Chapter 837 Blue Fox Blocks the Road
Before Christmas, the League Cup quarter-finals started one after another.
The first game was an upset, with Premier League team Newcastle losing 0:1 to Championship team Brentford away.
In another strong dialogue that followed, Arsenal lost 1:4 to Manchester City at home, and Arteta was once again severely punished by his master Guardiola.
On the evening of December 23, the last two quarter-finals continued. Tottenham beat Championship team Stoke City 3:1 away.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, the last quarter-final whistled at Goodison Park, with the Red Devils Manchester United facing the host Toffees Everton.
Mourinho continued to rotate the lineup, with Harry Kane and Bruno leading the team. With Harry Kane's goal in the 88th minute of the game and Bruno's buzzer-beating goal in the 6th minute of injury time, Manchester United defeated Everton 2:0 and advanced to the semi-finals of this season's League Cup.
In the subsequent draw, Manchester United drew Manchester City again, while Tottenham drew the best lot and faced the Championship team Brentford.
This is the third time in the past four years that the League Cup semi-finals have staged a Manchester derby. In the previous 2017-2018 season and the just-concluded 2019-2020 season, the League Cup semi-finals staged a Manchester derby, and Manchester United won in the end.
Due to the epidemic, the schedule of this season has been greatly compressed, which has led to the League Cup semi-finals of this season. It is no longer a two-round knockout match as in the past, but a single game to decide the winner.
According to the schedule, this Manchester derby will be held on the evening of January 6 next year.
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After defeating Everton and entering the League Cup semi-finals, it is Christmas. But the entire Manchester United team did not take a holiday, because the team will usher in the 15th round of the Christmas battle against Leicester City at noon on Boxing Day.
Manchester United defeated Everton 2:0 in the League Cup in the middle of the week and won five consecutive victories in all competitions. In the Premier League, the Red Devils have won 12 consecutive games since losing to Crystal Palace in the second round.
As it was only 60 hours since the League Cup semi-final, Mourinho continued to rotate in this game at the King Power Stadium. Romero guarded the goal, Dalot, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Luke Shaw formed the back line, Bruno partnered with Fred and Bellingham in the midfield, and Mahrez, McTominay and Rashford formed the front trident.
King Power Stadium.
When the game reached the 77th minute, Manchester United intercepted the ball at the front of the 30-meter area in their own half, and Bellingham made a long pass over the top to initiate a quick counterattack.
Bruno sprinted forward at a very fast speed on the left.
"Manchester United launched a counterattack."
"The referee did not blow the whistle, Bruno successfully countered the offside!"
Bruno quickly caught up on the field and stopped the ball on the left side of the penalty area.
Leicester City's right-back Justin also returned to defense very quickly. In this game, he has been entangled with Bruno.
The two were playing one-on-one inside and outside the penalty area.
Facing Bruno who was approaching with the ball, Justin was like a formidable enemy, and he took a defensive posture. At the same time, he kept reminding himself in his mind, be careful, don't be fooled!
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When entering Justin's defense area, Bruno suddenly started, accelerated, and then sank his left shoulder to rush to the bottom line.
Even though Justin had repeatedly reminded himself not to be fooled before, even though he had been fooled by Bruno twice before, when Bruno suddenly changed speed and suddenly pretended to rush into the penalty area from the left bottom, Justin was still fooled.
He didn't know what was behind him at all, and he didn't know whether Bruno would choose to cross after going to the bottom.
The guy in front of him was very proficient with both feet. He could cut in and shoot, and he could also cross from the bottom, which was very difficult to defend.
As soon as he moved, he felt a figure flashing in front of him.
Bruno dribbled the ball back, and almost brushed Justin's side into the penalty area.
Justin was cautious and reacted immediately after he found out he was tricked, but Bruno had already rushed into the penalty area with the ball, so many of his actions had to stop abruptly.
What he didn't expect was that Bruno kicked the ball directly as soon as he rushed into the penalty area before he could react!
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“Bruno shoots directly!”
“The ball goes in!!!!”
“In the 78th minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack after stealing the ball. Bruno quickly dribbled the ball from the left and rushed into the penalty area. Facing Justin’s defense, Bruno calmly chose to shoot directly.”
“Leicester City goalkeeper Schmeichel reacted but still failed to stop the ball from entering the net.”
“This goal was scored by Bruno after dribbling the ball from the left and cutting in. He opened up the angle and shot directly. It can be seen that he has a great feeling in this area.”
“This is the third goal of the game and the second goal of Manchester United in this game.”
“It can be said that this was a wonderful game. From the beginning of the game, both sides played not conservatively at all.”
