Red Rebels

Being able to enter the UEFA Cup semi-finals has undoubtedly become the biggest dark horse in the UEFA Cup. The other three teams are Lazio from Italy, Porto from Portugal, and Celtic from Scotland.

Martin O'Neill's side beat the mighty Reds with a classic 2-0 victory at Anfield in Liverpool, and they humiliated Liverpool with the victory, as Liverpool's Diou He was fined by UEFA for spitting on Celtic fans.

The incident also took a toll on the image of the Reds and boosted the morale of Celtic, who were almost helpless at Anfield.

On the second day after finishing four quarter-finals, UEFA drew Lazio from Italy, and Celtic met Porto.

However, compared with the UEFA Cup, the draw of the Champions League is obviously more eye-catching. The most attention is undoubtedly the strong dialogue between Real Madrid and Manchester United, and this year's European Champions Cup quarter-finals are undoubtedly Serie A and La Liga. The team is the most beautiful, they have three teams into the quarter-finals, only Manchester United in England, and the other is Ajax in the Netherlands.

In the two European competitions, there were only two Manchester teams left in the end, and the most surprising thing was that no one thought that this second-tier team in England would be able to kill strong enemies along the way. Reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup is really surprising.

However, even the most optimistic English media have to admit that they will stop at the quarter-finals, because standing in front of them is the incomparably powerful Lazio.

Stam, Mikhailovich, Favali, Stankovic, Simeone, Fiore, Inzaghi, Chiesa, Lopez... The head coach is to coach Inter Milan in the future And Mancini of Manchester City.

As long as you swipe through the names of this series of famous generals, each and every one of them is so loud!

Undoubtedly, the players will be among the top stars in the future, but at present, compared with these established stars, they are all just a group of up-and-coming rookies with great potential.

Not only that, although the key battle in the first round is at home, but there are many main players in the lineup will be suspended, including Kaka and Juninho, both players will be sidelined due to yellow cards.

With the deepening of the league, the team's reliance on Juninho may not be as serious as before the season. The appearance of De Rossi and Redondo also makes the midfield organization a little reassuring, but the former is still young and the latter They are too old and too old to play the role of Junior Juninho.

Another headache is Kaka.

If Juninho is the playmaker, then Kaka is the undoubted offensive core of the frontcourt. This season, Kaka has shown an outstanding state of mind, overturning a lot of concerns about the World Cup in one fell swoop. The routine after the downturn.

This has the help of the laboratory and the coaching staff, but Kaka's own efforts and strength are also the key.

At present, the Brazilian is already the absolute main force, the commander of the attack in the frontcourt, he is the most indispensable member of the magic quartet, because Drogba and Villa, the two wingers, Hleb, Ronaldo Ben, Ronaldinho, Ribery and Palacio can play, and even Villa can play a dozen wingers.

But Kaka's position, neither Ribery nor Palacio can replace the role of the Brazilian in the team.

The suspension of the two core figures is indeed very worrying for Mourinho's team. At the same time, all the media are speculating about what kind of tactics Mourinho will arrange in this game. To deal with the mighty Lazio.

……………… There is a total of 3 weeks between the UEFA Cup quarter-finals and the quarter-finals.

However, in these three weeks, they have not been able to enjoy easy treatment at all. They have to play 6 games in three weeks, including 1 FA Cup semi-final.

The 2 games are league rematches, and it is precisely because of the relationship between these two rematches that they are ranked 3rd in the league, 1 point behind the second-placed Leicester City and 8 behind the first-placed Portsmouth. point.

This may seem like a big gap, but in fact, Mourinho believes that this difference is not out of reach.

Both teams have a lot of key games to play in the next few games. Before facing Lazio, they will play one game each with Sheffield United and Leicester City, both at home, and then after four games. After the strong two-round knockout, there is another game against Portsmouth.

These three key games will determine the title of this season. Portsmouth are also facing hardships. In the remaining 7 rounds of the league, they still have 4 tough opponents to play, namely, Wolves, Reading and Sheffield United.

The latter three teams will all compete to qualify for the play-offs, and they will definitely work hard against Portsmouth. Two of them are still away from home, which is very unfavorable to Portsmouth.

It is precisely because of this that Mourinho said in an interview with the outside world that Portsmouth will definitely lose, because although this team has excellent offensive ability, it has big problems in defense, and whether it is a wolf Team, Reading and Sheffield United have strong defensive and counter-attack capabilities, and it is related to the promotion of the Premier League. Who will not work hard?

