Chapter 640 The King of Football and the Man Behind Him

At 8:00 pm on August 10, 2018, Greenwich time, the opening match of the 2018-2019 Premier League season was held at Old Trafford, with the defending champions Manchester United and Leicester City, which once created a magical record of winning the championship.

The reason why the whistle time of this game was advanced to Friday night is mainly because next Wednesday night, Manchester United will compete with Atletico Madrid for the 2018 European Super Cup at the Ale Keke Arena in Tallinn, Estonia, Eastern Europe. The Premier League deliberately advanced the game time in order for Manchester United to prepare for this game.

In this game, Manchester United got a dream start and took the lead in the 146th second of the game. At that time, Luke Shaw made a triangle pass from the bottom of the left side, Rashford's volley from the left side of the penalty area was blocked by Morgan and deflected, Amartey committed a handball foul, and Bruno calmly shot a penalty kick into the upper right corner, scoring the first league goal of the season and helping Manchester United take the lead.

In the 78th minute, Manchester United scored another goal. Bruno made a diagonal pass, and Harry Kane scored a single shot from 11 yards, giving Manchester United a 2:0 lead.

In the 83rd minute, Manchester United expanded the score. Mata, who came on as a substitute, made a diagonal pass, and Luke Shaw stopped the ball and got rid of Ricardo Pereira, then shot diagonally from the upper left corner of the small penalty area into the far corner of the net, helping Manchester United to lock in the victory.

In the 92nd minute, Leicester City scored a goal, Ricardo Pereira made a diagonal pass from the right, the ball bounced off the ground and hit the far corner post and passed back, Vardy scored a close-range header, and the score was rewritten to 1:3.

In the end, with Bruno's one shot and one pass, as well as goals from Harry Kane and Luke Shaw, Manchester United defeated Leicester City 3:1 and got off to a good start in the new season.

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After defeating Leicester City, Manchester United immediately turned to preparations for the upcoming European Super Cup, which is also a key battle for Manchester United to hit the seven crowns in 2018. After all, compared to the Club World Cup at the end of the year, Atletico Madrid, the opponent in this game, is stronger.

At noon on Tuesday, the entire Manchester United team boarded the team's special plane and flew to Tallinn on the Baltic Sea coast. Although Tallinn is a small city with a population of only 400,000, which is equivalent to a small county town in China, it is the capital and largest city of Estonia, the northernmost of the three Baltic countries.

The 2018 European Super Cup was held at the Alekok Arena in Tallinn. This is a small stadium that can only accommodate about 14,000 fans. It is completely incomparable to Manchester United's current home stadium Old Trafford, and it is even more incomparable to Manchester United's new home stadium that can accommodate 90,000 spectators after reconstruction. However, it is the home of the Estonian national team and the largest stadium in the small country of Estonia.

At 10 pm on August 15th, local time, this place became a place of world attention, because last season's Champions League champion Manchester United will compete with last season's Europa League champion Atletico Madrid for the 2018 European King of Kings. The arrival of the two giants has attracted huge popularity to this small Nordic city.

According to reports, during the European Super Cup, about 50,000 fans of the two giant teams will come to Estonia to travel and watch the game.

This number is not a big deal for many countries, but it is quite impressive for Estonia, which has a total population of less than 1.4 million.

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This is the fifth time in history that Manchester United and Atletico Madrid have met.

In the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup in the 1991-1992 season, Atletico Madrid met Manchester United. At that time, Atletico Madrid won 3:0 at home and tied with Manchester United 1:1 away. In the end, Atletico Madrid eliminated Manchester United with a total score of 4:1 in two rounds.

Then there was the Champions League group stage last season. Manchester United defeated their opponents 2:1 at home and away, avenging the 25-year-old arrow while sending Atletico Madrid to the Europa League.

However, perhaps Atletico Madrid should thank Manchester United. After all, if they continue to stay in the Champions League, they will definitely not be able to win a championship trophy.

Of course, Atletico Madrid will definitely not really thank Manchester United, they will only think about revenge.

After the game started, Atletico Madrid's fighting spirit was quickly highlighted!

