Chapter 839: A Journey of a Thousand Miles Reveals the Strength of a Horse
On the evening of January 1, 2021, in the 17th round of the Premier League, Manchester United played against Aston Villa at home, and Bruno started again.
This season, Aston Villa performed very well in the Premier League and ranked third in the Premier League standings at the end of 2020. The main reason why Aston Villa can achieve such good results is that their defense is in place. In the first 16 rounds, they only lost 16 goals, which is the team with the fewest goals lost among the 20 Premier League teams.
In this game, Aston Villa also adopted a key defense strategy against Bruno, but Bruno was still very active.
In the 39th minute, Bruno cleverly made a heel pass, Cancelo made a cross from the bottom of the right, and Harry Kane made a header and broke the net. Manchester United 1:0 Aston Villa!
In the 57th minute, Grealish made a low cross from the left, and Traore calmly pushed the ball at the back point to help Aston Villa equalize the score!
But just two minutes later, Bruno helped Manchester United create a penalty opportunity. He dribbled into the penalty area and was knocked down by Douglas Luiz. The referee awarded a penalty. Bruno took the penalty himself and helped Manchester United surpass the score again.
At the end of the game, Manchester United defeated Aston Villa 2:1 at home.
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Liverpool challenged Southampton away this round. In the first half of the game, Ings received a pass from Prowse and turned to shoot, and Salah headed high in the penalty area. In the second half of the game, Wijnaldum's volley caused Stephens to handball in the penalty area, but the referee did not express it. At the end of the game, Liverpool lost 0:1 to Southampton away, and suffered three rounds of no wins. They are already 13 points behind Manchester United in the standings.
According to statistics, Liverpool has lost points in 8 of the 17 rounds this season, a total of 18 points. Last season, they only lost 15 points throughout the season. After 17 rounds last season, Liverpool's points were 49 points, a full 16 points more than now.
On the contrary, Manchester United has been performing very steadily in recent years. Since Bruno joined Manchester United, Manchester United has scored 48 points, 51 points, 45 points, 47 points and 46 points after 17 rounds in the past few seasons.
In a strong dialogue at Stamford Bridge, Manchester City defeated Chelsea 3:1, surpassing Chelsea with two fewer games and rising to seventh in the standings.
In the standings, in addition to Manchester United, which has formed a leading trend, the difference between Liverpool, which is second, and Manchester City, which is seventh, is only 5 points.
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Five days later, in the League Cup semi-finals, Manchester United played against Manchester City at home. The two sides fought hard in the first half and the score was 0:0, but at the beginning of the second half, Bruno assisted Rashford to score in just four minutes, opening the scoring for Manchester United. Then Mbappe assisted Harry Kane to score again in the 56th minute.
Manchester City scored a goal in the 88th minute.
In the end, Manchester United defeated Manchester City 2:1 and entered the League Cup final of this season.
One day before the Manchester City derby between Manchester United and Manchester City, Tottenham beat Brentford 2:0 at home.
In this way, Manchester United's opponent in the final is Tottenham.
According to the schedule, this League Cup final will be held on the afternoon of April 25, which is different from the previous League Cup finals in late February and early March.
The reason why the English Football Association arranged this is naturally to push the date of the final as far as possible, hoping that the epidemic will turn around, and the stadium can be fully open to the public at that time to obtain more economic benefits.
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As time approaches mid-January, the third round of the FA Cup will start one after another, and Premier League teams will begin to join the schedule.
Manchester United's opponent in the third round of the FA Cup is Watford, which was relegated to the Championship after the end of last season.
Mourinho continues to make major rotations in Manchester United's lineup.
In the 5th minute, Manchester United took the lead. Bruno took a corner kick, McTominay headed the ball and hit the post and bounced into the net. Manchester United got a dream start at home, leading Watford 1:0.
In the 43rd minute, Manchester United played a wonderful match. Greenwood passed the ball to Mata in front of the penalty area. The latter passed the ball to Bruno with his heel. The Manchester United captain easily pushed the ball and helped Manchester United expand the lead to 2 goals.
In the second minute of injury time in the second half, Manchester United won a free kick at the top of the penalty area. Bruno took the penalty and shot directly. 3:0, Manchester United locked the victory, Bruno scored twice.
