With success in both cup competitions, York City have not fallen behind in the Championship either.
In several league games from February to early March, except for a 1:1 draw with Burton on the road, they won all the other games!
One of them was another 2:0 victory over the unlucky Hull City, and the other one worthy of attention was the 3:0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.
In other words, they maintained an undefeated victory against the team from Yorkshire!
And it is also far ahead in rankings.
It goes without saying that York City is ranked first. The highest-ranked team in Yorkshire is Sheffield United, which is only ranked sixth and is still fighting for the qualification for the play-offs.
And Leeds United are ranked 11th. How can they still look like the Yorkshire boss before?
Sheffield Wednesday are ranked 17th and even have to fight for relegation.
Today's Yorkshire fans, regardless of whether they are from the east, west, north or south, like to go to York City's home court to watch the game.
Who doesn't like their home team to win? What's more, they play so beautifully, there are so many stars who are starting to become famous, and they can watch the FA Cup and Europa League!
It can be said that, except for those die-hard fans, all fans who are a bit swaying are attracted by York City!
It is precisely because of this that when York City welcomed Plzen at home on March 9 for the knockout round of the Europa League round of 16, the West Siberia Stadium was already full.
The stadium can only accommodate 20,000 people. Tickets were sold out early, and tens of thousands of fans could only linger outside the stadium.
This also proves Pan Yi's foresight in planning and building a new stadium in advance!
As a team that aspires to the Premier League and Europe, how can it not have a stadium of its own?
Pan Yi soon announced that these fans who could not buy tickets would be allowed to enter the new stadium and watch the game together on the big screen!
At this time, the ground of the new stadium has been paved. Although there is no turf and seats yet, it is still a lot of fun for fans to stand in the center of the new stadium and watch the game together.
Moreover, since the distance between the old and new stadiums is not far, the cheers of tens of thousands of fans here can also be transmitted to the old stadium, which means they are really cheering for the team on the spot!
Therefore, the fans are also very grateful to Pan Yi for this policy. They really feel like they are part of the team.
As far as this game is concerned, although many British media believe that Pilsen Victory is a relatively weak team in the top 16, the Czech media actually thinks so too.
After all, York City is only a team from England's second-tier league, which is not the same situation among the other 15 teams.
Therefore, the Czechs instead believe that York City is the weakest team in the top 16, and also believe that Victory Plzen Prague won the lottery, and believe that this team from the second-tier English league is definitely not as strong as Victory Plzen. .
For this reason, everyone at Plzen Victory is confident that they want to win this game.
Even if it is an away game, they hope to settle the matter with a big victory and eliminate York City in one fell swoop!
So as soon as the game started, Plzen Victory launched a fierce attack on York City.
York City, on the other hand, did not seem to expect that their opponent would be so tough. They were not mentally prepared for the moment. They were beaten by the Plzeň Victory team at the beginning, and in the 10th minute, they were scored because of an oversight in the defense. One goal.
After the goal, Pilsen Victory team became more aggressive, especially their head coach, who repeatedly signaled the team to press forward and use the momentum of the first goal to completely suppress York City.
As everyone knows, one of the most talked-about things about York City is that they are very strong in hitting downwind balls, but at the same time they also have a strong ability to hit counter-trend balls.
Especially when the score is behind, it is easy to stimulate their state.
During the halftime break, Scaloni scolded the players in the locker room, thinking that everyone was underestimating the enemy.
If changes cannot be made in time, York City's journey to the Europa League may come to an end, and the large bonuses promised by boss Pan Yi will also come to nothing!
York City's players learned their shame and acted bravely. The team's performance improved in the second half and they began to counterattack.
However, Pilsen Victory thought they could continue to suppress York City through the tactics they used in the first half, so they were not too vigilant and instead exposed more gaps in the defense.
In the 56th minute, Tonali's direct pass from the backcourt found Leo on the striker, who helped the team equalize the score!
This goal completely detonated York City's home court. The cheers of the fans in the two stadiums echoed in the sky above Yorkshire. It even felt louder than the sound of a stadium with 100,000 people!
And this goal also reminds Plzen to win, and York City will not be defeated casually!
After that, the two sides engaged in a fierce stalemate. Pilsen Victory still invested a lot of troops in the attack, which made York City's defense a little tight, but Leo and Kulusevski found the front line. This creates a large area of counterattack space.
