Chapter 269: Medal Priming
Manchester United finally started to fight back after holding on to the first 10 minutes of the second half.
In the 56th minute, the Red Devils combined in the middle, the ball was distributed to Dai Zhiwei on the right, Dai Zhiwei shook off Walker and sent a cross, with Rashford behind him, Laporte made a crucial clearance in the box, and his header cleared the danger.
However, the clearance almost scared Pep Guardiola out of the heart – Laporte's header was less than half a metre away from the woodwork, and from his point of view, it almost became an own goal.
1 minute later, the Red Devils made a comeback, and it was Dai Zhiwei who won the ball on the right side and passed to the front of the penalty area, under the pull of Fernandinho, Kroos did not fully adjust the angle of the shot, and his powerful long-range shot was blocked by Walker, but watching Walker fall to the ground seemed to be blinded by Kroos's shot.
However, Walker's effort to block the shot rebounded and was picked up by United on the edge of the area, and Nemanja Matic hit the net again, and Zinchenko fell to the ground in front of goal to clear the ball.
Although two shots did not score, Manchester United's momentum was completely up, and the craziest offensive period of the game began-
In the 62nd minute, Rashford forced a breakthrough with the ball on the right, but Kompany stepped in to destroy the ball in time.
Two minutes later, Kroos cut inside from the right and passed to Dai Zhiwei, who fired high from distance in front of the box.
In less than 30 seconds, Rashford broke the ball up front and passed to Pereira, but the shot was not of high quality and was directly received by Ederson.
Manchester City also quickly adjusted, and the Red Devils played against each other, in terms of offensive ability, they are stronger than Manchester United, but Manchester United has the existence of Dai Zhiwei, a goal machine.
In the 67th minute, Silva sent a cross from the left, and the two Manchester City strikers scrambled in the penalty area, but unfortunately there was no goal, Bernardo and Aguero watched as the close pass slid past their toes.
Guardiola, who was on the sidelines, also kicked in the void to express his frustration.
Two minutes later, City went on the right flank again, with Raheem Sterling passing the ball to Gundogan, but the latter's cross was cleared by Maguire and passed to Nemanja Matic, who then launched a counter-attack.
Marcus Rashford ran out of space on the right, but Lingard didn't pass the ball in time, but it's not that he doesn't want to pass, it's just that his vision can't always spot teammates who run out of space, which is one of the gaps between him and the top midfielders.
Lingard, who only knew that the hooded head was rushed forward, and the ball at his feet was shoveled off the touchline by a tackle from Walker.
Lingard threw the ball quickly, but apparently Rashford and Dai Zhiwei did not cooperate well enough, Rashford deliberately missed in the penalty area but Dai Zhiwei did not realize it, and did not react until the football came to the front, and the hurried arch of the foot hit the outstretched leg of the chasing Kompany, and bounced off the bottom line.
Dai Zhiwei, who missed the best opportunity in the second half, also hugged his head and yelled, and then apologized to Rashford, who deliberately leaked the ball, and Lingard, who passed the ball, saying that it was his responsibility.
In the face of the team's first brother's apology, Rashford and Lingard could only accept it happily.
In the 73rd minute, United threatened again when Jesse Lingard sent in a cross from the right, but Nemanja Matic's left-footed shot from the edge of the box went wide of the post.
In the second half, the two teams switched between attack and defense at an accelerated pace, compared to Manchester United had more chances, and Dai Zhiwei was more comfortable with this rhythm of rapid counter-attacks, and his performance became better and better.
However, just when Manchester United took the initiative on the field, they were unexpectedly punished.
In what appeared to be a modest attack, Raheem Sterling broke down the right and fed the ball to Silva in the box, who fell to the ground with a slight exaggeration under Ricardo Pereira's defence.
Although almost all of United's team-mates surrounded the referee to protest Silva's fake-fall, the referee awarded City a penalty to the boos of the crowd at Old Trafford.
Slow motion shows that Ricardo Pereira gave Silva the force behind clearly not enough to bring down the Spanish midfielder, but maybe Ricardo Pereira has the internal strength?
Sergio Aguero walked to the penalty spot with the football in his arms and easily converted it to the boos of the Manchester United fans to make it 1:1!
Despite being equalised by Manchester City, the Reds were not anxious and a score of 11 was more than acceptable for them, which was enough to keep them at the top of the table.
