Third in the Champions League odds! The league race remained neck and neck as the title battle entered its final four rounds!
The first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals has concluded, with all four matches played.
Barcelona played steadily, securing a narrow 2-1 victory over Benfica at home.
Real Madrid suffered a major upset, losing 0-2 away to Wolfsburg!
The two La Liga giants performed very differently in the UEFA Champions League, and Cristiano Ronaldo's post-match sigh also sparked heated discussions in the media.
Defending champions Barcelona's ranking has also climbed steadily since winning the title.
The performances of the two Premier League giants, Manchester City and Manchester United, are worlds apart!
Manchester City came from behind to defeat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 away from home, taking the lead in the first leg.
Despite Ibrahimovic's confident declaration at the post-match press conference that he would lead the team to a spectacular comeback at the Etihad Stadium, such stubbornness only elicited laughter.
Manchester United, on the other hand, were soundly defeated 3-0 by Guardiola's Bayern!
Under the relentless pressure of Guardiola's Guardiola-style Tiki-taka, Icardi was isolated and helpless in this match, delivering a terrible performance.
He played the full 90 minutes, but only touched the ball 8 times, made 5 passes, and had zero shots on goal, earning the lowest rating of 3.5.
After the first round, the betting companies updated the latest odds for winning the championship:
1. Barcelona 1:2.4
2. Bayern Munich 1:3.0
3. Manchester City 1:4.5
4. Wolfsburg 1:4.8
8. Manchester United 1:20
Angry Manchester United fans "flooded" Icardi's social media.
"Manchester United spent almost 100 million euros to buy this piece of trash!"
"None shots on goal throughout the entire match! What makes him better than Rashford?"
"Can you tell? He played like a coward in both of the city derbies. He's completely unreliable against a tough match like Bayern!"
Faced with these criticisms, Icardi chose to turn a blind eye, simply ignoring them and later even disabling comments on his social media accounts.
After finishing training that morning, Tang Long returned home and first reviewed the entire recording of the previous match against Paris Saint-Germain.
This was something Chivu had told him during his time at Inter Milan: after a match, the coaching staff should review the game, but he himself should also review it again.
When Tang Long saw the through ball he had passed to Sterling, he quickly realized a problem!
He didn't notice this detail because he was so immersed in the game.
Through SportMediaset replay, it can be seen that Kimpembe, although a step slower than Sterling, still managed to touch the ball when he stretched out his foot, which slowed down Sterling's forward movement. If Sterling hadn't had excellent balance and quickly adjusted his balance to get past two players, this through ball would have been less smooth from the start.
Could you pass the ball to Sterling's dominant foot while simultaneously placing it on the opponent's weaker side?
This is a detail that Tang Long hadn't considered when he and Sterling practiced this through ball in front of him during training.
In football, aside from true reversers—who can be counted on one hand—most players are accustomed to using their dominant foot to play.
This applies to both offense and defense.
Therefore, generally speaking, left-backs prefer left-footed players, and right-backs prefer right-footed players, so as to ensure that they use their dominant foot to break up the ball when they are defending.
Tang Long also pays close attention when passing the ball, trying his best to pass it to the receiving player's dominant foot, which is something that every professional player is told to do by their coach when they receive their early training.
However, when playing this through ball combination with Sterling, both Tang Long and Sterling neglected to consider the left and right feet of the defender!
Tang Long immediately entered the AI Cloud Training Ground and began practicing this detail.
As the season progresses, the AI Cloud Training Ground has created a personal assistant model for each Manchester City player.
However, given Manchester City's current squad, Sterling is the only player on the team who can effectively play the ball in front of Tang Long and lure opponents into making early tackles.
With a supporting opponent, Tang Long and Sterling practiced non-stop.
This training session lasted for five hours.
Manchester City have one more league match to play before their second-leg UEFA Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain.
In the 34th round of the Premier League, Manchester City will host Southampton.
Pellegrini will not dare to relax in this Pellegrini either!
Even Tang Long, who had just played a full 90 minutes in an UEFA Champions League match three days prior, still got the chance to start.
In the locker room, Pellegrini solemnly instructed the players:
"Although we gained an advantage in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League, let's not forget that in the league, we only have a 5-point lead over Manchester United. A 5-point gap is very small, less than two games! Any accidental defeat could allow our opponents to close the gap with us. We must fight hard in this match as well, and try to finish the battle in the first half!"
As the season drew to a close, Pellegrini became increasingly cautious.
His single-minded focus on winning the treble this season and securing a coaching opportunity next season led him to gradually reduce his rotation of key players.
