Star Card System

In the opening stage, Barcelona continuously organized attacks and got several shooting opportunities, but none of them turned into goals.

And Manchester United's counterattack created two excellent shooting opportunities.

Let Barcelona players be cautious.

In the next period of time, Barcelona players received instructions from coach Valverde on the sidelines.

The formation was slightly retracted, the three lines were balanced, and the ball was steadily controlled to find opportunities.

Don't press too high.

And Manchester United also got some breathing space.

Although Valverde didn't play against Mourinho much, he studied Barcelona's previous game videos very seriously.

The games were really good in the few seasons when they performed a two-person show with Real Madrid.

At that time, Barcelona still had the upper hand, but that was also one of the purposes of Mourinho joining Real Madrid to seek challenges.

There was a super 0-5 defeat, and there was also a victory that overturned Barcelona and topped the La Liga.

At that time, Mourinho was very good at attacking in Real Madrid, especially fast advancement, which was very beautiful.

Whoever said Mourinho can't attack, he definitely doesn't understand football.

And now, Valverde sees the shadow of Real Madrid in Manchester United.

Although Manchester United doesn't have a super striker combination like BBC, they have a top midfielder like xia.

And players such as Lukaku and Sanchez are also very strong.

In addition, De Gea in front of the goal is a world-class goalkeeper.

Such a lineup, even Barcelona dare not underestimate it.

And for Barcelona now, their lineup is not as good as before.

After Neymar, who was entrusted with an important task, left, Barcelona has not found a suitable successor.

You know, Neymar is one of the top five in the world, and such a star is almost impossible to exist in the transfer market.

Although it cost a lot to introduce Dembele, it is really useless.

Dembele's ups and downs, his shortcomings of being young and lacking experience, let alone his frequent injuries, are a headache for the club.

Moreover, Dembele is far less self-disciplined than his predecessors in Barcelona, ​​and he has not met the club's expectations on the court.

Neymar is gone, Suarez is not as good as before, and Messi is injured again.

Barcelona's attacking power is far less than before.

There are also problems with the defense line.

Umtiti has been entrusted with an important task, but he is far from the level of Puyol's successor.

He is not even as stable as veteran Pique.

There are Iniesta and Busquets, both of whom are old and more than one level lower than their peak.

Barcelona can still hold on in European football purely by relying on its overall strength, but no player is much more advantageous than the opponent.

This game is the same.

Although it retreated appropriately for protection, Barcelona also had many opportunities.

It was not Dembele who fired a cannon, but Suarez's shot was blocked.

Paulinho was very active and posed the greatest threat to Manchester United in this game.

He can dribble forward and has a good shot. His physical fitness and strength are still online.

I didn't expect that the Chinese Super League signings that were not optimistic at the beginning of the season have now become an important member of Barcelona.

Xia Xing simply retreated and decisively focused his defense on Paulinho.

Since receiving special care from Xia Xing, Paulinho has never had a chance to score.

He was very depressed.

What happened?

When playing against Xia Xing in this game, he always had a special sense of superiority.

He felt inexplicably that this guy couldn't defend himself.

But he didn't expect that he defended him so well.

Later he realized what was going on.

It turned out that Xia Xing's Chinese face gave Paulinho too much familiarity.

But this familiarity was not right.

How could he be one of those defensive players who played in the Chinese Super League?

After the first half, Paulinho even had a special idea.

If one day he returned to China to play football again, would he be a little afraid of the defensive players with Chinese faces...

This was all caused by the guy in front of him...

The referee whistled and the first half of the game ended.

The two sides were 0-0.

Valverde frowned, he didn't get the result he wanted.

Mourinho, who was not far away, had a calm expression. He could still accept this result.

Although he asked the players to have the belief that they must win before the game, Mourinho also knew that it was not easy.

It would be great if this game could be tied.

Whether it was a clean sheet or a goal, it was good.

Manchester United's defense was good in the first half, especially when Xia Xing retreated, and the sweeping defense against Barcelona completely cut off the passing and control system.

Especially the final shot, Barcelona didn't even shoot a few shots steadily.

Either the ball was hastily kicked off the goal under Manchester United's defense, or the pass was not converted into a shot.

Clean sheet, that's good!

During the halftime break, neither side made any substitutions.

Mourinho was naturally very satisfied with the starting players.

Barcelona didn't make any substitutions either, not because Valverde was satisfied with everyone, but because there was no more suitable candidate on the bench.

The Barcelona lineup at this stage may be the thinnest in recent years.

Sitting on the bench are Vermaelen, Paco, Andre Gomes, Messido and others. Not to mention in Barcelona, ​​even if they were in other top clubs, they would most likely be rotated or on the bench.

Now Barcelona is really stretched and can only rely on the starting players to stand up, and then hope that Messi will return from injury as soon as possible.

Manchester United still defended unhurriedly, and the occasional counterattack was very effective, which shocked the Barcelona fans.

Time kept passing and the game had reached 69 minutes.

Substitute players from both sides are already active on the sidelines and ready to play.

But at this moment, something unexpected happened on the court.

A not very threatening pass, the ball came to Suarez's feet.

The Uruguayan forward took the ball with his back on the penalty area line, knocked it back to Paulinho, then turned around and sprinted!

It's obviously a two-for-one preparation!

Central defender Smalling quickly followed up and blocked the angle!

But Paulinho didn't pass it back to Suarez, but to Dembele!

Dembele took advantage of the situation and rushed into the penalty area!

His explosive power is extremely strong!

This time, he directly got rid of Manchester United's left back Ashley Young!

Ashley Young quickly chased back, but how could he keep up with the French forward who was more than ten years younger than him?

Dembele has a chance!

At this time, Phil Jones, another Manchester United central defender, saw this and quickly stepped in to take over!

A sliding shovel goes straight to Dembele!

Dembélé sprinted quickly and poked the ball gently before Phil Jones tackled it!

Although the ball passed, the person did not.

He was taken to the ground by Phil Jones!

The referee's whistle sounds!

"The referee pointed to the penalty spot!

“And showed Phil Jones a red card!

“Red dot package, Barcelona’s good luck fell from the sky!

“Barcelona’s attack finally paid off!

"Manchester United are in trouble!" (End of chapter)