Chapter 555: Great Victory over Rome

Manchester United wants to create an unbeaten record in all competitions this season. They still face many challenges, and their first opponent is Roma.

At 7:45 pm GMT on April 4, 2018, in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, Manchester United sat at Old Trafford to face their former group stage rival Roma.

Since Manchester United's schedule is home first and then away, this is widely considered to be a bad schedule. Therefore, this home game is very important. The team must try their best to win so that they can play in a more relaxed environment. Away.

Because of this, Mourinho not only made extensive rotations in the team's starting lineup during the weekend match between Manchester United and Swansea, but even Bruno, who came on the field, played for about an hour. This is partly because At that time, Manchester United had already secured the victory, and on the other hand, it was also to save strength for the game with Roma.

Bruno is very clear about his mission. The most important thing for him now is to maintain his condition and try to help the team go further, whether it is the Champions League or the league.

The only difference is that the Champions League is more imminent because of the obvious points advantage in the league.

If possible, Bruno would of course want both the Champions League and the league, but if he had to choose one, he would choose the Champions League.

The last time he won the Champions League was three years ago, and the last time Manchester United won the Champions League was ten years ago.

Manchester United this season is undoubtedly the year that makes him feel most confident, and he really doesn't want to miss it.

Relatively speaking, the situation in Rome is not good. They only rank third in the Serie A standings and are a full 18 points behind Juventus at the top of the table. With only 8 rounds left in the league, there is only a theoretical hope of winning the championship. They also stopped at the top 16 in the Coppa Italia. As for the Champions League, they encountered the powerful Manchester United in the quarterfinals. It was very difficult to advance.

Of course, relatively speaking, the Champions League is Roma's last hope of winning this season.

………………

Since Manchester United will play three games in six days, with the Manchester City Derby attracting worldwide attention on the weekend, Mourinho has made adjustments to the starting lineup.

The goalkeeper is De Gea, the defense is Ashley Young, Lindelof, Smalling and Cancelo, the three midfielders are Bruno, Herrera and Mata, and the front three is Mahrez. , Ibrahimovic and Lingard.

Including Harry Kane, many players who played in last weekend's game were put on the bench by Mourinho.

Roma's starting lineup is 451. The goalkeeper is No. 1 Baker, the four defenders are No. 25 Perez, No. 20 Fazio, No. 11 Kolarov, and No. 44 Manolas; the midfielders are No. 8 Perotti and No. 6 Sturt. Rutman, No. 16 De Rossi, No. 7 Pellegrini, No. 24 Florenzi; the single arrow is No. 9 Dzeko.

Both teams know each other very well, and there are no secrets.

Roma took the lead in the game, but Manchester United pressed forward aggressively from the start.

Herrera was extremely active from the beginning of the game. After directly stealing Roma's pass, he passed it to Bruno in front, who directly took a long shot. A heavy artillery shot from thirty meters away, but the accuracy of this shot was a bit poor and it did not hit the door frame.

Although the first shot did not threaten, Manchester United's attack went very smoothly. In just four minutes, Cancelo quickly stepped in and formed a continuous cooperation with Mahrez on the right. The Portuguese right back passed into the penalty area. Ibrahimovic blocked Manolas with his body and pushed the ball home from close range.

1:0!

Such a goal was a bit too simple. Ibrahimovic ran to the sidelines very excitedly to celebrate his goal.

………………

After taking the lead, Manchester United continued to maintain pressure on Roma, but the Red Wolves were not at the mercy of others. They soon threatened, but they were never able to break through Manchester United's midfield suppression.

In the 35th minute, Ashley Young dribbled the ball in. Lingard quickly cut inside, attracted Stroman, and knocked Ashley Young's pass back to the baseline, forming a beautiful two-pointer. Pass one.

Bruno moved forward decisively and passed the ball from the left side of the penalty area. Ibrahimovic headed the ball from close range and scored again.

2:0!

Ibrahimovic scored twice and rushed to the sidelines excitedly, looking extremely excited.

As a superstar in world football, Ibrahimovic has scored a lot of goals in his career and won countless championships. But there has always been a sore spot in his heart, and that is the Champions League.

Starting from participating in the Champions League on behalf of Ajax in the 2002-2003 season, this season is his 15th season in the Champions League. He has participated in more than 120 games and scored more than 50 goals, but he has never won a championship with the team. Won the Champions League.

Not only has he never won the Champions League, he has never even reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in his entire career. Although the teams he plays for can steadily advance to the knockout rounds of the Champions League almost every season, most of them are eliminated in the first round and have very little time to advance to the quarterfinals.

