Chapter 854: A Tragic Defeat without Warning

February 24, 2021, Parc des Princes, Paris, France.

The referee Laos blew the whistle to end the game. The camera swept across the field. Manchester United's players seemed to have been drained of their souls. Some players lay on the ground, and some players knelt there, covering their faces with their hands.

Manchester United was originally prepared for this game, and even made a large-scale rotation in the Premier League last weekend, with the purpose of saving strength for this game.

However, before the game started, Manchester United still encountered an accident.

Just before the entire Manchester United team was about to board the special plane to Paris, Bruno suddenly received news that Vanessa was about to give birth!

This news forced Bruno to temporarily ask for leave from the team and stay in a private hospital in Manchester, waiting for Vanessa to give birth.

Because of Bruno's temporary absence, Manchester United's preparations have encountered a huge crisis. After all, for several years, Manchester United has been playing around Bruno as the core.

And Bruno's strong body and almost unlimited physical strength make him rarely miss games. This is not only a guarantee for Manchester United's excellent performance in recent years, but it also buries some concerns for Manchester United, that is, how will Manchester United play in the absence of Bruno?

However, in the past few years, Bruno's almost non-stop performance has made Manchester United rarely encounter such a situation. Including Mourinho, almost no one has considered such a situation.

Especially when Manchester United encounters a strong enemy, Mourinho will almost always prepare in advance so that Bruno will not miss such a key battle.

However, Vanessa's sudden clinical now disrupted Mourinho and Manchester United's preparations.

………………

Because of Bruno's temporary absence, Mourinho arranged a double defensive midfielder lineup of Kante and Fred in this game, and let Gundogan play as a front midfielder.

This is a slightly conservative lineup, but it is also the most appropriate tactic.

Although Manchester United is strong, it is the team with the best record in the Premier League and even in Europe in the past few years; but Paris Saint-Germain is not a weakling either. They are the overlords of Ligue 1 and have excellent performance in the European arena.

Once, Manchester United was the team that invested the most in the transfer market among European teams, but if this time dimension is enlarged to the past five years, the team that invested the most in the transfer market is Paris Saint-Germain.

It is said that you get what you pay for. The almost unlimited transfer investment has given Paris Saint-Germain a strong lineup, even the best in Europe.

With Bruno on the field, Manchester United may not be inferior to Paris Saint-Germain, and may even be slightly better; but now Bruno is unexpectedly absent, Manchester United wants to attack Paris Saint-Germain away from home, then it is a bit confused.

Mourinho's tactics were successful, at least until the 71st minute of the game.

They defended the goal and did not let Paris Saint-Germain score, and at the beginning of the second half of the game, Mbappe assisted Harry Kane to sneak attack with a counterattack opportunity.

However, in the 71st minute of the game, Paris Saint-Germain attacked. Verratti passed the ball, and Icardi's shot in front of the penalty area was blocked by De Gea. Manchester United's old player Martial shot low from the edge of the penalty area and scored in the lower left corner, helping Paris Saint-Germain to equalize the score.

………………

Martial's goal also sounded the horn of Paris Saint-Germain. Five minutes later, Paredes made a long pass from the midfield, Florenzi inserted a cross, Maguire cleared the ball but didn't kick far, Martial pushed in and scored, Manchester United 1:2 Paris Saint-Germain!

In the 79th minute, Paredes took the free kick, and Keane, who was unguarded, headed the ball into the net, 3:1, the home team expanded its lead to two goals.

In the 84th minute, Paris had a counterattack opportunity. Draxler drove all the way to the left and Martial shot directly into the dead corner of the net. Manchester United 1:4 German!

The former European Golden Boy winner poked three transparent holes in his old club and pushed it to the brink of elimination from the Champions League.

This was also the final score of the game. Manchester United played well for 71 minutes and tried their best at the Parc des Princes. However, facing the sudden outbreak of the French Ligue 1 giants, their defense was like a gate hit by a battering ram. It finally collapsed and was penetrated four times in a row!

"This is Paris Saint-Germain! This is the strength of the powerful Paris Saint-Germain!" The local commentator in Paris said excitedly, "Even a team as powerful as Manchester United collapsed in the face of the continuous attack of the Paris Saint-Germain stars! This is our Paris Saint-Germain! The great Paris Saint-Germain! We can now say that we have entered the quarterfinals!"

The commentator of Paris Saint-Germain was not worried about losing his character at all. With a 4:1 victory, could Manchester United still turn the tables?

At this time, the commentator completely forgot that just five years ago, in the Champions League quarter-finals, their team defeated Barcelona at home with a bigger score, but in the second leg, they capsized away from home, creating the biggest reversal in the history of the Champions League.

