Chapter 674 Useless
When Manchester United ended its semi-final match against Kashima Antlers, Al Ain had already arrived in Abu Dhabi and checked into a hotel booked in advance. The wealthy UAE club had booked the entire hotel.
After the team checked into the hotel, head coach Mamic immediately held a team meeting.
The 47-year-old Mamic is a Croatian. He was born in the Croatian football giant Dinamo Zagreb. He was once a teammate with Modric. Even Modric joining Tottenham was run by Mamic and his brother. After retiring, he also coached Dinamo Zagreb. It was not until 2016 that he left Croatia to coach Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates. Today, two years later, he brought Al Ain to the stage of the Club World Cup final.
This is a grand event for UAE football. From President Khalifa to ordinary UAE fans, everyone is looking forward to it.
But this time, Al Ain's opponent is the Champions League champion Manchester United, a super giant Manchester United who has created a 57-game unbeaten record in the Premier League and currently remains unbeaten!
Mamic also attaches great importance to this game. Although Al Ain is less than 200 kilometers away from Abu Dhabi, he still led the team to Abu Dhabi for training early in order to better adapt. site.
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"The biggest advantage for us in this game is our physical fitness."
Mamic analyzed the situation between the enemy and ourselves in front of the team members.
"As a Premier League team, Manchester United has experienced an extremely intensive schedule since the start of the season. Four days ago they had a fierce battle with Liverpool at Anfield, so they came to Abu Dhabi after a hard-fought battle."
The players in Al Ain nodded in unison, obviously catching the coach's meaning.
After experiencing the bitter experience of the Double Red Club, he immediately flew to the United Arab Emirates, traveling nearly 6,000 kilometers. Coupled with the climate change from the cold England to the hot United Arab Emirates, it is completely conceivable that Manchester United's opponents in the final will not only be Just Al Ain.
"The first 45 minutes will be the key. I can tell you with certainty that Manchester United will attack and they will try their best to break our goal in the first 45 minutes."
If your physical fitness is at a disadvantage, you have to end the battle while your physical fitness is still sufficient. It can be said that Manchester United has no other choice but to press out from the beginning.
As the team's head coach, Mamic knows very well that Al Ain's overall strength is far inferior to Manchester United. If he really wants to go head-to-head with Manchester United, he will definitely not be happy.
"Our task in the first half is to defend, defend well and not give Manchester United any chance to score. At the same time, the second half will be our opportunity."
As long as the game entered the second half, Al Ain had the advantage in physical fitness. Manchester United had no choice but to surrender due to lack of physical fitness, but this was also under ideal conditions.
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After arranging the team's tactics, Mamic changed the subject and said: "There is one person that everyone must pay attention to."
As soon as Mamic said this, a picture of a player immediately switched to the big screen behind him.
"His name is Bruno Fernandez."
In the meeting room, all the Al Ain players nodded, everyone knew him.
"Everyone should be familiar with him. This year's World Footballer and European Ballon d'Or winner is the man who broke the dominance of Melo, the pair of peerless heroes, on world football. Just four days ago, he received the 2017 -The European Golden Boot winner in the 2018 season, the person who scored the most goals in the past two seasons. He has been in very good shape recently and has a tendency to become more courageous as he plays.”
Although the United Arab Emirates, located in the Middle East, is far away from the United Kingdom, in the information age, the transmission of news is too fast and convenient. Bruno has long been a well-known star among these Al Ain players.
Last season, he led Manchester United to an unbeaten season and won all possible championships. It set a single-season points record in the world's top football leagues and also ended the dominance of another super giant, Real Madrid, in the Champions League.
Subsequently, he led the Portuguese team to defeat the French team in the World Cup and won the first World Cup championship in Portugal's history. He also became the second youngest player of the World Cup, second only to Ronaldo.
The most critical thing is that in 1998 Ronaldo won the World Cup's best player, but the Brazilian team he played for did not win the championship. This made Ronaldo's election controversial and even regarded as a consolation prize. In the minds of many people, the real best player in the World Cup that year was Zidane, because Zidane won the more authoritative European Ballon d'Or and World Footballer that year.
There is no dispute that Bruno was elected as the best player in the World Cup this year, because he is not only the top scorer in the World Cup in Russia, but also the assist leader. His election means nothing even for Ronaldo, the captain of the Portuguese national team who won the title this year.
