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

Chapter 988 Role Reversal
In a short period of time, Manchester United threatened Manchester City's goal several times. Seeing the constant noise in the new Old Trafford stadium, Manchester City fans kept exclaiming, while Manchester United fans cheered.

Manchester United then had several more attacks, all of which threatened Ederson's goal. One time, Ederson even missed the ball, and Greenwood almost had a chance to score.

After Ake came on the field, there was indeed a lack of tacit cooperation and rhythm with other defenders. This is also the reason why Manchester City has been so passive during this period.

During one of Manchester United's attacks, when Greenwood passed the ball into the penalty area, Ake's defense was obviously out of position, leaving Manchester United's left winger Rashford unguarded. Rashford shot in a very loose position, but fortunately Ederson was in a good position and directly hugged the ball.

This also fully illustrates the problems Manchester City has in defense.

The pace of the game suddenly became faster, and Manchester United obviously wanted to seize this opportunity to break the deadlock.

Faced with Mourinho's adjustment, Guardiola also quickly responded. He asked the players to stabilize the defense first and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

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Ten minutes after Kyle Walker was injured and left the field, Manchester City got a chance to counterattack. Zinchenko got the ball in the backcourt and did not go through the midfield. Instead, he passed the ball directly to the front with a long pass.

Phil Foden cut diagonally in front of the penalty area and stopped the ball before Bellingham, but he was facing away from the direction of attack and could not directly threaten Manchester United's goal, so he immediately passed the ball back to Manchester City midfielder De Bruyne who was following behind.

After receiving the ball, De Bruyne made a fake move to take a long shot, which tricked Manchester United defender Maguire into making a tackle. However, he dribbled the ball past the fallen Maguire and shot decisively despite Van Dijk's close pressure.

The football flew along the grass to the far corner. Goalkeeper De Gea, who was moving towards the near corner, was out of reach. Although he made a saving move, he couldn't touch the football. He could only watch the football almost brushing the goalpost and going into the goal!
The team that scored first was Manchester City who were forced to make substitutions!

When the football went into the net, the huge new Old Trafford stadium was dead silent, with only less than three thousand Manchester City fans cheering.

But in the new Old Trafford stadium that can accommodate 100,000 people, these 2,000 people are like waves in the sea.

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"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLL!!! From Kevin De Bruyne!"

"A classic counterattack! Manchester City seized the opportunity and took the lead away from home!"

"This is De Bruyne's second Champions League goal this season! It is also De Bruyne's second goal in two rounds against Manchester United!"

"As a world-class midfielder, although De Bruyne doesn't score as many goals as his rival Bruno, every goal he scores is crucial! The goal at home in the first leg once gave Manchester City hope of overtaking Manchester United. And today's goal allowed Manchester City to take the lead away from home and even the total score, giving them real hope of eliminating Manchester United!"

"Since this season, the Champions League has cancelled the rule of away goal advantage. De Bruyne's goal means that from now on, in the two-round knockout match, Manchester City and Manchester United are truly on the same starting line. If the game ends at this moment, the two sides will enter overtime, instead of being eliminated because of fewer away goals as before!"

Andy Gray was also very excited. Such a high-level game was just one goal away, and now the goal was finally achieved!
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After De Bruyne scored, Guardiola rushed onto the field and pumped his fist vigorously.

After being defeated by Manchester United again in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, the famous coach is under tremendous pressure. It is the wish of this top coach to defeat Manchester United and help Manchester City win the first Champions League title in team history.

He sees this away game against Manchester United as a match for Manchester City to overcome its psychological demons, so he is so excited.

Mourinho was biting his lower lip next door. He didn't expect that his approach of letting the team press forward and strengthen the attack would be seized upon and exploited by Guardiola.

Of course, the responsibility for the goal was his. There was no doubt that he was a little too aggressive. A draw at home would have been completely acceptable, but now because of overthinking, the draw turned into a deficit.

What to do next?
Mourinho fell into deep thought.

After scoring the goal, the morale of the entire Manchester City team was high. Next, they took the initiative at the new Old Trafford Stadium and continued to attack Manchester United's goal, launching wave after wave of attacks towards the goal guarded by De Gea. The surging offensive almost submerged Manchester United's goal.

During this period, Manchester United, playing at home, could only hold on with great difficulty. They could not even think about counterattacking. It would be good if they could stop conceding goals.

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After Zinchenko intercepted Greenwood's ball in the backcourt, he advanced at high speed without passing the ball to anyone. He dribbled the ball to the front of Manchester United's penalty area by himself, as if he was in an empty space, while Manchester United's defense looked very embarrassed.

