When the international break is over, the internationals from their respective teams are returning to the team, and so is Manchester City.

Two consecutive national team games and long journeys have left the players looking tired.

But next Manchester City has to go to Liverpool away.

For Rafael Benitez, this is the second time he has faced his former club since taking charge of Manchester City.

Judging by last season's results alone, it seems that he does not qualify for a return to Anfield with his head held high.

Last season, Manchester City finished fourth, while his successor, Kenny Dalglish, managed Liverpool, came close to winning the title in second place.

Manchester City beat Manchester United at the last minute last season, but Liverpool did not take their chances.

But judging by this season's table, Benitez definitely has the right to put Dalglish to shame.

In the Champions League, Manchester City set the best result of the season for an English team.

On the other hand, Liverpool, Dalglish's team only scored four points in the four group stages of the Champions League, and it is dangerous to qualify from the group.

In the league, Dalglish's team also had a hard time. They went on a high pitch from the start last season, even finishing top of the table at one point, in a fierce battle with Manchester United for the league title.

In the end, the second place is already a very good result.

But this season, it is not good to be in the Champions League, and in the league, it has also plummeted, which is in stark contrast to last season.

After 12 rounds of league matches, they are ranked seventh......

That's a far cry from last season's second-place finish.

When the two teams met last season, Liverpool were in high spirits, while Manchester City suffered their first crisis of the season. At the time, everyone thought Liverpool would win even away from home and that Mark Hughes would be sacked for losing the game.

But who knows, Glory had a big explosion in the game, scoring three goals and scoring a hat-trick, which not only saved Mark Hughes's position, but also caused Liverpool to suffer a setback.

This meeting this season has just experienced a national team match, and there are multiple internationals in both teams, so the physical condition of the players on both sides is not too good.

And there's a Champions League group game to come next.

Manchester City are thankful to say that they have already qualified for the top of the group ahead of schedule and are less demanding of results in the Champions League group stage next week.

But Liverpool is different.

They travel to Hungarian side Debresen in midweek.

The team started out in the group as a Pot 4 team.

But it won't be easy for Liverpool to win against them.

Liverpool's first Champions League group stage of the season was at home to De Bresson, and everyone thought before the game that Liverpool would win easily, and the only suspense was to win by a few goals.

As a result, Liverpool won by only one goal at home and almost didn't win.

It was also Liverpool's only win in the Champions League group stage so far this season.

So next week's away game will be crucial for Liverpool. If they are to keep their hopes of qualifying from the group alive, they must win this game.

It is also expected that Lyon will lose away to Fiorentina so that the two teams can be evenly divided. Then Liverpool beat Fiorentina at home in the final round and hope Lyon can't win Debreson at home. Because once Lyon wins, comparing the win-loss relationship between the two teams with the same number of points, Lyon has the advantage of one win and one draw.

So for Dalglish, he may not have time to think about the league at all, and try to qualify from the Champions League group stage first.

The club legend, who led Liverpool to the Champions League final at Heitherberg, now faces a tough challenge.

So against Manchester City, he actually didn't care at all.

Even at home, he didn't send the main team, and he didn't have the posture to fight Manchester City to the death.

Manchester City also did not send all the main players, but not to save for next week's Champions League group stage, they were because too many key players played for the national team and needed to rest.

Both sides fielded a second-team lineup in this game.

Rong Guang is the brightest star in this lineup.

David Silva was also offered a start in the game.

He replaced Robinho and Sturridge replaced Dimitar Berbatov as the team's centre-forward.

The three of them make up the team's new offensive trident.

Liverpool's side has no intention of fighting, and Manchester City is playing very smoothly.

They scored one goal in each half to beat Liverpool 2-0.

Glory scored the second-half goal that sealed the game, and the assist was David Silva.

After beating Liverpool, Manchester City is still leading with 34 points after 13 league games.

However, Chelsea were also chasing after him, with Carlo Ancelotti's side beating Wolves 4-0 at home.

Still just one point away from Manchester City.

Although Manchester City have played one less game than Chelsea. But at this level of competition, there is no point in playing one less game or one more game.

Sometimes the victory is often determined by momentum, when you are like a rainbow, you can be like a bamboo, cutting melons and vegetables all the way to kill it. When you don't have momentum, it's hard to even play mid-table teams.

And the momentum is mainly accumulated by victory.

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After the match against Liverpool, the whole Manchester City team returned to Manchester.

They don't have to take a plane, they can just take a bus. The two cities are only a few dozen kilometers apart, which is the distance from the city center to the suburbs in many provincial capitals in China.

