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

Chapter 957 Bruno wins the Club World Cup for the fifth time
In the 86th minute, Palmeiras organized an attack. According to Abel Ferreira's coaching style, they passed the ball back and forth in the midfield, looking for opportunities.

Manchester United responded by pressing and surrounding the opponent in the midfield.

The encirclement was gradually narrowed, and finally when their young midfielder Oliveira got the ball, there was no teammate around him, but three Manchester United players in red jerseys.

Oliveira, who was surrounded in the center, was a little panicked. He seemed to catch a glimpse of his teammate on his right side out of the corner of his eye, so he quickly passed the ball over.

But the football was not passed to his teammates. Instead, it was blocked by Bruno's tackle as soon as he kicked it!

The football that was poked away by Bruno fell at the feet of Harry Kane in front.

Harry Kane turned around and did not pass the ball immediately. Instead, he blocked the interception by Picresse behind him, then moved the ball forward, attracting Palmeiras' central defender Luan to his side.

At this time, the left side of Palmeiras' defense and the right side of Manchester United's attack were completely empty, and Diallo quickly pressed forward.

Luan also saw this, but he couldn't let Harry Kane go and run to defend Diallo. Regardless of whether it was right or not, even if he rushed over, it would be too late.

So he could only take another step forward, hoping to create an offside position so that when Harry Kane passed the ball to Diallo, the latter would be in an offside position. As for whether he could succeed, he could only leave it to fate.

In fact, every time a team creates an offside position, there is a certain element of gambling involved.

………………

Harry Kane really passed the ball into the open space, to Diallo's feet!

"Harry Kane passes the ball, great! Not offside!"

Luan's offside attempt failed because at the far end, Rocha followed Rashford back and lagged behind.

"The opportunity is here! Diallo!" He Wei shouted excitedly.

Diallo ran with the ball, attracting all the defensive players.

At the same time, Rashford was also moving quickly towards the goal. He used his speed and advantage of starting first to press Palmeiras' right-back Rocha behind him.

Seeing this, Weverton decisively abandoned the goal and attacked, hoping to block Diallo's shot.

But Diallo was clear-headed and did not take credit for the opportunity. When Weverton was about to block his angle, he made a shovel pass and passed the ball to the middle.

Rashford followed up with a push shot, and the ball rolled into the empty goal behind Weverton without any suspense.

"The ball goes in! 4:2! Manchester United has completely secured the first championship of 2022!"

Although this was a goal in the 87th minute, He Wei could indeed announce the final result.

If Palmeiras is only one goal behind, they can still fight, but if they are two goals behind, it is hard to say.

Moreover, losing the ball at this time was a huge blow to Palmeiras' morale. It is unknown how much fighting spirit the Palmeiras players will have after the game resumes.

………………

While Manchester United players were wildly celebrating the goal that sealed the victory, He Wei's emotional voice rang out in the ears of the fans in front of the TV: "... Before the game started, Palmeiras, who were in excellent form in the warm-up matches, were the favorites to win the championship, while Manchester United was in crisis because of two consecutive games in a week. Especially before the start of the Club World Cup, they had just encountered a slump of 4 draws in 3 games in the Premier League..."

"But reality gave many people a loud slap in the face. Manchester United, who were not optimistic before the game, performed very actively in the game. Under the leadership of captain Bruno, they almost controlled the rhythm of the whole game, suppressed Palmeiras tightly, and gave Palmeiras almost no chances."

"This is the strength of this Manchester United team. Many times, the situation seems to be very unfavorable to them. But they can always win the final victory under unfavorable circumstances. Sometimes it looks like luck, but more of it is their players' grasp of opportunities..."

"For example, in today's game, when Palmeiras once equalized the score, Manchester United used Bruno's seemingly irrational pass to create an own goal for the opponent, thus quickly surpassing the score again. This was a very crucial goal, and it can even be said to be the turning point of the game."

"We can't say that Palmeiras' performance in this game was bad, but at least at the beginning of the game, Palmeiras' performance was indeed not good enough. Abel Ferreira's team was a little slow to warm up. Maybe when facing other opponents who are not as strong as them, such slowness is not a big deal. But when facing Manchester United, which is known for its fast speed and fast rhythm, it is fatal to enter the game state slowly..."

………………

After the TV broadcast finished showing the celebrations of Manchester United players and Mourinho, it gave a close-up of Abel Ferreira.

