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

Chapter 910 The First Person

In the first round of the new Premier League season, Manchester United took the top spot in the standings with a 5:1 victory at home. Most of the other five teams in the BIG6 won. Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 3:0 at home, while Liverpool swept the newly promoted Norwich 3:0 away.

The most eye-catching match of this round was held at the new White Hart Lane Stadium, where Tottenham Hotspur played against Manchester City at home. In the first half, new signing Sancho missed a good opportunity, Pogba cleared the ball in a key position, and in the second half, Son Heung-min broke the deadlock after receiving a pass from Ronaldo, and Bergwijn missed a single shot. In the end, Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City 1:0 at home, making a good start to the new season, while Manchester City suffered two consecutive defeats in all competitions at the beginning.

The last team of the BIG6, Arsenal, was defeated 2-0 by newly promoted Brentford in the opening match of this season's Premier League, which was the biggest upset of this round.

A week later, the second round of the Premier League kicked off, with Manchester United visiting St. Mary's Stadium to challenge Southampton.

In the 30th minute, Harry Kane made a heel pass, and Bruno, who came in from behind, made a low shot with his left foot from the edge of the penalty area. The ball flew into the Southampton goal and Manchester United took the lead away from home!
In the 55th minute, Bruno used bicycle kicks to create an angle and made a diagonal pass. Mbappe inserted and knocked the ball back. Bruno lost his balance and poked the ball with his toes, and Greenwood volleyed the ball into the net!

2:0, Manchester United extended their lead away from home.

This is Greenwood's 19th goal in the Premier League. At the age of 20, his number of Premier League goals ranks fourth in history, second only to Owen, Fowler and Rooney.

Greenwood is also the fourth U4 player in Premier League history to score in the first two games of a new season, and the first in the past 20 years.

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In the end, Manchester United won away from home and continued to rank first in the standings with two consecutive wins. Following closely behind were Liverpool and Chelsea. These other two Premier League giants also won two consecutive victories, but ranked behind Manchester United due to the disadvantage of goal difference.

Southampton suffered two consecutive defeats. This season, this Chinese-funded team is still one of the favorites to be relegated.

Last season, Manchester United was the most stable team in away games. After this campaign, they have been unbeaten in 27 away games across the Premier League season, tying the Premier League record set by Arsenal.

The last time Manchester United lost an away game in the Premier League was in the 2019rd round of the 2020-23 season, when Manchester United visited Anfield and lost to Liverpool 1:2.

In the year and a half since then, Manchester United has not lost away from home again, with a record of 27 wins and 19 draws in 8 away games.

The other three BIG6 teams that won in the previous round all won again in this round. Liverpool beat Burnley 2-0 at home, Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, and Tottenham beat Wolves 1-0 thanks to a penalty kick from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Manchester City, who were defeated by Tottenham in the first round, played at home against newly promoted Norwich in this round. In the first half, Krul scored an own goal and Grealish expanded the lead; in the second half, Laporte scored with a low shot, and Sterling and Pogba added icing on the cake. In the end, Manchester City defeated Norwich 5-0 and won their first victory of the season.

Arsenal was the worst performing team among the BIG6. After being upset by the newly promoted team in the first round, they returned to their home court in this round, but conceded two goals in the first half and were easily defeated by Chelsea.

However, Moyes' West Ham United became the team that surprised everyone. After defeating Newcastle United 4:2 away in the first round, they once again swept Leicester City 4:1 at home in this round, surpassing the two giants Liverpool and Chelsea with the advantage of goal difference and ranking second in the standings.

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After the second round of the Premier League, Bruno flew immediately from Manchester to Istanbul, Turkey.

This time he received a special invitation from UEFA to attend the draw ceremony for the Champions League group stage and the awards ceremony of last season's Champions League. He was accompanied by Harry Kane, Maguire, De Gea and others.

From front to back, 11 of Manchester United's starting 8 were shortlisted for the UEFA Best Team, with only Cancelo, Gundogan and Rashford not selected.

The above four players are the ones who can compete for the positions of best striker, best midfielder, best defender and best goalkeeper.

