Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 279 Departure to the Love Song Stadium
Manchester City's thrashing of Manchester United caused a huge sensation.

Of course, this sensation was only temporary, after all, it was just a league match.

However, the impact was still quite profound. Other teams realized how formidable Manchester City was, especially Shan Yongzhuo.

As for Shan Yongzhuo, he has also recovered from the trauma of blind dating.

Five days later, Manchester City traveled to their home stadium for the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

The opponent in this match is Wolves.

Although Wolves are a Premier League team, they are only a relegation-threatened team, and their performance since the start of this season has been lackluster.

However, in this match, Manchester City struggled to find a good way to break through Wolves' all-out defense.

Manchester City, fielding a completely reserve lineup, were still unable to break down Wolves' defense until the 70th minute of the second half.

Instead, in the 72nd minute, Wolves took the lead by breaking through Manchester City's goal with a counter-attack.

Mancini was so angry that he couldn't stand it anymore. In the 75th minute, he substituted Shan Yongzhuo.

Upon seeing Shan Yongzhuo enter the game, the Wolves immediately became alert and dared not relax their guard in the slightest.

However, their strength is clearly insufficient.

79th minute, 86th minute, 89th minute.

At three different points in time, Shan Yongzhuo easily breached Wolves' goal three times, using a corner kick, a set piece, and a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area.

3:1.

This was the final score; Manchester City finally managed a hard-fought victory against Wolves away from home, thanks to Shan Yongzhuo's hat-trick, and advanced to the League Cup quarterfinals.

Two days later, back at home, Manchester City faced Wolves again in the tenth round of the league at the Etihad Stadium.

With the Champions League fourth round group stage match approaching, Manchester City will be traveling to Spain to play Villarreal away, so Shan Yongzhuo has once again been placed on the bench.

The score at halftime was 2-1. Manchester City performed well, with Silva and Yaya Toure scoring to maintain their lead.

The second half continued until the 80th minute, and the score remained unchanged.

Mancini showed no intention of replacing Shan Yongzhuo.

But in the 89th minute, the situation on the field changed dramatically.

Manchester City's attack failed, and Wolves launched a quick counter-attack. Striker Ward made a long run and fired a powerful shot into the net.

2 is better than 2!

This is the final score. Manchester City were tied by Wolves in the final moments at home, and unfortunately could only get one point.

After the match, Mancini faced widespread criticism, partly due to the team's poor defensive performance, which was heavily criticized by the media.

"Lescott is no longer reliable; his defense is like a fishing net, full of holes."

"Mancini is probably only thinking about attacking and hasn't properly arranged the defense at all!"

That's a bit unfair to Mancini. In fact, Mancini does value defense, but unfortunately Manchester City's center-backs are simply not reliable enough.

Aside from Kompany's decent performance, the other center-back position saw disappointing results from Lescott, Mexes, and even the forced return of Kolo Toure.

Mancini was frustrated by this, but there was nothing he could do.

Another point of criticism was Mancini's on-field command and substitutions.

In the second half, he substituted Silva and Aguero, trying to maintain the score until the end, which allowed Wolves to equalize in the final moments.

After the match, Mancini was under a lot of pressure; he had to face a very real problem.

Manchester City's squad isn't actually that strong; in fact, overall, it's still somewhat behind the top teams.

Manchester City's strong performance is fundamentally inseparable from Shan Yongzhuo's powerful goals.

Shan Yongzhuo is able to motivate the whole team by scoring goals, allowing his teammates to perform better than usual.

However, if Shan Yongzhuo doesn't play, Manchester City will face a problem of struggling to score goals.

Aguero, Silva, Balotelli, and others performed quite well, and they were able to make up for it by scoring goals, but their overall efficiency was far inferior to that of Shan Yongzhuo.

However, Manchester City's defense is really bad, which means that when Shan Yongzhuo is not on the field, facing the opponent parking the bus, a long period without scoring will easily lead to defensive problems.

However, even if Shan Yongzhuo is an iron man, it is impossible for him to play an entire season without missing a single game.

This is completely unrealistic.

uncomfortable.

This is Mancini's truest thought.

However, he doesn't have time to worry about that right now. After the match against Wolves, Manchester City rested for a day and immediately flew to Spain.

Next up is the fourth round of the Champions League, where Manchester City will face Villarreal away from home.

This match is extremely important, and Mancini dares not relax in the slightest.

Although Manchester City won convincingly against Villarreal at the Etihad Stadium in the third round.

However, no one can guarantee what kind of matches they will face when they travel to away games.

This match is also very important for Manchester City, who are currently second in the group with 6 points.

If Manchester City can defeat Villarreal again, they will have 9 points, giving them a significant advantage in qualifying for the next round.

Therefore, on this trip to El Madrigal Stadium, Mancini gave the whole team the order to win.

Villarreal's glory days are over this season, with their star striker Rossi sidelined for the rest of the season.

In the summer, Villarreal sold their key player Cazorla to Malaga, which greatly weakened the team. Coupled with the transition between old and new players, Villarreal has had a very difficult season.

After 11 rounds of La Liga this season, Villarreal has only managed a poor record of 3 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses, with 13 points, placing them in the middle of the league table. They are far from the strong team under Pellegrini, and they lack the momentum of finishing in the top four last season.

In addition, the team lost all three of their Champions League group stage matches without managing a single draw.

The pressure on the team's head coach, Garrido, is immense.

Garrido was previously the head coach of Villarreal B. In the winter of 2010, club president Roig could no longer tolerate Valverde's poor performance, and Garrido, who was still in the B team at the time, was appointed to take over in a time of crisis.

Garrido then led the team to an excellent performance, finishing the 2009-2010 season seventh in the league.

Last season, Garrido led the team to a top-four finish in the league, securing a place in the Champions League group stage.

However, Garrido is now also having a tough time, and he seems to be following in Valverde's footsteps.

For Garrido, this game was already a close call.

Before the match, Garrido made some harsh remarks to the media.

"Manchester City, watch out! Villarreal will give them a good beating at El Madrigal!"

Garrido has issued a challenge to Manchester City.

(End of this chapter)