The Dragons have qualified for the World Cup, but in Europe, some traditional strong teams are still struggling.
Especially in Group A, the French team has basically won the first place in the group in advance, while Sweden is competing with the Dutch team for second place in the group to qualify for the play-offs.
In fact, although Sweden is the new European champion, to be honest, no one would regard them as a world power team.
This kind of explosive behavior under the leadership of super coach Pan Yi is not sustainable in the eyes of most people. It is just like the Greek team that also won the championship in 2004.
The Greek team was a weak team in Europe before winning the European Cup, and it is still a weak team after winning the European Cup. Its strength has not changed in essence.
The same is true for the Swedish team, so they don't have a big problem after France. Even in the minds of the Swedish people, they are in line with expectations - after all, they don't have Pan Yi's magical blessing!
The biggest problem is the Netherlands.
There are now only two games left in the group stage of the European qualifiers, and the Netherlands is still 3 points behind Sweden.
Although there is still a head-to-head match between the Netherlands and Sweden in the final round, Sweden currently leads on goal difference, and will face Luxembourg, the worst team in the group, in the penultimate round, and will definitely have to do it again. Goal difference.
The Netherlands' opponent in the penultimate round of the group is Belarus. Although it is not strong, it is not as weak as Luxembourg.
In other words, if there are no surprises, the Netherlands is actually almost eliminated early, and Sweden will finish second in the group and participate in the play-offs.
For Italy in Group G, their fate seems more certain.
With two games left and 5 points behind Spain, can we still expect Spain to lose the last two games?
Expect both Liechtenstein and Albania to beat Spain?
This is not much less difficult than expecting the Dragons to defeat Brazil in the World Cup.
Therefore, Italy, a four-time World Cup champion, is indeed going to play in the play-offs!
Although there is also the factor of being in the same group with a strong team like Spain, Italy's performance in this qualifying round is really not good.
It was just a loss and a draw against Spain. They couldn't win against North Macedonia, and they could only win by one goal against Israel and Albania. This really made Italian fans intolerable.
Yes, the current Italian national team does feel a bit dim, but in any case, the overall value is much higher than these opponents, right?
At least they must ensure that they win over these weaker opponents and then struggle with Spain until the end.
Instead of surrendering two, or even three or four rounds in advance like now - after all, it seems that it is not unusual for Italians to surrender?
In short, both the Italian media and fans are very dissatisfied with the current Italian national team coach Ventura.
"If we don't make adjustments, we will only face a failure in the play-offs!" "Gazzetta dello Sport" said.
The "adjustment" they were talking about, of course, meant replacing the Ventura!
As for the replacement candidates, one is Mancini, the current head coach of the Russian Super League giant Zenit St. Petersburg, and the other is Pan Yi.
Mancini's resume is certainly qualified.
As a player, he was active in the old Serie A, known as the "Little World Cup" in the 1980s and 1990s, and he also made a name for himself as a forward.
After retiring, he became a head coach. He first coached strong teams such as Fiorentina, Lazio, and Inter Milan in China. Of course, he later went to Manchester City to lead the team to win the Premier League championship, which made him famous.
Although this kind of experience is not comparable to Pan Yi, it is still much better than a second-rate coach like Ventura who has never coached any big team.
Of course, "Gazzetta dello Sport" still hopes in the article that Pan Yi, a "one of his own", can come to save Italy.
"Milan was Pan Yi's first stop in professional football, and he also achieved success here."
"Just one day ago, together with our Italian coach Lippi, who won the 2006 World Cup, he brought the originally weak Dragons team into the World Cup."
"It can be said that Pan Yi has a very deep connection with Italian football. Even Lippi has been pushing Pan Yi to take up the position of head coach of the national team."
"It is said that the Italian Football Association has also sent representatives to contact Pan Yi. We hope that their negotiations can have a good result!"
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For Pan Yi, the Italians' overtures were certainly what he wanted.
However, he was not in a hurry to express his position. He just told the Italian Football Association that he did intend to enter the Italian national team, but not now.
The reason is simple. He has just led the Dragon Kingdom national team to finish the World Cup preliminaries and is still enjoying the joy of success. He is really in no rush to start a new job right away.
Anyway, the situation in Italy is basically determined now. It doesn't make any difference whether the last two rounds are won or lost. Let Ventura toss it a little more. It won't be too late for Pan Yi to take action when the critical moment of the play-offs comes.
Before that, Pan Yi's most important task was to get things done in York City, especially the Italian guys on the team, who had to practice hard.
Didn’t I bring you here this season just to let you go to the Italian national team and perform well?
As for the Italian coach's other "rival" Mancini, Pan Yi was not panicked at all.
After all, he knew that in his previous life, Italy had been harmed by Ventura until they were completely eliminated from the World Cup and only then replaced Ventura with Mancini.
