After three days of rest, on November 4, Crystal Palace ushered in the fourth round of the UEFA Champions League group stage. This time, they will face the challenge of Juventus at the Emirates Stadium.

This game is already the sixth game of Crystal Palace's devilish schedule at this stage. Continuous battles have left the players with insufficient time to recover their physical fitness.

Judging from the physical examination report of the Crystal Palace players obtained by Chen Ran, the players' bodies have entered a state of extreme fatigue again.

In desperation, Chen Ran could only refer to the players' physical examination reports again to arrange the starting lineup.

In addition, this Champions League game is only two days away, and Crystal Palace will have another strong dialogue with Manchester City in the Premier League.

Considering that Chelsea has now overtaken Crystal Palace by virtue of their goal difference, and in the Champions League, Crystal Palace currently has three consecutive wins and is firmly at the top of the group.

As long as Crystal Palace does not lose to Juventus in this game, then they can continue to suppress Juventus, the strongest opponent in this group.

Therefore, Chen Ran decided to rotate in this game to preserve his strength for the subsequent game against Manchester City.

Therefore, Chen Ran sent all the main players in the midfield and backcourt, but in the frontcourt, Chen Ran sent out substitute players such as Cavani, Suarez and Vardy.

In terms of tactics, although it was the home court of Crystal Palace, Chen Ran still adopted a defensive counterattack style.

The scene is ugly no matter how ugly it is, the result is the most important.

For Juventus, Ferrara learned the lesson from the previous game. This time he came to the home court of Crystal Palace. From the first minute of the game, Juventus set up a bus.

But Ferrara soon realized that something was wrong. He set up a bus on his side, but the Crystal Palace side did not attack with all their strength like in the previous game. Instead, they passed the ball from midfield to backcourt unhurriedly.

He looked like he was not in a hurry to attack.

In view of Chen Ran's current reputation, Ferrara was a little suspicious at first, worried that Chen Ran was digging a hole again, trying to lure Juventus into attacking, and then take the opportunity to counterattack Juventus.

But after twenty minutes of the game, Ferrara saw that Crystal Palace was still like this, and he couldn't help it.

Walking to the sidelines, Ferrara began to call on the Juventus players to move their formation forward and conduct a tentative attack.

But in order to set up the bus, Ferrara designed a 541 formation for Juventus. Most of the players on the field were defensive players. Even the only forward was the famous defensive forward Amauri.

The offensive capabilities of such a lineup can be imagined. Even if Ferrara asked them to attack, they would not pose much of a threat to Crystal Palace's defense.

Two teams, one huddled in the backcourt and played defensive counterattack, while the other wanted to attack but the players were wrong. The game was dull and boring.

Until the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, the score on the field remained at 0:0 without any change.

During the halftime break, Chen Ran did not make any substitutions except for giving the players blood injections as usual.

On the Juventus side, although Ferrara couldn't figure out why Crystal Palace attacked like crazy in the away game, they instead launched a defensive counterattack when they returned to their home court.

But Ferrara decided to seize this rare opportunity and must take away three points from Crystal Palace's home court.

So, he replaced Camoranesi and Salihamidzic, two wing attackers, and changed the formation from 541 to 4231.

At the beginning of the second half, Southgate, who saw the changes in Juventus, immediately rushed to Chen Ran's side.

"Boss, Juventus has already attacked, can we close the net now?"

"Gareth, calm down and wait a little longer. Maybe we can solve the problem with our players on the field."

Chen Ran patted Southgate on the shoulder and said confidently.

While comforting Southgate, Chen Ran quietly called up the system and quietly used a "Level 1 Chicken Blood Card" for Suarez.

In order to ensure that he has enough physical strength to cope with the game against Manchester City two days later, Chen Ran felt that it would be best for Ronaldo and Messi not to play today.

Suarez, who used the "first-level chicken blood card", did not disappoint Chen Ran. After receiving Cavani's header, he scored a volley and broke the goal guarded by Buffon, helping Crystal Palace win 1:0 at home.