In the end, Manchester United defeated Watford 3:0 at home, winning all four consecutive home games recently.
According to Opta statistics, Manchester United has played against lower-level teams in the FA Cup 48 times, and successfully advanced 47 times.
The last time Manchester United lost to a lower-level team in the FA Cup was in 2010, when they lost 0:1 to Leeds United at home. At that time, the White Roses were still in the English League One. But since then, Manchester United has advanced in all 17 FA Cup matches against lower-level teams.
In the subsequent FA Cup fourth round draw, Manchester United drew Liverpool, and the game time was on the afternoon of January 24.
This is the worst news for both Manchester United and Liverpool.
From the evening of January 12 to the afternoon of January 24, there will be three double-Red meetings. They are the Community Shield, the Premier League and the FA Cup.
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On the evening of January 12, the new Wembley Stadium ushered in the first of the recent three consecutive double-Red meetings.
This is the Community Shield game, which was originally held before the start of the season, but due to the schedule caused by the epidemic, the game was postponed to now.
Both sides fought fiercely on the field, and people were thrown to the ground frequently, but the game was more intense than exciting, and the players on the field could not find an effective way to break the opponent's goal.
From the first half to the second half, from the 50th minute to the 70th, 80th, and even the 89th minute, both sides were struggling to find a way to break the opponent's goal.
At the end of the game, Bruno was already very tired, but he still gritted his teeth.
After the fourth official on the sidelines played the sign for three minutes of extra time, everyone in the stadium, including all the audience in front of the TV, and even the game commentator basically believed that the draw would be the result of regular time and the game would enter overtime.
But at the critical moment, Bruno received the pass from Gundogan on the right and knocked it back to Cancelo.
The Portuguese right back passed the ball diagonally into the penalty area and accurately found Harry Kane.
The Manchester United center blocked the Liverpool center back with his body and gently pushed Cancelo's pass back.
Bruno, who was originally outside the penalty area, suddenly cut into the penalty area from the right rib. After receiving the pass from Harry Kane, he suddenly accelerated and cut across, shaking off Liverpool's defensive midfielder. He passed another Liverpool central defender near the penalty spot and shot with his left foot.
"Bruno passed two opposing players... and shot directly!"
"The ball went in!!!!"
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!"
"Bruno! At the critical moment! Bruno stepped up again and saved Manchester United!"
"1:0!"
After scoring the goal, Bruno rushed out of the stadium excitedly.
It feels so good to kill the enemy!
Manchester United's players also rushed to the sidelines frantically and hugged Bruno.
This sudden goal represents a victory, and also represents Manchester United's winning a championship trophy again, and also represents Manchester United's winning streak in the past period of time.
Since being tied by Leicester City on Boxing Day, Manchester United has won five consecutive games in various competitions in two weeks!
In the live TV close-up, Bruno laughed loudly and accepted the congratulations from the fans in the stands and his teammates.
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Due to the Community Shield, Manchester United's 18th round of the Premier League away game against Fulham was postponed to a week later.
Five days after winning the Community Shield, the recent Red Double Meeting ushered in the second battle, Manchester United visited Anfield to challenge Liverpool.
This is the 19th round of the Premier League. Normally, the half-time final battle should be held around Boxing Day, but it has now been postponed to mid-January.
After 90 minutes of fierce battle at Anfield, the two sides drew 0:0.
After the 19th round of the league, Manchester United still ranked first in the league, with 15 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss with one round less, and got 47 points.
Ranked second is Leicester City. The Blue Foxes have also played 18 games, with 11 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses and 35 points.
A correct version in 1619, 1 book, 1 bar!
Manchester City won 4:0 against Crystal Palace in this round. With 2 fewer games, they have achieved 10 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses. Unconsciously, they have risen to the third place in the standings with 34 points.
Liverpool has 9 wins, 7 draws and 2 losses. With the same 34 points, they are ranked fourth with a goal difference of 1.
Unconsciously, Manchester United's biggest rival for the championship has become a deadly enemy in the same city. Although the Blue Moon is 13 points behind Manchester United in the standings, they have played one less game than Manchester United. After the make-up game is completed, it is likely to be only 10 points behind Manchester United, and will be the closest team to Manchester United.
