Chapter 519 The Era Has Begun
Manchester United defeated Atletico Madrid with an almost full substitute lineup. The attention attracted by this narrow 2:1 victory was even higher than their previous 4:0 Arsenal, 5:0 Watford, and even 8:1 Newcastle.
Those who really understand football know that a big win is just an exception, and it is this kind of fierce and evenly matched competition that really tests a team.
Moreover, Atletico Madrid is one of the teams with the best performance in the Champions League in recent years. They reached the Champions League final twice in the 2013-2014 season and the 2015-2016 season, advanced to the quarterfinals in the 2014-2015 season, and reached the semifinals in the 2016-2017 season.
Such a stable performance also makes Atletico Madrid the second in the current UEFA club European Cup standings, second only to Real Madrid, which has won the championship three times in the past four years.
However, Manchester United defeated Atletico Madrid, which was fighting a desperate battle, with a substitute lineup. This is really amazing!
"Being able to beat the powerful Atletico Madrid with a substitute lineup, in my opinion, shows the depth of Manchester United's lineup and the maturity of its tactics. In such a tense game, they were able to persevere and kill their opponents, which is the key for a team to stabilize and achieve good results in a long season." Duncan Castles, a columnist for The Times, has a clear view that a season is long, and occasional big wins cannot truly illustrate the problem. This 2:1 makes him more optimistic about Manchester United.
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The excellent competitive state shown by Manchester United's players also won praise from the media.
In December, Bruno scored 30 goals for Manchester United in various competitions. In addition, he had 17 assists, and he created and participated in 47 goals alone, which was shocking.
What does it mean to create 47 goals? The entire Manchester United team has only scored 91 goals in various competitions so far, and Bruno alone has participated in more than half of the Manchester United team's goals.
Manchester United is still the team with the strongest offensive firepower in Europe. Their 91 goals were scored in 25 games, with an average of 3.64 goals per game!
As of now, the second strongest offensive firepower in Europe is Paris Saint-Germain. Paris Saint-Germain scored 48 goals in 16 rounds of Ligue 1, 25 goals in the Champions League group stage, and 2 goals in the French Super Cup, with a total of 75 goals. Bruno participated in 63% of the goals of Paris Saint-Germain!
And Real Madrid, the most powerful team in the world football today, scored 25 goals in 14 rounds of La Liga, 17 goals in the Champions League group stage, 4 goals in the King's Cup, 5 goals in the Spanish Super Cup, and 2 goals in the European Super Cup, with a total of 53 goals, only 6 more than the number of goals Bruno participated in!
Although Bruno scored 30 goals, the total number of goals scored by Manchester United in the new season is as high as 91, while the number of goals scored by other Manchester United players is not small, reaching 61. Harry Kane, Rashford and Mbappe scored in double digits, and the total number of goals scored is as high as 13.
So, Manchester United is not supported by Bruno alone, but by all aspects.
The Manchester Evening News used the entire page to report the outstanding performance of Manchester United players, "Crazy Bruno, shocking Manchester United", which is the headline of this page.
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Manchester United's mouthpiece media The Guardian praised Mourinho and the players, and their headline was: Who can stop him?
This one uses the Manchester United team logo.
In addition, the report also used two pictures on the front page, one of which was the Premier League standings:
1. Manchester United, 15 wins, 45 points;
2. Manchester City, 14 wins, 1 draw, 43 points;
3. Chelsea, 9 wins, 2 draws, 4 losses, 29 points;
4. Liverpool, 8 wins, 5 draws, 2 losses, 29 points;
5. Arsenal, 9 wins, 1 draw, 5 losses, 28 points;
The other picture was the match table for the next five games:
December 10, the 16th round of the league, Manchester United vs. Manchester City at home;
December 13, the 17th round of the league, Manchester United vs. Bournemouth at home;
December 17, the 18th round of the league, Manchester United vs. West Bromwich Albion away;
December 20, the 5th round of the League Cup, Manchester United vs. Bristol City away;
December 23, the 19th round of the league, Manchester United vs. Leicester City away.
These are all the games Manchester United played before Christmas.
It seems that among these five teams, only Manchester City has the possibility of stopping Manchester United. Of the other four teams, three are mid-to-lower-level Premier League teams, and the remaining Bristol City is only a mid-level team in the English Championship. The possibility of ending Manchester United's unbeaten streak is very small.
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On the evening of December 7, Central European Time, the 2017 European Golden Ball Award Ceremony founded by "France Football" magazine was held at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
Starting at 4:20 pm, the players ranked last were announced one after another.
Until 7:40 pm, except for the top three players who were not announced, the rankings of the remaining 27 players had been announced.
Without any surprise, the top three are still Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno and Yosi.
