[football] walk side by side

After a short winter break, the league will resume.

The Christmas holiday did not wear away the enthusiasm of the Blues players. At the beginning of the second half of the season, they played a series of consecutive victories, which directly shattered other teams' yearning for the Premier League championship. Arsenal and Manchester United's goals turned delusional.

Unless Chelsea completely collapses due to something in the second half of the season, Chelsea's current state will not give Manchester United and Arsenal any opportunities at all.

Just when fans of countless other teams were secretly expecting Chelsea to collapse, a game that seemed to be able to affect Chelsea happened——

In the semi-finals of the 2004/2005 European Champions Cup, Chelsea defeated Anfield and lost at the feet of Benitez's Red Army.

This failure made many British media, and even the media in other European countries greatly relieved, and also ignited the hopes of Arsenal and Manchester United to win the championship. For the media who said early on that "money can't buy a championship!" Speaking of Chelsea, Chelsea's performance at home and abroad this season can be described as frightening. Now that they have finally lost a game, can you not breathe a sigh of relief?

Newspapers in other parts of the UK began to cheer Chelsea again: They believed that after nearly 20 unbeaten games, this defeat should deal a major blow to Chelsea's morale. Steady, it's a great time for other teams to take the lead!

It's not unreasonable for the media to think this way - in fact, two vital players in Chelsea's squad, captain John Terry and vice-captain Frank Lampard, were checked long before April There was an injury, and it was only because of the Champions League that he barely survived until the game was out, so he asked for a truce to heal his injuries.

Back to Chelsea in the league, it can be said that they lost two captains and two leading players at once!Not to mention the media who disliked Chelsea, even Chelsea's own fans were a little panicked.

But soon, the Blues broke their delusion with a series of victories in the league!

In order to make up for the weakening of the defense caused by Terry's truce, Chelsea changed the previous double midfielder to double midfielder, and only Cyril was left on the front midfielder. Fortunately, Cyril is better than Lampard in defense A lot of excellence, under the neutralization of the hatchback, Chelsea's defensive strength is not too vulnerable because of Terry's departure.

In today's single midfielder position, Cyril has performed like a fish in water. Chelsea's midfield nodes have been sorted out by him in an orderly manner, without giving other teams the slightest chance to catch up!

2005年4月3日，切尔西主场4：1轻取布莱克本。

If this does not reflect the ferocity of Chelsea, then seven days later at Stamford Bridge, the Blues who achieved a double kill against Arsenal are enough to make the media speechless.

What about the drop in morale?Can the Champions League exit not affect Chelsea?The tabloid media were puzzled, but Chelsea's toughness as always was obvious to all. Under such circumstances, they could only obediently put back their cynicism and pretend that they hadn't said anything at the beginning.

The exit from the Champions League has indeed brought a lot of blows to Chelsea players, but it is precisely because of the failure of the Champions League that Chelsea has gone up and down. From the head coach to the players, no one can tolerate the league title being robbed Walk.

And their dedication has been rewarded smoothly——

"... here is the FA Cup final, 10 minutes to go, but the Chelsea fans in the stands are ready to celebrate their first trophy - yes, the first trophy, With three rounds to go before the Premier League title this season, the title of the league title seems to have been decided. Chelsea's fiery state is doomed that they will not give up the first league title in the club's history to anyone! "

And the facts are indeed as the narrator expected.

In the game against Liverpool five days later, Chelsea defeated the Red Army 2-1 and declared an early victory.

This is actually a very strange thing-Mourinho often has nothing to do with Benitez's Red Army in cup games, but at the same time, Benitez is also helpless against Mourinho's Blue Army in the league.

When looking back at this game later, many fans felt a little emotional: this was not only the first Premier League championship in Chelsea's history, but also the beginning of the endless entanglement between red and blue in the following six years.

The FA Cup is in hand, the league title is in hand.

For Chelsea, which has not had many champions in history, these two championships are enough to soothe their depression of being out of the Champions League. The vast majority of Blues fans are satisfied with this season. It is a pity to be out of the Champions League, but they have seen the team The strong dominance in the European arena, Chelsea is still running in, and there may not be no chance next season.

The players thought the same thing. For a team that has just run into success this season, the league championship is already the best reward. As for the Champions League, there is still a chance next year.

With the satisfaction of this season and the expectation for the next season, Chelsea, who have no European games to play, announced their liberation in advance. The players packed their things and started a long and leisurely summer break. A word of "warm reminder" from Rui Faria, the team's strength and conditioning coach.

