Chapter 483 New Season Opens
At 4 pm on August 13, 2017, at Old Trafford, Manchester United faced West Ham United at home in the first round of the Premier League.
The two teams in this game had a big difference in strength, and Manchester United was playing at home, so it was not difficult to beat West Ham United, but everyone was still worried.
The first round of the new season was not easy to play, and both sides had not yet entered the rhythm of the season, so upsets were not uncommon.
In the first game of this round, Arsenal almost had an upset at home. The Foxes led Arsenal twice in the game, but the Gunners finally relied on Ramsey and Giroud's consecutive goals near the end of the game to finally reverse and defeat Leicester City.
Liverpool, who played next, was not so lucky. They lost the ball at the last minute of injury time and were tied 3:3 by Watford at home.
Of course, compared with Chelsea, who made a lot of signings in the summer, Liverpool was lucky, after all, they got 1 point away from home.
In this match at Stamford Bridge, the Blues completely collapsed in the first half because captain Gary Cahill was sent off in the 14th minute, and Burnley scored three goals in a row.
This is the first time in the history of the Premier League that Chelsea has fallen behind by three goals at home in the first half. Although Chelsea scored two goals in the second half, they still lost 2:3 in the end.
In this game, Chelsea lost both the ball and the people. In addition to Cahill being sent off shortly after the start, the team's midfield commander Fabregas was also sent off in the 81st minute of the game after two yellow cards turned into one red card.
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Will Manchester United repeat the mistakes of Liverpool and Chelsea?
Can Bruno, who performed very well last season, continue his outstanding performance?
All of this will start from this game and slowly open the curtain.
Mourinho arranged a 433 formation.
The goalkeeper is De Gea, and the defense is a combination of Valencia, Phil Jones, Maguire and Blind.
Smalling suffered a minor injury after playing the European Super Cup with Real Madrid. He was not approved by the team doctor, so he was excluded from the roster and replaced by Phil Jones.
The midfield is a combination of Gundogan, Kante and Mata, and the front court is Rashford, McTominay and Bruno.
Bruno continued to be pushed to the front line by Mourinho, but even so, Manchester United still did not have enough people on the front line. Lingard also had some physical problems, and the team doctor suggested that he take a break.
In desperation, Mourinho had to let the young player McTominay play as a center forward.
This young player, who is more than 1.9 meters tall, used to play as a striker on the court in his early years. But after joining Manchester United's youth training camp, McTominay changed to play midfield under the account of Warren Joyce, the then head coach of Manchester United's youth team.
Now, with the team in urgent need of a striker, Mourinho had no choice but to let the young player return to his old job.
At the same time, Mourinho also asked the team responsible for the transfer to speed up the transfer of Harry Kane and Mbappe to make up for the team's personnel crisis on the front line.
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West Ham United's head coach Bilic is not a rookie in the Premier League. He is also very aware of the importance of the first round of the league and knows Manchester United's calculations, so he is also very cautious and careful. He faces the battle with a 4231 formation and is determined to defend and counterattack.
Manchester United pressed forward in a big way, with the center forward McTominay as the spearhead, suppressing the West Ham United's defense.
Rashford and Bruno are on the two wings, while Gundogan, Kante and Mata are pressing forward in the midfield.
From the beginning, Manchester United played a very determined high-pressure pressing, aiming to win West Ham United from the beginning.
But West Ham United is not a fuel-saving lamp, and the defense at the beginning is still very tight.
Bruno's state is obviously recovering gradually, and he is more active than in the European Super Cup.
Eighteen minutes into the game, he forced a breakthrough on the right and crossed the ball, but West Ham United defender Ogbonna in the penalty area kicked the ball out of bounds, winning Manchester United a chance to take a sideline ball on the right side of the front penalty area.
"I'll do it!" Valencia ran up from behind and signaled that he would take the penalty kick.
Bruno, who had wanted to take a quick throw-in, no longer insisted after seeing that West Ham United had organized a defense line. He handed the ball to Valencia and turned back to the court.
West Ham United's defensive players were like a big enemy, blocking all Valencia's throwing angles, and even dared not be careless in the penalty area, for fear that Valencia would throw the ball directly into the penalty area.
In the entire right side of the penalty area, there were five West Ham United defensive players, but there were only three offensive players including Valencia.
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Bruno was stopped behind by the defensive players, and he did not struggle, but kept changing his direction and interfering with the opponent, but at the same time he was also gesturing to Valencia.
