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

Chapter 490 Super lineup
While the whole world was marveling at Manchester United's amazing feat, their Carrington training base was almost empty. Because after the third round of the Premier League, all major European leagues were suspended and entered the first international match day of the new season. International players from various countries in Manchester United have left the Carrington training base and traveled to various parts of the world to play for their respective national teams.

The current Manchester United team, in addition to third goalkeeper Johnstone, Carrick, who has already announced his withdrawal from the assistant coach of the England national team, and Ibrahimovic, Van Dijk and Luke Shaw are still on the injury list , there is no player who is not a national player!

Scottish high center forward McTominay, who has only emerged at Manchester United this season, was also called up by the Scottish national team on this international match day and became the international player of the Scottish national team.

In addition, although Phil Jones, Smalling and Ashley Young are only substitute rotation players at Manchester United, they have all been called up by England national team coach Southgate on this international match day.

Therefore, during this international match day, Mourinho, as the head coach of Manchester United, is completely unable to lead the team in training.

However, this allowed him to rest for a while without any worries.

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Bruno has naturally been called up by the Portuguese national team and will participate in two World Cup qualifying group matches with the team. The opponents are the weak team Faroe Islands and the powerful Hungary.

This is the 7th and 8th round of the Russian World Cup European Qualifying Group Stage.

In the past six rounds of group matches, Portugal has won six consecutive games, leading Switzerland by three points and ranking first in Group B.

Moreover, since only the first place in each group can directly advance to the World Cup, Portugal is still far away from locking in the qualification for the World Cup in Russia.

In the match on the evening of August 8, Portugal played at home against the Faroe Islands. Bruno and Ronaldo both started. In the end, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in the game, while Bruno scored two shots and two passes. Portugal slaughtered its opponent 31:7.

Three days later, the Portuguese team traveled to Hungary in central Europe.

During last year's European Cup, Hungary was still among the top 20 teams in the FIFA world rankings. However, a year later, Hungary's world rankings have dropped to outside the th place, which can be said to be the fastest drop in the rankings this year. nation.

In the group stage of the European qualifiers for this World Cup, Hungary's performance was also very dismal. In the first 7 rounds, it only achieved 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, ranking third in the group. Not only was there no hope of qualifying for the group, it even had no hope of participating in the play-offs. All very slim.

在此前的7场小组赛里，他们甚至爆冷被小组鱼腩球队法罗群岛0:0逼平，0:1输给了小组另外一个鱼腩安道尔。

This is also the key reason why they cannot compete with Portugal and Switzerland.

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In today's game, if Hungary loses at home again, they will completely lose the chance to participate in the play-offs.

Of course, if Switzerland can defeat Latvia away from home, no matter what the result is of Hungary and Manchester United, they will be completely eliminated.

In order to retain the last hope, at least to save the last face, Hungary hopes to make a difference at home.

After the game started, Hungary performed very tenaciously amidst the cheers of the home fans. This also resulted in Portugal being unable to take the lead.

Even though the home team was directly given a red card by the referee in the 30th minute of the game because Plishkin elbowed Pepe while fighting for a high ball, they still relied on their tenacious defense to bring the 0:0 score into the halftime break.

However, when the second half began, Portugal's advantage on the field became more and more obvious, and then finally broke the deadlock in the 48th minute of the second half.

At that time, Bruno and Ronaldo hit the wall on the left, and then Ronaldo made a sudden pass and assisted Andre Silva to break the deadlock with a header. Portugal led Hungary 1:0 away from home.

In the 78th minute, Portugal launched a counterattack. Joao Mario's cross from the penalty area was destroyed, but the ball was controlled by Bruno. He then hit the empty goal and helped Portugal expand the score to 2:0.

In the end, Portugal defeated its opponent 2:0 in the away game and led the Group B standings with eight consecutive victories. However, as Switzerland also defeated Latvia 3:0 in an away game, Portugal still did not lock in the qualification to advance to Russia. Whether they can directly qualify for the World Cup may depend on the direct confrontation between the two sides in the final round.