"Zinchenko! Beautiful breakthrough!"

Andy Gray exclaimed.

During this period, the new Old Trafford seemed a bit quiet. With the home team Manchester United being suppressed, the home team fans also seemed a bit at a loss.

For the first time in five years, they felt that Manchester United's journey to the Champions League might be over. And their dream of chasing Real Madrid's record of five consecutive Champions League titles might be shattered in the next moment!

After rushing to the front of the penalty area, Zinchenko passed the ball horizontally to Sterling, but Sterling's shot in the penalty area went high, making everyone excited for nothing. Everyone thought Manchester City's second goal was coming...

"Ah, Sterling!" Andy Gray shouted in disappointment, "This kick is not up to standard!"

Jin Xiangkai started to complain: "As expected of a happy boy, Sterling started playing his happy football again! But Guardiola on the sidelines is obviously not that happy..."

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Two minutes later, Manchester City's attack returned. Phil Foden received a pass from Bernardo Silva in the penalty area, rushed forward with the ball, and then shot.

Facing this shot, Van Dijk used the "sacrifice himself to block the eye" approach and blocked the ball with his chest. After blocking the shot, he seemed to be kicked in the side and lay on the ground in the penalty area without getting up.

At this time, Manchester City player De Bruyne, who had taken the ball again and was preparing to organize an attack, saw this and kicked the ball out of the sideline, which was a response to Bruno's goodwill when Kyle Walker was injured.

Manchester United's team doctor came on the field to check and give some simple treatment. Van Dijk stood up again, holding his chest, and then signaled that he was fine and could continue to play without being replaced.

With Kyle Walker's injury as a turning point, the game officially entered a white-hot stage.

Although Manchester City is already one goal ahead, they are not satisfied with just winning one goal, because they have only equalized the aggregate score and have not eliminated Manchester United and advanced to the semi-finals.

Moreover, they have failed to win in 1 consecutive official matches against Manchester United, and only won a narrow 0: victory. How can they wash away this shame?
Faced with Manchester City's aggressive offensive, Mourinho did not choose to shrink his defense. He seemed to be aroused. His countermeasure was to continue to strengthen the offensive and confront Manchester City head-on!

In the 74th minute, Gundogan intercepted the ball in the frontcourt and passed it to Bruno. Bruno made a straight pass. Gundogan fell in the penalty area while making a forward run and did not touch the ball. Manchester United missed a chance to score.

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Mourinho then replaced Gundogan and brought on Mahrez. Bruno moved back to form a double defensive midfielder with Bellingham. Greenwood returned to the middle to connect the two, and Mahrez went to the right.

"Mourinho is going to fight!" Jin Xiangkai said after seeing the substitution.

With only Bellingham left in the midfield to defend, Bruno has to concentrate on organizing the attack and certainly can't help much in defense. Before, Gundogan could still help Bellingham, but now the young player can only rely on himself.

This substitution reflects the head coach's determination. Defense can be sacrificed for offense, which means that Mourinho will never accept a 0:1 loss at home.

Despite this score, Manchester United was not eliminated, but will play overtime with Manchester City. But a loss is a loss, and Manchester United may not be able to stabilize its position in overtime and find an opportunity to complete a counterattack.

So at this time, you must hold your breath and not let it out.

The following games were even more intense and exciting, and the spectators were very excited.

However, although the scene was exciting, there was no goal yet.

As the game entered the last ten minutes, the score was still 0:1, with Manchester City taking the lead away from home.

There is actually not much time left for Manchester United!

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As the game entered the last ten minutes, Manchester City's attack began to slow down.

Although Guardiola hopes that the team can beat Manchester United by a large margin away from home and eliminate Manchester United directly, he is not an idiot. If he really cannot score more goals, then ensuring a score of 1:0 is obviously more important.

Judging from the current situation of both sides, entering overtime is obviously beneficial to Manchester City.

It would be foolish to throw away a victory just to score more goals.

So he asked the team to slow down the pace, retreat on defense, and try to maintain the result.

And maybe if we try to maintain this result, we might even score more goals?
He believed that Mourinho would definitely not be able to accept this result. After all, it was very embarrassing to win the first leg away from home, lose the second leg at home, and then have to play overtime.

Moreover, given Manchester United's current state, it would be difficult to beat Manchester City even in overtime.

So Manchester United will definitely press forward in the final moments, and then Manchester City will just have to wait for a counterattack.

Manchester City retreated for a while, and Manchester United pressed forward immediately, which was exactly what Guardiola expected. The progress of the game was all under the control of the famous coach.

(End of this chapter)