Chapter 721: The Golden Age of Premier League

In the 48th minute, De Jong and Van der Beck played together, and Tadic was tripped by Cancelo. The referee gave Cancelo a yellow card and gave Ajax a direct free kick opportunity in a good position.

Ziyech took the free kick and hoped to kick it directly into the dead corner, but Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea judged the correct direction and directly saved the ball, failing to create a threat.

Afterwards, Ajax frequently launched offensives, but Manchester United played steadily and defended in their own half.

In the first ten minutes of the second half, Manchester United did not even shoot a single shot, but just defended blindly and resisted Ajax's offensive.

Bruno, as a front midfielder, also actively retreated to the 30-meter area of ​​his own side to participate in the defense, which shows how powerful Ajax's offensive momentum is. Manchester United's goal can be said to be in danger.

But if you can't attack for a long time, you will inevitably expose problems.

When the game reached the 56th minute, Bruno was entangled with the defense, and Kante suddenly made a tackle and poked the ball away from Schone's feet.

Cancelo quickly inserted on the right, caught up with the ball, faced Tagliafico, and passed it to Bruno, but he continued to rush forward along the right.

Bruno understood and knocked the ball back, sending the ball in front of Cancelo.

"Manchester United's quick counterattack on the right. Bruno and Cancelo's two-on-one cooperation!"

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After getting the ball, Cancelo quickly rushed along the right. Bruno was also very fast, but deliberately lagged behind Cancelo a little, and also moved closer to the center.

Tagliafico chased Cancelo all the way, but the speed of the Portuguese right back was indeed very fast. The two of them chased after each other, making the fans of the entire Amsterdam Arena nervous.

Finally, Cancelo failed to get rid of Tagliafico and failed to get a chance to cut inside, but rushed to the right side of the penalty area and passed the ball directly.

Cancelo's ball reached the right side of the penalty spot, and Mbappe quickly passed Blind's defense, without stopping the ball, and directly shot the ball into the left side of the goal.

The ball went in again!

Manchester United tied the score to 2:2!

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Manchester United was not satisfied with the equalization. They played very actively away from home and took the initiative to attack. The main attack was on the right side where Mbappe and Cancelo partnered. In addition, Bruno often came to the side to join in the fun. The three suppressed Ajax's left side very strongly.

The right-wing combination of Mbappe and Cancelo is the right-wing offensive channel that makes opponents in the Premier League terrified. It is reasonable to attack the right side, but Ten Hag still feels very puzzled and uneasy.

Until the 71st minute, Bruno ran to the gap on the right to receive the ball, and when he attracted Ajax's defensive attention to this side, he suddenly moved the ball to the left with a big foot.

Luke Shaw quickly inserted, stopped the ball with his chest on the left sideline, quickly dribbled the ball, formed a beautiful two-on-one cooperation with Rashford, and passed it to the front of the penalty area.

Mbappe quickly inserted, volleyed in the arc top area, and once again broke through Ajax's goal.

Mbappe scored twice, and the score on the field was rewritten to 3:2!

This was also the final score of the game. In the subsequent games, although both sides had offense and defense, they did not score again.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Ajax 3:2 away, and eliminated the opponent with a total score of 5:3 in the two-round semi-finals, breaking into the Champions League final for two consecutive years and meeting Liverpool.

This is also the second consecutive year that Manchester United has advanced to the Champions League final after a lapse of ten years. At the same time, it is also eleven years later that Premier League teams meet in the Champions League final again.

Previously, it was the 2007-2008 season, when Manchester United and Chelsea met in Moscow.

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Because the Champions League is a cup competition, the schedule is relatively short, which also leads to the situation of unbeaten champions in the Champions League, which is much more common than the league.

In the history of the Champions League, although there are not many teams that have won the championship unbeaten, it is definitely not a small number. There are nine teams that have won the championship unbeaten fourteen times.

Manchester United has won the most unbeaten championships three times, namely in the 1998-1999 season with 6 wins and 6 draws, the 2007-2008 season with 9 wins and 4 draws, and the 2017-2018 season with 10 wins and 3 draws.

If they can win the championship again this season, it will be the fourth time that the Red Devils have won the Champions League with an unbeaten record.

Liverpool has won the championship twice, namely in the 1980-1981 season with 6 wins and 3 draws, and in the 1983-1984 season with 7 wins and 2 draws.

Of course, if Liverpool can finally win the Champions League, this will be their third time to win the Champions League unbeaten.

AC Milan also won twice, in the 1988-1989 season with 5 wins and 4 draws, and in the 1993-1994 season with 7 wins and 5 draws.

Ajax also won twice, in the 1971-1972 season with 7 wins and 2 draws, and in the 1994-1995 season with 7 wins and 4 draws.

Inter Milan won once, in the 1963-1964 season with 7 wins and 2 draws.

