Football King Bale

Chapter 562: Qualifying 1st in 2 rounds ahead of schedule

Braga is a small city in northern Portugal with an urban population of only 60,000. If you were in the East, this would be the size of a slightly larger town, but in Portugal, it is the seventh largest city in the country. It was even the third largest city in Portugal in the 1980s.

Braga is located inland, just an hour's drive from Porto, Portugal's second largest city. It is also the residence of the Portuguese Archbishop and a famous pilgrimage site. There is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary nearby. The library contains precious ancient books. There is a cathedral built in the twelfth century on a hill 5 kilometers southeast of the city.

At the beginning of November, the entire Manchester United team came to this small Portuguese city to play a Champions League match against Braga Sporting.

Manchester United, which has won the first three rounds, can get a place in the top 16 of the Champions League in advance as long as it remains undefeated in this campaign, and may even have a chance to lock in the top spot in the group. Prior to this, Manchester United had only lost 4 times in 24 meetings with Portuguese clubs, and had 6 wins and 3 draws against Portuguese clubs in the past 9 times and was undefeated. However, Braga has won all 4 home games against English clubs and lost zero. Conceded.

In this game, Braga made only one adjustment compared to when they faced Manchester United two weeks ago. Doug Long came in to replace Vinicius and Coelho at the central defender position; while Manchester United welcomed Smarin after recovering from a metatarsal injury. In the first match of the season, Ferguson made 6 adjustments compared to last weekend's game against Arsenal. Bell, Robin van Persie and Ferdinand, who celebrates his 34th birthday today, all sat on the bench at the start, and Valencia was arranged to make a cameo appearance. Right back position.

It rained heavily before the game, but the rain gradually subsided during the game.

In the storm in Portugal, Manchester United had a bad start, but the home team Braga played very proactively. In the 6th minute, Evans missed the ball, and Edel passed and shot from a small angle on the right side of the penalty area, and the result went directly to the far sideline. 2 minutes later, Mikael's long-range shot from the outside was blocked by Giggs midway.

When the game reached the 22nd minute, Manchester United almost lost their city. Edel received a pass from Mikael's left rib and dived into the penalty area. The ball hit the left post and popped out.

Manchester United, which escaped the disaster, improved somewhat, but it was only evenly matched with Braga. Neither side could score in the first half.

………………

The game started in the rain in the second half.

In the 48th minute, Custodio was blocked by Evans when he received a pass from Alan and fell into the penalty area. German referee Blake blew the whistle and awarded a penalty kick. Alan shot the upper left corner of the goal to help Braga. The team leads 1:0.

Braga, who was the first to score, became more and more excited as he played, while the visiting team Manchester United seemed out of shape. Ferguson looked very serious on the sidelines. The old man was obviously dissatisfied with Manchester United's performance on the field.

When the game was approaching 57 minutes, the on-site lighting system failed and the game had to be stopped. It was restarted after an 11-minute pause.

When the game resumed, Ferguson immediately made three personnel adjustments. Ferdinand replaced Evans, Van Persie replaced Welbeck, and Bale replaced Giggs.

After Bell came on the field, he did not appear at the striker, but in the midfield, partnering with Modric and Kanter, but his position was relatively advanced, equivalent to a midfielder.

At the beginning of last season, Bell played as an attacking midfielder several times, but this is the first time this season because Manchester United has Sneijder and Pogba.

Because the score was leading, the Braga players seemed very excited.

He also played a bit rough on the court.

Not long after Bell came on the scene, he was kicked from behind by Braga striker Eder. Although the referee gave Edel a yellow card, Edel's foul still made the Manchester United players very angry. Ferguson on the sidelines even protested to the fourth official. But it had no effect. The Braga players were still very excited on the court, and the referee's whistle was also soft, which to a certain extent indulged the behavior of the Braga players.

………………

Under the constant fouls committed by Braga players, the game became fragmented and it was difficult for Manchester United to play smoothly.

Obviously, Braga was specifically targeting this foul tactic adopted by Manchester United. After all, there is a big gap between their strength and Manchester United. If they play normally, they will definitely not be Manchester United's opponent.

Especially since Manchester United has now used up three substitutions. If they can make a Manchester United player seriously injured and unable to continue the game, they can gain a numerical advantage and hope to win the game.

However, the Braga people's wishful thinking failed.

In the 80th minute, Braga fouled Bell again in the midfield. Some Manchester United players planned to go to Braga players to settle the score, but Bell took action first. After he got up, he put the ball on the ground and kicked it to the left side of the frontcourt.

Quick free kick!

Van Persie received a pass from Bell on the left side of the front court. Facing the attacking goalkeeper Beto, General Van Persie pushed a shot with his left foot from 28 meters away from the left rib. Although Beto touched the ball with his hand, the ball still flew into the net. Manchester United Tied the score 1:1.

………………

Braga did not change their tactics because of this conceded goal, and their players continued to foul Manchester United players. However, they were soon punished again.

