Chapter 716: Bad Start

Although the team's temporary home, the Millennium Stadium, is more than 200 kilometers away from Manchester, it is only an hour's journey for Manchester United, which has a special plane. This is already counting the time to go in and out of the airport.

Therefore, for every home game of the team, Manchester United lives in Manchester and takes the team's special plane to Cardiff about two hours before the game.

Ajax also arrived at about the same time.

As the dark horse in this season's Champions League, Ajax has been recognized for their strength after successively eliminating the two giants Real Madrid and Juventus. No one dares to underestimate them.

Manchester United has also been studying Ajax and every one of their players during this period. And Ajax is the same. They are more cautious than Manchester United against the defending champions.

This battle not only attracted the attention of all fans in the UK and the Netherlands, but also attracted the attention of fans all over the world.

Before the game, everyone felt that neither side could come up with any unexpected tricks in this game. Neither Ten Hag nor Mourinho could give the opponent too many opportunities. The key lies in who has a better ability to seize opportunities and who makes fewer mistakes.

When the game reached the 14th minute, Ajax central defender Blind intercepted the ball in the penalty area, rushed forward with the ball, initiated a counterattack on the spot, and quickly passed the ball to the left side of the frontcourt with a long pass.

Neres took the ball from the left and cut inside, passing it to Schone in the middle. Ziyech made a straight pass to Van der Beck, who was unguarded and easily scored.

………………

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!”

Van der Beck turned and rushed out of the stadium, celebrating wildly amid the boos of the home fans.

"In the 14th minute, Ajax, who were playing away, launched a quick counterattack. Ziyech made a cross from the right, and Van de Beek calmly seized the opportunity to score the first goal for Ajax, breaking the deadlock on the field!"

"This is the second time Ziyech has created a threat on the right during a counterattack in this game."

"The last time was in the sixth minute of the opening, which was also a counterattack by Ajax. Ziyech made a cross from the right and also went to find Tadic, but that time De Gea attacked and got it, and failed to create a threat. But this time, Ajax finally seized the opportunity and broke through Manchester United's goal!"

"1:0!"

Ajax players fell into a carnival, and now they are playing in the Champions League semi-finals!

But Manchester United players were a little confused. They didn't expect their team to fall behind at home!

When the ball was lost in the frontcourt, Manchester United quickly returned to defense, and Bruno also chased back all the way, but in the end Ajax still scored, which made him very depressed.

Bruno knew very well how strong this Ajax youth team was, because the main young players in their team later became the favorites of the major giants in the five major leagues.

However, Bruno was still very unhappy.

………………

In fact, when Ajax played like this for the first time, Manchester United had been alert, but unexpectedly, Ajax still seized the opportunity and broke Manchester United's goal first.

For this situation, Mourinho also made a plan before the game, so Manchester United was not panicked.

Looking at the first ten minutes of the game, the two sides were evenly matched, no one had a good chance to score, and Manchester United had the advantage for most of the game.

After defeating Barcelona and Roma in succession, Manchester United is now in high spirits. Even if Ajax is not angry, it has to temporarily avoid the edge and choose a more stable defensive counterattack tactic.

But Ajax seized the only opportunity and scored a goal.

Mourinho on the sidelines also made adjustments quickly, signaling Manchester United to start pressing again, which is a signal for active attack.

Ajax still lined up a 4-3-3 formation in this game. The goalkeeper is Onana, the back line is Veltman, De Ligt, Blind and Tagliafico, the midfield is Van der Beck, De Jong and Schone, and the front court is Ziyech, Tadic and Neres.

But after the opening, Manchester United's left side played very fiercely, and Luke Shaw and Rashford put great pressure on Ajax's right side on this side, so Ten Hag made adjustments, and De Ligt moved more to the right to assist Veltman.

Veltman looks mediocre and seems to have no advantages, but in fact he has no defects. He is also conscientious on the court and did not make any big mistakes when facing Manchester United's attack. In addition, with De Ligt's assistance, Ajax's right defense barely blocked Manchester United's left attack.

………………

Mourinho's tactics in this game mainly emphasize two points. One is to maintain the integrity of the tactics, which needs no further explanation. Facing a team like Ajax, it is impossible to win by being loose, and Manchester United's biggest advantage is the overall situation.

Bruno was able to perform well precisely because he showed his advantages on the basis of the overall situation.

