"Congratulations."

Allegri was in a bad mood, but as the master, he still showed his demeanor. After the game, he congratulated Lin Sen with a smile on his face. But he didn't know that his emotions could not be hidden from Lin Sen's eyes.

Compared with the smile that Allegri almost squeezed out, Lin Sen's smile on his face was much more natural.

Not only because Allegri's words before the game are almost like shooting himself in the foot, but also because of the score on the court, he is optimistic about Manchester City's advancement to the next round.

Very optimistic.

Lin Sen did not sprinkle salt on Allegri's "wound", and shook hands with the other party and went their own way.

Problem solved.

At the end of the game, Sky Sports commentator Andy Grey used Allegri's words to summarize the results of the game before the game. Of course, there is a sarcastic meaning, and it is far more lethal than Allegri who had been empty talk before.

Three to one.

The score is not too high, but if it is placed in the knockout round of two rounds and is a home game background, it will be enough to make many teams desperate about promotion. Of course, there are only a lot, not all, for example, Allegri doesn't think so.

"We are not lucky. We don't mean to make excuses, but I think as long as we have watched the game, we will know that our chances are far more than our opponents. Of course, our opponents performed well. Now we are in a very unfavorable situation, but I don't think that the promotion has lost its suspense. In the second round, we must do our best."

This is what Allegri said at the post-match press conference, facing Lin Sen. Lin Sen, who had just shook hands with him, did not fight back on the spot. He just smiled on his face and just pretended to be deaf.

It's bold and sensible, anyway, as long as you have a mouth, it's not difficult to say it. What's important is whether you can achieve it. But compared with before the game, Lin Sen didn't think that Ali Agri was trying to provoke him this time, but he wasn't naive enough to take the initiative to shake hands after the game, just to admit defeat.

The team's head coach is like a commander. Even if the situation is critical, the coach's coach's flag will still be there 2. Otherwise, what awaits them will be defeated like a mountain. Therefore, even if AC Milan has almost lost the urgent hope, Allegri still has to bite the bullet and win back the confidence of his team.

This has nothing to do with what he thinks.

Defeated AC Milan away. Back to Manchester, what awaited Lin Sen was not a big sigh of relief, but a "no-reck" battle.

Since he was tied by Notts County in the FA Cup, Manchester City needed to play another rematch with his opponent, and this game was finally arranged three days after the game against AC Milan. Manchester City did not have any rigid requirements for the FA Cup, which is more important than the League Cup, and Lin Sen did not have the habit of collecting trophies, fish and bear's paws. It is good to have both, but often, you have to make choices.

Of course, there is no need to give up voluntarily. After all, Manchester City was eliminated from the League Cup early. Although they performed well in the league and the Champions League, the FA Cup still occupies a certain position in the hearts of fans. Once Manchester City makes any mistakes in the Champions League, there will be a FA Cup. It will not instantly fall from the third-line battle to the embarrassment of being alone all the way.

In the rematch against Notts County, none of the players who started against AC Milan did, but they were the same as in the last round. Manchester City, who had no idea what evil he had won away, returned to home, and once again showed his might. A five-to-zero score, sending out the FA Cup, which had almost eliminated Manchester City. Then in the fifth round of the FA Cup, the quarterfinals, Manchester City finally did not let the opponent upset this time, and "revenge" with a clean three-to-zero home game before defeating his own Aston Villa in the league and successfully entered the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.

In the following two rounds of league games, the Premier League leader ran back and forth between two stadiums in the city of Manchester.

First, Manchester City fell first in the 28th round, and was tied by Fulham at home. The goal difference disadvantage caused the leader to run from the city stadium to Old Trafford. However, in the 29th round, Manchester United sent the leader back to the city stadium by itself because they lost to their arch rival Liverpool 1-3 away, while Manchester City defeated Wigan Athletic.

After the 29th round of the league, Manchester City returned to the top of the list, but the competition for the championship in the league is becoming more and more intense. Behind Manchester City is Manchester United, who is only three points away, and then Arsenal and Chelsea, who have extremely close points. It is worth mentioning that Chelsea. After the winter transfer, Chelsea began to recover and won all the last two rounds. Compared with Chelsea, Arsenal's performance in the recent stage is another negative teaching material. They were originally close to Manchester City's two-man champion in the league standings, but they failed to continue their performance in defeating the universe team Barcelona 2-1 at home. First, they lost to Birmingham in the League Cup final, losing the opportunity to win the first championship in recent years, and then they suffered two consecutive draws in the league, and failed to benefit when Manchester City and Manchester United fell.

