Chapter 466: Chapter 466

Inside Sevilla Football Club.

The players were training fervently!

On the training field, the coach occasionally blew the whistle to pause the game, sternly pointing out some players’ shortcomings in technique and passing choices.

"We’re facing Manchester City midweek; do you still want to drop to third place and play in the UEFA Europa League?"

Sevilla’s players shook their heads, saying no, no, we don’t want to play that damn UEFA Europa League anymore!

Even if we win the UEFA Europa League this time, it’s not as good as advancing to the Champions League knockout stage.

After all, the UEFA Europa League, no matter how you put it, isn’t as thrilling as the Champions League.

Moreover, having lost to Inter Milan in the UEFA Europa League final last season, the appeal of this event to the Sevilla players has been diminishing.

They were thinking of truly proving themselves on the Champions League stage, thus shedding the slightly mocking title of "King of the Europa League."

All the players had a very strong desire to win!

Compared to Manchester City, this time Sevilla not only played at home but also had a very intact team;

only one or two substitute players who were minor roles were injured; the main players were all healthy.

Looking at the group stage standings of Champions League B Group after three rounds:

1. Manchester City 9 points

4. Borussia Monchengladbach 0 points

After three rounds, Manchester City secured three consecutive victories in the group stage, sitting at the top of the standings; their progression was not in doubt.

Borussia Monchengladbach didn’t win a single game in three matches, ranking at the bottom, and their exit was unquestionable.

The key was the competition between second-ranked Juventus and Sevilla.

Sevilla’s players understood that they must compete with Serie A’s top team for second place in the group, or else, once they drop to third, they’ll really have to play in the UEFA Europa League! Follow current novels on novel•fire.net

With determination, Sevilla’s entire team was united in their aim to collect three points at home against Manchester City!

The flight from Manchester to Seville was delayed due to stormy weather.

Not until Wednesday night at 11:30 did the plane slowly land at the airport, a full 5 hours behind the scheduled time.

Manchester City’s players, exhausted physically and mentally, dragged their luggage and walked out heavily.

For this expedition, Silva, Ranocchia, and Agüero were absent due to injury and were continuing their rehab at the training base; Manchester City was still playing with a weakened squad.

Already lacking in personnel, coupled with the flight delay causing exhaustion, each player was not in great spirits.

Tang Long, however, was engrossed in his phone throughout the journey, watching with interest, even while disembarking via the plane’s walkway, dragging his suitcase and looking at his phone while walking.

Nasri pretended inadvertently to walk quickly past Tang Long, glanced at his phone, and snorted inwardly.

"Toure, look at Tang," Nasri motioned towards Tang Long with his mouth, "At this time, he still has the mood to be reading a novel!"

Toure felt it was incredible and also glanced towards Tang Long in the distance, looking at his phone.

If it were watching short videos, Toure could understand this; reading novels, however, he could not comprehend.

After all, most of the teammates Toure encountered in his career were not highly educated, and reading novels was something for cultured people; could football players actually be cultured?

"What is he reading?" Toure asked Nasri curiously.

"Who knows, it’s a bunch of dense square characters, probably Chinese, definitely a novel! I don’t get it, but ever since the flight delay, he’s been reading continuously for seven or eight hours now, without blinking."

"Is the phone really that fun? Watching videos, then reading novels, careful your eyes don’t go blind."

"Haha, are you worried about that? Even if he goes blind, it doesn’t matter; as long as Pellegrini is here, he’ll always be a starter!"