However, for players who still have the Champions League to play, this season is not completely over.

On the evening of May 2005, 5, Istanbul, Turkey, Atatürk Stadium.

This modern stadium completed in 2002 was just rated as a UEFA five-star football stadium last year, and then it was put into use in this season's European Champions Cup finals - the 2004/2005 European Champions Cup finals, The final battle between AC Milan and Liverpool took place here.

Two years ago, AC Milan defeated Juventus in the final to win the championship, announcing the strong rise of the traditional giants AC Milan; two years later, Liverpool stepped on the shoulders of Chelsea, the Premier League king of the same year, and came to this stadium.

Whether it is the performance of the two sides in the game and the shocking reversal at the last moment, or the background and connotation behind this game, it is destined that this will be a game that will be included in the annals of European history.

In the European Champions Cup final in 1985, in the match between Liverpool and Juventus, Italian fans clashed with English fans, resulting in the death of nearly a hundred fans, known as the "Heysel tragedy".

After this game, all English football clubs were banned from entering the European arena for five years. Five years later, the red dynasty dominating European football seems to have become a distant dream.In the past 20 years, the Red Army Liverpool has rapidly declined to a trough, and has never emerged from this nightmare. It was Milan, which had the Dutch Three Musketeers, to replace their dominance.

At the same time, the superstar date of this game is still May 5, in other words, four days later, Liverpool will usher in the twentieth anniversary of the "Heysel tragedy".

This is a game that determines the ownership of the European Champions Cup, and it is a fateful matchup.

AC Milan has been the overlord in the European arena in recent years, and after 20 years, the Red Army Liverpool, which finally broke into the European Champions Cup again, also has no way out.

Who will be the final winner of this game?

In this game, Cyril was watched live by Cristianola - when both Chelsea and Manchester United ended their Champions League tour early, and the Premier League game was announced to be over, the two had plenty of time to fly to Turkey to watch This Champions League final.

Tickets for the game were not easy to get, but fortunately, Cyril asked Kaka to book the tickets for the game immediately, and got two better viewing positions.Sitting in the stands of AC Milan fans, Cyril and Cristiano were not particularly conspicuous. Only a small number of fans discovered their identities, but soon, as the game started, everyone turned their attention After the game, I didn't care to pay attention to these two players who were sitting among the fans watching.

"Who do you think will win?" Cristiano asked casually. Football games are inherently accidental, and he just raised a topic at random, and he didn't mean to analyze it seriously.

But at this time, the game has just begun.

In the 10th second of the game, Kaka broke through from the right and was brought down by Traore. AC Milan won a free kick in the frontcourt.

Liverpool lined up the wall, and Pirlo in the AC Milan team immediately stood in front of the penalty spot. He unexpectedly kicked a low ball and chose a free kick to cooperate. Maldini ambushed on the outside He volleyed in front of the goal and the ball bounced into the net!

AC Milan leads by one goal!

Amid the deafening cheers, Cyril raised his head and looked at the tall scoreboard.

It was only 52 seconds before Maldini scored the goal.

And this is just the beginning.

Six minutes before the end of the first half, Crespo made a push to make the score 6-2. Then in the 0th minute of the game, Crespo scored twice and lobbed into the net. AC Milan 44 -3 Liverpool!

"In terms of strength, Liverpool is not an opponent of AC Milan." Cyril said softly, turning his eyes back to the court.In the past few years, AC Milan has been called the strongest in Europe. In terms of hard power, the players in the team belong to the peak period. AC Milan will not lose to any team, but...

Cristiano nodded. Indeed, AC Milan was unanimously favored by the European media before the game. There is no reason. Milan's strength is directly placed there. Compared with AC Milan's strong performance in recent years, Liverpool is far behind. .And the game in front of him also proved that the opinions of the media were not false.

only……

The two looked at each other in silence, after all, they didn't say the turning point in their hearts, but turned their heads and returned their attention to the game - they didn't mention that topic, but everyone understood what the other was thinking. What is hesitation.

Last year's European Cup, in terms of strength, wasn't Portugal unanimously favored?

In the end?Didn't he lose to Greece, which is composed entirely of ordinary players?

So what about this game?With 20 years away from the Champions League final and only four days left before the Heysel tragedy, is there any chance of a comeback for Liverpool?

No one knows what the answer to this question is - but the game continues.