Chapter 664: No Useless Game

On the evening of November 27, Olympic Park Stadium.

This is the fifth round of the 2018-2019 Champions League group stage. Since Manchester United has advanced to the knockout stage two rounds in advance and has secured the first place in the group, Mourinho once again made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup in this game, and even Bruno sat on the bench.

However, their opponent Lyon attaches great importance to this game.

In the first four rounds, Lyon only achieved 3 draws and 1 loss. Currently, it ranks third in Group F with a goal difference disadvantage, and the situation of qualifying is very bad.

Under such circumstances, Lyon can no longer bear the result of losing in the home game against Manchester United, otherwise they are very likely to lose the hope of qualifying.

After the start of the game, Lyon, who played at home, took the lead in launching an attack, using the speed and personal ability of the striker, Manchester United's old player Depay, to frequently create threats from the beginning of the game, and in the second and fourth minutes, he created two consecutive dangerous situations, one of which was almost a single-handed pass, but at the critical moment Lindelof decisively slid in the penalty area to clear the siege.

Manchester United then quickly stabilized its position, using its overall strength advantage to stabilize the rhythm, and effectively formed defense against the opponent's two wings, forcing Lyon's subsequent attack to be difficult to create threats.

In the first ten minutes, Manchester United had only one shot from Mahrez, but it did not pose a threat.

However, under Ashley Young's close watch, Lyon's French international Fekir on the left was also restricted and lost his threat, making the trident of Fekir, Cornet and Depay, which Bruno Genesio relied on, unable to create a threat.

………………

Both teams put forward targeted tactics and played an important role. It was difficult for anyone to break through the opponent's defense in the game, making the game intense but a bit dull.

Both sides were very dedicated and spared no effort to try to break through the opponent's defense, but at the same time they were also trying to avoid mistakes.

But in the 31st minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack.

Right-back Dalot pushed the ball across the center line and passed it to Mata in the middle.

The Spanish midfielder dribbled the ball forward and suddenly passed it to the left, giving it to Lingard. Lingard got the ball on the left and was closely guarded by the opponent's right back Rafael. When passing the ball, the ball accidentally touched Rafael's foot and failed to fly into the penalty area to find McTominay, but landed on the left side of the penalty area.

Mahrez quickly caught up from behind, unloaded the ball before everyone else, and shot directly with his left foot. The ball shot into Lyon's goal at a very fast speed, and Manchester United took the lead in breaking the deadlock on the field.

All Manchester United players rushed out of the field and hugged Mahrez together to celebrate this hard-earned goal.

Bruno sat on the bench and watched Mahrez score a goal with his own eyes. He jumped up and clapped hard.

"It's so beautiful!" Bruno exclaimed sincerely.

This ball seems to be a mistake made by Lyon itself, but in fact Mahrez's personal ability is also very important. At that time, Lyon's defensive space was so small. If Mahrez didn't stop the ball well at the first time, he would definitely not have time to adjust, and the defensive players would come over. Mahrez's handling was also quite clever. He shot directly after stopping, and didn't give Lyon's central defender time to react or make up for it.

………………

With a one-goal lead, Manchester United entered the halftime break.

Mourinho gave a high evaluation of the team's performance in the first half, believing that everyone played what the team had practiced hard before, which put a lot of pressure on the opponent, but he also encouraged the players to keep working hard.

After the second half, Lyon lost a goal at home, but they still played calmly. When the frontcourt couldn't open up the situation, the left wingback Mendy frequently inserted into the attack. After losing a goal, Rafael on the right was obviously reminded by Bruno Genesio that he should focus more on defense in the second half.

Mahrez and Mata were both active on this side, and with Ashley Young, who was very aggressive, Lyon's defensive pressure on the right was also quite high. How could Rafael frequently make another move?

In the 56th minute, Lyon launched an attack. Mendy on the left quickly made a diagonal pass to the penalty area on the left.

Manchester United center back Smalling made a mistake in his first clearance and failed to kick the ball far, causing chaos in the penalty area. Fortunately, Lyon's center forward Depay started a little slower, and the subsequent shot was blocked by Smalling's body and went out of the baseline.

Although he failed to score, Lyon's close shot still made Manchester United sweat.

In the final analysis, Mendy's sudden insertion was still quite threatening.

Just four minutes later, Lyon came back again, with Mendy still coming from the left and playing a two-on-one match with left winger Fekir. Fekir made a diagonal pass to the penalty area at the front of the penalty area, and Cornet and Smalling competed for the header, and headed the ball ten meters in front of the goal.

