Football King Bale

Chapter 327: The Devil’s Race Starts Again

The international match day is over, and Manchester United has entered a new devil's schedule. In the following 22 days from October 15th to November 5th, they will fight 7 games in the third-tier battlefield of the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup. The frequency of one game in three days sounds a bit creepy.

These seven games include 4 Premier League games, 2 Champions League games and a League Cup fourth round match. Especially for the week from October 15th to October 23rd, for Manchester United, it is really a death match. They will first go to Anfield to challenge their rival Liverpool at noon on October 15, and then fly 2,400 kilometers to Galati, a small town on the eastern border of Romania in Eastern Europe, to play a game with the Champions League rivals Galati Steel. Then flew 2,400 kilometers back to Manchester to play at home against their rivals in the same city and the strongest opponent in the league this season, Blue Moon Manchester City.

This death schedule can be described as frightening for Manchester United.

The first game against Liverpool has always had a special meaning for Manchester United. Although Liverpool has declined in the past two seasons, for the real enemy, no matter how declining the opponent is, they will not despise them, let alone show mercy. If it is possible, they all wish to step on the other party at a critical moment and completely trample the other party to death.

What's more, Liverpool's performance this season is pretty good. After the first 7 rounds of the league, they ranked fifth with 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, which can be called Manchester United's strong enemy. This time as a guest at Anfield, there is a danger of losing if you are not careful. If Manchester United does not want to be unbeaten by their rivals, then this game must be handled carefully.

Then there is the third game against Manchester City. This Manchester derby is not only about their face in Manchester. Given their position in the Premier League standings, the result of this game may directly affect the ownership of the league championship.

With continuous fierce battles, even if Manchester United has a large rotation, the players will not be able to bear it, especially most of them are players who have come from the two-week national team match day.

As for Manchester City, although the schedule is similar to that of Manchester United, the rapid expansion of the army in recent years has made Manchester City not only have a lineup of superstars, but also have little difference in strength between the main lineup and the substitute lineup. One ebb and the other, Manchester United's 19-game winning streak at home in the league and various unbeaten momentums are at stake.

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For Manchester United, the difficulty of this schedule is not only the strength of the opponent, but also the expedition in a short period of time.

Originally, Galati Steel was the weakest of Manchester United's three opponents in the Champions League group stage. Before that, they lost all their two group matches. They lost 1:2 away to Basel and 0:1 to Benfica at home. . With Manchester United's strength, it is not a big problem to win this Eastern European team, but the long journey and intensive schedule will become variables for Galati Steel's comeback at home.

After all, after the game against Liverpool on the afternoon of October 15th, three days later on the night of October 18th, they will play away against Galati Steel. So they basically don't have time to adjust.

In fact, for the opponent of Galati Steel, although its strength is limited, the other three teams, including Manchester United, are unwilling to meet. The main reason for this is: the distance is really too far!

The 2,400 kilometers between Manchester United and Galati is not the farthest of the three opponents, the farthest belongs to Benfica. For these two teams, it is almost the westernmost point of Europe and the easternmost point of Europe respectively. Benfica is located in Lisbon on the Atlantic coast, while Galati is located at the junction of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, one step away from the Black Sea. The straight-line distance between the two places is as high as 3,200 kilometers!

Even in Basel, which is relatively close, the straight-line distance between them and Galatz Steel in a small town on the northern border of Switzerland has reached 1,600 kilometers!

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For a death race is to follow,

Manchester United challenged Liverpool's England derby away. Ferguson sent 5 central defenders. Due to injury problems, there were no substitute defenders on the bench.

What is even more jaw-dropping is that Ferguson also excluded players with strong offensive capabilities such as Bell, Sneijder, Nani, Hernandez and Rooney from the starting lineup, and only placed them on the bench.

In the end, Manchester United's starting lineup was goalkeeper De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra on the back line, Phil Jones and Fletcher partnered as a double midfielder, and Park Ji-sung, Ji-Sung and Kyle on the front line. Gus and Ashley Young lined up with Welbeck as the single arrow.

At the beginning of the first half, Liverpool pursued a fast pace, while Manchester United tried to stabilize the scene first, but the two sides made too many mistakes in passing and receiving the ball in the early stage. As the game progressed, Manchester United gradually turned from a disadvantage to an advantage in possession of the ball.

But throughout the first half, Liverpool, the home team that played with all the main players, still got more opportunities. Suarez's low shot in the penalty area and Charlie Adam's free kick all posed a huge threat to Manchester United's goal. If it weren't for De Gea's brave performance, Manchester United would have fallen behind 0:2 in the first half.

