From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 1038 Showing weakness to the enemy
Bruno would never know what the fans and commentators thought of him. He still maintained the same posture, breathing heavily and even greedily.

He did not urge the referee to remind him that Liverpool's celebration time was obviously too long.

He did not comfort his teammates or cheer them up. These teammates of his were all experienced players who had experienced countless big games. After a brief loss of consciousness after losing the ball, they would quickly recover.

What Bruno needs to do now is to seize every opportunity to recover his physical strength.

With fifteen minutes left in the game, Manchester United wasn't completely defeated. After all, they were only one goal behind, and with fifteen minutes left, they still had a chance to equalize.

The Liverpool players finally ended their celebration and ran back to their own half happily. Some of them kept waving their fists towards the stands, which was both a response to their own fans and a demonstration to Manchester United fans and the Manchester United team.

When they ran back to their own half, Bruno was still there gasping for breath.

Only after they were in place and Harry Kane was standing in the center circle ready to kick off did Bruno stand up and slowly walk towards the center circle.

His action also attracted the attention of Liverpool players. Seeing Bruno like this, Liverpool players breathed a sigh of relief.

Bruno is obviously on his last legs. Manchester United hasn't collapsed yet, but he is about to collapse first.

Given Bruno's importance to Manchester United, his collapse was the beginning of Manchester United's collapse.

Liverpool has already secured victory in this game!
………………

Referee Tilpan blew the whistle, Harry Kane kicked the ball out, and Diallo turned around and passed the ball back to Bruno outside the center circle.

But Bruno didn't move. He didn't catch the ball, but let it roll past his feet without even looking at it.

The football was not rolling fast, and Bruno didn't catch it not because the ball was too fast for him to catch, but because there was no need to.

Sure enough, the next moment the referee Tilpan's whistle sounded again.

The first half of overtime is over!
However, Bruno's action was interpreted by others as a symbol of "exhaustion", "inability to do what one wants", "giving up"... Only Bruno himself knew that he just didn't want to waste his energy.

Before Liverpool scored, the fourth official had already announced one minute of extra time in the first half. Then Liverpool scored, and they spent so much time celebrating that the first half must have been over.

Once this ball is kicked out, the referee will probably blow the whistle to end the first half of overtime immediately. Why should I care about this ball?
His physical strength has indeed reached the limit now. If he can save a little, it may be useful in the second half of overtime.

Now he is very stingy with his physical energy and he will not allow even the slightest bit of extra waste.

A good professional player must learn to manage and allocate his physical energy in the most reasonable way. So Bruno would not do such a meaningless move.

………………

After the referee blew the whistle, he let the football roll behind him, turned around and walked slowly to the sidelines. You could even see his chest heaving violently.

These performances clearly revealed a conclusion: Bruno has run out of energy. Even if Mourinho did not replace him, he would not be able to do anything in the remaining fifteen minutes.

Although the rules stipulate that there is no break between the first and second halves of overtime, and the two sides directly exchange venues to start the second half of the game, this requirement is not really so strict in actual operation.

The players will still take this opportunity to go to the sidelines to drink some water, take a break and catch their breath.

The head coach will also take the time to communicate with the players and make adjustments.

As long as it's not too excessive, the referee won't care.

And the referee also needs a rest. He officiates on the court and runs non-stop for more than a hundred minutes, which is also a huge test for their physical fitness. Moreover, they are generally older than the players.

Take today's referee, Tilpan, for example. He just celebrated his 40th birthday twelve days ago.

Among the 22 starting players for both teams today, the oldest is Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, who will not be celebrating his 32nd birthday until next month.

In fact, whether it is Manchester United or Liverpool, the average age is relatively young, which is also an important reason why they have such abundant physical fitness.

………………

As Bruno slowly walked to the sidelines and picked up a water bottle to drink, Mourinho rushed over to him and asked, "Can you still hold on?"

Bruno smiled at Mourinho, covered his mouth and said: "Of course."

"Then let me see you..." Mourinho was referring to Bruno's previous performance.

"I just don't want to waste my energy on meaningless things, boss," Bruno explained.