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As the most popular superstar in world football today, or the fourth recognized football king in world football, people in the UAE have long heard of his name.
Despite his reputation, Mamic was obviously very afraid of Bruno. He knocked on the podium hard and raised his voice: "Please remember, he is Manchester United's most dangerous player and the most terrifying killer. Don't give him anything." opportunity, don’t expect him to make a mistake.”
In the conference room, Al Ain's players were also facing a powerful enemy and did not dare to be careless in the slightest.
How can a player who led his team to win the World Cup at the age of 24 and ended the era of the two great players be simple?
"In theory, Bruno is a front midfielder, but in reality, his position is becoming more and more erratic. He will appear in any area that is threatening and can create threats, right, center, left, in short, he is very dangerous."
"No matter where he appears, our defensive players must restrict him as soon as possible, not let him get the ball, not let him shoot, and not give him the slightest chance."
Whether in the previous training or in today's tactical meeting, Mamic has given enough reminders to the players to let them know the danger of Bruno, hoping to attract the attention of the players.
With the battle imminent, Mamic was unwilling to encourage his opponent too much and destroy his own prestige. He then told the players: "This is not a final with a huge disparity in strength as we have fixed our impressions. Manchester United has traveled thousands of miles to the Middle East and must be very tired. And we are not lambs to be slaughtered by our opponents. This is a decisive battle of equal strength."
"Our fans are waiting for us to send back the news of winning the championship!"
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For the giants, especially the top giants like Manchester United, the Club World Cup is somewhat useless.
Before the start of the Club World Cup, The Guardian clearly stated that it was not worth it for Manchester United to participate in the Club World Cup. Because even if Manchester United won the Club World Cup, the prize money would only be 5 million euros. If they failed to win the championship, the runner-up would only get 4 million euros.
However, Manchester United can get a bonus of 2.7 million euros if they win a group match in the Champions League. And the Champions League final can get a bonus of 19 million euros.
Even if they participate in the Premier League, according to the situation last season, the 20 Premier League teams have received more than 140 million pounds, and Manchester United, as the champion, has received 153 million pounds, earning about 4 million pounds in almost every game.
According to The Guardian, Manchester United's biggest goal in participating in the Club World Cup is to become the seven-time champion in 2018, and the first annual seven-time champion in football history.
This is the most tempting for Manchester United!
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However, for Al Ain in the UAE Premier League, the Club World Cup is still very attractive, especially when their opponents are super giants like Manchester United.
You know, in other occasions, Al Ain will hardly have the opportunity to play against Manchester United.
So when it was learned that Al Ain and Manchester United would meet in the Club World Cup final, it attracted great attention from UAE fans.
The Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi can accommodate more than 43,600 fans, but the tickets were sold out before the final.
The biggest problem of the Club World Cup is that it is difficult to attract the attention of fans. You know, there are eight games in this Club World Cup. Most of the previous games were watched by only a few thousand players. In the previous match between Kashima Antlers and Guadalajara, only 3,000 fans watched on site.
Of the eight games in the entire Club World Cup, the only two games that could fill the stadium were the two games that Manchester United participated in.
The UAE is also very concerned about this event because a local team in the UAE unexpectedly reached the final. The UAE government has paid great attention to it, and the president and a group of political dignitaries will be present.
However, on the Manchester United side, in addition to some senior club executives, the team owner Prince Jassim did not come. This is because since last year, due to some special relationships, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have severed diplomatic relations with Qatar.
In order to ensure the safety of the final, the UAE invested 600 police officers and 300 security personnel just to maintain the scene.
The gathering of many political and business celebrities has undoubtedly greatly increased the weight of this final.
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Al Ain wore the home blue shirt and white pants, and deployed a 4321 Christmas tree formation.
The goalkeeper is Khalid, the four defenders are Ahmad, Ahmed, Fayez, and Shioya Tsukasa, the three defensive midfielders are Yeslem, Abdulrahman, and Doumbia, the double front midfielders are El Shehat and Kaio, and the single striker Borg rushes forward.
Manchester United also sent out all the main players in this game. De Gea was arranged as the goalkeeper, and the defense line was a combination of Luke Shaw, Van Dijk, Maguire and Cancelo. The midfielders were arranged to be the double defensive midfielders Gundogan and Kante, Bruno rushed forward, and Rashford, Harry Kane and Mbappe formed a front trident.
This is also the strongest lineup that Manchester United can currently arrange.