Chapter 687 I Want to Score Another Goal

The impact of Chelsea's 0:6 defeat to Manchester City was huge. Until the fifth round of the FA Cup at the weekend, they still did not recover from this heavy blow. As a result, they lost 0:2 at home to Manchester United without Bruno. , was eliminated from this FA Cup.

First, there was a 0:6 defeat to Manchester City in an away game, and then a 0:2 defeat at home to Manchester United, who played with a substitute lineup. Sarri's coaching ability was greatly questioned, and reports were everywhere in the media calling for Sarri to be fired.

Manchester United received an unexpected surprise. After all, Mourinho sent a substitute lineup to play. This was already a strategic abandonment of the FA Cup, but he did not expect to receive an unexpected surprise from his old club.

With joy, the entire Manchester United team boarded a special plane to Germany.

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On the evening of February 20th, in the first round of the 2018-2019 Champions League knockout round, Manchester United visited the Veltins Arena to challenge Schalke 04.

Schalke 04 is not doing well recently. As the runner-up in the Bundesliga last season, it is now only ranked 14th in the Bundesliga, almost falling into the relegation zone. The head coach Dominic Tedesco has begun to be questioned. This is also Make him determined to kill Manchester United at home.

Both sides played unreservedly from the beginning, and the game was played very unrestrainedly.

Bruno continued his recent excellent form, completing a steal in the frontcourt in just eighteen minutes, and then passed the ball across to assist Harry Kane, penetrating Schalke 04's goal.

But what happened next made the Manchester United players very depressed.

In the 33rd minute, Caligiuri hit Maguire's arm with a shot. The referee awarded a penalty kick after listening to the VAR video replay!

Bentaleb made a penalty kick to help Schalke 04 equalize the score, and the two teams returned to the same starting line.

Before the end of the first half, Schalke 04 made another attack. Fred pulled down Salif Sane in the penalty area, and the referee decisively awarded a penalty kick!

Bentaleb scored twice with a penalty shot, and Schalke 04 took the lead.

After being beaten by their opponents with two consecutive penalty kicks, Manchester United's luck has declined to the extreme.

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At halftime, Mourinho criticized United's defense and asked his players to focus. But this did not have a very good effect. In the 68th minute of the second half, Maguire knocked down Bugstaller from behind, received a second yellow card, and was sent off.

Playing away from home, trailing by the score, and still fighting with ten men, it seems that Manchester United is destined to lose this game. Their 19-game unbeaten record in the Champions League will be ended on this day.

Mourinho had to make personnel adjustments and replaced Fred with Lindelof to keep the back line intact.

Schalke 04 then launched a wave of strong attacks, but facing Manchester United with a complete defense, they were unable to score the third goal of the game, and the score remained at 2:1.

As the game passed 80 minutes, Schalke 04 gradually gave up its strong attack and began to waste time by controlling the ball, hoping to maintain the 2:1 score until the end of the game.

However, Schalke 04’s idea did not materialize.

In the 85th minute, Manchester United got a free kick in the frontcourt. Bruno's free kick hit the dead center and equalized the score!

This is Bruno's eighth Champions League goal this season, and he has overtaken Bayern Munich's Polish striker Lewandowski to become the top scorer in the Champions League.

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After the equalizer, the situation on the field instantly reversed. Schalke 04 began to strengthen their offensive, hoping to exceed the score again, while Manchester United began to control the situation on the field, taking advantage of Schalke 04's impetuous mentality. Patiently looking for opportunities.

Bruno was also very active on the court. In the 88th minute of the game, when Bruno discovered that Mourinho planned to ask Mata to replace him, he went to the sidelines to communicate with Mourinho. I hope I can continue to stay on the court.

"I want to score again and return home with victory!" Bruno said very firmly.

Mourinho and the coaching staff also respected Bruno's opinion and said they could allow him to continue playing.

"Don't be anxious. The more anxious you are, the harder it is to find scoring opportunities." Assistant coach Carrick reminded Bruno.

Bruno nodded vigorously.

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After the game restarted, Bruno kept looking for opportunities and ran very actively.

His teammates also understood his thoughts and took the initiative to create opportunities for him.

Schalke 04's defensive players followed Bruno throughout the game, exhausted, and finally exposed their flaws again.

In the 90th minute, Kanter passed the ball to the right. After receiving the ball, Cancelo quickly dribbled the ball forward and passed it to Bruno at the front of the penalty area.

As soon as he received the ball, Bruno quickly turned around and cut inside with the ball, but Schalke 04's left back followed him tightly, and the returning midfielder also blocked the edge of the penalty area, not giving Bruno the slightest chance.

After Bruno started quickly, he suddenly dunked the ball with his left foot into the penalty area and rushed into the penalty area. But after Schalke 04's left back quickly caught up, Bruno suddenly made an emergency stop and buckled the ball back with his right foot.

The two consecutive actions happened in an instant. Before the defensive player had time to react, Bruno had already found a gap and once again hit a curve ball with his left foot.

The ball passed over the hands of the opponent's goalkeeper Fellman and crashed into the goal behind him.

The score on the field was rewritten to 2:3. According to international practice, the home team is ahead!

After the 3-minute injury time, the score on the field remained at 2:3. Manchester United completed the reversal on the road with ten players.

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With one player sent off, Manchester United escaped from the away game with three points, which is undoubtedly excellent news. This means that they have already stepped half a foot into the door of the Champions League quarterfinals.

However, this game still greatly consumed the physical strength of Manchester United's main players. After all, with one less player, Manchester United players could only make up for the disadvantage of numbers by running more for nearly half an hour.

Back to the Premier League, Manchester United ushered in the second round of this season's double red meeting.

Because Manchester United consumed too much in the Champions League game in the middle of the week, the team was obviously not in good shape. Fortunately, their opponent Liverpool also fought a fierce battle with Bayern Munich in the middle of the week, and their state was about the same as Manchester United.

In the end, the two sides fought 0:0 after 90 minutes at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

In the two rounds of the Reds derby this season, Manchester United and Liverpool shook hands and agreed to a draw.

In the Premier League standings, Manchester United still maintains a 9-point advantage, but the gap between Manchester City and Manchester United has narrowed to 10 points.