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

Chapter 956 The decisive moment
When the situation was relatively calm, Mourinho also made a substitution.

In the 73rd minute of the game, Mourinho replaced Greenwood, who had physical problems and could hardly run, with young player Amad Diallo to keep the attacking line active.

When the game reached the 79th minute, it was getting closer to the end of the game and there was less and less time left for Palmeiras to equalize the score.

If Manchester United can maintain their one-goal advantage until the end of the game, they will win the Club World Cup for the fourth consecutive year.

This will be the sixth time in Manchester United's history that they have won the Club World Cup and its predecessor, the Toyota Cup (Intercontinental Cup). They will also tie with Real Madrid and become the team with the most titles in this tournament.

Palmeiras will face the reality of losing to Manchester United again after 22 years and missing out on the Club World Cup.

Of course Palmeiras was unwilling to accept such a result, and they launched an even more frenzied attack on Manchester United's goal.

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In the 80th minute, after getting the ball in the frontcourt, Pickles cut in from the wing to the middle, and then suddenly kicked a lob pass. The ball flew over Manchester United's defense line and fell into the space behind them!
There was a blank area between the defender and the goalkeeper. Palmeiras midfielder Vega, who performed very well in this game, rushed out of the crowd like a ghost, turned around and swung his foot, kicking the football in the air directly towards the goal!

The Manchester United defenders looked back and saw the moment when Vega shot. They only saw that Vega was behind all the defenders when he shot, so they naturally thought that Vega was offside, so they raised their arms.

But no one from the referee to the linesman said anything, and when they raised their hands, the ball had already been kicked towards the goal by Vega!

De Gea reflexively stretched out his arm to block and touched the ball, but the ball still flew towards the goal!

But De Gea's touch still played a very crucial role. The football finally hit the top of the crossbar and then bounced out of the bottom line!

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There was a cry of surprise at the Zayed Stadium. Vega did not hold his head and feel sorry for not being able to score a goal. He pointed to the corner flag area and appealed to the linesman. He believed that De Gea must have lifted the ball, otherwise how could it have hit the crossbar?
However, the linesman ignored him, and the referee did not make a gesture to give a corner kick. This made Vega very dissatisfied, and he ran to the referee and tried to appeal, but the referee had turned around and ran away earlier than him.

Slow motion showed that Vega was not talking nonsense. The edge of De Gea's palm did touch the football, causing the football to change its direction very slightly.

It was this subtle change in direction that caused the football to eventually hit the top edge of the crossbar instead of the bottom edge and bounce into the goal.

He Wei said with some regret: "Vega's shot... From Picresse's lob pass, to his decisive run forward, to his turn and volley, it was all done in one go, very perfect, except for the last shot which was saved by De Gea... What a pity! This ball should have been a corner kick, but the referee didn't say anything. Of course, we all have to use slow motion to see it clearly, so it's not incomprehensible that the referee and the linesman didn't see it clearly... It's a pity for Palmeiras, what a beautiful attack!"

He Wei really felt sorry for Vega's goal. If it had gone in, both teams would be back on the same starting line again.

With ten minutes left in the game, that was the catalyst that sent the game straight into a white-hot stage.

Unfortunately, this did not happen.

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Facing the aggressive attack of Palmeiras and with ten minutes left in the game, Manchester United did not choose to defend for ten minutes like other teams to keep the one-goal lead. Instead, they made the opposite move and continued to attack Palmeiras, using a crazier attack than Palmeiras to curb Palmeiras' attack.

If others and Palmeiras attacked fiercely at the last minute of the game, they would probably be beaten into a sieve by Palmeiras. But what Manchester United did was really able to curb Palmeiras' attack...

In the 83rd minute, Palmeiras was passing the ball in Manchester United's half, looking for an opportunity, but they passed the ball to Bruno's feet!
Bruno was not vague either. After getting the ball, he immediately passed it forward and passed it to Harry Kane who was at the front.

Harry Kane turned around after receiving the ball in the center circle. At this time, half of Palmeiras' back half was almost empty. Because Palmeiras was in an offensive state before, their players had no time to return to defense.

Harry Kane saw that on the right side, young player Diallo, who had just replaced Greenwood, was moving forward at high speed.

The Ivorian striker is very fast, so Harry Kane knew what to do. He passed the ball diagonally forward to twenty meters in front of Diallo.

