On the last weekend of February 2019, the most important competition in European football will be the Carabao Cup final at Wembley Stadium, where Manchester United and Manchester City will face off for the first title of the year.

For both teams, this match means a lot.

For Manchester City, this is the beginning of Pep Guardiola's and his disciples' fight for the quadruple.

For Manchester United, it was the last Grand Slam title in two seasons to complete all major tournaments.

In the past five years, Manchester City have won the Carabao Cup three times, and Manchester United have also had one chance to reach the top.

Both teams are no strangers to the Carabao Cup, but in terms of team form at this stage, Manchester City's schedule is more favourable, while Manchester United have Dai Zhiwei, who is bursting at the sight of Manchester City's form.

A week ago, Manchester City had just beaten Chelsea 6-0 in the league, which gave Blue Moon fans a huge amount of confidence. For Manchester City, there is no reason to lose the Carabao Cup, the least difficult of which they are in the race for the title on four fronts this season. If you can win the League Cup, it will also be a huge boost to the team's morale and of great significance to the team's subsequent third-line operations.

Equally, Manchester United will not sit idly by, and like Manchester City, the Red Devils continue to hold on to their hopes of a quadruple title.

Because Dai Zhiwei did not play in the midweek "Double Red Club", the outside world is extremely looking forward to Manchester United's starting lineup for this game, and Mourinho also showed his "bright card" early.

Manchester United starting line-up: Romero, Valencia, Maguire, Bailly, Luke Shaw, Kroos, McTomin, Suso, Mesut Ozil, Anthony Martial, Dai Zhiwei

Manchester City starting line-up: Ederson Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko, Silva, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling

"Are you nervous?"

"Yes." McTominay looked at his shoes and untied them and tightened them again, giving a calm answer, after all, it was a rare start for Manchester United, and it was still a Carabao Cup final, and the opponent was still a rival in the same city.

Dai Zhiwei put his arm around McTominay's shoulder and said to him in a loud voice: "Listen, this time it's Manchester City, and this is just the beginning." In the future, you will represent the team in the Champions League final or even go to the World Cup, today is just the beginning, understand? ”

McTominay took a deep breath as he heard these words, then closed his eyes, as if imagining him wearing England's white jersey against the world's top national teams.

It was a chilling sight.

"Wait, I'm supposed to be wearing a Scottish national team shirt?"

Players from both sides began to enter the field, while little ball boys wearing the jerseys of both teams stood in front of them. The players of the two teams began to shake hands, but they did not feel even the slightest bit of friendly atmosphere, and the fighting spirit seemed to have been ignited from this moment.

The referee blew the whistle for the start of the game, and the two teams immediately started a silent battle on the court.

As soon as the game began, a strong confrontation ensued.

Manchester City kicked off first, and the midfielders of the Blue Moon did not start to attack directly after receiving the ball, but passed the ball to the players at the back of the pitch, and while setting up the team, they also passed the power from the back to the front.

In this regard, Mourinho's Manchester United did not go directly into the position of the opponent's penalty area to scramble, but was closer to the midfield, judging the direction of the opponent's ball and possibly intercepting the position.

In the very short period of time, United's formation has been fully laid out, with midfielders and wide players standing at the back, seemingly waiting for the attacking group of the Blue Moon to rush in front of them.

Anthony Martial, however, doesn't seem to be planning to let the game start with City's initiative.

Yes, he saw that there were only three opposing players in front of the goal at this time, and the gap between the three was huge, so he rushed directly towards the opposing player at this time.

Dai Zhiwei saw Anthony's movements, and quickly rushed in the direction of another road.

Sure enough, the City defender quickly played the ball down the left flank after seeing Anthony Martial rushing towards him.

And McTominay, who was particularly excited in this game, dodged and shook off the Manchester City players who were guarding him, and then rushed towards the football with all his strength.

It was a sudden change that allowed United to steal the ball in the opening half-minute, but just as McTominay was about to carry the ball all the way to the forward from the wing, he found that the City players had already returned quickly with all but two strikers.

