Chapter 640 The King of Football and the Man Behind Him

格林尼治时间2018年8月10日晚上八点，2018-2019赛季英超揭幕战在老特拉福德球场展开争夺，由卫冕冠军红魔曼联对阵曾经创造了神奇夺冠记录的蓝狐莱斯特城。

The reason why the whistle of this game was moved forward to Friday night is mainly because next Wednesday night, Manchester United will compete with Atletico Madrid for the 2018 European Super Cup at the Alekok Arena in Tallinn, Estonia, Eastern Europe. The Premier League deliberately moved the game time forward to prepare for Manchester United's game.

In this game, Manchester United got off to a dream start and took the lead in the 146th second. Luke Shaw made a back pass from the left bottom, Rashford's shot from the left side of the penalty area was blocked by Morgan and deflected, Amartey committed a handball foul, and Bruno calmly shot the penalty into the upper right corner, scoring the first league goal of the season and helping Manchester United take the lead.

In the 78th minute, Manchester United scored again. Bruno made a diagonal pass and Harry Kane scored from 11 yards, giving Manchester United a 2-0 lead.

In the 83rd minute, Manchester United extended the lead. Mata, who came on as a substitute, made a diagonal pass, and Luke Shaw stopped the ball and got rid of Ricardo Pereira, then shot diagonally from the upper left corner of the small penalty area into the far corner of the net, helping Manchester United to secure the victory.

In the 92nd minute, Leicester City equalized the game. Ricardo Pereira made a diagonal pass from the right, the ball bounced off the ground and hit the far post before being passed back. Vardy headed the ball into the goal from close range, changing the score to 1:3.

In the end, thanks to Bruno's shot and pass, as well as goals from Harry Kane and Luke Shaw, Manchester United defeated Leicester City 3:1 and got off to a good start in the new league season.

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After defeating Leicester City, Manchester United immediately turned to preparations for the upcoming European Super Cup, which is also a key battle for Manchester United to hit the seven crowns in 2018. After all, compared with the Club World Cup at the end of the year, the opponent of this game, Atletico Madrid, is stronger.

At noon on Tuesday, the entire Manchester United team boarded the team's private plane and flew to Tallinn on the Baltic Sea coast. Although Tallinn is a small city with a population of only about 400,000, equivalent to a small county town in China, it is the capital and largest city of Estonia, the northernmost of the three Baltic countries.

The 2018 European Super Cup was held at the Alekerk Arena in Tallinn. This is a small stadium that can only accommodate about 14000 fans. It is completely incomparable to Manchester United's current home stadium, Old Trafford, and even more incomparable to Manchester United's new home stadium that can accommodate 90000 spectators after reconstruction. However, it is the home stadium of the Estonian national team and the largest stadium in this small country.

At 8 pm on August 15, local time, this place has become a place of worldwide attention, because last season's Champions League champion Manchester United will compete with last season's Europa League champion Atletico Madrid for the title of European King of 10. The arrival of the two giants has attracted huge popularity to this small Nordic city.

According to reports, during the European Super Cup, about 50,000 fans of the two top teams will come to Estonia to travel and watch the game.

This number is not a big deal for many countries, but it is quite impressive for Estonia, whose total population is less than 140 million.

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This is the fifth time Manchester United and Atletico Madrid have met in history.

在1991-1992赛季的欧洲优胜者杯八分之一决赛中，马德里竞技与曼联相遇。当时，马德里竞技在主场以3:0的比分获胜，而在客场则以1:1的比分战平曼联，最终马德里竞技以两回合总比分4:1淘汰了曼联。

Then came last season's Champions League group stage, when Manchester United defeated their opponents 2:1 both at home and away, avenging their defeat 25 years ago while also sending Atletico Madrid to the Europa League.

However, perhaps Atletico Madrid should thank Manchester United. After all, if they continued to stay in the Champions League, they would definitely not be able to win a championship trophy.

Of course, Atletico Madrid will definitely not really thank Manchester United, they will only think about revenge.

After the game started, Atletico Madrid's fighting spirit was quickly revealed!

