On 6 April, Villa Park hosted an impressive FA Cup semi-final between Manchester United and Arsenal.

The semi-final comes the day before Derby County and Millwall meet and both games are played at Villa Park, but it is clear that there will be a lot of attention on the clash between United and Arsenal, one of whom dominates England and the other are United's only rivals for a decade, with Arsenal continuing their unbeaten run in the league from last season.

The pre-match media went crazy with the coverage of both teams, and they analyzed a whole bunch of numbers.

Arsenal dominate the FA Cup with the first team to reach the last four of the FA Cup 24 times, followed by Manchester United and Everton with 23 each, and they are also the sixth and fourth consecutive FA Cup semi-finals in the last seven seasons.

Manchester United last progressed to the semi-finals in 1999 when they eliminated Arsenal in a replay.

However, United's all-time record is superior, with they winning their last 10 FA Cup semi-finals, six of which have come in replays. Manchester United have met Arsenal 10 times in the FA Cup, winning four, drawing one and losing five, with two of those semi-finals coming in 1983 and 1999 against Manchester United. Manchester United have played nine FA Cup semi-finals at Villa Park and have never lost.

In the midst of the media buzz, the match was a disappointment.

Thanks to Paul Scholes' goal, United reached the final with a 1-0 win over Arsenal and halted Arsenal's fourth consecutive FA Cup final.

Arsenal's dream of a treble this season has also been shattered.

The result seemed to be enthusiastic, but in reality, Arsene Wenger showed that he did not take the game very seriously when he put Henry and Reyes on the bench before the game, as they were only seven points clear of Chelsea in the league and wanted to break the fate of never reaching the last four of the Champions League, in which case the Frenchman chose to forgo the FA Cup.

Before the game. Arsene Wenger has slammed the Football Team's schedule, and it is crazy that Arsenal have to face a strong opponent every three days.

For Alex Ferguson, the FA Cup title is the final fig leaf.

With Ruud van Nistelrooy sidelined with a knee injury, Alex Ferguson brought on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to replace him, Cristiano Ronaldo to replace Demba for Arsenal on Sunday, and Paul Scholes partnered Keane in front and back.

After Carroll repeatedly denied shots from Bergkamp and youngster Aliadiere, in the 32nd minute, Giggs took advantage of the negligence of the Arsenal back line and passed back to Scholes on the right side of the penalty area, who scored the only goal of the game with a powerful shot.

This is the most criticized period of Ferguson's reign. Manchester United backed up the old man with a resolute victory.

The defeat is bad news for Arsenal, and even worse news is that two of Arsenal's big players Ljungberg and Reyes are injured and will miss the second leg of next week's Champions League tie with Chelsea.

Ljungberg suffered a hand injury during the match and the preliminary result of the post-match examination was a fractured hand bone and will miss at least four weeks of play. Reyes was hit by Paul Scholes in the game with a backtackle and suffered a knee injury to his left knee, and could also be sidelined for up to three weeks.

After the FA Cup knockout of Arsenal, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson praised the efforts of his players.

Ferguson believes. Such a win is very important for the team to keep their hopes of winning a title this season.

'Ruud van Nistelrooy's absence was a blow to us but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did a great job. Ferguson also admits Arsenal did create a lot of chances, with Edu's lob hitting the crossbar. Carroll then saved Toure's follow-up shot, which was the turning point of the game, "This save gave us the luck we needed and Carroll showed it very well. ”

Another highlight of this game for Manchester United was Cristiano Ronaldo. Ferguson said of Cristiano Ronaldo. 'He's always a threat when he counter-attacks, he's really our ace.'

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said: 'We shouldn't have lost', 'I'm very disappointed. We didn't deserve to lose this game. We had a lot of chances, especially in the second half, where we were dominant. We weren't lucky overall, but United were strong and they defended at the highest level. They have stubbornly held on to that lead since Scholes scored. ”

On Thierry Henry's substitution in the second half, Arsene Wenger explained: "Thierry Henry had just come back from the France game and was tired. We have 4 games in 8 days. He's brilliant but he's an ordinary guy after all and our focus is on the Champions League and the Premier League. ”

But whether the two managers are happy or sad, for the others, all it takes is one result.

This was the case with Derby County and Millwall, who knew United would be opponents in the FA Cup final and then faced a rivalry against Manchester United.

The next day was fast in coming.

Derby County and Millwall have both arrived in Birmingham, and the match between them will also be played at Villa Park, which is the home of Premier League side Aston Villa, and has been set by the FA as the stadium for the FA Cup semi-finals.

