Chapter 790 Master and Disciple

At the end of the 36th round of the Premier League, Manchester United gained a 3-point advantage over Liverpool in the standings.

Immediately, this season's FA Cup semi-finals began. Two four-team games between Manchester and London kicked off at the new Wembley Stadium.

On the evening of July 18, the match between Manchester City and Arsenal started first. In this duel between Guardiola and Arteta and their master and apprentice, Arsenal had the last laugh. With Aubameyang's brace, Arsenal unexpectedly defeated Manchester City 2-0 and reached the FA Cup final for the 21st time!

A day later, another semi-final was played between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Although the 37th round of the Premier League was three days later, Mourinho still sent out a full lineup in this FA Cup semi-final.

On the one hand, this is because Manchester United not only has a 3-point advantage in the league, but also has a considerable goal difference advantage. This allows them to basically win as long as they win one of the remaining two rounds. Lock up the Premier League title. On the other hand, it is because the FA Cup has reached the semi-final stage. As long as they win the last two games, they can win the FA Cup for five consecutive years. This is not a small temptation for Manchester United.

Manchester United might not have noticed the £2 million bonus for the FA Cup champion in the past, but in the face of the epidemic, Manchester United's revenue will definitely be greatly affected. At this time, winning the FA Cup and receiving a championship bonus of 2 million pounds can also slightly make up for the team's losses.

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The epidemic has had a huge impact on European leagues. There is no match-day income, commercial endorsements have been cut, and many teams are experiencing operational difficulties.

Under such circumstances, major clubs have to tighten their belts and cut club expenses.

The first to announce a salary cut was Serie A club Juventus. On March 29, Juventus officially announced that the team’s players and coaching staff had agreed to waive their wages from March to June this season after consultation. This decision will save the club 90 million euros in salary burden.

On April 6, Serie A officially announced that 20 Serie A teams had reached a salary reduction agreement: "If the league cannot be restarted, the players will give up 4 months of salary, that is, accept a 1/3 salary drop. If the league can restart To start, the players will give up 2 months of salary, that is, accept a 1/6 salary reduction.”

Subsequently, La Liga Barcelona and Real Madrid clubs also announced salary cuts. Among them, Barcelona officially stated that the club’s board of directors and all professional team players will reduce their salaries by 70% to tide over the difficulties together; Real Madrid announced that the players and coaching staff of the football and basketball first teams, as well as senior management, will voluntarily reduce their salaries by 10% to 20% this year. %.

It is worth mentioning that Juventus's salary cut was initiated by the players led by Cristiano Ronaldo, while Barcelona's salary cut was reluctantly forced to accept by the players under the pressure of the club from many parties.

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However, as the other four major league teams have cut their salaries, except for Arsenal who have cut their salaries by 12.5%, the Premier League giants such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Chelsea have not cut their salaries.

The Premier League basically does not cut salaries. On the one hand, it is because of the toughness of the players, and on the other hand, it is also because the bosses behind the Premier League clubs are all "super rich" and are not short of money.

For example, Manchester United owner Jassim, as a member of the Qatari royal family, is worth tens of billions of dollars. Moreover, Qatar made its fortune from oil, so the impact of the epidemic is not great.

In addition, Manchester United's revenue capability is too strong. The epidemic has hit the team's matchday income hard, but for Manchester United, matchday income is only a small part.

Taking the 2018-2019 season as an example, Manchester United, which has won the Triple Crown for two consecutive years, has total revenue of more than 800 million pounds, of which match day revenue is as high as 200 million pounds, which is the highest figure. The Premier League, and even Europe as a whole.

Of course, Manchester United can have such a high match-day income mainly due to its huge home capacity. Whether it is the previous Old Trafford Stadium or the current temporary home stadium, the Millennium Stadium, they are both super stadiums that can accommodate more than 70,000 fans.

In addition, the team’s peripheral product development is also very strong.

However, match day revenue of 200 million pounds only accounts for about 25% of Manchester United's total revenue.

Of course, when the team can get an extra 2 million pounds by working hard, the club naturally hopes to get this extra income.

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Chelsea also attaches great importance to this FA Cup semi-final.

Chelsea's performance on all fronts this season has been unsatisfactory.

In terms of the league, they withdrew from the championship competition early. In the Champions League, although they advanced as the first in the group, their opponent was not too strong. It was the Bundesliga's dark pony team Red Bull Leipzig. However, in the two knockout rounds in March, they were double beaten by Red Bull Leipzig and stopped in the top 16.

