Chapter 1049: Showdown (2)

The ball was still under Barcelona's control, and all Manchester United players returned to their own half to press Barcelona's players and destroy Barcelona's passes.

Manchester United played today with a small lineup that could run, and they pressed extremely fast and fiercely.

Although Barcelona has always dominated the world with possession of the ball, it is difficult to adapt to Manchester United's high-intensity pressing. Every time, the ball is passed out dangerously.

The Barcelona fans watched with fear, fearing that Manchester United would steal the ball and suddenly launch a counterattack.

Manchester United fans are not at ease either. It seems like they can steal the ball successfully at any time, but just a little short of it. It is very risky for Manchester United to press like this. Once Barcelona breaks the press, the defender will face the attack of Barcelona's forward.

Alves quickly dribbled the ball along the left side and Park Ji-sung made a bold move, trying to force Alves to speed up and create a steal opportunity for left back Evra.

Alves was not fooled. He dialed the ball and turned back, trying to pass the ball back, but Manchester United pressed hard in the frontcourt and Alves could not find a route to pass the ball back.

Park Ji-sung quickly came up to Alves when he turned around and forced his foot from behind to destroy it.

Alves was half a step too slow when he touched the ball. The ball was touched by Park Ji-sung and left Alves' control.

When Park Ji-sung pressed Alves, Rooney also defended in place. He got in front of Alves and blocked the position. Park Ji-sung went around from one side and took the ball down.

Alves went to attack Park Ji-sung again, and Park Ji-sung passed the ball to the space behind Alves. At this time, Manchester United left back Evra intervened at high speed, grabbed the ball and headed towards Barcelona's bottom line along the wing.

Manchester United's attack today was very brave. When Evra went down, only Fletcher was left in the midfield of Manchester United to drag behind, and the others all inserted into the penalty area.

This is a good opportunity to attack, Evra is unguarded on the wing.

Evra played very concisely. He did not cut inside after getting down, but directly passed the ball across the ball and swept the ball into the small penalty area.

Evra was worried about being intercepted by his opponent. The pass was too close to the goal. Barcelona goalkeeper Valdes took the risk to intercept it, fell to the ground and knocked the ball out of the penalty area.

Manchester United had too many players advancing forward in this attack. After the ball flew out, no one grabbed the second landing point. The ball was picked up by Iniesta who returned to defense.

Iniesta took the ball and turned around, quickly heading towards Manchester United's half.

Manchester United's deep-lying midfielder Fletcher quickly moved closer to Iniesta, wanting to take a tactical foul to prevent Barcelona's counterattack.

Iniesta is a very good attacking midfielder. He quickly passed the ball to forward Villa before Fletcher arrived.

Vidic stood behind Villa, but Villa did not take the ball. He knocked directly to Messi.

Messi moved the ball forward and quickly dribbled the ball along the left side towards Manchester United's bottom line.

The 19-year-old Manchester United right back Fabio was not afraid of tigers when he was a newborn. When he saw Messi coming, he pounced towards Messi.

Fabio's idea was perfect. If he felt that he couldn't grab the ball, he would directly foul and even get a yellow card to keep Messi here.

However, Fabio's thinking is too simple. Facing Messi, fouls cannot be committed just because they want to.

Messi changed the direction of the ball, trying to break through from the outside. When Fabio adjusted his running direction and center of gravity before rushing over, Messi dunked the ball and cut it horizontally towards the middle.

Fabio pounced too hard and Messi suddenly changed direction. Fabio was eager to follow and lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground.

Fabio's efforts were not in vain. In the little time he wasted, Gao Xiaodong had already returned to his own half from the frontcourt at a sprint speed of 100 meters, and went straight towards Messi.

Faced with Gao Xiaodong's defense, Messi did not dare to be careless. He passed the ball to Villa and continued to run towards the center to meet Villa.

Barcelona's small-scale passing and cutting has reached the point of perfection. Under Vidic's close pressure, Villa touched the ball again and passed the ball to Messi.

When Gao Xiaodong chased after him again, Messi passed the ball to Harvey again. There was also Fletcher of Manchester United close to Harvey, but Harvey spun around, shook Fletcher away, and passed the ball again. To right back Alves.

At this moment, Manchester United's defensive focus was attracted to the center, and Alves dribbled the ball straight into Manchester United's left wing.

Park Ji-sung desperately chased after Alves, and Evra fought and retreated, waiting for Alves to take the ball or his teammates to help defend.

Evra did not wait for his teammates. Instead, Messi came from the center to the right. Alves passed the ball to Messi and quickly inserted behind Evra.

Evra saw Gao Xiaodong running towards Messi at high speed, so he turned around and chased Alves with confidence.

However, Alves' movement was quite rogue. He looked like he was about to reach the baseline, but suddenly stopped and threw Evra away again.

Messi had a wide field of vision, and when he saw Alves getting out of the way of the defense, he immediately passed the ball to Alves.

Gao Xiaodong saw that Barcelona continued to pass and cut, and he and his teammates struggled to grab the ball but could not get the ball back from Barcelona's feet. He knew that he needed to change his strategy.

Messi passed the ball to Alves and then continued to run to the side, trying to pass and cut with Alves again.

Gao Xiaodong rushed past Messi at high speed and pushed Messi in a subtle way. Messi was also running. Gao Xiaodong pushed Messi so hard that he staggered and fell to the turf.

After Gao Xiaodong did his bad thing, he continued to surround Alves from the side as if nothing happened.

The linesman and referee were all focused on the ball, and no one noticed Messi being pushed down.

After Alves received the ball, he was about to pass the ball to Messi. He did not expect Gao Xiaodong to knock Messi down.

Alves lost his position to pass the ball. He was stunned for a moment, and then wanted to pass the ball to the core midfielder Xavi. Gao Xiaodong flew to slide and shovel the ball towards his own goal.

Van der Sar struck out quickly, trying to catch the ball, but Villa pressed very quickly. He rushed over desperately, forcing Van der Sar to take a big kick.

If the goalkeeper was replaced by a younger one, seeing the opponent's forward pounce so hard, he would probably dunk the forward directly.

But Van der Sar was already forty years old, and he no longer had the arrogance and impatience of a young man. He rushed over and drove directly towards the forward with a big kick.

Most people would hide in this situation, but Villa did not. Instead, he jumped up to intercept.

Villa failed to intercept the ball, but Van der Sar's kick was still wide and passed directly into the arms of Valdes.

After Valdes hugged the ball, he threw the ball to Busques in the middle.

Busques is a key figure in Barcelona's transition from defense to offense, and he is also a key target for Manchester United.

Before Busques got the ball, Rooney retreated from the front line and grabbed Busquets.

When Busques received the ball, he knew that Rooney was about to press him. He made a Marseille spin, turned Rooney, and threw the ball to center back Pique.

Busquet's cool move attracted a burst of cheers from Barcelona fans. With such a wonderful performance, Barcelona fans felt that even if they didn't score, it was still a beautiful game.