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

Chapter 929: Confrontation with Ronaldo

The 18th round of the Premier League has ended, and the teams' pre-Christmas league has come to an end. Manchester United has already secured the half-season championship after defeating Brighton 2-0.

Currently, the Premier League standings look like this:
Manchester United has 18 wins and 17 draw in 1 rounds, ranking first with 52 points;

曼城18轮13胜2平3负，积分41分排名第二；
利物浦18轮11胜5平2负，积38分排名第三；
切尔西18轮11胜5平2负，积38分排名第四；
阿森纳18轮10胜2平6负，积32分排名第五；
西汉姆联17轮8胜4平5负，积28分排名第六；
热刺15轮8胜2平5负，积26分排名第七；
In fact, when the halfway point of the league is about to pass, the traditional BIG6 has all returned to their positions. Although the dark horse West Ham United temporarily surpassed Tottenham to rank sixth, Tottenham has played two fewer games than West Ham United. Once the make-up games are completed, it is very likely that Tottenham will overtake them; while West Ham United has played one less game than Arsenal, but their points are 2 points less than Arsenal. Even if the make-up games are completed, there is no possibility of overtaking Arsenal.

It can be seen from this that in a long league, although the dark horse teams may get good rankings due to their outstanding performance for a period of time, as the season progresses, it is still difficult for them to compete with teams with stronger overall strength.

Judging from the standings, Manchester United has already established a double-digit advantage, and teams such as Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea are unlikely to pose a real threat to Manchester United's championship. As for Arsenal, which is fifth, it has 20 points less than Manchester United and can basically be declared out of the championship race.

………………

Manchester United has finished the league before Christmas, but they still have a League Cup match before the holiday. That is on the evening of December 12, when they will go to the new White Hart Lane to challenge Tottenham. This is the last match of the League Cup quarter-finals.

Before the match between Manchester United and Tottenham, Arsenal had already defeated Sunderland 5:1 at home, and Chelsea beat Brentford 2:0 away, taking the lead in occupying two places in the League Cup semi-finals.

The remaining two quarter-finals will start at the same time. Liverpool will face Leicester City at home, while Manchester United will challenge Tottenham away.

If both Manchester United and Liverpool can defeat their opponents and advance, the four Premier League giants will gather in the semi-finals, and the League Cup will also usher in the strongest lineup in recent years.

The League Cup quarter-final between Manchester United and Tottenham is also the focus of the League Cup quarter-finals. Although Manchester United defeated Tottenham 3-0 at this stadium just two months ago, Tottenham has undergone a lot of changes in the two months since then.

After losing 0:3 to Manchester United, Tottenham fired their Portuguese coach Nuno Santo and invited Conte to take over the coaching position. Tottenham's performance also showed signs of recovery.

Under Conte, Tottenham Hotspur have remained unbeaten with 5 wins and 3 draws in 2 Premier League games, and are one of the teams in the best form in recent times.

It will not be easy for Manchester United to beat Tottenham again at the new White Hart Lane Stadium.

………………

In this game, Tottenham's starting lineup was led by Cristiano Ronaldo, with Son Heung-min and Ali on the bench; for Manchester United, Bruno led the starting lineup.

Tottenham, playing at home, had the first chance to score. In the 12th minute of the game, Tottenham launched a quick counterattack. Ronaldo received a long pass from his teammate, broke into the left side of the penalty area and shot low, but the ball was saved by Manchester United goalkeeper Romero.

Manchester United quickly responded. In the 18th minute, Manchester United got a corner kick opportunity through a quick attack. Bruno took a corner kick from the left, the ball went straight in front of the goal, and the ball was blocked by Tottenham goalkeeper Lori.

In the 29th minute, Bergwijn took the ball with his back in the penalty area, then passed it back to Hojbjerg, who dribbled to the right bottom line of the penalty area and passed the ball back in a triangle. Bergwijn followed up and shot into the goal, giving Tottenham a 1:0 lead!

This goal had some impact on Manchester United players, but they quickly stabilized and the team began to find a familiar feeling.

First, Bruno made a cross from the left, allowing Harry Kane to head the ball in front of the goal, but it was saved by Lori.

Then Bruno made a straight pass from the left rib, allowing Greenwood to break into the penalty area and shoot wide.

In the 28th minute, Bruno had an opportunity to get the ball and face Hoiber alone. He tried to break through one on one, but when he was passing the player, he was tripped to the ground by the experienced Hoiber.

The referee ran up quickly and showed a yellow card to Hojbjerg.

Heibel did not argue, but reached out to Bruno who was lying on the ground, pulled him up, patted his shoulder, and quickly stepped back.

Manchester United then had a free kick from Bruno, and Maguire headed the ball but missed the target and it was too high.

………………

Time quickly entered the forty minutes, and Manchester United was still behind Tottenham.

