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

Chapter 920 Leading
After trailing 0:2 in the first half, Everton began to take the initiative after the second half.

Benítez does not want to sit idly by at the new Old Trafford.

The competition in the Premier League is very cruel. Although Everton has performed well since the start of the new season and is currently ranked fifth in the standings, if they are not careful, he and the team will fall into the abyss.

Benítez is very clear that Everton is not a strong team. The team has done almost nothing in the transfer market in the summer. The reason why it can achieve its current ranking is, on the one hand, because the team did not encounter strong opponents in the first six rounds, and did not encounter any of the BIG6 teams. Manchester United is the first strong opponent Everton has encountered; on the other hand, the team is rushing forward with a breath of hope.

If this anger is lost, the team's performance will definitely plummet.

So even if the opponent is Manchester United, he can only give it a try.

But this also exposed Everton's lack of ability to seize opportunities, just like at the beginning of the game, they missed and wasted too many opportunities, which made Benítez on the sidelines very depressed.

If Everton's defense gives Benítez enough confidence to face the challenge of any team, then the team's offense makes him feel nervous.

It's no use just being able to defend, you have to be able to score goals.

To put it bluntly, football is a game of scoring goals.

But the problem now is that after the consecutive losses of two major attackers, Lewin and Richarlison, the rest of Everton players can't score!
"We should have kept James," Benítez said regretfully.

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In the summer of 2020, Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez followed Ancelotti and joined Everton as a free agent.

After a not-so-successful season, Ancelotti chose to terminate his contract with Everton and return to the Galacticos, taking over the position of head coach of Real Madrid after Zidane left.

However, James Rodriguez's first season at Everton was relatively successful. Although he suffered many injuries, he still scored 23 goals and provided 6 assists in the 4 Premier League games he played.

But man proposes, God disposes. His mentor Ancelotti left Everton at this time, and his successor was Benítez, who had worked with him in Real Madrid.

However, their first experience of cooperation was not a good one. It was under Benítez that James Rodriguez's career took a sharp turn for the worse and he gradually became a substitute under Benítez. After Zidane took over and the ceremonial three midfielders of Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro took shape, James Rodriguez completely became a marginal figure in the team.

This experience made James Rodriguez have a bad feeling when he learned that Everton's new coach was Benítez.

And sure enough, as soon as Benítez arrived at Everton's training base, he told James Rodriguez that he was not in his team building plan.

However, James Rodriguez stayed at Everton until late September, until he found that he had no chance under Benítez, so he chose to transfer to the Qatari team Al-Rayyan.

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Although Benítez was very dissatisfied with James Rodriguez's attitude towards the game, the Colombian's strength and talent were unquestionable. Benítez felt that if the Colombian was still in the team, Everton would have scored more than two goals in the first half, three or four goals was possible.

But unfortunately, he left the team two weeks ago.

An unbreakable defensive formation, a solid teamwork, and excellent overall coordination, all of which Benítez emphasized have been realized in Everton. Now all that is missing is a sharp striker!
Originally, Everton's youth striker Lewin was a very good player, but the young player was injured in Everton's 8-2 victory over Brighton at the end of August, and it was a serious injury. It is impossible for him to appear on the court at least this year.

Originally, even if Lewin was injured, Benítez still had another card in his hand, that is, the Brazilian national team striker Richarlison, but unexpectedly, the Brazilian was also injured in September.

Among Everton's remaining forwards, whether it is Rondon, Gray, or Tom Davies, none of them can provide the team with stable goals, which is bound to become Everton's biggest headache this season.

On the pitch, Benítez chose to go all out, while Manchester United took the initiative to retreat in order to stabilize the situation.

In the end, the Toffees still broke through Manchester United's goal.

In the 86th minute, Everton launched a wonderful counterattack. Gray broke through and passed the ball directly to the strong Doucoure. Doucoure passed the ball to Townsend who was not guarded. Townsend pushed the ball directly into the lower left corner to score.

However, there was very little time left for Everton to continue scoring goals, and they were ultimately unable to draw with Manchester United away from home.

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With Manchester United beating Everton 2:1 at home and winning seven consecutive games at the start of the Premier League season, it also means that Manchester United's competition before the international match day in October has temporarily come to an end.