In front of him at this moment were the three Blue Moon players who were pressed by the black press, which successfully made McTominay, who was holding the ball at the moment, stare at him under great pressure and swallow his saliva in the eyes of tens of thousands of people.

I don't know what broke the balance, it seemed to be a subtle move by McTominay, and it seemed to be a sudden activation by the Manchester City defensive team.

But one thing is certain, and that is that City's backline could never just wait for the opposition players to rush towards their box with the ball and remain indifferent, and the close-range collision allowed McTominay to be ruthlessly crushed by the opposition almost before he could pass the ball.

Walker, who has been in the Premier League's No. 1 right-back this season, didn't even need to make a tackle before he could even use the tackle to accelerate and kick the ball away from McTominay's feet and kick it towards their attacking line.

Mourinho sat on the bench, elbows on his knees, silently watching the scramble on the pitch, the Carabao Cup trophy was not indispensable for him, he was more interested in the Premier League and the Champions League, and McTominay, whom he was focusing on, clearly did not please him in this round.

The pitch was full of people on their backs, and the battle for possession was always there.

In the contest, all the members of the United team fought very hard, sometimes even taking a step forward for a one-hit pass, causing themselves to fall to the ground with a heavy blow after the ball was passed, but they didn't care about it at all.

But even that spelling can't take them out of the rhythm created by Manchester City.

The power that Manchester City have created, and the sense of oppression they have created, is slowly closing in on them.

Pep Guardiola's team is truly terrifying!

After a thrilling hold on to six shots, United's backline was unable to hold on to City's seventh impact.

Walker broke through on the right and crossed into the penalty area, Sterling took the ball with his back and turned and volleyed, the ball passed between Bailly's legs and into the bottom right corner, Romero didn't see the ball clearly at all, 0:1.

"Careless."

Dai Zhiwei intervened and stood near the middle circle, with no expression on his face, "It's more comfortable to lie down and win." ”

"Anton, it looks like we're going to exert our strength!"

Caught off guard, Dai Zhiwei said this to Anthony Martial, who was standing beside him and preparing to kick off.

Martial, who got this signal, smiled and nodded to Dai Zhiwei. His movements are not big, but they contain a kind of determination, a determination to try to change something in this game, and create something.

"Manchester United are clearly going to step up their attack, and the combination of Dai Zhiwei and Anthony Martial will put Manchester City to the test like never before!" Sky Sports commentators are clearly expecting a more intense confrontation.

After the restart, United took the lead, but in midfield the ball was snatched back by Fernandinho in a move that bordered on a foul.

No matter how strong Dai Zhiwei is, the midfield is weak, and it is useless to get the football.

Seeing that Aguero was still fighting with Bailly and had no chance, Fernandinho knocked directly and handed the ball to Silva first, ready to attack on the side.

However, at this time, Manchester United's back line is obviously not in the same state as when they conceded the goal just now, and after Mourinho's reprimand, the concentration of the Red Devils defenders has strengthened a lot.

After Silva got the ball, he made a few feints to pass Luke Shaw directly, but unfortunately Luke Shaw didn't eat it.

Luke Shaw saw Silva dial the ball again, and his body had already made a prejudgment, and he stepped forward and kicked his feet, knocked away the opponent's body, and broke the ball from his feet alive.

After winning the ball, Luke Shaw moved quickly with the ball, like a small whirlwind on the wing.

It's a pity that Luke Shaw is trying to stage a good show from the box to the box, but it's a pity that Fernandinho has already posted it.

He wanted to pass the ball to Dai Zhiwei in front again, but De Bruyne had already appeared between him and Dai Zhiwei, and there was no chance, so he had to knock back and send the ball to Valencia's feet, giving up the opportunity for a quick counterattack.

After Valencia won the ball, Sergio Aguero came up to scramble and Silva headed for it.

Valencia protected the ball, and with Bailly who came up, he made a pass and cut through, broke away from Aguero's entanglement, and wanted to give the ball to Dai Zhiwei, but Bernardo was already in front of him, and there was still no chance.

Manchester City's defensive strategy for this game was clear, which was to cut off the link between Dai Zhiwei and the rest of Manchester United's players.

