Chapter 656: Surprised? Unexpected?
In the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, Bayern Munich will visit Old Trafford to challenge Manchester United.
As soon as the game started, Manchester United took the initiative and put strong pressure on Bayern's midfield and backcourt. After Rooney intercepted the ball in the frontcourt, he used his body to force Lahm away and made a cross from the bottom.
In front of the goal, Tevez and Ronnie were moving forward at the same time, one in front and one behind, but Neuer acted decisively and snatched the ball from mid-air. He was very steady and gave no chance to Manchester United's attacking players.
But Manchester United's attack still won warm applause from the fans on the scene.
…
After failing to score the first time, Manchester United quickly reorganized their attack.
After getting the ball on the right, Ronnie dribbled quickly towards Marcelo's side, suddenly stopped on the right side of the penalty area, and passed the ball horizontally to the front of the penalty area.
Tevez rushed into the penalty area and went too far, but Rooney quickly ran to the top of the arc, met Rooney's cross, and shot directly, but the ball was slightly higher than the crossbar.
There was a cry of surprise from the audience, followed by extremely warm applause.
…
Just less than two minutes later, midfielder Anderson stopped the ball and made a very penetrating pass, which went directly to the left side of the penalty area and was passed to Evra who was running behind.
The French left-back made a cross, trying to find Rooney, but was blocked by Lahm.
The ball was still at Evra's feet. The Frenchman stopped the ball, dribbled past Lahm and shot directly with his left foot.
The ball went high again.
…
Manchester United created three shooting opportunities in less than four minutes after the opening.
The Red Devils' strategy is already clear.
Ferguson just wanted to take advantage of the opening opportunity to grab the first move.
Sometimes the purpose of an attack is not to score a goal, or in other words, scoring a goal is not the only purpose, but more to disrupt the opponent's rhythm. Premier League teams are best at this kind of fast-paced offense and defense.
Many players are very successful in European leagues, but have serious problems adapting to the Premier League. The reason is that the pace of Premier League games is too fast. Sometimes the defensive players rush to the front before the ball even stops, leaving no time to react.
Veron's experience at Manchester United and Chelsea is the best proof of this.
Therefore, a very threatening weapon for Premier League teams in European competitions is to speed up the tempo of the game and overwhelm their opponents.
Ferguson stood on the sidelines chewing gum, turning his wrist from time to time to look at his watch while also keeping a close eye on the situation on the field.
Attacking at the beginning of the game is a science.
If you steal the ball well, even if you can't score a goal, it's great to disrupt the opponent's rhythm and pace.
But the risks are also great. If you are not careful, you may overdo it and end up killing yourself.
So, it's easy to attack at the beginning, but knowing when to stop is the real skill.
If you harvest too early, you won't see any results and waste the opportunity. If you harvest too late, the other party will react and launch a counterattack, and you may lose more than you gain at any time.
Manchester United is a strong team, but Bayern is not a weak team either.
Ferguson must keep a close eye on the situation and watch the time. If there is anything wrong, he must stop immediately.
Only a head coach like him, who has absolute control over the situation and the players, would dare to do this. If it were someone else, and after the order was given, the players on the field would take several minutes to adjust, it would be really dangerous.
"Five minutes." Mike Phelan reminded from the side.
Since Queiroz left Manchester United to coach the Portugal national team, Mike Phelan has become Ferguson's right-hand man, but his ability is still far behind Queiroz, so the training of players has to be handed over to Meulensteen.
Ferguson's plan before the game was to score for a maximum of ten minutes at the start, but he could stop at any time after five minutes, depending on how Bayern entered the game rhythm.
The whole world is troubled by the team coached by Heynckes.
Especially Su Dong, there is no way to defend at all.
He has height, strength and skills, he is an all-rounder!
How to defend against such players? In addition, Ribery and Robben have superb personal abilities, so no matter who meets Bayern, they will be nervous.
Ferguson is no exception.
After listening to Mike Phelan's reminder, Ferguson thought for a moment and said in a deep voice: "Wait a little longer."
Just as Ferguson finished speaking, Ronnie dribbled the ball again from the right and attacked Marcelo from behind.
It is well known that Brazil's left-back is weak in defense. Although he is now stationed in the back line with peace of mind, it is still difficult to contain Ronaldo.
The Portuguese dribbled through on the right and made a cross, which hit Marcelo's leg and went out of bounds.
Corner kick.
Anderson ran over quickly and prepared to take the corner kick.
This Brazilian player came to Manchester United with the halo of Ronaldinho II, but under Ferguson's training, he has now become a dark and strong midfielder. This experience is very similar to that of Mikel who joined Chelsea.
It gives people the feeling that a young literary man has been abused and turned into a rough man.
Not to mention, this feeling of accomplishment is pretty good.
Anderson quickly took a corner kick, but instead of going directly to his teammates in front of the penalty area or in the middle, he took the kick very far back.
The ball was almost out of the left side of the penalty area, and Rooney headed the ball back to the middle before Lahm.
