Chapter 345 700 million viewers witnessed the Manchester Derby!

"Van Gaal really knows how to choose the right time. If it were at the beginning of the season, he wouldn't dare to make such bold claims if I had the courage to do so!"

"Isn't that right? Manchester City is now full of injured soldiers, the coach is still absent, and they just lost a game. It can be said that everything is at a low point!"

"Manchester United is very lucky. If this game had been played two rounds earlier, I think their chances of winning would be less than 30%. At this time, if they encounter a Manchester City team like this, it's hard to say whether they will win or lose!"

After Van Gaal's big words were released, they immediately aroused the ridicule of many fans.

The majority of fans are quite disdainful of his behavior of taking advantage of others.

But Manchester United fans don't care about this. They see the hope of beating Manchester City away from home.

The humiliation of the Red Devils by Manchester City at Old Trafford last season has become an eternal pain in their hearts.

If they cannot avenge Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, this thorn will probably remain stuck in their throats and make them suffer forever.

Before the game, BBC Sports interviewed some experts and celebrities to ask their opinions on the game.

Most of the celebrities interviewed felt that Louis van Gaal's Manchester United had a chance to win away from home.

"Manchester City has too many injured players. The entire central axis of forwards, midfielders and defenders has been shaken. Injuries of this scale have a great impact on the team's combat effectiveness."

"Manchester City's head coach is absent and the acting coach has been suspended. The team has no advantage at the tactical level. I believe Van Gaal can defeat Manchester City with his better on-the-spot command!"

The opinions of experts are very unified, and almost all of them are not optimistic about Manchester City playing at home.

And they all believe that Manchester City's weakness lies in the lack of tactical arrangements and on-the-spot planning by the head coach.

Although Pellegrini is not the kind of famous coach with outstanding on-the-spot command ability, his ability in this area is better than that of Manchester City's assistant coach.

After all, the old coach has led the team to play games for so many years and has encountered all kinds of situations. The accumulated experience alone is not comparable to these assistant coaches.

Manchester City relies on the on-the-spot command and adjustment of the assistant coach, which is definitely not as good as the wily Van Gaal. After all, the latter is a famous coach and definitely has two skills.

So even if Manchester City can survive the start, I'm afraid they will still lose in the second half, especially after Van Gaal makes adjustments to the situation of the game.

…

Amidst the pessimism from the outside world, there is also a pessimistic atmosphere permeating the Manchester City team.

Players are always distracted during training, and some players always habitually look towards the edge of the court where the head coach is.

In the past, there was always an old man with silver hair standing on the sidelines to supervise their training.

At that time, the players would still complain that the coach was too tight on training, which made them feel a bit overwhelmed.

But now, after the old man on the sidelines disappeared, they were a little uncomfortable with it.

"What is the coach's illness? Why haven't you recovered after so many days?"

"I don't know. How about we go to the hospital and check it out?"

At this point, everyone looked at Lin Quan.

Lin Quan nodded: "Then let's go and see how the captain and the others are recovering!"

So, after the training, everyone drove to the hospital to visit the coach and teammates.

"Why are you here?"

In the ward, Pellegrini looked very surprised to see the players suddenly appearing.

"Coach, let's see you! How is your condition?"

In the ward, Pellegrini was wearing a hospital gown and looked a little haggard, but he was in good spirits.

At least he didn't appear unconscious and covered in various instruments as the players had guessed.

This gave the Manchester City players a sigh of relief. The situation didn't seem that serious?

After hearing what the players said, Pellegrini pretended to be relaxed and said:

"Haha, it's no big problem. I can return to the team and continue working soon!"

Pellegrini's answer cheered up the players. As long as the head coach returns, they feel that the team can quickly get out of the trough.

"You are here for the next game. I just have something to tell you. I have studied the tactics for the next game and the tactics that Manchester United may adopt these days..."

Pellegrini is a workaholic, even in the hospital, he did not stop working.

