Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Chapter 332 Ferguson's hands were shaking and Manchester United was stunned!

Not long into the second half, Scholes was sent off with a red card.

This meant that Manchester United had to play with 10 men for most of the next half hour.

Ferguson didn't bother to blame his disciples, but quickly adjusted the team's tactics and player positions.

He pulled Solskjaer back into midfield to fill the void left in the middle after Scholes was sent off.

After this adjustment, Rooney was the only one left standing alone in the front line.

Rooney lacks support from his teammates in front of the goal, making him more vulnerable to double-teaming and strangulation by opponents.

In addition, Rooney is a bit short, and it is difficult for him to get the ball into the goal when his teammates pass it from both sides, which reduces Manchester United's offensive threat from the sides.

For this reason, Rooney was forced to leave the penalty area and retreat to the central midfielder position, hoping to cooperate more with his teammates.

Rooney has good footwork and has certain organizational, supporting and passing abilities.

In the 57th minute, Rooney saw an open space and passed the ball to the side after getting the ball at the top of the penalty area. Solskjaer suddenly received the ball and broke into the penalty area, but his shot from 13 meters away from the goal on the right side of the penalty area hit the defender.

This attack once again gave the Manchester United fans at the scene a glimmer of hope, although Scholes was sent off.

But they still have Rooney and Ronaldo. As long as they can continue to launch threatening attacks like just now, they may not lose this game!

However, would Inter Milan give them such an opportunity?
After Scholes was sent off, Lin Feng began to control the tempo of the game.

After getting the ball, he was not in a hurry to launch an attack. Instead, he controlled the tempo of the game and used the width of the field to maneuver and pull the opponent's formation and position back and forth.

The opponent has fewer people than our side, so the most advantageous way for Inter Milan is to make full use of the advantage in numbers to control the situation, take the initiative of the game into their own hands, and not give the opponent a chance to counterattack.

Barcelona in the Dream Team III was best at using this method to slowly strangle its opponents, so in that year, almost all teams had an extremely difficult time playing against Barcelona, ​​and they felt suffocated!
However, before passing and controlling football became popular, many people could not understand the significance of this tactic.

On the contrary, when they saw that Inter Milan had the upper hand but did not actively launch an attack, the fans felt that Inter Milan played too passively!

However, CCTV commentator Zhang Lu was enlightened after seeing Inter Milan's style of play.

"Lin Feng and his teammates played very smartly. Although it seemed that Inter Milan did not launch an attack on the opponent during this period, under their back-and-forth passing and dispatching, Manchester United's defensive players kept chasing people and the ball, which consumed a lot of physical energy.

If this situation continues for another ten minutes, the Manchester United defense, whose physical strength has been seriously reduced, may not be able to run anymore! "

"More importantly, Manchester United's players had no chance to touch the ball in the last few minutes. Even if they had good offensive players like Ronaldo and Rooney, they would not be able to use them at all!"

Ferguson also noticed something was wrong. Although the opponent had not made any shots in the past few minutes, their offensive force had already advanced to the vicinity of Manchester United's penalty area.

And unknowingly, Inter Milan's offensive configuration has been completed under the previous deployment. A large number of players involved in the offense have come to the frontcourt and can launch a general attack at any time!

In the 62nd minute, seeing that the time was ripe, Lin Feng suddenly sped up in the midfield, quickly passed the ball to Zanetti on the wing, and then moved forward along the ribs.

Zanetti immediately passed the ball back to Lin Feng, and the two made a two-pass combination.

Facing Zanetti's pass, Lin Feng did not stop the ball, but pushed it to Figo in front of him, and once again passed the Manchester United player who was trying to steal the ball with a two-on-one pass.

In an instant, the situation on the field changed suddenly. Inter Milan's players on the left, center and right were all moving forward, and Manchester United's defensive formation in front of the penalty area was completely disrupted.

After Figo got the ball, Manchester United left-back Heinze rushed out immediately. Seeing this, the Portuguese swung his body to the left, tricking the opponent into shifting his center of gravity, and then immediately dribbled the ball to the right and passed the opponent.

Seeing Figo pass his teammate, Ferdinand did not dare to be careless and immediately stepped forward to defend.

But when he moved like this, a space appeared in the middle of the penalty area.

After completing the pass, Lin Feng did not stop, but moved forward resolutely and rushed into the penalty area.

