Chapter 813: Champions League King VS Europa League King
Manchester United lost to Crystal Palace at home unexpectedly, suffering their first home defeat in five years, which also caused Manchester United to drop to 12th place in the standings after the second round of games. This is also the first time that Manchester United has ranked in the bottom half of the standings after a round of league since Mourinho took over Manchester United.
After the game, Mourinho criticized the video referee team at a press conference. He believed that the video referee team made two major misjudgments in this game. The first was to miss Bruno's penalty kick, and the second was to prevent De Gea from saving the opponent's penalty kick. These two misjudgments dominated the trend of the game and prevented Manchester United from getting a good start at home in the new season.
Mourinho's criticism of the referee will naturally not be supported by the English Football Association. They expressed their full support for the judgment of the video referee team and issued fines to Mourinho and Manchester United. Mourinho was fined 10,000 pounds, while Manchester United was fined 50,000 pounds.
Surprisingly, Mourinho was not suspended. This makes the punishment seem a bit thunderous but little rain.
After all, whether it is Mourinho or Manchester United, such a small fine is not worth mentioning at all.
The Guardian even said in the comments that the two fines issued by the FA actually showed their guilty conscience. They knew that there were major misjudgments in the video referee team's judgment, but in order to maintain the authority of the video referee team, they issued such a seemingly non-deterrent fine.
The Times said that Lindelof's performance in this game was a disaster, which also meant that he would completely lose Mourinho's trust and would most likely be put on the sidelines this season.
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Three days later, on the evening of September 21, Manchester United ushered in the first League Cup match of this season, challenging Luton away.
Since Manchester United will compete with last season's Europa League champion Sevilla for the European Super Cup on the evening of September 24, Mourinho has fully rotated Manchester United's starting lineup.
At the end of the first half, Williams made a penalty and Mata scored in one fell swoop; in the second half, Manchester United made a last-minute effort. Rashford, who came on as a substitute, scored a goal in the 88th minute, and Greenwood sealed the victory in injury time.
At the end of the game, Manchester United defeated their opponents 3-0 away and advanced to the fourth round of the League Cup.
Then, the entire Manchester United team took a special plane to Budapest, the capital of Hungary, to participate in the European Super Cup on the evening of September 24.
For this European Super Cup, UEFA has officially announced in advance that some fans will be allowed to enter the stadium to watch the game.
On August 25, 2020, UEFA announced that the European Super Cup held in Budapest, Hungary in September will allow some spectators to enter as a trial run for fans to return to the stadium.
The UEFA Executive Committee issued a statement confirming that they have decided to allow a small number of fans to watch the game on site, not exceeding 30% of the total capacity of the stadium.
The statement emphasized that other UEFA events will continue to be played behind closed doors until there is a new notice.
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This European Super Cup was held between last season's Champions League champion Manchester United and the Europa League champion Sevilla. Both teams can be said to be the kings of their respective events.
As last season's Champions League champion, the Red Devils Manchester United has now won the Champions League three times in a row, and is the first team to achieve this feat since the Champions League was reformed in 1992.
In the team's history, they have won the Champions League three times, second only to Real Madrid, which has won 12 times, and AC Milan, which has won 7 times, and is the third team with the most championships in the history of the Champions League.
And Sevilla is also a very magical team in the history of the Europa League. They have won the championship of this event five times, and are the team with the most Europa League titles.
Moreover, their five championships were all won after entering the 21st century, and two of them were defending titles. They were the 2005-2006 season and the 2006-2007 season, as well as the 2014-2015 season and the 2015-2016 season.
The fact is, if it weren't for Bruno, Sevilla would have even won three consecutive Europa League titles. Because in the 2013-2014 season, Bruno led Udinese to defeat Sevilla in the Europa League final, causing them to miss the championship.
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On the evening of September 24, Budapest, Hungary.
Since Mourinho made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's lineup in the League Cup in the middle of the week, Manchester United can go all out in this game. Mbappe, Harry Kane and Rashford form a trident on the front line, Bruno partners with Gundogan and Kante in the midfield, and Cancelo, Maguire, Van Dijk and Luke Shaw are combined in the back line, with De Gea guarding the goal.
Sevilla also strictly guarded Bruno, and the midfielder Jordan followed him closely. Coupled with the defense of former Manchester City player Fernando, it was difficult for Bruno to find opportunities on the court.
Fernando is also a very smart player. After leaving Manchester City in 2017, he played for Galatasaray in the Turkish Super League for two years, and then joined Sevilla last summer. He performed well in Sevilla last season, played 41 games in La Liga and the Europa League, and was one of the contributors to Sevilla's fifth Europa League in team history.