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With the end of the international match day, Manchester United players, including Bruno, have returned to the Carrington training base.

On September 9, Manchester United ushered in its first training session after the international match. Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Riyad Mahrez, the three new team players, also played in Cardiff for the first time. Linton training base unveiled.

Bruno, as the captain of the team, first met with these three people, and then he introduced them to his teammates.

Everyone is not a stranger. Harry Kane and Mahrez have played against Manchester United players many times in the Premier League. Although Mbappe has not yet competed with most Manchester United players, his reputation in Europe is also At the height of his popularity, Manchester United players also paid attention to him.

In fact, Bruno had doubts about Manchester United signing Harry Kane. After all, Bruno knew how strong the "championship insulator" attribute of England's number one player was before traveling through time.

Tottenham, with Harry Kane, has indeed reached the pinnacle of the Premier League era. During this period, they have made many attempts to win the championship, but in the end they have inexplicably fallen short.

This is something Bruno didn't know about what happened after he traveled through time, otherwise he would definitely be even more stunned. After all, this British star can turn Bayern Munich, the southern king of the Bundesliga, known as the "Champion Harvester", into a team with nothing in the top four.

Although Bruno is not superstitious, sometimes things are so weird that there is no way to explain them with scientific theories.

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However, thinking about Harry Kane's super ability, especially his scoring ability, and the long time he lasted at his peak, Bruno still asked him when Giaretta asked him whether Manchester United should fully introduce Harry Kane. Voted yes.

In Bruno’s memory, from the 2014-2015 season when Harry Kane officially emerged in the Premier League to the 2022-2023 season before Bruno crossed over, Harry Kane’s goals ranked fourth, second only to Lewando Fitzgerald, Messi and Ronaldo.

And Lewandowski, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are all stars of top clubs. It is difficult for Manchester United to poach them, and these people are all older. In comparison, Harry Kane's age advantage is very obvious.

Harry Kane, born on July 1993, 7, has just celebrated his 28th birthday. By recruiting him, Manchester United will almost ensure that they will have a reliable scorer on the front line for the next ten years.

If you add Rashford, who is very capable, and Mbappe, who may join the team, Manchester United will have a top striker that will scare Europe and even the world in the next ten years.

Coupled with the midfielder led by himself, maybe Manchester United can really create an era of its own in the Premier League and even Europe!

As for Harry Kane's own "championship insulator" attribute, Bruno believes that he, a loser, can completely defeat him.

If Harry Kane's "championship insulator" attribute is something that even he can't restrain, then Bruno will admit it. ………………

After the afternoon training session, Manchester United also took family photos for the new season. The players' jersey numbers and the new season's lineup were officially determined.

There are three goalkeepers, No. 1 De Gea, No. 20 Romero, and No. 32 Johnstone.

There are ten defenders, namely No. 2 Victor Lindelof, No. 3 Joao Cancelo, No. 4 Phil Jones, No. 5 Marcos Rojo, No. 12 Chris Smalling, No. 15 No. Harry Maguire, No. 17 Daley Blind, No. 23 Luke Shaw, No. 25 Antonio Valencia and No. 36 Matteo Darmian.

There are nine people in the midfield position, namely No. 6 N'Golo Kante, No. 8 Bruno Fernandez, No. 13 Juan Mata, No. 14 Jesse Lingard, No. 16 Michael Carrick, No. 18 Ashley Young, No. 21 Ander Herrera, No. 22 Ilkay Gundogan, and No. 27 Marouane Fellaini.

There are six forward positions, namely No. 7 Kylian Mbappe, No. 9 Harry Kane, No. 10 Zlatan Ibrahimovic, No. 11 Riyad Mahrez, No. 19 Ma Cus Rashford and No. 39 Scott McTominay.

