Chapter 509 Don't Give Him a Chance!

After the second half, Chelsea did strengthen their offensive, but Manchester United had expected this, so they also strengthened their defense.

For a while, they couldn't even get through half the field, so they shrank in their own penalty area and defended.

From the scene, it was of course ugly, but compared with the result, it was no big deal.

This season, Manchester United has rarely played such ugly games, but when they decided to do so, they must have held the belief of "result first".

The only difference from before is that this style of play used to have Hazard as the spearhead of the counterattack. He has outstanding speed and personal skills, and his single-soldier combat ability is very strong. Sometimes one person can solve the problem.

However, Chelsea did not dare to press forward, because Manchester United's counterattack was also very threatening. Rashford and Mbappe, the wingers, are both good at counterattacks.

Therefore, even when Chelsea attacked, they still maintained sufficient defensive strength. Bruno had several chances to look up at the ball, but there was no good chance. He had to give up and take control of the ball again. Then he passed it back and forth. The opponent's defenders and midfielders had all retreated like the tide. Want to attack again? Play a positional battle with Chelsea honestly.

In the end, because he couldn't find a suitable opportunity, he had to force a long shot or a simple and rough cross. Under the defense of Azpilicueta, Christensen and Rudiger, Harry Kane didn't get any decent chances.

Rashford and Mbappe were able to create some opportunities with their flexible footwork.

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More than half of the second half was played, and Chelsea besieged Manchester United, while Manchester United defended. Occasionally there were a few opportunities for counterattacks, but they were not painful.

Chelsea fans at Stamford Bridge kept shouting and cheering for their team.

There were not many Manchester United fans in the stands, only more than 2,000 people. As soon as they opened their mouths, their voices were drowned out by the cheers of Chelsea fans.

The only thing that comforted them was that the team had not lost the ball so far. The opponent's offensive was so fierce, but the score was still 0:1.

Manchester United fans felt that it was okay to lose this game with this score, but it did not mean that all the players on the field thought so. At least Bruno had been looking for all possible counterattack opportunities.

As long as there was a chance, he would pass the ball without hesitation, and then it would depend on the ability of the teammate who received the ball.

It was a pity that no chance of scoring was created so far.

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As the game went on for 70 minutes, Chelsea still maintained its lead. At this time, Chelsea chose to defend and counterattack, so Manchester United had more space in the midfield.

At this time, Conte no longer cared whether to continue to contain Bruno in the midfield. Now Chelsea's strategy was to defend the 30-meter area, so that the opponent could not easily penetrate the defense line whether passing or shooting, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

If you press out to grab Bruno, it is easy to mess up your own defensive formation.

The essence of this defense is to give up possession of the ball to ensure that the three lines remain compact and the formation is intact, so that there will be fewer loopholes in the defense.

As for Bruno, although he has more freedom in the midfield, he has to face a strong defense.

If the opponent keeps the formation intact and compact, then the opportunity to attack will be much harder to find. You will find that there are people everywhere and it will be difficult for the football to pass through.

So he can't stay outside the opponent's 30-meter defense zone. It seems that he is trying hard to find a chance to pass the ball, but it is useless.

He must get closer to the opponent's penalty area and the opponent's goal, and suddenly insert to disrupt the opponent's defense line, so that they can't continue to maintain the formation, so as to find opportunities for his own attack.

He gestured to Kante: I want to go further forward.

Kante waved his hand: Go, I'm behind you.

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Rashford couldn't find a suitable cross opportunity on the wing, and there were people in front of the goal. If he passed the ball in, he would definitely be criticized by Bruno after the game, because it would not have any effect, but just wasted offensive opportunities again and again. So he passed the ball to the middle again.

Bruno ran towards the ball, and Matic followed closely behind him.

Bruno did not stop the ball, but directly passed the ball to Kante behind him with the outside of his left foot while running.

This is Bruno's most common way of passing the ball in recent times. He does not observe where his teammates are, nor does he stop the ball to adjust, but passes the ball again with the force of the pass. Unless you can get the ball away from him in advance, wait for a foul.

Matic got a yellow card at the beginning because of a foul on Bruno who passed the ball. Now he is much more careful in defense. Generally, he just follows and does not kick rashly.

Anyway, Bruno's passes are often just backwards or to the two sides, which are not his areas of responsibility. He just follows Conte's instructions, control the middle and hold the middle, and that's it.

