Super Marshal

On the evening of November 4th, Rome, Italy.

A fierce UEFA Champions League group match is going on at the Stadio Olimpico. The two teams are the home team Roma and the visiting team Chelsea. This is also a focus battle in Group A of the UEFA Champions League group match.

Before this round, the two teams each played three games. Chelsea had two wins, one draw and remained unbeaten, while Roma had one win, one draw and one loss, trailing Chelsea by three points and ranking second in the group stage.

Both teams are the favorites to top Group A.

The Blues invested heavily this summer, acquiring Robinho and Arshavin from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at record-breaking prices, detonating the European transfer market throughout the summer.

Head coach Frank Rijkaard is also full of confidence and ambitious to recreate the peak of his previous days in Barcelona.

In this game, Rijkaard's opening tactics were mainly based on passing and controlling. The front line was a combination of Robinho, Anelka and Arshavin, and Drogba took turns sitting on the bench.

The midfielder is composed of Mikel, Lampard and Joe Cole.

This also showed the attitude from the beginning that Chelsea should focus on possession of the ball.

From the beginning of the game, Chelsea patiently dealt with the home team with its more skillful passing and controlling style, and got a corner kick opportunity in the first five minutes, but failed to create a threat.

After that, the Blues played very smoothly, with a very obvious advantage in passing and control. Robinho and Arshavin on the left and right wings were both full of attack power, and their combination with Anelka was also quite sharp, almost holding Roma in half. Playing on the court, he had every advantage.

But in the 34th minute, a foul in the midfield and backcourt gave Roma a chance to take a free kick in the frontcourt.

The Red Wolves quickly took a free kick, and Totti moved it to the right. Cicinho got the ball and passed it back to the center. Panucci, who was unguarded in the back row, pushed the ball into the small penalty area and scored, opening the scoring for Roma.

But this goal completely angered Chelsea, and the Blues began to launch more violent attacks, threatening Roma's goal again and again, but always followed up with the goal.

The two sides ended the first half with a score of 1 to 0.

After changing sides in the second half, Chelsea still controlled the situation and Lampard took the first shot.

But soon, the Roma team seized an opportunity and launched a counterattack. Vucinic, who retreated to defend, stepped in from the back row. After receiving a pass from his teammate at the front of the penalty area, he volleyed hard, and the ball was shot in like a sharp arrow. Hit the upper left corner, two to zero.

Two goals behind, Chelsea played even more anxiously and frantically, and soon Roma seized another opportunity.

After Vucinic, who performed well in this game, retreated to defend and successfully intercepted the ball, he deliberately slowed down to distance himself from Mikel. After receiving the ball, he suddenly started to move away from Mikel and ran for a long distance. After nearly seventy meters, he calmly hit the ball into the goal and scored twice, 3-0.

Three goals completely revealed Roma's spirit.

Spalletti's change to the 4-4-2 formation also completely activated Vucinic.

But Chelsea's poor performance without scoring made all the fans who followed the team to the away game feel a little embarrassed.

Club owner Abramovich, assistant Granovsky, and CEO Peter Kenyon were all sitting in the stands with extremely serious expressions, especially the Russians, who couldn't hide their disappointment, and even anger.

"More than 100 million euros. I spent more than 100 million euros this summer, but what I got in exchange for this game was zero to three."

The Russian spoke every word, obviously suppressing the anger in his heart.

He had just lost billions of euros in the financial crisis caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis, but he believed that Rijkaard could lead the team to win the Champions League, and the latter also repeatedly promised that as long as Robinho is there With Arshavin, he was confident of winning the league championship and entering the Champions League, but what was the result?

Yes, the league is ranked first, but it is tied.

After eleven rounds of the Premier League, Chelsea and Liverpool have the same points, but the Blues rank first with a goal difference advantage.

Ferguson's United are two points behind them in third place.

As for fourth place in the league, who else could it be besides Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal?

But even so, Abramovich was still unwilling.

He has invested so much money, is he just trying to get a Premier League leader?

"Do you know how much I regret it now?"

Abramovich suddenly said such a sentence, which surprised Peter Kenyon and Granovskya beside him. What does this mean?

"How the hell did I regret listening to the nonsense of Pini Zahavi and Jose Vega. How the hell did I think that if you have money, you can win the championship arbitrarily. Why did I fire Gao Han?" , giving away all the championships to others?"

Abramovich looked extremely angry at the end. It was obvious that these words had been suppressed in his heart for a long time.

"That bastard Gao Han has a lot of bad things, but the most basic thing is that he makes every penny I invest get a corresponding return. How much money I invest, he brings me as many championships as possible, but these bastards What? I just invested money, but I didn’t see the winner!"

"How much money have I invested over the years? But what have they brought me?"

Peter Kenyon and Granovskya both looked at each other, helpless.

Regardless of whether they admit it or not, the falling out with Gao Han was definitely the stupidest thing they had done so far. Even if they were just getting together and breaking up at the time, they still left each other room for change.

But now, they have become mortal enemies.

