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

Chapter 973: Powerful Manchester City

Two days after defeating Liverpool to win the League Cup, on the evening of March 3, Manchester United faced Tottenham Hotspur led by Cristiano Ronaldo in the fifth round of the FA Cup at home.

This was another heavyweight battle, but because the League Cup final had only happened fifty hours ago, the physical fitness of Manchester United's main players who played in the League Cup final was very poor, so Mourinho decided to strategically give up the FA Cup and rotated almost the entire lineup, but Bruno was an exception. He continued to lead the team as captain.

Ten minutes into the game, Bruno received a pass from Dalot on the right and scored against Tottenham, opening the scoring for Manchester United.

In the 2th minute of the first half, Mahrez assisted McTominay to score, extending the score to 0:.

In the second half of the game, Tottenham launched a counterattack and Ronaldo scored a goal for the Lilywhites.

With the game approaching, Tottenham's morale was boosted and they continued to intensify their offensive, but ultimately failed to score again and the score of 2:1 remained until the end of the game. Manchester United narrowly won at home and advanced to the sixth round of this season's FA Cup.

………………

A day later, the FA Cup quarter-finals were announced, with six Premier League teams advancing, namely Manchester City, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Southampton, Liverpool and Everton.

There is only one non-Premier League team left, the match between Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield, and the result has not yet been announced.

In the subsequent FA Cup quarter-final draw, Manchester United drew Chelsea.

This is not a very good result, but it was also within Manchester United's expectations.

After all, the eight FA Cup quarter-final teams and the top four teams in the Premier League standings are all in, so there is a high probability that Manchester United will draw a strong opponent.

Now, the team did not draw the strongest Manchester City, nor the powerful rival Liverpool, which is already a good result.

Of course, it would definitely be better if we could draw Crystal Palace, Southampton or Everton, which are of average strength.

As for drawing the weakest non-Premier League team, Nottingham Forest, the possibility of that is not very high.

With Manchester United advancing to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, this also means that the Red Derby between Manchester United and Liverpool will have to be postponed to another date.

………………

Although Manchester United's morale was greatly boosted by defeating two strong rivals, Liverpool and Tottenham, after hard battles, the physical strength of Manchester United players was further depleted, giving them a feeling of being at the end of their strength.

Under such circumstances, Manchester United has ushered in a strong opponent, which is also Manchester United’s biggest competitor in the league at present - Manchester City!
On the afternoon of March 3, in the 6th round of the Premier League, Manchester United visited the Etihad Stadium to challenge the Blue Moon Manchester City.

This is a crucial match that is widely believed by the whole of Britain and even the world to determine who will win the Premier League title this season!

Before this round, after 27 rounds of the same competition, Manchester United ranked first with 71 points and Manchester City ranked second with 63 points.

If Manchester City loses to Manchester United at home this round, with only 10 rounds left in the league, Manchester City will be 11 points behind Manchester United, which can be said to be an early withdrawal from the race for the league title.

Even if the two sides draw, Manchester City is still 8 points behind Manchester United. And with Manchester United's stable performance in the Premier League in the past few seasons, it is too difficult for Manchester City to catch up with 10 points in 8 league games.

If Manchester City can beat Manchester United at home, the gap between the two sides will be reduced to 5 points. Although this gap is not small, there is always hope of catching up.

Therefore, if Manchester City wants to end its years of league title drought and end Manchester United's five consecutive league titles, they must not lose this home court.

………………

Manchester United were very unwelcome at the Etihad Stadium, that was how Bruno felt as he stood in the player tunnel.

At this moment, he was in the tunnel of the Etihad Stadium, standing with his teammates waiting to play.

Manchester United's away game against Manchester City is about to begin, and the rosters of the two teams are being broadcast on the radio outside the stadium.

Just by mentioning that the visiting team was "Manchester United", the Etihad Stadium was already filled with boos. When his name was read, the boos undoubtedly reached their peak.

After joining Manchester United, Bruno brought too many painful memories to Manchester City, which made them hate him as the captain of Manchester United even more, and they would "entertain" him with the craziest boos every time.

However, this did not move Bruno, because he had heard the same booing so many times in the six years since joining Manchester United that he could now filter out the boos from opposing fans.

When the game starts, as soon as the Manchester United players get the ball, they will hear boos from Manchester City fans, regardless of whether the Manchester United players have any grudges with Manchester City fans before.

As long as you wear a Manchester United shirt, you will be booed.

Bruno is already familiar with this, it's just an attempt to put pressure on you.