In the 79th minute, De Jong received a direct pass from De Ligt after stealing the ball, and made a long pass to the frontcourt.
Baker stopped the ball with his chest, then deftly turned around, passed the ball diagonally to the right corner of the penalty area, and Kulusevski rushed over and succeeded in pushing the ball into the near corner, reversing the score to 2:1!
After the reversal, Scaloni also made decisive substitutions, but instead of strengthening the defense, he sent new players like Lin Liangming, Amon, and Scamaca onto the field to strengthen the offense!
Don’t you, Pilsen Victory, want a decisive victory? I, York City, also have the same intention!
At this time, Pilsen Victory was falling behind, so it became a little angry and continued to attack. This also gave York City's frontline horses more opportunities.
In the 85th minute, Lin Liangming dribbled past someone from the wing and then passed the ball low. Scamacca grabbed the point and succeeded, 3:1!
In the 90th minute, Aman broke through and made a strong cross. De Jong, who came in from behind, fired a shot and once again penetrated Pilsen's winning goal, 4:1!
In just ten minutes, York City scored three goals in a row, immediately defeating Plzen.
They finally understood that they could not take away a victory at the West Siberian Stadium.
Pilsen won, but today it can only be renamed Pilsen and failed!
After the game, York City fans in both stadiums excitedly took to the streets to celebrate the victory. The two forces joined together and became a bigger force!
It was like a festival around the stadium today!
And this victory also made York City's situation of entering the Europa League quarter-finals bright, after all, they had a three-goal lead!
However, York City does not have much time to breathe. They are about to play in the sixth round of the FA Cup, which is the quarterfinals, and their opponent is Brighton from the Premier League.
At this time, Brighton was not the dark horse team that could repeatedly defeat strong teams and enter the European competition. They had just been promoted from the English Championship to the Premier League last season and were still fighting to retain their Premier League seat.
In other words, in the minds of fans, they are still a "dumpling" that everyone can eat, rather than a formidable seagull army.
But that doesn't mean they will give up on the FA Cup.
Due to the frequent upsets in the FA Cup this season, many traditional strong teams have been eliminated, such as Brighton, Southampton, Swansea, Wigan Athletic, Leicester City, and of course non-stop teams like York City. Traditional strong teams have reached the quarterfinals.
This situation also allows these small and medium-sized teams to see the hope of winning the championship, and naturally they are not willing to give up such an opportunity.
You know, winning a cup may not be a very special honor for big teams like Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United, and even the fans may not be happy about it for long;
But for a small team, they may never win such a championship in their lifetime!
Once such an opportunity is presented to them, they will not give up easily.
For Brighton, it seems difficult to face York City, which is currently in the limelight, but it is better than meeting Chelsea or Manchester City, isn't it?
However, when the game started, the Seagulls discovered that it didn't seem to be the case.
Scaloni sent all his main players to face Brighton at home. York City quickly suppressed Brighton on the scene, which kept Brighton's Dutch goalkeeper Krul very busy throughout the game.
Throughout the game, York City had a ball possession rate of 63% and had 17 shots, 10 of which were on target.
If Krul hadn't shown extraordinary form, Brighton's goal would have been knocked open long ago.
But there was a gap in all the secrets. In the 70th minute of the game, York City still took advantage of a free kick. Tonali shot through the heart and broke through the gate guarded by Krul with his iconic falling ball!
This was also the only goal in the game.
After eliminating Brighton and successfully entering the semi-finals, York City's opponent in the FA Cup semi-finals quickly emerged. It was another Premier League team, the Saints Southampton.
When Pan Yi got the news, he had to be happy.
York City's signing this year is indeed good, at least much better than when he was at Chelsea...
However, as the saying goes, luck is conserved. When York City drew 1:1 with Victory Plzen in the second round of the Europa League away game, and entered the quarterfinals of the Europa League, they were drawn against the Eredivisie hegemon Ajax. !
Of course, this cannot be said to be bad luck for York City.
After all, after reaching the quarterfinals, there are basically no weak teams among the remaining teams in the Europa League.
RB Leipzig, Marseille, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Sporting CP, plus York City and Ajax, to be honest, it is difficult to play against anyone.
It is worth noting that both England representatives in the Europa League have reached the quarter-finals.
In addition to York City, Arsenal eliminated AC Milan, the giants from Serie A, in the previous round. They have also become the favorites to win the Europa League.
