Villarreal coach Manuel Pellegrini is not well-known in Europe, as he has coached in Chile and Argentina, and his first team was his parent club Universidad de Chile, but after a disappointing performance, he left Chile's biggest football club.

He went on to move on to Palestino and O'Higgins, but it was his success in San Lorenzo, Argentina, that made him famous.

Last year, Manuel Pellegrini traveled out of South America to Europe for the first time and took over the 'yellow submarine'. When he arrived, he became the head coach almost parachuted in, and most people were at a loss when they heard his name - no one in Spain knew the name of a Chilean coach.

But Manuel Pellegrini led the team to a good result.

After almost a season, Pellegrini's ability is recognized by most people, and the third place in the Villarreal league alone is enough to satisfy the fans.

It's not just about the top three in the league, it's also about giving them an 'amazing' Champions League spot.

However, Pellegrini is still not satisfied, of course, winning a title in the first season is called perfect, maybe his idea is similar to Wansheng, he is also aiming for the UEFA Cup, but unfortunately now Pellegrini has little confidence.

The Derby team on the pitch really left him scratching his head.

Although he has been in charge for a longer time than Wan Sheng, in fact, Pellegrini is also the first time to lead the team to participate in European competitions, and his understanding of the English team comes from various reports and news, and it is the first time that he has really played an English team head-to-head.

He did a lot of preparation.

Before the first leg, he knew that this Derby County team was good at attacking, but as a result, Derby County played a defensive counter-attack, and the solid defense and tough style really made Villarreal uncomfortable, and they lost to Derby County by one goal.

In the second leg, Manuel Pellegrini did a lot of preparation. But as a result, Derby's style of play was changed to an all-front attack? Are they going to fight an offensive battle with Villarreal?

Pellegrini was completely at a loss.

He didn't expect that in less than ten days, the opponent he faced would play two completely different styles, although the team was ready to play against Derby County before the first leg, but now they are not prepared, they thought it would be an offensive and defensive confrontation.

What now?

Derby County scored again, and the team was already two goals down.

Manuel Pellegrini knows it's not the time to be stunned, when the game resumes. He stood on the sidelines and shouted at the players, "Attack!" Attack it! ”

He wants to boost the morale of his players and put the team in a head-to-head game against Derby County.

However, it is conceivable how much of a strategy that relies on morale alone can have an effect on this kind of temporary adjustment of tactics, and despite Pellegrini's shouting, the Villarreal players still don't know what to do on the pitch.

Riquelme heard the coach's shouts and tried his best to organise the attack, but they didn't have time to adjust because the opponent kept pressing all over the court. Even if they make a small mistake, the opponent will immediately snatch the ball away, and the opponent's attack will follow.

So they had to defend.

After a few times like this, Villarreal has obviously become extremely passive!

They could not organize an attack. The game has no rules, so they can only defend all the time, and in such a game, they can't play to the team's advantages at all. On the contrary, it was completely suppressed by Derby County.

Seeing this situation, Pellegrini knew that it was his own mistake, and he felt very annoyed. But now there's nothing to make up for.

When Wan Sheng saw this scene, the corners of his mouth smiled.

He didn't expect Villarreal to make such a big mistake, the opponent obviously didn't have much preparation, probably thought that the team would continue to play defensive counterattacks, and the game turned out to be like this.

This is something that Wansheng didn't expect either.

He originally thought that this game would be an offensive battle, and it was not so easy to win, how did he know that the opponent would make such a big mistake?

This also gave Wansheng a wake-up call.

As a manager, it's definitely a responsibility, and if you make a mistake in preparing for the game, then when you get to the game, the team will be a mess.

Fortunately, it was the other party who made the mistake.

At this point in the game, although even half time was not over, Wan Sheng knew that there was no suspense about the outcome of the game

Just as Wan Sheng thought, soon Derby County scored again.

It was in the 37th minute of the first half, Ribery made a through kick on the left side, the ball rolled to the middle, Morris followed and poked the ball to the right, Ivan Crewe followed up and hit the goal!

The ball goes straight into the far corner of the goal!