Juventus.

While the team won four consecutive victories in the Champions League group stage, Chen Ran also received a "level one recovery card" from the system.

Two days later, on November 7, Chen Ran brought the Crystal Palace team to Manchester for the twelfth round of the Premier League.

However, this time they will no longer face Manchester United, but the new tycoon Manchester City.

After two consecutive years of heavy investment by the Abu Dhabi consortium, Manchester City has changed from what it used to be. From the boss to the management, from the coach to the players, they have almost changed everything.

After the run-in last season, Manchester City's strength has greatly increased under Mancini's coaching, and this season it has directly participated in the competition for the Premier League championship.

Manchester City currently ranks fifth in the league, only behind Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Arsenal. The most important thing is that they are not far behind Chelsea and Crystal Palace at the top of the list, and they are not falling behind.

Mancini paid special attention to this direct contest with defending champion Crystal Palace.

He also wanted to take this opportunity to use Crystal Palace, a team recognized by everyone as the strongest, to weigh the level of Manchester City's current level.

Forward Tevez,Forward Adebayor

Left midfielder Petrov, central midfielder De Jong, central midfielder Vieira, right midfielder Wright Phillips

Left back Sylvinho, center back Kolo Toure, center back Scott, right back Sabaleta

Given

On the Crystal Palace side, Chen Ran, who had rotated against Juventus, also sent out the entire main lineup this time.

center toney

Left midfielder Ronaldo, attacking midfielder Kaka, right midfielder Messi

Defensive midfielder Yaya Toure, defensive midfielder Modric

Left back Chiellini, center back Thiago Silva, center back Vidic, right back Maicon

Cech

Mancini, who has lofty ambitions, naturally disdains setting up a bus.

Although he knew that Manchester City's current strength was still far behind Crystal Palace, he still adhered to the team's consistent tactics and fought against Crystal Palace.

Tevez and Adebayor, two forwards, were the main forwards of two giant teams, Manchester United and Arsenal, respectively last season. They have extremely strong personal abilities, but this season they were both poached by Manchester City at a high price.

.

One of the two is a typical black and tough center, the other is capable of sudden shooting, fast and stocky, and their characteristics and types complement each other. It is obviously the result of Mancini's careful selection.

In the midfield, De Jong and Vieira are extremely destructive, while Petrov and Wright-Phillips on the wing are also fast players with strong breakthrough ability.

In the defense, Kolo Toure and Lai Scott are also the core players that Manchester City just hired from Arsenal and Everton at a high price.

Arsenal and Everton have often been able to obtain European qualifications in recent seasons, and Kolo Toure and Lai Scott, as the main central defenders, have played an important role.

Left back Sylvinho was still playing for Barcelona last season, and right back Zabaleta was a good player that Manchester City introduced from Espanyol last season.

With this starting lineup composed of core players poached from various teams, Manchester City suddenly became inseparable from Crystal Palace and never fell behind.

Chen Ran was no stranger to this situation, so he was not anxious at all and sat firmly on the bench to watch the game.

On the Manchester City side, Mancini was much more nervous. He stood on the sidelines constantly reminding and directing the players on the field.

When the game reached the 32nd minute, Cech grabbed Adebayor's header and hit the goal. He immediately got up and sent the ball to the frontcourt with a big foot.

Tony quickly judged that the ball's landing point was not far from him. He rushed over and blocked Scott, who was responsible for closely guarding him, behind him, while shaking his head and ferrying the ball to Ronaldo on the left.

Ronaldo was running while observing the direction of the ball. After adjusting his pace slightly, he performed a difficult move of stopping the ball with his heel.

After the ball was knocked by Ronaldo's heel, it just passed the head of Zabaleta who rushed to intercept Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo made a pass and directly broke through Manchester City's defense on the right side.

Realizing that the situation was not good, another central defender Kolo Toure quickly came over to cover the defense.

Cristiano Ronaldo pedaled his bike a few times, then got out of the way and hit the door without hesitation.

"Bang!"

