Chapter 651: No Reversal, No Red Devil

The game went according to Mourinho's plan. West Ham United attacked for five minutes but failed to score. Manchester United's goal stood firm in their fierce fire. They began to retreat because they were worried that the opponent would seize the opportunity to counterattack if they continued to attack like this.

Manchester United also changed their defensive tactics and pressed forward to attack West Ham United.

However, this time, Bruno, as the controller of the team's rhythm, was not very enthusiastic about those attacks that required great risks.

More often, both teams fought back and forth in the midfield. Occasionally, there would be a beautiful offensive organization, but the forwards of both sides would quickly waste these opportunities.

When the game time entered the 80th minute, Pellegrini made a gesture on the sidelines, and West Ham United decisively switched to a full-scale attack.

Not counting injury time, they only had ten minutes left.

At the same time, Mourinho also made a substitution decision. He replaced Harry Kane, who scored the team's first goal, with central defender Lindelof. Manchester United changed the formation to 532, with two geniuses, Rashford and Mbappe, joining the front line.

Both of them are very fast, have good skills, are good at dribbling and breakthrough, and have strong individual combat capabilities, which are suitable for counterattacks.

Replacing a central defender is naturally to strengthen the defense. The three central defenders stand two in front and one in the back, which can increase the thickness of the defense line and prevent the opponent from being penetrated by one hit. At the same time, it can also increase the number of people in the penalty area, causing trouble for players like Yarmolenko and not giving him room to play.

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When Harry Kane came off the court, Mourinho took the initiative to hug him.

"You did a good job, Harry. Go and rest now." Mourinho patted Harry Kane on the back and said.

Harry Kane, who returned to the bench, high-fived his teammates one by one. The team was leading, and there were only ten minutes left for the team to get 47 unbeaten games in the Premier League. Everyone was in a good mood.

When Mourinho showed his signature skills, it was really hard for West Ham United to make a difference with their offensive power. After all, although their forwards have a certain ability to score, neither Arnautovic, Yarmolenko, nor Anderson are top strikers known for scoring goals. Facing the current top defense in Europe, West Ham United created one or two scoring opportunities, but failed to score.

In the end, the score of 1:2 was maintained until the end of the game.

International practice, the home team is in front.

And with Manchester United's reversal and defeat of West Ham United away, they extended their unbeaten record in the Premier League to 47 games, only 2 games away from Arsenal's longest unbeaten record in Premier League history of 49 games created 14 years ago!

This victory also allowed Manchester United to rise to second place in the Premier League standings, and only ranked behind Guardiola's Manchester City with a goal difference disadvantage.

The Blue Moon performed very strongly at the beginning of this season. In the first 7 rounds of the Premier League, they scored 21 goals crazily, while the defense line only conceded 3 goals, and the number of goals reached 18, far exceeding Manchester United, whose goal difference was only 12.

Klopp's Liverpool also had the same points as the Manchester City duo. The Red Army also achieved a record of 6 wins and 1 draw in the first 7 rounds, and even the goal difference was the same as Manchester United, reaching 12, but their number of goals was only 15, which was less than Manchester United's 19 goals, so they can only rank third at present.

Following closely behind is Chelsea, whose current record is 5 wins and 2 draws, with 17 points.

These four teams are also the four teams that remain unbeaten in the Premier League.

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Manchester United's first game in October is the Champions League group stage against the Bundesliga dark horse Hoffenheim. This Bundesliga team had been in the lower leagues of Germany for a long time until it received continuous investment from SAP founder Dietmar Hopp in 2000 and hired Flick as the team's head coach in 2001. Hoffenheim then began to expand and was promoted to the Bundesliga in the 2007-2008 season.

In its debut season in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim continued its crazy trend of three-level jumps in three years. With the outstanding performance of the forward trident Ibisevic, Demba Ba and Obasi, Hoffenheim drew with Schalke 04 in the 17th round and became the second Bundesliga team after Kaiserslautern to become the half-time champion with 35 points in 17 rounds. Among them, Ibisevic had an amazing performance of scoring 18 goals in 17 rounds and won the Bundesliga half-time scorer king.

However, due to the increase in injuries after the winter break, especially Ibisevic, who had a stunning performance in the first half of the season, tore his cruciate ligament in the warm-up match against Hamburg during the winter break, which led to the end of the season. Hoffenheim could not continue the madness of the first half of the season, and suffered 12 consecutive defeats.

After the end of the season, they only ranked seventh and missed the European arena.

After the baptism of the first Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim, which made a stunning debut, gradually faded from its dark horse nature and gradually fell into mediocrity. It even almost relegated in the 2012-2013 season, and finally survived through the relegation play-offs.

Starting from the 2016-2017 season, Hoffenheim began to recover under the leadership of young coach Nagelsmann. That season, they won the fourth place in the Bundesliga, qualified for the Champions League play-offs, and finally entered the Champions League.

Last season, Hoffenheim went one step further, ranked third in the Bundesliga, and qualified for this season's Champions League.

In the first round of the group stage, Hoffenheim drew 2:2 with Shakhtar Donetsk away from home, performing well.

