Chapter 1018 Stoke City’s Opportunity

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() This is already Manchester United’s third goalpost in this game. If it were an ordinary team, they would probably be mad.

But Ferguson has already told the Manchester United players that the main attack time is in stoppage time. In addition, there are veterans such as Scholes, Ferdinand, Evra, Vidic, and Van der Sar in the Manchester United team. These veterans had never experienced any kind of competition. They did not complain about this situation. Instead, they patiently comforted their young teammates and calmly directed them to fight.

With the veterans stabilizing their morale, Manchester United's young players slowly calmed down and continued to siege Stoke City according to the tactics used in pre-match training.

After Manchester United hit the third goalpost, when the morale of the army was shaken, Stoke City's head coach Pulis was once ready to invest in a counterattack, but he hesitated and waited until he made up his mind. Manchester United quickly stabilized the morale of the army. Pulis sighed and gave up the opportunity to counterattack.

In the 75th minute of the second half of the game, Manchester United replaced forward Hernandez and replaced him with the dashing Berbatov.

Berbatov has been a substitute for many games this season because he was not active enough. Hernandez was the starter to replace him.

Now Ferguson replaced Hernandez with Berbatov. It was not a targeted substitution. He just wanted to try a different knife. Anyway, he gave Hernandez 75 minutes and he failed to score. One goal, why not switch to a forward and see your luck.

Although Berbatov is not active enough in running and does not have the ability to press and defend, Stoke City sticks to the penalty area and basically has no counterattack ability. On the contrary, Berbatov is most suitable for the lazy but skilled Berbatov. play.

Berbatov had just come on the field. Gao Xiaodong made a long shot from the front of the penalty area, dunked the defender, and suddenly passed a through ball to Berbatov in the penalty area.

Because there were too many people in the penalty area, Gao Xiaodong passed the ball quickly and urgently in order to prevent it from being intercepted by the opponent.

Faced with such a pass, Berbatov stopped and turned around, and steadily stopped the ball half a meter in front of him.

Gao Xiaodong secretly cheered. This was a pass to Berbatov. If it had been Rooney, he would have stopped two meters away, let alone turning around.

Berbatov's stop was very beautiful. After turning around, he lightly used his right foot to hit the bottom of the ball. The ball just dodged the defender's block and was ready to go to the upper right side of the goal.

This shot is also clever. If Berbatov hits a ground ball or a low ball, the ball will definitely be blocked by the defender.

Goalkeeper Sorensen had a magical performance today. Berbatov's shot still did not escape his clutches. Sorensen subconsciously raised his fists and hit the ball. The ball hit the crossbar again and bounced. He came down and was kicked out by Huth.

It's the goalpost again!

This is already the fourth goalpost!

The fans of Manchester United simply couldn't stand it anymore. What a bad luck. If two goalposts were replaced, it would be a two-goal lead.

The Manchester United players also began to smile bitterly. Even their old teammates felt that today's luck was really bad.

A football match normally only involves two or three goals, but even a veteran like Scholes has never encountered such a situation when four goalposts were hit before the game was over.

"Calm down! We have to calm down!"

"Be patient!"

"Hitting the goalpost means we are closer to scoring!"

"Pass more passes to Berbatov!"

…

Scholes and other veteran players called on his teammates to organize the attack patiently and look for Berbatov's point.

In the 80th minute of the game, Valencia pulled away from the wing and made a direct pass.

Berbatov is much taller than Rooney and Hernandez. In addition, Vidic is also in the penalty area, which greatly improves the chance of grabbing the spot in the middle.

Berbatov immediately judged where the ball would land. He grabbed the defender and got stuck in his position, trying to jump for a header.

But Stoke City defender Huth was a step slower, but how could he let Berbatov jump up? Huth was close to Berbatov, and his lower hand tried hard to pull Berbatov's jersey.

Berbatov is not that kind of explosive beast. He found that even if he jumped up, he would definitely not be able to touch the ball, so he simply fell down in the penalty area.

After falling to the ground, Berbatov immediately raised his hands and shouted that his opponent had committed a foul and asked the referee for a penalty kick.

Manchester United players noticed Berbatov falling to the ground and immediately raised their hands and shouted foul.

Huth must have committed a foul against Berbatov, but most of today's battles were in the penalty area. If such actions were ruled as fouls, there would be too many penalty kicks to be awarded. In addition, humans all sympathize with the weak. Psychologically, the referee did not award a penalty kick and signaled the game to continue.

As the Manchester United players were distracted and did not grab the ball immediately, the Stoke City defender easily passed the ball to their forward Jones.

When Jones headed the ball to Pennant, there was no one to press Pennant. Stoke City players immediately felt that this was a good opportunity to counterattack, and finally attacked in a big way. Four or five players ran towards Manchester United's goal. halftime.

Because Stoke City's defense has shrunk so much, almost all of Manchester United's defensive players are in Stoke City's half inside and outside the penalty area. In this way, Stoke City does not need to consider offside when passing the ball. Look, When the player is in a good position, just pass it over.

Although Pennant is good at dribbling the ball, he knew that Stoke City had very few counterattack opportunities today, so he did not stick to the ball and passed it to Jones who was at the front.

There was a lot of space in front of Jones. He received the ball and kicked forward, quickly rushing through Manchester United's half.

Manchester United was actually prepared for the counterattack against Stoke City. Ferdinand and Rafael stayed behind. However, because Berbatov was fouled just now, everyone's attention was on asking for a penalty kick and they did not press for the first time. , allowing Stoke City to pass the ball easily three times.

In the counterattack, it was fatal for the opponent to successfully pass the ball three times. When Jones ran forward, Rafael chased him desperately. Ferdinand ran while blocking Jones' possible passing direction. Gao Xiaodong, Skolko, Wa Lencia and Nani also returned to defense as quickly as possible.

Stoke City's counterattack was timed very well. Although Manchester United fought back with all their strength, they were still a step too slow. By the time Jones brought the ball to the front of Manchester United's penalty area, Stoke City had already formed a three-player attack in the frontcourt. A great situation for two.

Manchester United fans were stunned. This was more than 80 minutes. If Stoke City scored, Manchester United would basically be in the game.

Ferguson also shouted anxiously, asking Rafael to take foul tactics.

Of course Rafael wanted to foul, but Manchester United had too much space in the backcourt. Jones kept changing directions with the ball, and he found the opportunity to foul.

However, Jones exposed his technical disadvantage when passing the ball. In a three-on-two opportunity, he passed a cross pass behind the following forward Watkins.

Watkins had no choice but to stop and wait for the ball. This gave Ferdinand a chance. He took the risk to make a tackle and barely touched the ball.

Watkins tripped but did not fall to the ground. He quickly stabilized his center of gravity and went after the ball again.

Manchester United goalkeeper Van der Sar and Ferdinand cooperated tacitly. When he saw Ferdinand flying tackle, he tried to move forward. When the ball was destroyed and Watkins went to chase the ball, Van der Sar quickly attacked and grabbed the lead of Watt. Kings had previously kicked the ball out of the sideline.

After the ball flew out of the sideline, the Manchester United fans in the audience let out a huge gasp. At this time, their hearts were in their stomachs. It was too dangerous just now, and Manchester United's life was hanging by a thread.

Pulis was very regretful. He punched the windshield hard. There was such a good opportunity to win in one game, but his own players failed to grasp it. The veteran Manchester United behind him may not give it to him again. Opportunity.