At 8:00 pm local time in Paris, the final result of the 2017 European Golden Ball Award was announced. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese superstar who plays for Real Madrid, defeated Bruno and Yosi and won the fifth Golden Ball Award in his career.
In addition, Cristiano Ronaldo's girlfriend Georgina also received a special gift, a baby shirt printed with five Golden Ball Awards.
This result was expected by people. After all, Cristiano Ronaldo performed very well in 2017. He played 46 games for Real Madrid, scored 42 goals and sent 9 assists, helping the Galaxy Battleship win the Champions League, La Liga and Spanish Super Cup. The upcoming Club World Cup will be won by Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid without any surprise.
Unlike the impression of Cristiano Ronaldo in many fans in the past, Real Madrid was able to win La Liga and the Champions League in 2017. Cristiano Ronaldo's performance was particularly dazzling. He scored decisive goals in the key stages of the Champions League and La Liga championships.
Especially in the Champions League, Ronaldo only scored 2 goals at the end of the group stage. But in the knockout stage, Ronaldo was in great form, scoring 10 goals in 7 games, scoring twice in the final, and reversed Yosi to become the Champions League Golden Boot after falling behind in the group stage.
At the national team level, Ronaldo led the team to the 2018 World Cup with his outstanding performance and scored 17 goals. In the Russian Confederations Cup in the summer, Ronaldo also performed well.
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When the final result was announced, some people were quite regretful. They were all wondering whether Bruno could reverse Ronaldo and win the award in the more professional European Golden Ball Award.
After all, in 2017, Bruno's personal performance was really outstanding.
Throughout 2017, Bruno played 53 games for Manchester United in various competitions, scored 53 goals, and also sent 34 assists, helping Manchester United win the Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield and European Super Cup. Bruno personally achieved the Premier League personal honors Grand Slam and defeated Yosi to win the European Golden Boot Award in the 2016-2017 season.
In the Portuguese national team, Bruno's performance is even better than Ronaldo.
In the World Cup qualifiers, Bruno scored 19 goals and assisted 13 times, becoming the top scorer and assist king in the European qualifiers of the Russian World Cup.
In the Russian Confederations Cup, Bruno scored 6 goals in 4 games and was the number one contributor to Portugal's victory in the Confederations Cup.
So far, Bruno has represented Manchester United and the Portuguese national team in 2017, scoring a total of 69 goals and 42 assists, and the number of goals directly involved has exceeded 100 again, reaching 111, averaging 1.76 goals per game.
According to the confirmed venues, Manchester United still has 7 games in 2017. According to his previous efficiency, he may participate in 123 goals in 2017, breaking the record of 122 goals he set in 2016.
It can be said that among the three people on the list of the Golden Ball, Bruno's personal data is the best. The team honors are also not bad.
However, in the year without the European Cup and the World Cup, the influence of the Champions League is too great. And Manchester United, where Bruno is, failed to participate in the Champions League in the 2016-2017 season, which became the fatal weakness of Bruno and Ronaldo's defeat in the competition for the European Golden Ball.
And Ronaldo led Real Madrid to successfully defend the Champions League, and his personal performance in the knockout stage also became the most critical factor for him to win the European Golden Ball again.
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However, objectively speaking, Ronaldo will be 33 years old in a few months. Even though his greatness, dedication and skills have been proven for ten years, the erosion of time and the natural rule of the wave of competitive sports still affect Ronaldo's competitive state.
After the start of this season, Ronaldo's goal rate in the league is low, perhaps people can only sigh: the power of time is so terrible, even as strong as Ronaldo, it is ultimately no match for the power of time.
Bruno, who is 9 years younger than Ronaldo, is just entering the peak of his career.
After the start of the new season, Bruno led Manchester United to a 15-game winning streak at the start of the Premier League. Bruno alone scored 23 goals and also sent 12 assists. His state is simply explosive.
Not only in the Premier League, but also in the world-renowned Champions League, Bruno's performance is amazing.
As Manchester United advanced to the knockout stage two rounds in advance, Bruno played only five games in the Champions League group stage, but he contributed five goals and five assists, still averaging two goals per game.
With such performance, Bruno not only ranked second in the scorer list, but also ranked first in the assist list.
Of course, it is not surprising that Bruno has such a performance in the Champions League, because when he was in Udinese, he had performed well in the Champions League for two consecutive seasons.
In the 2014-2015 season, Bruno scored 20 goals and assisted 10 times in 15 Champions League games, including 17 goals and 9 assists in 13 games in the Champions League finals, making him the top contributor to Udinese's upset win of the Champions League.
In the 2015-2016 season, Bruno's performance was somewhat worse than that of the previous season, as Udinese was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, but he also achieved a record of 14 goals and 5 assists in 8 games.
Obviously, as Ronaldo and Yosi are getting older, the world football has begun to enter the era of Bruno.