From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 991 Four-Line Battle
With the conclusion of the match between Manchester United and Manchester City, the four semi-finalists for this season's Champions League have been determined.

Just two minutes before the Manchester derby ended, the second leg of another Champions League quarter-final had concluded at Anfield. Despite Benfica displaying strong fighting spirit and scoring three goals, with Liverpool fielding a largely reserve squad, they ultimately failed to mount a comeback, drawing 3-3. Liverpool thus eliminated Benfica 6-4 on aggregate, advancing to the Champions League semi-finals.

A day earlier, the results of the other two Champions League quarter-final matches had already been decided. Villarreal held the mighty Bayern Munich to a draw away from home, and with a 1-0 victory in the first leg at home, the Yellow Submarine pulled off a major upset, eliminating the Bundesliga giants 2-1 on aggregate, becoming the first team to advance to the Champions League semi-finals this season.

In the clash between Chelsea and Real Madrid, Chelsea, having lost 1-3 at home to Real Madrid in the first leg, was widely considered to be eliminated. However, the Blues unexpectedly erupted at the Bernabéu Stadium, winning 3-1 and bringing the aggregate score to 4-4, forcing the game into extra time.

In fact, if it weren't for Modric's outstanding performance, including his brilliant assist to Rodrygo in the 79th minute, Real Madrid would have been eliminated amidst a shower of white handkerchiefs at home.

However, in front of tens of thousands of home fans at the Bernabéu Stadium, Real Madrid demonstrated their status as a Champions League super club. Thanks to Benzema's goal in the 95th minute, Real Madrid lost 2-3 at home, but still eliminated Chelsea with a total score of 5-4, avenging their defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals last season.

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Real Madrid emerged victorious in their match against Chelsea, successfully advancing to the semi-finals. This marks Real Madrid's second consecutive year reaching the Champions League semi-finals.

In the post-Ronaldo era, after two years of Champions League slump, Real Madrid finally avoided repeating the mistakes of ten years ago and became the Champions League "Dream Team" again.

With Manchester United's victory in the Manchester derby, the Champions League semi-finalists are now set.

Following the elimination of Serie A teams from the quarterfinals, all Bundesliga teams have also been knocked out in the quarterfinals. The Premier League and La Liga will now compete for the ultimate title, a battle for the title of the top league.

In the current UEFA coefficient rankings, the Premier League and La Liga occupy the top two spots. Although La Liga trails the Premier League by a significant 15 points, it is the only league that poses a real threat to the Premier League's position in the short term. Serie A and the Bundesliga follow closely behind, trailing the Premier League by more than 30 points. Even if the Premier League were to forgo European competitions for a season, these two leagues would still be unlikely to dethrone it.

Since the draw for the upper and lower brackets of this season's Champions League knockout stage determined the teams' matchups during the quarterfinals, there was no need for another draw.

The semi-finals in the upper bracket will feature Manchester United against Real Madrid, while the lower bracket will feature Liverpool against Villarreal – both are matches between Premier League teams and La Liga teams.

However, the Premier League leads La Liga by a significant margin in the UEFA coefficient rankings this season.

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This season, Premier League teams have also performed exceptionally well in European competitions.

In the Champions League, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea have all made it to the quarterfinals, and now two of them have advanced to the semifinals, making them the best performing teams among the four major leagues.

Villarreal's Europa League victory last season meant that five La Liga teams participated in the Champions League group stage this season. However, Barcelona and Sevilla's poor performances in the group stage, which resulted in their elimination from the Europa League, somewhat lowered La Liga's overall standings.

In the Europa League, both teams represent the Premier League. Although Leicester City was eliminated in the group stage, West Ham United performed admirably, eliminating Europa League champions Sevilla in the round of 16 and former Ligue 1 champions Lyon in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals.

In the newly formed UEFA League, Premier League teams have also performed brilliantly.

As the top favorite to win the inaugural tournament, Tottenham Hotspur, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, has consistently performed well and unsurprisingly made it to the semi-finals.

Leicester City, eliminated from the Europa League group stage and with no hope of securing a European qualification spot in the league, began focusing on the Europa League as a roundabout way to qualify for next season's European competitions. They defeated Randers, Rennes, and PSV Eindhoven to reach the Europa League semi-finals.

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As April arrives, European competitions are entering the semi-final stage. In the three European competitions this season, Premier League teams occupy five of the four semi-final spots, almost half of them.

