Chapter 715 Tragic
On the afternoon of April 28, a focus match of the 36th round of the Premier League was kicked off at the Millennium Stadium, with the Red Devils Manchester United playing against the Blues Chelsea at home.
Although Manchester United's advantage in the standings has shrunk sharply due to the loss to Manchester City in the make-up match four days ago, and is only 3 points ahead of Liverpool, the second place in the standings, Mourinho still made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's lineup in this game, because 48 hours after the end of this game, Manchester United will face Ajax at home in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals.
Because the schedule is too intensive, 48 hours is not enough for the players to recover their physical fitness, so Manchester United must make a choice, either give up this Premier League game or give up the Champions League semi-finals that will follow.
Such a choice is very difficult, but Mourinho has almost no hesitation and decided to strategically give up this Premier League game. Because in the Premier League, Manchester United still has a 3-point advantage and is also in an advantage in terms of goal difference, which gives them a certain degree of fault tolerance in the Premier League.
Even if Manchester United loses to Chelsea in this game, and Liverpool and Manchester City win, they are only tied by Liverpool and are 1 point ahead of Manchester City.
In this case, as long as Manchester United beat Huddersfield and Cardiff City in the last two rounds of the league, they will still have a high probability of winning the league championship.
But if they give up the home of the Champions League semi-final against Ajax, it will be very difficult to turn the tables away from home.
After successively eliminating the two super giants Real Madrid and Juventus, no one dares to underestimate the Jia family.
………………
In the game against Chelsea, Mourinho rotated all eleven players and played with a full substitute lineup.
Chelsea also made a certain degree of rotation. The Blues have bid farewell to the competition for the league championship in advance, and the Europa League championship has become their only hope of winning the championship this season. So Sarri decided to focus on the Europa League semi-final on Thursday night, when they will visit Frankfurt.
However, because there is a four-day interval between the two games, the schedule is much better than Manchester United.
Manchester United took the lead in the 11th minute. After a series of passes in the frontcourt, Greenwood made a lob pass. Ashley Young inserted and faced Kepa, who was attacking, and pushed the ball to the middle. Mata followed up and shot successfully.
The audience applauded Mata. Today is the 31st birthday of this Spanish warm man. It is naturally very happy to score at such a moment.
Chelsea equalized the score near the end of the first half. Rudiger took the ball in the midfield and shot directly. Romero missed the ball, and Alonso followed up and shot the ball into the goal from the inside of the right post, changing the score to 1:1.
This was also the final score of the game. Manchester United won a draw at home.
In other matches of this round that ended earlier, Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5:0 at home, earning enough goals and closely following Manchester United by 1 point; Manchester City beat Burnley 1:0 away, 2 points behind Manchester United at the top of the list; Tottenham and Arsenal both exposed upsets in order to save strength for the European war next week. Tottenham lost 0:1 to West Ham United at home, and Arsenal lost 0:3 at the King Power Stadium.
………………
When the Premier League reached the 36th round, the Premier League became cruel and bloody.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City launched a fierce battle for the league championship.
Manchester United won 29 games, drew 5 games, lost 2 games, scored 100 goals, conceded 35 goals, had a goal difference of 65, and ranked first with 92 points;
Liverpool won 28 games, drew 7 games, lost 1 game, scored 85 goals, conceded 22 goals, had a goal difference of 63, and ranked second with 91 points;
Manchester City won 29 games, drew 3 games, lost 4 games, scored 89 goals, conceded 24 goals, had a goal difference of 65, and ranked third with 90 points;
Tottenham Hotspur won 22 games, drew 2 games, lost 12 games, scored 65 goals, conceded 39 goals, had a goal difference of 26, and ranked fourth with 68 points;
Chelsea won 20 games, drew 7 games, lost 9 games, scored 60 goals, conceded 41 goals, had a goal difference of 19, and ranked fifth with 67 points;
Arsenal won 20 games, drew 5 games, lost 11 games, scored 68 goals, conceded 54 goals, had a goal difference of 14, and ranked fifth with 67 points. Ranked sixth with 65 points;
Leicester City had 15 wins, 6 draws and 15 losses in 36 rounds, scored 51 goals and conceded 48 goals, with a goal difference of 3, and ranked seventh with 51 points;
Wolves had 14 wins, 8 draws and 14 losses in 36 rounds, scored 45 goals and conceded 48 goals, with a goal difference of -3, and ranked eighth with 50 points;
Watford had 14 wins, 8 draws and 14 losses in 36 rounds, scored 50 goals and conceded 53 goals, with a goal difference of -3, and ranked ninth with 50 points;
It can be clearly seen from the standings that the two Manchester City giants and Liverpool, the three northwest powers, are championship contenders, and the competition is very fierce, even brutal.
