In the 21st round of the league, Metz defeated Nantes 1-0 at home and his points rose to second place.

Half a season has passed, but Metz is still able to occupy the second place in the league under multi-line combat, which made many experts unexpectedly say that this is the darkest dark horse this season. Metz fans are also happy with the team's current performance, and some even expressed their opinions on the online Metz fan forum, believing that the European event the team will participate in next season is not the League Cup, but the European Champions League.

In such a good situation, Fernandez has always been cautious and calm.

He knew that the team's current performance was related to the fact that the League Cup opponent was not strong. In addition, after a summer rest, the players were full of energy. After half a season of multi-line combat, physical strength was about to begin to appear. His team definitely did not have the strength to improve on multiple fronts at the same time. At this time, we have to make a choice. Which side should we protect?

Fernandez does not plan to fight again in the domestic cup. Winning the French Cup is not the purpose, but the purpose is to participate in the European game. Now that the European qualification has been obtained, it will be unwise to be distracted to win the French Cup. Fernandez plans to hand over the domestic cup to the reserve team and the youth team to play.

The next choice between the league and the League Cup will be difficult.

The league is fundamental, but is Mess’ goal to relegate or better results? If it is relegation, then there will be no problem in playing this season, but if you want to pursue higher goals, you still need to work hard.

The League Cup is a big and attractive cake. With Metz's strength, can he be upset in the League Cup? Can he win the League Cup? If we can win the League Cup, then should we go all out and pursue the League Cup?

If you want to compete for the League Cup, it means that the team will have to fight on both sides until May 16th, and the later the game, the harder it will be to play, because the team's physical fitness will inevitably have problems.

Metz is not able to make great progress on both fronts. If you choose one side, you will inevitably give up the other side. If you strive for the League Cup, you have to give up the league. Even if you win the League Cup championship, you will lose again and again in the league and finally fail to get the European qualification for next season. Is it worth it? If the team loses the European qualification next season, it will have a great impact on both economic and competitive conditions. Chairman Molinari will definitely dismember the team... If you don't work at Metz next season, it doesn't matter. Lead the team to win a championship and set the most glorious moment in club history, you will change jobs.

But... I bought so many young people myself, but I didn't expect to only work here for a year... Let Fernandez is quite troubled now, and multiple-choice questions are not easy to do.

Fortunately, it is not time to submit the paper, so he can continue to consider it, or take a look at the situation before making a decision. Before that, he can take some measures to prevent problems.

For example, he began to consider more using rotation.

Metz was a small team before, and there was no rotation, and there was no capital rotation. It would be difficult for a set of main lineups to ensure competitiveness. If they were still rotated, the league's results would be terrible. Even if they bought a lot of people this summer, they only strengthened the strength of Metz's main lineup in some positions, and they were not as luxurious as they could play two sets of lineups.

But now, the situation is pressing, and there is no way to do it, so I can only do this.

In the 22nd round of the league on January 27, he rotated out most of the main players to prepare for the next round of the league and the next round of the cup.

Metz's opponent in the 23rd round of the league is the strong Lyon. If Metz can defeat Toulouse in the 22nd round, that game will be a direct dialogue between the first and second in the league. At the same time, in the French Cup, Metz also entered the eighth-finals, and the game will be on January 31st.

Metz, who was almost the second team, scored 1:1 with Toulouse away, fell from the second place in the league and became third, with their league points of 37 points.

In fact, the game against Lyon can still be lost. After all, the league has nearly half a season, and Metz's current points are still safe. The game on February 14 is the top priority. The final goal of a season may be determined by the result of that game.

That game was the 16th final of the League Cup.

After the group stage, the League Cup was re-drawn, and Metz drew the Bundesliga team Leverkusen. This team is currently ranked sixth in the Bundesliga and its strength cannot be underestimated. As the team in the group, this may be one of the few strongest teams that can be drawn... After the league with Toulouse, Metz, who played with the youth team in the reserve team, lost to Lille, and the defending champion stopped in the quarterfinals. The players may feel frustrated, but none of the coaching staff will be a pity because they have lost a burden.

In the next 23rd round of the league, Metz played against Lyon at home. So far this season, the two sides have faced each other twice in total - including the pre-season Super Cup. Both sides won one win and one lose, Metz won the "Lyon Team 2" in the Super Cup. All the main players played in the league. Lyon, who vowed to take revenge, got what they wanted and won 2:0 cleanly and neatly.

This time, they have the third time this season, and it is also the last time they have played.

At his home court, Metz defeated Lyon 1:0 after a very difficult game, and ended up laughing with a total score of 2:1 in three games this season.