There are players in all four lines who can compete for the best, which is also a recognition of Manchester United's four consecutive Champions League titles and five consecutive Premier League titles last season, and becoming the first team in football history to win seven titles in a season.

Judging from outside speculation, except for the best striker, Harry Kane faces strong challenges from Lewandowski and Ronaldo, the other three positions are likely to be won by Manchester United players.

In normal times, the Champions League champion plays a decisive role in UEFA's season selection, but this year is a little different because the European Cup is also held this summer. As the most influential national team competition under UEFA, its influence is not inferior to that of the Champions League, and even exceeds it.

Under such circumstances, the players' performance in the European Cup will also have a great impact on the awards.

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Needless to say, De Gea is the main goalkeeper of Manchester United, the seven-time champion this season, and also helped Spain reach the semi-finals of the European Cup. Whether it is Henderson of Chelsea or Oblak of Atletico Madrid, they are obviously unable to shake De Gea's position, not to mention Ederson of Manchester City or Alisson of Liverpool.

As for central defenders, Van Dijk and Maguire from Manchester United are both competitive, but Maguire has the blessing of being in the top four of the European Cup, which gives him an advantage in the selection. Van Dijk and Manchester City's Ruben Dias are just runners-up.

In fact, Van Dijk's performance in the club is the same as Maguire's, but the Netherlands team did not perform as well as England in the European Cup; and Ruben Dias, as Portugal's main central defender, performed as well as Maguire in the national team, but Manchester City club's results are far worse than Manchester United, which also made Ruben Dias lose the possibility of winning the award.

In the selection of the best midfielder, Bruno is almost the best. Neither Kante nor Jorginho can shake Bruno's position.

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The only suspenseful one is the best striker. C Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Lewandowski all have hope.

Although Juventus only reached the round of 6 of the Champions League last season and ranked only fourth in Serie A, Ronaldo's personal performance was not bad. Not only did he win the Serie A Golden Boot, he also had 4 goals and 2 assists in appearances in the Champions League.

Of course, the most important thing is that he is the captain of the European Cup champion Portugal. He scored 8 goals in the European Cup and played an important role in Portugal's defense of the European Cup. This is also quite significant.

In addition, his personal influence over the years has also been there, making it possible for him to compete with Harry Kane and Lewandowski for the best striker. As for the best player, it will still be Bruno's. As the core of Manchester United, the club's seven-time champion, and also the number one contributor to Portugal's defense of the European Cup, Bruno not only surpasses all competitors by a large margin in team honors, but also far exceeds his peers in personal data. Whether it is Jorginho, Ronaldo or Harry Kane, they can't really pose a threat to Bruno.

Therefore, who will win the best forward award has become the biggest suspense of this UEFA awards ceremony. Other awards are either not attractive or there is no suspense.

For Bruno, winning an award is not the most important thing, because he has already won all the awards he deserves.

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As the winner of the FIFA World Footballer of the Year and the European Ballon d'Or, Bruno quickly became the focus of attention as soon as he appeared at the International Convention Center in Istanbul. Everyone, whether they knew him or not, came over to say hello.

Manchester United general manager Cristiano Giarretta attended the draw ceremony as a representative of the club. Bruno, Harry Kane and others were invited by UEFA to attend the awards ceremony. The two were held interspersed, but the guest seats were separate.

With Manchester United's strong performance in European football in recent years and Bruno's outstanding personal performance, he has replaced Ronaldo and Yosi and become the top star in European football. This can be seen from the seat arranged for him by UEFA. Bruno was arranged to sit in the most conspicuous front row, next to Ronaldo and Harry Kane.

Yossi, who just left Barcelona and joined Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent, did not come to the scene.

In the just-concluded 2020-2021 season, Yosi's performance was actually not bad. He won the La Liga Golden Boot, helped Barcelona win the King's Cup, and helped Argentina win the America's Cup in the national team. This helped him be selected into UEFA's 23-man best team, but he was not selected into the best 11-man team, and naturally he could not participate in the competition for best striker and best player.

