Chapter 652: Chelsea in Conflict
After helping Manchester United reverse and win three games in a row, Bruno temporarily left Manchester United and returned to Portugal to serve the king, because the second international match day of the new season is coming again.
This international match day, the Portuguese national team will still face the situation of lacking Ronaldo, and even in the next national team games this year, Ronaldo will also be absent.
Just last week, on the eve of Santos announcing the new Portuguese national team roster, Ronaldo had applied to the Portuguese Football Association that he would continue to not participate in the Portuguese national team's roster in October and November, which means that Ronaldo will no longer play for the Portuguese national team in 2018. Everything will have to wait until 2019. Ronaldo will decide according to his own situation in the later stage.
Ronaldo made such a decision, on the one hand, after winning the World Cup this summer and becoming the third recognized king of world football, Ronaldo felt that his national team career had been fulfilled, and he was no longer young at the age of 33. Temporarily withdrawing from the national team is not a very important game, which is beneficial to his sports cycle and can also better recover his body.
After the World Cup, Ronaldo left Real Madrid and joined Juventus, a giant in Serie A. He wanted to integrate into his new club wholeheartedly and avoid the tossing of international match days. Ronaldo would be in a better state to play for Juventus.
On the other hand, Ronaldo is already the father of 4 children. He needs time to accompany his family. Warm-up matches and European Nations League are not important events. Ronaldo chose to take a break temporarily and leave his position to young people.
Under such circumstances, Bruno continued to lead the Portuguese national team to compete in the European Nations League as captain.
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During this international match day, Portugal's opponent in the European Nations League was Poland led by Bayern Munich superstar Lewandowski.
Moreover, this European Nations League between Portugal and Poland was Lewandowski's 100th national team match for Poland, while Bruno played for the Portuguese national team for the 48th time.
In the current national team scorer list, Bruno is ahead of the Polish shooter. Bruno has scored 56 national team goals, while Lewandowski has helped the Polish national team score 55 goals.
Poland drew with Italy in the first match of this group, while Portugal beat Italy and temporarily ranked first. This game may change the ranking situation.
Piatek, who was called up by Poland's national team this time, is in hot form in Serie A, scoring 9 goals in the first 7 rounds. Andre Silva, who replaced Ronaldo, seems to have found his shooting boots after transferring to Sevilla, and also helped the team score 7 goals. This battle will be a direct dialogue between the two young players.
In this game, Lewandowski led the starting lineup for Poland, and Zielinski and Piatek started. For Portugal, Bruno continued to start as captain, and Cancelo and others also got the starting position.
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After the game started, Portugal, the new World Cup champion and the No. 1 player in FIFA ranking, took the initiative and showed great enthusiasm. On the field, it was the home team Poland that scored the first goal.
In the 18th minute, Kurzawa sent a corner kick into the penalty area from the right side, and Piatek headed the ball into the goal after overpowering Cancelo, Poland 1:0 Portugal.
But Portugal soon equalized the score. In the 31st minute, Bruno passed the ball in the middle, Cancelo made a straight pass from the right, Pizzi knocked on the door from the right side of the penalty area, and Andre Silva followed up and shot the ball into the goal, rewriting the score to 1:1.
In the 41st minute, Neves made a long pass to the penalty area from the backcourt, Bruno stopped the ball and dribbled past the goalkeeper and shot into the empty goal, scoring his 57th goal for the Portuguese national team and helping Portugal overtake the score.
After the start of the second half, Portugal continued to take the initiative to attack, and in the 51st minute, it expanded its lead to 2 goals. Bruno's pass in the midfield accurately passed through the Polish defense line. After receiving the pass on the right side of the penalty area, Bernardo Silva cut inside to the top of the penalty area and shot with his left foot. The ball flew into the net and Portugal led the opponent 3:1.
However, Poland, playing at home, was also very tenacious and scored again in the 76th minute of the game. Kuba volleyed the ball in front of the penalty area and scored. Poland 2:3 Portugal.