Although he won the ball, Metz paid a considerable price. First of all, Chu Zhongtian was sent off for violating Juninho in the game. Five minutes before the end of the game, Metz led 1:0. Juninho dribbled the ball and launched Lyon's counterattack. If he didn't stop him, he would go to the meeting alone. Chu Zhongtian had no choice but to knock down Juninho and was sent off by a red card.

Then Sammy Traore also received a yellow card at the last moment of the game because he deliberately delayed the game time, which would make him miss the next league against Nice.

When Chu Zhongtian was sent off with a red card and Traore received a yellow card, the live TV broadcast gave head coach Metz Jean Fernandez a close-up shot. There was no expression of anger and dissatisfaction on the coach's face. He was as usual, as if the absence of the two people at the game had no effect on him at all.

Actually that's because it's not the worst thing at all, the worst thing happened eleven minutes into the game.

This season, Metz played 28 games in various competitions, scored seven goals and five assists. Jeremy Menetz, who had struck a thigh muscle while dribbling the ball and pretending to pass the ball. At that time, he insisted on passing the ball out, and then stopped and raised his hand to call for rescue.

During the halftime break, Fernandez knew about Menez's specific injury. Optimistically, he would miss three weeks of the game, which would definitely not be able to catch up with the two rounds of the game against Leverkusen. This would be a big blow to Mess' strength.

In the face of such a situation, Chu Zhongtian’s red card and Tremy’s yellow card are really nothing.

After the game against Lyon, Metz returned to second place in the league, with a total of 40 points, while Lyon accumulated fifty-one points, with the difference between the two sides eleven points, which looks quite far. If nothing unexpected happens this season, no one can shake Lyon's dominance.

There are 20 teams in total in Ligue 1, except for Lyon, the other nineteen teams are just competing for rankings from the second to the twenty-fifth in the league.

On February 11, in the 24th round of the league, Chu Zhongtian and Traore were absent, and Mes lost 1:2 to Nice on the road. Ibissevic performed poorly in this game and was replaced in the 69th minute. Ribery was alone and fell into the opponent's heavy siege. Although he still scored a goal for the team, he could not defeat a team alone.

After this game, Metz will go away to challenge Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

※※※ Chu Zhongtian’s impression of Leverkusen was still in 2002. That season was the most glorious season for Leverkusen, and they fought to the end on all three fronts. That season was also the most tragic season for Leverkusen, because they fell before the championship trophy on all three fronts: in order to keep playing in the Champions League final, they lost the game in the last second round of the league and gave their rival Dortmund the throne. You must know that with three rounds left in the league, they were originally five points ahead of Dortmund, and the Dortmund basically gave up... Unexpectedly, Leverkusen gave up so generously,

Dortmund naturally accepted it without hesitation. He lost to Schalke 04 in the German Cup final and won the second runner-up of the season. The most tragic thing came. In the Champions League final, in Glasgow, they became completely supporting roles. Although Lucio scored a goal to equalize the score for the team, the entire Glasgow witnessed Zidane's volley from the sky. This goal was selected as the best goal in the European Champions League in 50 years. Real Madrid defeated Leverkusen with this goal from Zidane and won the ninth Champions League in their club history, only one championship away from the ten championships.

There is another detail that can well reflect how Leverkusen "made a background for others". When Zidane volleyed, Leverkusen's leader Barack was behind him and stood and watched the whole process of the ball... For later German football leader Barack, he was taught a lesson by Zidane. This year was also very tragic for him. In the subsequent Korean and Japanese World Cup, he achieved his "fourth Asian" on the bench... Chu Zhongtian's entire understanding of the Bundesliga team was limited to this. He didn't know how Leverkusen was after that.

However, now he has to face this strange opponent, and in the very critical League Cup 16th final, the schedule of playing away first and then home games is that advantages and disadvantages coexist. Playing at home later means that there is the last insurance. If you lose the game away, you can still make a reversal at home. However, playing at home later means that there is no away goal to win in the last round. Instead, you have to be wary of your opponent scoring away goals, which is very pressured to your defense. The situation of playing at home first is reversed.

Overall, the teams with a slight advantage in the home court after playing later, which is also a kind of compliment to teams with good performance, so all the teams in the group play away first and then home.

The game day was February 14th. The team arrived in Leverkusen on the 13th. Without rest, they went to the hotel to put things and rushed to Bayarena directly for adaptive training.

After completing this training, the team returned to the hotel for dinner and had a rest. When they went to Baier Stadium the next day, they went to participate in the competition.

While the team was training, the head coach Jean Fernandez was interviewed by the media on the court, and they only had fifteen minutes of interview time. The court would be closed after the time was exceeded, and Fernandez will use this opportunity to practice some set piece tactics.

