Chapter 545: Tie the Team's Undefeated Record

At 3 pm on February 3rd, local time in the UK, Manchester United faced Huddersfield at Old Trafford. This was the 26th round of the Premier League.

Before the start of Manchester United's game, good news came from Turf Moor Stadium. The Red Wine Army Burnley tied Manchester City 1:1. This means that as long as Manchester United can beat Huddersfield at home today, they will once again expand their advantage in the standings to 10 points.

However, the continuous double matches in a week have generally made the physical fitness of Manchester United's main players not very good, especially in this game. It has only been 65 hours since the end of Manchester United's game with Tottenham. Even if Bruno has a system, he still feels that his physical condition is not good.

Therefore, in this home game, Mourinho made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup. The only one who started the game against Tottenham and continued to start today was goalkeeper De Gea.

Because of the disastrous defeat at home in the first round, Huddersfield knew the gap between them and Manchester United. Although Manchester United made a large-scale rotation, Huddersfield was still very low-key at the Theatre of Dreams. After all, they are now deep in the relegation zone, so they plan to put the iron bucket formation to the end at Old Trafford and take 1 point.

Manchester United, which lacks top attackers such as Bruno, Harry Kane, Mbappe and Rashford, is also helpless in the face of the opponent's iron bucket formation and cannot break through the opponent's defense.

In the first half of the game, the referee on duty also made several controversial penalties. The referee turned a blind eye to McTominay and Mata being knocked down by the opponent in the penalty area, which was booed by the home team fans at Old Trafford.

………………

Mourinho was very dissatisfied with the team's performance in the first half, so he replaced two people in the midfield. Bruno replaced Mata, and Harry Kane replaced veteran Ibrahimovic.

Mourinho's two substitutions quickly worked wonders.

In the 55th minute, Manchester United broke the deadlock. Bruno made a cross from the left, and Harry Kane volleyed the ball into the near corner in front of the small penalty area. This was his 19th league goal this season, ranking third in the scorer list after his teammate Bruno and Liverpool striker Salah.

Manchester United, who broke the deadlock, was in high spirits and formed a siege against Huddersfield on the field.

But soon, Manchester United encountered controversial penalties again. In the 61st minute of the game, Harry Kane broke into the right side of the penalty area and fell under the opponent's close defense, but the referee still ignored it.

The three penalties were ignored by the referee, which completely exploded the Old Trafford Stadium.

Mourinho on the sidelines was furious. The Magic Bird completely forgot the series of praises he had made to the referee after the previous game with Manchester City, and completely forgot that he had said that he had the greatest respect for the referee.

As the captain on the field, Bruno also protested to the referee, but his attitude was relatively mild and there was no place to go beyond the rules.

The protests of Manchester United players still put a lot of pressure on the referee, which made the referee dare not ignore the opponent's foul again when Manchester United players were knocked down in the penalty area. He awarded Manchester United the penalty kick they deserved.

In the 68th minute of the game, Bruno was tripped by substitute Hefele at the edge of the penalty area. After a little hesitation, the referee still awarded a penalty kick.

Bruno took the penalty kick and easily scored, changing the score to 2:0.

………………

This was also the final score of the game. Manchester United extended their unbeaten record in the Premier League to 28 games, just one step away from the longest unbeaten record in the team's history of 29 games.

Manchester United had two 29 Premier League unbeaten streaks in history, from December 1998 to October 1999, and from April 2010 to February 2011.

The 29-match unbeaten record ranks only fourth in the history of the Premier League, ahead of Arsenal's 30-match unbeaten record from December 2001 to October 2002, Chelsea's 40-match unbeaten record from October 2004 to October 2005, and Arsenal's longest unbeaten record of 49 games in the Premier League.

It is worth mentioning that two of the top three unbeaten records were broken by Manchester United, and Arsenal's 30-match unbeaten record in the Premier League was also broken with Manchester United, because the person who broke the unbeaten record was Wayne Rooney, who later transferred to Manchester United and grew into the team captain and the record holder of the team's history of goalscoring.

And this victory not only allowed Manchester United to extend the unbeaten record to 28 games, but also allowed them to lead the standings by 10 points again.

With only 12 rounds left in the Premier League, it is almost a foregone conclusion that they will win the 15th Premier League title in team history.

………………

It is February 2018. In the middle of this month, the Champions League, which has been on hiatus for a long time, will rekindle the battle and start the 1/8 finals. Many fans may not be able to wait. After all, the major leagues during this period are a bit dull. Except for Serie A, the leaders of the five major leagues are more than 10 points ahead of the second place.

