactics. They no longer focused on passing and controlling the midfield, but instead allowed the players to pass through the midfield quickly and try to make the goal easier and more efficient.

The second goal basically reflected this idea of ​​the coaching staff. After stealing the ball, he launched a quick counterattack and drove directly to the frontcourt to find Pellet. Pellet then used his stable back-up ball-taking skills to unload the ball. Launch an attack.

Looking back at the first goal, it was a typical Barcelona goal.

But it's clear that Pochettino feels his team should pursue the second option.

"Michelle, it's time for us to make adjustments and changes."

Pochettino said to his chief assistant coach Michel D'Agostino.

He also knew in his heart that this choice also represented the first disagreement between him and the management headed by Gao Han and Cantarero.

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When Chinatown struggled to reverse Porto 2-1 at home and successfully broke through from the top 16 knockout round, Gao Han also led Paris Saint-Germain to advance smoothly.

According to the rules of the Champions League knockout rounds, the first-leg matchup for the group leader was an away game. Chinatown defeated Celtic 3-0 away without any suspense. In just three minutes, Suarez opened the scoring for Paris Saint-Germain.

After that, Di Maria and Aubameyang scored goals successively, helping Paris Saint-Germain defeat their opponents 3-0 in the first round.

After returning to the Parc des Princes in Paris, Paris Saint-Germain played more relaxedly and freely.

Neymar took the lead in scoring just five minutes into the game, and the Brazilian scored again in the 39th minute.

Entering the halftime break with a score of 2-0, the team changed sides in the second half and fought again. Aubameyang scored another victory in the 55th minute, extending the score to 3-0, and then made three consecutive substitutions. , but Marcelo’s goal in the 84th minute completely sealed the victory of the game.

Four to zero, with a total score of seven to zero, Paris Saint-Germain defeated Celtic with a huge strength advantage and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.

This also made Paris Saint-Germain famous in European football again, becoming the team with the strongest offensive ability and sharpest in the two rounds of the top 16 knockout rounds. Gao Han's successful offensive combination this season left an extremely deep impression on people. impression.

However, Paris Saint-Germain was able to stand out, but there were also teams that were eliminated.

Arsenal met Bayern Munich in the round of 16 and was eliminated by Jupp Heynckes' team, ultimately missing the chance to advance.

Both Manchester United and Inter Milan also performed poorly in the knockout rounds and missed the chance to advance. Especially Inter Milan, which did not perform very well in the group stage this season. In the knockout round of the top 16, they were completely defeated by Barcelona and missed the chance to advance.

The Nerazzurri's problem mainly lies in metabolism. As the team created by Gao Han gradually gets older, Adriano on the striker is already over 30 years old. With the condition difficult to guarantee, the team's offense and The defense also experienced crises one after another.

That is to say, in the midfield, players such as Hamsik and Marchisio are struggling to support, and the problem is not obvious yet.

However, after the opening of the new stadium this season, Inter Milan's revenue has increased significantly. After Moratti was eliminated, he has threatened to increase transfer efforts this summer, especially to increase signings in the striker and defense.

After finishing the Champions League knockout round of the top 16, everyone has set their sights on Nyon, Switzerland.

The draw for the Champions League quarter-finals will be drawn here.