Chapter 1810 Reigniting the Champions League

The Madrid Pirates topped the league standings after beating Catalonia in an away game.

As the defending champions, this is the first time they have sat in this position this season.

At present, after 22 rounds of the league, the Madrid Pirates have accumulated 58 points, ranking first. Cathay and Thailand have 58 points, and they are ranked second due to the disadvantage of mutual win-loss relationship.

Although the King of Madrid beat Sarria 6:1 at home, it still failed to change the fact that they were ranked third.

And they are not only ranked third, they are seven points away from the Madrid Pirates and Catalan United.

In the competition within the Western Super League, seven points is a very big gap.

Even for the King of Madrid, it is very difficult to equalize such a difference.

What's more, the next Champions League knockout round will rekindle the battle. Even the rich teams will inevitably be distracted to the Champions League. It is impossible to guarantee that they can perform well on both fronts.

In addition, the captain of the King of Madrid, the main goalkeeper Rodriguez Bakker has been out for two months due to injury, and he may not return until late March.

His absence still has a great impact on the team.

To be more pragmatic, Tavares, the head coach of the King of Madrid, should be very clear that it is a thankless task for the team to compete with Catalan United and Madrid Pirates for the league title.

Instead of wasting energy fighting on two fronts, it is better to focus on the Champions League.

Even if they can't win the league championship by then, as long as they can win the Champions League, for a giant like the King of Madrid, this season is still not a failure.

After all, it must be said that the gold content of the Champions League champion is definitely higher than that of the domestic league champion.

And let's not talk about whether the King can win the Champions League, just reaching the Champions League final for three consecutive seasons is already a remarkable achievement.

In the 6:1 victory over Sarria, from the last 30 minutes, Tavares began to make substitutions one after another.

Meli was substituted in the 77th minute.

He scored a hat-trick early in that game and was in excellent form.

Tavares naturally hopes that he can save such an excellent state for the Champions League game in the middle of next week.

In the quarter-finals of the Champions League, they drew the Serie A powerhouse Vesuvius.

Vesuvius is the only third-tier team in the UEFA Champions League group stage this season-except for them, the other teams that have qualified in the group are the original first-tier and second-tier teams.

Vesuvio's group match is Group G. The original first-tier team in this group is the Portuguese Super League champion Alvara, and the second-tier team is Ruhr Rhine.

In the end, Vesuvius overwhelmed the first-tier team Alvara, and joined hands with Ruhr Rhein to qualify.

Alvara won the third place and can only participate in the Europa League knockout round in the second half of the season.

Although he was eliminated in the Champions League group stage, Xia Xiaoyu, as the team's midfield playmaker, still received the attention of the entire European football world.

If nothing else, he probably won't stay in Alvara next season.

In addition to his own ambitions, Alvara will never force players who can sell at a reasonable price. After all, the way their club survives is to sell players at high prices.

With Xia Xiaoyu's outstanding performance in Alvara, there is no need to worry about finding a next home-his next stop will definitely be in the five major leagues.

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The game between the King of Madrid and Vesuvius is the first of the Champions League knockout rounds.

There are also three games that will start at the same time this week, namely, Paris Eger vs. Tramed at home, Sevilla Navigator vs. Manchester Athletic at home, and London Bridge vs. Ruhr Rhine at home.

In the middle of next week, the remaining eight teams will make their appearances. The Torino Bulls will host Athletic Amsterdam, the Stan Park Rangers will host the Blue and White Munich, Insubre will face Catalan, and the Madrid Pirates will challenge Rotterdam Elite away.

According to the rules of the UEFA Champions League draw, there are not many restrictions in the quarter-final stage, except that the first and second places in the same group cannot meet, and the second-qualified team in the group will play at home first.

Because in the top 16 of the UEFA Champions League this season, only one team is the third-tier team. No matter who is the first in the group and who is the second in the group, the difference in strength is not very big, and there is almost no one who draws a good lottery Case.

Even if the King of Madrid draws Vesuvius, the only team that is not the first and second team in the group, it is still a strong Serie A team and it is not easy to play.

The only exception is the defending champion Madrid Pirates.

What they drew was the opponent Rotterdam Elite. Although it was the Eredivisie champion last season and the seed team in Group F, the overall strength is really not strong.

The main reason is that the head coach Reilly Vicente, who led them to the league championship last season, has left the team and switched to Cathay United, and also took away the team's main goalkeeper Tony Schulman. The strength has brought some negative effects.