Figo didn't think much about it and made a reverse triangle pass, returning the ball to Lin Feng.

Manchester United's other central defender Brown had already noticed Lin Feng rushing towards the penalty area when Ferdinand went to make up for the defense.

Seeing Figo pass the ball to Lin Feng, he rushed towards Lin Feng immediately, hoping to stop the opponent and prevent him from shooting.

However, Lin Feng seemed to have predicted the opponent's actions long ago. The moment Brown rushed up, Lin Feng passed the ball diagonally to the left side of the penalty area.

Crespo, who had a good sense of scoring, rushed over and shot the ball into Manchester United's goal again before Van der Sar could block it.

The score became 1:2!

Manchester United fell behind again!
"Goal!!"

"Incredible goal! Absolutely unbelievable!"

"Inter Milan scored a textbook goal!"

"The Theatre of Dreams has completely fallen, and Manchester United has been pushed to the edge of the cliff!"

"This ball only exists in heaven, and it is rarely seen in the world!"

In the commentary booths of major TV stations, the commentators were all extremely shocked and amazed by Inter Milan's goal just now.

Even though they have watched football for many years, such exciting goals are rare.

So no matter what praise words are used, they are not enough to describe the greatness of this ball!
There was deathly silence at Old Trafford, if the first goal conceded shocked or even angered Manchester United fans.

The second goal made them feel confused and even desperate!

Even from the perspective of the opponents, they had to admit that Inter Milan's goal was truly beautiful.

Inter Milan used Lin Feng as the axis, connecting multiple players along the way, completing many dazzling passes and combinations in succession, and finally passed the ball into Manchester United's goal.

This offensive method made them feel deeply powerless. They wanted to defend but didn't know where to start.

Ferguson couldn't sit still anymore. He subconsciously quickened his gum chewing movements and his hands in his trouser pockets couldn't help but tremble slightly.

He started thinking quickly about how to respond next.

We are outnumbered and outscore our opponents, and now we are probably lagging behind in morale as well.

This game was already very difficult for Manchester United. The hope of defeating the opponent at home became very slim, so they should think about how to win.

It would be better to be more practical and think more about how Manchester United can defend well in this situation and prevent the opponent from scoring more goals.

After all, the knockout rounds of the Champions League are a two-round system. Although the second leg is played away, as long as the team does not lose too much in the first leg, there is still hope of a reversal in the second leg.

But if we are defeated by our opponent by a large margin in the first round, we will probably be unable to turn the tide in the next round.

After thinking about it, he made the decision to make a substitution, replacing Solskjaer with Fletcher.

The substitution was made at the expense of cutting down on offense in order to strengthen defense. However, Ferguson's substitution caused dissatisfaction and even criticism from many Manchester United fans, who believed that he was too conservative.

This is Manchester United's home ground. Although they are at a disadvantage in terms of numbers and behind in the score, how can Manchester United give up easily?
As the saying goes, no reversal, no Red Devils!

Isn’t Manchester United best at fighting against this kind of adversity?

That's true, but we also have to look at who our opponent is.

If it were a La Liga or Bundesliga team, maybe I could give it a try.

But the opponent is the Serie A team that attaches the most importance to defense. For the Serie A teams that believe in the 1:0 principle, once they are ahead, they will never give up their advantage easily.

It is extremely difficult to equalize the score after falling behind!

In addition, Inter Milan's current style of play focuses on control, making Manchester United's reversal even more difficult.

So it’s not that Ferguson doesn’t want to be passionate or doesn’t want to make a comeback, it’s just that he really can’t do anything!
Even though he replaced Fletcher to strengthen the defense, it was still difficult to resist Inter Milan's overwhelming attack.

Crespo's goal just now greatly boosted Inter Milan's morale. Taking the lead again on the road also gave them hope of ending the suspense of the game in the first leg.

So after the game resumed, Inter Milan's attack was more ferocious than before.

In the 71st minute, Cruz passed the ball back to Lin Feng at the top of the penalty area. Lin Feng shot the ball with the outside of his right foot from 20 meters away from the goal.

The ball drew a beautiful arc in the air and went straight to the goal.

At the critical moment, Van der Sar stepped forward again and dived to the side to block the ball.

Just one minute later, Inter Milan's attack once again reached Manchester United's penalty area.

Lin Feng's first through pass was blocked by Fletcher, but he actively counterattacked and got the ball back.

