From the man behind the football king to the football king

On the evening of March 17, in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Manchester United played against Brighton at home.

Mourinho made a large-scale rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup, with McTominay as the single striker, Mata, Lingard and Mahrez ambushing behind him, and Herrera and Fellaini as double defensive midfielders. On the defensive line, Lindelof and Smalling partnered as central defenders, Luke Shaw and Valencia were on the left and right, and Romero was the goalkeeper.

In the 37th minute, Luke Shaw knocked back from the left, Mahrez immediately passed the ball to the back point, McTominay rushed to the top and scored, Manchester United led Brighton 1:0.

In the 83rd minute, Ashley Young, who came on as a substitute, passed the free kick from the left to the back point, and Bruno, who also came on as a substitute, headed the ball into the goal. Manchester United defeated Brighton 2:0 and successfully entered the FA Cup semi-finals.

One day later, the other two teams in the FA Cup semi-finals of the 2017-2018 season were also produced. Southampton eliminated Wigan Athletic 2:0, and Chelsea scored a goal in extra time and eliminated Leicester City 2:1.

Then the semi-final draw results were also announced, Manchester United vs. Tottenham, Chelsea vs. Southampton. Both semi-finals will be held at the new Wembley Stadium on April 21 and 22.

In this FA Cup semi-final draw, Manchester United was drawn as the nominal home team, but considering that Tottenham has played at Wembley Stadium for most of the season, it is actually Tottenham's "home court". This season, Tottenham's strong dialogue at home can basically attract more than 80,000 spectators.

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In the new week, international football ushered in the first international match day of 2018. The Portuguese national team had two warm-up matches during this period, against the Egyptian team led by Salah and the Dutch team where Van Dijk is.

However, Bruno did not join the Portuguese national team this time after discussing with Santos.

In the following April and May, Manchester United, which is fighting on three fronts, has a very tight schedule.

According to the schedule, the Premier League this season will end on May 13, which means that from March 31 to May 13, in just 45 days, Manchester United will play 8 Premier League games.

In addition, Manchester United has entered the FA Cup semi-finals and the Champions League quarter-finals, which means that they will have to play at least 1 FA Cup semi-final and 2 Champions League quarter-finals.

In the most ideal case, that is, Manchester United enters the FA Cup final and the Champions League final, they will play 2 FA Cup games and 5 Champions League games.

In other words, Manchester United will play 11 to 15 games in April and May, almost double games a week.

What's more, after the end of the season, the Russian World Cup will also begin, and Bruno has no time to rest.

It can be said that this international match day will be Bruno's last chance to rest before the start of the Russian World Cup.

Of course, the real reason why Bruno missed the Portuguese national team this time was because he and Vanessa were going to get engaged.

In January, Vanessa, who was already 30 years old, told Bruno at her birthday party that she wanted to get married.

Bruno recalled the four years of getting along with each other and Vanessa's silent dedication during this period, and finally dispelled his hesitation and nodded to their marriage.

After the two discussed, they decided to get engaged in March and then officially get married next summer.

The engagement ceremony of the two was held in Bruno's hometown of Maya, and it was also very low-key. Both parties only invited some of their closest relatives and friends, and the total number did not even exceed 30 people.

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After the engagement ceremony, Bruno and Vanessa took the newly delivered Gulfstream G650 private jet to Switzerland for vacation.

At the same time, the warm-up match between Portugal and Egypt also started in Zurich, Switzerland. In the first half, Rolando's goal was disallowed; in the second half, Salah scored a long-range goal to open the scoring, and Ronaldo scored two headers in stoppage time and completed the winning goal in the 95th minute.

Bruno and Vanessa watched the game in the VIP box as fans.

Three days later, the Portuguese team, which moved to Geneva, ushered in another opponent, the Dutch team of Orange Army.

Although they missed the World Cup in Russia, the strength of the Dutch team is beyond doubt.

In the first half of the game, the Dutch team attacked like a tide, Depay, Babel and Van Dijk scored three goals for the Dutch team, and De Ligt contributed two assists. After the change of sides, Cancelo received the second yellow card of the game and was sent off.