The ball flew towards Manchester City's goal like a shell.

Goalkeeper Ji Wen immediately flew up and blocked the ball.

However, before Ji Wen could breathe a sigh of relief, he saw a small man rushing out from the side.

"Bang!"

It's Messi!

Just when Toni passed the ball to Ronaldo, he had already started to advance towards Manchester City's penalty area from the right.

And before Manchester City's defender could react, he was the first to appear near the ball's landing point, and then he went up to the ball and volleyed it.

“GOAL!

!

!”

With Messi's complementary shot, Crystal Palace led Manchester City 1:0 in the away game.

Seeing that Crystal Palace scored the first goal, Mancini was surprisingly calm. He just took advantage of the Crystal Palace players to celebrate the goal and called the Manchester City players to the sidelines to explain something.

It may be that Mancini's arrangement worked. After the restart, there was no panic on Manchester City's side.

They still followed the previous tactics and executed them in an orderly manner.

Seeing that there was no chance to pursue the victory, Chen Ran was not in a hurry.

The game was once again evenly balanced, and the score on the field did not change again until the referee blew the whistle for the first half.

During the halftime break, as Crystal Palace successfully took the lead, Chen Ran did not make any substitutions except encouraging the players.

On the Manchester City side, Mancini replaced Wright Phillips with England international Gareth Barry.

He used Gareth Barry and Vieira as a double defensive midfielder, and then arranged for De Jong to switch to the right midfielder.

There is no way, Wright-Phillips' defensive ability is too poor, and right back Sabaleta alone cannot guard Ronaldo.

At the beginning of the second half, Chen Ran saw Mancini's substitution adjustments.

De Jong is a well-known bad guy in football. Mancini put him on the right, which was obviously to deal with Ronaldo.

If this guy injures Ronaldo, even giving him a red card will not make up for the loss on his side.

You must know that Cristiano Ronaldo is not only the absolute core of Crystal Palace now, he is also the backbone of the Portuguese national team. Without Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese national team would have to drop at least one level.

A week later, the Portuguese national team will compete with the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team in the European preliminaries play-offs. At this time, Ronaldo must not be injured.

Thinking of this, Chen Ran immediately called Southgate to his side.

"Gareth, you go and tell Ribery to warm up now, and he will replace Ronaldo later."

"Um...Boss, the second half of the game has just started. Isn't it a little early to make substitutions now?"

Southgate was also a little confused about Chen Ran's sudden substitution decision.

Why don't you just make substitutions during the half-time break instead of waiting until the second half starts?

"Stop being so verbose and execute my order immediately." Chen Ran's face darkened and he gave Southgate a rare reprimand.

"Okay, boss, I'll arrange a replacement right away."

Seeing Chen Ran, who rarely loses his temper, suddenly become serious, Southgate suddenly felt nervous and quickly turned around to greet Ribery to warm up.

Soon, Mancini saw that Crystal Palace had replaced Cristiano Ronaldo with Franck Ribery.

As Southgate said just now, substitutions at this time are obviously abnormal.

Mancini glanced thoughtfully at Chen Ran on the Crystal Palace bench. Could it be that this guy replaced Ronaldo because he moved De Jong to the right?

In order to verify his conjecture, Mancini called Petrov, the left midfielder closest to him, to the sidelines.

"Martin, now go and switch positions with De Jong and let him come over and play as the left midfielder."

"Um...Boss, I've never played on the right..."

Petrov looked at Mancini hesitantly. He is a traditional left-footed player and is not used to the current popular playing method of playing with the left foot on the right and the right foot on the left.

"It doesn't matter, it's just a temporary change of position to confuse the Crystal Palace, and I'll let you change back in a while."

Mancini also knew Petrov's characteristics and patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

Soon, Chen Ran saw that Manchester City had reversed the positions of Petrov and De Jong.

In this way, the player De Jong directly faces becomes Messi.

Did this guy discover his fear of De Jong and deliberately test himself? Or did he just routinely let the left and right midfielders swap positions?
Chapter completed!