Under such circumstances, the FA Cup has become the only championship that Chelsea can compete for this season.

According to gossip, Chelsea boss Abramovich has given Lampard an ultimatum. If Chelsea cannot win the FA Cup, Lampard, the Blues legend, will definitely pack up and leave after the end of the season.

Under such circumstances, Chelsea players played very proactively in the game.

Soon, the first half of the FA Cup semi-final was over and time entered the halftime break.

The score on the electronic scoreboard of the new Wembley Stadium was: Manchester United 0:1 Chelsea!

Just nine minutes into the first half, Manchester United's midfielder Fred was sent off with a red card. At that time, Fred raised his arm and hit Chelsea midfielder Kovacic in the face during a scramble. The latter fell to the ground in pain. The referee believed that Fred had deliberately elbowed Kovacic and directly showed a red card.

Mourinho was furious on the sidelines. In his opinion, a yellow card was enough, because Fred accidentally hit Kovacic's face, and it was not a very bad deliberate elbow.

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This red card was completely an accident, which disrupted Mourinho's tactical deployment of the team. Manchester United played passively throughout the first half of the game.

Finally, after the time entered the injury time of the first half, William got the ball in the frontcourt and passed it to the left. Azpilicueta got the ball and passed it horizontally. Giroud stretched his legs in front of the goal and shot. The ball touched De Gea and slowly rolled into the net.

The score on the field was rewritten to 0:1, and Chelsea broke the deadlock on the field.

"Guys, you did a pretty good job." Chelsea coach Lampard looked at his players and said.

"Now we are leading by one to zero, but this is not enough. They are one man short now. What we have to do in this game is to continue to score goals and strive to win by a big score."

"Remember, our goal is revenge! Revenge for the tragic defeat away from home at the beginning of the season! Revenge for being double-killed in the league! Revenge for being quadruple-killed by Manchester United this season!" Lampard said excitedly.

Today's encounter is the fifth game between Chelsea and Manchester United this season. In the previous two rounds of the league, as well as the fourth round of the European Super Cup and the League Cup, Chelsea lost to Manchester United. Chelsea has become the team that lost the most games to Manchester United in a season, second only to Manchester City, which lost to Manchester United 5 times.

For Chelsea, which has already become one of the top European giants, this is undoubtedly a shame!

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Before the game, Lampard was still worried about how to beat Manchester United. Lampard knew very well that Chelsea's strength was not as good as Manchester United, and his tactics were learned from Mourinho and were also restrained. This made his Chelsea feel suppressed in the blood when facing Manchester United.

Although the team owner issued a must-kill order for the game before the game, Lampard knew in his heart that Chelsea was in danger in this game, and the biggest possibility this season was still nothing.

Unexpectedly, the referee was so helpful and sent Fred off right away. Lampard saw the possibility of winning the game, or even winning by a large score.

Therefore, during the entire fifteen minutes of the halftime break, Lampard was very happy and very happy.

A day ago, in this place, Arteta led his team to defeat his mentor Guardiola. Lampard believes that he can continue Arteta's glory today and lead his team to defeat his mentor Mourinho.

Lampard remembered another thing, that is, thirty years ago, Ferguson relied on an FA Cup championship to keep his position as Manchester United coach, and then led Manchester United to become the Premier League overlord. Now, he Lampard may repeat Ferguson's history.

He has a feeling that he will become the protagonist!

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In the home team locker room of the new Wembley Stadium, Mourinho is also making the final arrangements.

"The first fifteen minutes of the second half are crucial. Although it is impossible to judge whether Chelsea will counterattack conservatively or attack aggressively, I want to emphasize that no matter what, I don't want to see another goal conceded. Even if it means sacrificing offense, we must defend well and not lose the ball again. If Chelsea leads by two goals, we will be very passive." Mourinho said with a serious expression, "After fifteen minutes, we will speed up."

"Marcus (Rashford) and Kylian (Mbappe), I need you to be more active on the wing and tear their two sides in turn."

"Harry (Kane), in the second half, you should pass the ball to your teammates. Kylian (Mbappe), Marcus (Rashford) and Bruno should try to find shooting opportunities."

Chelsea's defenders are all tall and strong. Mbappe and Rashford on Manchester United's side are at a disadvantage physically. Therefore, Harry Kane, who has strong confrontation ability, needs to play more of a bridgehead role in this game.

"N'Golo (Kante), your task is heavy, and the team needs you to work harder." Mourinho said.

After Fred was sent off with a red card, Manchester United only had Kante as a defensive midfielder on the field, and his defensive task was very heavy.