The main reason is that Mancini at this time has actually just arrived at Zenit St. Petersburg this season and has only stayed for a few months. Naturally, he is also within the contract period.
Later, after three-party negotiations, Zenit announced the early termination of the contract with the head coach and let Mancini go to the Italian national team.
Besides, now that Pan Yi has expressed his intention, no matter how stupid the Italian Football Association is, they know they have to wait.
What level is your Mancini, can you compare with Pan Yi?
So, just be patient.
Anyway, the last round of the European qualifiers will end around October 10th, so almost a month later, we can have a conclusion! ——
After the national team match day ended, York City's schedule suddenly became more intensive.
The reason is very simple, that is, the group stage of the Europa League has begun!
This season's Europa League is divided into 12 groups, with four teams in each group. After a double cycle, the top two teams in the group qualify, and a total of 24 teams enter the top 32.
Some people say that the Europa League truly begins with the top 32. That is because at this stage, the team that previously finished third in the Champions League group stage will be relegated to the Europa League.
And among these teams, there are often some wealthy and powerful teams!
However, for a team like York City that has qualified to participate in the European War for the first time in history, passing the group stage first is the most pragmatic goal.
After all, their grouping situation is also very average.
In addition to York City, the other three teams are Atlanta in Italy, Lyon in France, and Apollo Limassol in Cyprus.
This Apollo Limassol team does look weak, but Atalanta and Lyon are not good guys!
Therefore, if York City wants to qualify, they must try their best.
Of course, it's not just challenges in the European arena. York City will also frequently encounter strong opponents in domestic leagues and cups during this period.
In the eighth round of the English Championship, they will usher in the "Yorkshire Derby" at home against Leeds United, the long-time representative team of Yorkshire.
And before this game starts, they will meet the powerful Manchester City in the third round of the League Cup!
It can be said that York City has encountered all kinds of "good things".
This is actually an important reason why Pan Yi decided to postpone his trip to the Italian national team.
He wants to stay in the club and help the team get through this difficult schedule wholeheartedly!
And while Pan Yi was still participating in various celebrations in Dragon Kingdom, York City suffered a blow in the league, which made this devil's schedule a bad start.
On September 9, in the sixth round of the British Championship, Wolves faced York City at home.
This Wolves team is also full of future stars, including future Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, Ruben Neves who went to Riyadh Crescent, and Matt who has played for Tottenham and Atletico Madrid. ·Doherty, together with captain Coady, can be said to be at Premier League level.
Facing such a strong team away from home, York City had a bit of a difficult time, and the international match day also affected the state of York City's young players to a greater or lesser extent.
In the end, with Portuguese forward Diogo Jota's header 10 minutes after the opening, Wolves defeated York City 1:0 at home.
This also gave York City their first defeat in the new English Championship season.
This defeat also allowed York City to relinquish the top spot, ranking second after Cardiff City, and closely behind York City are the city's rivals Leeds United, and the Wolves who just defeated York City!
This result also made everyone at York City obviously a little uneasy. In the third round of the League Cup that followed three days later, they were defeated 0:3 by Manchester City, who played with all the main players, and were eliminated.
At this time, Pan Yi had returned to the UK. After two consecutive defeats, he went to the training ground to have a heart-to-heart talk with the players.
In fact, he didn't emphasize techniques and tactics. He just told the players what he had done in the Dragon Country national team in the past two weeks, and then inspired them:
"Look, even the Dragon Country team, which had one draw and three losses at the beginning, has entered the World Cup. Will these two consecutive losses knock you down?"
Everyone thought it made sense.
More importantly, if the Dragon Kingdom has Pan Yi, it can enter the World Cup. Then York City will always have Pan Yi, so there is nothing to worry about!
The boss's motivation really worked.
In the next seventh round of the British Championship, York City challenged Queens Park Rangers away from home, and finally defeated their opponents 2:0 with goals from Baker and Tonali, ending the decline.
Then comes the first group match of Group E of the Europa League.
York City challenged Atlanta away from home and scored three goals in a row after conceding one goal first. In the end, they came back to win 3:1 and achieved the first European victory in the team's history!
Such two consecutive wins have allowed York City to regain confidence.
This is very important for the club.
That's because, in the next game, York City will face Leeds United, a rival team also from Yorkshire!
And this game is not just a local derby.
In the seventh round of the British Championship that just passed, in addition to York City defeating QPR, Leeds United also defeated Birmingham 2:0, while Cardiff City, the original top team, lost to Pres 0:3. pause.
This allows York City to reach the top of the current British Championship standings again, with 6 wins, 1 loss and 18 points.
The second-ranked team is Leeds United, which remains unbeaten with 5 wins and 2 draws. They are only one point behind York City!
Next are Cardiff City with 16 points, Ipswich and Sheffield United with 15 points, and Wolves with 14 points.
