The Young Lion

Chapter 984: Foe

Nearly 70 hours before the Champions League final, the Millwall team traveled from London to the northern Ruhr area of ​​Germany and came to the city of Gelsenkirchen. Before World War II, this was an industrial area, known as the city of thousand fires, but unfortunately it was allied during World War II. After the military bombing, there was no coal mine here, and the newly-rising city was approaching a turning point. Today, it is just a city with a population of about 300,000.

When the Champions League final is about to be staged, this place, which can be called a small town, has a large number of fans. Fans from Portugal and London are the main force. In addition, fans from all over the world who want to watch the Champions League final live are coming.

This year's Champions League final will be played in the city's pride in the Schalke Stadium. This is the home of Schalke 04. It is well-known in Germany. After it was built and opened three years ago, the German classmate Bayern Munich visited the stadium. The record was a total defeat, making this newly built 5-star course quickly gaining fame.

As the war is approaching, Millwall prepares in an orderly manner. The atmosphere in the team is good, and no tension or pressure is seen. This is Millwall's fifth final in the UEFA Champions League in ten years and the seventh final in the Club Intercontinental Cup.

What is nervous?

The veteran players in the team are unhurried, and their rich experience is influencing the young players in the team. Like Nedvedlarsensosgate, they are playing a good role of "passing the belt".

Football media all over the world portray this pinnacle of Europe as: the battle of the old enemy!

There is no other reason.

Aldridge is too aggressive to meet opponents.

This year, Millwall's opponent in the final is: Porto!

Last year, in the UEFA Cup finals, the two teams played against each other!

Last year's UEFA Cup, this year's Champions League.

Millwall returned to the top from the trough, and Porto is the dark horse that stood out in the second-tier European league.

Many people think this is a fatal confrontation.

Audrey, who ushered in the tenth anniversary of coaching, met Mourinho, who came to the final stage of the top of Europe less than five years ago.

Of course, in terms of physical age, Audric is younger than Mourinho.

However, compared to the age of coaching the team, Odrici is undoubtedly the predecessor of Mourinho, Mourinho must look up to exist.

At the time when Aldrich was so popular that the older generation and the Mesozoic world-class coaches were all willing to take the leeway, Mourinho, the most beautiful in the new generation of UEFA, was highly expected to some extent.

Expect this Portuguese madman to overthrow the rule of young commander Aldridge!

Under the rendering of the media, Mourinho has become the second "Audric".

Although his coaching trajectory is unlikely to coincide with Aldridge's timeline, there are indeed many similarities.

In his third year of coaching, Aldridge won the Premier League championship and entered the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup.

Mourinho won the Portuguese Super Championship in the third year of coaching and entered the UEFA Cup final.

In his fourth year of coaching, Aldridge came to the top of Europe.

Mourinho, too.

However, Mourinho coached Porto, and had two resignations before, one was job-hopping and one was fired.

Even Mourinho took over from Porto in the second year of coaching and got the second runner-up in the league, which also coincided with Millwall's second-year record as a Premier League runner-up in Audridge.

And Mourinho completed the Portuguese Super League defending this season, he has long been famous in Europe, but also established a "madman" image.

He is also at home with the Portuguese media, and his words are crazy.

"Under normal circumstances, we Porto must be the league champion. If something happens? We must be the champion!"

I don’t know if the Porto match-fixing case will be settled four years later and deprived of the qualification for the Champions League five years later. Whether someone will make a malicious speculation in conjunction with Mourinho’s rhetoric in the future.

Porto has improved this season. It is slightly more ideal than last season when it was in the UEFA Cup. This season is more pragmatic. In addition to Mourinho’s undervalued players, they have grown up, experienced, more united and other factors. , Including their technical and tactical play.

The reason why Mourinho has become the most powerful among the new generation of head coaches today, he even reached a secret agreement with Chelsea a month ago and was chased by Real Madrid during the same period.

The reason is that their achievements in the Champions League and their **** at home are not enough to show how outstanding Mourinho is.

After all, the Portuguese Super League is the European second-tier league. In the end, the three consecutive Ligue 1 championships should be more prestige. However, Mourinho led Porto in the second round of the Champions League group stage. They were defeated by Real Madrid 3-1 at home in the second round and then came to the final. In the first 10 Champions League games, they remain undefeated!