………………

When the Paris Saint-Germain players celebrated, Mourinho strode into the stadium and comforted his players one by one. He patted their shoulders vigorously, applauded, shouted, and told them: You did a good job! You are great! I am very satisfied!

Mbappe, Rashford, Harry Kane, Gundogan... Mourinho comforted them one by one.

It was a rainy night. In the cold rains of the romantic capital Paris, Manchester United players fled in disappointment and frustration. Harry Kane, who scored a wonderful goal at the Princes Park Stadium, sat in the team bus and returned Looking at the stadium with brilliant lights, tears flowed from the corners of his eyes when he heard the cheers of the Paris Saint-Germain.

................

French media reported on this game after the game, PSG praised Paris Saint-Germain's performance, but they did not praise the team. After all, their team only won a Manchester United team that lacks core, which is not worth it. The result of boasting.

If they can beat Manchester United, led by Bruno, with such a big score, that is truly something to be happy about.

After all, the whole world knows that Manchester United with Bruno and Manchester United without Bruno are two completely different teams!

In fact, Paris Saint-Germain's performance this season is not good, and it can even be said to be very bad.

At the beginning of the season, Paris Saint-Germany lost two consecutive games and did not score a goal at the start of the season due to seven main players including Neymar, Martial, Di Maria and Icardi. After that, the team recovered, winning eight consecutive victories and leading the standings again.

In the middle of the season, due to poor relationships with sports director Leonardo and conflicts with the players in the team, German coach Tuchel, who coached the team for two and a half years, left office and Maurice, who jumped from Premier League team Tottenham. O Pochettino serves as head coach.

There is no mistake, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one 619, one book, one, one, one, one, one, one, a book!

At the beginning of the change of coaches, Paris Saint-Germain encountered some turmoil, which also caused them to lose their position at the top of the Ligue 1 standings and fall to third in the league.

But Pochettino is a famous coach who has led Tottenham to fight against strong rivals such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool for many years in the Premier League. He is experienced and quickly led Paris Saint-Germain to reverse the decline. He first defeated 2-1 in the French Super Cup final. Marseille achieved eight consecutive championships in this event, and then defeated the traditional strong team Marseille 2-0 in Ligue 1. Now he is facing Manchester United led by his old opponent Mourinho in the Champions League, 4:1 at home in the first leg Blow Manchester United.

He is making great strides in the league and constantly chasing points. He is in a good state and beats the Premier League leader in the Champions League knockout round at home. This is really great!

................

After returning to Manchester from Paris, Mourinho not only refused to accept interviews from any media, but also banned players from talking about and mentioning the game against Paris Saint-Germain. He told everyone that until the second leg of the game against Paris Saint-Germain, No one should think about the Champions League anymore.

"Now, our goal is the league!"

Mourinho's actions were also interpreted by some media as a depressed mood after being hit. The World Sports reminded gloatingly that the Paris Saint-Germain used such a victory to make the person who had been doing outstanding results before, even had The Portuguese coach, who was mythical by some ignorant people, realized the reality. His excellent team-leading performance was not because he was strong, but because his opponent was weak.

This report by World Sports almost stabbed the hornet's nest, aroused strong dissatisfaction among other teams in the Premier League. Manchester United is the leader of the Premier League. What do you mean by saying that? Is it said that Manchester United is the bottom of the fish, and we are the garbage that is worse than the bottom of the fish?

Mourinho is not at all averse to World Sports. In an interview with The Guardian, he responded mockingly: "Losing 1:4 is very uncomfortable, but we at least No loss 2:8."

In the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season, Barcelona was massacred by Bayern Munich in a game, so Mourinho said this.

There is a reason why Mourinho made Manchester United players not think about their crushing defeat in the Champions League, because on the weekend, Manchester United will usher in another strong rival, that is Mourinho's old club, Chelsea.

Chelsea are not weak. They are currently ranked fifth in the standings and are in a critical period of competing for a seat in the Champions League. Naturally, they hope to win Manchester United at home to lay a solid foundation for entering the top four.

Although Mourinho has used various methods to downplay the team's miserable defeat in the Champions League, people are not machines after all. Manchester United players are still in a sluggish state in the weekend when Manchester United's away game to Stamford Bridge Stadium. Even Bruno's urgent return to the team did not bring any obvious changes.

Fortunately, Chelsea's recent condition is not good. In the last round, they were tied 1:1 by Southampton, who is of average strength in the league. Although they beat Atletico Madrid 1:0 away in the first leg of the Champions League, their overall condition is It's also a little weak.

After a dull battle, the two teams exchanged 0:0.

But no matter what, it is actually a very lucky result for Manchester United to draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge Stadium.