Chapter 317: Knock out Barcelona

On February 16, in the first leg of the Europa League 16 finals, Manchester United hosted Ligue 1 team Saint-Etienne.

The Europa League is Manchester United's most important game this season in addition to the league, so Mourinho only rotated a few players who played more games in a few positions, retaining most of the main players, Shen Peng was also on the field, and finally won 3-0 at home with Shen Peng's suppressive power.

……

On February 19, in the fifth round of the FA Cup, Manchester United faced League One side Blackburn.

In this game, Manchester United came on as a substitute, and finally lost 1-2 to the all-out opponent, losing the competition, and Blackburn also completed a feat of defeating the Premier League powerhouse, which can be regarded as an upset in this round of the game.

Neither the fans nor the management of Manchester United have seen anything wrong with this, as the recent schedule of Manchester United has been too intensive, and if they continue to invest too much in the FA Cup, it is likely to affect the league and Europa League.

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On February 23, the second leg of the Europa League quarterfinals, Manchester United challenged Saint-Etienne away, this game Manchester United still firmly controlled the rhythm, although at their home stadium, but Saint-Etienne faced Manchester United's main lineup, helpless, and finally was poured a 3-0 at home.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Saint-Etienne 6-0 on aggregate over two legs to advance to the next round.

……

February 25 is the 26th round of the Premier League, in this round, Manchester United will challenge Manchester City away, but because Manchester United's recent games are too intensive, just after the Europa League, a day later will be the League Cup final, so their game was postponed, adjusted to April 27, at the same time, Arsenal and Southampton match was also adjusted to May 10, so after this round, Dobby Chelsea ranked first again at the top.

……

26 February, Wembley Stadium, League Cup final, Manchester United vs. Southampton.

In the final, the winner wins the title, so no matter what the final is, the average team will give it their all, and the same is true for Manchester United.

Southampton eliminated Arsenal 2-0 in the quarter-finals and Liverpool 2-0 on aggregate over the two legs in the semi-finals, so Manchester United did not dare to be careless in this game, otherwise the opponent would have to step on the corpses of the three top six teams in the Premier League to win the championship.

attracted enough attention from Manchester United, Southampton naturally did not please it, of course, they were also very well prepared, and the defense against Shen Peng was in place, but Shen Peng was not something they could defend if they wanted to, so after they held on for 30 minutes, they were still found by Shen Peng to score a goal.

After the goal, United took advantage of the victory, and in the 41st minute, Wayne Rooney scored again.

After a halftime break, in the seventy-second minute of the second half, Ibrahimovic received a pass from Shen Peng and scored another goal to seal the win.

At this point, Southampton no longer has the fighting spirit.

In the end, United won 3-0 to win their first title of the year and their second of the season.

……

At half past twelve o'clock at noon on March 4, in the 27th round of the Premier League, Manchester United hosted Bournemouth.

In the end, with the goals of Shen Peng, Pogba and Fellaini, they won 3-1 against their opponents, and continued to bite Chelsea, who were at the top of the league table, only three points behind with one game less.

Of course, one less game does not guarantee three points, after all, the opponent is Manchester City, not a weak team, so the pressure on Manchester United is still very high.

……

On March 8, in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, Paris Saint-Germain challenged Barcelona away.

Shen Peng also watched the game at home.

I thought that Paris Saint-Germain had made it to the next round of the game, but something went wrong.

I don't know if it was due to the big win in the last game, which made the Paris Saint-Germain players lightly defeated, or Barcelona at home, played an extraordinary fighting power, at the end of the first half, they had already recovered two goals, with a goal from Suarez and an own goal from Kurzava to lead 2-0.

After the start of the second half, Barcelona's attack was even more violent, and in the fiftieth minute, Messi scored another goal, 3-0!

At this time, the morale of the whole Barcelona team was like a rainbow, and it was about to chase two more goals to draw the opponent.

However, in the 62nd minute, Mbappe stepped up again, and after receiving a pass from a teammate, he calmly volleyed back a point and helped the team get a valuable away goal!

As a result, Barcelona will have to score at least seven goals in this game to successfully qualify for the next round!

They only have three points now, and it is obviously unlikely, to score four goals with less than half an hour remaining.

However, they really seemed to be taken care of by God, and at the end of the game, Neymar scored another goal, and in stoppage time, Roberto scored another goal and won a free-kick!

The free-kick was taken by Neymar, who curled the ball into the back of the net with a delicate curling effort.

Six to one!

Now the two teams are 6-6 tied on aggregate, but Paris Saint-Germain have a valuable away goal!

With seconds remaining, PSG cleverly stalled for the clock and eventually eliminated Barcelona to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Neymar was very good in this game, but they lost too many matches in the first leg, so even a big 6-1 victory could not save them from elimination.

After watching the game, Shen Peng also had to sigh, football is really round, if Paris Saint-Germain scores one less goal, even if the home team is 4-0, it is estimated that it will be eliminated now.

This also reminded him that no matter when, don't underestimate your opponent, any negligence may allow the opponent to find a chance to turn over.

……

On March 9, in the quarterfinals of the Europa League, Manchester United challenged Rostov-on-Don of the Russian Premier League away.

The home stadium of the Russian Premier League team is generally difficult to play, in addition to the style of play, but also because of the weather there, although it is now more than March, it is still very cold there.

Of course, it's still a lot more to play there in January than in December.

In the end, Rostov took advantage of the home advantage and played to a 1-1 draw with Manchester United.

The draw made the Rostov squad very excited, and it would be an honour for them to take out the all-out Manchester United.

But after a few days, they knew they were wrong.

In the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals on 16 March, Manchester United returned to host Rostov with a clean 4-0 victory, which made the Rostov players realise the absolute difference in quality.

In the end, Manchester United also advanced to the next round with an aggregate score of 5-1.