This goal gave Poland hope of scoring points at home, and they continued to strengthen their offensive. However, Portugal did not let Poland score the third goal. Instead, under the leadership of Bruno, they frequently played high-quality counterattacks. However, the Portuguese forwards led by Andre Silva were really average in their ability to seize opportunities and missed four excellent scoring opportunities in a row.
When the game reached the 91st minute, Portugal finally scored the fourth goal of the game. Sanchez passed the ball directly into the penalty area, Andre Silva got the ball and turned to face the attacking goalkeeper and passed it. Fernandez easily scored in front of the empty goal, locking the score at 4:2.
Portugal, which has won two consecutive games, is leading the standings.
Three days later, Portugal challenged Scotland away in a warm-up match, and Bruno missed this game. However, Portugal still defeated Scotland 3:1 away and won three consecutive games.
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After leading the team to defeat Poland, Bruno flew to London with the team, but after arriving in London, he did not go north to Edinburgh with the team, but returned to Manchester.
Just after the end of this international match day, Manchester United will usher in an important game. They will visit Stamford Bridge in the 9th round of the Premier League to challenge the Blues Chelsea.
This match is not only a duel between Chelsea and Manchester United, but also Mourinho's rematch against his old club, and a key battle for Manchester United to challenge Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak.
In such a major match, Chelsea will naturally not let Manchester United achieve its goal easily. On the one hand, Chelsea does not want to be blamed for Manchester United's unbeaten streak in the future, and on the other hand, it wants to avenge the defeat 13 years ago.
After all, Chelsea's 40-game unbeaten streak was ended by Manchester United, and now they are eager to end Manchester United's unbeaten streak, even if it will allow Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak to be maintained.
Manchester United is determined to tie Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten streak, and the three consecutive reversal wins before the international match day have given Manchester United strong confidence.
Not only are Manchester United people confident about this, but even the distant East is full of confidence in Manchester United. Liu Yimei sent the latest episode of "World Football" program video she got through personal channels to Bruno for him to enjoy.
In the unedited full version of the video, there is a sentence at the end of the program that the audience cannot see: What Manchester United has to do now is to first kill the Blues, then destroy the Toffees, sweep the Gunners, aim at the red and black, and dominate the world.
Manchester United's next two Premier League games will be against Chelsea and Everton, the two blue teams. If Manchester United can get through these two levels, it will break Arsenal's 49 unbeaten Premier League record and continue to impact AC Milan's 58 unbeaten unbeaten record in the top five leagues.
Bruno couldn't help laughing. He remembered this sentence. The original words seemed to be: First kill Shaolin, then destroy Wudang, only I am the Mingjiao, and I am the king of Wulin.
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The media in England are hyping Manchester United's 48 unbeaten games, helping Manchester United calculate how long they can continue to remain unbeaten and whether they can continue to break records.
"Manchester United's opponents in the next two league rounds are Chelsea and Everton. These two teams are traditional Premier League powerhouses, especially Chelsea, which is the only team that has a better record against Manchester United in the Premier League era, and can be called Manchester United's bitter enemy."
"Especially at Stamford Bridge, Manchester United has only achieved 2 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses in the past 10 league games, which is at an absolute disadvantage."
"It seems that it is not easy for Manchester United to tie Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record. The game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the 9th round of the league is the biggest test for Manchester United."
"Of course, after Bruno and Mourinho joined Manchester United , the Red Devils' performance against Chelsea is still good, which also means that they have a good chance of winning away. In this way, they can tie Arsenal's longest unbeaten record in the Premier League history of 49 games created 14 years ago. "
"Once Manchester United passes Chelsea, their unbeaten record is very likely to continue. After all, their next opponents are Everton and Bournemouth, and whether it is the Toffees or the Cherries, it is difficult to stop the Red Devils' progress. "
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At 12:30 noon on October 20, local time in the UK, the 9th round of the Premier League.
Chelsea's match against Manchester United at home, Stamford Bridge, kicked off.