In particular, Premier League teams have the potential to sweep all the final spots in the Champions League and the Europa League. If Manchester United can eliminate Real Madrid again in the Champions League semi-finals, Liverpool can defeat Villarreal, Cristiano Ronaldo's Tottenham can defeat Feyenoord in the Dutch Eredivisie, and Jamie Vardy's Leicester City can defeat Roma, then the Premier League can simultaneously include all the final spots in both European competitions, recreating the glory of three years ago.

Furthermore, if West Ham United can eliminate Bundesliga's Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League semi-finals, there will be a spectacular situation with five Premier League teams competing in the European finals!

According to the schedule, the semi-finals of the three European competitions will be held midweek in late April and early May, which is only two to three weeks away.

However, Manchester United players don't have the energy to think about the Champions League semi-final yet, because before that, they have three very important matches: the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace, the Manchester derby against Liverpool, and their match against Arsenal.

On the afternoon of April 16, the first match of this season's FA Cup semi-finals was played, with Manchester City, who had just been eliminated from the Champions League semi-finals, facing Liverpool at the new Wembley Stadium.

Although Manchester City were eager to win the FA Cup, their best chance of winning the title this season, their midweek Champions League defeat to Manchester United had a significant impact on them.

Their opponents, Liverpool, had the opportunity to rest and recuperate midweek, and as a result, the well-rested Liverpool took a huge 3-0 lead in the first half, almost securing their place in the FA Cup final.

Although Manchester City capitalized on Liverpool's desire to conserve energy for the midweek Manchester derby and launched a furious comeback in the second half, narrowing the score to 2-3 at one point, the hole they dug for themselves in the first half was too deep, and they ultimately failed to turn the tide.

As a result, Manchester City were eliminated from the Champions League and the FA Cup in just three days, their treble dream shattered, and even the Premier League, the only league with a glimmer of hope for winning the title, became precarious.

Immediately, numerous calls for Guardiola's resignation appeared in the media, and many fans even flooded Manchester City's official website with messages demanding his resignation.

However, Manchester City's management immediately expressed their trust and support for Guardiola. This is partly because Guardiola's record this season has been quite good, and partly because the Abu Dhabi consortium is unlikely to find a new manager more trustworthy than Guardiola.

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A day later, another FA Cup semi-final took place at the new Wembley Stadium, with Manchester United facing Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace are currently 13th in the Premier League standings, a full 17 points behind, leaving them with only a theoretical chance of qualifying for European competitions through league points.

Under these circumstances, they are focusing their main efforts on the FA Cup. If they perform exceptionally well, first eliminating Manchester United and then defeating Liverpool in the final, they will not only win their first major trophy in their 160-year history but also secure a Europa League spot for next season.

This made them very tenacious in their match against Manchester United.

However, the gap in strength between them and Manchester United was simply too great. Although they managed to maintain the 0-0 score at halftime through a tenacious, impenetrable defense in the first half, they were unable to hold on as Manchester United stepped up their game in the second half. Manchester United scored two goals in quick succession, and they ultimately lost 0-2.

Thus, this season's FA Cup final has become a clash between Manchester United and Liverpool.

This marks Manchester United's seventh consecutive appearance in the FA Cup final, setting a new record.

In the previous six FA Cup finals, Manchester United emerged victorious five times, only losing to Arsenal in a penalty shootout in the 2019-2020 FA Cup final.

That was also the first time Bruno had lost the championship trophy in a final in his career.

After facing Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City in the FA Cup final, and even having to go through the second round again, Manchester United finally met another formidable opponent in the Premier League, Liverpool, in the FA Cup final.

With Manchester United and Liverpool meeting in the FA Cup final, it means that the two teams will continue their title battle across three competitions this season: the Premier League, the Premier League, and the Champions League.

In the current Premier League standings, Manchester United and Liverpool are the top two teams. Manchester United leads with 78 points from 31 rounds, while Liverpool follows closely behind with 8 points less.

In fact, including the League Cup final at the end of February, the two red teams are competing for the title on four fronts!

Of course, before that, the two teams will have to face the test of two La Liga teams in the Champions League.

In comparison, Liverpool's chances of reaching the Champions League final are much greater than Manchester United's.

After all, as the most successful team in Champions League history, Real Madrid's strength is incomparable to Villarreal's.

Following their head-to-head clash in the League Cup final, the two sides faced off again at Anfield Stadium on the evening of April 20.

This will be Liverpool's last chance this season to win their first-ever Premier League title!
(End of this chapter)