Because Mallorca's Champions League match was held on Wednesday, they became the first La Liga team to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. In another group match, Barcelona suffered a miserable away game of 0-3 and was at the feet of Roma, giving up the first place in the group, and Roma jumped to the first place, but their points were only six points, Liverpool was at the bottom of the group, and their points were also three points, Barcelona scored five points, and Galatasaray scored four points, and the situation in this group was quite chaotic.

The next day, Real Madrid defeated Porto three goals away, and won all four games first to qualify as the first in the group, with Manchester United following nine points. La Coruña was not willing to be outdone. She defeated Juventus two goals at home, tied for the first in the group with seven points, while Juventus and Leverkusen scored four points, and the situation in this group was also quite chaotic.[]

"Looking at this, it doesn't seem to make any sense to win the first place in the Champions League group."

After looking at the schedule, Jose began to ponder. The first place in the group is nothing more than facing the second place in the group. However, if you enter the quarterfinals, there will be no weak team. Facing the first and second situations seem to be similar, so there is no need to consume too much physical fitness to compete with Bayern for the first place. After all, the pressure of the league is also very important...

Thinking of this, Jose still sent all the main players to the field in the away league four days later. Anyway, there is a week off, so he is not afraid of the players spending too much.

Mallorca, who maintained his good form recently, defeated two away goals. Etoo's first half scored a first-time record through a shot from the penalty area in the 15th minute of the first half. Mota, who had been inserted in the 85th minute of the game, pushed the ball into the far corner in the penalty area to secure the victory.

Mallorca will start resting in the next week. If Mallorca performs well in the Champions League, maybe this week will be the only time Mallorca can enjoy resting...

The more the season goes, the more pressure and the more cruel it becomes. In the previous two seasons, Mallorca basically only needed to play one game, and the pressure on this is not very large. However, since this season is going to fight on both sides and the league schedule is compressed due to the World Cup, it is difficult for Mallorca players to adapt.

So Jose hopes to get more points in the league during this period. After the Champions League knockout round begins, the focus will definitely be on the Champions League.

Jose does not value honors - in his opinion, even if he loses the league championship, being able to advance the Champions League is a huge profit - you should know that every step forward in the Champions League now means millions of dollars in additional income, and what about the league? Even if you win the league championship, the prize money and broadcasting fees are only six million US dollars. The broadcasting fees of La Liga are more demanding than Serie A, because the broadcasting fees of La Liga are sold by the club themselves, and with the local population of Mallorca, you cannot get too many broadcasting fees.

This is also why Jose is extremely excited about the local population rewarding the modifier. With more local population, the TV stations will earn more money from broadcasting games. Their income will be greater, and Mallorca will earn more money from broadcasting fees. Even if it cannot be compared with Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​at least it cannot be worse than teams such as Valencia...

Although the league championship is a very high honor, Jose now values ​​money more...

After a week of rest, the energetic main players completed another goal battle at home. Etoo scored twice, captain Nadal and Novo, who came on the bench, each scored a goal. Mallorca defeated Osasuna, who fought for relegation four-two at home, ranking first in the league with 56 points. However, Jose regretted that although many teams have begun to fall behind, including giants like La Coruña and Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Real Madrid have not fallen behind. They have also won consecutive victories in the last three rounds of the league. Now they are 53 points and 52 points, catching up tightly behind Mallorca.

Fortunately, Mallorca only needs to focus on the league right now.

Unfortunately, Real Madrid and Valencia only need to pay attention to the league now - Real Madrid, like Mallorca, qualifies from the Champions League group two rounds in advance, while Valencia has no Champions League game to play, and its attention is also only on the league, and the League Cup has been given up by them.

In the mid-week match against Bayern, Jose sent a pure defensive lineup, with Gamara and Van Biden partnering with the central defender, Carazze and Campano on both wings. In the midfield, Marcos Garcia Motanovo four more defensive players lined up, while the frontcourt sent two black winds - Etoo and Drogba's one high and one fast, with a pure defensive lineup.

Jose's meaning is very obvious. At home, I only have one point.

Although Bayern hopes to take revenge on the road, their strength this season has obviously decreased a lot compared to last season. The league's results generally make them unable to concentrate more energy on the Champions League. Compared with the actual interests of the league, the so-called "revenge" is actually nothing...

With concerns about Etoo's counterattack speed, they dare not push too far. After all, Drogba Gaeto is a standard counterattack lineup. If he presses up, Mallorca will seize an opportunity to pass the ball in the backcourt. Once Drogba swings and Etoo's forward, it will probably be enough to make Bayern's defense cry.