The performance of the three teams, in a normal season, can steadily win the league championship, but now it has formed a brutal competition, and it may not be certain who will win the championship until the last round.
The three London teams are competing for the remaining Champions League spot, and the points among the three teams are very close. Arsenal is relatively at a disadvantage, which is why they strategically gave up the Premier League in the middle of the week.
Leicester City, Wolves and Watford are competing for the last Europa League qualification, and the three teams are fighting hard and bloody.
………………
Premier League teams are not only competing fiercely in the Premier League, but also in the European competition.
In the Champions League, three of the top four teams are Premier League teams, Manchester United and Ajax are competing for one final spot, while Liverpool and Tottenham are competing for another final spot.
Liverpool has performed very well this season. Not only has it been closely following Manchester United in the league, but it has also advanced to the semi-finals in the Champions League.
But this also puts Liverpool in a dilemma. On the one hand, they have never won the league championship in the Premier League era, which makes them lag behind their arch-rival Manchester United in the number of top league championships.
After Mourinho took over Manchester United and the Red Devils regained two Premier League titles, the number of top league championships of the Red Devils has risen to 22, ahead of Liverpool, which won the old English First Division championship 18 times.
If they lose to Manchester United in the competition for the league championship again this season, their number of top league championships will be 5 behind Manchester United.
In the Champions League, Liverpool still has a certain advantage. They have won the Champions League five times, ahead of Manchester United, which has won four times; in addition, they have won three League Cups, also ahead of Manchester United, which has only won one Europa League. However, Manchester United has won one European Cup Winners' Cup, which Liverpool has not.
In general, Liverpool leads Manchester United 8:6 in the number of titles in the three major European cups.
This is also the reason why Liverpool fans still insist that they are the top giants in England.
………………
However, from the current situation, all aspects are not favorable to Liverpool. They are not only behind Manchester United in points and goal difference, but also have stronger opponents in the Champions League than Manchester United.
If Liverpool loses in the competition for the league championship and the Champions League this season, it may not only be tied by Manchester United in the number of Champions League trophies, but also lead by a large margin in the number of top league championships. At that time, they will no longer have the possibility of competing with Manchester United for the top giants in England.
This also leads to Liverpool doing everything possible to compete for the championship on two fronts.
Liverpool is also very competitive. In the league, they have recently won nine consecutive league games after a draw with Manchester United away from home, including victories over strong opponents such as Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea.
The unbeaten streak has accumulated to 15 games, and the last loss was a 1:2 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
They have only lost one game throughout the season, the least among all Premier League teams, while Manchester United has lost 2 games.
Moreover, judging from the current strength of Liverpool and Manchester United, Liverpool is undoubtedly at a disadvantage. Manchester United is the undisputed number one in the world football today, whether in terms of the team's value or the thickness of the lineup.
In addition to good luck, the bigger reason why Liverpool can compete for the championship on both fronts is the strong desire of the whole team to win the championship.
All Liverpool people have a voice in their hearts, that is, they must never lose to Manchester United again!
They must defend their glory as the first giant in England!
………………
However, at this moment, Manchester United does not have much energy to think about the competition with Liverpool, because what they really need to face now is the challenge from the Dutch giants Ajax.
In order to fight a life-and-death battle with Ajax at home, Mourinho and the coaching staff produced a large number of documents about Ajax. Including all the game reports and player data of the league, Dutch Cup and Champions League, in-depth analysis of where the two teams have done well and where they have failed.
The materials in the coach's office alone filled the entire desk, and the research on the opponent was also very detailed.
Of course, it is not just Manchester United, I believe that Ten Hag's Ajax is the same.
The two semi-finals are not just about the bonus of several million euros, but also about the finals and the championship, the potential income of more than 100 million euros, and the bonus of more than 10 million for winning the championship.
If this were to be a company, a business with a turnover of more than 10 billion, which company would not be exhausted to study?
Even in order to better prepare for this game, Mourinho made special arrangements in the player's room.
Bruno and Gundogan were placed in the same room.
It was obvious that both of them would start in the midfield.
The reason for arranging them in the same room was that they would have the opportunity to study how to kill the opponent in the game.
This night in Manchester was very peaceful, just like the previous games.
Bruno talked to Liu Xianer on the phone for a while.
She and some of the women of the team also came to the away game with the team and lived in the same hotel as the team, but they were forbidden to visit each other.
Afterwards, Bruno talked to Gundogan for a while and then fell asleep.
In the system training ground, he simulated Ajax's midfield and backfield defense for training and familiarized himself with it for a night. He hopes to perform better in the Millennium Stadium tomorrow.