After dribbling past Carrick, Lin Feng made a wall pass with Cruz who was pulling out of the penalty area, and with the help of the opponent's cover, he dribbled the ball into the penalty area.

Manchester United players' alarm bells rang, and Ferdinand immediately abandoned Crespo and went straight to Lin Feng.

Lin Feng was waiting for this moment. When Ferdinand pounced on him, he made a lob pass and sent the ball into the penalty area over Ferdinand's head.

Crespo got into position, swung his thigh and volleyed the ball directly into the penalty area.

With a bang, the ball flew towards the goal.

Unfortunately, the ball was hit too straight and flew directly into Van der Sar's arms, failing to pose a threat.

Van der Sar rushed out of the small penalty area with the ball, looking for his teammates in the frontcourt, trying to launch a quick counterattack with a hand throw.

But Inter Milan was prepared for this, and his ball was intercepted by Inter Milan players halfway before it reached Ronaldo's feet.

The Manchester United players, who had just accelerated and were about to launch a counterattack, saw this and hurriedly turned back, trying to return to their defensive positions.

But the ball is always faster than people. Before they could get into position, Lin Feng's pass had already reached Crespo's feet in the penalty area.

There were exclamations at the scene, and many Manchester United fans even closed their eyes in despair, not daring to watch what happened next.

However, just after Crespo received the ball, he fell in the penalty area after physical contact with Manchester United right-back Heinze.

Fans of both teams were in an uproar, with Manchester United fans angrily accusing the other side of diving to get a penalty.

Inter Milan fans celebrated with champagne while accusing the Manchester United defender of committing a foul in the penalty area.

Just when everyone thought the referee would award a penalty, the German took out a yellow card and warned Crespo who was lying on the ground.

what?
Are all Crespo people stupid?

Why do I get a card when the opponent commits a foul?

The commentators from major TV stations were also a little confused:
"Is this, thinking Crespo dives?"

When the referee took out the yellow card just now, they thought it was for Heinze.

I never expected that this card was actually given to Crespo!
The Inter Milan players on the field were also in an uproar. After they realized what was happening, they stepped forward and tried to argue with the referee.

Mancini was so angry that he laughed and ran to the fourth official again to protest to him.

This ball was obviously a foul by the opponent. Crespo could have shot directly from that position. There was no need to dive!

But the referee was unwilling to change his decision. In order to maintain his authority, he dispersed Inter Milan's players and ran to the sidelines to show a yellow card to Mancini, who was still chattering to the fourth official.

Mancini was already very angry, and became even angrier after seeing the yellow card.

Just as he was about to applaud the referee and ridicule the opponent, Inter Milan's coaching staff rushed up and pulled him away.

There is no point in arguing with the referee, it will only make things worse.

If Mancini was sent to the stands, the outcome of the game would have changed.

This yellow card had a huge impact on the game. In addition to ruining Inter Milan's great scoring opportunity, it also prevented Crespo from participating in the second leg.

Crespo had already received two yellow cards before this, and after receiving this yellow card, it has accumulated to three and he will be suspended for the next game.

Judging from Crespo's performance in this game, he is still very important to Inter Milan's forward line.

His suspension will more or less weaken Inter Milan's offensive capabilities.

After continuous high-intensity offense and defense, coupled with Inter Milan's constant pulling and mobilization, the physical strength of Manchester United players generally began to decline after entering the 70th minute, and some players were even so tired that they began to cramp.

In such a strong dialogue, the impact of having one less person is still too great.

This forces the remaining players to run more to make up for the numerical disadvantage, otherwise there is a high probability that some players will be missed.

To help teammates catch their breath and give them more recovery time.

Van der Sar deliberately delayed the time when taking the opening kick and was given a yellow card by the referee.

Unable to delay any further, Van der Sar could only kick the ball out with a long kick. It was not that he did not want to pass the ball on the ground, but the risk was too great. He was afraid that the opponent would press high and intercept the ball and launch a counterattack on the spot.

But due to the lack of players in the frontcourt, Van der Sar's long kick unsurprisingly fell into the feet of Inter Milan players.

Cambiasso made a long pass and in the blink of an eye, he sent the ball back to his teammate in the frontcourt.

Figo passed the ball to Lin Feng again, and Lin Feng rushed inside with the ball, not giving Manchester United any time to breathe.

(End of this chapter)