On the night of September 20, 2003, Bangnias Stadium, Pembiru, Greece. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, the first half of Manchester United's away game against Panathinaikos was over, and the score that appeared on the big screen was enough to silence all the home fans, 0:4, and Manchester United was the visiting team.

Panathinaikos fans didn't expect their side to beat Manchester United at home, but such a devastating first half was definitely a surprise to them. A score of 4-0 was enough to decide the outcome of the game, but they still had to endure a second half in which a team continued to do nothing.

In fact, in the final stages of the first half, the stadium was so silent that even the most diehard Panathinaikos fans did not have the strength or energy to shout and cheer for their own players who were like walking dead on the pitch.

Speaking of which, it's not to blame for their lack of love and support for the team, it can only be said that the whole Panathinaikos team can't show what excites them. Not to mention any substantial trouble for Manchester United, not even the spirit of fighting bravely, knowing shame and courage.

Considering that he only played a game against Arsenal a few days ago, Ferguson deliberately rotated a number of starters in this group stage, replacing Keane, Scholes, Ronaldo and other starters with Bart, Fuqiong and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

It is precisely because of this large rotation that the entire Panathinaikos team, including their fans, can't help but start looking forward to whether there will be an upset on their home turf before the game.

But as soon as the game began, the whole Manchester United team showed them the harsh reality with their supernatural strength, which was still a step ahead of their opponents.

At the beginning of the game, Manchester United showed a ferocious attacking momentum, directly against the away team, pressing Panathinaikos to start a fierce siege. Although the starting lineup sent by Ferguson has decreased a lot in terms of control and organizational ability compared to Manchester United's strongest team, Manchester United still has an absolute advantage on the field just by relying on the advantage of speed and impact.

In such a situation, after only 13 minutes of home advantage, Panathinaikos' goal was breached by Silvestre.

Phil Neville's shot from outside the box was saved by Panathinaikos goalkeeper Nicopolidis, and United were awarded a corner. After Ryan Giggs drove a corner, the attention of the Panathinaikos defenders seemed to be drawn to Ruud van Nirooper at the front post, even their goalkeeper Nikopolidis.

Ambushed at the back post, Silvester easily stopped the ball without any defenders marking it, and stabbed the ball with ease. United broke the deadlock with this goal and took the lead.

However, the Panathinaikos players and fans, who were frustrated by the goal conceded, could not have imagined that this was just the beginning of a frenzy in Manchester United's attack.

Just one minute later, United were once again playing a fine attacking combination up front. Ruud van Nistelrooy received the ball and struck it back, and Fuqiong, who was cut in from behind, took advantage of the situation with a violent volley that broke through the Panathinaikos goal again, but Nicopolidis couldn't save.

After conceding these two goals, Panathinaikos, who were playing at home after all, cheered up and launched a certain counterattack against Manchester United. But instead of scoring to the deafening cheers of the home fans, they added another in the 33rd minute after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer picked up a pass from Ryan Giggs on the counter-attack.

Since then, Panathinaikos' morale has been lost, and their confidence has been completely destroyed by Manchester United's stormy attack. Their goalkeeper, Nicopolidis, also came into a mess after conceding three goals in a row. In the 44th minute, in the face of Bart's header in a corner kick attack, a low-level mistake occurred, and the ball was held out of his hands, leaking the ball out of the goal, directly giving Manchester United a fourth goal.

For this reason, Ferguson even replaced Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with French striker Belion before the end of the first half and began to train the newcomers.

Ferguson himself may not have much to humiliate Panathinaikos, but his substitution did make the Panathinaikos team lose face. But what is even more tragic is that in the face of such an insulting substitution, whether intentional or not, the Panathinaikos fans at the scene did not even let out a single boo, as if they had completely abandoned the game.

With such a perfect first half, the United players were naturally laughing and laughing in the visiting dressing room at half-time. Even Alex Ferguson, who has always been strict in his management of the army, did not stop the spread of this relaxed atmosphere among the players, because in his heart he had already sentenced the Panathinaikos team to death.

Barring a miracle, he doesn't think a team that has lost all the fighting spirit can launch a fierce comeback against his side in the second half and take away the fruits of the victory that United have already carried in their pockets. He has already made a decision that he will use up the remaining two substitutions immediately after the start of the second half to give his main players more opportunities to rest.

Apart from reminding the United players to regain a bit so as not to be kicked by the angry Panathinaikos players, he made little of any other arrangements during the break.

It was the most relaxing halftime break Li Lei had since he was officially promoted to the first team. This is also the first time he has witnessed how the world's top giants cut melons and vegetables against weak teams.

Throughout the first half, Howard, who was Manchester United's starting goalkeeper, basically didn't touch the ball much, and such a relaxed treatment allowed Li Lei to see the daily normalcy of being a strong goalkeeper like Manchester United for the first time.