The two have been working together on the right side for a year and have a good understanding of each other.
When it came time to throw the ball, Bruno suddenly stopped and turned, going around the right side of the defender to the front, just at this time Valencia's hand-thrown ball came to his feet.
The left-back who was responsible for marking Bruno in this game was Arthur Masuaku, a player from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He had been very cautious to stick to Bruno, fearing that he would accidentally miss him, but he didn't expect that Bruno would quickly go around him.
This Portuguese is too flexible and too fast, just like a loach. But Masuaku is not stupid. He has played in the Premier League for West Ham United for a year and still has strength. He quickly chose to hold Bruno from behind. Even if he couldn't stop him from receiving the ball, he had to prevent him from turning around.
As long as he couldn't turn around, Bruno couldn't create a threat.
Bruno also knew the opponent's thoughts very well. He blocked Masuaku with his body, stopped the ball back to Valencia, and turned and ran away.
Masuaku had no choice but to rush to Valencia at the first time.
If he didn't defend Valencia at the first time, the Ecuadorian right back would definitely cross the ball from the bottom. There was a tall center like McTominay in the penalty area. Who would dare to let him cross?
Especially McTominay was still a newcomer. West Ham United didn't know his playing style at all, and didn't dare to give Manchester United the opportunity to cross.
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If Masuaku went forward to defend Valencia, there would have to be a player behind him to take over his shift and defend Bruno.
The switch between the two defensive players created a gap.
Bruno bypassed Masuaku and rushed to the baseline quickly. Valencia also understood and passed the ball to the baseline.
The ball arrived, and the people arrived.
When Bruno stopped the ball, he rushed into the penalty area and blocked West Ham United's central defender Ogbonna with his body.
The improvement of physical fitness was shown at this time. Although Ogbonna was also tall and strong, he could not take advantage of Bruno and could not squeeze Bruno.
Not only that, Bruno took advantage of Ogbonna's opportunity to squeeze him, and suddenly accelerated to get rid of him and rushed into the penalty area.
At this time, Reid, another central defender of West Ham United, rushed over quickly from the middle.
Bruno rushed into the penalty area with the ball from the baseline, and he kept observing the situation around him.
West Ham United goalkeeper Joe Hart was abandoned by Manchester City. Guardiola gave up the England goalkeeper, on the one hand because Joe Hart's footwork was too rough and did not meet Guardiola's requirements, and on the other hand because Joe Hart often made some low-level mistakes due to lack of concentration on the field, and the football world also circulated the joke of "Meeting Hart Mengyi".
At this time, Joe Hart was almost next to the right post, half squatting and bending, with his hands almost hanging on the ground, blocking every shooting angle of Bruno and being able to make a flying save at any time.
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In fact, the shooting angle was very small when dribbling from the bottom line, and Bruno's best choice was to pass the ball to his teammates.
Everyone on the field thought so, but Bruno noticed a very obvious gap at that moment, which was the top of goalkeeper Joe Hart's head.
In order to block all the shooting angles of his lower body, his hands were too low and his waist was bent, which exposed the gap above his head.
Bruno realized this, and without any thought, he didn't even plan to rush into the small penalty area with the ball, and directly shot from the outside of the small penalty area.
Before everyone on the scene could react, even goalkeeper Joe Hart himself was shocked, the football had already passed over his head at a very fast speed and hit the side net of the left post behind him!
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!"
"In the 18th minute, Manchester United scored the first goal, a shot from Bruno with a nearly zero angle!"
"Oh my God, this will definitely be the most exciting goal in this round of the Premier League!"
"After Bruno cooperated with Valencia on the right, he forced his way into the penalty area, and shot directly without hesitation, making a surprising zero-angle shot!"
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After scoring, Bruno excitedly rushed out of the court, jumped over the billboard on the sidelines, rushed directly to the opposite side of the fan stand, opened his arms and glided, and finally knelt in front of the fan stand.
More than 70,000 fans shouted Bruno's name at the top of their lungs!
"West Ham United's defense has always been pretty good, but Manchester United played more aggressively in this game. We can see that from the beginning of the game, the home team pressed forward and suppressed West Ham United in the half, which made West Ham United very uncomfortable and made frequent mistakes in the backcourt."
"Bruno's attack this time was indeed very eye-catching, fully reflecting his personal game strength. In an instant, he seized the loopholes in the opponent's defense and scored goals with his personal ability."
"We can also see that Bruno's state is recovering rapidly. I believe we will soon see the invincible Bruno again!"
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