Chapter 556 The Decisive Battle

Manchester United beat Roma 4:1, almost half a step into the door of the top four of this season's Champions League, but Manchester United did not pay much attention to this result, because they turned around and devoted themselves to preparing for the next game. Because on Saturday noon, Manchester United will visit the Etihad Stadium to challenge their city rivals Manchester City.

In the eyes of the British and even the world media, this Manchester derby is the battle of the kings of the mountain for the Premier League championship this season!

From the beginning of this season, the Premier League has been a battle between the two Manchester giants.

As of this round, Manchester United has won 29 and tied 2 in 31 Premier League rounds, leading the Premier League standings with 89 points.

Manchester City has also played only 31 league games, and the record is also very good, with 26 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, and 81 points.

The two teams are far ahead in the Premier League standings. Even Manchester City is 16 points higher than Liverpool, who is third in the standings.

It can be said that Manchester City is the only team that can theoretically threaten Manchester United's league championship.

However, if Manchester City wants to keep their hopes of winning the championship, they must beat Manchester United at home in this game, otherwise they will basically withdraw from the competition for the league championship in advance.

After all, with only 6 games left in the league, whether they are 8 points behind Manchester United or 11 points behind Manchester United, Manchester City has no hope of reversing the championship given Manchester United's stability this season.

And once they beat Manchester United at home, they will only be 5 points behind Manchester United. With 6 rounds left in the league, there is still a certain possibility of overtaking Manchester United.

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Manchester United also hopes to win this game, because in this way, their lead will be expanded to 11 points. In the last 6 league games, they only need to get 7 points to lock in the league championship in advance.

In the Premier League standings, Manchester United's advantage is not only 8 points, but also a huge goal difference advantage.

Before this round, Manchester United's goal difference was as high as 89, while Manchester City's goal difference was 62, a full 27 behind Manchester United!

Under such circumstances, Mourinho was very smart to develop a defensive counterattack tactic for Manchester United's game at the Etihad Stadium.

And he clearly required that only when the defense was solid could the counterattack be launched, and Manchester City must not be given loopholes to exploit.

After all, Manchester United could accept an away draw.

Although Mourinho's tactic for the team was defensive counterattack, he did not let the team retreat to the backcourt and wait for an opportunity to counterattack at home.

Their performance was the same as any other team, very normal. After the opening, they seized the opportunity to attack, and Valencia also made many forward insertions, which did not look like they were going to defend.

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Bruno took advantage of the kick-off to launch an attack, but did not hit Manchester City's penalty area. His straight pass was blocked by Fernandinho in the middle, and before that, Mkhitaryan pressed him closely, making it impossible for him to pass the ball calmly. In addition, there was a David Silva not far away, who was responsible for cutting off the passing route on the other side and waiting for an opportunity to steal the ball.

After Fernandinho intercepted Bruno's ball, he immediately passed it to Bernardo Silva in front. Bruno turned around to chase but couldn't catch up. Bernardo Silva was on the ribs, far away from him.

Bernardo Silva dribbled forward and then passed the ball to the side. Sane made a cross, but Sterling didn't catch up and the ball went out of the goal.

Manchester City fans in the stands of Etihad Stadium sighed loudly.

"The game just started and there was a dangerous situation in front of Manchester United's goal!"

"Guardiola's team has a strong desire to get three points at home..."

"This is natural. Manchester City is currently 8 points behind Manchester United in the standings. If they can't win this game, they will basically withdraw from the competition for the league championship in advance... Such a result is unacceptable to the Abu Dhabi consortium, which has invested heavily for two consecutive years."

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Manchester United kicked off, and goalkeeper De Gea passed the ball to central defender Van Dijk who met him at the front of the penalty area.

Most of the time, Manchester United attacks in this way. Mourinho's tactics are customized around Bruno, so it is not common for the goalkeeper to kick the ball directly to the front in Manchester United. That cannot guarantee that Bruno can get the ball. It is safer to pass the ball forward one level at a time.

Guardiola has obviously studied this very thoroughly. When De Gea passed the ball to Van Dijk, Sterling pressed forward.

Van Dijk turned around and saw Sterling was close at hand. He was startled and quickly turned around to protect the ball.

The ball was protected, but he couldn't pass the ball forward, so he could only pass it back to goalkeeper De Gea.

Seeing him pass back, Sterling decisively entered the penalty area and continued to press De Gea.

De Gea saw the opponent in front of him pressing forward aggressively, and he didn't dare to neglect it. He kicked the ball passed back by Van Dijk.

In the end, Manchester United's attack still started with a long kick...

