Legend of Green: Rise of the Red Rebels

FC United's schedule for the next month can be described as the devil schedule, on September 28 to Kazakhstan to play the second round of the Europa League group stage, three days later to fly back to face Tottenham Hotspur at home, then two weeks of international break, almost all players have to report to the national team at all levels, and then come back to play Liverpool, away to Villarreal group stage, home to Manchester United Premier League matches, The games in a month were all tough battles.

If this month collapses, it can basically declare FC United's failure this season in advance.

Kazakhstan joined UEFA after the 02 World Cup, but it was not until the year before last that there was the first team to participate in the main game of the Champions League, that is, Astana Football Club, Astana Sports Group has a dominant position in Kazakhstan, and the most famous is the famous Astana team in the Tour de France, but the football team is not famous in the world.

Since the Europa League match was held on Thursday, England and Kazakhstan had a six-hour time difference, so in order not to affect the players' match status, Lu Wei flew the whole team to Astana three days early to adapt to the venue.

Astana is even stranger to Lu Wei than Maccabi Tel Aviv, there is no familiar name in the team roster, and even the whole team is not worth as much as Matuidi alone.

But Lu Wei did not dare to underestimate them, the Kazakhstan football league is not a New Year's Eve system, that is to say, Astana has now played half of the season, now is the best time for the players to compete, and it is still playing at home, FC United in addition to the paper strength dominance, the time and place are favorable and not on their side.

But if Lu Wei is afraid of him, he will not be Lu Wei, the overturning experience of the first round of the group stage has made the whole team put away a relaxed mentality, seriously face every training session, if this game loses again, although it will not be eliminated early, but FC United does not have the face to raise its head in the Premier League.

However, at the beginning of the game, FC United were the active defensive side, facing the retreating Red Rebels, the Kazakhs boldly began their attack, but they were only thunderous and rainy, attacking several waves without even a threatening shot.

FC United have not encountered teams from the former Soviet Union before and are relatively unfamiliar with their playing style, so Lu Wei intends to let the players get used to the opponent's way of playing before fighting back.

After about half an hour of matching, FC United's players gradually adapted to the way each other played and began to switch defense to attack.

Conquest of Astana with hard power is Lu Wei's offensive tactics for this game, not engaging in those false real, is to fight positional battles head-on, Astana's most famous person is their right back, Belarusian national team captain Igor Shitov, Lu Wei also focused the attack on their right side.

And when FC United began to attack, Astana began to get used to it, whether it was St. Maximin's deft breakthrough or Zinchenko's steady pass, Astana's back line gradually could not be parried.

Finally, in first-half stoppage time, Astana's defence broke the bank.

Saint-Maximin broke through the inside on the left flank and continuously stepped on the bicycle Gala ball to make a line for himself to shoot, and dribbled the ball into the box with a low shot to give FC United the lead.

This goal fully demonstrated the talent of Saint-Maximin, and when he advanced with the ball on the left wing, successive changes of direction passed Astana's back, and then he threw off Hitov with a strong speed, stopped sharply in the corner of the big penalty area, waited for Hitov to break the ball with his foot, pulled his left foot and then slammed his heel to the right to break through, and then suddenly a Cruyff turned around and wiped over Hitov and burst into the box.

The players who played in Kazakhstan had never seen this and were easily scored by St. Maximin, but having learned their lesson, they quickly picked themselves up and stared at the ball at St. Maximin's feet, no longer allowing him to finish easily.

Returning from half-time, Lu Wei replaced Maddison to continue to strengthen the attack, and Maddison did not live up to the manager's expectations, snatching a spot in the 18th minute of the game with Zinchenko's cross.

FC United firmly controls the rhythm of the game, but it is not Guardiola's kind of pass-and-control football, but with efficient attack to suppress the opponent's back line, with tough defense to block the opponent's attack, you can attack, you can control the ball, but you can't finish shooting, this is the defensive system created by Lu Wei.

Watching the game gradually be controlled by his own players, Lu Wei replaced the feeling of Balbosa looking for goals, Balbosa has not scored for FC United since the start of the Premier League, the only two goals were scored in the Europa League play-offs, Lu Wei also hopes that he can find shooting boots far away from England.

It is a pity that the opportunities that his teammates feed Barbosa either fly off the crossbar or are weak, although he himself is also trying to run, the ball from his teammates is also very comfortable, Astana is not a strong team, but it is not exchanged for goals, and the goal drought of the Brazilian will continue.

Although Astana pulled a goal back in the 76th minute, FC United claimed their first ever Europa League victory, with opener Saint-Maximin named Player of the Match.

After two rounds of group stage, Villarreal are in first place with four points from one win and one draw, Maccabi Tel Aviv is also in second place with four points on goal difference, FC United Manchester have just won their first victory, and Astana is in last place with two consecutive defeats.

The third and fourth round group stages are two back-to-back matches, FC United first away and then home against the strongest opponent in Europa League Group A - Villarreal, after these two games, I believe that the qualification situation of Group A will become very clear, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Astana two teams pecked at each other, who can get 6 points on each other will have a chance to break through from Group A, especially for Maccabi Tel Aviv, if you can get 10 points after four rounds, They can reach the Europa League knockout stage with almost one foot.

And Villarreal, who is recognized as the strongest in the group, also thinks so, winning FC United can lock in a qualifying spot in advance, but will FC United be a soft persimmon?

Villarreal regards FC United as a point holder, the Red Rebels also see the yellow submarine as a point boy, Lu Wei does not want to stop at the group stage in the first European game, so Villarreal should be careful, the Red Rebels are not red persimmons, but a fierce red lion.