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

Chapter 946 Lure the snake out of its hole
However, in the eyes of the fans, the period after the start of the second half of the game can be described as "ugly".

Both teams did not play very well in the attack and showed little patience. There was often no exciting tactical coordination, but they chose to use simple and crude long shots or crosses from the wing to end the attack.

Who would like to watch such a game? But both teams played like this.

The commentators also noticed that neither side wanted to give the opponent a chance to counterattack.

In the East, CCTV broadcast this game. Commentator He Wei said that both sides were unexpectedly conservative and cautious after the start of the second half. The game during this period was not exciting enough, which was really unfair to the Chinese fans who stayed up late to watch the game...

Xu Yang, the guest who partnered with He Wei to commentate on this game, thought that Aston Villa's performance at their home ground was not normal. After all, they were the lagging side, but why didn't they put enough manpower into the offense?
BBC commentator Gary Lineker also believes that Gerrard's choice is not "brave" enough. Tactical arrangements are certainly acceptable, but as the home team, shouldn't they also consider the momentum that the home team should have?

In fact, not only do the audience dislike watching such games, but the players themselves also feel uncomfortable playing them.

Especially the players of the home team Aston Villa. This is their home ground and there are more fans supporting them. Are their timid performance worthy of the Aston Villa fans who support them on the scene?

Some Aston Villa fans in the stands were already expressing their dissatisfaction with the team's play by booing - this is our home ground, what are you afraid of!

………………

The TV broadcast gave a close-up of Gerrard, with the Liverpool star standing on the sidelines with a frown on his face.

At the beginning of the second half, Gerrard still felt that his adjustments were correct and effective, because when Manchester United counterattacked, facing the dense Aston Villa defense, they obviously had no better solution and could only choose an offensive method with very low technical content.

But now he feels that the situation is not what he imagined. Mourinho's team may not have no way to attack Aston Villa's defense, but they don't even think about attacking...

Mourinho is much more shameless than he imagined. He actually wants to maintain the 1:0 lead!
Logically, in this situation, Aston Villa should take the initiative to press forward and create some threats to Manchester United, so that they can understand that they can't stand it if they just defend, but Gerrard doesn't want to do that because he knows that at this time, it's actually a competition of who has more patience.

Moreover, Gerrard knew very well that Mourinho's team was best at extreme defensive counterattacks. If his team could not stabilize and take the initiative to attack, the most likely result would be that they would lose the ball again before scoring a goal.

Under such circumstances, he and his team must remain calm and compete with Mourinho and Manchester United in patience.

………………

After another six minutes, Gerrard let out a long sigh.

He was sure that if he did not take the initiative to put pressure on Manchester United, the opponent would really dare to stay in their own half and finish the game.

They don't care whether the game is interesting or not. They are the leaders anyway. They also don't care about the boos from the stands because they are the visiting team and don't have the pressure from the stands that the home team has to face.

Does Mourinho feel guilty because his team doesn't play well?

of course not!

Mourinho is not a head coach who pursues "beautiful football". He is an extremely utilitarian person who believes that results are above all else.

So if they could just beat Aston Villa, why wouldn't they do it?

But Aston Villa could not accept this result, so in the end Aston Villa had to take the initiative to change the game.

So he waved his hand and Aston Villa attacked.

In fact, Aston Villa's players also wanted to attack. They had been frustrated by their own play and were already angry. Now after seeing the coach's adjustments, they pounced on Manchester United's goal like tigers coming down the mountain.

Seeing that Aston Villa had obviously intensified its offensive, with more people participating in the attack and more momentum, the Aston Villa fans in the stands were delighted and cheered loudly for their team.

For a moment, with the cheers of the home fans, Aston Villa's attack was swift and the whole team was in high spirits. It seemed that they could break through Manchester United's goal at any time. The bright future of equalizing the score and then reversing the victory was not far ahead!

………………

Aston Villa took the initiative to make adjustments and changes, and their offense became more threatening. Aston Villa fans in the stands also believed that the team was back on track and they could expect the team to win the game at home.

But the reason why reality is called "cruel" is that it does not develop according to people's subjective wishes.