Just 49 seconds into the game, Atletico's new captain Godin made a long pass from the backcourt, and the ball accurately found Diego Costa in the frontcourt. The latter was "domineering" and "crushed" past Rojo and Van Dijk, and completed the shot in a very small space. The ball went straight to the far corner of the goal like a cannonball. Even De Gea, who is known for his quick reaction, had no reaction to such a goal.

Because they played in the World Cup in the summer and made it all the way to the quarterfinals and even the semi-finals, several of Manchester United's central defenders, Maguire, Smalling, Phil Jones, and Lindelof, all missed Manchester United's summer training camp. However, they do not have Bruno's almost plug-and-play ability, and their form after the start of the new season is not very good. Now Manchester United's main central defenders are Van Dijk, who did not play in the World Cup, and Rojo, who was eliminated with the team in the first round of the knockout stage.

Afterwards, although Manchester United fought back after losing the ball, and Bruno and Harry Kane scored two goals in the 27th and 63rd minutes respectively to overtake, but this time it was DC who stood up again!

In the 79th minute, Costa received a pass from his teammate and shot into the goal in the penalty area, tying the score to 2:2.

However, Manchester United never gave Atletico Madrid any chance afterwards. Bruno's goal in the 87th minute of the game helped Manchester United complete the lore and win the sixth championship trophy for Manchester United in 2018.

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After returning to the UK, Manchester United challenged Brighton away in the last game of the second round of the Premier League at 8 pm local time on August 20.

Since four of the BIG6 teams, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, as well as Watford and Bournemouth, have won two consecutive games in the first two rounds, if Manchester United fails to win this game, their ranking will fall outside the European war zone.

However, Harry Kane and Bruno scored a goal in the first and second half, helping Manchester United beat Brighton 2-0 away.

This victory also extended Manchester United's unbeaten record in the Premier League to 42 games, only 14 games away from Arsenal's record of 49 unbeaten games set 7 years ago!

Manchester United's unbeaten record in all official competitions has been rewritten to 73 games!

After two rounds, Manchester United ranked fourth in the standings due to their goal difference disadvantage and fewer goals.

In the third round of the Premier League, which is also Manchester United’s last game in August, Manchester United faced a tough battle at home.

Originally, Manchester United led 2:0 in the first half thanks to goals from Bruno and Mbappe, and it seemed that Manchester United would win another easy victory. However, after the start of the second half, the situation on the field suddenly changed. Manchester United's defense seemed to have a sudden short circuit, giving Tottenham continuous opportunities.

In the 50th minute of the game, Trippier took a corner kick, Morata headed the ball from 10 yards, beating Phil Jones, and the ball hit the right post and went into the net. Tottenham changed the score to 2:1, with the home team in the lead.

Two minutes later, Tottenham scored another goal. Trippier made a straight pass, Eriksen passed back from the right side of the penalty area, and Lucas Jr. pushed the ball into the lower left corner of the net from 12 yards, and the score on the field was rewritten to 2:2.

In just two minutes, Manchester United's seemingly solid advantage disappeared.

Seeing the situation was not good, Mourinho quickly made adjustments, replacing new signing Fred with Kante to strengthen the defense.

After Kante came on the pitch, Manchester United finally stabilized their position and stopped losing balls. The field was in a stalemate and neither side scored for a long time.

When the game reached the 84th minute, Eriksen made a precise pass that broke through Manchester United's defense. Lucas Jr. broke through Smalling and shot into the net from 12 yards, helping Tottenham to overtake the score.

When Manchester United's winning streak was about to end at 42 games, Bruno stood up again at the critical moment.

In the second minute of injury time, with only one minute left before the end of the game, Manchester United attacked. Luke Shaw passed the ball to Bruno in the middle just after passing the midfield.

Since this place is more than 30 meters away from Tottenham's goal, Tottenham's defense against Bruno was a little lax. Bruno dribbled the ball and broke through, and when he was about 30 meters away from the goal, he suddenly took a long shot, and the football was like a cannonball, whizzing straight towards Tottenham's goal.

Because his view was blocked by Tottenham's defenders, Lori was not prepared for Bruno's shot. When he saw Bruno take a long shot, it was too late to react. He just moved symbolically and watched the ball fly into the goal behind him.