After Valencia realized this, they no longer reluctantly passed the ball to Dai Zhiwei, but passed the ball to Suso on the wing.

The Manchester City defenders were attracted by the running positions of Dai Zhiwei and Anthony Martial for a while, and there was a moment of negligence in Suso's marking, allowing Suso to drive straight in.

Suso soon dribbled the ball to the edge of the City penalty area, cut inside and flashed a gap that led to a furious shot.

Unfortunately, his shot hit the angle and was easily cleared by Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson.

'The game was in a state of flux, the carelessness of the opening time had put them on the back foot, and now they were finally able to regain their rhythm and organise in midfield. Although Manchester City still have a one-goal lead, I would say that the real showdown is only now coming. "The Sky Sports commentator in the stadium is definitely a Manchester United fan.

Manchester City served on their own side, Zinchenko took the ball out of bounds to see what good chances there were, and De Bruyne subconsciously glanced at Manchester United's backfield at this time and found that Sterling had run into the space between Valencia and the central defender.

De Bruyne quickly motioned for Zinchenko to serve, and Zinchenko quickly tossed the ball to De Bruyne.

De Bruyne used the power of the ball to fall in the air, lightly picked it up, directly past the forward Ozil, and then flicked his thigh and slammed it into the lower part of the ball, and the ball drew an arc and flew directly towards Manchester United's big backfield.

Raheem Sterling saw De Bruyne's movements, and quickly activated, rolling towards the back of Manchester United like a yellow whirlwind.

"Oops!"

Valencia exclaimed in frustration that he had just seen Manchester City send a throw-in from his own big backfield, so he wanted to move forward and make an effective interception, but De Bruyne took advantage of his own back, coupled with Sterling's speed, to form a very dangerous attack.

Maguire struggled to pull back, trying to keep Sterling from the ball, but his instantaneous explosiveness was not at the same level as Sterling, although there was a distance of position in the previous time, but Sterling had already caught up with him.

Raheem Sterling and Harry Maguire came close to touching the ball at the same time, but his body swept past Maguire like a whirlwind at high speed and snatched the ball.

Maguire watched as Raheem Sterling passed by his side with the ball, only to be dusted at the back.

"One knife, one knife!"

Even as Maguire and Raheem Sterling were scrambling, Romero had already taken the lead in abandoning the goal.

Sterling saw Romero coming out, didn't dare to slow down, several defenders behind had already caught up, saw Romero open his body, and at the same time closed the "school gate", there was no chance to pass the crotch, the near corner was also blocked, and quickly stabbed the outside of his right foot, trying to break the goal from his right side.

But Romero didn't let Sterling succeed, when he saw Sterling form a single knife, he made the most correct choice, so that Sterling only had one angle to break the goal, and after seeing the outside of his right foot move, Romero subconsciously stretched his leg in a gear, the ball hit his own leg, bounced out, and successfully resolved the crisis.

The dull atmosphere of the whole stadium was suddenly driven by Romero's world-class save, and there was applause again.

Mourinho also applauded with a smile on his face, and glanced at Guardiola, who was sitting in the seat angrily, somewhat showing the meaning that madmen always love to express their joys, sorrows, and sorrows.

Romero's ball flew quickly to the midfield, and Kroos, who was driven back, got it and launched a counter-attack on the spot.

The Reds took advantage of City's brief misposition at the back to dribble forward at high speed, and after De Bruyne stepped forward, they handed the ball to Anthony Martial on the left.

At this time, Manchester United's on-field lineup changed to 433, Suso had already stood in the middle, and Dai Zhiwei ran to the right to settle down.

After Anthony Martial got the ball, Walker was already clinging to him.

Anthony knows this is a tough guy to deal with.

Just when Martial was worried, he caught a glimpse of Ozil coming up to answer, and he knocked the ball directly to Ozil without too much thought, reflexively wanting to have a one-two cooperation with Ozil.

Who knew that Mesut Ozil had already been blocked by Kevin De Bruyne, and there were two other Manchester City players between him and Anthony Martial, so there was no way to complete this combination.

It seems that Manchester United's counterattack has been reimbursed again?