2：0！

“2：0！ 2:0！ Coupled with the goal in the previous leg, Derby County has a 3-0 lead over Villarreal in the two legs! There is no suspense about the outcome of the game! Now I dare say that Derby County will definitely knock out Villarreal! ”

The on-site commentator shouted happily, "It's Ivan Crewe's goal!" Ivan Crewe has been in excellent form in recent times, scoring his 19th goal of the season and is on the verge of catching up with Van der Vaart in terms of total goals.

'Van der Vaart scored more goals in the league, but unfortunately he was out for a while, which made it difficult for him to compete with Arsenal striker Thierry Henry for the league golden boot.

"But Arsenal have only one Henry, and we've got Van der Vaart and Ivan Crewe, and Bolton Reiter and Kluivert, who have been scoring a lot of goals lately, and we've got a great player up front, and that's probably why we're at the top of the league."

At the mention of the last point, the on-site narrator seemed a little intoxicated.

That's the first place in the league!

In the summer, Derby County fans only think that the team can be relegated, how dare they think about competing for the first place in the league? At that time, the head coach Wan Sheng said that he wanted to compete for a place in the European competition, and he was given the title of 'arrogant' by the media, but now that I think about it, Wan Sheng's goal was quite 'conservative' at that time.

Perhaps Wan Sheng should have told the media, "Our goal is the championship!" ”

Champion, champion haha!

There was no suspense in the game after Ivan Crewe helped Derby County to score their third goal in the lead, and a three-goal lead was enough to make Villarreal desperate.

That's three goals!

Now Villarreal is still in a very passive situation. It was too difficult to pull three goals back, especially as their style of play was restrained by Derby County – or at least they thought they could not do much about Derby's tight defence, and manager Manuel Pellegrini couldn't have come up with a strategy so quickly, so in the second half, the situation remained unchanged.

A technically superior Spanish team was still pressed by all the lines despite falling behind the scoreline, and this kind of game left Villarreal with no hope in sight.

Even if manager Manuel Pellegrini yelled on the sidelines to cheer up the players, to be suppressed is to be suppressed. How much fighting spirit can be raised in this case?

As you can imagine.

The results are also conceivable.

Finally, in the 79th minute of the second half, relying on captain Marcus's header, Derby County expanded the score again, and the result of the two-legged meeting was finally fixed at 4:0.

Derby County eliminated Villarreal by a big score and advanced to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup!

The rest of the UEFA Cup fixtures were also the day after the results, with Sporting Lisbon knocking out Schalke 04 to reach the last four and they became Derby's opponents in the semi-finals.

Sporting Lisbon is a Portuguese giant.

Their real name is "Atlético de Portugal", nicknamed "Lions" or "Green and White Army", but for historical reasons. Outside of Portugal, people used to call it "Sporting Lisbon", and the club was interested in making a name for itself, but later found it too difficult and had to accept the fact that the name was different from the inside and outside.

In 1902, Sporting Lisbon's first president, Viscount Holt Lehmann, borrowed money and land from his grandfather. A team was formed on the initiative, which was then called "Atlético Velas", renamed "Savannah Atlético Club" in 1904, and changed to "Atlético de Portugal" in 1906.

Sporting Lisbon has long been one of the top three in Portugal. With more than 90,000 members, Sporting Lisbon has been at the top of the Portuguese league since the thirties of the twentieth century. The worst result was no more than fifth place in the league.

Not only has the total number of domestic league titles been surpassed by FC Porto, ranking only at the bottom of the top three, but there is also only one European Cup Winners' Cup winner in Europe, far behind Benfica and Porto, who have won the European Champions Cup twice.

Like Benfica, Sporting Lisbon is home to a number of sports teams, with Sporting Lisbon's academy being one of the best in the world, having nurtured Luis Figo, the soul of Portugal's golden generation, and Portuguese rising star Cristiano Ronaldo, who now plays for Manchester United.

Sporting Lisbon are opponents to deal with seriously.

