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

Chapter 921: The Reds will lead the devil's schedule

After the international match day, the league resumed. Manchester United challenged Leicester City away in the 8th round of the Premier League. With goals from two young players Rashford and Greenwood, Manchester United defeated the Foxes 2-0 at the King Power Stadium, achieving eight consecutive wins at the start of the league season and continuing to lead the Premier League standings.

In the middle of the week, the European war started again, and Manchester United challenged Bruges away.

In this Champions League group stage, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Leipzig tied 1:1 with Paris Saint-Germain, which has Yosi and Neymar, creating a huge surprise. In the last round, Bruges defeated Leipzig 2:1, winning 2 points in 4 rounds, ranking second in the group, surpassing Paris Saint-Germain, and transformed into a dark horse in the Champions League, moving towards the first group stage after the Champions League reform.

However, in this round of the game, Bruges played at home against Manchester United, whose value was nearly 12 billion euros, and the strength difference was very large. This time, Bruges failed to create a miracle, and only resisted for 30 minutes before being stunned by Mourinho's team.

In the first half, Bruno made a long pass to assist Cancelo to score. Before the end of the first half, Bruno scored a penalty kick to expand the score. Bruges fell behind 0:2. After the change of sides, Harry Kane and Rashford broke out in turn. Bruno scored twice in the 85th minute. The Red Devils scored 3 goals in one go. Although Vanaken once pulled one back, the score was fixed at 1:5!

这场1:5是布鲁日第二次在欧冠主场单场丢5球，上一次出现在2019-2020赛季，当时主场0:5输给巴黎圣日耳曼，那场比赛马夏尔戴帽加上助攻，单场独造4球。

Now, Bruges has 3 points in 4 rounds, which doesn't look bad, but it has slipped from second to third place in the group. Half a month later, Bruges will go to Manchester United to challenge, and play Paris Saint-Germain again in the last round. Losing is a high probability event.

So Bruges still seems to have a glimmer of hope, but in fact it has basically lost the possibility of qualifying. This also fully reflects the cruelty of the Champions League. Although Bruges made a stunning appearance, it is indeed not as strong as Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain. It is not surprising that they are runners-up.

After three rounds of group matches, Manchester United has already taken the lead in Group A, leading second-placed Paris Saint-Germain by a full 3 points.

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After returning from the big victory in Belgium, Manchester United immediately started the first devilish schedule of the season: from October 10 to November 24, in just two weeks, Manchester United will face Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Bruges and Manchester City, including 11 Premier League games, a League Cup and a Champions League group match.

In particular, the consecutive matches against Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City in the league may be the key to whether Manchester United can continue to rank first, or even win the championship again.

In the current Premier League standings, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham are ranked third, fourth and sixth respectively, and each is a strong rival!
The good news is that, apart from playing away against Tottenham, they are playing at home against Liverpool and Manchester City, which may be an opportunity for Manchester United to gain an absolute lead at the bottom of the standings.

………………

On the afternoon of October 10th, at the new Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester United faced their arch-rivals Liverpool.

This is the first time Manchester United has faced the Reds since the completion of its new home stadium.

As for this game, Bruno remembers that Manchester United suffered a miserable defeat. Solskjaer's team was beaten 0:5 by their arch-rivals at home, suffering the biggest home defeat in the history of the Red Derby.

However, the game today is very different from what Bruno remembered. Liverpool's personnel have not changed much, that is, the main central defender Van Dijk has become a Manchester United player, but Manchester United's lineup has undergone earth-shaking changes. Not only is the head coach not the former Solskjaer, but among the players, there are also Harry Kane, Kante and other members who were not members of Manchester United.

This Manchester United derby is also the only match between the two unbeaten teams in the Premier League: in the first eight rounds of the league, Manchester United won eight consecutive games, while Liverpool had five wins and three draws.

This is a showdown between the two strongest teams in the Premier League!
Although both teams remain unbeaten, Liverpool has three draws while Manchester United has won all of their games, which has resulted in Liverpool lagging behind Manchester United by six points.

So Liverpool can no longer afford to lose this game, because if they lose again, they will be 9 points behind Manchester United after only 9 rounds of the league, which basically means that they will withdraw from the competition for the league title early.

………………

Under the temptation of establishing an advantage in the standings early on, and with the added bonus of playing at home, everyone thought that Manchester United's opening tactics would be more proactive.

But in fact, Liverpool was well prepared. On the one hand, it was because Klopp and his team could hardly bear the result of losing this game, and on the other hand, it was because taking the initiative to attack was the style of Klopp and this Liverpool team.

