Chapter 135 The Champions League Situation

As Ramos headed the football into Sun Pan's goal, the air in Stamford Bridge seemed to freeze.

This match was also broadcast live in China, but it wasn't on a free sports channel, but on the pay-per-view Fengyun Football channel.

Even so, many people watched, especially during extra time. Those Chinese fans who had finished watching Borussia Dortmund against Paris Saint-Germain, upon hearing that Chelsea and Real Madrid had gone to extra time, flocked to watch.

The commentator, Shen Fangyuan, said in a rather heavy tone, "...Sun Pan has performed very well in this match. He didn't let his opponents score a single goal in the ninety minutes of regular time, and he protected the goal against Real Madrid's terrifying attack. But in the end, his goal was breached. This goal makes Chelsea's situation very grim, and also makes Sun Pan's hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals very slim..."

The match wasn't over yet. After the goal, the match restarted, and Chelsea launched a fierce attack on Real Madrid's goal, hoping to score two goals in the remaining ten minutes.

Chelsea, like a swarm of bees whose nest had been raided, came out in full force and pressed forward across the board.

This also created huge gaps behind their defense, so Real Madrid naturally launched counterattacks against Chelsea.

It's ironic that Real Madrid's characteristic of being good at counterattacks was cultivated during Mourinho's tenure... and now Real Madrid is using it to deal with Mourinho's Chelsea.

When Real Madrid launched a counterattack, only a handful of Chelsea players were able to return to defend, with only four defenders able to get back.

Sun Pan continued to perform well, repeatedly stopping Real Madrid's counterattacks, ensuring that the score difference remained at one goal, giving Chelsea fans a glimmer of hope.

"Sun Pan blocks Benzema's shot with his foot! That was close! Chelsea's goal is under siege... The only thing to be thankful for is that after experiencing the blow of conceding a goal, Sun Pan quickly recovered from his disappointment, and his performance is no different from before the goal..."

"Sun Pan! Good heavens! He jumped so high, directly plucking Modrić's lob from the air! Unbelievable! Apart from that goal, Sun Pan's performance is impeccable... No, that goal can't be blamed on him either, his performance in this match is impeccable! He has done everything he can, now it depends on whether Chelsea's forwards can live up to his performance..."

Unfortunately, Chelsea's forwards failed him.

Until the end of the match, Chelsea failed to break through Real Madrid's goal.

The final score was 1:2, Real Madrid lost away, but the aggregate score was 3:2, Real Madrid won.

"Ah... the match is over, the match is over... Although Chelsea beat Real Madrid 2:1 at home, they lost 2:3 on aggregate and failed to advance to the semi-finals. It is also the first time in Mourinho's coaching career that he has failed to lead a team to the Champions League semi-finals—before, he had led a team to the quarter-finals of European competitions eight times, once in the Europa League, and seven times in the Champions League... The first time was in the 2003-2004 season, coaching Porto, all the way to the final and eventually winning the Champions League title. The second time was in the 2004-2005 season, his first year coaching Chelsea, where he eliminated Bayern Munich 6:5 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, but eventually fell in the semi-finals. The third time was in the 2006-2007 season, where he defeated Valencia 3:2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, but lost to Liverpool in the all-English semi-final, failing to reach the final..."

The commentator began to list Mourinho's record in the quarter-finals of European competitions. A close-up of Mourinho appeared on the television screen. Mourinho pursed his lips and looked unhappy, but he still maintained his demeanor and shook hands with Real Madrid's coach, his successor Ancelotti.

Ancelotti seemed to comfort him, but Mourinho's expression did not change because of his comfort.

Sun Pan also appeared in the close-up.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the match, he sat down in front of his goal, looking very frustrated and disappointed.

Captain Terry came up and patted him on the head.

"You're the only one among us who doesn't need to blame yourself. Think about it, Sun Pan. You've done very well..."

"Captain, I'm just sad about our failure..."

"I know, I know. Next season, we can come back." Terry reached out to Sun Pan, pulled him up, and then patted him on the back before going to comfort the other disappointed teammates.

※※※

Zhou Yi turned off the live broadcast on his phone when the referee blew the whistle to end the match.

He didn't want to see Sun Pan's appearance after the match, it would ruin his image in his heart.

With this, only he and Yan Min were left in the Champions League.

Once again, only their team. But what was better than before was that this time he wasn't fighting alone, because he had Yan Min by his side.

It seemed that he would have to wait a little longer to see a Chinese derby in the final...