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At the beginning of the second half of the game, Ferguson still did not make personnel adjustments.

In today's game, even if he could only score one point, Ferguson would still be acceptable. One is that Manchester United only played a half-substitute lineup today. If they can draw with Liverpool, it is equivalent to using a low-level horse to tie a tie with Liverpool, who played against a high-level horse. Manchester United not only won a point, but also gained a strategic advantage. The victory above; the second is Manchester United's advantage in the standings. Because of the huge goal difference advantage with Manchester City, even if Manchester City wins the subsequent game, Manchester United can still rank first on the goal difference advantage. Then you can have a decisive battle with Manchester City at Old Trafford in the next game and establish a lead.

However, Ferguson's wishful thinking was broken in the 68th minute of the game, and Liverpool took the lead in breaking the deadlock on the field.

In the 67th minute, Ferdinand kicked Charlie Adam down from the front of the penalty area and gave Liverpool a free kick, but Charlie Adam was suspected of diving from the replay.

Liverpool's free kick was taken by Gerrard. The captain of the Red Army took a free kick with his right foot from 24 meters away. Break through the wall and cross between Giggs and Evra, and get into the bottom right corner of the goal.

The ball looked like Giggs and Gerrard had played a very successful tactical coordination, which made Giggs very depressed.

It was Gerrard's 50th Premier League goal at Anfield and Liverpool's 1,200th in the Premier League.

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The score fell behind, Ferguson couldn't sit still, and immediately made substitution adjustments.

When the Liverpool people celebrated the goal and the game restarted, they found that three faces of the Manchester United players they faced had changed. Rooney replaced Phil Jones, Nani replaced Ashley Young, Bell replaced Park Ji-sung, Giggs moved to the center on the right and left, leaving the left to Bell.

Ferguson threw out three trump cards at once, showing his will to win the game.

Manchester United, which completed the substitutions, also switched from the slightly conservative 4231 formation to the traditional 442 formation.

Ferguson's substitutions had an immediate effect, and after seven minutes, they equalized away from home.

In the 75th minute, Bell dribbled the ball from the left and broke through two Liverpool players in a row. Just when everyone thought he would go down, Bell suddenly chose to cut inside.

Bell's unexpected choice disrupted Liverpool's defensive formation. In the process of cutting inside, Bell used continuous rhythm changes, shaking Liverpool's newly formed defense line into chaos, allowing Bell to smoothly cut inside to the left of the arc of the penalty area. side, found a chance to kick.

The arc in the penalty area gave Bell the opportunity to take a calm kick. Naturally, Bell would not be polite. The arc ball with his right foot went to the far corner, the ball crossed a rainbow, and then flew into Liverpool's goal through the inside of the goal post. Because Reina's line of sight was blocked, when he saw Bale take a shot, it was too late to choose to make a flying save.

1:1, Bell quickly helped Manchester United equalize the score!

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Manchester United, who equalized the score, boosted their morale and continued to besiege Liverpool's goal. Then after another 6 minutes, they reversed the score.

After 80 minutes, Manchester United won consecutive corner kicks. After Bale took two corner kicks, but the effect was not very good, Nani took the third corner kick.

Nani took a corner kick from the left, and the ball went straight to the left side of Liverpool's penalty area. At 4 meters from the goal, Bell, who was faster and more accurate in grabbing points, scored a header before Giggs, scoring twice and helping Manchester United reverse the score.

In the lead, the score was reversed by the rival scoring two goals in a row, which made it unacceptable for Liverpool, who were playing at home. Under the command of Dalglish, Liverpool Jedi counterattacked, vowing to win Manchester United at home.

However, today Manchester United's goalkeeper De Gea really performed superbly. First, Dirk Dirk took a close-range tackle in front of the left pass and was blocked again by De Gea. After the corner kick was taken, Manchester United escaped narrowly in the melee.

In the 90th minute, Adam received a pass from Suarez, and De Gea flew the ball out of the bottom line with one hand. Shoot and fly.

In the second minute of stoppage time, Henderson received a pass from the left, and the header was unbelievably high with no interference in the middle.

In the end, Manchester United, relying on Bell, who came off the bench, scored two goals in just 12 minutes, reversed their rivals at Anfield, and were lucky to get three points.

This three-pointer allowed Manchester United to continue to lead the Premier League standings with 8 consecutive victories. Even if Manchester City beat Villa 4:1 at home, they still could not shake Manchester United's position.

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