Mourinho noticed that Bruno's speech was slower than usual. He didn't know whether it was because he didn't want to put any energy into speaking or he was really exhausted, but he could only choose to trust Bruno now.

In fact, he did consider replacing Bruno, but he thought seriously that if Bruno was replaced, it would probably be a huge and heavy blow to the team's morale.

In this Manchester United team, Mourinho felt that Bruno's prestige was probably higher than his own; everyone believed what Bruno said. This was built up step by step by Bruno through his consistent performance over six years, and even more so through the dozens of championship trophies won during those six years.

In the past six years, when Manchester United encountered difficulties countless times, Bruno would use his actions to tell everyone: Believe me, it's okay!

If Bruno still stayed on the court, he could at least help stabilize the morale of the team.

Although his physical condition is no longer good and it may be useless for him to stay on the court, Mourinho always has a mysterious trust in Bruno, thinking that Bruno may have a flash of inspiration and solve the problem at any time.

………………

Mourinho finally convinced himself not to replace Bruno because of this kind of "superstition" about Bruno.

Of course, now that Bruno has made it clear that his physical strength is not as bad as he appears, this "superstition" has become even more firm.

After confirming that Bruno was alright, Mourinho turned around, clapped his hands vigorously, and shouted to his players: "Alright, guys! Fifteen minutes left! It's not time to surrender yet! Cheer up, we've defeated them twice in the League Cup and the league. You should all know how important it is to never give up until the very last second of the game!"

After a very short break, the coaches gave each other a few words of advice, and the referee urged the players to return to the field as soon as possible.

Bruno threw down the bottle and walked back slowly.

All his movements were slow, which was completely different from his usual self.

Diallo came up and patted his shoulder with concern, and asked softly, "Are you okay, Bruno?"

"I'm fine, thank you for your concern, Amad. Oh, Amad, you should be more careful in your positioning when the time comes." Bruno took the opportunity to pull Diallo and started talking.

"Okay, I understand." Diallo nodded.

………………

After the start of the second half of extra time, Mourinho did not make any substitutions and Bruno remained on the field, which temporarily relieved the Manchester United fans in front of the TV and also made the Manchester United players feel at ease.

Although Bruno looks like he is about to die, Manchester United players still hope that Bruno can stay on the court.

It doesn't matter if he can't run, others will help him run and make up for Bruno's inability to run with more running.

Bruno had helped them so much before, now it was their turn to help Bruno.

"With the whistle of referee Tilpan, the second half of overtime began!" Zhan Jun said loudly.

As general experience shows, Manchester United was obviously much more active in the second half of extra time than in the first half, which was related to the fact that they got a certain amount of rest in the first half of extra time.

At the same time, Liverpool had physical problems and had to slow down.

Of course, the more important reason is that Liverpool is already leading, so they naturally have no need to continue attacking.

What if the opponent counterattacks after you press forward?
It is Liverpool who are now in the lead and have good reason to choose a conservative approach.

As long as they can maintain this score, they will win the Champions League.

………………

When Manchester United was attacking, Bruno found that he didn't have to receive the ball frequently. His teammates didn't have to pass the ball to him every time and let him organize the attack.

Bruno didn't think that his teammates didn't trust him. He could see that this was his teammates' concern and help for him.

They want to get more rest and use their energy at critical moments.

Bruno appreciated his teammates' kindness and had no intention of changing their approach. Since his teammates had liberated him to some extent, he would not be pretentious and would just do what he had to do.

Because he doesn't have to be a "dispatch center", Bruno's movement can be more free and flexible. He doesn't have to be near the football at all times. He can stay away from the player in control of the ball and appear where he thinks he should be.

With such flexible movement, he can even run into the penalty area to grab points.

He rarely did such things before, but that doesn't mean he can't do it. You know, in the training master system, Bruno can see his own data, and his off-ball running data is very high.

If your off-ball movement is not high, you won’t always be able to find open space.

His ability to find space is not only reflected in his receiving passes from teammates in the midfield, but can also be used to score in front of the goal.

A good striker must have excellent off-ball movement.

(End of this chapter)