host must win

Chapter 666 Don't Give Up

At five o'clock in the afternoon on April 4, UK local time, at Old Trafford Stadium.

There are only 15 minutes left before the whistle blows for the FA Cup semi-final between the Red Devils Manchester United and Chelsea.The starting lineups of the two teams have already been released.

Manchester United, who drew the visiting team in this game, can be said to be the main force. Goalkeeper Van der Sar, back four Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra, Yin Jun led the midfielder, followed by O'Shea and Frye There are two bodyguards, and the striker is the partner of Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Rooney.

Manchester United's first start surprised many people, because Manchester United had a fierce battle with Villarreal at Old Trafford three days ago. Although they won the game, the score of 1:0 was not safe. .And three days later, they were going to challenge Villarreal at the Ballad Stadium.

More importantly, in less than four days after returning to England from Spain, Manchester United had to go to Stamford Bridge to challenge Chelsea again, ushering in this season's Premier League championship.

Under such circumstances, many people thought that Ferguson would definitely give up the FA Cup strategically and focus on the league and the Champions League.

After all, compared to the Premier League and the Champions League, the FA Cup, the earliest cup in football history, is too light.

If the team has problems in the Champions League due to spending too much energy in this FA Cup semi-final, or if there is a mistake in the league, it will really not be worth the candle.

But the current situation is: Manchester United played almost all the main players in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea!
On the contrary, Chelsea, which many people thought would be the strongest lineup, has a lot of substitutes and rotation lineups: goalkeeper Cudicini, back four Gremi, Gallas, Terry, Del Horno, Ferreira , Makelele, Lampard and Essien form the midfielder, and Crespo and Drogba form the double striker.

For Chelsea, which flies on both wings, it is too unexpected to have such a lineup without wingers.

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Although the game was played at Old Trafford, because it is a neutral stadium, it is basically fair to both sides in terms of ticket sales. Therefore, Manchester United does not have much advantage in terms of the number of fans from both sides entering the stadium.

The stands can accommodate 8000 more than 2000 fans, there are about [-] Manchester United fans, and more than [-] Chelsea fans.

The game started, and the Blues, wearing blue jerseys, launched an attack from the very beginning amidst the noise of the fans.

In the first 10 minutes, both sides failed to get a chance to shoot, but Chelsea frequently scored into the penalty area. Manchester United had [-] successful steals and [-] fouls, and got a yellow card, which shows the intensity of the game.

But in the No. 11 minute, Chelsea finally ushered in a godsend opportunity.Lampard made a free kick from the right, Carvalho returned the pass, Drogba headed the ferry, and Crespo headed three meters in front of the goal.

Nemanja Vidic, who defended Crespo, failed to grab a favorable position, but he was stuck between the Argentine striker and the goal, blocked Crespo's header in front of the goal line, and made a big-foot clearance.

This time to resolve the crisis in front of the goal, more than 30,000 fans in the stands of Old Trafford gave the Serbian central defender a warm applause, and Manchester United players even stepped forward to give him high fives.

When defending a free kick, Yin Jun was thinking about counterattack.

As the team's brain on the field, Yin Jun has his own interpretation of the game.He clearly realized that it would not work to continue like this.Although he doesn't have specific statistics, he feels that Manchester United's possession rate in the first 15 minutes of the game is frighteningly low.Maybe not even a quarter, because the whole process is passive and beaten.

"It is necessary to launch a threatening counterattack!" Yin Jun thought to himself.

At this time, the head coach Ferguson on the sidelines was also yelling at the players, signaling that the team could not keep retreating, and had to play offense, especially the offense from the wing.

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Both the team core and the head coach realized that the team needed to attack, so Manchester United quickly changed their tactics and quickly organized an attack.

After Yin Jun took possession of the ball past the midfield, he moved the ball to the left and handed it to Ronaldo to face Gremi one-on-one.

Ronaldo has absolute confidence in his speed and explosive power, so he dribbled the ball and slowly approached Gremi.

Gremi, on the other hand, was as if he was facing a big enemy, and he didn't dare to be careless at all. He kept backing away, guessing what Ronaldo was thinking: Is he going to the bottom?Or to cross?

Ronaldo is also a player with a very balanced left and right feet, which makes it difficult for Gremi to guess what the Portuguese will do.

Just when Gremi was struggling to scratch his head, Ronaldo suddenly started.Gremi only felt a figure flickering in front of his eyes. When Ronaldo looked as if he was about to dribble the ball in from the inside, he was immediately taken aback and immediately made a blocking action.Unexpectedly, Ronaldo made a sudden buckle, changing from an inward cut to a straight bottom.

Almost at the moment of contact between the two sides, Gremi was thrown away by Ronaldo.

"Beautiful feint!"

"Cristiano Ronaldo goes straight down and crosses!"

"Vud Nistelrooy's header from the center!"

"Oops, the ball is a little high! Under the interference of Terry, Ruud van Nistelrooy failed to set the position."

"United had their first shot of the game, a forced cross from the left from Cristiano Ronaldo."

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Ruud van Nistelrooy failed to score the goal and gave Ronaldo a thumbs up.

Although the relationship between the two was very bad off the court, on the court, the two still did not show a bad relationship.And just now the Portuguese's pass was very precise, and it was also suitable for him to exert strength, but it was a pity that Terry interfered.

Although he didn't score, he still has to thank the Portuguese for sending him such a good pass.

Ronaldo was a little upset and turned around and ran back, ignoring Ruud's overtures.

In fact, this guy was thinking, if it was Yin Jun who scored the goal just now, the ball must have been scored, and he must have received an assist.It's a pity that the Dutchman with "poor shooting skills" was in the position, wasting his good kick in vain.

The Cameroonians are a little thankful that Manchester United did not score this time. As a right-back in this game, he is not actually a right-back. He usually plays more as a right midfielder.But I don't know what coach Mourinho thinks, this game actually made him swap positions with the Portuguese Ferreira.

Gremi, who is not very good at right back, has been a little trembling since the start of the game, worried that he will not be able to withstand the impact of several young people at Manchester United, causing the team to concede a goal.

(End of this chapter)