However, this score Guardiola and other Manchester City players are not very satisfied, if the two teams shake hands, Manchester United is still first, but they will be overtaken by Liverpool, pulled to third place.
Therefore, Guardiola did not celebrate after the goal, but began to deploy troops, replacing the defender Fernandinho with winger Sane, with obvious intentions, that is, to continue to strengthen the attack!
Leroy Sane is indeed a very good young player, but unfortunately he is not treated by the manager - not Loew in the German national team, and Sterling and Bernardo Silva are preferred by Pep Guardiola in Manchester City.
Leroy Sane made a difference from the pitch when he broke through on the right and sent in a cross that was a bit slow and De Gea stepped in to get the ball in front of Aguero.
Two minutes later, Gundogan won the ball at the edge of the penalty area and suddenly changed direction to get rid of the double bag, and then sent a precise long pass to the right side of the opponent's penalty area, and it was Sane's volley back to the middle of the penalty area, Bernardo caught up with a powerful shot to wipe the post and fly out of the bottom line.
Seeing the team fall into passivity, Mourinho also began to adjust the players on the field, replacing Rashford with Mata, who has better vision and better passing ability, and Lingard retreated, leaving Dai Zhiwei alone at the front, and Manchester United's lineup also became a more secure 4-2-3-1.
Mourinho's intention is also obvious, which is to tell Guardiola: you attack, I will defend, see if your attack will break through my wall first, or my counterattack will break through your defense first.
Mu Shuai completely handed over the attack to Dai Zhiwei, so is Dai Zhiwei worth entrusting?
The answer, naturally, is worth it!
In the 82nd minute, just after Manchester City's attack failed, Mata sent a precise long pass in the midfield, Dai Zhiwei drove straight with the ball, and was brought down by Laporte when he forced a breakthrough.
He was sensitive to the place where he fell, as he fell and fell into the box.
This caused the City players to come forward to express their displeasure, and even the captain Kompany who took the lead received a yellow card, but their goal was accomplished, and United were only awarded a free-kick on the penalty line.
A free-kick in this position is arguably the worst-placed free-kick, the first point is a penalty, and the lower point is easier to score.
Dai Zhiwei was naturally the first choice for free kicks, but unfortunately this time his curvy shot hit the plane directly.
As the game entered the final 10 minutes, Pep Guardiola made another substitution, Danilo and Jesus came on, and Gundo and Sergio Aguero were replaced, which was a dangerous move.
The new Danilo was very active from the moment he came on, forcing a break down the right flank and being brought down by Bailly to win a free-kick in a good position for Manchester City.
But the free-kick was wasted again, and Silva's shot actually hit his team-mate Walker and bounced off the line.
In the 83rd minute, Mourinho made another substitution, and instead of stacking defenders, he replaced Lingard with Anthony Martial to add a counter-attacking force.
Mourinho is leaving Pep Guardiola to make a choice: is it to continue to attack desperately when Manchester United has enough quick counter-attacking ability? Or do you want to keep the 11 draw?
Pep Guardiola's decision was decisive: keep pressing!
A draw in this game doesn't mean much to Manchester City, if you don't win the championship, you can't stabilize Guardiola's position, only victory, only the championship, and the Abu Dhabi consortium can tolerate him continuing to take charge of this giant ship!
City continued to lay siege to the United goal, Silva split the ball to the left, Danilo cut down and fired a decisive long-range shot, the ball was powerful and heavy, but unfortunately it deflected off the side of Ricardo Pereira and went slightly wide of the net and hit the side-netting.
Silva whipped in a corner and delivered a pinpoint cross, and Laporte forced Pereira's header down the middle just over the crossbar, leaving De Gea in a cold sweat on the goal line.
Just as the clock entered a total of three minutes of stoppage time, Juan Mata, who had returned to the defence, intercepted City's pass in the middle, Nemanja Matic sent the ball over the top, and Martial began to gallop on the wing!
Anthony Martial is the fastest player on the football pitch at the moment, and even Dai Zhiwei, who has played the full 90 minutes, can't catch up with the French winger who runs wild with the ball.
Dai Zhiwei can't catch up, so Manchester City's defenders are even more useless, and the old Manchester City captain Kompany, who stayed in the backfield, knew that his teammates couldn't come back, so he could only rely on himself to intercept Martial.
