Chapter 784: Surviving the Disaster
On June 19, 2020, the Premier League, which had been suspended for more than three months, finally resumed.
At 6 pm, the first game of the resumption kicked off at Carrow Road, with Norwich playing against Southampton at home.
This was also the first game of the 30th round of the Premier League.
In the first half, neither Armstrong nor Ings seized the opportunity, and the two sides drew 0:0. In the second half, Ings and Armstrong scored two goals in 6 minutes, and Norwich fell. Raymond scored another goal at the last moment.
In the end, Norwich lost 0:3 to Southampton and was killed by the opponent.
Less than half an hour after the end of this game, the second game of this round was played at the new White Hart Lane Stadium in London, with Manchester United challenging Tottenham away.
This game is the first game of the Premier League resumption for both sides. The players of both sides have recovered from their injuries. After the rest during the epidemic, the Premier League in the second half of the season will definitely be a battle between dragons and tigers.
Every team is now fully equipped. As the first league, the Premier League, it is impossible for you to directly defeat anyone, so the second half of the season will be a super strong confrontation in the Premier League. Every team will use all its reserves to grab the qualification for the European war next season.
Especially Manchester United, they are currently 3 points behind Liverpool in the standings, and this game cannot be lost. So even if it is an away game, Manchester United still plays very actively.
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At the beginning of the game, the home team showed an aggressive posture. Winks and Moussa Sissoko were dragged back, Lo Celso and Bergwijn were separated on the two wings, Lamela rushed forward, and the five midfielders caused a lot of trouble for Manchester United.
In the 26th minute of the first half, Tottenham took advantage of a counterattack opportunity. Bergwijn dribbled the ball in the middle and broke through Manchester United's 80 million pounds Mr. Maguire to score. In the end, De Gea could not stop this attack.
This goal aroused Manchester United's anger. Afterwards, the Red Devils launched a crazy counterattack, and Mbappe frequently created killing opportunities on the right.
However, Manchester United still failed to equalize the score in the first half, and the home team Tottenham entered the halftime break with a 1:0 advantage.
After the second half, Manchester United continued to launch continuous offensives. But Rashford, Mbappe and Harry Kane missed great opportunities in succession.
In the 80th minute, Manchester United got a penalty kick. Bruno stood at the penalty spot. His own standard penalty kick tricked Lori and scored the ball directly into the goal, helping Manchester United equalize the score.
In the injury time, Manchester United once saw a chance to reverse, but VAR cancelled Manchester United's second penalty kick.
In the end, Manchester United tied 1:1 with Tottenham away.
This draw is obviously not good news for Manchester United, because it means that they are likely to fall behind Liverpool by 5 points after this round!
With only 8 rounds left in the league, it is difficult for Manchester United to reverse Liverpool by 5 points.
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However, accidents always come one after another.
Two days later, good news came from Liverpool. In the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, Everton tied the powerful Liverpool 0:0 at home!
What made Liverpool fans even more worried was that they lost two generals in the game: veteran Milner and main central defender Matip were injured and retired in the game.
However, Liverpool fans also had something to make them happy, because in the game, Everton missed many excellent scoring opportunities, but failed to grasp them, which allowed Liverpool to take 1 point from Goodison Park and continue to maintain a 3-point advantage over Manchester United.
After learning of this result, Manchester United felt like they had survived a disaster.
There is still room for them to catch up if they fall behind by 3 points, but if they fall behind by 5 points, they may have to withdraw from the league championship this season.
Not only Manchester United players and coaching staff members think so, but Manchester United fans do the same.
Many Manchester United fans flocked to Everton's official website and left messages to thank their old brother Everton for their help.
This reminds me of the 28th round of the Premier League four months ago, also at Goodison Park. When Manchester United was tied 1:1 by Everton, some Liverpool fans left messages on Everton's official website to thank Everton for helping to stop Manchester United.
Although only one round of games passed, four months have passed, giving people a feeling of time passing.
Of course, some Manchester United fans also ran to Liverpool's official website to leave provocative messages: I gave you a chance, but you are useless!
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Since this season must end before the end of July, it means that nine rounds of leagues will be played in about five weeks, and there will be FA Cup quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals in the middle, and European wars later, so the schedule is very intensive.
Five days later, on the afternoon of June 24, Manchester United ushered in the 31st round of the Premier League, where they played at home against Sheffield United.
In this game, Rashford became the most shining one on the court. In the first half, Rashford scored twice with assists from Bruno and Cancelo. In the second half, Bruno made another wonderful pass, and Rashford scored a hat trick with a wonderful lob shot.
In the end, Manchester United defeated Sheffield United 3-0 at home. With one game ahead, they tied Liverpool in points and rose to the top of the standings with a goal difference advantage.
However, they only stayed at the top of the standings for two hours, because Liverpool immediately swept Crystal Palace 4-0 at home, pushing Manchester United off the top again.
In another focus match of this round, Chelsea beat Manchester City 2:1 at home.
