Chapter 553 Engagement

Chapter 553 Engagement

On the evening of March 3, in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Manchester United played against Brighton at home.

Mourinho made a large-scale rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup, with McTominay as the lone striker, Mata, Lingard and Mahrez ambushing behind him, and Herrera and Fellaini as double defensive midfielders. On the defensive line, Lindelof and Smalling partnered as central defenders, Luke Shaw and Valencia were on the left and right, and Romero was the goalkeeper.

In the 37th minute, Luke Shaw knocked the ball back from the left, Mahrez then passed the ball to the back post, McTominay headed the ball into the goal, and Manchester United led Brighton 1:0.

In the 83rd minute, Ashley Young, who came on as a substitute, made a free kick from the left and passed it to the back post. Bruno, who also came on as a substitute, headed the ball into the goal. Manchester United defeated Brighton 2-0 and successfully advanced to the FA Cup semi-finals.

A day later, the other two teams in the 2017-2018 FA Cup semi-finals were also decided. Southampton eliminated Wigan Athletic 4:2, and Chelsea scored a goal in overtime and eliminated Leicester City 0:2.

The semi-final draw was then announced, with Manchester United facing Tottenham and Chelsea facing Southampton. Both semi-finals will be held at the new Wembley Stadium on April 4 and 21.

In the FA Cup semi-final draw, Manchester United was drawn as the nominal home team, but considering that Tottenham has played at Wembley Stadium for most of the season, it is actually Tottenham's "home court". This season, Tottenham's strong dialogues at home have basically attracted more than 8 spectators.

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In the new week, international football ushered in the first international match day of 2018. The Portuguese national team had two warm-up matches during this period. The opponents were the Egypt team led by Salah and the Netherlands team led by Van Dijk.

However, after discussing with Santos, Bruno did not join the Portuguese national team this time.

In the following April and May, Manchester United will have to fight on three fronts, so the schedule is too tight.

按照赛程安排，本赛季英超将在5月13日结束，也就是说从3月31日到5月13日，短短45天时间，曼联将踢8场英超联赛。

Coupled with Manchester United's advancement to the FA Cup semi-finals and the Champions League quarter-finals, this means they will have to play at least one FA Cup semi-final and two Champions League quarter-finals.

In the best case scenario, that is, Manchester United reaches the FA Cup final and the Champions League final, they will play 2 FA Cup games and 5 Champions League games.

That is to say, Manchester United will play 4 to 5 games in April and May, almost two games a week.

What's more, after the end of the season, the World Cup in Russia will also begin, and Bruno has no time to rest.

It can be said that this international match day will be Bruno's last chance to rest before the start of the World Cup in Russia.

Of course, the real reason why Bruno missed the Portuguese national team this time was because he and Vanessa were getting engaged.

In January, Vanessa, who turned 1, told Bruno at her birthday party that she wanted to get married.

Bruno recalled the four years they had spent together and Vanessa's silent dedication during that time, and finally put aside his hesitation and nodded to their marriage.

After discussion between the two, they decided to get engaged in March and then officially get married next summer.

The engagement ceremony was held in Bruno's hometown of Maia, and was also very low-key. Both parties only invited some of their closest relatives and friends, and the total number of people did not even exceed 30.

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After the engagement ceremony, Bruno and Vanessa went on vacation to Switzerland on the newly delivered Gulfstream G650 private jet.

At the same time, Portugal and Egypt also started their warm-up match in Zurich, Switzerland. In the first half, Rolando's goal was disallowed; in the second half, Salah scored a long-range goal to open the scoring, and Ronaldo scored two headers in stoppage time and completed the winning goal in the 95th minute.

Bruno and Vanessa watched the game in the VIP box as fans.

Three days later, the Portuguese team moved to Geneva and faced another opponent, the Orange Army Netherlands team.

Although they missed the World Cup in Russia, the strength of the Dutch team is unquestionable.

In the first half, the Dutch team attacked like a tide, Depay, Babel and Van Dijk scored three goals for the Dutch team, and De Ligt contributed two assists. After the change of sides, Cancelo received the second yellow card of the game and was sent off.

