The Young Lion

Nearly 70 hours before the Champions League final, the Millwall team traveled from London to the northern Ruhr region of Germany and arrived in Gelsenkirchen. Before World War II, this was an industrial area known as the City of Thousand Fires. After the army blew up, there were no coal mines here, and the newly-emerged city reached a turning point. Up to now, it is only a city with a population of about 300,000.

When the UEFA Champions League final was about to be staged, a large number of fans flooded into this small city. The fans from Portugal and London were the main force. In addition, fans from all over the world who wanted to watch the UEFA Champions League final came in an endless stream.

This year's UEFA Champions League final will be held at the Schalke Stadium in this city. This is the home stadium of Schalke 04. It is well-known in Germany. Since it was completed and opened three years ago, the German team Bayern Munich has visited this stadium. The record was a total defeat, which made this newly built 5-star stadium quickly famous.

The battle is approaching, and Millwall is preparing for the battle in an orderly manner. The atmosphere in the team is good, and there is no tension or pressure. This is the fifth time that Millwall will play in the Champions League final in ten years, and it is also the seventh time to play in the Club Intercontinental Cup final.

What is tension?

The veteran players in the team are calm and unhurried, and their rich experience is driving and influencing the young players in the team. Like Nedvedralson Southgate, they play the role of passing and leading very well.

Football media all over the world portrayed this battle at the pinnacle of Europe as: a battle of rivals!

There is no other reason.

Aldrich is too sharp to meet his opponent.

And this year, Millwall's opponent in the final is: Porto!

Last year, in the UEFA Cup final. The two teams have played against each other!

UEFA Cup last year. Champions League this year.

Millwall has come back from the bottom to the top. Porto is a dark horse that stands out in Europe's second-tier leagues.

Many people think this is a collision of fate.

Aldridge, who ushered in the tenth anniversary of his coaching, met Mourinho, who came to the top of Europe final stage in less than five years as a fledgling.

Of course, in terms of physical age, Aldridge is younger than Mourinho.

But compared to the working age of coaching the team, Aldridge is undoubtedly Mourinho's predecessor, and he is an existence that Mourinho must look up to.

Invincible in Aldridge,

The time when the older generation and the world-class coaches of the Mesozoic generation are willing to bow down. Mourinho, the most beautiful of the new generation of European football, has high expectations to a certain extent.

I look forward to this Portuguese madman being able to overthrow the rule of Marshal Aldridge!

Under the rendering of the media, Mourinho has become the second Aldridge.

His coaching trajectory, while unlikely to coincide with Aldridge's timeline, does have many similarities.

In his third year in charge, Aldridge won the Premier League and reached the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup.

Mourinho won the Portuguese Super League championship in his third year in charge and entered the UEFA Cup final.

In the fourth year of coaching, Aldridge came to the top of Europe.

Mourinho, too.

only. Mourinho is coaching Porto, and he has left twice before. Once was job hopping, and once was fired.

Even Mourinho took over Porto midway through his second year of coaching and won the league runner-up, which is also consistent with Millwall's record of winning the Premier League runner-up in Aldridge's second year.

And Mourinho has completed the defense of the Portuguese Super League this season. He has long been famous in Europe, and he has also established the image of a madman.

He is also in the same situation as the Portuguese media in China, and what he said is crazy.

Under normal circumstances, our Porto must be the league champion. If some accidents happen? We must still be the champion!

I just don't know if the match-fixing case of Porto this season will be settled four years later, and they will be deprived of the Champions League qualification five years later. Will anyone combine Mourinho's wild words to make malicious speculations in the future.

Porto has improved this season. Compared with last season when they were in the UEFA Cup, they are slightly idealistic. This season is more pragmatic, except that a group of underrated players under Mourinho have grown up, have rich experience, and are more united. , including their technical and tactical play.

The reason why Mourinho has become the most prestigious of the new generation of coaches today is that he even secretly reached an agreement with Chelsea a month ago and was chased by Real Madrid during the same period.

The reason is that their results in the Champions League and their domestic dominance are not enough to show how outstanding Mourinho is.

After all, the Portuguese Super League is a second-tier league in Europe. Calculated, the three consecutive Ligue 1 titles should be more prestigious. However, Mourinho led Porto except for the second round of the Champions League group stage where they were defeated by Real Madrid 3:1 at home, and then came to the final They remained unbeaten in the first 10 Champions League games!

