After the 22nd round of the Premier League, Hydward's preparations were suddenly busy, and the most important reason was that the FA Cup was coming.

Portsmouth's semi-final last year left fans with countless memories and regrets, so it's no surprise that they want to get one step closer this year. The FA Cup has been the most prestigious cup of the gods in England, having been successfully held for 132 years, and it has a longer history than Portsmouth as a team. Compared with the tractor of the English League Cup, the Premier League has to give way, and the FA Cup is definitely the noble Rolls-Royce, which has dominated the 8 o'clock prime time on weekends for more than 100 years.

The FA Cup is the most widely contested cup competition in the world, and in England, any league team can participate in any league team at any level and at a registered home stadium. In addition to the 44 Premier League and Championship teams, 48 League One and English League B, 24 National Leagues, and 44 FA North and South Leagues, there are also 44 teams such as the Southern Premier League, the Northern Premier League, the Ismien Premier League, the Southern Super League, the Southern League South Division, the North West County, the Kent County, etc., which you have never heard of, and there are as many as 20 levels of small leagues, adding up to about 700-800 teams registered every year. Non-league teams will have to play at least six single-elimination rounds to make it to the first round, and they often have to prepare for it from August last year.

You don't have to go straight to the first round in the Championship without going through a bloody qualifier, and in the Premier League you don't have to start from the first round, when they face Alex Ferguson's Manchester United on 15 January 2013 at 4.30pm London time in the third round of the FA Cup.

Manchester United is still Manchester United, which made Hydward chop the heart of Tom, who went to the draw, and of course the old man who has this idea. Manchester United drew Real Madrid in the Champions League 18, and the old man clearly knew that his team was completely incapable of fighting on the third line, so he began to complain about the schedule before the game, and when he set off for Portsmouth, he only brought half of the main team.

Looking at the league standings, Manchester United ranks first in the league with 60 points, 13 consecutive wins have equaled the record set by Arsenal in the 01-02 season, and the 22-point difference as a chaser makes Portsmouth have no desire to catch up at all.

They were followed by Manchester City 44, Chelsea 40, and Rafael Benitez was beaten 1-0 by vice-captain Queen's Park in the league after losing to Portsmouth in the cup. With Everton 38 and Arsenal 37 going on, the Gunners are gradually finding a rhythm in the race for the top four, and the media generally believes that the Blues will be replaced by Arsene Wenger's Gunners after less than a month in this position.

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Hydward still underestimated how busy he was.

Manchester United did not give up strategically in this game, but also made some rotations, Ferguson put Van Persie, Rio Ferdinand, Valencia and other main players on the bench, the starting defenders were a combination of Evans and Nemanja Vidic, and the forward line was Welbeck and Hernandez. But looking at the midfield combination of Cleverley and Scholes, Portsmouth actually has a big advantage.

Unfortunately, this advantage did not translate into victory.

In the 34th minute, John Stones, who had started consecutive games in the first half, made a long pass on the wing, and Manchester United got the ball. Portsmouth was the main attacker in this game, Mane and Belotti quickly stepped forward to press, such a scene was a norm in this game, Ferdinand took the ball and paused to turn left and then turn right to shake a space, deceiving Mane to hand the ball to Giggs on the wing. Goretzka in the back also pressed up, and if you take a screenshot of the field at this time, you will find that Portsmouth has formed a four-man high pressing system of Mane, Belotti, Goretzka and Klose at the far end. United's defence was under extreme pressure and a few shots were just a few shots away from the goal.

Giggs saw Scholes coming over, but Scholes made a covert gesture of waving his hand, because Kante was speeding closer in line of Wang's line of sight. Giggs was always uncompromising on his old partner's instructions, glancing ahead of him as he took a very risky shot down the flank. Hernandez on the wing struggled with Stones, and the young defender did not allow a very tough close press, and the huge impact almost made the little pea planted. Hernandez struggled to adjust his center of gravity and crawled to receive the dangerous pass, and the possible points on the pitch changed to Cleverley and Shinji Kagawa in the middle, Kante quickly gave up Scholes to press over, and Heideward's running route was exactly on the pass route to Ginger Head, forcing and blocking a possible line.

With De Bruyne four or five metres next to Cleverley, and Margery and Mustafi next to Kagawa, Scholes was well aware of the scene, and it seemed that Manchester United was extremely dangerous and could be cut off at any time, breaking through Portsmouth's high press. Hernandez dribbled away from the ball laterally, and Ginger noticed that Margery had taken two steps forward, and then seemed to realize that something was wrong and slowly retreated, while his centre-back partner Mustafi was still staring at Kagawa. The biggest reason for Margery's retreat was actually Ashley on the other side of his line of sight? Young, his head had already reacted quickly, the ball was handed to Kagawa's feet, and the Japanese midfielder could get rid of it vertically and give the ball to Ashley Young on the other side, a position with a radius of 15 meters that was unmarked.

Scholes pointed the ball in the direction of Little Pea, the ball came to Kagawa's feet, Mustafi was reckless in front of the incoming person and the incoming ball, Kagawa Shinji was smart and did not choose to entangle, he really accelerated away as Margery expected, and then transferred the ball to the other side of the court.

After this blow, even the fans in the stands reacted, and the attack and defense changed dramatically, and Portsmouth began to retreat with all their players to take up defensive positions. After three seconds under normal circumstances, Heidward would be pleased to see a solid 442 system in front of United.

But his smile was broken after less than three seconds, and Mustafi pressed too high to return to his position, and his place is now filled by the starting Meunier.

After Rudiger's transfer, such a strange and familiar scene appeared again and again, again and again, and almost became a sign of the team's instability at the back.

But some teams can catch such loopholes, some teams can't, and Srna will generally solve this problem very well. United had the quality, the ability and the luck to catch it, Ashley Young played a high ball from the wing, and in this gap Welbeck beat Meunier in the air, and the header was cut in by Hernandez, and the little pea pumped the top corner to take a 1-0 lead.

Hydward crouched on the sidelines in the face of the lost ball, rubbing his temple hard with his right hand, this is not a problem of the player's ability, this is a system problem, Portsmouth is not lacking a central defender like Mustafi. He looked at the bench, Marcos? Alonso and Benjamin? Mendy is against the wing-backs! His brain suddenly hurt even more, and the good mood of winning some time ago was ruined by Ferguson's damn Manchester United. Take a look at the latest chapter of "The Next Claw Book House" to read for free for the first time.