In the end, the Netherlands defeated Portugal 3:0.

The two games highlighted a very obvious problem, that is, without Bruno, Portugal's control on the field has obviously declined. They can't even compete with the average Egyptian team in the midfield. It's just that Ronaldo's personal ability at the critical moment that fortunately won the victory. However, against the strong Dutch team, the Five Shields were completely suppressed in the midfield. The midfield could not provide support, and Ronaldo could not continue his magical performance.

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After enjoying a short one-week vacation in Switzerland, the couple took a private plane back to Manchester, and Bruno began to prepare for another devilish schedule.

At 3 pm on March 31st, local time in the UK, a focus match of the 32nd round of the Premier League kicked off at Old Trafford Stadium, where Manchester United played at home against Swansea.

Manchester United took the lead in the 5th minute, Lingard passed the ball, Bruno made a cross from the left side of the penalty area, and Harry Kane shot into the upper corner from 13 yards.

Manchester United expanded the score in the 20th minute, and Bruno's goal changed the score to 2:0.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!!!!!!!!!!"

"Bruno! Bruno!! Bruno!!! He scored, his 36th league goal of the season!"

"This is a very interesting lucky goal!" Andy Gray shouted, "This goal makes us draw a conclusion, when the player's feeling and state of scoring and luck are also good, it is difficult for you not to score."

The live screen is replaying this goal. This is a through ball sent by Gundogan. Harry Kane uses his heel to straighten the ball with his back to the goal. Bruno is offside and enters the penalty area. Facing the attacking goalkeeper Fabianski, he chooses to shoot.

Bruno, who had just finished shooting, was knocked down by Swansea defender Federico who was chasing back, and the ball was saved by goalkeeper Fabianski and bounced back from the post.

At this time, Bruno, who was lying on the ground, was about to get up. When he looked up, the ball hit Bruno's forehead and bounced into the net...

This is what the commentator said, when the feeling and luck of scoring are here, it is difficult not to score.

Look, the goal came to me!

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At the end of the first half, Manchester United led Swansea 2:0 at home.

When the referee blew the whistle, Swansea coach Carvalhal frowned and went straight back to the locker room. For the first half of the game, he only wanted to say one thing, Manchester United's luck was too good.

Carvalhal replaced Paul Kante as Swansea's head coach on December 28 last year. After taking over the Swansea, he achieved good results, with an excellent record of 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in 10 league rounds. This also made Swansea rise from the previous bottom team to 14th in the standings, 4 points above the relegation zone, which is in a relatively safe position.

And the Portuguese quickly won the trust of Swansea's soldiers.

After the halftime break, before the start of the second half, Carvalhal adjusted the team. He let former Liverpool striker Carroll and young player Abraham on loan from Chelsea play, replacing midfielders Dale and Ji Chengyueng.

This is a very courageous substitution. Two midfielders were replaced with two center forwards. Now Swansea is deploying a three-forward tactic.

"Actually, it's a double center forward tactic." Mourinho said to Carrick, "Carroll and Abraham are two high points, Ayew's position is slightly withdrawn, and he and Clucas form a double wing to deliver ammunition for these two people."

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This substitution was somewhat effective at the beginning, especially when Clucas suddenly showed his power and continuously sent crosses from the wing.

Obviously, this was Carvalhal's deployment during the halftime break, stimulating Clucas's wing assist ability to find Carroll and Abraham.

Mourinho was startled, and then he saw Clucas using his speed to repeatedly attack Valencia's defense area, and the football was whizzed into the penalty area by him - flying from the left to the no-man's land on the right, or directly flying out of the bottom line and the sideline.

Anyway, the football flew to wherever there were no Swansea players.

Mourinho was stunned. In just ten minutes, Clucas sent four crosses, all of which perfectly avoided his teammates.

"What is Clucas doing? Is he practicing the Bobo ball game?" The commentator couldn't help asking.

"My grandma's pass is more reliable than Clucas's." Andy Gray, the gold medal commentator of Sky TV who commented on this game, said sarcastically.

