With nearly 70 hours to go before the Champions League final, Millwall's team traveled from London to the northern Ruhr area of Germany to the city of Gelsenkirchen, which was an industrial area before World War II and was known as the city of a thousand fires, but unfortunately after being blown up by the Allies in World War II, there was no coal mine here, and the newly emerging city came to a turning point, and now, it is just a city with a population of about 300,000.

When the Champions League final is about to take place, this small city is flooded with fans, mainly from Portugal and London, as well as fans from all over the world who want to watch the Champions League final live.

This year's Champions League final will be played at the Schalke Stadium, home of Schalke 04, which is famous in Germany, and since its opening three years ago, the German team has been a guest at Bayern Munich, and the new five-star stadium has quickly become famous.

With the big game approaching, Millwall are preparing in an orderly manner and the atmosphere is good, and there is no tension or pressure to be seen, this is the fifth time in 10 years that Millwall will compete in the Champions League final and the seventh time they will compete in the final of the club's Intercontinental Cup.

What is nervousness?

The veteran players in the team are calm and unhurried, and their rich experience is driving and influencing the young players in the team, such as Nedvedralsen Southgate, who play a good role as a "passer".

The football media around the world portrayed this battle for the pinnacle of Europe as a battle of rivals!

There is no other reason.

Aldrich is too sharp to meet opponents.

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

Last year, in the final of the League Cup. The two teams have played each other before!

Last year's League Cup. Champions League this year.

Millwall returned to the top from the trough. Porto, on the other hand, are the dark horses that stand out in Europe's second-tier leagues.

Many people think that this is a fateful confrontation.

Aldridge, who is celebrating his 10th anniversary as a coach, meets Jose Mourinho, who has been on the final stage of the top of Europe in less than five years.

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

However, compared to the age of coaching the team, Aldridge is undoubtedly Mourinho's predecessor, and Mourinho must look up to it.

At a time when Aldrich was invincible, the older generation, the world-class leaders of the Mesozoic generation, were willing to bow to the wind. Jose Mourinho, the most glamorous of the new generation in European football, has high expectations for a certain kind of Cheng dù.

Expect the Portuguese madman to overthrow the reign of Young Marshal Aldrich!

Under the rendering of the media, Mourinho has become the second "Aldrich".

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

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

Jose Mourinho won the Portuguese Super League title in his third year in charge and reached the final of the UEFA Cup.

Aldridge is in his fourth year in charge and is on top of Europe.

Mourinho, too.

Merely. Jose Mourinho is in charge of Porto and has left twice before. Once is a job change, and once is fired.

Even Jose Mourinho's second-year Premier League runners-up finish with Porto in his second year in charge coincided with Millwall's Premier League runners-up finish in Aldridge's second year.

Mourinho has defended the Portuguese Super League title this season, he has already made a name for himself in Europe, and he has also established the image of a "madman".

He is also on the same page with the Portuguese media at home, and his words are crazy.

'Normally, we are definitely league winners in Porto, if something happens? We must also be champions! ”

I just don't know if the dust has settled on the Porto match-fixing case this season four years later, and he has been deprived of the Champions League qualification in five years, whether there will be malicious speculation in the future in combination with Mourinho's wild words.

Porto have improved this season, a little more idealistic than last season when they played in the UEFA Cup, and this season they are more pragmatic, with the addition to the growth, experience, unity and so on of Mourinho's underrated players, as well as their technical and tactical style of play.

Jose Mourinho has become one of the most imposing managers of the new generation of coaches, even reaching a secret agreement with Chelsea a month ago and was chased by Real Madrid at the same time.

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

After all, the Portuguese Super League is a second-rate league in Europe, and the three consecutive French championships should be more majestic, but Mourinho led Porto to be defeated 3:1 at home by Real Madrid in the second round of the Champions League group stage, and then came to the 10 Champions League games before the final, and they remained unbeaten!

and eliminated Manchester United over two legs in the round of 16, eliminated Ligue 1 team Lyon in the round of eight, and in the semi-finals, Deportivo La Coruna, who defeated AC Milan to complete a miraculous comeback, stopped the final.

