Hanging by a Thread! Barca Fights a Battle of Last Resort for Second Place, Will Manchester City Agree?
Gracie's prediction of Tang Long's injury was very accurate.
The following day, the entire Manchester City medical team re-examined Tang Long's groin and reached the unanimous conclusion that he would need to rest for two weeks before returning to the field.
Tang Long's heart tightened as he quickly calculated the schedule in his mind. Would this break mean he'd miss the final UEFA Champions League group stage match against Barcelona?
At this moment, the clock quietly pointed to the end of November 2016, and the biting cold wind foreshadowed the imminent arrival of December.
This is a crucial month. Whether Manchester City can maintain their mid-season championship position before the Christmas holidays depends on their performance in this month.
Tang Long's injury served as a wake-up call for Guardiola.
Looking back at the beginning of the season, Ranocchia, Tang Long, Gündoğan, and others have been key players for a long time. They have been frequently seen on the field and are the three players with the most appearances besides the goalkeeper.
Guardiola secretly pondered that although Tang Long was injured and would miss two rounds of the Premier League, this might be an opportunity to give Tang Long a long vacation so that he could get sufficient rest.
Fortunately, the injury discussed was not serious, and Guardiola has full confidence that Tang Long, upon his return from injury, will still be the team's most powerful weapon in attack.
The two opponents in the 13th and 14th rounds of the Premier League are not strong.
In the 13th round, Manchester City easily defeated Burnley 2-1 away, and in the 14th round at home, they defeated Watford 2-0, taking all 6 points from two games.
Manchester City remain at the top of the league.
However, Chelsea and Manchester United are still hot on their heels, both securing 6 points in two rounds.
During this period, Tang Long was unable to participate in the team's regular training due to injury, but he did not remain idle.
In the AI Cloud Training Ground, he was immersed in a virtual football world, sweating profusely.
He focused particularly on practicing the newly learned Tiger Shot.
During training, he discovered that this shooting method was completely different from other shooting methods.
Generally speaking, professional players rarely use all their strength to strike the football during a match, because this would cause their bodies to deform, making it difficult to control the direction of the ball, and making it easy to miss or even kick it into the stands.
This is why many coaches start teaching their players from a young age that they only need to use 70-80% of their power when shooting.
However, Tang Long discovered that to fully unleash the power of this Tiger Shot, one must exert all their strength and completely direct the force onto the ball!
He tried again and again, and to his astonishment, he discovered that the more force he applied, the more the ball not only didn't deviate, but instead hurtled towards the goal with even greater speed and precision...
December 6th has arrived in the blink of an eye. In the final round of the UEFA Champions League group stage, Manchester City will host Barcelona at home.
For Barcelona, this is a true life-or-death battle!
After Manchester City's victory over Borussia Monchengladbach, Manchester City's assistant coach Chivu visited the two injured Monchengladbach players in the hospital.
In that hospital room filled with the smell of disinfectant, Chivu smiled and gently comforted the injured players, encouraging them to eliminate Barca and advance to the UEFA Champions League round of 16 alongside Manchester City.
At the time, Chivu was just offering some words of comfort, because he never imagined that Monchengladbach would unleash such amazing energy after returning to their home ground.
Barcelona's attacking trio, MSN, was initially highly anticipated, but they were all in poor form, seemingly under a curse, failing to score a single goal.
Perhaps influenced by the previous round when the three were at Lionel Messi's house watching Tang Long lead Manchester City to victory over Celtic, Barca played very impatiently from the start, with anxiety written all over the players' faces.
They kept passing the ball and attacking, but the more anxious they were, the harder it became to break through Monchengladbach's goal.
Conversely, in the final stages of the match, Monchengladbach seized a counter-attack opportunity, quickly advanced, and with a powerful shot, stole the ball!
"Haha, we're going to win!" Monchengladbach striker Rafael launched a flying kick at the corner flag.
This match infuriated the Brazilian players, as they had driven themselves into a corner.
The current standings are extremely tense. After five rounds of group stage matches, Manchester City leads by a wide margin with 15 points, having already secured first place in the group, while Barca and Monchengladbach are tied for second place with 7 points each.
Borussia Monchengladbach's final group stage match is against Celtic, one of the weakest teams in the group.
Everyone thought Monchengladbach Mönchengladbach would have no problem taking all three points, after all, they could even beat the mighty Barca, so why couldn't they beat the relatively weaker Celtic?
