Chapter 655: Breaking New Records
At 10 pm on October 23rd, local time in Ukraine, a focus match of Group F on the third match day of the 2018-2019 Champions League was fought at the Metalist Stadium, where Manchester United challenged the Ukrainian Super League giant Shakhtar Donetsk away.
This is the second consecutive year that the two teams have met in the Champions League, but last season was the knockout stage and this season is in the group stage.
When Manchester United visited the Metalist Stadium last season, the Shakhtar Donetsk caused some trouble for Manchester United. Manchester United midfielder Fellaini received a red card early in the game and was sent off, which almost caused Manchester United to lose the away game.
It was also that game that confirmed Mourinho's idea of cleaning up the Belgian midfield, and finally sold Fellaini to the midfield during the summer transfer window.
And the Brazilian Fred, the Shakhtar midfielder who performed well in that game, was taken to Old Trafford by Mourinho this summer.
Today, Fred will also face his old club at the Metalist Stadium.
Since Manchester United had just fought Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last weekend, and the team had to travel a lot, Mourinho made a large-scale adjustment to today's starting lineup. However, Bruno still started the game, partnering with Mata and Fred to form a three-man midfield. Romero replaced De Gea to guard the goal. The four players in the back line were Ashley Young, Smalling, Phil Jones and Rojo, and the forward line was McTominay, Lingard and Mahrez.
Under Mourinho, McTominay has been completely fixed at the center position and became Harry Kane's substitute.
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Manchester United broke the deadlock in the 30th minute. Bruno passed the ball, McTominay's shot from the edge of the penalty area was blocked and deflected, and Mahrez shot into the far corner from 12 yards on the left side of the penalty area.
In the 35th minute, Bruno took a corner kick, Smalling headed the ball, and shook the defender of Shakhtar Donetsk. Phil Jones headed the ball in front of the small penalty area and rewritten the score to 2:0.
Manchester United secured the victory in the 70th minute. Mahrez passed the ball in the counterattack, and Herrera, who had just replaced Mata, broke through to the penalty area and shot low. The ball hit the inside of the left post and went into the net.
In the first minute of injury time, Manchester United actually had a chance to rewrite the score. Bruno intercepted the ball in the midfield and sent a straight pass. Manchester United's happy boy Lingard got a single chance, but his shot hit the crossbar.
This 3:0 victory allowed Manchester United to lead Group F with three consecutive wins, but the other three teams all got 2 draws and tied with 2 points.
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After three group matches, Manchester United had a 7-point advantage, which laid the foundation for Manchester United to qualify for the group. As long as they beat Shakhtar Donetsk at home in the next group match, they can qualify for the group 2 rounds in advance, or even lock in the first place in Group F.
After winning this game, Manchester United has achieved 16 unbeaten games in the Champions League, which ranks fourth in the history of the Champions League, second only to Manchester United's 25 unbeaten games in the Champions League from September 2007 to May 2009, Ajax's 19 unbeaten games from September 1994 to April 1996, and Bayern Munich's 19 unbeaten games from March 2001 to April 2002.
Manchester United occupies a very important position in the unbeaten record in the history of the Champions League. In addition to the previous 25 unbeaten games and the current 16 unbeaten games, they have 2 other 16 unbeaten games, from March 1998 to October 1999, and from October 2001 to October 2002, which are all ranked in the top ten unbeaten records in the history of the Champions League.
Real Madrid, known as the king of the Champions League, has only one unbeaten record in the top ten of the Champions League history. That is, from April 2016 to May 2017, they played a wave of 15 unbeaten games in the Champions League and finally defended the Champions League title.
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Back to the Premier League, Manchester United immediately ushered in a new round of games, which is also a key game for Manchester United to hit a new unbeaten record in the history of the Premier League.
On the afternoon of October 28, Manchester United played against Everton at Old Trafford.
Old Trafford was packed.
Everton fans have no interest in stopping Manchester United from breaking Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record, because the two teams have always maintained a friendly relationship. There is even a saying in the British football world that Everton is the number one Manchester United gang and a die-hard younger brother of Manchester United.
Of course, this is just a rumor, and the two teams have never responded positively.
But in any case, the relationship between the two teams has always been relatively friendly, which is a well-known thing.
If it wasn't the 50th match against Everton, some Everton fans might have hoped that Manchester United would set a record.
However, no one expected that Manchester United's 50th unbeaten match would be against Everton at Old Trafford.
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"Dear viewers, you are now watching the focus battle of the 10th round of the 2018-2019 Premier League. The league leader Manchester United will play against Everton at home at Old Trafford." He Wei's voice sounded, and CCTV was broadcasting this game live.