Vincent Kompany tried to get a grip on Anthony Martial, but the latter was on the verge of getting rid of the City veteran, who was nine years his senior.
In desperation, Kompany used his hands and feet to press Anthony onto the turf on the left side of the edge of the box.
"Drop!" The referee immediately stopped the game.
Surely, the free-kick was indispensable, along with a red card for Vincent Kompany, who was already City's last defender when he fouled him.
"Alas!" Watching Vincent Kompany hand the captain's armband to David Silva, Guardiola let out a sigh as he had a hunch that his side were moving further and further away from winning the Premier League this season.
"Whew!" At the same time, Dai Zhiwei had already left the football on the turf, took a few steps back, and began to observe the human wall that was still forming at Manchester City.
The free-kick was in a good position, the only thing that made him uncomfortable was that the left foot was a little better than the right foot.
Although Dai Zhiwei's left and right feet have already reached a balance, he is still more accustomed to using his right foot to take free kicks.
However, at this moment when it is possible to kill the opponent and win the "match point" of this season's Premier League championship, Dai Zhiwei, as the head of the Red Devils and the new king of Old Trafford, can only be the leader!
Dai Zhiwei took a deep breath, raised his eyes to look at the position of his teammates in the penalty area, and then looked at the position of the goal and the goalkeeper, and then raised his right hand and made a "2" gesture.
This free-kick position, a right-footed pass into the box is also a good option.
"Dai Zhiwei, is this going to be a tactical free kick?" Lineker was a little puzzled, "Is it to be on the safe side?" ”
"Hmph, I guess I still don't dare to take this responsibility." Uwe Rosler scoffed.
"It should just be a trick." Gary Neville gave a different answer, "Just to confuse Ederson, he must have shot straight at goal." ”
Without waiting for Gary Neville and Uwe Rosler to spray, the referee had already whistled, and Dai Zhiwei moved and started in an instant.
"Is it a pass, or is it a shot?" Ederson in front of the goal was still puzzled after all.
Dai Zhiwei got faster and faster, ran close to the football and pumped his left foot hard, and the football roared straight into the sky.
"It's coming! It's a shot! Lineker exclaimed, his eyes fixed on the football that flew into the sky.
The fans in front of the TV and the fans in the stadium held their breath and followed the soccer ball moving in mid-air.
The ball flew high and jumped over Manchester City's human wall, before suddenly plummeting to Manchester City's goal.
Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson stared, although he had doubts before, his judgment was that Dai Zhiwei would choose to shoot.
He stared at the falling soccer ball faster and faster, roared, bowed his body, jumped up, and struck the soccer ball with both palms.
However, the speed of the glide shot is so fast that there are very few goalkeepers who can save a curved shot, let alone a faster gliding shot on goal?
As soon as Ederson pounced, the ball was already grazing the intersection of the beam and the post, and scurryed into the net behind him!
21!
Before the ball landed, a tsunami of shouts was already ringing at Old Trafford!
At this time, Old Trafford is like a soda bottle, the fans on the scene are like a soda that has been shaking in a bottle for a long time, and Dai Zhiwei's goal is like an open bottle cap, with the opening of the "bottle cap", all the enthusiasm bursts out!
The Manchester City players were stunned by this incredible free kick, they stood in a daze where the wall was lined up just now, and looked stupidly at Dai Zhiwei, who was surrounded by Manchester United players, and felt bitter in their hearts.
Ederson held on to the post bitterly, staring into the distance with a distracted gaze, and the goal completely killed the game.
“gooooooooooooooooooooooal! Lore! Lore! Nice free-kick goal! Lineker's voice was hoarse, but his blood and passion could not be suppressed!
Gary Neville was constantly laughing at Uwe Rosler, even though the latter's face was already blue.
Dejected, Edson got up from the ground, silently walked into the goal, picked up the football and drove it to the center circle.
The Manchester City players were soon back on the kick-off at Pep Guardiola's shouts.
But there wasn't much time left for City, and the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game barely before they could have a shot on goal.
21, Manchester United successfully improved their points to 93 points with this victory, Liverpool overtook Manchester City to move second with 89 points, and Manchester City was third with a difference of 2 points.
With only three league games remaining, Manchester United, who have a four-point advantage, have already put half of their hands on the Barclays Cup.
I want to talk about "Green Wings" with more like-minded people, pay attention to "excellent reading literature" on WeChat, talk about life, and find confidants~