The 37-year-old world-class midfielder, who is about to retire, should have played casually in the second half after Manchester United gained an overwhelming lead, but...

Scholes, as he always did, showed up when Manchester United needed him most.

In the 40th minute, which was 2 minutes after Scholes came on the pitch, Southampton's quick counterattack was blocked by Van der Sar, who then kicked the ball to Scholes who was slightly ahead.

Scholes immediately dribbled forward!

Mikel reached out to pull Scholes, but because Mikel had already received a yellow card and he also respected Scholes, Mikel's pulling movement was not too big.

Scholes took the opportunity to speed up and get rid of Mikel's entanglement! Gu Ran immediately retreated and sprinted to intercept, while Fletcher pulled Gu Ran's arm tightly.

Scholes saw the opportunity and sent a straight through ball from the top of the penalty area! Rooney knocked away Fonte and Jaidi who were marking him, and shot the ball with great force! Davis made a sideways save -

This shot was too fast! From the through pass to the shot, it was so fast that people had no time to react! Davis had tried his best, but he still couldn't touch the ball!

The football shot into the net!

The referee also gestured to the center circle, indicating that the goal was valid! The Manchester United fans in the stands cheered wildly!

Their team soul Scholes made an assist as he came on as a substitute!

Rooney, who scored twice, happily rushed towards Scholes and hugged him with open arms, while Scholes affectionately ruffled Rooney's not-so-thick hair.

You know, Rooney's hair is absolutely not to be touched, and only a veteran team soul like Scholes can touch Rooney's increasingly thin hair.

The score on the big screen at Wembley Stadium immediately changed to Manchester United 2:1 Southampton!

Manchester United reversed the score after conceding 1 goal! Manchester United fans happily sang the Manchester United team song! Southampton fans sighed and shook their heads helplessly.

I have to say that Manchester United is indeed much stronger than Southampton.

Southampton is obviously a team that plays defensive counterattacks, but Southampton's defense is almost like a layer of brittle paper in front of Manchester United.

And this is when Manchester United did not put out all its main players.

The game continues.

Southampton, who were one goal behind, did not lose their mentality. Instead, they continued to play steadily and maintained a defensive formation, leaving only Gu Ran and Lallana active in the midfield and frontcourt.

In this game, although Gu Ran's position was a defensive midfielder, he wandered more in the position of central midfielder/attacking midfielder.

Falling behind in the score is already a common occurrence for Southampton. Last time they played against Liverpool, Southampton was leading by one goal, and then Liverpool scored three goals in a row. In the end, they beat Liverpool thanks to Gu Ran, didn't they? Therefore, falling behind by one goal in the first half, Southampton was not nervous at all.

The two sides engaged in close combat on both sides.

Gu Ran and Mikel both received yellow cards, which indeed greatly reduced the strength of Southampton's own backcourt. Fortunately, Southampton's iron bucket formation was still well practiced. Although it always seemed shaky under Manchester United's strong attack, in the last few minutes of the first half, Southampton still withstood Manchester United's round after round of fierce attacks.

With a long whistle from the referee, the first half of the FA Cup final ended, with the score temporarily fixed at Manchester United 2:1 Southampton.

To be honest, it is hard for Manchester United fans to be satisfied with the score at halftime.

Although Manchester United immediately reversed the score after Scholes came on the field and completed the score reversal, using the word "reversal" when playing against a team of Southampton's level is an insult to Manchester United in itself.

Ferguson was not very satisfied with the score.

According to Ferguson's pre-match idea, Southampton should have been defeated by Manchester United in the first half of this game. Even Liverpool could score three goals against Southampton in the first half, so Manchester United should have at least scored four goals against Southampton in the first half.

But now, Manchester United is only 1 goal ahead of Southampton, and Park Ji-sung, who played a very important role in this game, was injured and left the field. Scholes came on the field early, which will undoubtedly be a major test for Scholes' physical fitness.

Players from both teams returned to their respective locker rooms amid the cheers of their fans.

Southampton's players sat in the locker room, wiping their sweat, drinking large amounts of electrolyte sweetroot water, breathing oxygen, or stuffing snuff paste into their noses.

Head coach Adkins first cheered on his players, and then fine-tuned the formation and positioning on the tactical whiteboard.

Coach Adkins told everyone that if they continued playing like this, Southampton would still have a great chance of winning the second FA Cup trophy in the club's history.

Southampton's players were also full of confidence! In the home team's locker room on the other side, coach Ferguson turned on the hair dryer mode.

With Manchester United's strength, it would be a big taboo if they could not defeat Southampton quickly! Manchester United must save some of their physical strength and energy for the second round of the Champions League semi-final in three days, so they must defeat Southampton as soon as possible and leave Southampton without any chance to fight back.

Ferguson said that a team like Southampton had no tactics at all. They simply relied on Gu Ran, so they adopted a defensive tactic in the early stage, using physical confrontation to test Manchester United's physical strength and patience. And when Manchester United's physical strength and patience were relaxed, they would launch a fatal counterattack by Gu Ran.

Ferguson had seen through this tactic long ago.

But the problem is that some tactics are not conspiracies, but open conspiracies. Conspiracies are easy to crack, but open conspiracies rely entirely on hard power competition.

If a conspiracy is seen through, it will be useless, but if an open conspiracy is seen through, you still have to rely on hard power.

The current Southampton team is not afraid of being seen through, so Gu Ran's position is moving closer to the center and further forward.

No one in the Manchester United team could restrict Gu Ran.

Even Park Ji-sung, who is a dog-skin plaster, can't do that. Even if Park Ji-sung was not eliminated by Gu Ran, Park Ji-sung was unable to restrict Gu Ran in the second half.

Therefore, Ferguson understood very well that the score in the first half really meant nothing. If he could not restrain Gu Ran's sudden outburst in the second half, everything would be over.

Ferguson's new strategy was to let Fletch give up everything and keep a close eye on Gu Ran, while Scholes also had to assist Fletch in defending to the best of his ability.

After a 15-minute halftime break, the players from both teams came back on the field and continued the game! ... (End of this chapter)