This was a night of joy and sadness for Chinese fans.

What made them happy was that Zhou Yi and Yan Min had reached the Champions League semi-finals, and what made them sad was that Sun Pan and He Ying had bid farewell to the Champions League stage.

But to be optimistic, there were as many as four Chinese players in the Champions League quarter-finals this year, and how many were there last season? Two.

It was already twice as good as last season.

※※※

The next night, the other two Champions League quarter-finals were held as scheduled.

Bayern Munich hosted Moyes' Manchester United.

Simeone led Atlético Madrid to host Barcelona.

According to the rules, the winner between Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain would meet the winner between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona in the semi-finals, so Borussia Dortmund was naturally more concerned about the match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona.

However, since Borussia Dortmund was now competing with Bayern Munich for the league title, they would also definitely pay attention to Bayern Munich's home match against Manchester United.

Although the two teams were direct competitors in the league, Borussia Dortmund would cheer for Bayern Munich this time.

They were certainly not doing it for reasons such as "winning glory for German football", they just hoped that Bayern Munich could persist until the Champions League semi-finals, which would definitely distract them in the league. At that time, with the league and the Champions League both in progress, if Borussia Dortmund continued to put pressure on Bayern Munich in the league, the situation in the league might be reversed.

For this reason, they hoped that Bayern Munich could eliminate Manchester United and enter the Champions League semi-finals.

Their opponents in the semi-finals would be Real Madrid, which was a "European derby". Bayern Munich couldn't easily defeat Real Madrid, and they had to pay a great price to eliminate Real Madrid.

At that time, it would be a typical "鹬蚌相争，渔翁得利" (yù bàng xiāng zhēng, yú wēng dé lì - when the snipe and clam fight, the fisherman benefits).

Bayern Munich's match got off to a bad start, and it was the visiting team, Manchester United, who scored first. In the fifty-seventh minute, Evra received a pass from Valencia and helped Manchester United score a goal, which canceled out the away goals of the two teams.

However, Manchester United didn't have time to be happy. Just two minutes after the goal, Lewandowski received a cross from Ribéry and helped Bayern Munich equalize the score, and the aggregate score became 2:2.

Ten minutes later, in the sixty-eighth minute, Thomas Müller received a pass from Robben and scored another goal, making the aggregate score 3:2, giving Bayern Munich the lead.

In the seventy-sixth minute, Robben showed his signature attacking style, dribbling the ball on the right wing and then cutting inside, dribbling horizontally before shooting with his left foot. The football flew into the goal guarded by De Gea, giving Bayern Munich a 3:1 lead over Manchester United, and an aggregate score of 4:2.

Although Manchester United made substitutions and counterattacked, they failed to break through Bayern Munich's goal again.

In the end, Bayern Munich eliminated Manchester United with this score and entered the Champions League semi-finals. Their opponents would be Real Madrid.

On the other side, in the match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona, ​​Atlético Madrid took the lead in the fifth minute with a goal from Koke.

On aggregate, Atlético Madrid also led Barcelona 2:1.

After that, Atlético Madrid continued their three-pronged attack, using high pressing in the frontcourt to steal the ball from Barcelona, ​​and then launching high-altitude attacks.

Under such a fierce offensive, Barcelona's defense was like "gesturing and acting out charades".

In twenty minutes, Atlético Madrid had three shots on the woodwork. In the history of the Champions League in the past decade, no team had hit the woodwork more times in a single game than Atlético Madrid.

In the first half alone, Atlético Madrid had eight shots, one on target and three hitting the woodwork. Although they only had 30% possession, Atlético Madrid had more momentum on the field. And Barcelona's defense in the first twenty minutes was a disaster, the worst defense ever seen.

After the three-pronged attack, Atlético Madrid showed their tenacious defense.

At the same time, Barcelona was completely out of form, completely stunned by Atlético Madrid's three-pronged attack at the start of the game, and never recovered throughout the match.

After the score changed in the fifth minute, it did not change again until the end of the match.

In the end, Atlético Madrid defeated Barcelona 1:0 at home, advancing 2:1 on aggregate.

In this way, all four semi-final teams were produced, and the matchups were also out - Borussia Dortmund would face Atlético Madrid in the quarter-finals, first at home and then away, which was slightly disadvantageous in terms of schedule.

Bayern Munich would be away first and then at home, and their opponents would be Real Madrid.

This was a showdown between the Bundesliga and La Liga.