In the camera, Abel Ferreira was sitting in the coaching seat and picked up the mineral water bottle and took a sip of water.

Apart from that, there was no movement and no expression on his face, he could even be described as "dull".

After the restart, Palmeiras launched a very hasty and ineffective attack, Wesley's long-range shot was easily caught by De Gea. Then Mourinho made a substitution, replacing Bruno with center back Lindelof.

"Bruno was substituted. After securing the victory, there was no need to worry about the midfield losing control and losing the ball. This kind of thing has happened in the past few seasons. Bruno's performance in this game was also very good. He made a supplementary shot to score the first goal for Manchester United at the beginning of the game. That goal also set the tone for Manchester United's performance in this game..."

He Wei gave the final verdict on Bruno's performance in this game.

When Bruno came off the field, thousands of Manchester United fans who came to Zayed Stadium and local fans in the UAE stood up and applauded him.

Bruno also raised his hands and applauded the fans.

………………

Bruno's departure also means that the game is basically over, and the rest is garbage time.

In particular, Palmeiras center back Luan fouled Harry Kane in the subsequent game and received a second yellow card and was sent off. Palmeiras had to play with ten men, which killed the South American champions' final hope of a comeback.

However, at this time Manchester United had no intention of relying on their numerical advantage to attack their opponents again.

After all, the Club World Cup is not a particularly important competition, and after returning to the UK, Manchester United will immediately face four fronts of battle in the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, and the schedule will maintain a very intensive rhythm.

In this way, with the victory already decided, Manchester United players and coaches including Mourinho naturally hope to end the final time of the game in a more relaxed way.

In the end, Manchester United defeated the Copa Libertadores champion Palmeiras 4:2 in the world-renowned Club World Cup final and won the championship trophy for the sixth time in team history.

………………

At the subsequent awards ceremony, Bruno also won the Ballon d'Or of this Club World Cup. This is the fourth consecutive year that he has won the Ballon d'Or of this tournament.

If you add the previous Club World Cup Ballon d'Or he won with Udinese, Bruno has won the Ballon d'Or five times in his career, further consolidating his advantage in the number of wins in this award.

However, Bruno missed again in the competition for the Golden Boot.

Last year, Bruno lost to Gignac, who scored 2 goals, by 3 goals in the competition for the Golden Boot of the tournament. This was the first time he missed the Golden Boot award while participating in the Club World Cup.

The Golden Boot Award of this Club World Cup was won by Palmeiras' attacking midfielder Vega. The 26-year-old Brazilian midfielder scored 3 goals in two Club World Cup matches, beating Bruno, Diaby and Ibrahim who scored goals each.

However, Bruno continues to lead the all-time scoring charts in the tournament, having played in five Club World Cups and scored 16 goals in the tournament.

Ranked second on the historical scorer list of the Club World Cup is Bruno's national team teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. The former Manchester United star participated in the Club World Cup four times in his career and scored a total of 4 goals.

However, Ronaldo, who is in second place, has a big gap in goal count compared to Bruno, who is in first place.

Moreover, as time goes by, this gap is bound to grow larger.

After all, given Ronaldo's current situation, it is difficult for him to have the opportunity to participate in the Club World Cup again.

Bruno, who is only 27 years old, is in the golden period of his career. His Manchester United is also at its peak. In the future, he will definitely have the opportunity to participate in the Club World Cup again.

………………

Of course, there is no absolute situation. Because the Club World Cup is planning a reform, and even if it were not for the epidemic, the 2021 Club World Cup would have a new competition system.

According to FIFA's reform plan, the Club World Cup will be changed into a tournament participated by 24 club teams or even 32 club teams.

According to the reform plan announced by FIFA in 2019, UEFA clubs will have 8 places to participate in the Club World Cup, namely the Champions League and Europa League champions of the past four years.

Under such circumstances, Ronaldo, who is currently playing for Tottenham, does not necessarily have no chance to participate in the Club World Cup again.

After all, with Tottenham's strength, it may be difficult to win the Champions League, but if they want to compete for the Europa League, it is still very likely.

Of course, as far as Bruno's memory is concerned, the reform of the Club World Cup will not be realized in the next one or two years.

At least before he traveled through time, the Club World Cup still maintained the previous format of seven teams participating, including the club champions of the six continents and the host league champions.

(End of this chapter)