De Gea's hastily kicked the ball to the right side of the field, and Mbappe lost to Otamendi in the header.

Otamendi headed the ball out and it fell to Bernardo Silva's feet.

Bernardo Silva retreated to receive the ball, then turned and dribbled forward, but his dribbling was intercepted by Bruno.

Bruno took advantage of the moment when he turned around, saw the opportunity, and kicked the ball away.

At the moment of poking the ball away, he dodged past Bernardo Silva and tried to grab the ball.

Who would have thought that someone was faster than him, Fernandinho took the lead and kicked the ball out. Bruno was a step late and kicked nothing.

Bruno turned back to look at the ball after rushing past, and found that the ball was not out of bounds.

Although Fernandinho kicked the ball with a big foot, it was like a long pass and landed very accurately in front.

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Sterling was competing with Maguire for a header.

In the header, the short Sterling was no match for the tall Maguire, but he could interfere from below, so that Maguire could not head the ball without worries.

Maguire headed the ball out, but he did not head it far, and the ball landed in an unmanned area, but was taken away by David Silva right after!

"David Silva rushed up! Manchester City's offensive is suffocating! One wave after another!"

Fortunately, Kante was always guarding behind, and David Silva's forward run was caught by him.

After the two met, David Silva intended to break through from the side, but Kante stuck to him, and then saw the opportunity and made a precise tackle, causing the opponent to fall to the ground with the ball.

There was a deafening booing in the stands, but referee Martin Atkinson did not call Kante for a foul, but signaled the game to continue, and the boos became louder...

"The game entered a high-tempo state at the beginning. The two sides fought back and forth and it was very lively!"

"There were rumors before the game that Mourinho would use defensive counterattacks to deal with Manchester City, which is good at attacking, but judging from the opening few minutes of the game, this is not the case. Mourinho is not conservative, and his team plays very actively."

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For a long time, when people talk about Mourinho, they always put on him such hats as "utilitarianism", "one-to-zeroism", "negative football"... It seems that the team he coaches can only play defensive counterattacks and only shrink in a 30-meter area to wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

But everyone forgets that the teams coached by Mourinho were the ones with the most goals in each league at the time. When he coached Real Madrid, the Galacticos scored 121 goals in a season, setting a single-season goal record for the club. It is also the team with the most goals in a single season in La Liga history. This record has not been broken so far.

This season, Mourinho led his team to score 5 or more goals in 10 Premier League games, and scored 105 goals in 31 league games, making him the team with the most goals in the Premier League and even in Europe during the same period.

Don't think Mourinho is really conservative, he is practical. Use different tactics for different opponents to maximize benefits.

Attacking Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, using one's own shortcomings to attack the opponent's strengths, that is not called blood, bravery, gorgeousness, offensive football, that is called stupidity, idiocy, mental retardation, and incompetence.

Don't look at Manchester United's 5:0 slaughter of Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium last season, but that was under the special circumstances that Manchester City was sent off early.

If the number of people is equal, Manchester United may not be able to fight Manchester City, especially when the two sides attack.

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Manchester City's fierce attack at the beginning made Manchester United a little uncomfortable, but they could still barely hold on.

The biggest trouble is when Manchester United is attacking.

Bruno is the well-deserved core of Manchester United, and there is no need to say more about this. Manchester United players are used to giving him the ball and letting him organize the attack.

But Bruno is facing a big trouble. When he moves forward with the ball, he will encounter a three-man midfield consisting of Fernandinho, Mkhitaryan and David Silva. These three people are positioned reasonably and protect every inch of grass in front of the back line. Whether Bruno is in the middle or on the two sides, he will always encounter the opponent's tight defense.

This is not man-to-man defense, but it makes him more uncomfortable than man-to-man defense.

He has competed with many outstanding defensive players, but he has never felt such great pressure as today.

In his opinion, the Manchester City defense line in front of him is tight and there is no chance to penetrate it. He tried to pass directly, but the end result was that he was intercepted.

The three midfielders of the opponent are distributed at key nodes, which makes it easy for them to guess the direction and route of their passes.

What about dribbling the ball? Those three guys are not wooden stakes that can be bullied by him.

What about counterattack? Once Manchester City lost the ball in the frontcourt, Bernardo Silva and Sterling were responsible for counter-attacking and harassing on the spot, while Fernandinho, Mkhitaryan and David Silva did not entangle in the frontcourt, but directly retreated to the 30-meter area, and their speed was very fast, making it impossible for Bruno to make a quick counterattack with a long pass.

The three forwards of their team were like the sandwich in the opponent's back line, tightly surrounded and unable to do anything.