In the 83rd minute, Rooney was tackled in the penalty area by Coelho. Referee Blake did not give a penalty at the first moment, but then Blake whistled for a penalty kick after being prompted by the assistant referee.

As Manchester United's first penalty kicker, Bell once again stood before the penalty kick and deceived Beto into scoring the ball. Manchester United reversed the lead 2:1.

After being reversed by Manchester United with two goals in a row, Braga was obviously unwilling to accept it. They subsequently made continuous substitutions and adjustments to strengthen their offensive power. If they can get a point at home, there is still hope of qualifying. Because their results in the first three rounds were 1 win, 2 losses and 3 points, only 1 point behind Cluj, who was ranked second.

However, Braga, who had made continuous substitutions, did not score the goal they imagined. Instead, in the second minute of injury time, Manchester United scored another goal to seal the victory.

Valencia made a pass from the right, and Rooney blocked it with his heel in the middle. Hernandez took the ball from the far end and passed Beto and then shot was blocked by Doug Long on the goal line, but Hernandez was in the small penalty area. Another shot with his left foot sent the ball into the net.

In the end, Manchester United came back and defeated Braga 3:1 away from home, qualifying ahead of schedule with four consecutive wins.

At the same time, due to another match in the same group, Galatasaray defeated Cluj 3:1 away from home. As a result, Cluj and Galatasaray both have 1 win, 1 draw, 2 losses and a total of 4 points. points, while Braga has 3 points with 1 win and 3 losses. Manchester United has already secured first place in the group in advance.

………………

With the end of Manchester United's Champions League group stage, the fourth round of this season's Champions League group stage has ended. Manchester United, Malaga and Porto advanced to the knockout rounds first.

Entering the second half of the group stage, the competition suddenly became intense. Not only did 16 games yield a gorgeous 58 goals (second in Champions League history), but many fierce battles were also thrilling. Real Madrid, Manchester United, Chelsea and many other giants They have all experienced life and death, which naturally makes fans excited.

There are many revenge battles in this round of the Champions League. Real Madrid faces Dortmund, who defeated them in the last round. Valencia also wants to avenge being killed by Shakhtar Donetsk. Manchester City is even more desperate after being bloodbathed by Ajax. Full of resentment. This kind of duel is naturally against each other, and the progress of the game is indeed thrilling.

The championship battle between Real Madrid and Dortmund was as brutal as the previous match between Real Madrid and Manchester City. Although Real Madrid played at home and aimed for revenge, Dortmund took the lead twice. If Schmelzer's shot was not blocked by the post, Real Madrid almost lost again at home. Swallow a defeat. Even so, it was thanks to Goldfish Eye's free kick in the 89th minute that the Galaxy Battleship saved a draw at the last moment.

Valencia succeeded in revenge against Shakhtar Donetsk, but their victory was equally thrilling. The Bats took the lead twice, but William equalized the score twice for the Miners. It wasn't until the 4th minute of stoppage time that Valencia scored the winning goal, incredibly handing the opponent their first defeat of the new season.

Manchester United staged a miraculous reversal in the last round and was also in dire straits this round. Even with the "help" of the goalpost, Braga took the lead, and the Red Devils did not equalize the score until the 80th minute.

Incredibly, the Red Devils actually won three games in a row in the last 10 minutes or so of the game. The score covered up Manchester United's embarrassment to a certain extent.

As for Manchester City, after losing to Ajax in the last round, they were beaten twice by their opponents in less than 20 minutes this round. Although in the end, Blue Moon tenaciously equalized the score and extended their unbeaten record at home in Europe to 20 games. , but it is still difficult to change the bad luck of being on the verge of elimination in the group stage.

Arsenal and AC Milan lost to Schalke 04 and Malaga respectively in the last round. They were holding back their energy to avenge their shame in this round, but unfortunately they failed to do so. Arsenal was equalized by Schalke 04 with a 2-goal lead - interestingly, this was the second time the Gunners had a two-goal lead in the Champions League but failed to win, and the last time their opponent was also a German team: Bayern Munich . AC Milan even fell behind for a time, and finally relied on Pato's first Champions League home goal to maintain a home draw.

Barcelona unexpectedly became the only losing team among the wealthy teams!

Scored 58 goals in a single round of the group stage, ranking second in the history of the Champions League. On November 7, European time, he scored 35 goals in 8 games, just shy of breaking the Champions League single-day scoring record.

Such a round of group matches is undoubtedly a festival for the shooters. Pizarro and Galatasaray star Yilmaz both scored hat tricks. Pizarro became the non-European player with the most goals in the Champions League besides Messi, while Benfica's Paraguayan star Cardoso missed a penalty. Penalties can also be capped. Although Ibrahimovic did not score, he sent an incredible four assists.

In addition, popular shooters such as Bale, Messi, Aguero, Robin van Persie, Robben, Theo Walcott, and De Jong have all scored, and the fans are naturally elated.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . The fastest website to update the mobile version:

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like