Bayern's defense missed the most fatal player in this left and right pulling.
Ronnie jumped high, blocked Pepe with his body, and headed the ball from close range to score the first goal for Manchester United.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
The commentator's excited voice was heard over the live broadcast.
Ferguson also raised his arms high and yelled.
"Good, beautiful!!!!"
The old Scottish man waved his fist vigorously again and seemed quite satisfied with the result.
In less than six minutes, Manchester United scored the first goal.
This was already within Ferguson's plan.
This corner kick was something he had practiced intensively before the game. He knew that Bayern's penalty area had strong points, and even if Ferdinand and Vidic went up, Manchester United might not be able to take advantage, so he used this method to create loopholes in Bayern's man-marking.
The effect is really good!
Ferguson turned his head and looked at Heynckes, whose face was red with excitement in front of the visiting team's coaching booth. The old Scottish man was chewing gum hard and grinning.
Haha, old man Hai, are you surprised? Are you surprised?
…………
…………
Su Dong stood in the 30-meter area of his own half, and after watching Ronnie score a goal, he excitedly rushed out of the field.
He felt helpless.
Bayern anticipated Manchester United's opening attack, but did not expect them to score so quickly.
Tonight, under Manchester United's fierce attack at the beginning, Bayern players were a little slow to get into the rhythm.
"It's okay, it's okay!" Su Dong clapped his hands vigorously to encourage his teammates around him.
"Come on, everyone, cheer up, give me the ball, I'll tie the score!"
Su Dong's roar was very loud, and even though he was in German, many Manchester United players could roughly guess what he meant.
No one would think that Su Dong is being arrogant, because he has the ability to do so.
Anyone who underestimated Su Dong has been trampled under his feet.
…
When Ronnie came back from celebrating the goal, Su Dong was already standing in the center circle ready to kick off.
The Portuguese walked out of the center circle with a smile on his face, and looked at Su Dong with a proud look in his eyes, as if to say, it's finally my turn to win tonight, right? Su Dong glanced at the cocky guy and snorted in annoyance, "It's just a goal, isn't it? Are you so happy?"
"That depends on whose goal the ball goes into. If it's any other team, I wouldn't think it's a big deal. But if it goes into your goal, that's obviously different. If you don't accept it, then you can score one if you have the ability." Ronnie retorted with a smile.
"Don't try to provoke me on purpose. I'm not as wild as you."
"What's wrong with me being reckless? I can score goals!" Ronnie was very arrogant.
Su Dong looked at his nouveau riche face and felt more and more annoyed. "Just wait!"
The Bayern and Manchester United players around were very embarrassed and wanted to say to them, man, we are in the semi-finals of the Champions League after all, and you two are superstars who have won both Footballer of the Year awards, can you please have some shame?
The competition is in progress!
But at the same time as feeling embarrassed and complaining, they also felt the deep friendship between the two. Even the outcome of the game had no impact on them. It was more of a source of material for them to tease, attack and ridicule each other.
Perhaps, the two of them trained so hard on weekdays just to make sarcastic remarks about each other and gain the verbal advantage when they get together.
…
After the restart, Manchester United decisively retreated to defend.
This is also the tactical style that Manchester United is best at.
Steady defense and counterattack, with Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez in the front roaming around freely, while the midfield and backcourt focused on steady defense.
This is the core weapon that Ferguson has used to sweep across Europe in the past few years.
If Manchester United retreats, Bayern will advance.
But Manchester United did not simply retreat, but instead strangled Bayern in their own half.
After two attempts, Bayern once again dribbled the ball across the halfway line.
Schweinsteiger saw Su Dong retreating and raised his hand for the ball, and immediately passed the ball to Su Dong's feet.
As Heynckes said before the game, Fletcher and Anderson were both easily out of position, so Su Dong retreated to the gap next to Carrick, received the pass from Schweinsteiger, stopped the ball, turned around, and dribbled forward.
Anderson in front chased back immediately, and right-back O'Shea also retreated in time to support Ferdinand.
Su Dong rushed forward with the ball, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Ribery in the middle and Robben on the right, but both of them were surrounded by Manchester United players, so he immediately decided to do it himself.
When he saw O'Shea recovering, Su Dong made a prompt decision, accelerated directly, kicked the ball into the penalty area, and accelerated to catch up, trying to break through the defense of O'Shea and Ferdinand before they surrounded him.
With Anderson behind him and O'Shea and Ferdinand in front of him, Su Dong's sudden acceleration made Manchester United's defense unable to cope.
The ball entered the penalty area, but just when Su Dong was about to enter the penalty area, Ferdinand suddenly approached Su Dong with his body, and with a small pulling motion with his hand, he directly pulled Su Dong to lose his balance and fall on the penalty area line.
There was a burst of exclamations at the scene! Bayern's players came forward one after another, thinking it was a penalty.
But the referee signaled the game to continue.
This is the home ground of the Premier League. According to the Premier League's enforcement standards, this cannot be considered a foul.
(End of this chapter)
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