Faced with the opponent's tight defense, Bruno got rid of the defense by running over a wide range, acting as the team's transitional role, organizing and planning the attack.
But what is obviously different from facing Premier League teams is that Sevilla is a La Liga team after all, and the overall technical and tactical skills are more rigorous. Unlike most Premier League teams, they leave him space, and the overall strength of Sevilla players is also stronger.
Almost at the beginning of the first half, Sevilla pressed Manchester United in the 30-meter area, and the situation on the field was one-sided. This not only made the Manchester United fans who came to watch the game tremble with fear, but also made the fans watching the live broadcast on TV nervous.
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Manchester United's first threatening attack occurred in the ninth minute. After Bruno received a pass from Cancelo on the right, he quickly launched a counterattack, drove straight into the opponent's penalty area, and then passed the ball to Mbappe, but Mbappe, who quickly inserted, stopped too far and missed a good chance to score.
Then Sevilla continued to increase its offensive strength, especially Rakitic, who had just returned to Sevilla from Barcelona, was extremely active in the frontcourt and had very strong personal abilities, which made Manchester United's backcourt very embarrassed.
In the 13th minute, Manchester United gave away a penalty! Luke Shaw knocked down Rakitic in the penalty area, and the referee awarded a penalty and showed Luke Shaw a yellow card!
Ocampos scored a penalty kick, Manchester United 0:1 Sevilla.
Fortunately, Manchester United was strong enough to equalize the score in the first half. In the 34th minute, Bruno passed the ball to the penalty area from the right, Harry Kane headed the ball back, and Gundogan followed up and scored the ball!
The first half ended with 1:1, with each side scoring a goal, but Manchester United was at a clear disadvantage on the field.
Neither side made substitutions in the midfield and continued to use the opening lineup, but the stalemate on the field remained the same. Sevilla pressed Manchester United and repeatedly created dangerous situations, but Manchester United defended very tenaciously, and goalkeeper De Gea performed very well and did not let the opponent score.
After entering the 60th minute, Sevilla was eager to win, and also felt that Holden's physical energy was too much and could not keep up with Bruno's pace. Sevilla finally chose to make a substitution, replacing Holden with No. 21 Oliver Torres to strengthen the attack in the frontcourt.
And Bruno also realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for had finally come.
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Reading the error-free version! 6=9+Shu_bar first published this novel.
After the game resumed, Bruno immediately expanded his range of activities.
After Sevilla replaced Holden, it strengthened the attack in the frontcourt, which brought great pressure to Manchester United's midfield and backcourt defense, but the defensive problems caused by the single defensive midfielder were also exposed.
In the 88th minute, Bruno received the ball on the right and knocked it across the penalty area. Harry Kane scored with a push shot, helping Manchester United to overtake the score.
"Manchester United scored a goal!!!!"
"In the 88th minute, Manchester United scored a goal!!!!"
"From the cooperation between Bruno and striker Harry Kane, Bruno passed the ball, and Harry Kane scored!"
"2:1! Manchester United overtook Sevilla."
"Sevilla's morale was a little low, and the goal planned by Bruno was a big blow to them."
"At the last moment of the game, being scored by the opponent in this way would be a big blow to anyone."
"Manchester United players were very excited, all rushed to the sidelines and hugged Bruno tightly."
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Soon after the game was restarted, the game entered injury time, and the referee gave four minutes of stoppage time.
Sevilla began to increase its offensive strength, almost desperate to launch an offensive, while Manchester United contracted its defense, and almost everyone retreated to their own 30-meter area, trying their best to defend the goal advantage that they had finally won.
Mourinho's team has always been very solid in defense. Now that Manchester United has taken the lead, morale is high, and everyone is trying their best to defend, and Sevilla has even less chance.
After the four minutes of extra time, the referee didn't blow the whistle until nearly five minutes later, which was somewhat biased towards Sevilla, which made Manchester United coach Mourinho on the sidelines a little dissatisfied.
But no matter what, when the referee blew the whistle, Manchester United players and coaching staff on the sidelines rushed into the stadium.
2:1, Manchester United narrowly defeated the Europa League champion Sevilla with Bruno's key pass near the end of the game and won the 2020 European Super Cup.
This is also the fourth consecutive year that Manchester United has won the European Super Cup since defeating Real Madrid in 2017!
In the history of the European Super Cup, there are very few who can defend the title, and winning four consecutive championships is unique!
At the same time, this is also the fifth European Super Cup won by Manchester United, and they have tied AC Milan and tied for the most championships in this event!