Super Prophecy Master

Chapter 328 The decisive battle is coming
After the press conference, Joel and Zhang Yang exchanged phone calls.

This is a little acquaintance.

Joel will leave Tottenham next season. He has not yet decided which team he will go to. Joel is still very interested in getting to know the newly promoted young champion coach. At the same time, he also has a question, "I heard you Turned down Tottenham's invitation?"

"I have no reason to leave Millwall."

"But Tottenham is a big club, a big club, much bigger than Millwall. Even if Millwall has...you know, foreign capital, it can't compare with Tottenham."

Joel said.

This is really about understanding the difference.

Many European coaches feel that going to a big club to coach is a jump in the head coaching career, just like McLaren, who had the opportunity to go to the England team, immediately decided to leave Middlesbrough, and Middlesbrough also blessed He can succeed.

Therefore, most head coaches seek to coach in wealthy clubs.

Zhang Yang understands this kind of thinking, but he has no similar thinking, "I don't think Tottenham is better, I am familiar with this place, and Tottenham can't offer a better contract."

Joel nodded.

Although I still don't understand it in my heart, I can consider that Zhang Yang is Chinese. Maybe Tottenham and Millwall have similar influence in China?Well, yes, it doesn't matter at all.

Joel thought he understood.

----

The end of the eight rounds of Premier League No.30 also marks the end of the 2005-2006 Premier League. From the perspective of the media and fans, there are only two games left, one is the final of the UEFA Champions League, and the other is Millwall. The FA Cup final against Liverpool.

Millwall won the league championship three rounds ahead of schedule, followed by Chelsea in second place, Manchester United in No.3, and Liverpool in fourth place, qualifying for the last Champions League.

The fifth and sixth are Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal respectively. As the two teams that are rivals in the same city, the rankings are next to each other, which shows the fierce competition, but Arsenal has received more attention than Tottenham. They are a team that has to be mentioned because Arsenal reached the final of the Champions League.

This may also be the reason for Arsenal's poor league results at the end of the season-they put most of their energy into the Champions League, and the league preparations are not so sufficient.

Arsenal take the Champions League seriously, and there is another important reason: the Champions League champion not only represents honor, but also allows them to qualify for the Champions League next season in the form of defending champions.

This is a precedent.

Last year, Liverpool reversed AC Milan and won the UEFA Champions League, but they only ranked fifth in the Premier League, so they appealed to UEFA on the grounds that "the defending champion cannot participate in the Champions League, which shows that there is a problem with the rules of the UEFA Champions League."

UEFA announced that it has given Liverpool a place to participate in the play-offs, and the number of English teams participating in the Champions League this season has also expanded to five.

This is not reproducible.

UEFA immediately revised the rules, deciding that under the same circumstances, the defending champion will squeeze out the last place in the country. This rule means that if Arsenal can win the defending champion, they will squeeze out Liverpool. Participate in the UEFA Champions League next season.

This is very interesting.

Liverpool won the league ranking competition. They rank fourth in the league, but the Champions League places are not necessarily determined by the league ranking. As long as Arsenal can win the Champions League, it will make Liverpool's fourth place meaningless.

Many media have conducted detailed analysis reports on this point.

Judging from the current situation, the initiative to qualify for the Champions League is still in the hands of Arsenal. Liverpool can only hope that Arsenal will not be able to win the championship, but Arsenal does not have an advantage. If they lose the Champions League, Not only losing the championship, but also losing the qualification for next season is tantamount to losing everything.

This is a desperate battle.

It is conceivable how much attention such a 'sinister' game can attract.

Arsenal will have a decisive battle with Barcelona, ​​and the attraction will definitely be higher. Many media and fans hope that Arsenal can win, which also represents the victory of English football.

As long as Arsenal can win the championship, coupled with Liverpool last year, English football won the Champions League twice in a row, which is enough to show the strength of English football.

This will give fans a sense of honor.

Despite the poor performance of the England national team and their participation in the World Cup is not optimistic, their league is very strong and has overwhelmed Serie A to become the world's largest league.

Of course, the latter point may not be proved by Arsenal's championship.

At the beginning of May, the 'Phonegate' scandal broke out in Italian football. Gazzetta dello Sport suddenly published the content of the conversation between Juventus club general manager Moggi and the Serie A referee designator in recent years. The content of the recording is mainly It is the record of a call between Moggi and Paireto, the Serie A referee designator who served for six seasons in 2004.

On the day that the Premier League ended, the scandal continued to ferment, and the Football Association President Carraro resigned, and the vice-chairman Mazzini subsequently resigned.

After that, the four major prosecutors' offices in Naples, Rome and Turin began to intervene in the investigation.

Italian football ushered in a huge crisis.

British media reports are full of schadenfreude, as are comments from British netizens. English football and Italian football are natural rivals. In the past, the Italian league was considered a "little World Cup". To develop the English domestic league, the biggest competitor is The Italian league and Italian football's crisis is tantamount to self-destructing the image, and the Premier League's 'world number one' will become very stable.

The crisis in Italian football is certainly a major event, but it has little effect on England. It has no other effect except to give fans more talk.

Fans still pay attention to the game.

The FA Cup final is also very important. Millwall has attracted the attention of many people. Many media reports are talking about the possibility of Millwall winning the "Double Crown", which will push Millwall's success to another level. a peak.

The FA Cup itself is also very influential.

Perhaps fans from other countries don't care much about the FA Cup, but the FA Cup, which has the longest history, is concerned by every English fan. The champion of the FA Cup will also receive great honor and it will be easier to get more support from fans.

The Premier League is all over, and many media have also begun to interview the FA Cup final.

