Chapter 727: Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
On April 3, in the 29th round of the Bundesliga, Bayern will challenge Schalke 04 away.
Twenty-three minutes into the game, when Sudong retreated to get the ball with his back to the goal, he was fouled by Schalke's central defender Bordon from behind. The referee gave Bordon a yellow card and gave Bayern a direct free kick in front of the penalty area.
Su Dong took the penalty kick himself and scored in one go, using a wonderful falling leaf kick to break through Schalke 04's goal and score the first goal for Bayern, one to zero!
Three minutes later, Bayern completed a steal in the frontcourt. Thomas Muller got the ball and cut inside from the front of the penalty area and passed it diagonally to the left side of the penalty area. Olic got the ball diagonally from the left rib and passed it back to the middle. Su Dong easily followed up and shot it in, making it 2-0!
After leading by two goals, Heynckes replaced Su Dong at halftime to save his energy for the Champions League next Wednesday.
But in the second half, Schalke 04 suddenly launched a fierce attack, causing considerable trouble to Bayern, and even scored a goal, making Bayern very embarrassed at one point.
Fortunately, in the end, Bayern struggled to hold on to the score and defeated their opponent 2-1 away from home.
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In the middle of the week, in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Bayern faced Manchester United at the Allianz Arena.
A week ago, after Bayern was defeated 2-3 at home by Bayern, they faced Chelsea at home last weekend, the focus of the Premier League top battle.
As a result, Manchester United, who had just fought hard against Bayern in the Champions League, was overturned by Chelsea led by Ancelotti at their home court. Two goals from Joe Cole and Drogba caused Manchester United to suffer two consecutive defeats at Old Trafford.
After this defeat, Manchester United also gave up the top spot in the Premier League standings and finished two points behind Chelsea. Ancelotti's team made a comeback and topped the list.
With only five rounds left in the Premier League, Ferguson's Manchester United is in a precarious situation.
There have even been many voices questioning that, with the slim possibility of a reversal against Bayern in the Champions League away game, Ferguson's team may even lose the Premier League title that was already within their grasp, and in the end, they will only have the League Cup as a fig leaf.
It is worth mentioning that Guardiola's Manchester City's performance improved in the second half.
Although they lost to Manchester United in the League Cup semi-finals, they rose to sixth place in the Premier League standings.
Since the League Cup champion belongs to Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have entered the FA Cup semi-finals, these three teams are all ranked at the top of the Premier League. Therefore, as long as Manchester City can maintain the sixth position in the Premier League, they will be able to qualify for the Europa League next season. Although it is not very glorious, it is at least a qualification for European competitions.
Guardiola's team generally continued the characteristics of the first half, with superb ball possession ability, but the offense was not sharp enough, which led to Manchester City's unfavorable situation in the Premier League. If it had not won three consecutive games in recent times, which raised the ranking to sixth, it is estimated that it is still ranked around tenth.
Next, Manchester City’s most important task is to maintain the top six in the league and ensure qualification for the Europa League.
As for the Champions League, the Blue Moon is still several places behind the top four.
…
Perhaps affected by the two consecutive defeats at Old Trafford, Ferguson played a little too conservatively at the Allianz Arena.
They made a strong start at the start and created a dangerous situation in front of Bayern's goal, but Rooney's shot was saved by Neuer and went out of bounds.
The subsequent corner kick also failed to create any threat.
But what Manchester United did next was a bit confusing.
Ferguson pulled the entire midfield back and took the initiative to give the dominance of the midfield to Bayern. He transferred all the ball possession and rhythm to Bayern and concentrated on defensive counterattacks.
But the problem is that Manchester United's defensive counterattack was not decisive.
The team was trailing 2-3, and the situation was more serious than that of Bayern. If they gave up the initiative, wouldn't it be like handing their fate to Bayern? Unfortunately, Heynckes was as cunning as a fox. He accepted the ball and midfield as soon as Manchester United gave up. But on the offensive end, he was not willing to take any risks, and he would slowly and leisurely fight with you to see who could outlast the other.
Anyway, time is on Bayern's side.
Another point worth noting is that Bayern also has an advantage in terms of physical fitness.
First of all, the Bundesliga has a winter break. Although this season's winter break is relatively short, it is still one month long. Bayern used this month to restore their physical strength and condition well, while also reserving physical strength for the second half.
Not only that, since Bayern has almost no opponents in the Bundesliga, Heynckes can have more room for rotation. Even when facing a strong opponent like Schalke 04, Bayern dares to make large-scale rotations to allow the main players to rest.
But Manchester United can't do that.
In the last five games, Manchester United's opponents were Liverpool, Bolton, Bayern, Chelsea and Bayern.
It can be said that apart from Bolton, no team is easy to play against, and Bayern and Chelsea are together, especially the previous two consecutive defeats, which makes Manchester United's situation quite bad.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why Ferguson seemed to be hesitant in his deployment of troops in this game.
