Chapter 819 A Tough Opponent
Because Bruno was right in the middle of the defense of Lisandro, Schulz and Blind, Schulz, who was closest, chose to steal Luke Shaw and leave Bruno to Blind and Lisandro.
As expected, as soon as Schulz robbed the ball, Luke Shaw quickly passed the ball to Bruno.
Bruno stopped the ball on the left side of the penalty area and faced Lisandro and Blind directly. He seemed to continue to fight one-on-two, but this time both of them were obviously prepared and faced a big enemy.
Suddenly, Bruno started and rushed into the penalty area from the left with the ball. It was obvious that he wanted to use his speed to force Lisandro.
But Lisandro's speed was not slow, and he turned around quickly to follow. Unexpectedly, Bruno suddenly stopped and pretended to dunk to the inside.
Lisandro was shocked and stopped quickly, fearing that he would be thrown away by Bruno as before.
As soon as he stopped, Bruno suddenly dribbled the ball back, kicked forward with his left foot, and rushed to the bottom line with a sudden acceleration.
Although the Ajax central defender is not tall, only 1.75 meters, which is considered short among defenders, he is very flexible, fast, and focused. At this time, he is also fully focused on defense. Bruno's continuous speed change and direction, he also follows the continuous speed change and direction change, and is not left behind by Bruno at all.
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Ajax signed the Argentine last summer to replace De Ligt who was poached by Juventus. However, the Argentine central defender is not the same type of central defender as De Ligt. He is not tall, has poor defense and control capabilities, and likes to dribble in the penalty area, which has put Ajax's defense in trouble. This led to Ten Hag putting Lisandro in the midfield more often when he first used him. It was only later that Lisandro gradually adapted to the Eredivisie game style that Ten Hag put him in the central defender position again.
Bruno originally wanted to use his speed to force a gap. Even if he didn't have a chance to kick directly, he could pass the ball to the middle and back point, because he saw Rashford, Harry Kane and Mbappe had already come up.
Unexpectedly, Lisandro's defense was so sticky. In the end, there was really no way out. Bruno could only hastily kick the ball, but the ball hit Lisandro's outstretched leg and bounced out of the bottom line, turning it into a corner kick opportunity for Manchester United.
Bruno also rushed out of the court and almost hit the billboard on the side of the court.
Bruno walked back with a wry smile. He felt that he was in trouble today.
His condition was not particularly good, but the most important thing was Lisandro's defense, which was really sticky, which was fatal.
Playing in the Premier League, he was used to encountering the kind of tall and slow-turning central defenders. He rarely encountered such a short central defender with such fast speed and explosive power.
Especially just now, he changed speed and direction twice in a row, but he couldn't shake him off. It was really helpless.
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But just when Bruno turned around and walked back in anger, he found that Ajax's central defender Lisandro was still lying in front of the penalty area, looking very painful.
"It's dangerous!"
"Lisandro really tried his best when he made the final blocking move. He blocked Bruno's attack, but it seemed that he was also affected and fell to the ground."
"The referee signaled Ajax's team doctor to enter the court quickly."
"So far in this game, Lisandro has performed quite well, but when defending Bruno just now, he kept the continuous changes of speed and direction, but the last block seemed to have injured his leg."
"It's very likely." Davis was obviously worried, "Lisandro is only 22 years old after all, too young, and can't be compared with top stars like Bruno. Although he barely kept up with Bruno's rhythm with his young body just now, the price was Maybe it's an injury..."
"Bruno's personal ability is indeed quite outstanding." Van Persie said, "The continuous change of speed and direction just now reminded me of Ronaldo in his prime, and if I remember correctly, it seems that this is not the first time that Bruno has injured a defensive player."
"Yes." Van der Vaart echoed, "In my impression, he has injured defensive players several times. It is really troublesome to defend against players like him. Bruno, Robben, Yosi and Cristiano Ronaldo are all difficult to defend against."
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Bruno walked back to the court with apologies, standing outside the Ajax players, looking at Lisandro Martinez lying on the ground, and still felt a little uneasy.
This had nothing to do with him, because he had no physical contact with Lisandro at all. But in the end, Lisandro was still injured when defending him.
Of course, Bruno had such an idea, mainly because he remembered that Lisandro transferred to Manchester United two years later and became his teammate. He performed well in Manchester United, which made Bruno, who was still a Manchester United fan at the time, like him very much and felt close to him.