Just 49 seconds after the start, Atletico Madrid's new captain Godin made a long pass from the backcourt, and the ball accurately found Diego Costa in the frontcourt. The latter "domineering" and "crushed" past Rojo, dribbled past Van Dijk, and completed the shot in a very small space. The ball went straight to the far corner of the goal like a cannonball. Even De Gea, who has always been known for his quick response, had no reaction to such a goal.

Because they played in the World Cup in the summer and made it all the way to the quarterfinals and even the semi-finals, several central defenders of Manchester United, Maguire, Smalling, Phil Jones, and Lindelof, all missed Manchester United's summer training camp, and they did not have Bruno's almost plug-and-play ability. The state after the start of the new season was not very good. Now Manchester United's main central defenders are Van Dijk, who did not play in the World Cup, and Rojo, who was eliminated with the team in the first round of the knockout stage.

Afterwards, although Manchester United fought back after losing the ball, and Bruno and Harry Kane scored two goals in the 27th and 63rd minutes respectively to overtake. But this time it was DC who stood up again!

In the 79th minute, Costa received a pass from his teammate and shot into the goal in the penalty area, tying the score to 2:2.

However, Manchester United did not give Atletico Madrid any chance afterwards. Bruno's goal in the 87th minute of the game helped Manchester United complete the lore and win Manchester United's sixth championship trophy in 2018.

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After returning to the UK, Manchester United challenged Brighton away in the last game of the second round of the Premier League at 8 pm local time on August 20.

Since four of the BIG6 teams, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, as well as Watford and Bournemouth, have won two consecutive games in the first two rounds, if Manchester United cannot win this game, their ranking will fall outside the European war zone.

However, Harry Kane and Bruno scored in the first and second half, helping Manchester United beat Brighton 2:0 away.

This victory also extended Manchester United's unbeaten record in the Premier League to 42 games, only 7 games away from Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record set 14 years ago!

And Manchester United's unbeaten record in all official competitions has been rewritten to 73 games!

After two rounds, Manchester United ranked fourth in the standings due to the disadvantage of goal difference and the small number of goals.

In the third round of the Premier League, which was also Manchester United's last game in August, Manchester United faced a tough battle at home.

Originally, Manchester United once led 2:0 in the first half with Bruno and Mbappe's goals. Manchester United seemed to have another bloodless victory, but after the start of the second half, the situation on the field suddenly changed. Manchester United's defense seemed to have a short circuit, giving Tottenham opportunities continuously.

In the 50th minute of the game, Trippier took a corner kick, Morata beat Phil Jones with a header from 10 yards, and the ball went into the net close to the right post. Tottenham changed the score on the field to 2:1, with the home team in the lead.

Two minutes later, Tottenham scored another goal. Trippier passed directly, Eriksson passed back from the right side of the penalty area, and Lucas Jr. pushed the ball into the lower left corner from 12 yards, and the score on the field was changed to 2:2.

In just two minutes, Manchester United's seemingly solid advantage vanished.

Seeing the situation was not good, Mourinho quickly made adjustments and replaced new aid Fred with Kante to strengthen defense.

After Kante came on the field, Manchester United finally stabilized and did not continue to lose the ball, and the field was deadlocked. Both sides did not continue to score for a long time.

When the game reached the 84th minute, Eriksen sent a precise pass and broke through Manchester United's defense. Lucas Jr. broke through Smalling and pushed the ball into the net from 12 yards, helping Tottenham to overtake the score.

Seeing that Manchester United's winning streak was about to end at 42 games, Bruno stood up again at the critical moment.

In the second minute of injury time, with only one minute left before the end of the game, Manchester United attacked, and Luke Shaw passed the ball to Bruno in the middle just after passing the midfield.

Since it was more than 30 meters away from Tottenham's goal, Tottenham's defense against Bruno was a little lax. Bruno dribbled the ball and suddenly took a long shot from about 30 meters away from the goal. The football was like a cannonball, whistling straight towards Tottenham's goal.

Because Tottenham's defensive players blocked his view, Lori was not prepared for Bruno's shot. When he saw Bruno take a long shot, it was too late to react. He just moved symbolically and watched the ball fly into the goal behind him.