In the 69th minute when Aston Villa pressed forward, Manchester United got an attacking opportunity.

Ins's shot was confiscated by Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea, who then did not kick the ball out with his feet, but threw it directly to Kante outside the penalty area. Kante knocked the ball to Bruno with his head, and Bruno passed the ball horizontally to the side.

On the wing was the full-back Luke Shaw. Although Luke Shaw received the ball on the wing, he did not continue to dribble forward. Facing the blockade of Aston Villa players, he passed the ball diagonally to the middle.

The ball was received by center forward Harry Kane.

When Harry Kane received the ball, his back was facing the direction of attack, but he didn't need to think about how to turn around, he just needed to pass the ball back.

The football fell to Bruno's feet again.

Bruno did not stop the ball, but kicked it directly towards the ball passed by Harry Kane. The ball flew to the left side, where Rashford had already moved forward at high speed.

And there is also a gap in Aston Villa's defense!
………………

Aston Villa forgot that their defense was incomplete during their series of fierce bombardments around Manchester United's goal, and now this gap was seized by Bruno.

Manchester United's series of quick passes not only overwhelmed the fans in front of the TV and in the stands, but also made the Aston Villa players on the field unable to react.

Manchester United's attack was first in the middle, but was soon moved to the left. After Aston Villa's defensive focus shifted to this side, the ball was passed back to the middle.

So the Aston Villa players turned their attention to the middle, but they didn't expect Bruno to pass the ball back to the left.

In order to prevent Luke Shaw from dribbling the ball forward, Aston Villa's defense line on this side was relatively forward. Anyway, compared to their left back, Aston Villa's right back Cash had already crossed the center line.

He originally wanted to block Luke Shaw, but Luke Shaw did not rush up with the ball. Instead, he passed the ball to the middle. His attention also turned to the middle, and for a moment he ignored the space behind him.

But Bruno did not ignore it, and with a very quick and accurate pass, he passed the ball behind Cash.

When Rashford got the ball, the other Aston Villa defenders were still lagging behind, so even though he was behind Cash, he was not offside!
………………

"Good shot! Rashford!"

Amid He Wei's exclamation, Rashford dribbled the ball towards Aston Villa's penalty area.

There were still not many Manchester United players involved in the attack. Harry Kane and Greenwood rushed forward first, and Bruno was also running forward, but not very fast, and it seemed that he did not intend to take the lead.

His actions naturally did not attract the attention of Aston Villa players, so the Aston Villa players who kept returning to defense accelerated and ran past him, but no one turned their heads to look at him. Their eyes were firmly fixed on Rashford who was dribbling the ball...

As a result, the distance between the slower Bruno and the faster Aston Villa players became larger and larger, and he was almost unmarked.

When Rashford rushed to the 30-meter area of ​​​​Aston Villa and found that there was no good target to pass the ball forward, he naturally chose to knock the ball back and pass the ball to Bruno.

It was only at this time that people realized that no one was watching Bruno!

So the Aston Villa players who were originally defending Harry Kane and Greenwood near the penalty area turned around and rushed towards Bruno.

Facing Jacob who was the first to rush up, Bruno made a fake long-range shot, which tricked Jacob into jumping up and turning around to block with his back.

But Bruno just dribbled the ball to the left, then flashed past Jacob and dribbled the ball towards Aston Villa's penalty area!
"Bruno! Nice fake move, he dribbles the ball forward!" He Wei shouted excitedly.

………………

Bruno, who got rid of Jacob, had a brief space where he could shoot, but he didn't. Instead, he continued to rush forward with the ball, and he soon ran head-on into Aston Villa's defense.

At this moment, he used a very concealed movement while running, raised his toes and picked up the football.

The ball passed over Aston Villa's defenders and landed behind them.

At this time, Harry Kane appeared behind them and at the place where the football landed. He gently cushioned the football!
Although an Aston Villa player raised his arms to signal to the referee that Harry Kane was offside when he received the ball, neither the referee nor the linesman made any comment.

Especially the linesman, he could see clearly that at the moment Bruno passed the ball, Aston Villa's defense line was not consistent. Mings was a little late and lagged at the back, and he also let Harry Kane be in a non-offside position!
(End of this chapter)