Hurry up by bus, and you can go home in less than an hour.

Although there is still a Champions League game in midweek, Benitez still gave him a half-day off after the game, and he did not train at the Carrington training base in the morning, but only came in the afternoon. And the afternoon training didn't have much content, mainly restorative training.

The players' bodies are restored, those who participated in the game relax their muscles, and those who did not participate in the game maintain their fitness.

Prepare for the Champions League game in midweek.

In the Champions League group stage in midweek, Manchester City are playing at home against Bordeaux.

This game is no longer relevant for Manchester City. But for Bordeaux, it was a very crucial game.

In the last round of the group stage, they beat Bayern Munich 2-0 away.

This turns their points from two to five, while Bayern Munich remains at four. At the same time, both matches between Bordeaux and Bayern Munich are over, with Bordeaux winning one and drawing one, and they have the advantage in the win-loss relationship between the two sides.

And considering that Real Madrid is out, it is now Bordeaux and Bayern Munich who are fighting for the right to qualify from the group. Bordeaux is one point ahead of Bayern Munich in points, and Bordeaux also has an advantage in terms of wins and losses.

If Bordeaux can beat Manchester City away in this game, they only need a draw in the last game to qualify.

However, it will not be easy to beat Manchester City away. They have just one chance, and that is that Manchester City, who qualified from the group ahead of the group, will not give it their all in this game and that the Manchester City players have a mentality against them.

Only then will Bordeaux have a chance.

Otherwise, once Manchester City really get serious, the final result will be the first meeting between the two sides, Bordeaux lost 0:2 on their home turf.

Judging from the starting list announced by Manchester City before the game, Manchester City did not play the main force in this game.

It's just that compared to the game against Liverpool, Manchester City is no longer a second-tier lineup.

Glory still starts - that's enough, he's the most dangerous player. When Rongguang doesn't start, it can make the opponent breathe a sigh of relief.

Glorious starters, Bordeaux will have a hard time winning this game.

Still, ahead of the game, Bordeaux's midfield centrepiece Gourcuff expressed his confidence.

'We all know that Man City are strong and Wing is also strong. However, in order to qualify from this group, Bordeaux will do their best. When the draw came in, no one believed that Manchester City and Bordeaux would make it out of this group, but City proved they could, so why can't we? ”

Gourcuff also has the capital to say this, because Bordeaux beat Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Champions League this season and ranked second in the group, and a large part of the credit for this belongs to Gourcuff.

When Gourcuff first debuted, he was called a genius and was later bought by AC Milan. Originally, it was planned that he would be a replacement for Kaka, but Carlo Ancelotti, who was the head coach of AC Milan at the time, did not think that Gourcuff could not be a replacement for Kaka, because although he was excellent on the spot, he lacked the forward impact and the speed of Kaka. So at AC Milan, the talented Gourcuff didn't have a good time. He made just 36 league appearances in two seasons, 23 of which were on the bench.

For a young player as talented as Gourcuff, not being able to play is a fatal thing. For this reason, he opted for a loan spell at Ligue 1 side Bordeaux for the 2008-2009 season.

As a result, in his first season at Bordeaux, he was very good, scoring in the first game of the league. He made 37 appearances that season and scored 12 goals.

He helped Bordeaux win Ligue 1 that season and qualify for this season's Champions League.

Last season's excellent performance made AC Milan want to make Gourcuff work for themselves.

Especially after Kaka's decision to leave AC Milan, they are in desperate need of a midfielder who can replace Kaka. In addition, Carlo Ancelotti, who has always disliked the use of Gourcuff, also left AC Milan with his contract expired this summer.

It stands to reason that the hurdles for Gourcuff's return to AC Milan have been cleared.

But this time Gurkuv himself was reluctant to return.

At the same time, Bordeaux also decided to activate the 15 million euro buyout clause in the loan contract.

Despite AC Milan's desperate efforts to persuade Gourcuff to promise him a very bright future, Gourcuff insisted on staying in Bordeaux.

And just like that, in the summer of this year, he officially moved to Bordeaux.

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Gourcuff wants to beat Manchester City away from home and believes he and Bordeaux have a chance as long as City don't give their 100 per cent all.

But it's a luxury, because there is glory in Manchester City's starting line-up.

From the perspective of the position on the field, both of them are forward midfielders.

Although Gurkuf is also a very good genius, it is still not enough to see when compared to glory......

He himself knows very well that in order to win, he must count on Glory not to be interested in this game.