In fact, the Premier League broadcast of this game was broadcast live to more than 150 countries and regions around the world.
"Mourinho made a large-scale rotation in the away game against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League in the middle of the week. How will Manchester United arrange the offensive end of this game and what kind of offensive lineup will Mourinho arrange? There are many predictions in the media before the game."
"We got Manchester United's starting lineup, and Mourinho put together the strongest lineup at home. The goalkeeper is De Gea. The left back is Luke Shaw, the right back is Cancelo, and the center back combination is Maguire and Van Dijk. In the midfield position, Bruno is still paired with Kante and Gundogan, and then the three forwards are Mbappe, Harry Kane and Rashford.”
"The game has started, let's watch the game..."
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"We are not very lucky today!" Faria said.
"Shut up, Rui." Carrick said quickly, and he almost came over and covered Faria's mouth.
Mourinho gritted his teeth and said impatiently: "You two, can you be quiet for a while? The game has just started, what a rush."
The game had only started two minutes, and the score on the field had already become 0:1.
In Everton's first attack, Icelandic sniper Sigurdsson suddenly shot a long shot from outside the penalty area. Manchester United's goalkeeper De Gea made a low-level mistake. He actually let the football pass between his hands, performing a "butter hand".
The Premier League Golden Glove and FIFA Golden Glove winner last season have been inconsistent since the start of the new season. Counting today's game, only 2 clean sheets were completed in the first 10 Premier League games, which is in sharp contrast to the 9 clean sheets in the first 10 rounds of last season.
Of course, Manchester United's backline is unstable, and De Gea cannot be entirely blamed. Defenders including Maguire, Van Dijk, and even Kante need to take the blame.
Perhaps because of the World Cup in the summer, Manchester United's defense players generally did not get a good rest, and pre-season preparations were also greatly affected.
After all, most of Manchester United's defense players participated in the World Cup in the summer. Cancelo reached the final with Portugal, and Maguire, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones and Ashley Young also participated. In the third-place match, Rojo and Lindelof also entered the knockout rounds.
The entire Manchester United backline players, that is, Van Dijk and Smalling did not participate in the World Cup, got a sufficient rest, and participated in Manchester United's pre-season training.
It can be said that although Manchester United players shined in this summer's World Cup and performed very well, the so-called success is also a failure, and the World Cup also seriously affected Manchester United's preparations.
What follows is that Manchester United's performance on the court is not as good as the same period last year in all aspects: in the first 9 rounds of the Premier League last year, Manchester United led the way with nine consecutive victories, scoring 40 goals and conceding 2 goals; in the first 9 rounds of this season, Manchester United won 8 and 1 Tied, scoring 26 goals and conceding 11. Although the points are only 2 points less than the same period last year, the performance on both offense and defense has declined significantly.
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Everton got off to a dream start thanks to Sigurdsson's goal, leading the home team Manchester United 1:0 in the away game.
Everton's head coach, Mourinho's fellow Portuguese fellow Marco Silva, shouted with joy, applauded from the sidelines, and actually looked towards Mourinho and raised his eyebrows.
Although both are Portuguese, the two have a good personal relationship, but on the court, everyone is their own master and uses their own methods to win.
For example, last season, Mourinho led Manchester United to face Marco Silva who coached Watford twice, but he showed no mercy at all and gave the little fellow two painful 5:0 losses.
Now that Marco Silva's team has scored a goal, he naturally wants to stimulate Mourinho. If the opponent is in chaos or even loses in the end, he will be happy to see the result.
Faced with Marco Silva's provocation, Mourinho felt very unhappy and cursed secretly: Didn't this bumpkin just score a goal?
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After conceding an early goal, Manchester United did not panic.
Now this Manchester United is no longer a rookie team. They have swept across Europe in the past two seasons and made great progress on all fronts this season. They have tempered Manchester United's muscles and ability to withstand pressure, and also allowed them to establish strong self-confidence. .
Bruno gets the ball in the frontcourt and Gueye is guarding him.
In front, Mbappe retreated from the offside position and Digne followed him.
Harry Kane is hanging around, and next to him is Zouma.
At this moment, Rashford suddenly stepped forward.
Bruno's upper body shook and he raised his left foot. Gueye immediately crossed over and blocked Bruno's pass. Then he looked at the back of Bruno with the ball passing by him with extremely surprised eyes.
Just now, the left foot of the World Footballer's dropped lightly passed over the football. He changed the shape of his foot almost instantly and wiped the football. At the same time, he turned sideways, using his left foot as the axis, half-turned, and wiped the football over. .