Soccer: I have the attributes of Messi in his Prime

Chapter 559: The Rise of Tottenham, and Spain's Crucial Match

At Celtic Park, after Manchester City made multiple substitutions, the defensive pressure on the home team became overwhelming. Their formation was completely compressed, and Dembélé, who had been lingering around the center circle, was forced to drop back and help with defense.

Although leaving him up front could create a counterattacking threat for Manchester City, forcing them to be cautious when attacking, Celtic couldn't even get possession of the ball, let alone start a counterattack, once City pushed forward completely.

From the 50th minute of the second half, the ball was constantly flying around Celtic's goal. Manchester City launched wave after wave of attacks, and within 20 minutes, they had already taken 12 shots on goal. If it weren't for Celtic's nearly heroic defense, throwing themselves in the path of every shot, they would have already conceded.

But no matter how strong a defense is, it will eventually be broken.

In the 73rd minute, Lin Quan's dribbling caused chaos in Celtic's penalty area. Although Celtic's goalkeeper made a spectacular save to deny Lin Quan's shot, the ball fell to a Manchester City player outside the box. Before Celtic's defenders could rush out to close down, the City player unleashed a long-range shot. Celtic's goalkeeper Gordon, still scrambling to get up, could only manage a weak deflection, and Agüero reacted quickly, poking the ball into the net.

The score was now 3-3, and Manchester City had finally equalized.

Despite the fact that Celtic wasn't a particularly strong team, when a team focuses solely on defending, even a team as powerful as Manchester City can struggle to break them down. This goal came after more than 25 minutes of intense pressure from City.

As soon as City equalized, Celtic's last bit of hope was extinguished. Their coach made a series of defensive substitutions, even taking off their goal scorer, Dembélé, in favor of defenders. Clearly, they were determined to defend until the end.

Although playing so defensively at home was both cowardly and embarrassing, once they committed to it, Manchester City had little they could do. Despite their relentless efforts, City couldn't find another goal in the remaining time.

Though Celtic's defense was ugly and desperate, they managed to hold on for a hard-fought draw, earning a valuable point against Manchester City. This was no small feat—many top European teams struggled to get anything against Manchester City, and some even suffered humiliating defeats.

As Manchester City's game came to an end, Barcelona's match was also nearing its conclusion. The score was 2-1, with the home team in the lead. Although it was a narrow and somewhat fortunate victory, Barcelona had still managed to win.

After their hard-earned victory, Barcelona's players and coaches were overjoyed to hear that Manchester City had been held to a draw. This meant Barcelona had taken the lead in their Champions League group.

With morale high for Barcelona and Manchester City feeling deflated, and with the next match between the two set to take place at Barcelona's home ground, the team grew increasingly optimistic. They felt this could be the moment for their revenge against City.

...

Failing to win on the road, and with the team's energy drained, Manchester City's morale took a hit. In the seventh round of the Premier League, playing at Tottenham's home ground, White Hart Lane, Manchester City seemed sluggish and uninspired.

To make matters worse, in the 9th minute of the match, the rain made the pitch slippery, and Kolarov accidentally scored an own goal, gifting Tottenham an early lead.

And that wasn't all. In the 33rd minute, a Tottenham player was fouled in the box, and the referee awarded a penalty, allowing Tottenham to extend their lead to 2-0.

After conceding two goals, Manchester City players seemed to wake up a bit, and their form improved. They took advantage of Tottenham's forward movement and launched a quick counterattack, with Son Heung-min scoring a goal to pull one back for City.

But their renewed energy didn't last long. Tottenham's players were in red-hot form, especially Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen, who kept creating chances in front of Manchester City's goal, forcing City's defense to focus on stopping them and preventing City from committing too many players forward in attack.

In the end, the match finished 2-1 in Tottenham's favor, with a penalty and an own goal giving them the victory and ending Manchester City's six-game winning streak.

For Tottenham, this victory had been long-awaited. In recent years, after Manchester City's rise, Tottenham had become something of a punching bag for them, often being handed heavy defeats that embarrassed the club and its fans.

But with Kane's development, Tottenham had been plotting their revenge against Manchester City for some time. Last season, they had almost won at home but fell short at the end. This season, they finally got their revenge, and the joy for Tottenham fans was as sweet as if they had beaten their fierce local rivals, Arsenal!

Manchester City's unexpected loss was celebrated by their rivals. With this victory, Tottenham quietly climbed to second place in the Premier League, just one point behind the defending champions.

Below Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool both won their matches and now sat in third and fourth, each with 16 points. As for the strong starters Manchester United and Chelsea, both had 13 points, sitting in sixth and seventh place, respectively.

After their loss to Tottenham, Manchester City had now gone two games without a win in both the Premier League and Champions League, and the media quickly pounced. Analysts claimed that without Kroos, City's attacking threat had diminished, and their tactics had become one-dimensional, making them less dominant than in previous seasons.

"This could be good news for the other Premier League teams," one analyst said. "This year's Premier League champion might be someone new!"