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On the evening of January 20, in the make-up game of the 18th round of the Premier League, Manchester United challenged Fulham away.
The recent continuous battles have caused Manchester United players to be generally very tired. Manchester United was relatively dull throughout the first half and could not get up. Bruno's performance on the field was one of the few highlights.
But in this case, the second half was completely broken.
Just two minutes into the game, Mbappe forced a breakthrough on the right and created a corner kick opportunity. Bruno took the corner kick from the right and assisted Van Dijk to score with a header.
Six minutes later, the situation was opened on the right again. Mbappe cooperated with Cancelo on the right. The Portuguese right-back made a cross from the bottom, and Bruno, who came in from behind, easily pushed the ball into the goal.
After leading by two goals, the game completely entered the rhythm of Manchester United.
Bruno frequently interspersed on the right, but also often suddenly switched to the left.
In the 65th minute, it was Bruno who suddenly ran to the left, received a pass from Rashford, dribbled inside, suddenly shot with his right foot, and hit a curved ball, breaking Fulham's goal again, 3:0.
This was Bruno's 182nd goal in the Premier League. He also tied Manchester City striker Aguero and ranked fourth in the Premier League's historical scorer list. The distance from the 187 goals of former Manchester United legendary striker Andy Cole in front of him is very close.
With Bruno's goal scoring efficiency, he is very likely to surpass Andy Cole in the next February and rise to the third place in the Premier League's historical scorer list.
However, Rooney, who is ahead of him, has scored 208 goals in the Premier League. It is unlikely that Bruno will catch up with Rooney this season.
Two minutes later, Cancelo received a pass from Bruno on the right and made a corner kick. Bruno assisted Harry Kane to score again with a header, changing the score to 4:0.
Just four minutes later, Manchester United attacked from the frontcourt again. Kante shot from the front of the penalty area and penetrated Fulham's goal.
In the end, Manchester United defeated Fulham 5:0 away.
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After the game, the news that Bruno ranked fourth in the Premier League's historical scorer list spread all over the world.
However, on this day, the focus of the world's attention was on another Portuguese.
In another game at the same time as Manchester United defeated Fulham 5:0 away, Juventus played against Naples in the Italian Super Cup, and Ronaldo scored a goal in the 64th minute.
This goal was the 760th goal of Ronaldo's career, who will celebrate his 36th birthday next month. He surpassed Bican and became the player with the most official goals in official matches in the history of football with official statistics.
So far, Ronaldo has played 1,040 games in his career and scored 760 goals, averaging 0.73 goals per game.
According to statistics, Ronaldo's goal distribution is:
Played 31 games for Sporting CP, scored 5 goals, averaging 0.16 goals per game.
Played 292 games for Manchester United, scored 118 goals, averaging 0.40 goals per game.
Played 438 games for Real Madrid, scored 450 goals, averaging 1.03 goals per game, and is also the top scorer in the history of the Galaxy Battleship.
After joining Juventus in the summer of 2018, the captain of the Portuguese national team has played 109 games for the Old Lady in various competitions, scoring 85 goals, averaging 0.78 goals per game.
In the Portuguese national team, in addition to scoring 102 goals in 170 games, averaging 0.60 goals per game, he is also the top scorer in the history of the Portuguese national team.
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760 goals, a total of 32 championship trophies for Ronaldo. Among them, the national team's 4 championships are the 2016 European Cup, the 2017 Confederations Cup, the 2018 World Cup, and the 2019 European Nations League.
In the club, Ronaldo has won a total of 28 championships, including 1 Portuguese Super Cup at Sporting CP and 10 championships at Manchester United, including 3 Premier Leagues, 1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup, 1 FA Cup, 2 League Cups and 2 Community Shields.
The 9 years at Real Madrid were Ronaldo's most glorious period. He won a total of 13 championships, including 2 La Liga, 3 Champions League, 3 Club World Cup, 1 European Super Cup, 2 King's Cup and 2 Spanish Super Cup.
After transferring to Juventus at the age of 33, Ronaldo continued his glory and has won 2 Serie A and 2 Italian Super Cups for Juventus.
Manchester United also sent blessings to Ronaldo on the club's official website: Yes, you read that right. Our former No. 7 Ronaldo has now scored more goals than anyone else in football, breaking the historical record that had been sealed for 66 years.