In other words, this showdown between York City and Leeds United is not only a battle for the top spot in Yorkshire, but also a battle for the top spot in the English Championship!
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Leeds United is a football club located in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, with its home stadium at Elland Road.
They cannot be regarded as a traditional strong team in England. After all, they only rose in the 1960s and 1970s, and the extent of their rise was also limited.
At that time, Don Revie was the head coach, and during this period he won two Serie A championships, an FA Cup championship, a League Cup championship, two European Fairs Cup championships, a Serie B championship and a Charity Shield Champion.
But after Don Revie left, Leeds United began to decline and fell out of the top league.
In 1990, Howard Wilkinson led Leeds United back to the First Division and won the last English League One (now the Premier League) championship in the 1991-92 season.
And this is also the last significant championship for Leeds United.
It will be around 2000 when fans of the Dragon Kingdom begin to have an impression of this team in white.
The Leeds United team of that year had many talented young players such as Jonathan Woodgate, Alan Smith, Kewell, Bowyer, Mark Viduka, Rio Ferdinand, Robbie Keane and so on. , and reached the semi-finals in the Champions League.
At that time, Leeds United was considered one of the best teams in Europe. Coupled with the passionate style of playing in "Home Alone", they were also dubbed the "Young Guards" by the domestic media at the time.
Of course, this "Young Guard" was relegated due to financial crisis a few years later. Since then, it has been in the second and third tier leagues for many years, and has not been able to return to the Premier League for more than ten years.
However, the nickname "Young Guards" is considered an exclusive title given to them by the Dragon Kingdom, and even "White Rose" is the same.
In fact, Leeds United's real nickname in the UK is the "White Army" or the "Peacock Army", but there is no "White Rose".
That's because the "White Rose" is a symbol of Yorkshire in England, and no British media or fans call Leeds United the "White Rose".
It can be said that any team from Yorkshire can theoretically be a "White Rose", including the York City team.
So why do domestic media and fans call Leeds the "White Rose"?
Otherwise, although their results are incomparable with traditional strong teams such as Manchester United and Liverpool, they are already the best and most outstanding in Yorkshire - at least when people in Longguo can watch the Premier League on live TV. , Leeds United is definitely the representative team of Yorkshire.
For a long time, Leeds United was also the team with the strongest appeal and the most fans in Yorkshire.
In the list of Leeds United's mortal enemies, in addition to Manchester United, which represents the "Red Rose" Lancashire, they are Huddersfield and Bradford, both from West Yorkshire.
The grudge against Manchester United is mainly due to the historical hatred between the two regions and the two counties. It can also be seen from this that these two teams are the representative teams of the two regions.
As for Huddersfield and Bradford, the cities are adjacent and everyone has to compete with each other for fan resources.
In this competition, Leeds United is of course in the leading position. After all, neither Huddersfield nor Bradford, whether it is the size of the team, performance, or the size of the fans, can match Leeds United. Comparable.
But now, Yorkshire has quietly emerged a strong competitor - that is York City!
As representatives of North Yorkshire, York City have obviously included people from the north into their fan base.
And their appetite obviously doesn't stop there.
After consecutively defeating four Premier League BIG6 teams and winning the FA Cup last season, York City's popularity across the UK has been unprecedentedly enhanced.
Especially after Pan Yi recently supported Scarborough Athletic, an amateur team in North Yorkshire, York City's big heart also made people from all over the country feel that this is what a local team should be like. Act like the boss!
As West Yorkshire is geographically closest to York City and has the largest population, people here are obviously beginning to pay attention to this "hometown team."
This is actually understandable.
It's like you have a team in your own county, but this team only plays in the ninth or tenth league (for example, you are in Tieling, a big city in Liaoning).
And there is another strong team next door, playing in the top league, or winning important championships (for example, Liaoning's Dalian Wanda).
In this case, in addition to supporting your local Tieling team, you will also naturally pay attention to Dalian Wanda.
Then after watching a few games, you found that this "Dalian Wanda" team played beautifully and the players were very energetic, so you slowly fell in love with it and became their fan.
This is the reason why Pan Yi also does charity work in the surrounding areas and makes York City famous!
If the results are good and the image is good, there will naturally be a steady stream of fans nearby.
And this is exactly what Leeds United does not want to see.
They were originally the dominant force in Yorkshire, and no team could threaten their status.
Now, out of nowhere, a newcomer wants to take over the position of Yorkshire Talker?
Even if you are bilingual, it won’t work!
Because of this, Leeds United attaches great importance to this direct confrontation with York City.
Their head coach, the Danish Christianson, said early on that he wanted York City to see who is the team that can truly represent York County!
Leeds United's radical fan organization "Service Gang" even claimed that these bumpkins from York City should be made aware of what a Yorkshire Derby is!