While he was hospitalized, he carefully studied Manchester United's tactics in recent games and determined the starting lineup and tactics for the next game based on Manchester City's current lineup.

Even, because he was worried about the assistant coach's on-the-spot command ability being insufficient, he had even arranged in advance the substitutions under what circumstances and at what time points.

It can be said that Chilean engineers have done everything to the extreme.

After listening to his arrangements, the players suddenly felt confident.

Although the team's lineup is still incomplete, they have a lot of confidence in defeating Manchester United at home!

After spending some time in the ward, the players said their goodbyes and left.

Lin Quan kept an eye out and deliberately stayed behind. After the other players had left, he went to find the doctor in charge of treating Pellegrini and asked him about his condition.

Sure enough, the situation was completely different from what Pellegrini said.

According to the doctor, Pellegrini's disease was an aneurysm, which is a very dangerous disease that can lead to death if it ruptures.

"Will this disease affect his normal work?"

Lin Quan asked with great concern.

"certainly!"

The doctor replied with a serious expression:

"We recommend that patients with this disease be admitted to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible, and it is not recommended to continue working, because fatigue will aggravate the condition and increase the risk of aneurysm rupture, which will pose a threat to the patient's life safety."

After hearing the doctor's answer, Lin Quan suddenly felt something bad.

Suddenly diagnosed with this disease, the coach may not be able to continue coaching.

The club has probably started looking for a suitable successor, right?

The team cannot always be without a coach...

November 2, Etihad Stadium.

The focus of the entire Premier League is focused on the two teams in this stadium!

Although the team is at a low ebb, the outside world is not optimistic about Manchester City winning at home.

But before the game started, tens of thousands of Manchester City fans still poured into the scene.

They carried various slogans supporting the team, sang Manchester City's team anthem, and stepped into the stadium with their heads held high.

Blue Moon fans use their actual actions to explain to the outside world their die-hard spirit of never abandoning or giving up!

Seeing Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal enter the stadium, the Manchester City fans at the scene collectively booed, and some fans close to the visiting team's coaching bench even greeted Van Gaal's family.

Hearing these boos and abuses, Van Gaal stepped into the stadium and glanced disdainfully at the Manchester City fans in the stands:

"Humph, you bunch of idiots, you will cry when the game is over!"

He doesn't like the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium, nor the fans.

If possible, he hopes to use a bloody massacre to teach these damn guys how to respect a world-class coach!

In the player tunnel, players from both sides are waiting to enter.

Although there were many familiar people on both sides, no one had the intention to say hello.

Under the publicity of the outside world, this game has turned into a life-and-death battle.

Soon, under the leadership of the referee, the players from both sides led the caddies out of the tunnel and onto the court.

When the host at the scene introduced the players from both sides, every Manchester City player received deafening cheers and support from the fans at the scene.

When the Manchester United players were introduced, there were only boos and abuse.

A few years ago, Manchester City was still very weak. At that time, Manchester United was at its peak and they didn't take their neighbor next door seriously at all.

At that time, the Manchester Derby was the performance stage of the Red Devils. Although the passion was fierce, it lacked the anxiety of evenly matched matches.

But in recent years, with the gradual rise of Manchester City, the game between the two teams has truly gained the flavor of a derby.

As a result, the Manchester Derby gradually became popular, and more and more fans chose to watch the Manchester Derby. In the entire Premier League, its popularity is second only to the Double Red Club that has lasted for decades.

And this time is probably the closest the two teams have ever seen. Who can win in the end depends entirely on their performance.

Such a suspenseful game naturally attracted the attention of countless people.

According to official statistics from the Premier League, this Manchester Derby attracted a total of 690 million viewers around the world.

This level of popularity can almost catch up with the popularity of the World Cup!

At 18:30 on the evening of November 2, under the spotlight, the first leg of the 2014-15 Premier League Manchester Derby officially started.

Manchester City's formation in this game is 442, and Manchester United's formation is 433.

But after the game started, Manchester United's formation changed to 4141.