He doesn’t care. ………………

Bruno didn't need to care about the boos from the fans in the stands, because no matter how much they booed, they couldn't really come down to the court to disturb him. But Bruno couldn't ignore the actions of the Manchester City players.

As soon as the game started, Gundogan was double-teamed by the opponent.

According to previous experience, when Gundogan was double-teamed, he would quickly pass the ball away. And out of trust in Bruno's ability, he would pass the ball to Bruno most of the time. So after encountering double-teaming, Gundogan quickly passed the ball to Bruno.

This is also one of the manifestations of the dual-core tactics, that is, once one core is being targeted, the task of running the team can be handed over to another core.

If the opponent wants to restrict the two core players, their defensive strength in other places will inevitably be insufficient, and that will be the time for other Manchester United players to take advantage.

So theoretically, the dual-core strategy has certain advantages.

But in the Manchester derby, everything is different and needs to be reconsidered.

For example, when Bruno just received the ball, he was hit hard from behind. He stumbled and almost lost the ball. If he hadn't hooked the ball with his foot...

But even so, he barely controlled the ball, but it was difficult for him to organize an attack after getting the ball. It was good enough for him to ensure that he did not lose the ball.

Moreover, just after he regained control of the ball, the person behind him bumped into him again.

If we do it again, we’ll definitely lose the ball.

So Bruno had to pass the ball.

………………

Of course, Bruno didn't have the mind to think about who would be the best choice to pass the ball to. As long as he could pass the ball to his teammates and ensure that the ball remained under Manchester United's control, it would be enough.

Then he turned his head and looked at the Manchester City player who bumped into him, Rodri, the tall and strong Manchester City midfielder.

This season, Manchester City's midfield is unprecedentedly strong. De Bruyne is still in good shape, Pogba's form is starting to improve, and Spaniard Rodri is in his prime.

Pogba and Rodri, two big defensive midfielders with a height of over 1.9 meters and a weight of over 82 kilograms, are really strong in their ability to confront in the midfield.

In comparison, Manchester United's midfield consisting of Bruno, Kante and Gundogan all show signs of being inferior.

Bruno was not surprised by this. He had already seen Manchester City's tactics in the simulation game of the Training Master System.

Virtual Manchester City also knew to exploit his weakness of lack of strength.

But even though he knew it, he had no better solution. After all, Bruno was born with a weak body, and there was no way to change it. After all, he was about to turn 28, and his body was fully developed.

In fact, his body is now stronger than in another time and space. At the beginning, he was only 1.79 meters tall and weighed less than 70 kilograms. Now, after the training master's systematic targeted training, his height has reached 1.83 meters and his weight has reached 75 kilograms. His confrontation ability is already very good in the Premier League.

However, now he was facing two big midfielders, which made him feel a bit disadvantaged.

………………

Next, the game continues.

The situation did not change much. As long as Bruno got the ball, Manchester City's two central midfielders, Pogba and Rodri, no matter who was closer to him, would rush up and use their physical advantage to squeeze Bruno, forcing him to lose the ball and make a mistake.

Not only the two defensive midfielders Pogba and Rodri, but also the two central defenders Stones and Laporte will come up to trouble Bruno from time to time. Even Manchester City's forwards Foden, Sancho and Grealish will participate in the pressing.

Gundogan was double-teamed and Bruno was crushed by the opponent. Manchester United's midfield was not functioning smoothly and they were naturally suppressed by Manchester City on the field.

Manchester City, playing at home, had the upper hand. The cheers in the Etihad Stadium were so loud that they hurt people's eardrums.

"Bruno was closely guarded by Manchester City, and it was difficult for him to perform at his normal level..." In the live broadcast room of iQiyi, commentator Jin Xiangkai frowned and said, "Bruno's previous performance was always excellent. It is normal for him to be closely guarded by the opponent in this Manchester derby. It can only be said that they found a weakness of Bruno, and this weakness was found very effectively. In addition, the derby is originally played very roughly and barbarically, and the referee's penalty standards are also a bit loose compared to ordinary games. So..."

He didn't say anything more, but the Manchester United fans in front of the TV knew what was going on. They were also very anxious, but they couldn't help much, and even the words of encouragement and shouting Bruno couldn't be heard.

Bruno fell again, this time not in his own backcourt, but in the opponent's backcourt.

"Pogba!" said Gary Lineker. "The blow he gave Bruno was really hard. It hit Bruno's hip bone. It hurt just watching. The referee was really merciful by not giving him a yellow card..."

(End of this chapter)