Chapter 499: Climbing to the top of the standings
At present, the Ligue 1 league is also in the sprint stage. Even if Monaco has a great advantage to enter the Champions League final, they will not give up any Ligue 1 event.
Now Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain are split equally, and Paris Saint-Germain ranks first with the advantage of goal difference.
If you compare it according to the winning or losing relationship between the two sides, Monaco should actually be at the top of the list, but this is the ranking rules of Ligue 1. If you have the same points, look at the goal difference first.
In the 35th round of the league, the fourth-last game, Monaco faced Ajaccio away.
Ajaccio is currently the deputy squad leader of the league, the last one, so his strength is naturally not strong.
But Ranieri still sent Xu Qi out.
Ranieri needs to win all these last rounds. As for whether he can win the championship, it depends on whether Paris Saint-Germain will have a foe.
After the game against Ajaccio began, Xu Qi began to break through wildly to create opportunities.
He first scored a goal himself, and then assisted Berbatov to score.
Helped the team build a two-goal lead.
Before the end of the first half, Ronaldo assisted Berbatov to score twice.
After the halftime break, Ranieri felt that the victory was decided, so he changed the ace in his hand Xu Qi.
In the following game, Monaco still had the advantage. With Condobia and Ocampos' goals in the second half, Monaco defeated deputy squad leader Ajaccio five-one.
Before Paris Saint-Germain played, Monaco temporarily topped the standings.
In this round, Paris Saint-Germain will play away against Socho Club.
If they win, they can naturally compete for the top spot. If they lose, then the top spot will be firmly held by Monaco.
Once Monaco wins three consecutive victories in the last three rounds, the Ligue 1 championship will belong to Monaco!
Therefore, in this game, Paris Saint-Germain also carried a lot of burdens.
Sure enough, due to the pressure, they did not perform well in this game.
Facing Socio, who is now desperately relegated, Paris Saint-Germain finally handed a one-to-one draw.
In this way, they were two points behind Monaco in the standings, leading Paris Saint-Germain for most of the season, and finally lost the transparent position in the standings.
The current overlord of Ligue 1 is now facing the situation of losing the league championship. After all, Monaco has shown too strong recently, and three consecutive victories do not seem too difficult for Monaco.
Now, Paris Saint-Germain is under great pressure, and the two rounds of defeat made them ruin a good game.
On the other hand, Monaco flew to London, the capital of Britain, with a relatively relaxed mood.
This trip is naturally for tickets to the Light Stadium.
Regarding this game, UEFA also released an official promotional video before the game, as well as an interview with Chelsea player William.
In this interview, William praised Xu Qi, the opponent's general.
"Xu Qi is a world-class player. When I was with him, I knew that he would become the best in the world. Our defense has been very good, but we still can't defend him, which shows the problem. But we will still do our best at home to strive to reach the final."
It seems that what William said is not very wrong.
However, this behavior of increasing the enemy's ambition before the game and destroying his own limelight has some aroused Mourinho's dissatisfaction. Moreover, Chelsea's wide player Hazard has returned from injury at this time. Relevant media speculated that Mourinho will use Hazard and put William on the bench.
Anyway, Hazard's comeback is a very dangerous sign for Monaco.
He is currently one of the most powerful players in the Premier League breakthrough ability. Such a player is undoubtedly a deterrent to Monaco's defense, just like Xu Qi's deterrence against Chelsea.
When Hazard was in Lille in Ligue 1, he was the best young player in the first two seasons, and he was the best player in the Ligue 1 every year. Monaco was once harmed by Hazard. Therefore, for such a guy with super personal abilities, Ranieri began to figure out how to arrange his defense.
Moreover, Hazard's comeback has indeed greatly increased Mourinho's confidence.
He also said that he would use a victory at home to thank the fans for their support, and he would eventually lead the team to the Champions League final.
Chelsea are also extremely optimistic about their second Big Ear Trophy in team history.
Stamford Bridge, London.
Monaco has already conducted some adaptation training on this field in advance. Xu Qi, who has played in the Premier League, is naturally very familiar with this stadium.
He also has the confidence to continue to shine and heat on such a field.
At the press conference before the game, although Mourinho made a bold statement early to strive for a reversal, Ranieri was not affected much.
He seemed more modest, and he even said that Chelsea's hope of advancing was greater than Monaco, but he would work with the players to overcome difficulties. He believed that Monaco would eventually step onto the Stadium of Light.
Once they enter the Champions League final, it will be Monaco's second Champions League final journey. Their first Champions League final was a loss to Porto led by Mourinho.
This time, Monaco also strives to avenge Mourinho and block him from the finals.
If Chelsea enters the Champions League final, it will be their third time. They finally won the championship with a penalty shootout in the first two Champions League finals.
Once they lost to Manchester United in a penalty shootout, and another time they defeated Bayern in a penalty shootout.
And this time in the Champions League semi-finals, many media also predict that there will be a penalty shootout.
After the crazy atmosphere before the game, Stamford Bridge Stadium had been dyed dark blue by Blues fans before the game.
The starting list of both sides was also released about an hour before the game.
For Chelsea, the goalkeeper is naturally still Cech.
The defense line is still Terry and Cahill, and Ashley Cole and Ivanovic are on both sides.
Azpilicueta appeared in the frontcourt and played as a full-back position.
In terms of the midfielder, David Luis and Ramirez are configured, and Mikel's absence due to injury also made Mourinho make such adjustments.
The three frontcourts are Hazard, William and Azpilicueta.
William was not placed on the bench by Mourinho. It seems that there is no player in Chelsea who can replace him well.
The arrow character is still Torres.
Monaco's starting lineup also made some adjustments to the previous game.
Subacic still guards the goal.
On the back line are Fabinho, Carvalho, Abdunuer, and Kurzawa.
Right back Kurzawa replaced Raj as one of the changes.
The two back midfielders are Condobia and Tularan.
Condobia's replacement of Obadi is another change.
The frontcourt is Xu Qi's left side, Ronaldo in the middle, and Moutinho on the right side. Carrasco, who started in the last game, sat on the bench in this game.
Chapter completed!