The reason why they can still advance to the top 16 as the second place in the group is mainly because the other teams in Group F are weaker:

In addition to the Rotterdam Elite, the other team in this group is Athletic Manchester, the third team is the Moscow Red Flag, and the fourth team is the Claude Ranger from Scotland.

In this way, in the end, the Rotterdam elite only squeezed out Claude Ranger by virtue of the goal difference advantage, and sent the latter to participate in the Europa League, while advancing to the Champions League knockout round.

Then they met the Madrid Pirates in the quarter-final draw.

When they first saw this result, many fans of other giants thought that UEFA had recommended the Madrid Pirates.

Everyone was so envious in their hearts, but they didn't admit it in their mouths, they could only be sour with yin and yang.

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The Madrid Pirates' away game against the Rotterdam elite does not start in the middle of the week after they and the Catalan League, but in the middle of the next week.

This is also thanks to such an arrangement, otherwise they and the Catalan United may not be able to go all out in the league, and they will inevitably be distracted.

In that case, this season's La Liga will lose a classic game, and the Sagrada Familia Stadium may also lose a distinguished and important VIP customer.

It is precisely because there is no need to play the Champions League next to each other that the two teams can contribute a wonderful 4:3 in the league.

During this week, the four Champions League quarter-finals took the lead.

The King of Madrid challenged Serie A giant Vesuvius away.

Vesuvius is a "rich" team in southern Italy.

Italian football respects the north - basically all the strong teams are concentrated in the area north of the capital Rome.

Vesuvius is the only team located in the south but has won the league championship in history, and it is also the only team that can represent southern Italy in European competitions.

The team's style of play is relatively tough, which is different from the style of play bred in the northern industrial bases and fashionable cities. Vesuvius, which is rooted in the relatively poor agricultural areas in the south, is like the volcano from which the team's name comes from. Grumpy, tough and rough.

Playing away games with this team is never easy.

When Hu Lai was still in Leeds City, he participated in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time, and he was in the same group with this team. At that time, Leeds City defeated Turkey with the "hell home" 2:1 away in the first round of the UEFA Champions League group stage The giant bay lighthouse gave them some "unrealistic" fantasies, thinking that if they could participate in the Champions League group stage for the first time, they would be able to reach the knockout round. As a result, I went to Vesuvius' home court, but lost 0:4 and was beaten helplessly.

You must know that it was also an away game, but Leeds City defeated Catalan United 4:2 away. Vesuvius' home game is harder than Catalan's home game...

Catalan United, the giants in the same group, even lost 0:1 away in the last round of the group match, losing the first place in the group.

This shows the combat effectiveness of this team.

However, in the last two seasons of the UEFA Champions League, this Serie A team has been unstable, with fluctuating levels, and has not qualified for the group stage for two consecutive seasons.

This time they managed to squeeze out the seeded team Alvara in the group stage, but they drew the King of Madrid in the quarter-finals...

Everyone thinks that Vesuvius is more dangerous than good, but the result of the first round surprised many people - Vesuvius defeated the King of Madrid 2:1 at home!

Meli, who scored a hat-trick in the last round of the league, did not perform well in Naples, Italy.

No goals, no assists.

He seems to have used his state ahead of time...

Although they lost only one goal in the away game, the Kings of Madrid still have a chance to advance at home, and the chances are very high.

But the failure of this game seems to be a thick dark cloud, hanging over the hearts of all King Madrid fans.

Meli's statistics this season are very impressive, but he is always intermittently in poor form, unable to consistently output his best form, coupled with the absence of the main goalkeeper and captain Bakel due to injury, the league has been pulled by competitors. Open as much as seven...

Now the road to the Champions League is so difficult.

This has to make all Kings fans worry that their era... is it going to end?

Anyway, judging from this week ~lightnovelpub.net~ is like this.

The king lost, and more than 80% of fans in Europe are gloating.

It can be seen how bad the popularity of the King of Madrid among European fans is...

Many passers-by fans are dissatisfied with them, mainly because they treat their meritorious legend Alexandra Celados ruthlessly-as the iconic figure of the team, it is not too much to want a contract extension, Celados did not make a particularly outrageous salary request. However, in order to make way for Meli, the club was unwilling to renew the contract with Serrados, and finally forced Serrados to retire when he could participate in the local World Cup in one year.

In order not to play for other clubs, Celados would rather not participate in the World Cup. His loyalty to the King's Club is evident.

But the King's Club treated him like a rag, throwing it away after it was useless.

Maybe Serrados was relieved after retiring, but passers-by couldn't let it go, and they were still complaining about Serrados.

They naturally hope that such a ruthless team will perform as badly as possible.

(end of this chapter)