………………

Correspondingly, Ibrahimovic has scored very few goals in the Champions League knockout rounds, scoring only 10 goals in the previous 14 seasons. Although this is enough to put him in the top 20 in the history of the Champions League knockout goals, it cannot match the experience of Ibrahimovic who has advanced to the Champions League knockout rounds 14 times in his career.

In fact, it was not until the 2009-2010 season that Ibrahimovic scored his first Champions League knockout goal, against Stuttgart.

Ibrahimovic's most glorious moment in the Champions League knockout was in the 2015-2016 season. Although he scored 10 goals in the 2013-2014 Champions League, he only scored 2 goals against Leverkusen in the knockout stage. In the 2015-2016 Champions League round of 16, Paris and Chelsea were very exciting. Ibrahimovic contributed 2 goals and 1 assist in two rounds, and was the biggest contributor to the team's promotion. He then added another goal in the quarterfinals against Manchester City.

The serious injury last season almost made Ibrahimovic bid farewell to the green field. After more than half a year of recuperation, although Ibrahimovic returned, it was difficult for him to have a chance to play in the face of competition from Harry Kane and McTominay.

But even in such an unfavorable situation, he scored a goal as a substitute in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, and scored twice again in the starting lineup today. Unknowingly, he scored three Champions League knockout goals. How could he not be excited?

………………

Just like Ibrahimovic played very happily, Bruno also played very relaxed in this game, because Manchester United completely controlled the situation and scored early.

In this case, he naturally couldn't go all out to fight to the death.

Reasonable allocation of one's physical energy is also a knowledge for professional players.

During the halftime break, Mourinho also gave a very high evaluation of the performance of Manchester United players, believing that the team should continue to work hard and try to defeat Roma at home to severely damage the opponent's morale.

After the second half, Manchester United's performance did not decline at all.

In the 60th minute, before Bruno was substituted, he took advantage of a set-piece opportunity in the frontcourt to assist Lindelof to score again.

Then in the 73rd minute of the game, Roma scored from a corner kick, but Manchester United quickly responded in the 81st minute with Gundogan, who came on as a substitute, assisting Ibrahimovic to score.

In the end, Manchester United beat the Red Wolves 4:1 at home and won a hearty victory.

………………

After the game, Manchester United's performance was unanimously affirmed by Fleet Street.

The Times believes that Manchester United did not give their all in this game, because most of the main players such as Harry Kane, Mbappe, Rashford, Kante did not play, and Bruno, who started the game, did not show his best condition. Even after the advantage was determined early in the game, Bruno was replaced just after 60 minutes of the game.

"This is obviously at the instruction of head coach Mourinho, because the team will face Manchester City next."

The best player this season is Ibrahimovic, who performed a hat trick. This is the first hat trick of the Swedish giant in the Champions League in his career, and it was also unanimously affirmed and praised after the game.

But the major media on Fleet Street were most surprised by several substitutes from Manchester United.

Ashley Young made an assist to Ibrahimovic. His defense on the left was very stable and his offense was impressive, which was once again recognized by the media.

Cancelo's performance on the right was not much worse, especially the assist to Ibrahimovic's first goal. He had continuous cooperation with Mahrez before, which was very exciting.

But the one who really impressed people was the Spanish midfielder Herrera.

The Times wrote: "Herrera is like an alert hound in the midfield. All the actions of De Rossi and Friuli Stadium cannot escape his keen sense of smell. At the same time, he has outstanding running ability. He is almost everywhere and keeps chasing the ball throughout the game."

The Guardian also gave a very high evaluation of Herrera's performance, believing that in addition to his excellent ball control, steals and counter-steals, his passing is also quite good. He can actively run to assist teammates and find better passing routes. ”

The Manchester Evening News believes that Herrera is a rare talent in the midfield. “The combination of him, Bruno and Mata played at the level of the top European midfield tonight, which is particularly impressive. I think after tonight, Mourinho will have a happy worry, that is, who should he choose between Kante and Herrera.”

Although Bruno did not perform very well in this 4:1 game, the media not only did not make any accusations against Bruno, but many media including The Times, The Guardian and The Manchester Evening News took the initiative to defend him.

The Times believes: “Bruno obviously put all his attention on how to help his teammates score goals, which made him forget to help himself score a goal!”

The Guardian said jokingly: “It is said that Bruno has a good relationship with Ibrahimovic. He should like to watch Ibrahimovic score goals!”