After Manchester City's consecutive titles, many fans had grown tired of seeing the same champions. They were eager to see a new team take the crown, and with the fierce competition among the top teams this season, it seemed like their wish might come true.

A league where one team dominates isn't a healthy league. Fans want to see multiple strong teams competing fiercely, and that's exactly what the Premier League seemed to offer this season.

...

After the seventh round of Premier League matches, it was time for the FIFA international break. With less than two years to go until the 2018 World Cup, national teams with aspirations of qualifying were focused on the World Cup qualifiers.

Spain had a crucial match coming up in their qualifying group, so many of their key players, including Lin Quan, received the call to join the national team after the weekend's matches. They reported to the training camp as quickly as possible to begin preparations.

For European teams, World Cup qualification is not only about skill but also about luck. Although Europe is allocated 13 spots in the World Cup, the continent is home to so many strong teams that 13 spots are simply not enough.

This means that in the European qualifiers, every team must fight for every point, and they can't afford to slack off in any match. Only the team that finishes first in the group automatically qualifies for the World Cup.

If they fail to top their group, they'll have to go through the grueling playoffs, where the remaining four spots are fiercely contested.

This means that if two or more strong teams are drawn into the same group, someone is bound to miss out on direct qualification.

Unfortunately for Spain, their Group G had two such strong teams—Spain and Italy! The other four teams in the group were far weaker and seemed unlikely to challenge either Spain or Italy for qualification.

This meant that the direct clash between Spain and Italy would likely determine who topped the group.

Because of the importance of this match, Spain's coach Vicente del Bosque and his staff were taking no chances. They called up all their top players and, after allowing them a brief recovery, immediately began intense, targeted training sessions.

Although Spain had recently beaten Italy at the European Championship, past victories didn't guarantee future success. Italy was no pushover, and they would undoubtedly learn from their mistakes, looking for ways to beat Spain this time.

"This match is at their home ground, and Italy will likely use their home advantage to launch an aggressive attack on us. So we need to play steady and make sure we focus on our defense first. Let's avoid conceding, and then we can think about scoring," Del Bosque advised.

Del Bosque was known for his cautious approach. In a match like this, where neither side could afford to lose, he didn't want to give Italy any chances. Even a draw would be acceptable to him; they could always beat Italy at home in the return match.

Plus, Spain's playing style was highly effective against weaker teams, so they were unlikely to drop points against the other four teams in the group. Italy, on the other hand, might not be as consistent in picking up points against weaker teams, especially given their more defensive style.

If Italy slipped up in just one match, Spain could almost certainly secure the top spot in the group.

With this in mind, Del Bosque wasn't in a rush. If anyone needed to feel pressure, it should be Italy.

Del Bosque's experience and wisdom were on full display as he calmly devised a plan to counter Italy's strengths.

On October 7th, at San Siro Stadium, the skies were drizzling. Fortunately, the stadium's drainage system was excellent, and there were no puddles on the pitch, which was good news for Spain, who relied on quick, precise passing.

Just as Del Bosque had predicted, Italy came out strong, using their home advantage to launch wave after wave of attacks against Spain. Both teams were level on points, but Spain had a superior goal difference of +9 compared to Italy's +2, putting Spain in first place and Italy in second.

The Italians knew just how dangerous Spain was. Among the remaining four teams in the group, Liechtenstein posed no threat to either team. North Macedonia was also unlikely to challenge Spain.

As for Israel, their quality was even less of a concern.

That left Albania, a second-tier European team, as the only potential threat. Albania had managed to upset top teams like France in the past, so if Spain underestimated them, they could stumble.

But relying on other teams to trip up Spain was risky. Italy preferred to take matters into their own hands, and beating Spain at home was key to gaining control of their destiny.

With high morale and an intense strategy, Italy launched well-researched attacks that targeted Spain's perceived weaknesses. Spain's midfield wasn't as dominant as it once was, and Italy aimed to exploit that.

However, Del Bosque had anticipated this, carefully selecting his starting lineup. He kept Cesc Fàbregas on the bench and started Koke instead. He also benched Iniesta and played Lin Quan as an attacking midfielder.

Up front, Morata played as a second striker, with Diego Costa leading the line.

This setup allowed Morata to drop back and assist with midfield defense, further strengthening Spain's control in the center of the pitch.

Italy's plan quickly unraveled. They had hoped to exploit a weak Spanish midfield, only to find themselves up against an iron wall.

Not only was Spain's midfield not weak, but it was also strong and resilient. Even worse for Italy, Spain's midfield was highly capable of launching dangerous counterattacks whenever Italy pushed forward.

In the 35th minute of the first half, Spain caught Italy off guard during one of their forward pushes and executed a textbook counterattack.

From the moment Spain won the ball in their half to the moment Diego Costa scored, the entire play took just three passes and 8 seconds.

The speed of the counterattack was so rapid that even Italy, known for their defensive prowess, couldn't react in time!

(End of Chapter)

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