In addition, Atletico Madrid and Ajax are more optimistic about winning the championship. They also came to the Europa League after being eliminated from the Champions League.
Especially Ajax. Although they are still outnumbered by their arch-enemy Eindhoven in the Eredivisie this season, they have also added a lot of fresh blood after selling several players to York City. Chuuya plays proactively, so he is also favored by the outside world.
York City is facing Ajax this round. De Ligt, De Jong, Onana, and Westerman all have to face their old club. This has become a highlight of this competition. point! ——
After defeating Barnsley 2-0 in an away game and continuing to lead the standings with a huge advantage of 15 points, York City also ushered in the international match day and could take a break.
At this time of the international match day, there are no official matches. Everyone is looking for opponents to warm up. The purpose is to prepare for the World Cup in Russia to be held in the summer.
In the play-offs of the Asian qualifiers, the third-placed South Korean team in Group A played two home and away games with the third-placed Australian team in Group B. Australia won with a total score of 3:2.
Then they won again in the intercontinental play-offs against Honduras with a total score of 3:1, and they also got a ticket to the World Cup!
The final ticket was obtained by Peru. They defeated New Zealand, the representative of Oceania, 2:0 in another intercontinental play-off.
With this, all the top 32 places for the World Cup were born.
If you look at it from the perspective of Pan Yi's previous life, the main changes here are the changes in the two teams.
One is the Dragon Kingdom team. They have taken the place of the Korean team.
The other one is Italy. Pan Yi led them to change their fate and defeat the Swedish team, so they also took the place of the Swedish team!
Now Pan Yi has no control over the development of the Dragon Country team for the time being. The most he can do is give Lippi some suggestions on employment.
After all, he is now the head coach of the Italian national team and is also very busy during international matches!
In this competition cycle, the Italian team will usher in two warm-up matches.
One of the matches was in Saudi Arabia. This was mainly because the opponent paid money to make the appointment, hoping to find a strong opponent before the World Cup.
In another game, Italy originally wanted to ask Argentina to play, but in the end it failed and was replaced by the closer England team.
But this way it becomes even more gimmicky.
After all, Pan Yi's York City is in the English League, and there are also England internationals like Rice on the team.
Coupled with the traditional strong team England, it is also Pan Yi's strongest opponent in theory since joining the Italian national team.
Didn't Pan Yi declare his goal to win the World Cup early?
Defeating Albania and Sweden certainly doesn't count. It has to be proven by defeating teams like France, Argentina, Germany, and England twice!
Therefore, all Italian fans are looking forward to it.
Including the roster of the national team, everyone is also paying close attention to it.
As the World Cup approaches, the warm-up roster will largely determine the final World Cup participants!
Obviously, most of the list Pan Yi came up with this time was no surprise, but some people still surprised many people.
The three goalkeepers are quite normal. Buffon, Donnarumma, and Perrin are currently in the best shape in Italy.
On the defense line, Juventus' three veterans are still selected, Bonucci, Chiellini, and Barzagli, plus full-backs Damian, Candreva, De Sciglio, and Spinazzola, in addition to those from Bastoni, DiMarco, Yorktown.
In the midfield, there are mainly players who can play as a defensive midfielder. The selection of Tonali and Barrera is no surprise, followed by De Rossi, Verratti, Jorginho, and Parolo.
The largest number is the forwards, Scamacca, Immobile, Bernardeschi, Insigne, Eder, Belotti, Gabbiadini, Shaarawy, Chiesa Jr., Raspado Here, there is Balotelli at the end!
In this 29-man roster, there are actually 11 forwards!
What's Pan Yi doing? This is the number of players on the entire team.
Why does a team need so many forwards? It's impossible to start 11 players and play 11 forwards!
Especially Balotelli, after he became famous at a young age and experienced wealthy teams such as Inter Milan, Manchester City, and Milan in the early stages of his career, he felt that he was starting to decline. Now he has joined the French Ligue 1 team Nice.
More importantly, everyone says that Balotelli is "world-class from the head down", which means that he often short-circuits on and off the court.
With such a player, why does Pan Yi still want to recruit him into the team?
What if Balotelli acts up in the dressing room? Wouldn't it destroy the good team atmosphere in Italy now?
Regarding the doubts from the outside world, Pan Yi did not reveal much.
He just emphasized that the players he selected were the players he judged to be in the best shape during this period.
In his eyes, no one in the national team is indispensable, and he will only choose those players who are in the best condition.