In this game against Manchester United, Klopp's team took the initiative from the start and actively launched an offensive.

In the first ten minutes, Liverpool's ball possession rate was as high as 63%.

Three minutes into the game, Henderson made a wonderful pass to the right, Salah passed the ball directly into the penalty area, Jota tried to pass the ball to Firmino, but Van Dijk suddenly rushed forward to clear the ball, disrupting Liverpool's first attack.

But a minute later, Henderson made another straight pass and Firmino shot with his left foot in the middle of the penalty area, but the shot was not powerful enough.

Two minutes later, Salah passed the ball, and right-back Arnold followed up and made a long shot from 25 meters away.

In the seventh minute, after Milner intercepted the ball in the midfield, Keita tried to dribble into the penalty area, but was successfully intercepted by Rashford.

In the ninth minute, Firmino dribbled past the defender outside the penalty area and shot from long range, but the ball was again saved by goalkeeper De Gea.

A minute later, Liverpool captain Henderson took a long shot from more than 30 meters away, but it was too far off target.

In the first ten minutes, the game was completely controlled by Liverpool, and Manchester United was forced to defend tightly. However, Mourinho is a master of defense. Under his years of development, Manchester United's defense is not perfect, but Liverpool found it difficult to break through Manchester United's defense in the middle, and they were forced to frequently use long shots.

………………

Manchester United's attacking group, led by Bruno, also began to threaten Liverpool's goal frequently.

In the following time, the two teams attacked and defended each other. Among them, Manchester United's most threatening attack occurred in the 33rd minute.

Cancelo quickly made a run on the right, cooperated with Bruno, and passed the ball into the penalty area, where Harry Kane headed the ball.

Bruno, who quickly crossed into the penalty area from the right rib, rushed all the way to the front of the small penalty area and shook his head to attack the goal from close range.

But such a close header was caught by Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.

Harry Kane raised his hand apologetically. Due to the interference of Koulibaly, he failed to head the ball correctly, causing it to be a little high.

If he could get the ball down, Bruno would be able to shoot directly without having to use his head.

Bruno himself felt a little depressed. He subconsciously tried to head the ball passed to him by Harry Kane, but he didn't head it well. In addition, Alisson was in a good position, so he couldn't score.

After learning from his mistakes, Bruno continued to control Manchester United's offensive rhythm and patiently looked for scoring opportunities.

………………

In the 43rd minute, Harry Kane retreated to receive the ball and passed it behind him. Bruno quickly shook off Robertson and made a run-in, successfully making an offside move and rushing into the penalty area. After dribbling past goalkeeper Alisson, he was about to shoot when Liverpool center back Konate quickly blocked him with his body.

At this time, his hands opened obviously, causing Bruno's shot to hit his hand and bounce out of the baseline.

Bruno quickly appealed to the referee, believing that it was a deliberate handball and Konate's hand was clearly open.

"If he hadn't opened his hand, my shot would have gone in!" Bruno said with certainty.

But the referee Anthony Taylor rejected Bruno's appeal, believing that his judgment was not wrong. This made Bruno very depressed and he turned around and walked back.

When Konate passed by him, he patted him gently on the shoulder. It was obvious that the Frenchman himself felt very guilty. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, he had indeed opened his arms just now.

………………

"That was an undoubted handball!"

At halftime, in the home team's dressing room, Mourinho replayed the slow-motion replay to all the players.

Handball, there is absolutely no problem. Although it is impossible to tell whether it was intentional or unintentional, it was indeed a handball.

"But there is no other way. We need to forget about this misjudgment and concentrate on the second half of the game."

After playing hard for forty-five minutes, the players were obviously very tired. Their opponent, Liverpool, was not weak at all.

Although Wijnaldum is gone, the team's offensive firepower is still very strong, especially Salah.

"As I told everyone before the game, Liverpool's defensive problems are mainly concentrated in the deep midfield position."

Mourinho drew a large long strip at the front of Liverpool's penalty area on the tactical board.

The goalkeeper is Alisson, the defense is Robertson, Koulibaly, Konate and Arnold, the midfield is Keita, Henderson and Milner, and the frontcourt is Salah, Firmino and Diogo Jota.

Regardless of the pre-season performance or the games since the start of the league, Liverpool's performance has clearly proved that Wijnaldum's departure has dealt an extremely painful blow to the Red Army's midfield and weakened its strength.

Of course, although it has been weakened, Liverpool's overall strength is still strong and it is still in the top tier of the Premier League.

(End of this chapter)