3: 3!

Bruno's goal helped Manchester United equalize with Tottenham and continued Manchester United's unbeaten record.

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率领球队艰难的逼平热刺之后，多名曼联球员以及穆里尼奥、吉亚雷塔等曼联管理层南下摩纳哥，参加在8月30日晚上进行的2017-2018赛季欧足联颁奖典礼暨2018-2019赛季欧冠小组抽签仪式。

As the team that won the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup in the 2017-2018 season, Manchester United is undoubtedly the best team in the 2017-2018 season. Similarly, they will also be the biggest winner of this awards ceremony.

Manchester United won four of the five UEFA awards for the 2017-2018 season, namely the Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender, Best Midfielder, Best Forward and Best Player, which were selected tonight. Only the Best Forward was awarded to the former Real Madrid star, the new king of football Cristiano Ronaldo who has transferred to Juventus!

De Gea won the best goalkeeper award. Last season, as the main goalkeeper of Manchester United, De Gea defended the goal with high catches and blocked shots to keep the goal intact, providing a strong defense guarantee for Manchester United to achieve the four crowns of the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup. He is the absolute hero of Manchester United's four crowns.

Although Manchester United still has Argentina's goalkeeper Romero, it still can't shake De Gea's position in Manchester United. In the five official games that Manchester United has played in the new season, De Gea has been the main goalkeeper.

The best defender was won by Manchester United's England international center back Maguire. As Manchester United's main center back last season, Maguire also defeated his teammate Van Dijk and Real Madrid captain Ramos to win the honor of best defender. Maguire not only performed well in Manchester United club, but also performed well in the England national team. He was one of the heroes of England's entry into the semi-finals of the World Cup in Russia. This also made Maguire enter the top ten in the selection of the World Footballer of the Year and the European Golden Ball Award. It can be seen that the past year was a fruitful year for Maguire.

Bruno is undoubtedly the best midfielder. Bruno is the absolute core of Manchester United. He is not only the top scorer of Manchester United and even the whole of Europe last season, but also the assist king. Almost half of Manchester United's powerful firepower is created by Bruno. Statistics show that Manchester United had the most chances to shoot in the penalty area in the entire Premier League and even in Europe last season, even more than its city rival Manchester City, as well as the two Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona. This is closely related to their strong midfield.

In addition to his outstanding performance in the club, Bruno was also not inferior in the World Cup. In the World Cup in Russia, he led Portugal to defeat strong opponents all the way to the finals and finally won the championship, creating history in Portuguese football. Bruno also won the title of the World Cup's top scorer and best player.

Recently, there has been a saying in the world of football that Cristiano Ronaldo is the new king of football, and Bruno is the man behind the new king of football. Without Bruno's support, Cristiano Ronaldo would never have been able to win the throne of the king of football.

There are even quite a few people who say that Bruno himself is actually a football king!

Although Bruno will not turn 9 until September, he has already achieved honors that most players will never achieve in their lifetime.

This hottest superstar in world football today, at the age of less than 24, has already collected all player and team honors including the World Cup, European Cup, Confederations Cup, Champions League, Europa League, European Super Cup, Serie A, Premier League, Italian Cup, FA Cup, English League Cup, Italian Super Cup, Community Shield, Club World Cup, etc., and has also achieved a Grand Slam in personal honors. He is fully qualified to be the king of football.

The UEFA Best Player Award also belonged to Manchester United, and Bruno won this honor. He also broke Ronaldo's monopoly on this award in the past two years.

In the most critical Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards, Bruno also ranked among the top three, competing with Yosi and Ronaldo for the title of Player of the Year.

Now after winning the UEFA Best Player award, Bruno is also very likely to win the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards, reaching the top again after two years.

At the same time, the draw for the Champions League group stage was conducted. As a seeded team, Manchester United did not have a very good draw result. They were grouped together with Bundesliga dark horse Hoffenheim, former Ligue 1 champions Lyon, and Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk.

Of course, with Manchester United's strength, it is not difficult to qualify from the group or even get first place in the group. It's just that the opponents are stronger, so they have to spend more effort.