And in the round of 16 defeated Manchester United in two rounds, and in the quarterfinals eliminated Ligue 1 class Lyon, in the semifinals, let AC Milan complete the miraculous reversal of La Coruna in the finals. .

In terms of strength comparison, Porto eliminated the Premier League and Ligue 1 league titles successively. The Champions League defending champion was planted at the foot of A Coruña, and the achievements of A Coruña seemed to have become a stepping stone for Porto.

It is just in these six knockout games that the news content is common: Porto is extremely utilitarian and "dirty".

Ferguson, Legon, Irueta, the three Mourinho's men will be defeated in each game, not in the end of the two rounds, when the results come out.

They attacked Porto in the first round and after the second round, thinking that Porto was too utilitarian. Secondly, players were always "showing", "harassing", "delaying" and "influencing" the game.

Porto players always have a lot of small movements when defending, and they easily fall over to win favorable penalties when attacking, and they always try to provoke conflicts on the court to benefit their own team.

Porto’s ability to reach the Champions League final is naturally a remarkable achievement, but they are still dark horses. Dark horses mean that the overall strength has not reached the height recognized by the outside world. This is a reality, not changed by human will, only when successful. Will be gradually mythical by latecomers.

Just like Millwall who won the Champions League in 1998, now people will still mention that generation of mad lions and make comparisons to compare with the second generation of mad lions. They even come to compare with the current Millwall.

If Aldrich compares, there is no doubt that the second-generation mad lion is definitely stronger than the first-generation, and the third-generation mad lion is also stronger than that, but it is also inferior to the second-generation, but the third The generation of mad lions is still on the rise, and the future potential is enough for them to surpass the second generation.

The discussion of Guan Gong and Qin Qiong is of little significance.

Simply speaking Porto, their players have good potential, but the potential is not linked to strength, just like Carvalho in 2004 and Carvalho in a few years can not be compared.

Porto's overall strength must have not yet reached the level of Europe's first-class peak, so they are dark horses, so their achievements have set off Mourinho's amazing, it is this madman who has strategized for Porto to win a thousand miles.

From this perspective, the complaints of Manchester United, Lyon, and A Coruña are quite "moaning by the complainants", because the football field is not a strong winner.

For the two consecutive years of meeting with Porto in the Intercontinental Cup final, Aldridge seemed very calm and showed enough demeanor in the UEFA official press conference.

"Mourinho is a very good coach. I remember when I saw him in 1997, I thought he would have some achievements, so I also sent him an invitation at that time, hoping he would come to work in Millwall Unfortunately, he was rejected by him. He is an ambitious coach. There are many top clubs associated with him. I think it is normal. The Portuguese Super stage cannot satisfy him. He should play in the top stage of the European mainstream league. Talent, cough, as for tomorrow’s Champions League final, Porto has the opportunity, of course, the opportunity, although Millwall is experienced, is also a popular champion, but if we care about the enemy, the result will definitely disappoint us. Now the only thing I worry about is Will the players’ desire for championships have a negative impact on the game. Schneider and Larson can’t wait to reap the fifth Champions League so that they won’t be depressed in front of their friends Pirlo, De Rossi The young guys Alonso are also eager to win the Champions League trophy as the main player for the first time. I can only hope they are not too excited now."

Aldrich's remarks at the press conference sounded quite satisfactory, but found a mystery in the interpretation of Fleet Street.

It is not difficult to find that Aldridge is "angrifying" Mourinho through the media platform, which is a kind of targeted harassment.

97 years?

7 years ago, Aldridge used the tone of his predecessors to stimulate Mourinho.

I was optimistic about you back then, and now you are successful, which proves that I have a good vision.

And what is the identity of the two at that time?

At the same time, Aldridge also has "interference" with the Porto team.

Your coach has been connected with many European teams in the past two months. He is leaving. He is no longer with you.

This is a public divorce.

Mourinho was interviewed at a later time, but he was cool with a cold face, an attitude that did not take Audric in his eyes.

He was naturally angry, and Aldridge poked his weakness.

He is leaving.

This will be the last game he coached Porto.

"I don't care what other people say, I am with my players, we came to the UEFA Champions League final through hard work, we are now focused on this game, we are all together, and we will do our best to achieve Everyone’s dream. I will not comment on Millwall, because we have been defeating the strong, and the Champions League final is no exception."