The big trip
I walked out the door and went to my car. I opened the door and threw my bag down in the passenger seat but before I got in. I turned and waved. Serra waved back with a smile too and the kids were as chirpy as always. They were enjoying life in Munich, the kids were doing well at school and had learnt a good deal of German. Serra was loving the atmosphere here and was coming back with recommendations of where we got out for dinner almost every day. Today though I was leaving Munich for England. I hadn't been there since that horrible day at Stamford Bridge. We were flying to Manchester airport. It was probably going to be our toughest game to come for the rest of the calendar year. The Etihad stadium awaits us.
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It took an hour for me to reach the airport even though it was only 3.1 miles from my house. The morning rush was hectic. After all it was 7 am on a Monday morning. I got out my car and slammed the door. I looked around and came to the conclusion that I was the first one here. I went in anyway and started to look around. I had already been here a few times and I knew the place very well. So I decided that I'd head to the toilet. There was a McDonalds on the way and I had a look inside. I noticed 2 people at the counter ordering something, I looked up and approached the window. For the 2 at the counter seemed rather familiar. One had a head just like my own, while the other had an unmistakable afro. I tapped at the window and the 2 turned their head, suddenly they turned around and ran out of the fast food place. Arjen and Dante were always troublemakers, but I decided that I would let this one slide, after all they did give my a good laugh.I finished ,my business and turned around to my suprise the players were all standing there. I walked over and Dom saw me, he then nodded to the players and they all turned and went through customs. The team were all looking forward to this game. We had bounced back from the Chelsea game by beating Leverkusen 2-1. They knew it would be tricky and so did I.
A few hours later and we had touched down in Manchester. We lugged all our things out the car park but we hadn't brought much. We were lead to a coach which would take us to our hotel. It was quite near the Etihad and was very expensive, but we can't have our players sleeping in filth could we. Once we had gotten to our rooms. We gave the players an hour to watch TV or text their wives/girlfriends. Then at 5 PM me and Dom went round the rooms telling everyone that we would be going to the Etihad now.We had to train somewhere and so we went to the Etihad. We worked on defending set pieces and scoring them at the same time. Robben and Ribery were set the task of whipping them in, while the defenders defended and then everybody else attacked.This changed after 30 corners. We set Kevin to warm up Manuel and Tom alongside keeper coach Toni Tapalovic. All of this went on for a while and we had used up and hour and a half before we knew it. We had only been allocated 2 hours and 15 minutes, so we decided to go straight into a game. I didn't quite know which formation to use. The one with no wingers and 2 AM's and CM's or the one where everyone is spread out to give us width and options through the middle. One team used one the other sported the second tactic.
Team A (4-5-1): Neuer,Lahm, Boateng, Kirchhoff, Contento, Martinez, Thiago, Muller, Shaqiri, Volland,Pizarro.
Team B (4-3-3): Starke, Rafinha, Dante, Van Buyten, Alaba, Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Robben, Ribery, Strein,Mandzukic.
http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/371674/arjen-robben.jpg
17th Minute: Team B takes the lead after Alaba makes an overlapping run and crosses it in to Mandzukic who rises above Kirchhoff to head it in.
29th minute: Team A miss a penalty. Shaqiri goes on a mazy run and is brought down by Rafinha. However Pizarro's penalty is brilliantly saved by Starke.
44th minute: Team B go 2 up just before half time. Schweinsteiger receives the ball on the edge of the box and releases a pile driver that Neuer is unable to stop.
58th minute: Team A pull one back. Thiago's corner meets Boateng's header at near post. All that corner work wasn't for nothing.
76th minute: Team B regain their 2 goal lead. Starke's long kick was flicked on by Mandzukic and Ribery found himself running down on goal. He slipped it past Neuer with ease. It was route one but a goals a goal.
87th minute: Thiago plays a delicate pass in between Lahm and Boateng and Volland runs onto it and curls into the far corner.That was to be the final goal of the match as it ended 3-2.
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Even though the tactic that had many in the midfield lost,I decided to use it. It caused much moaning between the wingers but I think they understood. We had been studying City's Premier League games and they had been playing Toure quite far forward and Aguero slightly deeper. I felt that we had to silence these two and therefore went with the tactic. The only thing now was to figure out who would be playing were. Tomorrow was going to be a big day but we were ready