In the past, although he also knew that as a goalkeeper of Manchester United, generally speaking, if he did not encounter a strong opponent, he should be very easy for the whole game, and he could make two saves once in a while. But who made him play every time he played in the Manchester United team, and the games that United encountered were not easy for various reasons.

It turned out that it could be so easy, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

It can be said that Li Lei watched the entire first half completely with the mentality of fans appreciating the game, and didn't think about anything else. It turned out that he also wanted to take a serious look at the defenders of the Panathinaikos team, hoping that Howard would be able to come off the bench at any time if he was beaten.

But after United comfortably scored a second goal, he had already given up on that unrealistic fantasy. Especially after Manchester United scored the fourth goal and saw the opposing goalkeeper's completely depressed mental state, he had already made up his mind in his heart, and in the second half of the game he didn't even want to do the usual warm-up, and sat directly on the bench to watch the whole game.

Sitting on the bench in the locker room, Li Lei felt like he had lost his strength as if he had turned into dough, and he was lying on his stomach softly. At this time, he already knew in his heart that according to the current situation, he wanted to wait until Howard made a mistake, and then he had the intention of taking the opportunity to take the position.

After all, judging from Manchester United's current strength and performance, as long as Howard doesn't die too much, even if he wants to make mistakes, I'm afraid he won't have much chance to make mistakes.

Thinking of this, although Li Lei was not desperate, he was inevitably discouraged.

Just when he was feeling a little bored about it, he suddenly felt someone watching him. When I looked up, it wasn't Howard who was looking at him with a smug face, as if he had made countless wonderful saves in the first half, looking like a villain.

His appearance is really annoying, but Li Lei also knows very well that this is not a good opportunity to trouble him. According to military theory, at this time, he can only be in a stalemate stage of passive beating, and the initiative is completely in Howard's hands, and it is far from the time for a full-scale counterattack.

You have to endure it when you should endure it, and you have to retreat when you should retreat, Li Lei is not a stunned young man with a hot head, but he still knows how to advance and retreat.

After glancing at the smug Howard, he immediately closed his eyes, out of sight and out of mind.

And Howard saw that Li Lei didn't pay attention to himself, but he retracted his gaze a little helplessly, as if he had punched violently, but it hit the air.

The trend of today's game is completely under his control, not to mention that it is exactly the same, there are still eight or nine that are not far from ten. And that's why he has to start immediately in this game, where it's not easy to keep a clean sheet.

With Manchester United's quality, a clean sheet against an opponent like Panathinaikos may be normal. But either way, it was a clean sheet. Especially for a newly debuted goalkeeper like Li Lei, every clean sheet performance is very important.

In an age where numbers are king, the more clean sheets there are, the more consistent people think a goalkeeper will be.

Howard can almost imagine that once Li Lei starts in this game, taking advantage of the heat of his clean sheet against Arsenal, the outside media and fans will definitely be enthusiastic about his start of another round of coverage.

Therefore, he snatched this starter, which is equivalent to interrupting the momentum of Li Lei's strong rise.

Just now, he just wanted to provoke Li Lei with this. But he didn't expect Li Lei, a "stunned young man", to accept it at all, just like no one, which made him quite disappointed.

For this reason, he thought in his heart at this time that Li Lei was a hidden person, and he was just pretending to be unruly and causing trouble before, but in fact he was a very deep city, a young man, and a very calm person.

But what he didn't know was that his idea was only half right, although Li Lei's city was not shallow, but the things he had done that caused an uproar in the outside world were really not pretending.

For example, he didn't know that Li Lei, who was closing his eyes at this time and was like a nobody, was not calm at all, and was holding back his strength to calculate how to retaliate against him if he had the opportunity in the future.

Endure when you should endure, and return double when you should report.

Although Li Lei's thoughts were calm, his actions were extremely violent.

Someday, Howard will experience this.

Unless he can guarantee that he will not make mistakes all the time, in that case, no matter how unwilling Li Lei is, he can only be convinced.

But, does Howard really have such strength?

Li Lei said in his heart.

As the most important old Land Rover in his position, Li Lei naturally focused on understanding Howard's strength, advantages and disadvantages.

In his opinion, Howard is completely the kind of nerve knife goalkeeper, when he is in good shape, naturally everything is easy to say, but once he is in bad shape, he may make low-level mistakes at any time and dig a big hole for the team.

With Manchester United declining this season and the pressure on goalkeepers naturally increasing, he simply doesn't believe Howard can be at his best all season without making mistakes.

That's a fantasy, he said firmly.

There's always going to be a chance, if the opportunity comes, huh... Li Lei snorted coldly in his heart.

He knew that all he had to do now was, like a beast ambushing its prey, patiently and calmly waiting for its chance.

Then, when the opportunity comes, it will be a fatal blow!

No mercy!!