With Michael's whistle.
The 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League final has officially begun.
Manchester United, wearing red jerseys, kicked off first, attacking from right to left.
Unlike the previous match.
After the match started today, Manchester United, who kicked off first, did not make any probing moves. The ball came to Ronaldo's feet, and he immediately launched a massive attack.
Leeds United, of course, will not back down.
After so many seasons and so many matches against Manchester United, the Leeds United players are extremely familiar with their opponents. Seeing that Manchester United was not holding back, they followed Li Shiguang's instructions and started to play an attacking game with Manchester United!
Manchester United, who had the advantage of possession, took the lead. Ronaldo dribbled the ball to the vicinity of Leeds United's penalty area and passed it back. Scholes followed up and crossed the ball. Berbatov got to the ball first in the penalty area, but the Bulgarian's header went wide of the goal.
Neuer then took the goal kick, and Leeds United began to put pressure on Manchester United's penalty area.
After drawing enough defensive attention, Kaka retrieved the ball and passed it to Reus, who was waiting to receive it.
Reus, having received the ball, didn't hold onto it for long and instead delivered a brilliant pass to Adriano at the opportune moment.
Adriano used his body to shield Vidic, forced his way into the penalty area, and unleashed a long-range shot. The ball hit the outside of the Manchester United goalpost and bounced out of bounds.
"Oh! That was close! Adriano's shot hit the post!"
"Manchester United had barely taken a shot when Leeds United immediately retaliated!"
"Reus looks to be in great form today. It seems the young German player is not intimidated at all, and even the title of Champions League final did not make him falter!"
"The match has just begun, and both teams have threatened each other's goal, which is good for us spectators. This Champions League final doesn't look too boring!"
The two teams went straight into a head-to-head confrontation without any probing.
Both the commentators and the fans praised it.
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It is precisely because they know their opponents well enough.
Therefore, both teams have their own key targets to guard when defending.
As Zola analyzed in the studio.
Manchester United side.
A corresponding strategy was devised to counter Kaka: as long as Kaka crossed the midfield line, whether he was on the wing or in the middle, Carrick would always stay by the Brazilian's side.
This is still without the ball.
Once the ball is passed to Kaká.
Besides Carrick, other nearby Manchester United players will immediately surround him, trying to intercept the ball if possible, and if they can't, they will definitely not let Kaká get off the ball.
The same applies to Leeds United.
Sun Jihai and Lahm focused their attention on Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United's biggest threat, almost constantly preventing him from getting the ball comfortably.
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"Looks like both sides are well-prepared!" Zola couldn't help but exclaim as he watched Evra once again pok the ball out of bounds from Kaká's feet. "How many times has Kaká lost possession now? Four times, or five times?"
“I can’t quite remember, but it’s happened many times.” Lineker pouted, seemingly a little dissatisfied. “But Cristiano isn’t much better. The three defensive midfielders Lee fielded today were practically tailor-made for him!”
“Both head coaches are very familiar with the biggest threat in the opponent’s lineup,” Jon summarized from the side. “Neither Kaká nor Cristiano are actually playmakers. They have one thing in common: they need the ball at their feet to pose a threat to the opponent.”
"It's clear that both Lee and Ferguson are trying their best to avoid letting these two players have the ball too much!"
"So, according to you, it's going to be difficult for both teams to score in the short term?" Lineker spread his hands. "After all, both teams' key players are being marked very closely!"
“That’s not necessarily true…” Jon shook his head with a smile. “What if other players step up… or what if they can capitalize on opportunities like set pieces?”
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After the two teams threatened each other's goal once at the start of the game, the situation on the field gradually calmed down.
Kaka and Ronaldo were restricted too much, making it difficult for both sides to attack smoothly.
In the blink of an eye.
The match has been going on for more than 20 minutes.
Just now.
Leeds United launched an attack, and after a few passes, the ball reached Reus on the right wing. Unfortunately, Reus's attempt to break through to the byline was well-marked by Wayne Brown, and all that was left was a corner kick.
Thirty seconds later.
Modric took the corner kick, and the ball arced through the air, flying straight towards the front of Manchester United's goal.
To be honest.
Modric's corner kick wasn't of very high quality.
The main problem is that it's a bit slow.
By the time the ball flew into the penalty area, the area around the first point of impact was already filled with Manchester United players.
Even with tall players like Adriano, Kompany, and Silva in the Leeds United squad, they still couldn't gain much advantage against Manchester United's numerically superior defense.
So Manchester United still managed to get the first ball.
Carrick leaped high and, with a powerful header in front of his own goal, headed the ball out of the penalty area and towards the left flank.
Unfortunately for Leeds United, their biggest threat, Cristiano Ronaldo, was standing right in the path of the ball's flight!
In an instant.
The situation on the field suddenly changed.
The attacking side has changed from Leeds United to Manchester United!
Ronaldo quickly turned around after receiving the ball.
He dribbled the ball and charged at high speed towards Leeds United's half.
"Here it comes! Cristiano has the ball! Manchester United's quick counter-attack!"
In fact, from the moment he kicked the ball, Modric knew that he hadn't passed it well, so he immediately started running back.
When Ronaldo gets the ball.
Modric just happened to run up behind Ronaldo.
In addition, Ram came from the middle.
Logically speaking, they could have stopped Ronaldo by double-teaming him or committing a tactical foul.
But who knew that Ronaldo didn't choose to force a breakthrough?
Instead, he only took one step forward, and before Modric could catch up, he flicked the ball with his right foot to Scholes, who was also running from the middle, and then continued running forward!
Scholes received the pass and, without dribbling for long, quickly made a cross-field pass forward, sending the ball back to Ronaldo, who had already outpaced Lahm.
"One-two pass!" Jon shouted, "Two passes! Manchester United have passed the ball past the halfway line! Leeds United are in danger!"
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