As for his own team, Mourinho believes that there are no problems within the team, the atmosphere is very good, everyone's morale is high, they have entered the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and they are fully capable of winning the championship in these two major competitions. win the championship.

"What about League One? You are currently 8 points behind Portsmouth!" the reporter reminded.

Mourinho smiled, "I said, Portsmouth will make mistakes, they absolutely, absolutely, make mistakes, and if they make mistakes, we will overtake, you know, we still have a home game, we They've never lost at home and I'm sure Portsmouth know that too."

"You always seem to have a lot of confidence in your team!"

"Of course," Mourinho replied without thinking, "We have reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals and the FA Cup semi-finals. The outside world evaluates us as a Premier League-level team. We should go to the Premier League, provided that , we want to win all the opponents in the next game, including Portsmouth!"

When Mourinho was interviewed before the 42nd round of the league game, he repeatedly stressed that Portsmouth would make mistakes.

In this round of the league, due to the relationship between the FA Cup, the league was moved forward by a day, and the away game challenged Walsall, which ranked 16th in the league. As a result, in this game, even if Mourinho stayed for the FA Cup semi-finals At the same time, he also trained for the UEFA Cup, leaving Kaka and Junior Juninho in Manchester, replacing Ribery and De Rossi, and the result was a clean 0-4 victory over Walsall.

After the game, Mourinho re-emphasized that he would win all the opponents to create pressure on Portsmouth.

"You better not make mistakes, even if you just turn your head back a little, we can kill you!"

But it is a pity that although Portsmouth encountered a tenacious counterattack from Reading at home in Reading, they finally won a crucial moment and scored 2 goals not long after the opening. established an advantage.

But Mourinho didn't see this. He specifically singled out Portsmouth being beaten by Reading in the second half, and even scored a goal. He believed that other teams should play Portsmouth. Hit like this.

"If it wasn't for their luck, they should now be second in the league, and we should be number one!"

Then, Mourinho smiled again, "I hope you can have such good luck in the next game!"

……………… FA Cup semi-final against Saints Southampton, at home, Southampton seemed very cautious in this game. The attacking power of this team is not very good, but the defense is doing a good job Yes, they only scored 1 goal per game in the Premier League, and their ability to climb to the 8th place in the league depends on their defense.

And look at the outcome of Southampton's game, they actually have 12 draws.

This team has strength, and the offense and defense are balanced, but relatively speaking, their defense is obviously more stable, and they are playing away from home, which makes Mourinho very sure that Southampton will take defense. way to fight back.

For this game, Mourinho hid a number of main players in the previous league game. This game sent a full lineup. The striker was Drogba, and the two flanks were Ronaldinho and Robben. The front midfielder is Kaka, the double midfielder is Juninho and Essien, the back line is Evra, Vidic, Curtis and Colo Toure from left to right, and the goalkeeper is Cech.

This lineup launched a fierce attack on Southampton from the first minute at Old Trafford, especially the magic quartet in the frontcourt, which was pressing Southampton, frequently passing through two flanks to give Southampton create trouble for sizing.

In the 23rd minute, Robben and Ronaldinho switched positions to the left, forcibly broke through the opponent's full-back, and made a cross from the bottom. ㊣Baidu search: ㊣\\\\、Half@float ￥生\\\\//㊣

Drogba's cooperation with his teammates is also very tacit. When Robben is strong, he is like a nail in the opponent's penalty area. Using his own physical advantages, he firmly occupies the position, grabs the first point, and heads the ball. Ferry to the back.

Kaka, who had been cruising outside the penalty area and seldom noticed by the Southampton defensive players, suddenly plugged in in the back row and grabbed the second landing spot. He volleyed directly without even stopping the ball.

The goalkeeper's sight was blocked by his teammates. When he reacted, the ball had already got into the net, 1:0!

After the goal, the offensive slowed down and the formation retracted slightly, obviously consciously wanting to let Southampton attack.

There is no way for the latter. This is a single-round knockout. After falling behind, they can only choose to attack one way, but this leaves a lot of space for counterattacks in their own defense.

In the 51st minute of the second half, Robben and Ronaldinho took advantage of their speed to form a counterattack after stealing the ball in midfield, and made a clever cooperation in the opponent's penalty area.

At this point, the game has completely lost the suspense!