And eliminated Manchester United in two rounds in the round of 16, and eliminated Lyon in the top 8 of Ligue 1. In the semi-finals, Deportivo, who defeated Milan and completed a miraculous comeback, stopped outside the final.

In terms of strength comparison, Porto has eliminated the Premier League and Ligue 1 champions successively, and the Champions League defending champion fell to Deportivo's feet, and Deportivo's achievements seem to have become a stepping stone for Porto.

It's just that in these 6 knockout games, the common news content is: Porto is extremely utilitarian and dirty.

Ferguson, Legon, Irueta, these three Mourinho's losers have been in every game, every game, not after the two rounds, when the result comes out.

They criticized Porto in the first round and after the second round, thinking that Porto was too utilitarian. Secondly, the players were always performing, harassing, delaying and affecting the game on the court.

Porto's players always have a lot of small moves when defending, and easily fall down to win favorable penalties when attacking, and always try to provoke conflicts on the field to benefit their own team.

It is naturally a great achievement for Porto to reach the final of the Champions League, but they are still dark horses. Dark horses mean that the overall strength has not reached the height recognized by the outside world. Will be gradually mythologized by latecomers.

Just like Millwall, which won the Champions League in 1998, people still mention that generation of Wild Lions and make comparisons with the second generation of Wild Lions, and even come to compare with the current Millwall.

If Aldrich were to compare, there is no doubt that the second generation of mad lions is definitely stronger than the first generation, and the third generation of mad lions is also stronger than then, but still inferior to the second generation, but the third generation The first-generation crazy lions are still on the rise, and their future potential is enough to make them surpass the second generation.

The discussion of Guan Gong's battle with Qin Qiong is of little significance.

Simply speaking of Porto, their players have good potential, but potential is not linked to strength, just like Carvalho in 2004 cannot be compared with Carvalho a few years later.

Porto's overall strength must not have reached the level of Europe's first-class peak, so they are dark horses, so their achievements have set off Mourinho's terrificity.

From this point of view, the complaints of Manchester United, Lyon, and Deportivo have the taste of groaning women, because the strong are not necessarily victorious on the football field.

For two consecutive years in the Intercontinental Cup final with Porto, Aldridge appeared very calm, showing enough demeanor in UEFA's official press conference.

Mourinho is a very good coach. I remember when I saw him in 1997, I thought he would achieve something, so I also sent an invitation to him at that time, hoping that he could come to Millwall to work. Unfortunately, he was rejected by him. He is an ambitious coach. There are many top clubs associated with him. I think it is normal. The Portuguese Super League stage cannot satisfy him. He should play on the top stage of the European mainstream league. Talent. Ahem. As for tomorrow’s Champions League final, Porto has a chance, of course there is a chance. Although Millwall has rich experience and is also a favorite to win the championship, if we carelessly underestimate the enemy, the result will definitely let us down. Now my only worry is Whether the players' desire for the championship will have a negative impact on the game. Schneider, Larsson, they can't wait to win the fifth Champions League, so that they will not feel depressed in front of their friends Pirlo, De Rossi , Alonso and these young lads are also eager to win the Champions League trophy as a main player for the first time, I can only hope that they will not be too excited now.

Aldrich's remarks at the press conference sounded quite satisfactory, but he found a mystery in the interpretation of Fleet Street.

It is not difficult to find that Aldridge is angrying Mourinho through the media platform, which can be regarded as a kind of targeted harassment.

97 years?

7 years ago, Aldridge stimulated Mourinho with a senior tone.

I was optimistic about you back then, and now that you have succeeded, it proves that I have a good vision.

And think about the identities of the two at that time?

At the same time, Aldridge also disturbed the Porto team.

Your coach has been associated with many European teams in the past two months. He is leaving. He is no longer with you.

This is a public dissension.

When Mourinho was interviewed later, he put on a cool face, with an attitude of not putting Aldridge in his eyes.

Naturally, there was anger in his heart, and Aldridge poked his weakness.

He is leaving.

This will be his last game in charge of Porto.

I don't care what people say, I'm with my players, we fought so hard to get to the Champions League final and now we're all focused on this game, we're all in this together and we'll do our best to make it happen Everyone's dream. I won't make any comments about Millwall because we always beat the strong and the Champions League final is no exception. (To be continued..) ()