So this game became a boring game. Mallorca didn't attack much. When attacking, he relied on two strikers to cooperate in the frontcourt. The dense defense laid out in the midfield made Bayern's attack extremely troubled. Both sides were very cautious about defense and played the entire game almost in a time-consuming manner. The final score was also a boring zero to zero.

"It's also beneficial to not maintain the record of home wins."

After the game, Jose joked to Natal, saying that Natal shrugged his shoulders - without the need to force victory, his choice is not bound by the record of complete victory. It also has special benefits for Mallorca, who is not particularly powerful. From this perspective, Jose's words are really right, although there are some self-comfortable elements in it...

In another game, Nantes scored the second point in the second stage of the group stage at home. They tied Boavesta 1-1 at home. After there was no possibility of qualifying, Nantes and Boavesta were both interested in the next Champions League matches - it was meaningless to compete for the third place in the second stage of the group stage, because the third place in the first stage of the group stage can still play in the League Cup, and the third place in the second stage of the group stage is not even qualified for the League Cup...

The purpose of retaining their strength in the Champions League was to perform better in the league. However, Mallorca did not win in the next round of the league. Tenerife, the second-last, played very well under the pressure of relegation. They defended Mallorca's attack with an iron barrel in the whole game and finally won a valuable point. Although this point allowed them to be the bottom again, the situation of relegation was getting better. Now their points are 32 points, while Villarreal, ranked 14th, only 34 points, and the shadow of relegation covers the heads of the seven teams.

The only thing that made Mallorca feel relieved was that they were not the only team that fell into the relegation team. Valencia was bitten by Valencia, who was ranked last in the previous position. Valencia defeated Valencia 2-1, tied Tenerife with points, and ranked 19th with goal difference. Real Madrid tied Barcelona one-to-one away. Although Mallorca encountered a draw, it expanded its advantage of second place to four points.

This also made Mallorca feel relieved.

With a relaxed attitude, Mallorca flew to Portugal. In this game, Jose left Ronaldo Eto Omotanadal and other absolute main players in Mallorca, so that they could rest well. Even goalkeeper Franco sat on the bench. The starting lineup sent was goalkeeper Roa, defenders Campano, Olesora, Nino and Gamara, midfielder Marcos, Pablo Garcia, Novo and Carazze, and the forward combination was Krasnic and Drogba. None of the main players except Carazze, all of them were substitutes.

However, even in this lineup, Mallorca defeated Boavista who was unwilling to play away - although it was a substitute, they did not worry about playing their best form away. Novo, Klashnic and Drogba each scored a goal, and Mallorca beat Boavista to the horse 3-0 away game, and defeated Bayern, who had four wins, two draws unbeaten record, and qualified as the top spot in the group!

All the quarterfinals of the Champions League have been produced so far, Mallorca, Bayern, Barcelona, ​​Liverpool, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Leverkusen, and La Coruna!

"I'm going to play in the quarterfinals."

After seeing all the quarterfinals, Jose said something to Natal.

Mallorca is the first in the group, so they will face the second in the other three groups - according to the principle of avoiding the same league, Mallorca will not encounter La Coruna, so their opponents can only be the second in Group B and Group C, either Liverpool or Manchester United, choose one of the two.

Of course, Jose hopes to meet Liverpool. The Reds, which once shocked Europe, are now the new team in the Champions League. This is their first time in ten years to enter the knockout stage of the Champions League. Moreover, Liverpool is far from Liverpool led by Benitez. Master Bay has just coached Valencia and is accumulating his own popularity.

It is still two seasons later that the two leagues are not avoided in the quarter-finals. After the Champions League was reorganized again in 2003-04 and the second stage of the group stage was cancelled, UEFA announced that the draw principle of the draw in the quarter-finals is that the teams in the same league will not avoid it. At the same time, the draw will not be drawn again after the quarter-finals, but will determine the two sides of the battle based on the situation in the upper and lower half of the zone...

However, Mallorca's good luck in the draw of lottery in the Champions League ended here.

In the draw, Mallorca did not draw the Reds, but the Red Devils. Their opponent was the Champions League champion three seasons ago and the most recent triple-champion Manchester United so far.

"Manchester United? This is a very strong opponent. We are not disappointed when we draw them, because no matter what team we draw, this team will not be too easy to deal with... You know, it is now the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and there are only these eight teams in Europe participating in this stage of the game. I have not started studying Manchester United yet, but I know that these two games will be the most important games Mallorca has so far in the European arena."

When interviewed by reporters, Jose seemed very calm. As for whether he was indeed so calm, perhaps only God knows.

However, the last sentence still showed Jose's ambition: "We are not unfamiliar with Premier League teams. We have already experienced the level of Premier League teams in the League Cup two years ago."
Chapter completed!