The second point, which is also a targeted point, is to control the second landing point.

Tadic is the offensive pillar of Ajax's frontcourt. When defending, it is very difficult for Manchester United to compete with him for the first landing point, so Mourinho's defensive strategy is to grab the second landing point.

By the same token, Harry Kane's tactical role in the frontcourt is also very obvious. He can get the ball and grab the ball, so the most important thing for Manchester United's offense is to grab the second landing point.

But what Mourinho can think of, Ten Hag can also think of, so Ajax deployed heavy troops near the penalty area and did not easily give Manchester United any chance.

Both teams are teams that pay great attention to defense, and they know each other well. The head coaches of both teams also tried their best to show their best defensive formations, so the game was very intense, but not exciting at all. It can even be said that neither side created any decent opportunities.

………………

After Ajax scored a goal first, Manchester United further pressed forward, but still failed to create a threat. In the first half, they finally fell behind temporarily with 0:1.

During the halftime break, Mourinho affirmed the team's performance in the first half. In addition to the goal lost, Manchester United really did not give the opponent any other opportunities, but Van der Beck scored a goal.

"It was luck that Van der Beck scored, but no matter what, I am very satisfied with the team's performance in the first half. We still have to maintain this state and performance in the second half."

The coach's confidence was quickly passed on to the players, but losing to Ajax at home was obviously not acceptable to Manchester United players.

At least, it's not Manchester United's style to give up and surrender early at halftime.

Bruno worked hard and diligently in the first half, and at this time he also encouraged his teammates in the locker room to keep up the good work and strive to equalize the score while defending the goal in the second half, or even reverse the opponent.

………………

After the two sides changed sides in the second half, they still failed to create good opportunities for each other.

Ajax still played steadily. Manchester United played a while of offense at the beginning, but there were no good opportunities.

Bruno was also a little silent in the frontcourt. Ten Hag obviously also specially formulated a defensive strategy to restrain Bruno, and naturally would not give him another chance.

The game was intense and dull, and both sides played more restrained. After 70 minutes, there was not even a yellow card in the whole game, but the atmosphere of the game was very tense.

Everyone knew that both sides were tense, and it depended on who made a mistake first.

Ajax wanted to score another goal to establish an advantage, because facing Manchester United, a one-goal lead did not have a chance of winning.

Manchester United wanted to equalize the score or even reverse the opponent.

The lagging side took the lead in making substitutions. In the 70th minute, Mourinho replaced Rashford with Mahrez and adjusted Mbappe to the left. Obviously, he hoped to create more opportunities with Mahrez's cross ability on the right. After all, Harry Kane's advantage in the penalty area was still very obvious, and Mbappe did not have a good chance to pass the ball when facing Tagliafico.

Ajax also made substitutions quickly, and Mazraoui replaced Schone.

This was a positional substitution, and Ajax still had to counterattack.

………………

The game time was passing bit by bit.

Manchester United, who was able to defeat Barcelona and Schalke 04 in two rounds, encountered Ajax's tenacious sniping at home.

There was really no decent chance in the whole game. The young team trained by Ten Hag is really strong. It is not a fluke that they can eliminate Real Madrid and Juventus in a row.

After the two sides changed players once, they seemed to stop changing players tacitly.

The time went from 70 minutes to 80 minutes, and then to 83 minutes.

Mourinho made the second substitution, Fred replaced Gundogan.

Others did not know, but Manchester United knew it well. This was to let the team grab the last few minutes. Regardless of whether they could score at the last moment, at least they had to suppress Ajax's spirit.

Fred played with Kante as a double defensive midfielder to free Luke Shaw and Bruno.

Ten Hag was obviously very clear about Mourinho's intention, so he followed Manchester United and made the second substitution. Veteran Huntelaar replaced Ziyech.

Ajax's intention is also very clear. Attack? Okay, I will defend steadily and wait for an opportunity to counterattack you.

If you are not afraid of death, come on!

The battle between the two coaches can be said to be very targeted. They are clamping each other's weaknesses, and every substitution is very targeted.

After Fred came on the court, Luke Shaw began to press forward boldly, and Bruno further expanded his range of activities, actively running to the two wings and the penalty area, patiently looking for opportunities.

Ajax continued to shrink its defense, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.

Whether it is Bruno, Mahrez or Mbappe, the goal is also very clear, that is, the second landing point that Harry Kane grabbed.