3:3!

Bruno's goal helped Manchester United tie Tottenham and continued Manchester United's unbeaten record.

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After leading the team to a difficult tie with Tottenham, several Manchester United players and Manchester United management such as Mourinho and Giarretta went south to Monaco to participate in the UEFA Awards Ceremony for the 2017-2018 season and the UEFA Champions League Group Draw Ceremony for the 2018-2019 season on the evening of August 30.

As the team that won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup in the 2017-2018 season, Manchester United is undoubtedly the best team in the 2017-2018 season. Similarly, they will also be the biggest winner of this award ceremony.

Manchester United won four of the five awards for the UEFA Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender, Best Midfielder, Best Forward and Best Player in the 2017-2018 season selected this evening. Only the Best Forward was awarded to the former Real Madrid star, the new king Cristiano Ronaldo who has transferred to Juventus!

The Best Goalkeeper was won by De Gea. Last season, De Gea, as the main goalkeeper of Manchester United, guarded the goal. In the game, he made high catches and blocked the ball to keep the goal intact, providing a strong defense guarantee for Manchester United to achieve the four crowns of the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup. He is the absolute hero of Manchester United's four crowns.

Although Manchester United still has Argentina's goalkeeper Romero, it still can't shake De Gea's position in Manchester United. In the five official games that Manchester United has played in the new season, De Gea has been the main goalkeeper.

The best defender was won by Manchester United's England international center back Maguire. As Manchester United's main center back last season, Maguire also defeated his teammate Van Dijk and Real Madrid captain Ramos to win the honor of best defender. Maguire not only performed well at Manchester United, but also performed well in the England national team. He was one of the heroes of England's semi-finals in the World Cup in Russia. This also made Maguire enter the top ten in the selection of World Footballer and European Ballon d'Or. It can be seen that the past year was a bumper year for Maguire.

The midfielder undoubtedly belongs to Bruno. Bruno is the absolute core of Manchester United. Not only was he the top scorer for Manchester United and even Europe last season, he was also the assists leader. Almost half of Manchester United's powerful firepower is produced by Bruno. Statistics show that Manchester United had the most goal-scoring opportunities in the penalty area last season in the entire Premier League and even in Europe, even more than their city rivals Manchester City, as well as the Western Premier League duo Real Madrid and Barcelona. This is closely related to their strong midfield.

In addition to his outstanding performance in the club, Bruno was not far behind in the World Cup. In the World Cup in Russia, he led Portugal to defeat strong opponents and reach the final, and finally won the championship, creating the history of Portuguese football. Bruno also won the title of top scorer and best player of the World Cup.

Recently, there has been a saying in world football that Cristiano Ronaldo is the new football king, and Bruno is the man behind the new football king. Without Bruno's support, Ronaldo would never be able to claim the title of football champion.

There are even many people who say that Bruno himself is actually a football champion!

Although Bruno will only turn 24 in September, he has already won honors that most players will never get in their lifetime.

The hottest superstar in world football today, at the age of less than 24, has already collected the World Cup, European Cup, Confederations Cup, Champions League, Europa League, European Super Cup, Serie A, Premier League, Italian Cup, England All player team honors, including the FA Cup, English League Cup, Italian Super Cup, Community Shield, Club World Cup, etc., and individual honors have also achieved Grand Slams, which fully qualifies them to win the football title.

The UEFA Player of the Year award also belongs to Manchester United, with Bruno winning the honor. He also broke Ronaldo's monopoly on this award in the past two years.

In the most critical Ballon d'Or and World Footballer selections, Bruno also ranked among the top three, competing with Yossi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of Player of the Year.

Now after winning UEFA's Best Player, Bruno is also very likely to win the Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year, reaching the top again after two years.

At the same time, the draw of the Champions League group stage, as the seed team, Manchester United, the draw results were not very good. They were divided with Bundesliga dark horse Hoffenheim, former French Ligue 1 overlord Lyon, and Ukrainian overlord Shakhtar Donetsk. together.

Of course, with Manchester United's strength, it is not difficult to qualify for the group, or even win the first place in the group. It's just that their opponents are stronger, so they have to spend more effort.