In the end, the Netherlands defeated Portugal 3:0.

The two games highlighted a very obvious problem, that is, without Bruno, Portugal's control on the field has obviously declined. They can't even compete with the average Egyptian team in the midfield. They only won the victory by relying on Ronaldo's personal ability at the critical moment. However, against the strong Dutch team, the Five Shields were completely suppressed in the midfield. Without support from the midfield, Ronaldo couldn't continue his magical performance.

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After enjoying a short one-week vacation in Switzerland, the couple returned to Manchester by private plane, and Bruno began to prepare for another devilish schedule that is about to begin.

At 3 pm on March 31st, local time in the UK, a focus match of the 3nd round of the Premier League kicked off at Old Trafford Stadium, with Manchester United playing at home against Swansea.

Manchester United took the lead in the 5th minute. Lingard passed the ball, Bruno made a cross from the left side of the penalty area, and Harry Kane shot into the upper corner from 13 yards.

Manchester United extended the lead in the 20th minute, with Bruno's goal changing the score to 2:0.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!!!!!!!"

"Bruno! Bruno!! Bruno!!! He scored a goal, his 36th league goal of the season!"

"This is a very interesting lucky goal!" Andy Gray shouted, "This goal makes us draw a conclusion that when the player's scoring feeling and state and luck are also good, it is difficult for you not to score."

The live broadcast was replaying this goal. It was a through ball from Gundogan, and Harry Kane, with his back to the goal, used his heel to move the ball forward. Bruno was offside and entered the penalty area. Facing the goalkeeper Fabianski who came out, he chose to shoot.

Bruno, who had just completed his shot, was knocked down by Swansea defender Federico who was chasing back. The ball was saved by goalkeeper Fabianski and hit the post and bounced back.

At this moment, Bruno, who was lying on the ground, was about to get up. When he looked up, the football hit Bruno's forehead and bounced into the net...

This is what the commentator said, when the feeling and luck of scoring a goal come, it is hard not to score a goal.

Look, the goal came to us!

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At the end of the first half, Manchester United led Swansea 2:0 at home.

When the referee blew the whistle, Swansea coach Carvalhal frowned and went straight back to the locker room. For the first half of the game, he only wanted to say one thing: Manchester United was too lucky.

Carvalhal replaced Paul Kante as Swansea's head coach on December 12 last year. After taking over, he achieved good results, with an excellent record of 28 wins, 10 draws and 5 losses in 3 league games. This also made Swansea rise from the previous bottom team to 2th place in the standings, 14 points above the relegation zone, which is in a relatively safe position.

And the Portuguese quickly won the trust of Swansea players.

After the half-time break, before the start of the second half, Carvalhal made adjustments to the team. He let former Liverpool striker Carroll and young player Abraham on loan from Chelsea come on, replacing midfielders Dier and Ji Sung-yueng.

This is a very courageous substitution, replacing two midfielders with two center forwards. Now Swansea is deploying a three-forward tactic.

"It's actually a double center forward tactic," Mourinho said to Carrick. "Carroll and Abraham are the two high points, Ayew's position is slightly withdrawn, he and Clucas form a double wing to supply ammunition for these two people."

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This substitution had some effect at first, especially when Krucas suddenly showed his strength and made continuous crosses from the wing.

Obviously, this was Carvalhal's deployment during the halftime break, stimulating Klucas's ability to assist from the wing to find Carroll and Abraham.

Mourinho was startled, and then he saw Klukas using his speed to repeatedly attack Valencia's defense area, and the football was whizzed into the penalty area by him - flying from the left to the no-man's land on the right, or directly flying out of the baseline and out of the sideline.

Anyway, the ball will fly to where there are no Swansea players.

Mourinho was stunned. In just ten minutes, Clucas made four crosses, all of which perfectly avoided his teammates.

"What is Klukas doing? Is he practicing the pop ball game?" the commentator couldn't help but ask.

"My grandma's passing is more reliable than Clucas'," said Andy Gray, the gold medal commentator of Sky TV who was commentating on the game, sarcastically.