Diallo accelerated and ran after the football!

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"Harry Kane passes the ball... Diallo! Three against two in the frontcourt! This is Manchester United's counterattack opportunity!"

Amid He Wei's exclamation, Weverton decisively abandoned the goal and rushed towards the football.

Diallo was also accelerating, and finally took advantage of his speed advantage to receive the ball first, but at the same time he was very close to Weverton, and he shot!
With a low shot, the ball was blocked by Weverton's foot and flew out of the bottom line. "Weverton! He made a subconscious save! It was crucial! He kept hope for Palmeiras! If Diallo had been calmer when handling the ball and used a lob instead of a push shot, it might have gone in... You know, there was an empty goal behind Weverton!"

The football flew out of the sideline. Diallo was still feeling upset about wasting this opportunity. On the sidelines, the right-back Dalot who rushed up had already thrown the football into the field, and it was Bruno who caught the ball.

Manchester United's speed in attack is not only reflected in their sprinting speed, but also in the fact that they will not easily waste any time.

Palmeiras was obviously prepared for this. As soon as Bruno received the ball, Picresse came up from behind.

On the contrary, Diallo was not quite used to this characteristic of Manchester United. He stood on the sidelines looking detached and did not participate at all.

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At this time, the ball had been thrown to Bruno. Bruno, who was facing away from the attack direction outside the penalty area, was being stuck by Pickles. It seemed that he was lucky enough to be able to protect the ball and had no time to think about organizing an attack.

But Bruno had no intention of protecting the ball or stopping it. He simply hooked the ball behind him with his foot, and the ball flew past the top of him and Picresse and into the penalty area.

At the same time, Rashford, who was on the wing, suddenly accelerated and rushed over. He passed by Bruno and Pickles, entered the penalty area, and then received the ball hooked by Bruno in the penalty area.

Bruno's hook pass and Rashford's sudden diagonal run were completely unexpected by the Palmeiras players, so much so that there was no interference from Palmeiras players when Rashford received the ball.

Luan rushed up to intercept Rashford after Rashford received the ball. Rashford passed the ball horizontally, an inverted triangle pass!
This pass once again caught Palmeiras' defense by surprise.

The ball was passed to Kante who came from behind. The French midfielder shot the ball immediately. The ball flew to the far corner, but Weverton dived sideways and blocked it!

But the football did not fly to the bottom line, but bounced back into the penalty area.

At the far end, Manchester United's left-back Luke Shaw had also entered the penalty area. He rushed towards the football and kicked it directly!

The football rolled along the grass towards the far corner!

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Weverton, who had just completed a save, struggled to get up and threw himself behind him. At the same time, central defender Gomez also flew back and tried to knock the ball away.

But none of them could touch the football. The football passed by them and the goal line, then hit the far post and rolled out of the bottom line.

Rashford, who passed the ball, Kante, who took the first shot, and Luke Shaw, who took the second shot, all held their heads in their hands, feeling very sorry and a little bit unbelievable that the ball did not go in.

At the same time, Bruno near the sideline did the same thing, his eyes widened, he couldn't believe that this violent attack didn't result in a goal...

He even wished he had not received the sideline ball near the sideline, but instead rushed into the penalty area to shoot.

If it were him, he might have already scored that chance!

But there are no ifs on the football field. After all, if he hadn't received Dalot's hand-thrown ball near the sideline, the others might not have been able to pass the ball facing Pickles' close defense, and there would have been no subsequent series of shooting threats.

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Although his goal had just been subjected to continuous and fierce attacks and was almost broken, Abel Ferreira quickly made adjustments to continue to strengthen the attack. He replaced midfielder Ze Rafael with Wesley.

This was a very bold substitution, but it was the only thing Palmeiras could do. They couldn't just replace a defender and hope to maintain the score when they were one goal behind, right?
Likewise, Manchester United did not retreat to defend in the last few minutes of the game just because they were only one goal ahead. So when the game resumed, the two teams continued to attack.

Such a game is naturally very exciting to watch, but it also hides a huge crisis.

Palmeiras had the potential to take advantage of Manchester United's defensive loopholes and equalize the score.

On the other hand, Manchester United may also seize the defensive loopholes of Palmeiras and completely secure the victory.

It all depends on who has a better ability to seize opportunities.

(End of this chapter)