I guess he is also very hesitant. He wants to try again in the Champions League, but is worried that it will affect his results in the league.
After playing against Bayern, Manchester United will immediately go on the road to challenge Blackburn.
This team has a nickname, called Violent Ben. They have only lost one home game this season, which was to Tottenham Hotspur. Even Chelsea and Liverpool failed to beat their opponents away from home, and Arsenal was defeated away from home.
There are too many such home dragons in the Premier League. Ferguson had to consider that if Manchester United lost points in the game against Blackburn after having already lost the battle for the top spot, then all their hard work throughout the season would be over.
The league, Champions League, FA Cup, the triple crown that we were looking forward to when we won the League Cup, all turned into nothing.
So, Ferguson was also hesitating whether to take a chance.
…
The game remained at a stalemate.
The entire first half was played in a dull atmosphere, with neither side able to create any threatening attack.
Manchester United lacks the ambition to make progress, and Bayern is even more complacent.
After the start of the second half, Manchester United rebounded slightly, but Bayern began to exert pressure and the game remained deadlocked.
It was not until the 70th minute that Ferguson replaced two players at once, replacing Carrick with Berbatov and Park Ji-sung with Valencia, decisively strengthening the attack in the frontcourt.
Especially the double striker combination of Berbatov and Rooney showed his determination.
But just when Ferguson was determined to fight back, in the 74th minute, Ribery dribbled the ball horizontally from the left side of the frontcourt and cut inwards from the penalty area, but was tripped by Gary Neville, winning a free kick opportunity for Bayern in the frontcourt.
This position is 23 meters away from the goal, slightly left of the center.
Su Dong naturally stood at the penalty spot, which made the Manchester United players feel very nervous. Ferguson kept shouting at the players on the sidelines, asking them to stay focused, his heart in his throat.
Su Dong was seen running forward slowly, and after standing firmly on his left foot, he quickly kicked out a curved ball with his right foot.
The ball quickly climbed up, passed the high wall of people, made an arc, fell rapidly, and hit the upper left corner of the goal.
Blind spot!
An absolute blind spot!
The ball almost brushed the angle between the crossbar and the post and went into Manchester United's goal.
One to zero!
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the 74th minute, Su Dong scored a goal against Manchester United with a wonderful direct free kick!"
The entire Allianz Arena was filled with deafening cheers.
All Bayern fans were cheering wildly and celebrating the goal.
Ferguson shook his head in frustration on the sidelines. He was obviously prepared for such a result, but there was nothing he could do about it.
After the tragic reversal in the first round, Manchester United was destined to be passive, especially when facing a guy like Heynckes who was as steady as an old dog and never took risks.
But soon, Ferguson gritted his teeth, turned and walked to the bench, signaling Giggs to come on the field.
He's going to fight!
…
In the 75th minute, Giggs came on as a substitute, replacing Nani who had performed mediocrely in this game.
Both teams started to fight hard.
The pace of the game was constantly accelerated, and the atmosphere in the stadium became more and more tense.
First, Scholes was given a red card for a foul on Ribery, and then Valencia made a forced breakthrough and made a cross, but Pepe blocked it out of the baseline.
Giggs took the corner kick and quickly kicked the ball to the middle, where Vidic headed the ball into the goal.
One to one!
The Manchester United players were all excited! Every Red Devils player howled like a wolf.
…
After equalizing the score, Manchester United launched a fierce attack on Bayern, almost to the point of ignoring the defense behind them. This made Bayern very passive. Heynckes also made continuous substitutions in an attempt to stabilize the situation.
In the 83rd minute, at a critical moment when Bayern was under great pressure, Su Dong completed a steal on Evra near the center line.
After successfully intercepting the ball, Su Dong dribbled the ball alone and headed straight for Manchester United's goal.
Vidic chased back desperately, trying to stop Su Dong.
But as soon as the two came into contact, Su Dong passed the ball and used his speed to overtake Vidic.
In an instant, all the Bayern fans in the Allianz Arena cheered excitedly.
Van der Sar left the goal and even rushed out of the penalty area, heading straight for the ball that Su Dong passed behind Vidic, but Su Dong's speed was also not slow. He caught up at the fastest speed and kicked the ball before Van der Sar.
The ball avoided Van der Sar and fell into the penalty area behind him.
Su Dong continued to sprint, stretched out his hand to break free from Van der Sar's entanglement, and did not let the Dutch goalkeeper pull him down. Instead, he continued to sprint forward, caught up with the ball in front of the small penalty area, and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.
But Su Dong also lost his speed, fell out of the court and hit the billboard on the sidelines.
At the end of the game, after a long run of 50 meters and two accelerations with the ball passing by, Su Dong was already panting.
The Bayern fans in the stadium were shouting his name frantically, but he was lying straight on the sidelines, gasping for breath.
The whistle that signaled the goal was scored was unusually clear amid the cheers.
It feels so good to ride alone for thousands of miles!
(End of this chapter)
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