Chapter 434 The growing injury list

Ibrahimovic worked very hard to find scoring opportunities.

No matter what the team's goal is, as a forward, you have to score goals. Just because the game needs to be tied, the forwards cannot stop trying to score goals. What if the opponent scores first?

Ibrahimovic has opened the scoring for the team seven times this season, and the team has won all of them, so his ability to break the deadlock is very strong.

In this game, the Swedish forward naturally wanted to break the deadlock for his team.

In the 37th minute, Bruno passed the ball forward from the backcourt. Ibrahimovic started to chase the ball. As a result, he just took two steps and suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground. At the same time, he held his legs with his hands, his expression Very painful.

"What happened on the field? Ibrahimovic suddenly fell down without the ball and without confrontation!"

Mourinho suddenly stood up from his seat and stared at the court nervously.

Anderlecht defender Appiah, who was running backwards with Ibrahimovic, turned around and saw Ibrahimovic falling to the ground in pain, and stopped chasing the ball. Instead, he turned around and raised his arm to indicate that someone was injured.

Rashford, the Manchester United player closest to Ibrahimovic, rushed over, worried for his strike partner.

He fell to the ground without the ball and without confrontation, and his expression was painful, which only shows that the injury was serious this time.

………………

Bruno was stunned for a moment, then he realized what he was doing and ran towards Ibrahimovic.

When Ibrahimovic felt muscle soreness during training, he was a little worried. After all, Ibrahimovic suffered a cruciate ligament injury in this game and was sidelined for several months.

So he also told Ibi that if it doesn't work, stop playing and take a rest for a game.

At that time, Ibi told him that it was no big deal, it was just a slight soreness, and he brought it up out of caution. Otherwise, no one would know if he kept it secret.

Who would have thought that during the competition, the muscle soreness would really defeat him.

He ran to Ibrahimovic's side, then turned around and made a substitution gesture to the head coach Mourinho who was looking over the coaching bench with just one glance.

It seems that he has a cruciate ligament strain and Ibrahimovic will not be able to finish the game.

"Bruno made a substitution gesture! Ibrahimovic, the striker who has performed well this season, was injured and fell to the ground in this key game. It seems that he cannot continue to play... It seems that the rumors about his injury before the game are true. !”

When Ibrahimovic was carried off the field on a stretcher, he covered his face with his hands.

Only he knows how serious the injury is this time. He will no longer be absent from this game, and may even be absent from all the remaining games of this season!

Bruno ran over, patted him on the shoulder, and said in his ear: "Recuperate in peace, Zlatan."

Ibrahimovic didn't make any answer, and Bruno could only see something flickering between his fingers.

………………

Ibrahimovic's injury really broke the deadlock in this game.

Considering that Manchester United lost their main forward and posed less threat to Anderlecht's defense, Weller decided to strengthen the offensive.

After Anderlecht attacked, some gaps naturally appeared in their originally tight defense. How could Manchester United miss such an opportunity?

Perhaps there was also the reason why the first half was about to end. The two sides suddenly became less cautious and started attacking each other.

The same was true in the second half, with the two sides continuing to attack each other.

In the 1th minute, Anderlecht took the lead in scoring. Kiphue made a pass from the right, and Blind made the clearance not far away. Tielemans' long-range shot from the outside hit the defender and then hit the crossbar and bounced off the crossbar. Teodochek controlled the two-pointer in front of the goal. The ball was given to Arnie, who scored the ball, Anderlecht 0: Manchester United.

The more than two thousand Anderlecht fans who came to Old Trafford burst into loud cheers.

But they were not happy for long. Ten minutes later, in the 65th minute, Manchester United equalized the score.

Bruno midfielder stole the ball from Danton Kerr and penetrated the opponent's defense with a through ball. Rashford got the ball from the left and hit the middle of the penalty area on the left side. The ball was blocked by the defender and Rashford got the ball. Moving to the center again, Gundogan, who inserted in from behind, scored with a low shot from the edge of the penalty area. Manchester United 1:1 Anderlecht.

………………

Then the two sides did not slow down and continued to attack.

In the 81st minute, it was Manchester United's turn to take the lead.

Lingard received a pass from Rashford at the edge of the penalty area and then took a shot. The ball beautifully bypassed Anderlecht goalkeeper Ruben Martinez, but it hit the post and bounced back. Towards Bruno, Bruno volleyed and the football flew into the empty goal.

2: 1!

"Bruno's goal! Manchester United reversed Anderlecht 2:1! This is Bruno's 10th Europa League goal this season, and he continues to lead the Europa League scorer list!"

