It was Stoke City who kicked off first.

Stoke City held the mighty Manchester United in the highest esteem, with their two strikers not even stepping forward after passing the ball in the centre circle, staying in the centre circle to take on their midfield.

After a few passes in Stoke City's midfield, the ball was kicked into United's half, and the ball was simply handed over to Manchester United.

Ferguson was very speechless, he had long known that Stoke City would give up the ball to Manchester United, play defensive counterattacks by himself, and even defend counterattacks, but he didn't expect Pulis to play so thoroughly, and he didn't even feint after the opening.

The on-site commentator He Hui joked: "It seems that Stoke City doesn't want to give Manchester United any space at all, and Manchester United wants to win and has to look at its ability to break the bus." ”

Against Stoke City's tactics, Manchester United were well prepared in advance, and after getting the ball, Manchester United immediately passed the ball to Nani and attacked from the wing.

Attacking from the flanks, opening up space and breaking down the middle is a regular tactic to break down dense defences.

Clearly, Stoke City were more prepared and after Nani got the ball, full-back Pennant quickly dropped back and joined full-back Wilkins to finch Nani.

With no space and two more defenders, Nani didn't dare to rush forward, he controlled the ball and waited for his full-back Patrice Evra to come up and pull away the opposition.

Patrice Evra saw the conservatism of his opponent and the assist came up quickly, and he cut forward quickly to attract Pennant's follow-up and concede Wilkins to Nani.

Wilkins wasn't a great defender, and Nani was confident in his face, flicking the ball, shaking his upper body, and then dunking again, trying to shake Wilkins' center of gravity and rush towards the penalty area.

However, Wilkins didn't care about him at all, and went straight to the shot, pulling Nani to the ground with a jerk.

The referee immediately blew the whistle and pointed to the place where the foul was committed and awarded a free-kick to Manchester United.

Free-kicks were also a great way to break down a dense defence, with Paul Scholes taking the corner and United players who could grab the spot went up.

Stoke City made up their minds to defend and defended set-pieces well, with Scholes curling in and the ball headed over by Stoke City centre-back Hout.

The second drop was still under United's control, with Rafael passing the ball to Valencia, who lobed it into the box.

There were a lot of players in the Stoke City penalty area, but the landing point was grabbed by Hut and headed out.

This time the clearance was less urgent, and Hutter headed the ball towards his own frontcourt Jones.

Jones grabbed a header in a scramble with Gao Xiaodong, but he couldn't find a passing point around him, so he went straight to the sideline.

It was a waste of time, but it started from the first minute, and it caused displeasure among United fans.

"Shrink the turtle, shrink it, Nima is still a waste of time!"

"Is this going straight for 0:0?"

"This is the finals! Live broadcast around the world, it's too embarrassing to play like this. ”

"What's the shame, as long as Stoke City can win the championship, they are the heroes of the city.

……

The United players are not in a hurry, the game has just begun, and the United players believe they have a chance.

The throw-in was delivered and United continued to attack from the wings.

This time it was on Valencia's side.

Valencia's wide breakaway doesn't have as many tricks as Nani, and no matter how many opponents have on the flank, he takes the ball to the bottom line and eats it with speed.

This move is simple and straightforward, except for fouls, there is no way to defend no matter how many defenders there are, but Stoke City leaves very little space for Valencia, and when Valencia overtakes and catches up with the ball, the ball is also out of the bottom line.

Stoke City took the ball and the player still didn't press forward, just symbolically pushed the two strikers over the centre circle, and then waited for United to get the ball and continue to attack.

Manchester United is a team that focuses on impact play, Stoke City sticks to the penalty area, and doesn't even want the opportunity to attack, just to defend to the end, Manchester United has no space, and can't rush up if you want to.

Manchester United also had no choice but to patiently intersperse with the middle and the wings to find the flaws in Stoke City.

Stoke City have the title of Sky City in the Premier League, which means that their players are tall and have excellent counter-attacks and air defenses, but this also creates a weakness for them to turn too slowly.

However, the manager of Stoke City is also very aware of this, so he has adopted a tiger out of the hole, using the advantage of numbers to make up for the weakness of the players who are not quick to turn.

In the 8th minute, Manchester United continued to pass the ball, but was never able to penetrate the two defenses of Stoke City, the ball returned to Gao Xiaodong's feet again, Gao Xiaodong did not want to go back and forth, he took two steps laterally and hit the goal directly.

For Gao Xiaodong's shot, Stoke City goalkeeper Sorensen was prepared, and he flew with both fists to hit the ball out.

The ball fell to Scholes, who found Rooney with a long pass in the confusion, but Rooney could not get the ball in his hands and was knocked in the back, almost falling and losing the ball.

Stoke City's defender made a pass to his striker, which was actually more like a clearance, but it was accurately passed to the feet of striker Jones, who also took the ball and gave it to Etherington, the core of the midfield.

Seeing that his own frontcourt controlled the ball, or the core Etherington held the ball, Stoke City finally attacked.

Stoke City play in the traditional English style, with fast breakaways on the wings, long 45-degree diagonal balls, and high bombing, with the double strikers Jones and Karui at the front, who are tasked with waiting in the box for crosses from the wings to fight for headers. When the team is on the defensive, they retreat to midfield to meet other team-mates or defend high balls in their own penalty area, and when counter-attacking, they participate in dribbling to the edge of midfield.

The two central midfielders are mainly responsible for defending in the middle, and when attacking, they only make simple passes, mainly diagonally passing two wings to the two wing-backs, or occasionally when the opponent's defense is pressed high, and then the two strikers are directly plugged in. The two ball-possession cores are the two wing-backs Etherington and Pennant, whose task is to use their individual skills to keep the ball at their feet, then get the ball high into the box to fight for their teammates, and when defending, retreat to their own midfield closer to the middle and the two central midfielders compress the space in the middle. The two full-backs basically didn't assist today, so they stayed behind to defend.

After Etherington possessed the ball in front, two midfielders went up and left one back line at the back.

Ethelington's attack was simple, he moved quickly down the flank, forced Valencia to retreat, and then fired a 45-degree cross to find the striker.

United's two centre-backs, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, were also not vegetarians, with Nemanja Vidic heading the ball out of the box before his opponents did.

Gao Xiaodong grabbed the second landing point, stopped the ball on his chest, and directly half-turned and hit the side to find Valencia.

It was a god-view pass that won the hearts of the Manchester United fans throughout the stadium.

Valencia finally found space to break through, using his speed to cut through Wilson's defence and send the ball into the box with a single shot from the baseline.

Valencia burst well, but the pass was terrible, and the ball was confiscated by Sorensen.

Stoke City attacked once, leaving a backline at the back, only to be beaten on the counter-attack.

After this time, Stoke City was honest, so they shrank in the backfield to defend, giving the opportunity to attack with up to four people, and insisted on defending 0:0.