Of course, regardless of whether they perform well or badly recently, the top group in the Premier League rankings this season is still the four teams from last season. Although Liverpool has performed well recently after changing coaches, and even staged a good show of defeating Manchester United at home this round, this does not change the fact that they fell behind in the league, because the pit they dug before was too big. Until now, the gap between them and fourth-place Chelsea is still as many as thirteen points.

On March 10, Manchester City welcomed AC Milan again at home.

Although some "sorry" home fans who once again burst into the city stadium, Linson adopted another game strategy that was completely different from the away game in this game, which was to counterattack. Regarding Linson's choice, Andy Gray was angry that he was conservative, while Martin Taylor smiled and said that this was a smart choice.

The two commentators actually make sense, just lead by defending? What is this not conservative? But from another perspective, the advantage lies in your own hands, and the opponent should be anxious, so why should you be anxious to attack at this time?

Of course, the final right and wrong of the two understandings must be judged.

If Lin Sen's "conservative" fails to allow Manchester City to withstand Milan's attack, then Lin Sen is ruining the good game. But if Lin Sen's "conservative" allows Manchester City to finally advance, then Lin Sen's choice is smart. In this game, Lin Sen is not very lucky to become a smart person.

In fact, when it is conservative, Lin Sen just made a fine adjustment in the lineup, which was to let Vidal replace David Silva's position and add a layer of concrete to the midfield barrier that was originally a brick and iron wall.

From the first half to the second half, AC Milan, who had no way out, attacked most of the half-time game, but still failed to get even a decent opportunity. In the 73rd minute, Manchester City "stole" a goal. The goal was Adriano, an old acquaintance of AC Milan, who scored a powerful long-range shot.

The score became one to zero.

The total score has become four to one.

There are less than twenty minutes left in the game, and in this period of time, which is definitely not short for the current score but is definitely not long for the total score. If AC Milan still wants to advance, they will first have to copy what another English team in Istanbul did to them, and scored three goals in the second half.

Then, they can return to the same starting line as Manchester City.

Allegri's team once saw a glimmer of hope. In the 80th minute of the game, Pato scored a goal to catch the score one-to-one, but even so, they still had a gap of two goals. The time when they stood opposite them from the beginning of this game will not give them any discounts.

Time will only get less and less.

When the whistle was remembered, a burst of warm applause broke out from the city court.

The score is still one to one, and the total score is four to two.

In two rounds, AC Milan scored the first goal and the last goal, but Manchester City advanced.

Eliminating AC Milan, Manchester City became one of the four teams to advance to the quarterfinals. Before that, Arsenal was unfortunately unable to withstand Barcelona's counterattack at the Camp Nou Stadium and was eliminated in the Champions League first. Roma, who lost to Donetsk miners in the first leg, failed to make a comeback away. They lost a slight zero-to-three. In addition to Barcelona and Donetsk miners, the German team Schalke 04 appeared on the same day, and they were eliminated by Valencia of La Liga.

As for the other four games, although the game will not take place within a week, the teams qualifying for these four games are actually not very suspense, because except for the match between Inter Milan and Bayern, which is similar in strength, and the grudges between Real Madrid and Lyon were a bit unpredictable due to last season, the strength of the other two games was so huge that from the moment the draw result came out, you can almost determine who will qualify. In addition, there was no unpopular result in the first round, which also made these games even more suspenseless.

Manchester United vs. Marseille, Chelsea vs. Copenhagen.

If there is no accident, obviously, there will be three Premier League teams and two La Liga teams in the quarterfinals.

Of course, the reason why Lin Sen is concerned about the results of other games is not because he is so enthusiastic about other English teams, but because in the next round of knockout matches and quarter-finals, there will be no rules for drawing lots at that time. In other words, there is no principle of avoidance between the same country, no seed teams to speak of, and even the number of home and away games will be decided by drawing lots.

In this case, Manchester City may encounter any opponent.

Manchester United including Ferguson, Barcelona of Guardiola, and naturally Mourinho's Real Madrid, if Mourinho's team can pass the mark smoothly. (To be continued)

...
Chapter completed!