Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 403 Intelligent people don't compete like barbarians.
On that day and the following day, news of the first round of Champions League matches was everywhere.

Group D is undoubtedly the most watched group, especially the match between Real Madrid and Manchester City at home, which is the top focus of this round of Champions League. The only match comparable to this is Chelsea's home game against Juventus in Group E.

Chelsea and Juventus drew 2-2 at Stamford Bridge, a relatively uneventful match.

In the match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, Manchester City ultimately won 3-1 away from home, a result that was somewhat unexpected, as everyone was amazed that Shan Yongzhuo still could not defeat them.

A hat-trick in the first game might seem like a relatively unremarkable performance for Shan Yongzhuo, but considering that the opponent was the rising Real Madrid, it was quite impressive.

However, Shan Yongzhuo paid no attention to these reports.

After returning to Manchester, Shan Yongzhuo continued to train on his own, completely out of sync with Guardiola's training methods, appearing like an outsider.

This made the atmosphere in Manchester still feel strange.

A few days later, Manchester City hosted Arsenal in the fifth round of the Premier League.

Arsenal lost Robin van Persie once again in the summer, as well as their defensive linchpin in midfield and defense, Alex Song.

However, Wenger did make some additions to the team, with the arrival of Cazorla, Giroud, and Podolski, which prevented Arsenal from having a too-bad squad.

Moreover, thanks to Wenger's efforts to make adjustments, Arsenal's performance has been quite good. After four rounds of matches, Arsenal has earned 8 points and is ranked third in the league, seemingly unaffected by the departure of players like Van Persie.

Podolski, in particular, scored 2 goals in 4 matches, which was a relatively good performance.

Lukas Podolski, now 27, started his career with FC Köln, where he scored 10 goals in 19 rounds of the Bundesliga, a truly outstanding performance.

In his second season, with the team playing in the 2. Bundesliga, Podolski scored 24 goals in 33 rounds and was hailed as a German prodigy.

Unfortunately, after joining Bayern Munich, Podolski completely fell into a slump. In his three seasons at Bayern, his best season saw him score only six goals, a performance that was quite surprising.

Although his performance for the German national team was good, his poor experience at Bayern Munich caused this talented player to gradually lose his luster.

After returning to Cologne, he had two mediocre seasons. Last season, however, Podolski's performance improved, helping the team score 18 goals and almost single-handedly helping them avoid relegation.

This performance eventually caught Wenger's eye, and he was signed by Wenger for 1400 million euros.

The English media are not very optimistic about this transfer.

Although Podolski is still in the prime of his professional career, he has two major flaws: his disastrous performance at Bayern Munich and his status as a German player.

German teams have always been seen as playing a system-based game; they can be perfect components within a tactical system, but relatively speaking, their genius lacks creativity and dominance.

Even their strongest striker in recent years, Klose, has rarely been sought after by top Bundesliga clubs, let alone Podolski, who has performed poorly.

However, Podolski also hopes to prove himself again at a strong team like Arsenal. Since the start of the new season, he has worked very hard, and his two goals in four games are a reward for that.

In this match, Podolski is still looking forward to proving himself.

The best stage to prove himself is naturally the match against the defending champions, Manchester City. If he can hold his own against Shan Yongzhuo in a head-to-head confrontation, that would be the best proof.

Of course, even if Podolski were as arrogant as he was, he would find it unrealistic to suppress ideas like Shan Yongzhuo's.

Therefore, from the very beginning of the warm-up, Shan Yongzhuo felt Podolski's slightly challenging gaze.

"What's wrong with this guy..." Shan Yongzhuo didn't quite understand Podolski's thoughts, but he could also sense the challenge the other party was putting him to the test.

As soon as the referee blew the whistle to start the match, Podolski rushed into Manchester City's half.

Both teams fielded a 4-2-3-1 formation in this match.

Shan Yongzhuo and Podolski are the lone strikers for their respective teams, and both have been performing well since the start of the new season.

Shan Yongzhuo leads the scoring charts with 6 goals, while Podolski has also scored 2 goals.

Therefore, this match still offers many points of interest for the English media.

However, compared to Podolski, Shan Yongzhuo faced much greater defensive pressure. When he came to the frontcourt, Mertesacker immediately followed him closely, and another big man, Koscielny, also kept a close eye on this side.

Being defended by two strong, burly men is not a pleasant experience.

When Manchester City launched their first attack, Shan Yongzhuo hadn't even received the ball when he was ruthlessly pushed aside by Mertesacker, leaving him in pain.

"These...barbarians!"

Dan Yongzhuo was somewhat helpless. Although his strength had reached 83 points, he was no match for Mertesacker, who was nearly two meters tall and looked like an iron tower.

Moreover, during each run, Mertesacker would squeeze in and fight hard against Shan Yongzhuo.

Despite the added advantage of his Iron Shirt and Golden Bell Shield, such a head-on confrontation was clearly not Shan Yongzhuo's style. So, he simply stopped running and stood still.

"Intelligent people don't play like savages; this isn't rugby."

Dan Yongzhuo inwardly despised the German tough guy, and at the same time was very annoyed by the other party's tendency to disregard fouls at any time.

Mertesacker's collisions involved a lot of dirty tricks, which put Shan Yongzhuo at a great disadvantage.

However, when Shan Yongzhuo stopped running and just stood in the frontcourt, occasionally taking a few steps, Mertesacker seemed to have no place to play.

To outsiders, Shan Yongzhuo's behavior was perfectly normal.

"This is Shan Yongzhuo's style of competition!"

"The laziest genius, that's absolutely right!"

However, in the eyes of the down-to-earth German tough guy Mertesacker, Shan Yongzhuo's performance was simply because he couldn't compete with him, which made him very proud.

He had never faced Shan Yongzhuo before and didn't have a clear understanding of Shan Yongzhuo's style, so in his opinion, his defense should have successfully limited his opponent.

"Shan Yongzhuo is also afraid of my defense!"

"The world's number one striker, is he really that good?"

"Giving up on yourself after a little setback is nothing to be ashamed of!"

"In the upcoming matches, whenever he runs, I'll use my body to attack him!"

(End of this chapter)