As long as Manchester United does not lose away, they will tie Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record set seven years ago.
Although Chelsea and Arsenal are not mortal enemies, the two teams have been competing for many years in the Premier League era, and their relationship is definitely not harmonious.
In particular, the grievances between Mourinho and Arsenal head coach Wenger are one of the most talked-about stories in the history of English football. The disputes and conflicts between the two coaches on and off the field, from verbal confrontations to physical conflicts, lasted for more than a decade and became a good story in English football.
The dispute between the two began in 2004. In October 2014, in Arsenal's away game against Chelsea, Wenger and Mourinho quarreled and pushed each other on the sidelines. This incident was widely reported and became a climax of the feud between the two.
Now, Wenger has retired and Mourinho has moved to Manchester United. The feud between the two head coaches has come to an end.
However, as Mourinho led Manchester United to challenge Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record, this case was brought up again. Chelsea, Mourinho's two-time savior, replaced Arsenal as the protagonist, and they will decide whether Manchester United can tie Arsenal's record.
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In fact, from Chelsea's current position, they don't have much choice except to beat Manchester United.
On the one hand, with the rise of Manchester United, Chelsea has been empty-handed for two consecutive seasons, which is unacceptable to Abramovich, who has invested heavily in the transfer market. So this summer, he fired Conte and chose Sarri, who had achieved good results in Naples, as the new coach of the Blues.
In the transfer market, Abramovich continued to invest heavily, introducing Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Kepa and Naples midfielder Jorginho. The two transfers cost Chelsea 123 million euros.
With such a huge investment, Chelsea naturally wants to break the championship drought, preferably to win the Premier League championship again after 4 years.
In the new season, the Blues' performance in the Premier League is also good, with 6 wins and 2 draws in the first 8 rounds, temporarily ranking third in the Premier League standings.
If they can beat Manchester United at home in this round, they can not only end Manchester United's 48-match unbeaten record in the Premier League, but also surpass Manchester United in the standings and rise to second or even first.
But if they fail to win or even lose at home, they will not only be left behind by Manchester United in the standings, but will also be targeted at the historical pillar of shame. In the future, whenever people talk about Manchester United's unbeaten record, Chelsea may be pulled out and whipped.
The Times bluntly stated that Chelsea must win this game. The importance of this game is even no less than a final. This is a battle of dignity for the Blues.
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The stands at Stamford Bridge were packed on this day.
Chelsea fans treated this game with very complicated feelings, and it can even be said that they were frustrated and sad, because their team had to go all out in this game to keep their unbeaten record for their city rivals Arsenal.
"Chelsea's fans are very enthusiastic. They have been singing since the beginning of the game. They have been singing the team song."
Amid the deafening singing of the home fans, Chelsea's plan was to score first and take the lead, so that they would have room to deal with Manchester United.
But Manchester United's second shot was unexpectedly a goal.
Two minutes into the game, Rashford made a long shot outside the penalty area, and Kepa saved the ball.
The ball was saved by Kepa in front of Harry Kane on the left side of the goal.
Harry Kane got ahead of Rudiger and shoveled the ball directly, and the ball flew into the goal guarded by Kepa.
This goal made Stamford Bridge fall silent for a moment.
Chelsea fans sang the team song loudly, and before they finished singing the first time, they saw their goal being broken by Manchester United.
Some people couldn't believe their eyes, and they looked up at the live scoreboard.
0:1!
Chelsea fell behind by one goal at home.
This is actually true!
The team lost the ball at the beginning!
In the minds of some fans, those bad memories immediately began to flood.
Just last season, facing Manchester United, the team they supported lost 4 times, one in the Community Shield, one in the FA Cup final, and the remaining 2 times in the league.
Chelsea lost to Manchester United the second most last season, only less than Manchester City, which lost to Manchester United 5 times.
But Manchester City at least drew once and did not lose all to Manchester United.
Moreover, those 4 losses also caused Chelsea to lose 2 championship trophies directly!