After Gao Han, Chelsea changed two coaches. Whether it was Mourinho or Rijkaard, they were both big spenders. They spent more money than Gao Han, but the returns were far less than Gao Han.

If Mourinho was able to win the league championship and reach the Champions League finals during his coaching period, then when Rijkaard came here, he asked for people and money, and even his best assistant Teng Carter was hired with a lot of money from Ajax, but the situation became even worse. Not only did he lose the league championship, but he also lacked competition in the Champions League.

It is indeed not to blame for Abramovich's anger. He has suffered heavy losses in the financial crisis over the past year. He invested almost every blood in the transfer market, but in exchange for this, he got a score of zero to three. Anyone else would get angry.

But sometimes I think about it, Mourinho and Rijkaard are not easy either.

Gao Han is the number one head coach in football today. He is able to make investment and output return. But the problem is, looking at the whole world, and even throughout the ages, there is only one Gao Han.

However, he was offended by his own side.

It's easy to make enemies but hard to let them go.

Now let alone Gao Han, even Mendes is reluctant to make a deal with Chelsea.

"Peter, tell him later that if he can't make it to the semi-finals of the Champions League, he will get out of here." Abramovich said calmly.

After saying that, the Russian turned around and left.

Granovskya hesitated for a moment, then stood up and left.

Peter Kenyon was left sitting in his seat, watching the game off the pitch. Chelsea still had the advantage, but they were never able to create a threat. This made him think to himself that if it was Gao Han, he would have done it long ago. Adjust and create a threat.

He had just received the news that in other games at the same time, the cold Bayern Munich was also in Florence, Italy, with a 2-0 away game, temporarily leading the Viola.

If they win this game, Gao Han and his Bayern Munich will qualify as first in the group in advance.

On the other hand, if Chelsea loses to Roma in this game, the two teams will have the same points. This is not a good sign for the Blues. If they accidentally fall to second place in the group, then...

Peter Kenyon simply couldn't imagine what it would be like.

The coach is embarrassed, and the CEO is also embarrassed.

…………

…………

Chelsea ultimately failed to reverse the situation and lost to Roma 1-3 away from home.

After this game, the entire European football world launched a fierce attack on Rijkaard, especially the British media's early departure of boss Abramovich, which was seen as dissatisfaction with the coaching staff.

The famous British columnist Martin Samuel, who is known as Chelsea's gold medal writer, unceremoniously accused Rijkaard of lack of decisiveness in using troops, poor on-the-spot command, weak offense, weak defense, etc. Lots of questions.

"Sixty-three to thirty-seven, this is the comparison of the two teams' ball possession rate. The Blues had an overwhelming advantage, but the result was one to three. In 37% of the ball possession time, the Blues had an overwhelming advantage. , Roma scored three goals.”

Martin Samuel directly targeted the team's midfield, believing that it was the weakness of the midfield that led to the team's offensive and defensive losses.

In fact, this problem is not disclosed just now. As early as Makelele returned to Ligue 1, Ballack was injured, and teenager Mikel was supported to take over, people began to point out the problem of the team's single midfielder.

But this time, the British media still took out these three old ones and used them repeatedly to save energy and protect the environment.

While Chelsea lost 3-1 to Roma in an away game, Bayern Munich defeated Fiorentina 2-0 at home, successfully winning four games in a row and qualifying first in the group.

Lyon also defeated Steaua Bucharest 2-0 at home in the fourth round of the group stage, taking an advantage in the battle for second place in the group. Fiorentina fell to third place, but there is still hope.

It wasn't until the fifth round of the Champions League group stage two weeks later that Lyon defeated Fiorentina 2-1 in an away game, which completely established the second place in the French Ligue 1 group.

In this game, the youngster Benzema once again performed well, helping Lyon win with one pass and one shot, which attracted the attention of all Europe. Countless wealthy teams began to pay attention to this treasure.

In this round, Bayern Munich played at home with a full substitute lineup and still defeated Steaua Bucharest 3-0.

As for the last round of the group stage, it has no impact on the group stage rankings. Fiorentina defeated Steaua Bucharest 1-0 away, and Bayern Munich defeated Lyon 3-2 at home.

Lewandowski and Thomas Muller started at the same time in the first half. The Polish forward scored twice and Thomas Muller scored the second goal. However, in the second half, Govou and Benzema each scored one goal. Both sides played well in their half.

During this period, the Bundesliga played a total of five rounds. Bayern Munich defeated Schalke 04 2-1 away, defeated Monchengladbach 2-0 away, and defeated Cottbus 5-0 at home. , a 2-0 away win over Leverkusen, and a 2-1 win over Hoffenheim at home.

One of the most thrilling and difficult games is the home game against Hoffenheim.

First, Ibisevic took advantage of Bayern Munich's defensive mistakes to score a goal at the beginning of the first half. After that, the Bundesliga giants kept counterattacking, but failed to get a chance. It was not until the 70th minute of the second half that Bayern Munich pulled away. Mu equalized the score, and then substitute Lewandowski scored the winning goal.

This also made the Polish teenager famous again.

In December, the group stage was over and the Champions League was temporarily suspended, but the situation became more and more interesting.