The suspense of the championship in the Premier League and La Liga, which are highly watched, is not great. With the stability of Manchester United and Barcelona, ​​the possibility of being overturned in the remaining dozen rounds is very small.

When the league is a bit boring, the Champions League will naturally attract people's attention.

One of the reasons for looking forward to the Champions League is naturally its own excitement. The Champions League is the world's highest-level football tournament. As the Champions League has attracted more and more attention and the economic benefits of participating in the Champions League have become more and more considerable, teams that have participated in the Champions League for a long time have gradually formed a "circle".

Whether from the perspective of attracting players or fans, the Champions League is a very important factor, and its importance is still increasing. If this trend continues, the Champions League will naturally become more elite. The group stage may be getting more and more boring, but in the knockout stage, the situation will become more and more intense.

Specifically for this season, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​and Bayern Munich each have their own concerns, Paris Saint-Germain is aggressive but not so unstoppable, and the Premier League powers are collectively rushing to the Champions League knockout stage... It is difficult to tell who is the biggest favorite to win the championship now, and there will be many teams that have ideas about winning the championship, and this idea may not be completely unrealistic from a practical point of view.

It is somewhat unexpected that the Premier League and La Liga have such a clear lead at this time this season.

When the leaders are in high spirits, there will naturally be a relatively lost party. For these teams, the Champions League is undoubtedly an opportunity to "get back on track".

Real Madrid basically only has one championship left to compete for, the Champions League, and Manchester City is also looking forward to a good performance in the Champions League.

Even if Barcelona wins both domestic titles, if Real Madrid can win the Champions League three times in a row, this historic achievement is enough to overshadow its arch-rival; it may be more difficult for Manchester City to win the championship, but if they can play well in the Champions League and go as far as possible, Guardiola will be under less pressure.

………………

After winning Huddersfield, Manchester United finally got a chance to breathe. In the next two weeks, they will play one game a week, which is too relaxed for Manchester United this season.

Especially in the week of early February, the time interval between Manchester United's two games was as long as eight days! Their game with Huddersfield was on the afternoon of February 3, and the next game with Newcastle was on the afternoon of February 11!

However, this is also the only time when Manchester United has a relatively relaxed schedule this season, because after entering late February, Manchester United will usher in a four-front death schedule.

In this case, except for the Premier League, which has a relatively obvious advantage, any loss in any game may cause Manchester United to miss a championship!

Because time is relatively ample, at the suggestion of Bruno, the Manchester United management, with the consent of Mourinho, ushered in a four-day short vacation.

However, the players were not allowed to take a separate vacation, but the whole team took the team's special plane to fly to the hometown of the team owner, the small Middle Eastern country of Qatar, to enjoy the warm sunshine and beaches.

………………

I don't know whether Manchester United players are a little uncomfortable returning to the cold UK after staying in the warm Qatar for a few days, or after a long period of high-intensity competition, they suddenly relax and it is very difficult to get nervous again. Anyway, in the away game against Newcastle, Manchester United players performed very poorly in the first half. Facing Newcastle, which ranks 16th in the standings, Manchester United could not attack for a long time, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 0:0.

After the start of the second half, Manchester United continued to attack Newcastle's half, but Harry Kane's goal was cancelled due to a foul, and Mbappe's shot was cleared by the opponent's defender Lejeune on the goal line.

When Manchester United players became a little anxious and the whole team pressed forward, their city was lost.

In the 65th minute, Newcastle counterattacked. Although their attack was stopped by Manchester United at the cost of a foul outside the penalty area, Shelvey's free kick was passed into the penalty area, Lejeune headed the ball, Gayle passed it back, and Matt Ritchie shot low from 10 yards into the net.

1:0, the home team took the lead, and Manchester United once again stood on the edge of losing.

Seeing the bad situation, Mourinho quickly made substitutions. Rashford and Mbappe were replaced, and Lingard and Mahrez came on as substitutes.

But until the 80th minute of the game, Manchester United still failed to break through Newcastle's iron wall. In desperation, Mourinho could only use his last trick. He replaced Gundogan with Ibrahimovic. Manchester United changed the formation to 424 and attacked with four forwards.

With Manchester United's desperate fight, Manchester United finally equalized the score in the 87th minute of the game. In the corner kick melee, Harry Kane and Ibrahimovic's two consecutive shots in front of the small penalty area were blocked by Gayle in front of the goal, but facing Bruno's supplementary shot, Newcastle finally had no one to stop it.

In the end, Manchester United drew 1:1 with Newcastle, getting the second draw of the season, but they also tied the team's unbeaten record of 29 games.

Bruno, who scored another goal, has also scored 33 goals in the league this season.