All the pressure weighed heavily on Barcelona, like a mountain.
Marca, Real Madrid's mouthpiece, gloated:
Whether Barca can advance from the group stage now depends on whether their good friend Guardiola will give his former club a break at the Etihad Stadium.
"The difference between Barca and Real Madrid's performances in the UEFA Champions League this season is like night and day. Real Madrid and Manchester City have both secured 15 points in 5 rounds, locking in first place in their groups, while Barca is still struggling for a second-place spot. It's hard to imagine that they were UEFA Champions League winners just two seasons ago."
"Lionel Messi may perform slightly better than Cristiano Ronaldo in La Liga, but in the UEFA Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo is the true UEFA Champions League!"
"He scored nine goals in five group stage matches, almost an average of two goals per game. With such divine intervention, how could Real Madrid not be invincible?"
UEFA Champions League group stage, Round 6, evening.
The Etihad Stadium was bathed in the golden light of the setting sun.
The biting wind, cutting like a knife across people's faces, did nothing to dampen the fervor of the Barcelona Expeditionary Army.
They marched in large groups through the streets of Manchester.
The rousing team anthem fluttered in the cold wind, and the bright scarves in the hands of the fans danced wildly in the breeze.
For Barca fans, this match was of extraordinary significance, like grasping at the last glimmer of hope in the darkness. Only by winning the game could they firmly grasp the initiative in their own hands to advance.
The bleak autumn wind raged wildly, making Diletta's long golden hair look disheveled.
She was dressed in a smart and sharp black business suit, and her tall figure stood out in the crowd.
At this moment, she is leading her team to conduct random interviews at the bustling scene.
Diletta led the way towards a group of fans waving Barcelona flags. The flags fluttered in the wind, as if telling the story of the team's glory and dreams.
"Hello, do you think Barcelona can advance from the group stage?"
The male fan shouted without hesitation, "Of course! We have Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, the most terrifying attacking trio in the world! As long as they're on the pitch, victory is ours! Lionel Messi's dribbling, Neymar's breakthroughs, and Suarez's finishing— Manchester City's defense simply can't stop them!"
Diletta then asked, "But in the last round, Barca lost to Manchester City." She was deliberately being aggressive, wanting to see how the other party would react.
The male fan was momentarily speechless, but his companion interrupted, "We know Guardiola achieved great things at Barca before, and his feelings for the Barca are definitely deep. We beg him to consider our past relationship and give Barca a break. And we heard Dom is injured? We really hope he doesn't play; his ability is terrifying, and with him on the field, the pressure on Barca is immense!"
"Manchester City isn't just about Tang," Diletta said with a smug smile. "Agüero, Bonazzoli, and Sterling are also very strong players."
"No, no, no, you're wrong," a Barca fan said solemnly. "Those three are strong, but all three of them combined aren't as good as Don alone!"
After leaving the Barca fans, Diletta went to a group of Manchester City fans and interviewed a young man.
As a Manchester City fan, do you think Manchester City will go all out to win tonight?
The young man waved his Manchester City scarf excitedly and shouted, "Of course! We must win all six games! We need to let all of Europe know how strong Manchester City is! Guardiola can't be lenient with his former club; this game must be won!"
Diletta smiled and nodded, then asked a composed middle-aged female fan next to the young man, "What are your thoughts on this match?"
The female fan frowned and began to think seriously.
"To be frank, after this group stage match against Barca, Manchester Derby is right around the corner, and that's the most important thing!"
"Guardiola should take a broader view and let the team rest properly. Especially Dom, he just recovered from injury, we absolutely cannot let him get injured again."
"As for qualifying with a perfect record, what's the point? Even if we qualify with a perfect record, will UEFA give us the trophy early? We've already secured first place in the group, so we might as well conserve our strength and give the younger players more opportunities. The later matches are the key."
At this moment, the Manchester City and Barca team buses pulled into the parking lot one after another, and fans began to surge towards the ticket gates...
However, although Tang Long was not in the starting lineup, he was still included in the roster and will likely be on the bench.
At the pre-match press conference, Guardiola brought him along, seemingly hinting at his return after a two-week injury layoff.
People remember a sentence Tang Long said at the release ceremony.
"Whether Barca can advance depends on whether Manchester City agrees."