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Before the draw ceremony began, the Executive Board of the European Club Association (ECA) held a meeting to discuss the future of European football clubs.

On April 2021, 4, 18 top European football clubs including Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Manchester United, AC Milan, etc. announced the official establishment of the European Super League. This move caused an earthquake in European football.

As soon as the plan was released, it was immediately criticized by many parties including FIFA, UEFA, fans and some European leaders.

Within less than 48 hours of its establishment, the top six Premier League clubs announced their withdrawal under pressure from all sides, and the European Premier League collapsed in an instant.

Subsequently, the two AC Milan clubs and Atletico Madrid also announced their withdrawal one after another, leaving only the "Royal Savin" trio to struggle to support the European Super League.

On May 5, the European Court of Justice officially announced that the European Super League had appealed to UEFA and FIFA to the European Court of Justice on the grounds of violating EU competition law, and announced that it had formally accepted the case.

On June 6, Spanish media Radio Ser reported that the Swiss Federal Court informed UEFA and FIFA that they should not punish the European Super League team. However, UEFA does not seem to be ready to give up. Its announcement reads: "We are still confident that we will continue to defend our position in all relevant jurisdictions. UEFA will take all necessary measures in strict accordance with national and EU laws to resume the disciplinary investigation procedure as soon as possible."

According to The Athletic, UEFA’s lawyers are currently preparing to appeal the “penalty ban” and are working with Swiss authorities on the matter.

当地时间2021年6月9日，英超和英足总联合发布声明，对参加欧超联赛的6家俱乐部作出处罚。6家俱乐部将缴纳共2200万英镑的罚款，这笔款项将被用于支持球迷、草根足球和社区项目等足球事业。

Due to rising discontent among fans, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have announced that the fines will be paid by their owners and no club funds will be used.

In addition, the clubs also agreed to a clause that if similar "defections" occur again in the future, each club will be deducted 30 league points and fined 2500 million pounds.

In mid-August, all founding clubs of the European Super League, except Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, rejoined the ECA.

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This was followed by the award ceremony and draw.

According to convention, the meeting was hosted by the familiar face Pinto and his partner, the female host Laura. The two first introduced the situation of the Champions League in the past year, among which Bruno was mentioned in particular.

As the core of Manchester United's offensive midfield and captain, Bruno led Manchester United to achieve world-renowned results in the Champions League, becoming the first team to win four consecutive championships since the Champions League was reformed. Bruno has created too many records in the Champions League.

In the Champions League history scorer list, Bruno, who has participated in the Champions League for 6 seasons, has scored 67 goals in 89 Champions League games. This has enabled him to surpass superstars such as Lewandowski, Benzema and Raul, and rise to third place in the Champions League history scorer list, second only to Yosi with 149 goals in 120 games, and Ronaldo with 176 goals in 134 games.

In these six seasons, Bruno won the Champions League Golden Boot three times, second only to Ronaldo and Yosi.

At the same time, he also made 52 assists, ranking first in the Champions League's historical assist list, far ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Yosi behind him.

In six Champions League seasons, Bruno led his team to win five titles, second only to Real Madrid legend Gento who won the Champions League trophy six times. He is tied with Real Madrid legend Di Stefano, AC Milan legends Maldini and Costacurta as the second player to have won the most Champions League titles.

Many media outlets have stated that although he will not turn 27 until next month, Bruno has already taken over from his national team teammate Cristiano Ronaldo and is the de facto king of the Champions League.

The award ceremony began first, and the first award was the UEFA President's Award, which was won by Danish captain Kjaer and his medical team.

The team performed brilliantly and saved the Danish international's life after he suffered a sudden illness on the pitch.

On June 2021, 6, Denmark played against Finland in the first round of the 12 European Cup Group B. Before the end of the first half, Eriksson suddenly fell to the ground and fainted without any physical confrontation after receiving a sideline ball. After about 2020 minutes of CPR on the spot, Eriksson was escorted off the field and UEFA subsequently announced the suspension of the game.

(End of this chapter)