There are only 28 people in the entire first team, but these are not fixed candidates. After all, if there is a shortage of personnel, personnel can be recruited from the youth team and reserve team at any time.

Of course, as long as there are no special circumstances, such as widespread injuries, the 28-man lineup can handle any situation, even multi-line operations.

In particular, Manchester United's lineup is very thick and can almost produce two starting lineups that are not weak.

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Stoke City, led by Manchester United legend Mark Hughes, became the first team to suffer after Manchester United's strong formation was formed.

On the afternoon of September 9th, Manchester United challenged Stoke City as a guest at the Britannia Stadium.

Since returning to the Premier League in 2008, Stoke City has been firmly in the middle of the Premier League. Although it is difficult to enter the European theater, there is basically no risk of relegation.

During the Tony Pulis era, Stoke City gathered many tall forwards and defenders, and displayed traditional British bombing tactics on the field, earning Stoke City the nickname "City in the Sky".

With Tony Pulis leaving Stoke City in the summer of 2013, Manchester United legend Mark Hughes became the new coach of Sky City. Under Mark Hughes, Stoke City have reached the top half of the Premier League table for three consecutive years, ranking ninth in each instance.

Because Mark Hughes's Stoke City performed well against strong teams, after "Sky City", they also have the title of "rich terminator". Their masterpiece is their 2014-2015 season 3: Beat Arsenal 2 and sweep Liverpool 6:1.

Although Mark Hughes is one of the top ten goalscorers in Manchester United's history and is a very famous Manchester United legend, Mark Hughes has never shown mercy when facing Manchester United.

In the past four seasons, Stoke City has played against Manchester United in the league, with 2 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, which is not bad.

曼联在这四年里两次输给斯托克城，分别是在2014年的2月1日的英超第24轮，在主场2:1力克曼联，以及在2015年12月26日的英超第18轮在主场2:0完胜曼联。

And their home stadium, the Britannia Stadium, is also a stadium that brings bad memories to Manchester United people. They have not won in their last 4 league away games against Stoke City, with 2 draws and 2 losses.

It is precisely because of such results that Stoke City shouted the slogan before the game that they would defeat Manchester United again at home.

However, when the game officially started, Mark Hughes found that the Manchester United he faced was completely different from the Manchester United last season.

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"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALL!!!!!"

"Oh God, my God!"

"Bruno! Bruno again!"

"Only three minutes into the game, Bruno quickly took the ball from the left and cut inside, then hit the goal with his right foot, giving Manchester United the first chance to score Stoke City's goal!"

“He scored to take the lead in just three minutes and Stoke City’s defenders simply couldn’t stop him!”

"Bruno looked very excited tonight and he looked very active."

"This is Bruno's seventh goal in the Premier League this season, assisted by new player Harry Kane!"

He scored a goal in the first three minutes, which showed Bruno's excellent competitive state. Head coach Mourinho on the sidelines was even more excited to dance.

He has really discovered now that as long as Bruno is in good condition and plays smoothly, Manchester United will be unfavorable.

And the facts also confirm his view.

After Bruno opened the scoring, Manchester United continued to attack aggressively. Stoke City organized a tight defense, but it only lasted fifteen minutes.

In the 18th minute, Bruno passed back to Valencia from the right, and the Ecuadorian right back moved in a wide range. Rashford assisted Harry Kane to score the second goal of the game. At the same time, Harry Kane joined Manchester United. The first goal after.

Manchester United expanded the score 2:0.

Stoke City lost two goals in a row, and the team's morale took a heavy blow.

Sixteen minutes later, this time it was Rashford himself. With an assist from Harry Kane, Rashford scored in the penalty area, further expanding the score for Manchester United.

Perhaps the arrival of Mbappe put a lot of pressure on Rashford. This talented forward from Manchester United's youth training performed very actively today and was in good condition.

3: 0!

With a three-goal lead in the first half, Manchester United's morale was high.

(End of this chapter)