"Mourinho obviously knows that Manchester United's defense is not solid. Even if they defend tightly, they may not be able to stop Leicester City's attack, because this team that once created the Leicester City miracle has scored 26 goals before this game, and is one of the most powerful offensive teams this season. So Mourinho chose to go head-to-head, and he is obviously full of confidence in Bruno's state and strength."
"Bruno did not live up to the coach's trust. In the 22nd minute of the first half, he used a wonderful pass to assist Rashford to score and open the scoring for Manchester United."
"But in the 31st minute, Leicester City took advantage of Manchester United's backcourt error to steal the ball. Barnes shot from outside the penalty area. Romero failed to save the ball and Leicester City equalized the score."
"Both sides played not conservatively at all, and the game was very exciting."
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Bruno got up from the ground and hugged his teammates one by one, celebrating his 18th goal in the Premier League this season.
Following closely behind are Salah, who scored 13 goals, and Vardy, Son Heung-min and Lewin, who also scored 11 goals.
Whether it is Salah or Vardy, they are still some distance away from Bruno.
But the most important thing is that Bruno wants to win!
From the more than one-hour game process, Leicester City is indeed very strong. The midfield composed of Ndidi and Tielemans is stronger than the combination of Bellingham and Fred, but the current situation is that the two sides are equally matched in terms of ball control.
A correct version of the book in 16-9!
This is something Bruno had not thought of before. He did not expect that with the two major midfielders Kante and Gundogan taking turns to rest, the young Bellingham and Fred could do so well in terms of ball possession.
Although he knew that Bellingham would grow into an all-around midfielder with good offense and defense in the future, the kid is too young at present and is not yet 18 years old.
The players are running actively, and most importantly, they have solid technical skills. In this way, Manchester United's midfield is full of creativity.
McTominay is in the frontcourt, Rashford is on the left, and Mahrez has Chen Tao, which makes Manchester United's entire midfield attack quite outstanding.
If you have to pick out the shortcomings, it is that the back line is not stable enough. Lindelof and young player Tuanzebe have not had many opportunities to play this season, so their performance on the field is a bit problematic.
But it is precisely because of this that Mourinho resolutely chose to gamble and press out to fight against Leicester City.
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Such a game is very exhausting, so after 65 minutes, Mourinho replaced Fred with Kante to strengthen the interception and defense in the midfield, but the overall formation remained unchanged.
Sometimes football games are like this, you have to gamble and take risks.
Manchester United's tradition has always advocated taking risks.
To put it bluntly, the so-called creativity is taking risks, and it is difficult to be creative if you just seek stability.
Although Leicester City ranked third before this round of games, Everton, Chelsea, Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City were chasing them very closely. If they were not careful, they would be squeezed out of the Champions League zone, so every game and every goal were crucial.
After falling behind by one goal, Leicester City began to counterattack aggressively, increasing the intensity of the attack, and even pressing the back line.
After all, this Manchester United team is mostly a substitute lineup, and its strength is definitely far from that of Manchester United, which is full of main players. Facing Leicester City, which is in excellent form this season and is counterattacking with all its strength, Manchester United's defense line was ultimately unable to hold.
In the 84th minute, Leicester City cooperated on the right, Justin made a lob pass, Perez inserted a low ball near the bottom line of the penalty area, Vardy pushed the ball in front of the small penalty area, Tuanzebe stretched his legs to block it, but the ball changed its line, Romero failed to save it, and the football flew into Manchester United's goal.
The score on the field became 2:2, Tuanzebe scored an own goal, and Leicester City equalized the score again!
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This was also the last goal of the game. In the end, Manchester United tied with the Blue Fox Leicester City in the Christmas battle on Boxing Day.
However, what made Manchester United feel a little relieved was that the teams behind them, such as Liverpool, Southampton, Chelsea, and Tottenham, also overturned in this round. Among them, Liverpool tied 1:1 with the relegation team West Bromwich Albion at home, Southampton drew with Fulham away, and Chelsea lost 1:3 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Manchester United still maintained an 8-point advantage in the standings.
The power of the Christmas devil schedule was fully demonstrated in this round of games.
With Manchester United's draw with Leicester City away, this means that Manchester United's previous 12-game winning streak in the Premier League has been ended.
At the same time, Manchester United's previous record of 11 consecutive away wins in the Premier League was also ended. However, Manchester United's unbeaten away record in the Premier League continues: since losing to Liverpool away in the 23rd round of the league last season, Manchester United has remained unbeaten in the following 15 away games, with a record of 12 wins and 3 draws.