Chapter 557 Falling Behind

Bruno was a little slow, and when he was hesitant about where to pass the ball, the ball under his feet was intercepted by Fernandinho. The Argentine midfielder's action was very quick and clean.

"Fernandinho intercepted Bruno's ball!"

There was a cheer in the stands of the Etihad Stadium.

Bruno hurriedly chased back, intending to counter-rob, but his action was a little too big and Fernandinho fell to the ground.

The referee Martin Atkinson's whistle sounded immediately, calling Bruno for a foul in grabbing the ball!

Bruno did not pull Fernandinho, but quickly retreated, fearing that the opponent would take a quick free kick and catch his team off guard.

But Manchester City did not do this. Their players pressed forward one after another, but the free kick was taken slowly by central defender Kompany.

After Bruno retreated, he put his hands on his hips and shook his head gently.

It seems that today's game is more difficult than he expected...

Bruno has been frozen in the game before. Whenever he performs poorly, his team performs poorly, whether it is Manchester United or Udinese.

As a coach who has been following and observing him for many years, how could Mourinho not know this? It's just that few teams can freeze Bruno all the time for 90 minutes without stopping, because he has super running ability and excellent physical fitness, which can make him energetic at the last moment of the game, while his opponents are often exhausted by him running almost the whole game.

So Mourinho was not too worried about Bruno being frozen. He believed that Bruno would find a way as time went on.

In addition, there is Kante and Gundogan beside him, and Rashford, Harry Kane and Mbappe in front of him, who can get closer to Bruno and help him break through the difficulties.

Now the game has only started for ten minutes, don't worry, just wait and see.

………………

Mourinho thought so, and his butt didn't even lift up from the seat.

Another person who was sitting on the Diaoyutai like him was Manchester City coach Guardiola. He sat on a chair, crossed his legs, watched the game leisurely, and even had the time to chat with the people around him.

Guardiola really didn't worry about anything. Judging from the ten minutes of the game, the game was within his expectations and did not go off track.

The arrangement of the three midfielders was very successful, completely blocking Bruno's possibility of passing the ball forward and breaking through. Judging from Bruno's performance, he didn't seem to have many ways to deal with three people.

Previously, the media had been crazy about Bruno being an all-around warrior, and some media even said that Bruno would become the third king in the history of world football. He was dismissive of this. Maybe Bruno was really good, but definitely not that good.

The third king? Boy, you are too young...

Bruno was surrounded by three people. He was not facing man-to-man defense, but regional defense. Therefore, no matter where he was, he would face such a tenacious defense, and no matter how he ran, he could not disrupt Manchester City's solid defense.

The opponent's formation was very compact and complete, with no chances on the wing or in the middle.

………………

In desperation, Bruno had to frequently pass back and cross.

In this way, Manchester City had more opportunities. They seized the opportunity when Bruno could not pass forward and launched frequent attacks, each of which was very threatening.

First, Bernardo Silva made a sudden shot outside the penalty area, which made De Gea very embarrassed.

Then Sterling made a shovel shot in the penalty area, and the ball went out of the goal. Sane also seized the opportunity to threaten Manchester United's goal with a surprise attack.

De Gea saved David Silva's long shot again. His performance was already very, very good, but he didn't want to be complacent. He was under great pressure and didn't know when his goal would be lost.

Bruno was also anxious. He knew that if you defend too long, you will lose. Even if Manchester United's defense is the strongest in the Premier League this season and the team that conceded the least goals, facing Manchester City, which is famous for its offense, simple defense cannot prevent Manchester United from losing goals or even winning.

Moreover, blindly defending will only make Manchester City's offensive more and more fierce.

It is necessary to use counterattacks to suppress Manchester City's momentum.

He did think of a way, which is to foul the opponent. Now Fernandinho, Mkhitaryan and David Silva are so rampant, which has a lot to do with their clean bodies. If he lets the three opponents get yellow cards on him, the situation should be very different...

If you pass the ball, the chance of fouling is too small, or you have to carry the ball yourself, the opponent's fouls will increase...

Bruno thought so and decided to increase the time he holds the ball to lure the opponent to foul.

He did fall, but the referee Martin Atkinson did not give a card, just blew the whistle.

He got up and continued the game.

