Ferguson didn't notice that Li Shiguang was watching him; he was focused entirely on the pitch.
The game was still in progress when Manchester United reorganized their attack. Ferdinand launched a long ball to the right wing, where Ronaldo dribbled forward and, under pressure from two defenders, passed the ball out from the right side of the penalty area. Rooney then made a run into the middle and unleashed a powerful shot, but Kompany, who rushed to block the shot, blocked it with his thigh, and the ball landed right at Mascherano's feet.
In an instant.
The attack and defense switched again, and Mascherano immediately looked up and found Toure's position and passed the ball to him, but just like before, Scholes happened to be in the passing lane and cleared the ball out of bounds.
Seeing this, Li Shiguang was certain of his thoughts.
Ferguson pulled Scholes back, intending for him to join Carrick in defending Toure. It also seems Rooney has moved back in position, meaning Rooney has become the midfield link-up player for Manchester United!
Should I make adjustments now? Li Shiguang habitually touched his chin.
After thinking about it for a while, Li Shiguang rejected the idea.
In his view, Scholes was already 32 years old, and he definitely couldn't sustain such a wide-ranging, high-intensity run for long. He had to wait for Ferguson to make the first move before making adjustments.
Just as Li Shiguang predicted, Manchester United made a substitution in the 63rd minute of the match, taking advantage of a corner kick!
Park Ji-sung came on, replacing veteran Scholes.
Meanwhile, the cunning Li Shiguang took advantage of Manchester United's substitution time to immediately replace Podolski with Rivaldo.
Seeing both sides make substitutions simultaneously, Blackwell in the studio raised a question for the first time today: "Hmm? Scholes looks like he's exhausted, I can understand Ferguson taking him off. But what does Leeds United mean by this substitution? Are they going to move Toure back to the defensive midfield position to participate more in defense? Is Lee trying to secure this draw?"
Lineker, standing nearby, had a different opinion: "I think it's unlikely. Think about the League Cup final earlier this year. Even when he was down to ten men, Lee never gave up attacking. In this situation, there's no reason for him to actively seek a draw!"
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After both sides made substitutions, the game continued.
Giggs took the corner kick again, and this time he chose to send the ball to the near post of the Leeds United goal.
Ronaldo, who had been hiding in the back, saw Giggs take the ball, and suddenly accelerated, shaking off Maicon's interference from behind. Then he jumped high, wanting to head the ball towards the goal.
However, the ball wasn't hit quite right, and instead of heading towards the goal, it flew at a very high speed towards the far post.
Rooney, who isn't very tall, happened to be standing there. When he saw Ronaldo head the ball over, he immediately prepared to go for the second ball.
To his surprise, Ronaldo initially intended to shoot at the goal; although he missed the target, the power was just as good.
So when the ball hit the instep of Rooney's right foot, it bounced back and landed right in front of him!
Lahm, who had initially thought he was out of position, reacted quickly and saw Rooney make a mistake. He immediately rushed out from behind Rooney, intending to clear the ball out of the penalty area.
But Rooney was naturally unwilling to give up this good opportunity, so he pushed off with his left foot and started moving, while also leaning his body to the right, trying his best to block Lahm and the ball.
Lahm got to the ball first, but under Rooney's interference, he couldn't put any force into it and only poked the ball once.
Seeing that Lahm hadn't kicked the ball too far, Rooney put in extra effort, trying to squeeze past Lahm and regain control of the ball.
But this was inside Leeds United's penalty area, and the other players weren't stationary. The ball had already been taken away by Toure, who rushed out from the side.
By the time Rooney peeked out from behind Lahm, Toure had already dribbled the ball almost out of the penalty area.
Seeing this, Carrick, who had followed Toure into the penalty area, immediately chased after him.
Soon, Toure brought the ball to a position near the center circle, and at that moment, Park Ji-sung, who had just come on, also moved over.
But Touré never intended to get past Park Ji-sung.
During regular training, Li Shiguang instilled a deep concept in the players' minds: counter-attacks are all about speed. Toure, who had been playing for Leeds United for two years, naturally understood this principle well.
So, when he was about 2 meters away from Park Ji-sung, Toure suddenly stopped and cut the ball to the left, immediately passing it diagonally to the left flank, where Leeds United's fastest striker, Gareth Bale, was sprinting towards Manchester United's penalty area.
Meanwhile, Toure, after passing the ball, did not stop and continued to rush into the penalty area.
"Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes! Leeds United's signature counter-attack is back again!!" Eddie Gray exclaimed. "Manchester United's players are desperately tracking back! Park Ji-sung and Carrick are both marking Toure closely, not daring to stray too far from him. But right behind the three of them, Rivaldo, who just came on, is also right behind them."
Bale received a pass from Toure just outside the penalty area, while Toure quickly sprinted to the edge of Manchester United's penalty area. Torres, meanwhile, was drawing Vidic's close marking inside the box.
Evra was still chasing hard from behind. With no other options, Ferdinand glanced at Toure and Torres, and after confirming that his teammates were closely marking the two, he also rushed out of the penalty area. He had to go up and stop Bale's advance.
But Bale, who was playing like a madman today, didn't care about any of that. As soon as he broke into the penalty area, he saw Ferdinand rushing towards him. Without hesitation, he flicked the ball to the left and took the first shot!
In the first half, Van der Sar made a save from a shot by Bale from a similar angle in this position, so when he saw Bale enter the penalty area this time, he was already in position and ready to make the save.
However, this shot was different from the one in the first half; Bale hit a half-high ball.
Van der Sar was very experienced; he knew that it was difficult to tip the ball over the crossbar or catch it directly, so he immediately clenched his fists and punched the incoming ball hard, sending it towards the right side of the penalty area.
Inside Manchester United's penalty area, Ferdinand was stopping Bale's advance, Carrick and Park Ji-sung sandwiched Toure between them, and Vidic was alongside Torres.
So who's on the right side of Manchester United's penalty area?
Eddie Gray's roar gave them the answer.
"Rivaldo!"
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the Brazilian veteran, who appeared in this position like a ghost, seemed to have returned to his Barcelona days.
His right leg was stretched straight, and then his body stretched out to the maximum extent. His left foot shot out from behind his body like lightning, striking the football that had not yet hit the ground.
"Bang!"
The ball flew straight towards the left corner of Manchester United's goal, and Van der Sar, who had just run to the center of the goal, could only watch as the ball grazed the post and flew into the net...
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