Van Gaal was finally willing to change his stubborn tactics. The miserable results at the beginning of the season showed that his method was not suitable for Manchester United at all.

If he had listened to outside advice earlier, perhaps Manchester United would not be so far behind the top team in points now.

Currently, Manchester United is 11 points behind Manchester City in the standings. You must know that the league has only entered the 10th round. It only took 9 games for Manchester United to open up such a huge gap.

How bad was Van Gaal's previous leadership performance!

It's no wonder that the Red Devils fans are furious. It's almost the worst record in team history. Who wouldn't be angry if it's to blame?

After the game started, Manchester City played very proactively.

They frequently used both wings to attack Manchester United.

This caused Manchester United's full-backs to be tightly suppressed in their own half, unable to devote much effort to the attack.

Therefore, judging from the situation on the field, it seems that Manchester City is gradually gaining the upper hand.

In the 8th minute, Milner broke through from the wing and sent a through ball.

Lin Quan suddenly came in from the left rib, squeezed out the opponent's defensive midfielder Fellaini, received the ball and fired directly.

The ball was played very suddenly. From Lin Quan's start to his completion of the shot, the whole process took less than 2 seconds.

Because Lin Quan played too fast and suddenly, the two Manchester United defenders Smalling and Rojo did not have time to block.

The football flew straight towards Manchester United's goal!

As a teammate of Lin Quan's national team, De Gea has witnessed Lin Quan's strength in training and competitions within the Spanish team, so he has always been wary of Lin Quan.

The ball started suddenly from Lin Quan, and De Gea judged that he was likely to hit the goal directly.

Facts have proved that his judgment was accurate.

Facing Lin Quan's extremely high-quality shot, De Gea jumped high and lifted the ball over the crossbar in the air.

He originally planned to take the ball off, but the ball was too fast and powerful. He did not dare to try it easily. He could only use a more secure method to shoot the ball out first.

Manchester City won a corner kick.

Lin Quan stood in the corner kick area, glanced at the penalty area, and made a forward gesture.

After seeing his gesture, Van Dijk ran back two steps smartly, and then suddenly turned back to get rid of the Manchester United defender who was guarding him.

Van Dijk grabbed the first shot and also formed a header.

But the top of the ball was slightly off, and the football missed the post and flew out of the baseline.

This wave of attacks by Manchester City made the Manchester United fans at the scene tremble with fear!

Although the opponent injured several generals and the head coach also missed the game.

But the opponent's combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated!

Especially the guy from Manchester City wearing the No. 10 jersey. Every time they see him get the ball, Manchester United fans feel as if their hearts are being held by someone's hands, and they have a suffocating feeling that they can't breathe!

Lin Quan alone brought them such a huge sense of oppression!

On the sidelines, assistant coach Reidel clapped his hands excitedly and sent applause and encouragement to the players.

In this game, he played completely according to the tactics formulated by Pellegrini. According to the old coach's tactics, Manchester United's adjustments in the first half should not have come so quickly.

It will take some time for Van Gaal to see through Manchester City's tactics, so this is an excellent opportunity for them to grab points.

Once they broke the deadlock in the first half and took the lead.

Then it will be very convenient to adjust tactics in the second half!

Manchester City has one of the simplest and most terrifying tactics - defensive counterattack!

Although defensive counterattack is the first choice for weak teams to defeat strong teams, it does not mean that strong teams cannot use it.

On the contrary, when a strong team uses this tactic, its power will be even more terrifying.

Clubs such as Barcelona and Real Madrid experienced this in the Champions League last season.

Therefore, what Manchester City lacks now is just a goal!

At the visiting team's coaching bench, Van Gaal was sitting on the coaching bench, looking relaxed and contented.

But in fact, he was very nervous inside and not as calm as he looked on the outside.

Manchester City's offensive threat was so great that Van Gaal couldn't stand it.

Fortunately, it's not Manchester City in its heyday. If the opponent's personnel are intact and the head coach is not sick and hospitalized, then Manchester United will really be in trouble.