Chapter 797 The Scapegoat
In today's world football, Real Madrid and Barcelona in La Liga, Manchester United in the Premier League, and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga are known as the four strongest teams in the world. Fans also gave the four teams a name, called the Demon King Saren, which is homophonic to "The Demon King Kills People".
When commenting on the top four, many media generally believe that although Manchester United has won more championships in the past four seasons, Real Madrid's overall strength is slightly better than the other three teams including Manchester United.
This is the consistent feature of Real Madrid under Zidane's coaching.
The Galacticos play very holistic, not only in offense, but also in their defense.
Overall, Real Madrid is not used to defensive counterattacks. Even if Zidane arranges nine players to retreat, in fact, the blood of offensive football still flows in the bones of this team.
The football field is indeed full of unpredictability, but it must be admitted that the advantage of overall strength can bring a higher tolerance rate, whether in a 90-minute game or in a long season.
In today's highly informationized world, there are no so-called pearls covered in dust. As soon as young players emerge, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, or even earlier, they will immediately attract the attention of strong teams, such as Rashford, Mbappe and Greenwood of Manchester United.
In the European transfer market where you get what you pay for, the wealthy Real Madrid can always dig up better players.
The overall strength of the team built with these players is naturally stronger.
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What makes Mourinho happy is that after he took over the Carrington training base, Manchester United ended the Glazer era. And Manchester United's new boss is not short of money, and spent a huge amount of money to build him a super luxurious lineup comparable to Real Madrid, including spending 200 million euros to introduce Bruno from Udinese.
Although this transfer was once questioned, four years later, it turned out to be an extremely wise decision.
This not only made everyone in Manchester United feel relieved, but also gave Mourinho more confidence.
Bruno is constantly scoring goals, making assists, and constantly improving his strength, while also constantly raising Manchester United's ceiling.
As the team's head coach, all he needs to do is to constantly consolidate the team's foundation and bottom line, and do his best to bring out Bruno's on-field threat and strength.
Many people say that Mourinho doesn't like star players, which is actually wrong. What he doesn't like is the kind of star players who don't have enough strength but want to have tactical privileges.
But for players like Bruno, any head coach in the world will treat them as treasures, including him Mourinho. Because he knows that his trust and support will always be rewarded from Bruno.
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After Real Madrid lost a goal, they continued to defend and counterattack, using Hazard and Rodrigo on the two wings as counterattack weapons. The Galaxy Battleship was not panicked at all because of the lag. Instead, Manchester United made a mistake not long after the start of the second half.
Also in the penalty area, it was also a corner kick.
Hazard quickly sent a tactical corner kick, and Rodrigo took a long shot from the edge of the penalty area. Manchester United players failed to block it in time, and De Gea flew to save it in time, and the shot actually passed through the crowded penalty area and flew to the back point.
Benzema rushed to catch up and blocked Rodrigo's deflected shot into Manchester United's goal.
1:1!
Real Madrid equalized the score, and the total score became 2:3, and Real Madrid was only one goal behind!
Zidane was excited on the sidelines. He has always known that Manchester United's defense is not as stable as Real Madrid. What they are really scary is the midfield.
The midfield composed of Bruno, Gundogan and Kante is the strongest in the world.
But the back line is not. The defense composed of Luke Shaw, Van Dijk, Maguire and Cancelo is also the top in Europe, but it is definitely not the strongest in Europe.
Whether it is Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, or even Liverpool, their defense is no worse than Manchester United's.
When thinking of this, Zidane smiled.
The two sides returned to the same starting line, and he saw the hope of victory again.
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"Manchester United intercepted the ball in front of the penalty area!"
"Kante passed the ball to Gundogan."
"Gundogan made a long pass directly to the front court..."
The Red Devils played a quick counterattack at home.
Bruno shook off Casemiro and rushed through Real Madrid's half at a very fast speed and went straight to the penalty area.
Real Madrid had just equalized the score, and the players on the field wanted to make a concerted effort. In the previous attack, the team pressed too much, which led to the fact that when Manchester United counterattacked, only Militao and Varane were left behind in the back line.
Militao returned to defense as soon as possible and chased the ball at the same time as Bruno.
The Brazilian central defender's turning speed and starting speed were slow, but Bruno's position was further back, which led to the two of them almost at the same time to the periphery of Real Madrid's penalty area.