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Manchester United players didn’t know much about Hoffenheim before, and only read some information about them when they were drawn to Hoffenheim in the Champions League group stage.

There are two people in this team who attract the most attention, one is their frontcourt offensive core Kramaric, and the other is their captain and defensive core Vogt.

Mourinho also arranged for these two people before the game. In the actual game, his arrangement did not work.

Nagelsmann is worthy of being the hottest young coach in the world football today. He had expected Mourinho’s arrangement. Hoffenheim’s offensive focus in this game was not Kramaric and Vogt as judged by Mourinho.

Hoffenheim drew in the first round of the Champions League away game against Shakhtar Donetsk. At home against a super dark horse team like Manchester United, Hoffenheim chose a conservative counterattack tactic.

However, this does not mean that they will defend the backcourt from the beginning. Nagelsmann decided to attack at the beginning and catch Manchester United off guard.

Nagelsmann's tactics worked. Hoffenheim scored the first goal just 44 seconds into the game. Brenet passed the ball to Demirbay. Facing the dense Manchester United players in front of him, Demirbay chose the most perfect route to send a surgical through ball. Belfodil took the ball into the penalty area and shot into the near corner.

The home team led 1:0!

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However, the experienced Manchester United did not lose their composure because of this. They quickly stabilized the situation on the field under the leadership of Bruno and equalized the score in the 8th minute of the game.

Bruno sent a precise through ball in the midfield. Rashford on the left quickly inserted. Facing the goalkeeper, he chose to pass the ball to Harry Kane who inserted from behind. Harry Kane stopped the ball and then stumbled to score.

In the 15th minute, Bruno sent a through ball in the midfield again. Mbappe forced to overtake the defender on the right. The shot into the penalty area was blocked by Baumann with his foot and deflected off the post.

In the 33rd minute, after a series of dazzling passes in the middle of the penalty area, Mbappe's ball incredibly bounced to the feet of Harry Kane, who was unguarded. The English striker was obviously not prepared for such a sudden opportunity. His volley shot missed the target, and Manchester United missed the chance to take the lead again.

2 minutes later, Harry Kane suddenly shot in the penalty area, and the ball drew a beautiful arc and flew to the far corner of the goal, but was saved by Baumann.

At the end of the first half, Bruno tried a long shot outside the penalty area, but the ball was slightly higher than the crossbar.

In the 50th minute, Hoffenheim launched a quick counterattack with a long pass. Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea did not touch the ball when he attacked. Bruno ran dozens of meters to clear the ball in front of the opponent's players.

In the 68th minute, Gundogan was injured and Fred came on as a substitute.

5 minutes later, Mbappe got a single shot into the penalty area and was knocked down by the attacking goalkeeper with both hands, but the referee did not award a penalty, which caused great dissatisfaction among Manchester United players.

In the 86th minute, Manchester United finally overtook the score. Bruno took the lead in the penalty area and made a steal, then shot the ball into the far corner of the goal, changing the score to 1:2!

In the 92nd minute, Baumann attacked near the center circle, and Bruno took the ball to the left and shot into the empty goal, breaking Hoffenheim's goal again.

In the end, Manchester United reversed and defeated Hoffenheim 3:1 away.

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Manchester United's schedule for multi-line operations is very tight. Before the international match day in October, Manchester United ushered in the 8th round of the Premier League. On the evening of October 6, they sat at Old Trafford to face Newcastle, a former Premier League powerhouse.

Continuous operations made Manchester United players look a little tired, and the back line was obviously not in good shape. Just 10 minutes into the game, Maguire and Van Dijk made eye defenses one after another, and Newcastle took advantage of the mistakes of Manchester United's back line that were not tight to mark people and scored two goals in a row.

Losing two goals in a short period of time made Manchester United players even more flustered. Manchester United midfielders including Bruno wanted to pass the ball directly through the opponent's defense line, and the strikers wanted to dribble the ball and attack. The team's offensive organization was a mess.

At the critical moment, Mourinho made a firm adjustment. In the 18th minute, Mourinho replaced Maguire, who was in a slump, with Spanish attacker Mata to strengthen the attack.

After Manchester United players wasted several good opportunities, Mourinho firmly encouraged the players during the halftime break: Don't be afraid, as long as you dare to take the ball and dare to attack, victory will come!

This is undoubtedly a reassurance for the panicked Manchester United players.

Sure enough, Manchester United's offense improved greatly in the second half, and the status of Bruno, Rashford and other offensive players was activated one after another.

In the 70th minute, Bruno scored a goal for Manchester United with a direct free kick; in the 76th minute, Rashford equalized the score with a low shot from the near corner after receiving a back pass from Bruno; in the first minute of injury time, Cancelo made a cross from the right, and Bruno jumped high and headed the ball into the goal.

Manchester United was in a desperate situation with two goals behind, but they finally scored 3 goals in a row and reversed the game.

Three consecutive games were reversed and won. For a time, the legend that if there is no reversal, it is not the Red Devils, once again spread in European football!

This victory also allowed Manchester United to lead the Premier League standings alone, because in a focus match of this round, Liverpool and Manchester City drew 0-0 after 90 minutes of fierce battle at Anfield.