Mourinho immediately made a substitution, Kante came on as a substitute, replacing Herrera.

Then, this substitution immediately had a miraculous effect. Clucas tried to break through Valencia again. Kante cleverly double-teamed and stole the ball from Clucas' feet, and Manchester United played a quick counterattack.

Mahrez sent a long pass, Harry Kane headed the ball in front of the point and then rubbed it. Van der Horn made a shovel to clear the ball, but accidentally knocked the attacking goalkeeper Fabianski to the ground. Then, everyone saw that Manchester United's left winger Rashford was even stunned for a second, and then happily dribbled the ball to the front of the goal and scored the ball into the empty goal.

Manchester United took a three-goal lead.

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Carvalhal felt like he was going crazy. The players kept making mistakes and there were constant accidents on the field. He even wondered if Swansea was cursed.

The camera captured that when Rashford scored this lucky gift package goal, Manchester United coach Mourinho did not celebrate immediately on the sidelines, but spread his hands and showed an extremely surprised expression.

"Obviously, Mourinho was also stunned. He didn't expect Swansea to give gifts frequently."

Swansea, which was three goals behind, launched a crazy attack. Carvalhal is now thinking about scoring goals and narrowing the gap as much as possible. He doesn't seek to win or reverse the game. If he can tie the score, he will thank God.

Seeing Swansea pressing forward, Mourinho stared at Swansea's empty defense line and thought. Then, he asked Mbappe, who had been warming up on the sidelines for more than ten minutes, to come over and give him instructions: "After you come on the court, replace Bruno. Let Kane pass the ball to you. We will play a defensive counterattack and use your speed to attack their defense!"

When Swansea pressed forward desperately, the most suitable player for defensive counterattack was the extremely fast Mbappe.

Afterwards, Manchester United made a substitution, the team captain Bruno was replaced and Mbappe came on as a substitute.

"This substitution is very timely. When Swansea attacked, there was a gap behind their defense line. For Mbappe, this is perfect." Andy Gray said.

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Carvalhal also noticed this substitution, and he could guess Mourinho's idea.

But even though he guessed what Manchester United was going to do, Carvalhal was powerless. Unless Swansea could accept a 0:3 loss and defend honestly, otherwise, as long as they pressed forward, they would have to play football with the hidden danger that the defense line might expose the gap and be caught by the opponent.

This is a gambling attack.

Carvalhal now hopes that the goddess of luck can take care of Swansea and not give Manchester United a chance.

However, Carvalhal's heart skipped a beat. Speaking of luck, Swansea's luck today is really a bit bad.

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In the 76th minute of the game, Swansea's frontcourt attack was intercepted, and Manchester United quickly played a defensive counterattack.

Mahrez, who received the pass from Van Dijk, did not choose to dribble forward, but looked ahead and kicked directly: long pass!

The football crossed the half court and flew directly to Swansea's backcourt.

"Open space!"

"Opportunity to counterattack!"

On the left side of Swansea, left back Olsen had not returned to defense because of the assist, and there was a large open space there.

Mbappe was sprinting, behind him on the left was Rashford, and in the middle was Gundogan.

In the Swansea penalty area, there was only central defender Van der Horn, and the other two central defenders Federico and Mossen were desperately chasing back.

"Three on one! Manchester United formed a three on one in a local area!"

Mbappe caught up with the football first, and then he sprinted directly with the ball.

Swansea defender Van der Horn rushed up with his head held high. He was panicking now. Not only did he have to defend against Mbappe's breakthrough, but he also had to defend against his pass and his long shot... He felt that it was too difficult for him.

At this time, the smartest choice for Mbappe was to pass the ball to Rashford on the left, and Vanderhorn was mainly defending this.

Then, he saw Mbappe rushing towards him.

Good timing!

Then Vanderhorn lost sight of Mbappe.

"Beautiful!" Commentator Andy Gray couldn't help but exclaim.

Before the two were about to touch, Mbappe moved the ball forward, then started again, rushing past Vanderhorn like a gust of wind.