The focus of this round, and also the final match, was between Liverpool and Manchester City. Unlike the other match between Manchester and Liverpool, which ended in a decisive victory, this match between the two cities did not end in a decisive victory, with Liverpool eventually drawing 2-2 with Manchester City at home.

Since Chelsea beat Southampton 3:1 at home, Liverpool was overtaken by the Reds in the standings.

此时的英超积分榜，曼联以七连胜独自领跑；切尔西则是以5胜1平1负，5分之差紧随其后；利物浦是另外一支还保持着不败的球队，但是4胜3平的他们只有15分，已经落后曼联6分之多；曼城则是上升到积分榜第四，战绩是4胜2平1负，落后曼联7分。

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The Portuguese national team has two matches on this international match day, a friendly match against Qatar at home and a World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg at home.

On the evening of October 10, a match in the European zone of the World Cup qualifiers was held, with Portugal playing at home against the visiting Qatar team.

In the 37th minute of the first half, Bruno passed the ball into the penalty area. Ravi made a mistake when clearing the ball in the penalty area, which turned into an own goal assist. Ronaldo accepted the gift and pushed the ball into the goal in front of the goal to take the lead. Portugal took the lead 1:0.

In the second half, Fonte scored again with a follow-up shot in the 47th minute, Portugal 2:0.

In the 89th minute, after receiving a cross from Rafael Leao, Andre Silva scored with a header in the penalty area, locking the score at 3:0.

At the end of the game, Portugal easily won a big victory.

In this game, Cristiano Ronaldo, who had just ended his suspension, started the game wearing the captain's armband and scored easily and happily, setting the first record for the team.

After scoring the goal, Ronaldo celebrated passionately with his signature move, which excited the whole audience. He then hugged his teammates wildly with a smile on his face.

A 3:0 victory allowed Ronaldo to set four major records. First, with 181 national team appearances, he broke Ramos's record for European player appearances; Ronaldo's national team goals reached 112, continuing to refresh his personal national team goal record; in addition, Ronaldo has scored against 46 national teams, the first in football; in 2021, Ronaldo participated in 11 national team games and scored 10 goals, which also made him score more than 5 goals for the national team in different natural years, becoming the first person in the history of European football.

In this match, most of the core players of the Portuguese team, including Bruno and Ronaldo, only played half the game and clocked out after the first half. After all, this was a game without any points and there was no need for them to play the whole game.

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Three days later, in the 8th round of the European qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup, Portugal continued to host Luxembourg.

Because Serbia won 1-0 against Luxembourg away from home in the group match three days ago, with one more game to play, they are only 2 points behind Portugal, making Portugal's first place in the group somewhat unstable.

If Portugal makes a mistake in the match against Luxembourg and Serbia beats Azerbaijan, which is at the bottom of the group, at home at the same time, they may even lose the top spot in the group.

Therefore, everyone in Portugal takes today's game very seriously.

After all, in this qualifying tournament, Luxembourg no longer seems to be the weak team that was at the mercy of others. It has already won two games and is ranked third in Group A, beating the powerful Ireland.

However, facing Portugal, which is ranked number one in the world, Luxembourg did not show much fighting power.

In the 7th minute, Bruno broke into the penalty area and was knocked down by a Luxembourg player. The referee awarded a penalty kick, which Ronaldo scored. Portugal led 1:0.

In the 10th minute, Bruno passed the ball into the penalty area. Ronaldo was offside and received the pass from Bruno, but was also kicked to the ground by the Luxembourg defender. The referee awarded another penalty kick, which Ronaldo took himself and scored. However, the referee indicated that a player had entered the penalty area in advance, and Ronaldo scored the penalty kick. Portugal led 2:0.

In the 16th minute, Bernardo Silva made a straight pass and Bruno shot from a small angle to help Portugal extend its lead to 3 goals.

In the 68th minute, Bruno lifted the ball into the penalty area and his Manchester United teammate Palinha headed the ball into the goal. Portugal led 4:0.

In the 87th minute, Bruno passed the ball again and Ronaldo scored with a header to complete his hat trick.

This was Ronaldo's 115th national team goal, and his personal career goal tally increased to 794 goals, just 800 goals away from the 6-goal mark.

In addition, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in the national team match for the 10th time, and he also became the first player in the history of world football to score more than double the number of hat-tricks in the national team match.

In the end, Portugal swept Luxembourg 5-0 at home and still led the Group A standings with a 2-point advantage despite having one game less.

(End of this chapter)