host must win

Chapter 654 Master Duel
On the evening of March 3, local time in the UK, at Old Trafford Stadium, a world-renowned game is about to begin.

This is the first leg of the quarter-finals of this season's Champions League. Manchester United is at home against Serie A giants AC Milan.

This is the third time the two sides have met in the Champions League in the past four seasons.

In the history of the Champions League, Manchester United and AC Milan have not played many times, but almost all of them are very critical games.

In the 48-1957 season 1958 years ago, Manchester United, which had just suffered the Munich air crash and had not yet recovered from the injury, faced AC Milan in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Manchester United, short of major generals, beat their opponents 2:1 at home, but went to the away game in the second round. The absolute difference in strength caused Manchester United to lose 0:4.As a result, in the first match between the two sides, Manchester United was eliminated with a disparity of 2:5.

The score of 0:4 is also the worst defeat Manchester United has encountered in the Champions League. In the European competition, Manchester United has only encountered such a score twice. The Kemp Stadium lost at the feet of Barcelona with a score of 1994:1995.

After a lapse of 11 years, Manchester United, who had just reached the top of Europe a year ago, met AC Milan again in the semi-finals of the Champions League.At Old Trafford, Manchester United defeated their opponents 1:0, but after going to the away game, Manchester United lost again 0:2, and was eliminated with a total score of 1:2, and missed the chance to defend the Champions League.

The two teams met again in the Champions League, already two years ago in the 2002-2003 season.This time the two sides met in the final. As a result, at Old Trafford, Manchester United relied on Yin Jun's brace and Ruud van Nistelrooy's goal. The Red Devils won 3-0 and won the third place in team history. At the same time as the Champions League trophy, it can be regarded as revenge for being eliminated by opponents in the semi-finals in the past two times.

Last year, the Red Devils and the Rossoneri met again in the semi-finals of the Champions League. As a result, Manchester United lost 2:0 in the away game. Although after returning home, they revenged with a score of 3:1, but in the case of a 3:3 draw with the total score , but was eliminated with the disadvantage of few away goals.

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The two teams met four times in the Champions League, and Manchester United was eliminated in the semi-finals three times. It is not an exaggeration to say that AC Milan is Manchester United's nemesis.

However, AC Milan fans are also unhappy with Manchester United.They met four times, and the only time they were eliminated was in the Champions League final, which directly made them miss the Champions League!
Moreover, looking at the historical records of the two sides, AC Milan is still behind by 3:4 for the time being.

Now that the two sides met again, they both wanted revenge, so the two sides played very fiercely at the beginning of the game.The players on both sides fought fiercely. From the very beginning, the game entered into a bloody hand-to-hand battle. Both sides played without reservation and fought against each other. However, the players on both sides were not in good condition, and both sides missed a lot of opportunities. .

In this game, both sides took out a 4312 formation. AC Milan's goalkeeper is Dida, and the back four are Costacurta, Nesta, Karadze and Serginho; Gattuso, Pirlo and Seedorf form a three-back midfielder, and Kaka is a front midfielder , the striker is the partner of Gilardino and Shevchenko.

For Manchester United, Van der Sar is unsurprisingly the goalkeeper, Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra are the back four, Park Ji-sung, Fletcher and O'Shea are the three midfielders, and Yin Jun is in charge. The front midfielder and the striker are two teenagers, Ronaldo and Rooney.

In Serie A and the Premier League, people can often see coaches using the 4312 formation, but the 4312 formation is rarely adopted by the head coach for a long time, and it is used as the team's main formation. This is not only due to the inherent characteristics of the 4312 formation The defect, that is, the defect of the width of the wing is extremely easy to be exploited by the opponent. The more important reason is that the 4312 formation has extremely strict requirements on the players in the midfielder position.The superposition of the above two factors makes many coaches discouraged from the 4312 formation, which is also the most important reason why this formation has not been widely popularized and popular in today's world football.

But Manchester United and AC Milan are exceptions. 4312 desire is the most used formation by the two teams. This is because both teams have a super midfielder: Yin Jun of Manchester United, and Kaka of AC Milan!
The existence of two top all-round attacking midfielders allows Ferguson and Ancelotti to use a large number of 4312 formations.

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Manchester United is playing at home. Ferguson originally meant to control the midfield, but there was a problem, that is, AC Milan knew Manchester United too well, so Ferguson played a cautious role. After the game really started, he put Yin Jun dragged to the back, Park Zhixing's position was pushed forward, and the positions of the two were reversed.

In the position of the front midfielder, it is inevitable that Park Ji-sung has more chances to get and play the ball.But the problem is precisely here. Compared with Scholes and Yin Jun, the gap is still very obvious.It is especially obvious that Park Ji-sung's ability to pass and control the ball is too poor, and there are too many mistakes in unnecessary passes.

Ferguson retreated Yin Jun's position. Although he avoided AC Milan's targeted press, Yin Jun had more space to organize the team's offense, but after the game really started, there was a very embarrassing situation. That is, although Manchester United has an advantage, it cannot create a threat, because Park Ji-sung's ball delivery and organization in the midfielder position cannot meet the requirements, making Manchester United's offense a bit chaotic.

In the first half, the only bright spot for Manchester United was Ronaldo's several personal breakthroughs and speed on the left side of the frontcourt. However, Ancelotti also significantly strengthened the restrictions on Ronaldo. The 40-year-old Milan Captain Costacurta treated him like an enemy, and dared not relax in the slightest.

In the end, the two sides played 0:0 in the first half.The game was more than tragic, but not exciting enough, and no one was able to score.But overall, Manchester United still has the advantage.

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During the intermission, Ferguson was obviously aware of this problem, and immediately made adjustments. The team's style of play returned to the traditional 442 diamond position. Park Ji-sung and O'Shea went to the wings.

This adjustment immediately activated Manchester United's frontcourt offensive.

Just 1 minute into the second half, Manchester United created a very threatening offensive.Park Ji-sung made a pass from the right, and Nesta made a header to clear the siege, but Yin Jun followed up and shot with his left foot. The ball barely touched the upper left corner and went out of the baseline, making AC Milan break out in a cold sweat .

Just 1 minutes later, Yin Jun sent a ball behind him. Ronaldo used his speed to forcibly throw off the old Costacurta. After breaking through the bottom line, he made a low pass.

Rooney scored with a low shot from eight meters in front of the goal, opening the scoring for Manchester United!

1: 0!

(End of this chapter)