After passing the ball, Bruno ran back in a circle, and Kante had already distributed the ball to the other side.

On that side, Mbappe came up. Mbappe finally decided to force a cross, and the ball bounced off the legs of Chelsea's left center back Rudiger who was defending him.

The game had been proceeding at a set rhythm before, and the failure of the forced cross added some sudden changes to the established rhythm.

Chelsea's defensive formation has changed. They are no longer just shrinking in the penalty area, but are planning to wait for opportunities to counterattack.

Conte's tactics are originally defensive and counterattack. You can't just defend without counterattack.

So after Rudiger blocked the football, Chelsea's offensive players rushed out, intending to take this opportunity to launch a counterattack.

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Kanter consciously leaned over after passing the ball to Mbappe. When Rudiger blocked the football, he rushed towards the football immediately, and then stabbed the football down before Hazard. .

Hazard raised his arm high to signal the opponent to step on, but the referee ignored it.

Kanter didn't have time to adjust the football. He knew this was Manchester United's opportunity, so he picked the football in the air directly to Bruno.

Matic saw the ball coming and pounced on it.

Bruno still didn't stop the ball. This time he faced the direction of the attack, dragging his right foot behind and extending his left foot forward, just like a normal running posture.

But the football flew over at this moment and hit the inside of his left foot. With a slight twist of his ankle, the football changed its line and flew forward!

Matic didn't expect Bruno to pass the football directly in such a difficult situation. He didn't make any blocking action and let the football fly past him!

"Oh! Beautiful!"

Bruno's ball did not pass directly to the center of the penalty area, which is the most crowded, but slightly to the right. Mbappe received the ball in the penalty area and then shot directly!

The ball was saved by Courtois, but Christensen pushed the ball over the bottom line under the pressure of Harry Kane.

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"Don't give him a chance!" Azpilicueta said to Matic who came back to defend in front of the goal.

The "he" in the Chelsea captain's mouth refers not to Mbappe who shot the ball, but to Bruno.

Matic spread his hands and said: "I rushed up to defend quickly enough, why didn't I give him a chance? The problem is that pass... I really didn't expect it!"

Azpilicueta admitted that when he saw this pass from the central defender position, the first thought in his mind was "How can he pass the ball like this?".

He knew how heavy Matic's defensive tasks were, so he did not continue to pester him. He just pulled Matic and asked him to pay attention to defense.

And what about himself? He stood next to Bruno. It's not that he deliberately challenged Bruno, but in the corner kick defense, the task given to him by head coach Conte was to prevent Bruno from heading the goal.

Data and videos show that the Portuguese's header ability has improved rapidly in recent years, and he has scored many goals with headers in the league.

However, this time the corner kick was not sent to Bruno's side, but went directly to the back point. Maguire, who was ambushing in the back point, jumped up and rushed to the top, intending to make up for it. Unfortunately, his header was slightly deflected and the football hit the side. online.

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In the pass that created the corner kick just now, Bruno's position was at the top of the penalty area. But Bruno felt that it was not enough and he should go one step further.

The concept of a free man is to come in from behind and allow one more player than the opponent to attack. He is freer than other teammates, so he is called a free man. However, with the prevalence of zone defense, the "sudden extra" advantage of the free agent in the offense has disappeared, so the free agent has gradually lost the soil for survival.

However, Bruno's understanding is different. Free people should not be limited to this level of "freedom." The opponent's defense line is very tight, the formation is complete, and the advance and retreat are well-founded. And he has to act as a free agent, suddenly stepping in, using passes or dribbling to disrupt their defensive formation, causing them to fall into a brief panic, even if it is just for a second, so that he can seize the opportunity.

His freedom is true freedom. As an opponent, no one can guess what he wants to do next.

When Manchester United attacked, Bruno initially wandered outside the thirty-meter area, running left and right to support his teammates.

When he thinks the time has come, he will suddenly move forward, pass the ball or simply dribble the ball in to force a breakthrough. Even if you can't successfully break in, you still have to create free kick opportunities.

Matic and Fabregas stared at Bruno.

The ball was passed towards Bruno and this time Fabregas rushed forward while Matic stayed behind to intercept his pass.

Matic quickly looked back at the position of the opponent's players behind him to better judge where Bruno would pass the ball.

Judging from his position, passing it to Mbappe may be the easiest thing to do. So he was stuck between Mbappe and Bruno.