In terms of strength comparison, Porto has eliminated the Premier League and French League 1 league champions, and the defending Champions League champion is planted at the feet of Deportivo La Coruna, and Deportivo Lacoruna's achievements seem to have become a stepping stone for Porto.

It's just that in these six knockout matches, the news content is not uncommon: Porto is extremely utilitarian and "dirty".

Alex Ferguson, Le Guin, Iruetta, the three of Mourinho's men will be defeated in every game, every game, not after two legs, when the results come in.

They were slamming Porto after the first leg and the second leg, believing that Porto was too utilitarian, and secondly, the players were always "performing", "harassing", "delaying" and "affecting" the game on the field.

Porto's players are always making a lot of small moves when defending, easily falling down to win favourable penalties when attacking, and always trying to provoke on-pitch conflicts for their own team's advantage.

It is a great achievement for Porto to reach the Champions League final, but they are still dark horses, and dark horses mean that the overall strength has not reached the height recognized by the outside world, which is a reality, not changed by human will, and only when they succeed will they be gradually mythologized by latecomers.

Just like Millwall, who won the Champions League in 98, people still mention that generation of lions, and make comparisons to compete with the second generation of lions, and even come to compare with the current Millwall.

If Aldrich makes a comparison, there is no doubt that the second generation of the Wild Lion is definitely stronger than the first generation, and the third generation of the Wild Lion is also stronger than then, but it is still inferior to the second generation, however, the third generation of the Wild Lion is still on the rise, and the future potential is enough for them to surpass the second generation.

Guan Gong vs. Qin Qiong's discussion is of little significance.

Purely speaking of Porto, their players have good potential, but the potential is not linked to strength, just like Carvalho in 04 cannot be compared with Carvalho a few years later.

Porto's overall strength must not have reached the peak of Europe's first-class Cheng Dù, so they are dark horses, so their achievements have set off Mourinho's greatness, and it is this madman's strategy that has led to Porto's decisive victory.

From this point of view, the complaints of Manchester United, Lyon and Deportivo La Coruna smack of "moaning of a resentful woman", because not the strong will win on the football field.

Aldridge was calm about meeting Porto in the final of the Intercontinental Cup for the second year in a row, showing enough grace at UEFA's official press conference.

'Jose Mourinho is a very good coach, I remember when I met him in '97 I thought he would achieve something, so I also sent him an invitation at that time to come to Millwall and I wanted him to come to work at Millwall, but unfortunately he refused, he is an ambitious manager, there are a lot of top clubs linked to him, I think it's normal, the Portuguese Super League stage can't satisfy him, he should play in the top stage of the major European leagues. Ahem, as for tomorrow's Champions League final, Porto have a chance, of course there is a chance, although Millwall is experienced and the favorite to win the title, but if we are careless, the result will definitely disappoint us. The only thing I'm worried about now is whether the players' desire for the title will have a negative impact on the game. Schneider, Larsson, they can't wait to win a fifth Champions League title so they don't get depressed in front of their friends Andrea Pirlo, De Rossi, Alonso and other young lads are also eager to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time as a regular player, so I can only hope that they don't get too excited. ”

Aldrich's remarks at the press conference sounded decent, but they found a mystery in the Fleet Street interpretation.

It is not difficult to find that Aldrich's guò media platform is "provoking" Mourinho, which can be regarded as a kind of targeted harassment.

97 years?

Seven years ago, Aldridge stimulated Mourinho with the tone of his predecessors.

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

And what were the identities of the two at that time?

At the same time, Aldridge also has "interference" with the whole Porto team.

Your manager has been linked with a lot of teams in Europe in the last two months, he's leaving, he's not with you anymore.

This is an open discord.

Mourinho was interviewed a little later, and he had a cool face and an attitude of not taking Aldridge seriously.

Naturally, there was anger in him, and Aldrich poked him in the underbelly.

He's leaving.

It will be his last game in charge of Porto.

'I don't care what people say, I'm with my players, we fought hard to get to the Champions League final, we are all focused on this game now, we are all together and we will do our best to achieve everyone's dreams. I wouldn't comment on Millwall because we've been winning against the big guys and the Champions League final was no different. (To be continued......)