As a result, with only 7 rounds left in the Premier League, the standings are as follows:
Liverpool has 28 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, ranking first with 85 points;
Manchester United has 26 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss, ranking second with 82 points;
Manchester City has 20 wins, 3 draws and 8 losses, ranking third with 63 points;
Leicester City has 16 wins, 7 draws and 8 losses, ranking fourth with 55 points;
Chelsea has 16 wins, 6 draws and 9 losses, ranking fifth with 54 points;
Wolves has 12 wins, 11 draws and 8 losses, ranking sixth with 47 points;
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Manchester City is 22 points behind Liverpool, the leader of the list. They have lost the possibility of theoretically overtaking Liverpool to win the championship, and have completely withdrawn from the competition for the league championship this season.
So far, the competition for the Premier League championship this season has completely turned into a double red hegemony. The three blue teams can only compete for two Champions League qualifications.
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On the afternoon of June 27, in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Manchester United challenged Norwich away.
The two sides fought hard in the first half and the score was 0:0, but at the beginning of the second half, Bruno assisted Greenwood to score in just four minutes, opening the scoring for Manchester United.
Later, under the leadership of Bruno, Manchester United, who played with a substitute lineup, suppressed Norwich on the field and did not give the opponent many opportunities to threaten Manchester United's goal.
In the 54th minute of the game, Mata passed the ball back from the left side of the penalty area, and Bruno took a long shot from the left corner of the penalty area. The ball drew a perfect arc, bypassed Krul's ten fingers, and flew into Norwich's goal again.
Norwich scored a goal in the 88th minute.
In the end, Manchester United defeated Norwich 2:1 away and advanced to the FA Cup semi-finals this season.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Manchester United has entered the FA Cup semi-finals. The last time they failed to advance was in the 2014-2015 season, when they were eliminated by Arsenal 2:1 in the quarter-finals.
The other three teams that advanced were Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City, all of which were from the BIG6 of the Premier League.
It can be said that this year's FA Cup semi-finals are the strongest in recent years!
In the subsequent draw, Manchester United faced Chelsea and Manchester City faced Arsenal.
Two matches between Manchester City and London teams!
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Manchester United's last game in June was at 8:15 pm on the 30th, away to Brighton.
Because they had just fought Norwich for 90 minutes in the FA Cup two days ago, Mourinho did not arrange for Bruno to start in this game.
Without Bruno, Manchester United could not find a way to break Brighton's goal in the game, and Mata, who replaced him as the front midfielder, played very poorly.
Mourinho finally couldn't help but replace Bruno in the 70th minute, and then replaced Rashford with Mahrez, forming a frontcourt offensive combination of Bruno, Mbappe, Mahrez and Harry Kane in the frontcourt. As a result, in the last 15 minutes, Manchester United launched a wave of offensive.
In the 78th minute, Mbappe, who was replaced on the left, dribbled into the penalty area and passed it back to Luke Shaw. The English left-back accurately sent a low ball to the right side of the penalty spot.
Bruno quickly inserted into the penalty area from the right rib, stopped the ball and volleyed it, sending the ball accurately into Brighton's goal.
1:0!
After breaking the deadlock, Manchester United quickly controlled the rhythm on the field.
In the 85th minute, Cancelo passed the ball to Mahrez who broke into the penalty area with a bicycle kick, helping Manchester United expand their lead to two goals.
In the 90th minute of the game, Greenwood, who replaced Mbappe, made a long pass to Bruno who was running at high speed at the back post. The Manchester United captain volleyed and scored, helping Manchester United to secure the victory.
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Three days later, a key battle in the 32nd round of the Premier League kicked off at the Etihad Stadium, with Manchester City playing at home against Liverpool.
Only 2 minutes into the game, Mendy sent a surgical pass, and Jesus broke through Alisson's goal with a single knife, but the linesman raised the flag to indicate offside, and the goal was ruled invalid.
In the 25th minute, Sterling was pulled down by Gomez in a 1V3 forced breakthrough in the penalty area. The referee whistled a penalty kick and showed a yellow card. De Bruyne took the penalty and scored in one fell swoop, 1:0!
In the 34th minute, Mendy intercepted the ball in the backcourt and launched a counterattack. Jesus passed the ball with his back, Foden cut inside to the top of the arc and passed it to Sterling. The former Red Army star stopped and flashed out of the gap and shot low through the crotch to break the net, 2:0!
In the 45th minute, Foden and De Bruyne played a wonderful wall pass, and the 20-year-old Manchester City player broke into the penalty area and shot with his right foot, 3:0!
Manchester City was already leading 3:0 at halftime, which was the biggest deficit in the first half since Klopp took office!
In the 66th minute, De Bruyne made a diagonal pass in the counterattack, Sterling dribbled the ball in the penalty area to get rid of Robertson and shot with his left foot, Chamberlain cleared the ball and shoveled it into his own goal, 4:0!
The Blue Moon had the opportunity to continue scoring, but their goal during injury time was cancelled by VAR.
In the end, Manchester City swept Liverpool 4:0 and completely stunned the Red Army!