Chapter 500 Red Wolf
"Every team has its own goals for building a team. Not all teams can use almost unlimited funds to buy and buy like Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. Liverpool has never been such a team, and I have never been able to do so. Not that kind of coach."
"This Liverpool is a very young team. Our main lineup is basically composed of players born in the 1990s. This brings endless potential to our team. What we need to do next is to This potential is fully exploited.”
Regarding the game, Mourinho praised Bruno and the players, especially Bruno's responsibility as the team captain, who was able to step forward at critical moments, which was very admirable.
The Manchester United coach also said that if it were not for the referee's misjudgment, Manchester United should have scored in the first half.
"It was a very obvious and unquestionable handball. It should have been a penalty kick. Our players also appealed, but the referee still upheld the original decision. I believe everyone should see that it was a wrong call. ”
Regarding the penalty kick mentioned by Mourinho, Liverpool head coach Klopp said that he did not see it.
"I didn't pay attention to whether it was a handball at the time, but I think the referee made a decision that he thought was the wisest at the time. My player did not consciously open his arms. That should not be sentenced to death. ”
Liverpool lost 0:2 to Manchester United at home. This was not a big upset. After all, it was much better than Liverpool's 0:4 defeat at home last season.
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In this summer transfer window, both teams have made fruitful signings.
Manchester United spent a huge price to introduce Harry Kane and Mbappe, which made up for the team's biggest shortcomings. Making Manchester United stronger than last season.
Although Liverpool's investment in the transfer market is far less than Manchester United, they have successfully retained core player Coutinho and introduced striker Salah, which is also of great significance to Liverpool.
For now, Liverpool's biggest problem is the defense.
Since Carragher retired, Liverpool has lacked a truly top defender in the defense, and Liverpool's defense has conceded around 50 goals every season. This is not the defensive performance that a top team should have at all.
Of course, conceding too many goals is not just a problem for defenders, goalkeepers are also an important factor. Liverpool goalkeeper Mignolet is not top-notch in ability.
With the Belgian's ability, he may be qualified to serve as the main goalkeeper in ordinary Premier League teams. But for a top club like Liverpool, especially in the stage of revival, Mignolet is somewhat unsatisfactory.
However, as Klopp said, Liverpool is not like the Manchester City duo and Chelsea, who can wave their checks and buy without any scruples. Although their boss John Henry has a small amount of assets, he does not have a big background, and he is not a super rich man like Jassim and Abramovich with a net worth of tens of billions.
Therefore, in terms of the current strength of the two teams, there is indeed a big gap between Liverpool and Manchester United.
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In mid-week, Manchester United ushered in the third round of the Champions League group stage and faced Roma at Old Trafford.
This is a game between the first and second place in Group C, and it is also a key battle for whether Manchester United can win the first place in the group.
For Manchester United, Roma is a familiar yet unfamiliar opponent.
I say familiarity because the two teams have played against each other a lot of times in history, a full six times. It's unfamiliar because the last time the two teams played against each other was already ten years ago.
In fact, all six meetings between Manchester United and Roma were concentrated ten years ago, when Manchester United last dominated Europe.
In the 2006-2007 season, Manchester United, which was about to rise from a short trough, faced Roma in the Champions League quarter-finals. Manchester United first lost to their opponents with a score of 1:2 in the away game. In the second round back at Old Trafford, Ronaldo scored the first goal of the Champions League, while Manchester United defeated their opponents with a score of 7:1 to advance to the fourth round. powerful.
A year later, in the 2007-2008 season, Manchester United and Roma met four times in the Champions League.
In the group stage, Manchester United played against Roma in two rounds, winning one and drawing one, with the scores 1:0 and 1:1. The two teams met again in the Champions League quarter-finals of the same season. This time the encounter ended with Manchester United beating their opponents in two rounds, with the scores 2:0 and 1:0 respectively.
It can be said that Roma is the stepping stone for Manchester United to reach the top of Europe!
Now, after ten years, the two teams meet again in the Champions League. What kind of sparks will be generated is worth looking forward to.
For Bruno, Roma is not an easy opponent to deal with. He played for Udinese for three years and met Roma six times, with a record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.