Ajax's team doctor quickly carried Lisandro off the field. It was obvious that the injury was not light this time.
Blind came over and patted Bruno on the shoulder with a wry smile.
He knew Bruno very well. Seeing his worried look, he knew that Bruno was concerned about Lisandro. But professional players are like this. Injuries are commonplace, and Lisandro has always been very aggressive.
Ajax quickly replaced Lisandro with Lasnar Traore.
Obviously, the Ajax central defender was seriously injured, but the football game still had to go on.
Although Bruno felt somewhat guilty, he asked himself if there was anything wrong.
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After Lasnar Traore came on the court, Ajax also changed its formation. Blind returned to the back line and partnered with Schulz as a central defender. At the same time, Tadic's position also retreated, forming a three-midfielder with Klaasen and Gravenberch. The Burkina Faso native Traore, who came on as a substitute, played as a center forward.
In this way, Ajax's formation also changed to 4-3-3, and Bruno and Tadic were closer.
When Bruno was looking at Tadic, the Serbian was also looking at him.
Bruno really didn't have any special feelings for Lisandro, after all, the two didn't have much intersection. Although the two had played on the same field when Manchester United played against Southampton, they rarely had the opportunity to face each other because of their positions.
In the summer of 2018, Tadic left Southampton to join Ajax, which gave the Serbian veteran a second spring.
In the 2018-2019 season, the reason why Ajax was able to shine in the Eredivisie and the Champions League was inseparable from Tadic's outbreak.
That season, Tadic played in all games in the Eredivisie and contributed a luxurious data of 28 goals and 13 assists; in the Champions League, Tadic also played in all games, scoring 6 goals and 4 assists in 12 games.
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Such an outstanding performance also made Tadic shortlisted for the European Golden Ball Award and the World Footballer of the Year candidate list that year, and became famous in the world football and was considered a representative of late bloomers.
In the Ajax team, Tadic also took over the captain's armband left by De Ligt after he left the team.
Last season, Tadic continued his outstanding performance. In the Dutch Eredivisie, which was cut short, he scored 11 goals and assisted 14 times in 25 games, maintaining an average efficiency of 1 goal per game. However, he did not make much progress in the European war. In 6 Champions League group matches and 2 Europa League knockout matches, he only contributed 3 assists.
But even so, at the age of 31, his performance is very good.
However, the two did not have any private interactions, and Bruno did not quite understand why he seemed to be very hostile to him.
Is it because he is now the captain of Ajax, and Ajax has repeatedly suffered at the feet of Manchester United in the past few seasons?
Or is it a pure psychological tactic to irritate himself, the offensive core of Manchester United?
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When Bruno's thoughts flashed in his mind, Mourinho immediately made arrangements after seeing Ajax's adjustments, signaling Rashford and Mbappe to use more speed to attack Ajax's defense line, and also let Luke Shaw and Cancelo, two full-backs, move forward more.
Mourinho is naturally very familiar with Blind. Although the Dutchman can also play as a central defender, he is not a genuine central defender after all, and his height is insufficient, so there are great defects in playing as a central defender.
In addition, at this moment, Ajax's other central defender Schulz is a traditional central defender who is tall and strong but turns slowly, which will undoubtedly give Rashford and Mbappe more opportunities.
After the adjustment, Manchester United's overall advantage quickly took effect, and Bruno began to get opportunities frequently in the frontcourt.
In the 42nd minute of the first half, Harry Kane headed the ball to the left, and Bruno and Tadic competed for the second landing point at the same time, but Bruno was faster and took the lead in poking the ball forward.
But when Bruno was about to rush forward, his jersey was suddenly pulled hard behind him, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
The referee blew the whistle quickly and raised the card to indicate a yellow card.
Tadic kept complaining to the referee, obviously saying that he did not pull the opponent, but Bruno slipped by himself, but the referee did not accept his explanation.
"Tadic is the captain, and he should restrain his actions appropriately now."
"Manchester United is now very clear that they want to attack Bruno, and Ten Hag should make some adjustments."
"Bruno will become more and more threatening in the frontcourt."
"Including the extra time in the first half, there should be five or six minutes left, Ajax still needs to stabilize."
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Several commentators spoke up.