With the arrival of both teams, the media who wanted to cover the game also flocked to the station.

This game attracted attention Cheng dù is a lot smaller than yesterday's one, but after all, it is the FA Cup semi-final, there are still a lot of media reporters coming, the number of fans of the two teams who came to Birmingham with the team is also very large, the FA gave the two teams 8,000 fans respectively, but this still can not meet the requirements of the fans, many fans crowded on the small square of Villa Park Stadium, close to the big screen in Guò Square to watch the game.

In this atmosphere, the game is about to begin.

In the days leading up to the game, Derby County looked very low-key, but Millwall kept emphasizing words such as fighting spirit and victory, their manager Wise stood up, and their players stood up, so the media reported all the news about Millwall, and there was very little news about Derby County about the FA Cup.

The media all felt incredible, when did that Chinese be so low-key?

So they all crowded into the press conference, intending to do a final interview before the game to see what the Chinese had to say.

The press conference was a bit crowded.

Wan Sheng didn't know what the media thought, in fact, he had let the team do closed training for several days, without contact with the outside media. This has nothing to do with low-key, and there is no way, the team has just completed an early upgrade, the outside media are all reporting, and various players are also affected, Wansheng is worried that this will affect their state, so they have only done closed training for a few days, so that everyone can get back to the feeling of training and games on weekdays.

This works well.

Many of the players were a little impetuous before, they were influenced by the comments of the media and fans, and they were guests in various interviews, TV stations, etc. That takes a toll on their spirits, so it's hard for them to get back into training.

Such a state is definitely not going to work.

After a few days of adjustment, the whole team returned to its previous form, and Wan Sheng was relieved to be in the mood to deal with the media reporters, and when he walked into the press conference, many media 'kindly' told him what Millwall said before the game.

Hearing the other party keep talking about victory, fighting spirit and even miracles, Wan Sheng just smiled and said. "Do they have fighting spirit? Do they want to create a zào miracle? It's funny. ”

"I just want to say that in the face of the absolute difference in strength, the spark of miracle is destined to be annihilated. As for the fighting spirit? Do you think we don't have the fighting spirit? ”

Quite a few people laughed.

It's really hard to say that fighting spirit is such a thing, and Millwall openly expressed his fighting spirit. But who can say exactly what the fighting spirit is, this game is very important for both teams, both sides will try their best to win, so in terms of fighting spirit. Both sides have it.

On the contrary, Wan Sheng's previous sentence became the focus of attention, and Wan Sheng said it was very 'literary', which translates to -- in the face of the absolute difference in strength. Miracles don't exist, and the meaning is very clear that Millwall doesn't have the ability to create miracles in front of Derbyshire, and the media reporters look back and find that the power of this sentence is really more effective than what Millwall said.

Sure enough, it's Wansheng!

If this Chinese does not speak, it is amazing!

After Wan Sheng left the press conference, Millwall coach Wise also came to go through the motions, and the media reporter 'kindly' relayed what Wan Sheng said to Wise, Wise's face turned black when he heard it, and he raised his fist and said, "Whether we have the strength or not, let's watch it on the field!" ”

In this way, the atmosphere of both teams fell into tension

In the dressing room of Derby County, Wan Sheng was giving the players a final admonition, he didn't say anything tactical, and said directly, "Before going on the field, I want to tell you that you will forget the early promotion before the game, forget the league, and forget the results we have achieved!" Now we are facing a game that must be won! ”

"If we win this game, we will be in Europe next year! Sue me, do you want to participate in the European competition!? Do you want to play against a strong team from other leagues!? ”

Everyone didn't answer, but their eyes flashed with anticipation.

Wan Sheng looked at everyone's expressions and nodded with satisfaction, "Now, go on the court to play, I hope to see you fully show your state and strength, kill the suspense of the game, and we want to win cleanly!" ”

Everyone rushed out of the locker room door and lined up to enter the players' tunnel.

The race is ready to go.

The fans in the crowd had already started to shout, the fans of both teams sang their team anthems to support their favorite teams, and there were also many neutral fans who came to the scene to enjoy the FA Cup semi-finals, but they did not participate in the fiery shouting, they were quietly waiting for the game to start.

Most of these neutral fans have not yet figured out which team to support, and for them, it is natural that which team should be supported if it is good.

They can't wait for the game to start.

Finally, the referee signaled the players of the two teams to come on the field, after a group photo before the game, guessed the coin, lined up, and looked at the time of the same, the referee blew the whistle to announce the official start of the game. (To be continued......)