Of course, when you get to someone else's home court, you can't really keep it secret. Leverkusen's scout or coach will definitely appear in a dark corner of the stands after the stadium is closed, shooting Metz's training while making records.

Fernandez didn't hide it and practiced openly.

In an interview, he also clearly revealed that Messe's goal in this game was to get a draw away, and it would be even better if there were goals from the away game.

This goal is realistic and nothing to surprise.

When the head coach was interviewing reporters outside, the players were also warming up while looking at the stadium where they were going to play tomorrow.

"It's so small..." Promon sighed. In terms of visual experience, this stadium is about the same size as their Saint Mountain Forian Stadium. And Saint Mountain Forian Stadium is already a small stadium in Ligue 1, but I didn't expect that the Bundesliga stadium was just like this... "It feels like it is similar to our home court. Is the Bundesliga at this level?" Obertan also felt strange.

"This stadium is small in the Bundesliga." This is also the first time Ribery has come to this stadium. Because Byer Stadium is not a World Cup stadium, he has never been there during the World Cup last year.

"The small court is in our favor." Chu Zhongtian said, "We are used to the small court."

Everyone nodded one after another.

At this time, Fernandez sent the French and German media and returned to the team. He said to the players: "Okay, boys. Put away your curiosity and train really hard!"

The discussion about the stadium ended here, and the players warmed up and started training.

※※※For Chu Zhongtian, everything was normal before this game. No matter whether it was training, rest, or diet, it was very clear that the Germans' rigor was fully reflected in entertaining them.

The problem lies with the hottest before the next day's game.

At that time, everyone was doing a shooting warm-up. Proman was in good mood and he was in good condition. He shouted during training and then shot with an angry shot. As a result, he did not hit the football but hit the grass in front of the football... This was really a very low-level and amateur mistake, so everyone was laughing at him at the beginning, and Ribery even squatted on the ground with a smile.

But soon everyone found something was wrong, so Proman covered his big toe and lay on the ground with a painful expression.

Assistant coach David Carre hurriedly ran up to check Proman's injury. Soon the team doctor Stefan Tangji also ran up. He took a brief look and said to David Carre: "He can't play this game." He said wow, so he started to ice the Proman to reduce the swelling of his swollen big toe.

"What's this?" David Carre exclaimed after hearing Proman being injured and unable to get on. "What are you playing, Proman?"

Facing the questioning of the assistant coach, Promum also felt very aggrieved: "I think it's a matter of turf quality, it's nothing to do with me! Really..."

"You are obviously too excited when you are warming up! Is this game what makes you like?" David Carre felt that the start was not good, and this is not a good sign for today's game... Seeing that Proman was about to miss today's game, his teammates also surrounded him and expressed his blessings.

Promón's mentality is pretty good. French people are optimistic by nature and can always see through it quickly. Promón has always been a very optimistic good person. He smiled at Chu Zhongtian and said, "Hey, Chu. It seems that you are going to fight alone. I'm sorry. But as compensation, the captain's armband will be given to you!"

Chu Zhongtian then realized that if Proman really couldn't play in this game, he would replace Proman as the team's captain.

Since Mexican international Rodriguez came to the team, the team's main central defender combination is him and Sami Traore. No. 1 captain Bobby Coni can only get a chance to play in the rotation, so most of the time Metz's captain is actually No. 2 Promenade.

Now Proman was injured while warming up before the game, so wouldn’t it be Chu Zhongtian’s turn on the captain on the field?

The Chinese media will definitely cheer and feel happy and proud of the appearance of a Chinese player wearing a captain's armband on the League Cup. But at this moment, Chu Zhongtian was not happy at all. He was worried that the team might not be able to achieve an ideal result today.

Promón has always been his good partner in the midfield. His tireless running and interception allowed Chu Zhongtian to organize the offense with confidence. Once Promón cannot go, Chu Zhongtian will have to distract himself from the defense, which will inevitably affect his performance in the offense.

Menez's injury greatly affected Metz's offensive strength, and now he has injured Proman again, and his defense has also been affected.

Proman was pestered by team doctor Tang Chi and limped towards the locker room. Assistant coach Carre accompanied him back to the locker room, and then told the situation that the current uninformed head coach Fernandez.

Soon, he ran back and said to Jaiovi, who was warming up, "Ahmed, you start in this game and replace Gregory's position."

In fact, since Proman was injured, Yayiovi knew that his chances of playing in this game had increased greatly, so when it was his turn, he was not excited, just nodding to show that he knew.

Carre didn't explain much. Anyway, when he returned to the locker room, head coach Fernandez still had to explain. He left Jaiovi and ran to find Chu Zhongtian.

He brought Chu Zhongtian a very special but not surprising news: "In this game, you wear the captain's armband, Chu!"
Chapter completed!