Pan Yi also specifically emphasized that everyone's views on Balotelli are incorrect.
Balotelli was still very well-behaved when he was in the national team, and his contribution to the national team will not be erased.
In the 2012 European Cup, it was Balotelli who scored two goals against Germany and helped the Italian team enter the European Cup final!
Bashen's form this season is not bad either, scoring 18 goals in 28 appearances in Ligue 1, and scoring 6 goals in 6 appearances in the Europa League, which can be said to be the statistics of a top forward.
In fact, there is one thing that Pan Yi did not say, that is, Barcelona has played well in the past two seasons, but has been excluded from the Italian national team list by Ventura. This is actually an important reason for the weakness of the Italian team's forwards.
At critical moments, Bashen's nerve-knife attributes are useful, and his strong body can also serve as a fulcrum for the Italian team in the frontcourt.
The reason why so many forwards need to be recruited is to conduct further inspections in the warm-up matches and then slowly determine the list of players who can participate in the World Cup.
Amid doubts among Italian fans and media, the Italian national team welcomed the Saudi team at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
Although the opponent was only an underdog like Saudi Arabia, and although this game was just a friendly match, on the day before the game started, the crazy Italian fans still packed the Olympic Stadium, which can accommodate 100,000 spectators, to the full. Went and could hardly find a spot.
Obviously, the fact that Pan Yi led Italy to the World Cup, as well as the transformation of Italy's lineup and tactics, including the announcement of the roster, has made all Italians full of expectations and curiosity about this team!
"I have full confidence in Pan Yi. It can be said that if I can only choose one person to be the head coach of our national team in this world, then I will definitely choose him! Fortunately, God, he thinks so too, and he is Send Pan Yi to us!"
When the media interviewed the fans at the scene, the words of this old Italian fan almost represented the aspirations of all Italian fans.
When Pan Yi walked out of the player tunnel, cheers like a landslide and tsunami immediately erupted in the stadium.
In the football world, a coach who turns the tide in troubled times, a legendary coach who has won almost all championships, will of course receive heartfelt support from fans, and Pan Yi is obviously such a person!
Pan Yi waved to the stands and sat down on the coaching bench.
He actually didn't take this game too seriously.
What he really values is the game five days later.
Although the match against England was also a friendly match, and although England is often nicknamed the "European Dragons" and the "Three Cats", that is England after all. It is the birthplace of modern football, a former world champion, and has the best team in the world today. of league.
Defeating a strong team can affect the morale and confidence of the players!
In today's game, the lineup sent by Pan Yi looks more like an experimental lineup, or it is mainly for inspection.
The goalkeeper is Perin, the four defenders are Damian, Barzagli, Chiellini, and Candreva. The midfielder is Jorginho and Parolo in the center, with Bernardeschi and García on both sides. Biadini is paired with Belotti and Edel on the front line.
Despite this, Italy at home quickly suppressed Saudi Arabia.
However, they didn't have much to do when facing opponents who were shrinking in defense. Bernardeschi and Gabbiadini made many breakthroughs, but the quality of their crosses was average, which made it difficult for Belotti and Edel in the middle. Get the first point.
In the end, in the first half, Italy only relied on a penalty kick after Shaarawi was pulled down in the penalty area, and Jorginho scored a goal with a jumping penalty kick.
In the second half, Pan Yi waved his hand and the field immediately changed.
There are no changes in the backcourt. In the midfield, Tonali and Verratti are played. The front trident is replaced by Balotelli + Chiesa + Shaarawi, and the formation also changes to 4-3-3.
In this formation, Italy's tactics are actually very simple, that is, after getting the ball in the midfield and backcourt, if there is an opportunity, pass the ball long, either to Balotelli in the center, or to the two wingers on both sides.
And Balotelli obviously kept Pan Yi's understanding of him, or the "grace of knowing him" in his heart, and he was particularly active on the court, fighting, passing, shooting, everything!
The effect of Pan Yi's tactical change was also obvious. In the second half, Italy scored a goal each from Tonali, Quiet, Shaarawy, and Balotelli, and finally swept their opponents 5-0!
After the game, almost everyone praised Pan Yi's change in the second half. Some people performed really well after Kwaba returned to the national team. However, some said that the opponent was only the Saudi team after all.
Therefore, more people have turned their attention to the battle between Italy and England that will be held at Wembley Stadium in five days!
They believe that this game is the real test for the Italian national team!