Nottingham Forest also won the championship unbeaten in the 1978-1979 season, with a record of 6 wins and 3 draws.

Red Star Belgrade won the championship in the 1990-1991 season with 5 wins and 4 draws.

Marseille won the championship in the 1992-1993 season with 7 wins and 4 draws.

Barcelona also won the championship in the 2005-2006 season with 9 wins and 4 draws.

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From these unbeaten championships, the number of times before the reform was more than after the reform, there were 7 times before the reform in 1992, and only 6 times after the reform.

From Marseille in the 1992-1993 season, to AC Milan in the 1993-1994 season, and Ajax in the 1994-1995 season, they all won the championship unbeaten throughout the whole process. It can be seen that when the Champions League was just reformed, the advantages of the top teams were still very large.

However, as the scale of the Champions League becomes larger and the competition becomes more and more fierce, this situation of consecutive unbeaten championships is very rare. In the years after 1995, the Champions League champions all lost, until Manchester United, the triple crown winners in the 1998-1999 season, achieved the feat of winning the championship undefeated.

In addition, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, who have performed well in the Champions League, have not won the championship undefeated. Real Madrid has won the Champions League 12 times in history, and Bayern Munich has won the championship 5 times, all of which have lost games.

On the contrary, Manchester United, which had only won the championship 4 times before, actually won the championship 3 times with an undefeated record. Only in the 1967-1968 season did they lose. At that time, their record was 5 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, and they only lost to the Polish team Zabrzegornik with a score of 0:1 away.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Manchester United has maintained a perfect record in the 12 Champions League games that have been played this season!

This means that as long as they beat Liverpool in the Champions League final, the Red Devils will become the first team in the history of the Champions League to win the championship with a perfect record!

This has never happened in the 64-year history of the Champions League!

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Manchester United can be called the record king of the Champions League.

Previously, they had maintained the longest unbeaten record in the Champions League. From the first group match of the 2007-2008 season to the end of the Champions League semi-finals of the 2008-2009 season, Manchester United remained unbeaten in 25 Champions League games.

After maintaining this unbeaten record for eleven years, it was tied by Manchester United again.

In addition, they also maintain the longest winning streak in the Champions League. Starting from the 3:0 home victory over their city rival Manchester City in the Champions League semi-final last season, Manchester United has won fifteen consecutive games in the Champions League and continues to refresh this record.

In addition, they also maintain the longest home winning streak in the Champions League. Manchester United once created a record of 12 consecutive home wins in the Champions League from 2006 to 2008, and now they have tied this record again. Since the first round of the Champions League group stage last season, when Manchester United beat Qarabag 6-0 at home, Manchester United has won 12 games in a row at home again.

In addition, they also maintain the longest away unbeaten record in the Champions League of 16 games.

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A day later, Chelsea drew 1:1 with Frankfurt at home, and finally eliminated their opponents 4:3 in a penalty shootout and entered the Europa League final; while Arsenal defeated Valencia 4:2 away, thus eliminating their opponents 7:3 in two rounds and meeting Chelsea in the Europa League final.

This is the 10th time in the history of the Europa League final that a final in the same league has been staged, but this season is the first time that teams from the same city have competed for the Europa League championship.

With Arsenal and Chelsea meeting in the Europa League final, all four participating teams in the two European competitions this season are from the Premier League. This is also the first time in history that teams from the same country have won the finals of the Champions League and the Europa League in the same season.

Previously in the history of the Champions League and the Europa League, English teams have had the experience of meeting in the finals, and this season is just the second time they have met in the finals.

In the history of the Champions League, Spanish teams have met in the finals the most times, 3 times. In the history of the European League, Italian teams have met in the finals the most times, 4 times.

If the Champions League and the European League are added together, the Spanish and Italian teams have met in the finals a total of 5 times.

The two Madrid giants are the teams that have participated in the European finals and domestic wars the most times, both participating 3 times.

It is worth mentioning that after the four teams reached the finals, Chelsea wrote on its social account: "The Premier League is the best league in the world! Any questions?"

Not only that, in addition to the four teams taking all the European seats, Manchester City also reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League, and Tottenham entered the semifinals. This means that all the Premier League BIG teams have reached the quarterfinals of the European War!

It must be noted that, except for Burnley being eliminated by Olympiacos in the Europa League play-offs, of the six teams participating in the European War, Manchester City was eliminated by Tottenham, and Tottenham was eliminated by Liverpool.

This also means that in the European War stage, no other league team can eliminate the Premier League team!

This achievement further consolidates the Premier League's dominance in European competitions.

This advantage not only suppresses the rise of other leagues, but also establishes the Premier League's competitiveness on the European stage. Therefore, the influence of the Premier League BIG6 is not limited to the Premier League, but also radiates to the European arena.

It can be said without hesitation that this is a golden age for the Premier League!