The football fell slowly, Militao judged the landing point, and used his body to block Bruno to the left.
It was the first time for the young Militao to face Bruno head-on. In Militao's impression, Bruno, the world's top football player, has always been known for his speed, explosive power and dribbling breakthroughs, but his physical fitness is not his strong point. This led the Brazilian central defender to believe that as long as he suppressed Bruno a little, he could limit Bruno.
But as soon as the two of them came into contact, Militao realized that he was wrong. Bruno's body looked very thin, but his strength confrontation was not bad at all.
Compared with a strong and powerful man like Militao, of course, he was not enough, but it was unrealistic for Militao to eat him in one breath, especially when Militao had to consider kicking to clear the ball.
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Militao was tall and had long legs, so he had many different options.
At this time, there were only four players near the Real Madrid penalty area, namely Militao who was chasing Bruno back to defense, Casemiro behind him, and Varane in the middle.
As long as Militao can pass the ball, whether it is to Varane in the middle or back to the goalkeeper, it is a very good choice, and at worst, it can be kicked directly.
Originally, Militao meant to suppress Bruno with his body, and then squeeze him away, grab the best position, and then pass back or pass horizontally.
This is undoubtedly the safest way, but suddenly, he realized that his body could not easily suppress Bruno as expected.
Not only that, Bruno seemed to be fierce, regardless of the danger, and took the initiative to stick his head out and rush forward to meet the falling ball.
This head just pushed the ball out, making Militao's foot kick empty.
The Brazilian central defender was shocked and retracted his foot in time, otherwise, this kick would definitely hit Bruno's forehead directly, and blood splashing on the spot was inevitable.
But precisely because of this, Bruno took this opportunity to break free from Militao's entanglement and quickly chased after him.
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Courtois was a little off on the timing of his attack this time. Perhaps he thought Militao should be able to handle Bruno, but Bruno won the duel, which was beyond his expectations.
In short, when Courtois attacked, Bruno caught up with the ball first. With a light tap, Bruno tapped the ball past the attacking goalkeeper Courtois...
After Bruno avoided Courtois, he took another step and chased him, pushing the inside of his left foot.
Varane in the middle quickly returned to the penalty area. In shock, he fell to the ground and slid directly, trying to clear the ball before it rolled into the goal line, but the final result was that he slid into the goal with the ball.
After his slid, the lawn was in a mess.
After Bruno pushed the ball, he continued to rush out of the court, raised his hands all the way, and shouted loudly to celebrate his goal.
Behind him, the referee finally blew the whistle that the goal was valid!
Less than three minutes after Real Madrid equalized the score, Manchester United relied on a quick counterattack, Bruno scored twice, and broke through Real Madrid's goal again.
2:1!
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When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the score on the field remained 2:1!
Manchester United finally defeated the powerful Real Madrid with Bruno's double goal and won the European derby again.
Manchester United's players won the game, and everyone was jubilant. People kept coming to Bruno to congratulate him.
Bruno also smiled from ear to ear and talked to his teammates.
Occasionally, when Real Madrid players passed by him, he would politely shake hands with Real Madrid players and talk to them.
As the world's top star in football, Bruno's popularity on the court is also quite good.
Benzema lowered his head unwillingly and walked off the court.
Although he scored a goal in the game, which once gave Real Madrid hope, Bruno's double goal eventually killed the game.
During the game, Real Madrid retreated as a whole, Hazard and Rodrigo basically retreated to the midfield, Benzema was pushed to the front alone, and Manchester United's two wings played very actively.
Mourinho arranged Kante to mark him, and the French compatriot froze Benzema throughout the game.
Almost every time Benzema got the ball, the French midfielder was near him. As long as he stuck to the ball a little, Kante could entangle him in the first time, and once he was entangled by Kante, it would be a disaster.
In the Real Madrid lineup, he was once suppressed by a Portuguese. And when the Portuguese left, Benzema finally had a feeling of waiting for the clouds to clear and the moon to shine.
But today, he was suppressed by another Portuguese again!
Benzema raised his head depressedly, exhaled, and his heart was full of depression.
Performance in big games and crucial matches has always been his weakness and pain point, but he has never been able to make a breakthrough.
He is very clear about his problem. He gets anxious easily and becomes chaotic when he gets anxious.
Thinking of this, he can only shake his head helplessly.