When the results of the semi-final match came out, Wan Sheng was interviewed and made it clear that "they (Sporting Lisbon) are opponents who need to be dealt with seriously, and if you are careless, you are likely to lose"

Hearing these words, the Portuguese media reporters were all smiling, they were happy to hear the coaches of other countries praise their own teams, but Wan Sheng's words were only half said, "But if you deal with it seriously, it will not be difficult to beat them!" ”

Suddenly, the faces of the Portuguese media reporters who were still smiling just now immediately darkened, and they somewhat understood why there were always so many young Chinese who were unlikable.

Wan Sheng didn't care what they thought at all.

In fact, it was just a regular press conference for the club, and he came over to answer the last two questions, and then he could just leave.

It's all a job requirement.

He's not here for interviews, and he's not going to be able to deal with the media at all, because the team has reached the most critical moment!

The most critical moment requires 100% energy to deal with!

That's the battle for the championship!

On 20 April, Derby County challenged Tottenham Hotspur away and won by one goal at White Hart Lane.

Three days later, Derby County travelled to Middlesbrough.

McLaren's side are currently in the middle of the league, there is no danger of relegation, there is no qualification for European competitions, the remaining rounds of the league are like chicken ribs for them, it doesn't matter if they lose, it doesn't make sense to win, but Middlesbrough didn't mean to 'let go' at all, they defended the whole game, and from the first minute of the game, they showed the spirit of 'defending the whole game'.

In the face of this kind of iron bucket defense, no team can do anything.

In the world of football, there is a saying that 'crowd tactics are the best defensive tactics', which is definitely a truth that can be put into the 'football bible', and there is nothing Derby can do in the face of Middlesbrough's insistence on keeping the goal.

In the end, Middlesbrough held on to the draw.

After the game, Wan Sheng looked at McLaren with a wry smile and shook hands with him tightly, but the force in his hand was a bit big, which made McLaren grit his teeth.

Wan Sheng almost asked, "Man, how much money did Chelsea give you to play so hard." ”

Of course, Wan Sheng just complained in his heart, and in other words, he would definitely let the team go all out.

The draw gave Chelsea hope of equalising the points, and they are currently only two points away from Derby County, but they have just experienced a big game with Bayern Munich and are preparing to face Liverpool's Chelsea, and the fatigue of the whole team can be imagined, and more importantly, they will face Arsenal in this round.

As a result, Chelsea only drew 0-0 with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge the following day.

They missed the perfect time to tie the points.

Derby County didn't have time to rejoice in Chelsea's 'mistake' and three days later, the 35th round of the league kicked off with Derby County hosting Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn are currently 12th in the league and are a team with no hope of relegation and a European place like Middlesbrough, and the remaining league games will be a chicken rib for them, and unlike Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers did not field a main squad at all, only playing with a semi-substitute line-up.

According to Sky TV commentator George Woodgate, "Coach Sonis made a wise choice because he knew that even with all the squad, the team would only lose at Pride Stadium, and since the result was the same, there was no need to waste energy"

If Thonell heard George Woodgate's statement, he would probably be angry and immediately send out all his main forces, of course, this is a comment from the game, and even if he knew, it could only be after the game.

In the end, Derby County easily won the game 2-0.

At the same time Chelsea drew again and McClaren's Middlesbrough seemed to want to make up for their 'old friend draw', so they worked hard all the way to a surprise 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

As a result, the gap between Chelsea and Derby County has widened to four points.

After the game, some media commented that "Middlesbrough were the biggest spoilers, they conceded two points to Derby County and then two points to Chelsea"

However, the most authoritative statement is that Chelsea was dragged down by the European Champions Cup, and the state of the whole team did not recover, Chelsea wanted to fight for the European Champions Cup on the one hand, and on the other hand, they wanted to fight for the league, but the Champions League eliminated Bayern Munich, but the league was pulled further and further away by Derby.

With only three rounds left in the league, the four-point gap is simply fatal!

But it must be said that Chelsea still have a chance as Derby County have a tough final three games.

They will face Arsenal, Manchester United, and Portsmouth, who are fighting for relegation, will definitely give it their all, so it will not be easy to get two wins in this situation.

At this moment, almost all eyes of Europe are on the Premier League title race. (To be continued......)