Millwall Club, many reporters come every day. They will interview Millwall players, coaching staff, and even officials and staff. The main thing is to find out about Millwall's preparations for the final.

Millwall played Liverpool in the final. The media's view on the result was "half and half". They felt that Millwall had a good chance because the league performance was very strong. Although they lost the match against Liverpool in round 36, Millwall Paul only sent a substitute, and Liverpool only scored one goal.

Liverpool also have a good chance.

Benitez is a coach who is good at playing cup games. Liverpool has always had good results in the Champions League, and domestic cup games can always become a strong competitor.

The media reporters who came here were more or less disappointed.

Millwall's first-team training ground has been closed. Even on the routine 'open training day', the club did not allow reporters and fans to enter on the grounds of preparing for the game.

Zhang Yang did not appear in front of the reporter.

None of the Millwall players took the initiative to accept interviews. They even hid away from reporters when they saw reporters, and did not accept interviews at all.

This is also Zhang Yang's advice. He told the players not to be interviewed by reporters before the game. That would put pressure on the players and also make the team fall into the influence of the reports.

For example, when there are many media reports on Millwall's news, the players will talk about it in private, they will regard the reports as talking points, and they will also affect their emotions for praise and criticism.

This is not good for the team.

Some media reported angrily, "Millwall doesn't want the outside world to know what they are doing! But it doesn't matter what they do. In the last three rounds of the league, they used their performance to show that everyone has already started to have a holiday. !” The meaning of the words is that the Millwall players do not attach importance to the FA Cup, they think that winning the league championship is enough.

Some media have issued a similar analysis, but more media are at a neutral point of view, reporting Millwall from the sidelines of the interview.

Although Millwall's training is closed, there are still a lot of media reports. The only participating teams are Millwall and Liverpool. The London media will not support Liverpool, they can only report on Millwall.

Many fans are also happy to talk about Millwall, because Millwall is the league champion, and this season is a big topic of discussion in the Premier League. The focus of fans is equal to the media market. Club, hoping to get an interview opportunity.

On May [-]th, four days before the match, the reporters finally met Zhang Yang.

That may be thanks to Liverpool.

The day before Liverpool had a 'ball ticket case'. 1600 final tickets disappeared in Liverpool on the way through the Royal Mail. After the police intervened in the investigation, they quickly came to the conclusion that the tickets were stolen.

But then it's gone.

The police have been investigating, but in a short period of time, many tickets have been sold on the black market. It is said that many fans have bought tickets from unknown sources. They also plausibly said, "I know there is something wrong with the tickets. They are not available through normal channels and I can only hope that the tickets are valid."

"One thousand more tickets, one thousand more fans supporting Liverpool!"

"It's good for us!"

"I also bought tickets but I refused to hand them over because I paid for it."

"..."

The fans who bought the tickets spoke out publicly, but then the Cardiff event organization made it clear that these tickets would be deemed invalid.

Actually, that doesn't make sense.

Liverpool CEO Perry hopes that the FA will come forward to solve this problem, but after consultation with the Millennium Stadium security group, the Cardiff police and the municipality, the FA has made a decision not to reprint the tickets. The main reason of the FA is that, A few minutes before the start of the game, the electronic identification system at the turnstiles will enter [-] fans per minute, and the staff will not have time to identify which tickets are canceled. However, the FA and the police have once again warned fans not to buy them on the black market. Tickets, even if you can enter the stadium, you will be expelled by the police at that time, and you will even be investigated for buying dirt.

Liverpool had to take steps on Thursday to compensate fans who should have received tickets after reprints were rejected.

"We are now confident that about 1600 of the 1000 tickets that were stolen last Friday have been sold on the black market. With the FA refusing to reprint the tickets, we have had to put the last few that were supposed to be drawn by fan card holders The tickets obtained are directly used to compensate those fans. Fans who have been drawn to buy tickets will definitely be disappointed, but this is the best solution for now. I am very disappointed that innocent fans have to bear the responsibility for the tickets being stolen. The allocation of tickets was already very small, and now nearly 1000 fans are blocked from the stadium."

The London media gloated over the incident.

But Zhang Yang must stand up and put pressure on the FA and the tournament manager, because Millwall is the 'losing' side, "If they don't do a good job, there will be a thousand more Liverpool fans present! "

"Of course, I know they don't want that, but the result is yes, it's not good for Millwall, the number of fans on both sides should be the same!"

"If it's going to cause trouble for the game. I mean, the fans who bought the tickets on the black market, they could be violent, they could be dangerous people who are banned from the stadium to watch the game, and I have to stand for my Concerns about the safety of the players will also prevent us from being able to concentrate on the game."

"I hope they can do a good job, otherwise the game will lose a safe environment and lose its fairness."

The media reporters quickly wrote down what Zhang Yang said.

Immediately afterwards, a reporter asked about Millwall's preparations, and Zhang Yang rarely revealed a little information, "Everyone is very serious. We are more prepared for the game."

Zhang Yang talked about his opponents, "Liverpool is a strong team, Benitez is an excellent coach, but if you ask me about the game, sorry, it will definitely be Millwall who wins, because we have strength and preparation. I am fully satisfied and hope to win the championship.”

Zhang Yang's victory declaration immediately made the reporters smile.

Over the past season, Zhang Yang has kept a low profile most of the time. He doesn't often talk about his opponents, and treats them with respect. He rarely talks about the outcome before the game.

Now Zhang Yang talks about 'must win', "Is Millwall really confident?"

Media reports leave doubts.

Among the many reports, the time quickly came to the fifteenth.

At noon that day, both Liverpool and Millwall arrived in Cardiff, Wales, and the fans of the two teams also came to Cardiff, making the streets of the city lively.

The FA Cup final is coming.

(End of this chapter)