After a break of about ten minutes, Tottenham launched another fierce attack.

Ronaldo is still the most threatening Tottenham player on the field and his performance is quite outstanding, which makes the Tottenham fans in the stands almost shout their throats out to cheer him on.

The enthusiasm from the fans undoubtedly further fueled Ronaldo's excitement. But he seemed to be always a little short of scoring a goal. He almost never managed to get into the penalty area, and most of his shots were long shots from the perimeter, and they were long shots from more than 20 meters away.

It is not difficult to see how solid Manchester United's defense is.

Bruno's task was to organize the team's attack, and after sprinting again and again, Bruno was already sweating profusely. But he could feel that he was getting closer and closer to the opponent's penalty area.

The yellow card that Hojbjerg received just now is the best proof.

Tottenham then launched a counterattack and their offensive momentum surged, but Bruno also felt that Tottenham's defense line was gradually pressed forward.

During this period, Tottenham's offensive was very fierce, and Conte's order to the players was to expand their lead before the end of the first half. Ronaldo tried to pass the ball and was tripped by Palinha.

On the field, Palinha did not give his national team captain any face at all, and he was not ambiguous at all when it came time to kick.

The referee ran over and gave Palinha a yellow card warning, and at the same time gave Tottenham another free kick opportunity in the frontcourt.

C Ronaldo took the penalty kick himself, Bruno went back to form a human wall, he was face to face with his national team captain again, he could feel the burning fighting spirit in C Ronaldo's eyes when he looked at him, he looked full of fighting spirit, the whole person was extremely excited, as if to say: Today, here, there can only be one winner, and that is me!

And this is exactly what Bruno wanted to say to him.

………………

Ronaldo had his hands hanging by his sides, his fists clenched, his legs apart, and he stood in front of the human wall like a god.

Obviously, he will threaten Manchester United's goal with his signature elevator ball.

As the referee blew the whistle, Ronaldo quickly jumped out and kicked the ball. There was only a bang, and the ball flew out from Ronaldo's feet, drew an arc, bypassed the wall of people, and quickly fell into the goal behind him.

But Manchester United goalkeeper Romero was prepared. When he was setting up the wall, he had already taken into account all the possible angles that Ronaldo could shoot at, so he reacted quickly and flew over the crossbar, giving Tottenham a corner kick, but the free kick did not go in.

In an instant, all Manchester United players breathed a sigh of relief.

The Tottenham fans at the new White Hart Lane Stadium sighed in unison, obviously disappointed with the result.

Manchester United quickly reorganized their defense, this time it was the defense of the corner kick. Bruno returned to the penalty area to help the team defend.

Tottenham also invested manpower, with three central defenders Davinson Sanchez, Dier and Ben Davies all coming on.

Reguilon took another corner kick, still trying to find Ronaldo. But this time Romero quickly attacked, took the ball out of the air first, rushed to the front of the penalty area, and threw it to Bruno.

The Manchester United captain immediately understood what he meant. He didn't even need to look ahead and just kicked the ball forward with a big foot.

"Manchester United quickly took a goal kick and launched a counterattack."

"Bruno made a long pass to the left."

………………

Bruno's pass passed over the two Tottenham players Skip and Hojbjerg who were lagging behind, and accurately found Rashford who was advancing on the left.

This pass was very comfortable. Rashford just raised his foot slightly to take the ball, then took a step forward and sprinted quickly.

Rashford's speed was too fast for Skipp and Hojbjerg. The two could only watch the Manchester United left winger getting further and further away from them.

Facing the attacking Lori, Rashford simply accelerated and passed the French goalkeeper.

What happened next was very simple. He just pushed the ball lightly and sent it into the unguarded goal.

1:1, Manchester United equalized the score away from home!

The early equalizer in the second half greatly boosted Manchester United's morale and passion. After a crazy celebration, everyone started to play more actively and proactively, and even took the initiative to launch a counterattack against Tottenham.

First, Bruno forced a breakthrough in the middle and spotted an opportunity. Suddenly, he shot directly from the outside of the penalty area.

The shot was so fast, sharp and sudden that it made the entire New White Hart Lane Stadium break out in a cold sweat.

Lori reacted quickly and saved the ball, thus defusing the crisis.

But soon, Manchester United took a corner kick, and Van Dijk headed the ball from ten meters in front of the goal, but it was a little high.

Two consecutive attacks created threats. Manchester United continued to launch the offensive and Bruno became more and more active.

Harry Kane pulled away the defenders for Bruno, and Van Dijk quickly made an over-the-top pass from the right side of the center. Bruno quickly cut diagonally from the center to the right side of the penalty spot and shot directly with his right foot before the Tottenham players arrived.

Lori flew to save the ball again, once again defusing Bruno's sure-shot shot and saving Tottenham's goal.

(End of this chapter)