Manchester United fans celebrated wildly in the stands and in front of the TV, while Anderlecht's players fought back wildly after falling behind to score another goal.

As long as one more goal is scored, even though the total score between the two sides is a draw, Anderlecht can eliminate Manchester United with the advantage of more away goals.

In the last few minutes, Bruno became the busiest person in the Manchester United team. He completely gave up offense and concentrated on defense. He frequently appeared in key positions and defused the opponent's offensive.

For the current Manchester United, if they can maintain the 2:1 score, they can successfully advance to the semi-finals of the Europa League.

Of course, Manchester United did not have no chance to seal the victory. Before the game was about to enter stoppage time, Lingard had a good opportunity, but his shot was weak and was directly blocked by Martinez.

………………

In the end, the referee of this game blew the whistle for the end of the game. Manchester United defeated Anderlecht 2:1 at home and successfully advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League.

However, the main center was seriously injured and went off the field. For Manchester United, this game posed hidden dangers in their championship.

For the team, no one can tell whether advancing to the semi-finals of the Europa League is a blessing or a curse.

At present, Manchester United still retains the possibility of winning the fourth tier: they lead the Premier League standings, have also reached the semi-finals in the FA Cup and Europa League, and the League Cup championship has already been won.

If they can win the Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup in one season, this will not only make Manchester United the fifth Grand Slam team in the history of European football, but also become an unprecedented single-season Grand Slam team. Team.

However, Manchester United, which is currently fighting on the third front, will also face a super cruel schedule: in the next month, they will have to play at least 10 games, and may have to play 12 games at most!

Such a dense schedule, not to mention at the end of the season, even at the beginning of the season, with the thickness of Manchester United's lineup, it is very difficult to cope with it.

It is true that Manchester United has no problem with the thickness of the lineup this season, and there is no problem with putting together two good starting lineups.

However, with eight members of the first-team injury list including Ibrahimovic, Rooney, Mata, Herrera, Luke Shaw, Van Dijk, Rojo, and Phil Jones, Rao is a player with Manchester United’s wealth. , Mourinho wants to rotate the lineup, but he is a little stretched.

………………

After less than 60 hours of rest, Manchester United ushered in the next game: facing Tottenham at the new Wembley Stadium. This is the FA Cup semi-finals of this season!

In another FA Cup semi-final a day ago, Arsenal and Manchester City tied 1:1 in 2 minutes. In the following overtime, Arsenal scored the winning goal to win the game. They eliminated Manchester City with a score of 1: and took the lead in reaching the FA Cup final.

Now, Manchester United and Tottenham will compete for another final ticket.

Although Manchester United was drawn at home in this game, it was Tottenham that really took advantage of the home field. After all, they are in London and do not have to travel to London like Manchester United.

After the game started, Tottenham's momentum was very high, because the FA Cup is the only championship they can compete for this season, so they were full of motivation and fighting spirit.

In the first five minutes, Tottenham had a threatening shot.

Mourinho was very dissatisfied with the team's defense off the court. Young teams are like this. When they are in adversity, they are prone to collapse, and once things go smoothly, they are prone to be complacent.

It's hard to say whether the team's previous series of poor performances have anything to do with the curse, but Mourinho believes it has something to do with the team's complacency.

This complacency is not obvious, nor is it reflected in certain things, but it is subtly affecting the players' mentality.

There is a technical statistic that can show the change in the team's mentality: in terms of running distance, the average running distance per game of Manchester United players except goalkeepers in the first half of the season was 11.3 kilometers, but now it is only 9.0 kilometers. Eight kilometers.

………………

The lack of running shows that the players are not paying enough attention during the game. Many times they choose to walk on the field and are not as active as in the first half of the season.

There are only a few people who can still run actively as always, and Bruno is one of them. He runs an average of more than 13 kilometers per game.

But unfortunately football is not a one-person sport. No matter how well he performs alone, he cannot improve the performance of the whole team. Bruno had few goals and assists some time ago, mostly because the team's overall state was relatively sluggish.

But in the game against Chelsea, the team regained its vitality and ran actively throughout the game, so it was normal for them to win the game 3:0.

The same is true for this game. Although Tottenham took the initiative from the beginning, these advantages soon disappeared as the Manchester United players actively ran.

In the 13th minute, Bruno suddenly separated at the front of the penalty area. Lingard broke into the penalty area and received the ball without any defense. Then facing Tottenham goalkeeper Lloris who attacked to block the angle, Lingard hit the goal with great force. Football From Lori's head he ran into the top corner of the goal.

1: 0!

But five minutes later, Tottenham equalized the score. Eriksen passed a diagonal pass, and Kane headed the ball back in the penalty area. The ball went straight into the net!