Reborn Liverpool

Chapter 298
3月15日，17/18赛季欧冠1/8决赛次回合第二比赛日，剩下的三场比赛如期进行：

Bad news came from the Camp Nou. Barcelona beat Chelsea 3-0 at home. Messi scored twice and assisted Dembele to score. Alonso and Rudiger hit the goal frame respectively.Barcelona eliminated Chelsea 4-1 on aggregate.

The vigorous top five of the Premier League entered 16, and three teams were eliminated at once, leaving Liverpool and Manchester City to enter the top eight.

拜仁客场3比1击败贝西克塔斯，取得欧冠6连胜，总比分8比1晋级8强。

Muller assisted Thiago to open the scoring, but Thiago was injured afterwards.In the second half, Grenier scored an own goal, Loew scored one point in the Super League, and Wagner, who came off the bench, scored.

The old coach Heynckes surpassed Ancelotti and Van Gaal to create a record of 11 consecutive victories in the Champions League.

Roma beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0 at home. Dzeko scored the winning goal in the second half, and Shakhtar central defender Ordez was sent off.

罗马凭借客场进球多晋级，继2006-07赛季和2007-08赛季之后，第3次打进冠军联赛8强。

So far, all the top 8 of the Champions League have been born. They are Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Juventus, Sevilla, Roma, Bayern and Barcelona.

The above teams all come from the five major leagues, of which, 3 from La Liga, 2 from Premier League, 2 from Serie A, 1 from Bundesliga, and Ligue [-] is completely wiped out.

After entering the elite 8, the number of teams in La Liga surpassed that of the Premier League. So, who is the "first league" between La Liga and the Premier League?
In the UEFA Champions League in the 2017-18 season, there were 4 participating teams in La Liga, and an unprecedented 5 participating teams in the Premier League. After fierce competition in the group stage, all 5 participating teams in the Premier League advanced to the top 16 of the Champions League. An unexpected drop, and the remaining 3 teams entered the round of 16.

Just when people are looking forward to whether all 5 Premier League teams will enter the top 8, some fans are also shouting for the Premier League-"The Premier League Prosperity" is coming!He believes that the Premier League is the "first league" that does his part. As a result, when entering the top 8 knockout rounds, the Premier League teams performed abnormally, and only 2 teams advanced.

In recent years, fans have been arguing about who is the "first league" in La Liga and the Premier League. The media of the two countries have been shirtless for this.

Judging from the current top 8 of the Champions League, there are more La Liga teams than Premier League teams. It seems unfair to judge La Liga as the "first league".

And what is the criterion for judging whether a country's league belongs to the "first league"?

The football community generally believes that a comprehensive evaluation can be made from four aspects:
[-]. League and European results; [-]. Exciting level of matches; [-]. Game viewing habits and ratings; [-]. The value of the top ten clubs in the world.

The following is a relevant comparison between the English and Spanish leagues:

[-]. League and European results.

Judging from the latest club rankings announced on March 3, the top ten teams are: Barcelona, ​​Bayern, Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham, Paris, Liverpool and Manchester United.This item should give La Liga an advantage;
Two, the excitement of the competition.

La Liga puts more emphasis on consciousness and technology, while the Premier League puts more emphasis on physical confrontation. This is the basic consensus. From the perspective of excitement, the Premier League has a slight upper hand;
[-]. Competition viewing habits and ratings.

之前西甲的很多赛事特别是西甲双雄的比赛，基本被安排在华国时间凌晨02：00或04：00，而近两三年来，西甲为了争夺亚洲市场，将一些赛事提前到华国时间晚上19：00、22：00、23：15和凌晨01：30，抢得部分球迷。

However, the start time of most of the Premier League games over the years is 23:00 in the evening of China time (European winter time, daylight saving time is 1 hour earlier), from the perspective of viewing habits and ratings, the Premier League still has the advantage;

[-]. The two countries rank among the top ten clubs in the world by value.

At the end of 2017, look at La Liga and the Premier League from the top ten rankings of world club value (unit: euro, accurate to 2 decimal places):

皇马7.83亿、巴萨7.65亿、切尔西5.59亿、曼城5.42亿、马竞5.28亿、阿森纳4.93亿、曼联4.69亿。

So starting from this point, La Liga has a slight advantage.

Combining the above four aspects, La Liga and the Premier League each have two advantages in the shortlist, and the result is 2-2. Therefore, it is still difficult to determine who is the "first league" in La Liga and the Premier League in recent years.

But after the top 8 of this year's UEFA Champions League, the wind direction of the entire European media has collectively turned towards La Liga and clubs with Messi and Ronaldo.

The FA is very anxious about this, because the "first league battle" is not just a good reputation, but also involves UEFA's resource allocation and policy preference for national leagues.

However, the season goals and competition priorities of the major clubs are in the hands of the club's investors, and the FA cannot force them to specify them.

then what should we do?

The FA had no choice but to hastily convene the top two remaining clubs to discuss together, encouraging Liverpool and Manchester City to continue to advance in the Champions League and promising a lot of benefits.

"We and Manchester City must have a team that enters the semi-finals. The FA will favor clubs with good results in the Champions League in this year's selection of the best. Next season's league schedule will also benefit greatly."

This is what Klopp told Zhang Mai after returning from the emergency meeting of the FA.

"Boss, there will definitely be a team between us and Manchester City that will enter the semi-finals, and it may only be one! It depends on what you and the club mean."

Zhang Mai's answer was also decisive, and at the same time expressed his point of view:
"In the domestic league, I completely obey the arrangement of you and the club, but in the Champions League, I will do my best to fight for Liverpool and the Premier League."

"Don't worry, I agree with you, but the club requires that the league cannot be released, so the next game will be very hard..."

nonsense!We had the Premier League champions last year, the Champions League champions, I smelled it in Dortmund, but haven't tasted it myself?

Uncle Zha was encouraging Zhang Mai, but complained fiercely in his heart for a while, and suddenly felt that there was something in Zhang Mai's words:

"Hey, wait, Zhang Mai, what did you mean just now..."

"I don't mean anything, don't you think UEFA's draw will always be the most mysterious ceremony in the world? I believe that the great UEFA will definitely meet the FA's small requirement of 'one team must enter the semi-finals' of!"

Zhang Mai couldn't tell Uncle Zha that he was from 2019, so he had to lead Klopp's thinking in the direction of PY.

"Damn it, the two games in the league have been done, and we have to fight Manchester City again?"

Klopp couldn't help gnashing his teeth when he thought of the consistent virtues of the UEFA gang.

"Thinking about it the other way around, isn't this better! We are familiar with Manchester City, which is better than meeting Huang Saren. The other weaker teams will definitely not be given to us."

The roles were reversed, and Zhang Mai began to comfort Klopp who was about to go berserk:

"Besides, Manchester City is chasing us too closely in the league. Oh, no, they have overtaken us now. If they can get rid of their arrogance in the Champions League 1/4 finals, they will lose no matter how much they do later, not to mention the two rounds. Plus a Mourinho focused on the league."

"I understand a little bit. If it is really Manchester City, then the two games in the Champions League 1/4 finals are the key. If you win, not only can you continue to advance to the Champions League, but the domestic league can also suppress Manchester City."

After calming down, Klopp was very rational and immediately saw the huge opportunities hidden in the risks.

"Yeah, let's wait for the UEFA draw, and then beat Manchester City, or twice!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……"

In the end, there was a burst of wild laughter between the master and the apprentice who had a tacit understanding...

(End of this chapter)