Mourinho immediately made a substitution, with Kante coming on as a substitute, replacing Herrera.

Then, this substitution immediately had a miraculous effect. Clucas tried to break through Valencia again, but Kante cleverly double-teamed him and stole the ball from Clucas' feet, and Manchester United launched a quick counterattack.

Mahrez made a long pass, Harry Kane headed the ball in front and then rubbed it, Van der Horn made a tackle to clear the ball, but accidentally knocked the goalkeeper Fabianski to the ground. Then, everyone saw that Manchester United's left winger Rashford was stunned for a second, then happily dribbled the ball to the front of the goal and shot the ball into the empty goal.

Manchester United took a three-goal lead.

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Carvalhal felt like he was going crazy. The players kept making mistakes and accidents kept happening on the field. He even wondered if Swansea was cursed.

The camera captured that when Rashford scored this lucky gift package goal, Manchester United head coach Mourinho did not celebrate immediately on the sidelines, but spread his hands with an expression of great surprise.

"Obviously, Mourinho was also stunned. He didn't expect Swansea to send so many gifts."

Swansea, trailing by three goals, launched a frantic attack. Carvalhal was now thinking about scoring goals and narrowing the gap as much as possible. He did not seek to win or reverse the game. He would thank God if he could tie the score.

Seeing Swansea pressing forward, Mourinho stared at the empty Swansea defense and thought. Then, he asked Mbappe, who had been warming up on the sidelines for more than ten minutes, to come over and give him instructions: "When you come on the court, replace Bruno. Let Kane pass the ball to you. We will play a defensive counterattack and use your speed to attack their defense!"

When Swansea pressed forward desperately, the most suitable player for defensive counterattack was the extremely fast Mbappe.

Subsequently, Manchester United made a substitution, the team captain Bruno was replaced by Mbappe.

"This substitution was very timely. When Swansea attacked aggressively, there was a lot of space behind their defense line. It was perfect for Mbappe," said Andy Gray.

………………

Carvalhal also noticed the substitution and he could guess what Mourinho was thinking.

But even though he guessed what Manchester United was going to do, Carvalhal was powerless to do anything. Unless Swansea could accept losing 0:3 and defend honestly, otherwise, as long as they pressed forward, they would risk exposing gaps in their defense and being seized by the opponent.

This is a gambling attack.

Carvalhal now hopes that the goddess of luck will take care of Swansea and not give Manchester United a chance.

However, Carvalhal's heart skipped a beat. Speaking of luck, Swansea's luck was really bad today.

………………

In the 76th minute of the game, Swansea's attack in the frontcourt was intercepted and Manchester United quickly launched a defensive counterattack.

After receiving the pass from Van Dijk, Mahrez did not choose to dribble the ball forward, but looked ahead and then kicked the ball directly: a long pass!

The football crossed half court and flew directly towards Swansea's backcourt.

"Free time!"

"An opportunity to fight back!"

On Swansea's left side, left-back Olsen came up because of an assist and had not yet returned to defense, so there was a large open space there.

Mbappe is sprinting, behind him on the left is Rashford, and in the middle is Gundogan.

In Swansea's penalty area, there was only central defender Van der Horn, while the other two central defenders Federico and Mosson were desperately chasing back.

"Three against one! Manchester United formed a three against one situation in a local area!"

Mbappe caught up with the football first, and then he sprinted directly with the ball.

Swansea defender Van der Horn rushed forward with his head held high. He was very panicked now. Not only did he have to defend against Mbappe's breakthrough, but he also had to defend against his passes and long shots... He felt that his life was too difficult.

At this time, the smartest choice for Mbappe is to pass the ball to Rashford on the left, and Vanderhorn is mainly defending this.

Then he saw Mbappe rushing towards him.

Well come!

Then Mbappe disappeared from Vanderhorn's sight.

"Beautiful!" commentator Andy Gray couldn't help but exclaim.

Before the two men were about to touch, Mbappe moved the ball forward, then started again, rushing past Vanderhorn like a gust of wind.