………………

But this trick doesn't always work. Sometimes the opponent may commit a foul, and sometimes his ball will be intercepted by the opponent without committing a foul.

To prevent this, Bruno found Kante.

"Stay closer to me." He said to Kante, "I need protection."

Kante nodded: "Okay."

"Bruno suddenly changed his style... He dribbled more instead of passing." The commentator quickly noticed this change, "From the previous game, his passing hit an invisible wall. Maybe he thought it would be better to break through."

The commentators analyzed the reasons why Bruno did this.

"But to be honest, he is not a player who is good at dribbling..."

"I think his dribbling is not fancy, but very practical. Therefore, I can only say that he is not good at teasing the audience with fancy dribbling, but it is probably not correct to say that he is not good at dribbling..."

While the commentators were arguing, Bruno had already dribbled the ball to David Silva again. He saw the weakness of the three midfielders in Manchester City.

Fernandinho and Mkhitaryan are both regular midfielders. Even if their defense is not outstanding, it is at least qualified. Only David Silva was originally an attacking midfielder, and his defensive ability is really poor.

To commit a foul, it is obvious that we have to find a breakthrough from him.

Bruno rushed towards David Silva with the ball. David Silva saw the opportunity and tried to grab the ball, but Bruno flicked the ball to the side and passed by David Silva's body.

Although it was a foul, Bruno would not be easily knocked down by the opponent. Because what if he could successfully break through? Wouldn't that be a win?

So don't fall down easily anyway, because although you might have earned a foul, you might have missed a fatal offensive opportunity.

If you can successfully break through, you don't have to commit a foul.

………………

Bruno knew that the chance of this was very small. Manchester City's defense today can be regarded as watertight.

Facing Bruno's breakthrough, David Silva did not stretch his foot to trip him. He just stuck his body to prevent Bruno from getting rid of him completely, and then handed the task of stealing the ball to professionals.

He and Guardiola obviously considered the problem of unprofessional defense, so his task was not to steal the ball, but to interfere.

Sure enough, Bruno did not get rid of David Silva, and met Mkhitaryan who came up to defend him. The Armenian midfielder had come over from the right to help David Silva.

Under the double-teaming of two people, Bruno could no longer hold on and fell to the ground, and the ball under his feet was kicked out by Mkhitaryan.

Kante stepped forward, grabbed the ball that Mkhitaryan cleared, and then shot it from a distance!

The football went over the crossbar...

Bruno got up from the ground and opened his arms to the referee Martin Atkinson. He thought that Mkhitaryan and David Silva must have committed a foul when defending him, but the referee Martin Atkinson smiled and shook his finger at him, indicating that he saw clearly that the other party did not commit a foul.

Seeing that the referee Martin Atkinson did not express anything, Bruno kicked angrily.

Kante did not come up to comfort him, but retreated while indicating that he should return to defense because Manchester City was about to launch an attack.

Seeing this, Bruno couldn't continue to argue with the referee Martin Atkinson, so he turned and ran back.

If he wanted to find an opportunity, he had to wait for the next attack. He hoped that before he found a way, Manchester United's defense could withstand the opponent's counterattack...

………………

Bruno hoped that his team could withstand Manchester City's counterattack, and then he would continue to find a way to break through Manchester City's defense. But he didn't wait.

In the 25th minute, Manchester United's goal was finally lost under Manchester City's attack.

It was a corner kick, Sane kicked the ball into the penalty area, Manchester United's goal was in chaos, Manchester City's central defender Kompany got rid of Van Dijk's defense, and headed the ball into the goal from the edge of the small penalty area, 1-0.

There was a huge cheer at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City took the lead in the 25th minute, which was a good start.

"GOAL! GOAL - Vincent Kompany!!!" The Manchester City commentator at the scene shouted passionately, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!"

"Manchester City is leading! This is a good sign. Guardiola's team looks like they will have a chance to break the embarrassing record of ten games without a win against Manchester United tonight!"

"The last time Manchester City beat Manchester United was in November 2014, when they beat Manchester United 1-0 at home in the 10th round of the Premier League. But since then, Manchester City has failed to win 10 times against Manchester United in all competitions, including 6 Premier League games, 3 League Cup games and 1 International Champions Cup."

After scoring the goal, the Manchester City players seemed very excited. Obviously, they all knew those "shameful records" and wanted to vent.

Now they will get what they want.