Especially in Bruno's last year with Udinese, Roma completed a double kill against Udinese.
That kind of experience was really a bitter experience for Bruno at the time.
It can be said that in those three years, Roma was one of the few teams that could take advantage of Udinese led by Bruno.
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On match day, media from all over the world gathered in Manchester to pay attention to the match between Manchester United and Roma.
One day ago, four groups of matches had ended on this Champions League match day. The two participating British teams had good results. Manchester City beat Napoli 2:1 at home, and Tottenham tied the powerful Real Madrid 1:1 at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Under such circumstances, Manchester United, as the champion of the Premier League last season, and the opponent was a strong team like Roma, so the media around the world paid great attention to it.
There were a lot of news about the two teams before the game, such as Manchester United's historical advantage over Roma, the bloody 7:1 massacre in the past, and Roma's record advantage over Bruno...
The media were hyping up this game, which made the game look full of suspense.
But as the game approached, all irrelevant news disappeared, and everyone was still only concerned about whether the players of both sides were in place and what tactics the head coaches of both sides would arrange.
The game time finally came. Old Trafford was packed. There were even many loyal fans waiting outside the stadium five minutes before the game started, holding signs saying "I need tickets", hoping to be lucky enough to meet those who had something to do and could not go to the live broadcast of the game to refund their tickets.
However, their waiting was destined to be in vain. Tickets for this game were very tight, and many people could not buy tickets a week in advance. And those tickets that were reserved for sale before the game were also snapped up as soon as they were released.
People waiting for tickets still stubbornly waited outside. Next to them was the noisy Old Trafford Stadium. The lights of the stadium were all turned on, and the sound waves coming from inside could be heard from a long distance.
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The players of both sides have entered the stadium. Accompanied by the Champions League theme song, they lined up and let reporters take pictures and videos. Then the visiting players took the initiative to walk towards the home team players and shook hands with them one by one.
Bruno, as the captain of the team, stood at the front of the queue. Every Roma player would be the first to shake hands with him after coming up.
After Salah transferred to Liverpool, he didn't have any good friends in Roma, so there was no handshake or greeting. Everyone just shook hands and then let go.
The first Roma player to shake hands with Bruno was their captain on the field, Stroman.
The Dutch midfielder was not the captain of Roma, nor even the first vice-captain. It's just that Roma's captain De Rossi did not start today, and the first vice-captain Florenzi did not start, so the captain's armband was worn on the arm of Stroman, who had played for Roma for 4 years.
Bruno and Stroman are also old rivals. After all, he played against this guy a lot during his time in Udinese.
Although Bruno was not at a disadvantage against Stroman in several encounters, and even had a clear advantage in many cases, Stroman's Roma team always had an advantage in the game against Udinese, which really made Bruno very depressed.
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After the handshake, the captains of both sides met again. Bruno and Stroman exchanged team flags and picked sides. Bruno deliberately lost the right to pick sides and got the right to kick off.
Bruno pays more attention to kicking off than choosing sides. Whoever kicks off first will have the advantage, just like the black player has the advantage of the first move.
Manchester United's football is fast and direct, and they need to put pressure on the opponent right from the start, so it is more advantageous for them to kick off first.
After the side selection, the two captains returned to their respective teams. Bruno gathered his teammates as usual and made a brief pre-match mobilization.
"We must win against them. We have said this many times in the past half week, so I won't repeat it." Bruno said, "I just want to say one thing - let them see our football, brothers!"
Harry Kane stood in the center circle, stepping on the football, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle.
Rashford and Mbappe stood at both ends of the center line, close to the sidelines, and Bruno stood in the middle of the center circle. Manchester United always passed the ball to him when they kicked off.
Kante stood behind Bruno as a protection.
The formation was relatively compact at the start. Once the ball was kicked to Bruno's feet, Manchester United's formation would quickly disperse. The two wingers moved forward, Kante ran to one side, and the back line retreated as a whole to create space for Bruno to pass the ball.
On the TV screen, the players of both sides had already stood in their respective formations, waiting for the game to start.
The referee checked the time with the fourth official off the field, and then blew the whistle in his mouth!