This time the ball slightly brushed the post and went out of the bottom line.

………………

Two consecutive attacks created dangerous situations, and anyone could see that Manchester United's current defense had problems. Dalot, another Portuguese right-back introduced by Manchester United in the summer, was somewhat unable to withstand the opponent's continuous impact.

"Mendy must be suppressed!" Mourinho shook his head.

Faria also nodded heavily.

Although Manchester United has qualified early and has secured first place in the group, no one wants to lose a game if possible, especially a Champions League game. This is not only related to Manchester United's UEFA points, but also to winning bonuses.

You know, in this season's Champions League group stage, you can get 2.7 million euros for a win, but only 900,000 euros for a draw, a difference of 1.8 million euros.

For the Champions League, there are no useless games!

Sometimes there are paths to follow in football matches. Once Lyon continues to play like this on the left, it will be a matter of time before a goal is scored, and no one can guarantee whether they can defend it next time.

Only by suppressing Mendy again can Manchester United's defense be stable.

In the 65th minute, Manchester United made two substitutions. Cancelo replaced his Portuguese compatriot Dalot and Bruno replaced Mata.

………………

These two substitution adjustments had an immediate effect.

In the 67th minute, Manchester United once again intercepted the opponent's horizontal pass in the middle. Ashley Young suddenly made a move and intercepted the pass to Fekir. He quickly dribbled the ball forward and launched a counterattack along the left. After being counterattacked by a Lyon player, he quickly passed the ball to Bruno in the middle.

The Manchester United captain was also closely monitored by his opponent. After receiving the ball, he failed to move forward directly. He was forced to turn around to protect the ball and passed it crosswise to Mahrez, who sent the ball directly to the right wing without stopping.

After Lingard stopped Mahrez's pass on the right, he saw that Cancelo was deliberately pressing up. He took the initiative to lead inside, and then suddenly passed to the bottom line. Manchester United's right back sprinted quickly and caught up with Lingard's pass. Pass the ball.

But this time, Lyon's left wing-back Mendy also reacted very quickly, chasing Cancelo all the way, denying him the opportunity to directly cross and cut inside, forcing Cancelo to suddenly rush on the right side of the penalty area. Stop and pass the ball back.

Bruno stopped the ball behind Cancelo and looked up at the penalty area.

McTominay was standing right in the middle of Lyon's two central defenders, but he pointed to the position behind him. This was obviously a hint to Bruno to pass to this position.

Bruno didn't wait for Lyon's defensive players to come forward, adjusted and passed directly. The ball was very low and very fast, and it was passed directly to the penalty spot in the middle of the penalty area.

………………

"Manchester United's attack from the right, Cancelo had no chance and passed back to Bruno."

"Bruno adjusted and passed the low ball into the penalty area, looking for McTominay."

"McTominay used his body to block two Lyon centre-backs, stopped the ball, turned around and hit the goal directly!"

"The ball went in!!!!!!"

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLL!!!!!"

"Sixty-eighth minute, sixty-eighth minute, Manchester United scored the second goal of the game!"

"It was McTominay who scored, a very good goal from the Scottish striker."

"We can see from the slow-motion replay that Bruno's cross landed very well. It happened to land near McTominay's right foot, and the Scotsman stopped the ball directly to his left side and used his body to Blocked two Lyon defenders, turned around and fired hard. "

"The shot came very suddenly. Anthony Lopez obviously didn't expect it. McTominay was able to turn around and hit the goal while being flanked by two central defenders. This fully reflects the super personal ability of the Scottish forward. "

"Of course, Bruno, who just came on as a substitute, passed the ball from the right very accurately. The moment he passed the ball, I seemed to see Beckham. It is said that Bruno once faced a video of Beckham. Practice crosses from the wing.”

………………

After McTominay scored, he rushed out of the penalty area excitedly, quickly grabbed Bruno's hand, and the two rushed to the sidelines side by side, cheering and cheering at the fans in the stands.

2:0!

The more than two thousand Manchester United fans who came to the away game kept shouting the names of McTominay and Bruno. The head coach Mourinho on the sidelines also raised his hands and kept applauding.

None of them thought that Bruno would help the team win another victory just after he came on the field.

Who would have thought? Even Bruno himself couldn't think of it.

In the previous goal, Bruno's cross basically fell within the control of McTominay's right foot. What really played a decisive role was McTominay's stop and turn around.

The 22-year-old Scotsman is looking more and more like the Swedish god Tayeb!