Since the match between Fiorentina and Manchester United was set by UEFA as the highlight of the Champions League quarter-finals, the referee this time was German whistle "dentist" Merck, whose presence could at least avoid most of the controversy on the pitch.

As soon as the game began, the two sides immediately engaged in a fierce battle in the midfield.

However, to the surprise of Manchester United fans, the golden four midfielders who have made them talk about so much have fallen behind in the confrontation with the Fiorentina midfielder!

Is this still the Manchester United team that swept the Premier League?!

Zhuang Mingge, who sat in the box and watched the game with a pair of dark circles, was not surprised by this kind of scene, after all, from Jishu's point of view, Manchester United's midfielders can indeed go sideways in the Premier League, but zoomed in to the whole of Europe, the jishu of these players is indeed not a particularly outstanding group. This can be seen from the fact that the core of Manchester United's current midfield is still the Irish tough guy Roy Keane. Therefore, Manchester United did not do a very good job of controlling the tempo of the game, and compared to Fiorentina, who have two killer weapons of Effenberg and Redondo, it is simply more than a cut behind.

What's more, Fiorentina also have two jishu-type midfielders Djokaeff and Rui Costa on the bench, and Manchester United will undoubtedly kill themselves if they want to fight with the purple lily in this regard.

Moreover, even in the year when Manchester United won the treble, their midfield did not have much advantage. In the semi-finals, if it weren't for the infighting between Lippi and the club that gave Ferguson a chance to turn the tables, Manchester United would have been eliminated by Juventus; Later, in the Champions League final, they were suppressed by Bayern for almost the entire game, and if it wasn't for Heathfield's careless replacement of Mateus, the Red Devils' second Champions League title may still be far away.

The lack of an organised midfielder is also related to the general environment of English football, the kind of organisational midfielder who can control the tempo of the midfield, which is quite rare in the Premier League, and the high-intensity physical confrontation and ferocious tackles make the midfield playmaker have little soil to grow in England.

The most powerful aspect of the so-called outstanding talents of Jishu praised by the English media is often their breakthrough rather than their ability to organize the game, whether it is George Best, or Hoddle and Gascoigne, or later known as England's most Haode midfielder Joe Cole, their organizational skills are not outstanding in the whole of Europe.

Therefore, when Manchester United's midfield was suppressed by Fiorentina, the Red Devils' attack began to become chaotic, and Fiorentina's attack naturally became much smoother, Effenberg and Redondo continued to create opportunities for Fiorentina through passing, and Carlos and Zambrotta on both wings also took advantage of the advantage of the midfield to frequently press and participate in the attack, creating opportunities for Ronaldo and Inzaghi at the front.

While Inzaghi and Ronaldo are not as tall as Pallister and David May, they are more than three streets away from United's centre-backs in terms of flexibility.

As a result, Fiorentina's players have repeatedly taken advantage of the disadvantage of Manchester United's defenders to be tall and bulky and slow to turn behind them, especially David May, whose consistency and personal ability are obviously a weakness of Manchester United, has become the top target of Ronaldo and Inzaghi's attacks.

Seeing his two centre-backs dead under the onslaught of the Fiorentina striker, Ferguson, who was standing on the sidelines, shook his head, and he couldn't think of anything to curb the opponent's attack.

Although there are a lot of central defenders in Manchester United's first team this season, in fact, the performance is reassuring enough, only the veteran Pallister is alone, David May who replaced the departing Bruce position is mediocre, Phil Neville is more suitable as a midfielder than a central defender as a versatile player, and Norwegian Ronnie Johansen was forced to miss a month of games due to a ligament strain in the previous team training, otherwise it would not have been David May's turn to start this game.

When Bruce was still there, no matter which central defender he cooperated with, Manchester United's defense would not look too bad, because the Manchester United captain would always sweep them up in time, but I didn't expect that as soon as Bruce left this season, the weaknesses in Manchester United's back line began to be exposed!

Although in the league, Ferguson can let the players cover up the defects in the back line with active attacks, but what Ferguson didn't expect was that in the Champions League, Capello actually saw the weak side of Manchester United's powerful offensive firepower at a glance, and also used Ronaldo's breakthrough and Inzaghi's dexterity to constantly impact Manchester United's backline!

If it weren't for this, Ronaldo would not have been so reckless in attacking Manchester United's two centre-backs from the very beginning of the game. They did this in order to make United's two centre-backs consume a lot of energy from the very beginning of the game, so as to establish a certain advantage in the rest of the game!

Capello does this for a reason, knowing that among the four major European leagues, only the Premier League does not have a winter break, and the Premier League has four more league games than Serie A in a season, plus a wide variety of cup competitions, which consumes a lot of physical energy of Manchester United players.

Therefore, in terms of fitness, Manchester United could not compare with Fiorentina, who had adjusted their form after a half-month winter break, let alone in the case of Capello who constantly moved Manchester United's defenders to chase back.

Keane is tough enough, but he is also just one man, and in the face of the combination of Effenberg and Redondo, the Irishman can only choose one to defend, and the other can only be handed over to his teammates.

However, this shows another weakness in United's midfield: a serious lack of defensive liliang.

Paul Scholes, David Beckham and Ryan Giggs excel in their ability to run and have a lot of willpower, but that doesn't mean they can keep Fiorentina at bay. You must know that under Zhuang Mingge's deliberate creation, the confrontation ability of the Fiorentina midfielder is not weaker than Manchester United at all, and Redondo, Davies and others are even better than the slightly thin Ryan Giggs in terms of physical condition!

Therefore, as long as Keane, Ferguson's only defensive piece in midfield, is replaced by a big player, Manchester United's backline will be directly exposed to Fiorentina's firepower!

The hot-tempered and competitive Effenberg was naturally the best candidate in Capello's mind, and the German Tiger took on the task without Capello darting to do so. At the moment, Effenberg seems to have done a very good job, using constant movement and chatter to clear the gate in front of United's backline.

Keane also knew what the purpose of Effenberg's move was, but he didn't dare to relax his defense against the Germans, German football has been glorious for so many years, everyone knows that these German players all have an unreasonable long-range shot, in case Effenberg seizes the opportunity to score one, then Manchester United will be passive.

And Keane didn't dare to use a foul to get Effenberg off the field, after all, this is the Champions League, not the Premier League's one-acre three-point land of Manchester United, I heard that Fiorentina and UEFA President Johansson have a pretty good relationship, Keane is not in the mood to test what kind of penalty his own offense will get in exchange for UEFA.

So, after the start of the game, Manchester United lost control of the midfield little by little, and was suppressed by Fiorentina in its own home stadium!

The balance of the game is slowly tilting in favor of Fiorentina.