Not only Tang Long, but also Agüero, Sterling, Navas, Ranocchia, Yaya Toure and other starting players from the previous match all made an appearance again.
Pellegrini stubbornly believes that at this stage of the season, even if the players experience physical problems, their strong fighting spirit will help them overcome difficulties.
After all, there is still a significant gap between the substitutes and the starters in the current squad, which makes Pellegrini hesitant to rotate the squad easily.
Although Agüero scored a last-minute winner in the 78th minute to seal the victory for Manchester City, the difficulty of the match was far more complex than the 1-0 scoreline suggests!
Two shots left a deep impression.
One instance was in the 38th minute of the first half, when Yaya Toure, who is usually good at dribbling forward, received a through pass from Tang Long, but before he had dribbled the ball for 10 meters, he was caught up by Southampton's not-so-fast midfielder Clasie.
That's not all. Clasie, who is only 1.70 meters tall, managed to knock Toure, who is 20 centimeters taller than him, to the ground with a simple shoulder bump.
Even Clasie himself seemed surprised that the steal would be so easy.
The fans at the Etihad Stadium were absolutely stunned!
It's important to know that Clasie is a technically gifted midfielder, not particularly adept at tackling.
During halftime, Pellegrini asked Toure if he could continue. The ever-stubborn Toure gritted his teeth and claimed he had no problem, and stubbornly carried the team through the second half.
However, in the 71st minute of the second half, Kolarov made a fatal mistake that almost allowed the opponent to score first.
Wanyama, Davis, and Clasie, three Southampton midfielders, formed a small-scale encirclement around Tang Long for a moment.
The three players formed a triangle, quickly converging on Tang Long from three directions, attempting to block his passing lanes while simultaneously intercepting the ball and launching a counter-attack.
Faced with pressure, Tang Long passed the ball to Delph to divert the opponent's attention;
Delph then quickly passed the ball back, drawing away a defender. Tang Long the ball with the back of his foot, changing direction and passing it to Kolarov, who was making a run down the left flank.
With three passes and two turnovers, they broke through the encirclement of three opposing midfielders.
A round of applause erupted from the audience!
When passing the ball to Kolarov, Tang Long habitually gave him a head start.
He even took care of Kolarov's physical condition, who was already 31 years old, by not giving him too much lead time and allowing the ball to drift high enough for Kolarov to move forward.
However, Kolarov, who was over 30 years old, began to show signs of fatigue towards the end of the season after playing as a starter for most of the season.
He couldn't get the ball going when he started, and just as it was about to fly away, he rushed forward a few steps, jumped high into the air, and tried to stop the ball with his foot. But as he stretched out his leg, his calf suddenly twitched, and he felt a cramp coming on. He instinctively pulled back, and instead of stopping the ball properly, he passed it to Mane next to him!
He felt a chill run down his spine, and before his body even hit the ground, he shouted in panic!
Mane is a fast winger, so why wouldn't he gladly accept a good pass that's been delivered to him?
With a sudden burst of speed, he exploited the gap behind Kolarov and charged towards Manchester City's penalty area;
If Ranocchia hadn't used his signature lunge-step back interception at the last moment, pinning Mane to the ground along with the ball, Caballero would have had a tough time stopping Mane's one-on-one chance!
Fortunately, Pellegrini finally started making substitutions, and with Delph and Clichy coming on, Manchester City's players' overall physical condition became more balanced.
Then Agüero received a through ball from Tang Long and scored with his signature lob, helping Manchester City secure three points at home!
Meanwhile, the Manchester United vs. Newcastle match, which took place at the same time, can be described as "quiet in the UEFA Champions League, but making a big splash in the league."
Icardi scored a hat-trick, helping his team to a 3-0 away victory, keeping Manchester United firmly within 5 points of Manchester City.
However, this is not bad news for Manchester City. Although the gap between the two sides has not widened further, there is one less round in the league, leaving only four rounds.
With fewer games remaining, as long as they don't make any mistakes, Manchester United will never have a chance to catch up – this is the reassurance Pellegrini has received.
Therefore, even though the medical report issued to Pellegrini by the team's medical staff after the match showed that the team had two more injured players, he didn't take it to heart.
Toure's back inflammation flared up again, while Kolarov also suffered a minor groin strain during that jump stop.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, these two players will not be able to make it to the second leg of the knockout match against Paris Saint-Germain.
Pellegrini even said to assistant coach Rayne:
"The first leg of the match against Paris was already over. Winning this league game is more significant than the second leg of the UEFA Champions League!"