14 February 2004, Old Trafford. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this moment, the players of Manchester United and Manchester City have already entered the stadium and the pre-match ceremony has ended. Except for Keane, who is still taking photos with the coaching staff with the Manchester City captain, all the players on the pitch are already in their places, and they can't wait for the game to officially start.

Li Lei was seizing the last bit of time to move his body, constantly moving his long limbs. At the same time, he would occasionally wave to the growing number of United fans in the Old Trafford stands wearing colourful and bizarre hair covers.

These fans are even his own fan group among Manchester United fans. With the recent period, due to Howard's unsatisfactory performance on the field, the call for Li Lei to replace Howard as Manchester United's starting main goalkeeper has become louder and louder, and the number of Li Lei's personal fans in the Manchester United fan group has increased significantly.

Although compared to the number of fans of Ryan Giggs and others, this can only be regarded as a drop in the bucket and nothing, but Li Lei is very content. He is well aware that a rookie like himself who has played less than a season can have a very rare thing in itself to have a public support from his fans in the stands at Old Trafford. It would be irrational to ask for any more quantity.

Moreover, just these people in the stands alone are enough to make Li Lei happy for a while. From the slum gangsters who everyone dislikes, to the rising football stars who now have their own public supporters, the difference and great joy in this are probably only experienced by Li Lei himself.

So, for now, he's still very content.

After greeting his fans, he immediately turned his head and refocused all his attention on the field. At this time, all the pre-match ceremonies have ended, and the referee team has already taken their places, waiting for the referee on duty to blow the whistle for the official start of the game.

While waiting intently, Li Lei's attention was always involuntarily attracted by the two players on the opposite side of Manchester City. Needless to say, he naturally studied and did a lot before the game, and he was holding back the No. 39 French striker Anelka of Manchester City, while the other was the owner of Manchester City's No. 17 jersey that Li Lei did not expect, the Chinese Sun of the same skin color as him, and the Sun Jihai of the Chinese Sun who was known as the Chinese Sun by Manchester City fans.

To be honest, Li Lei didn't expect that this compatriot would come over to say hello to him in the player's tunnel before the game. This sudden greeting from the native country he had never been to made him even react at the time. After being stunned for a while, he replied in the Chinese dialect that he had learned from his mother when he was a child, but because he had not used it for a long time, he was a little rusty.

Until now, he couldn't tell what the complicated feelings in his heart were at that time. However, he knew that now was not the time to think about these things. Retracting his gaze at Sun Jihai, Li Lei shook his head, and focused all his attention on Anelka, he knew that if nothing else, this French striker was the most threatening knife in the Manchester City team today.

"Toot-"

When the referee blew the whistle for the start of the game, Manchester United, who were the first to kick off, immediately launched an attack on Manchester City to the deafening cheers of the entire Old Trafford stadium, without even probing.

As for the shrill boos of the Manchester City fans who cowered in the corners of the stands, they were completely overshadowed by the magnificent cheers of the Manchester United fans at this time, and when United had not yet achieved any effective offensive on the field, the United fans took the lead in giving Manchester City a dismount, telling them whose turf it was.

At the same time, the United players on the pitch did not let the United fans wait long, and they quickly responded to the deafening cheers with a wave of fierce attacks. Cristiano Ronaldo's low shot from outside the box missed the post and failed to score, but he was encouraged by loud applause from the United fans.

Although the Portuguese young talent, after a brief period of dazzling performances at the beginning of the season, immediately fell into a difficult situation, his somewhat unique and somewhat useless dazzling skills and occasional fake wrestling farce have not only made him the focus of criticism from the outside world, and even some Manchester United fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with him, but as long as it is in the game, especially in this kind of derby against the local rivals, Manchester United fans will still give him their full support.

But after Cristiano Ronaldo's first kick shocked Manchester City fans in a cold sweat, Manchester United did not immediately form an overwhelming advantage over Manchester City on the pitch as Manchester United fans imagined. Although Manchester United got more possession and possession on the field, in the face of the overall Manchester City formation that took the initiative to retract and strengthen the defense, Manchester United could not come up with a good solution for a while.

After all, breaking down a dense defence is a perennial problem for any team in the world, and Manchester United is no exception.

Regarding such a scene, Lineker, who once again commented on the Manchester United game, commented on the commentary box: "Tut-tut, look at the extent of Manchester City's formation, it seems that Mr. Keegan's attitude towards this game is not as steady as he himself showed before the game. It is surprising to know that he has been a loyal seeker of beautiful attacking football before, but in this game he took the initiative to play the defensive counter-attacking tactics that he despised and hated in the past. However, this is indeed the most effective way to deal with the current Manchester United team, whose lack of attacking strength this season has long been a well-known secret. Now the first key point of this game is to see whether Manchester United broke through the door of Manchester City first, or Manchester City, who were united in defense, used the counterattack to score first, and dominated the opponents? ”

As Lineker commented, although United gained more control of the football on the pitch, the Manchester City players used their aggressive and fierce defence to make United's attacking line have little to do with them for a while, and the scene was deadlocked shortly after the opening.

However, Manchester United are not in a hurry. In the face of Manchester City's stubbornly defended retraction formation, he did not rush to strengthen the attack, but calmly controlled the football under the crazy pressing of Manchester City players, so as to look for good offensive opportunities while consuming the physical strength and morale of Manchester City players. If you don't see a good opportunity to attack, you will never attack rashly.

In the past, United would never have resorted to such tactics at home, and would have pressed with all their might to smash down the opposition defence with wild attacks, but this season, in the face of their own attacking line being significantly weaker than in previous seasons, they have become very proficient in this way of dealing with it since the beginning of this season.

This is a very sensible and proactive change. Although from the perspective of the field, it will make the excitement of the game lose a lot, but for Manchester United at the moment, the most important thing is to stabilize the position and win steadily, as for the pursuit of offensive football or something, it can be put aside for the time being.

In this regard, Li Lei agrees. He also agrees with Ferguson's style of play and tactics.

But this kind of tactical play has one thing that Li Lei can't adapt to, that is, before the deadlock cannot be broken, he is afraid that he will disappear from everyone's field of vision for a long time and become the most idle and idle person on the court.

Just like now, with Manchester United holding most of the ball in their hands, with 7 or 8 minutes of game time passed since the start of the game, Li Lei has only touched the ball a few times, and it is the kind that his former teammates have to give him under the pressure of Manchester City players.

Moreover, today's Keegan's Manchester City has really retreated too fiercely, and since the start of the game, no Manchester City player has come close to the position within 10 meters of Li Lei. This made Li Lei, who couldn't touch football, want to take the opportunity to find trouble with Anelka, and he has no chance to play tricks.

Depend on! Damn it!! ......

Looking at the situation of Keane and others in front of him constantly falling back and forth in the midfield, Li Lei almost wanted to cry without tears, and he couldn't keep his spirits up.

However, he also knows very well that he must not relax too much, and must be very focused and ready for a sudden counterattack from Manchester City.

As a result, Li Lei could only be like now, while barely concentrating all his attention and not letting himself get distracted, he strongly prayed in his heart that the moment when the current deadlock situation would change would come soon.

At this moment, he was "hungry and thirsty"!

Come on!

Come on!!