Chapter 651: No Reversal, Not the Red Devil

The game went according to Mourinho's plan. West Ham United attacked wildly for five minutes but found that they could not break down the ball. Manchester United's goal stood firm under their fierce fire. Fearing that if they continued to attack like this, the opponent would seize the opportunity to counterattack, so they began to retreat.

Manchester United also changed its defensive tactics and pressed forward to attack West Ham United.

But this time, Bruno, as the controller of the team's rhythm, is not so enthusiastic about those attacks that require great risks.

More often than not, both teams were fighting back and forth in the midfield. Occasionally there would be a beautiful offensive organization, but the forwards of both sides would quickly waste these opportunities.

When the game entered the 80th minute, Pellegrini made some gestures on the sidelines, and West Ham United decisively launched a full-scale attack.

Not counting injury time, they only had ten minutes left.

At the same time, Mourinho also made a substitution decision. He replaced Harry Kane, who scored the team's first goal, with central defender Lindelof. Manchester United changed its formation to 532, with Rashford and Mbappe joining the front line.

Both of them are very fast, have good skills, are good at dribbling and breaking through, have strong individual combat capabilities, and are suitable for counterattacks.

Substituting a central defender is naturally to strengthen the defense. Three central defenders standing two in front and one behind can increase the thickness of the defense line and prevent the opponent from penetrating with one shot. At the same time, it can also increase the number of people in the penalty area, creating trouble for players like Yarmolenko and leaving him no room to perform.

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When Harry Kane came off the field, Mourinho took the initiative to hug him.

"You did a good job, Harry. Now go and have a rest." Mourinho patted Harry Kane on the back and said.

Harry Kane returned to the bench and high-fived his teammates one by one. The team was leading and there were only ten minutes left for the team to achieve 47 unbeaten games in the Premier League. Everyone was in a good mood.

When Mourinho showed his best skills, it was really difficult for West Ham United to achieve anything with their offensive power. After all, although their forwards have a certain ability to score, neither Arnautovic, Yarmolenko, nor Anderson are top strikers known for scoring goals. Facing the current top defense in Europe, West Ham United created one or two scoring opportunities, but failed to score.

In the end, the score of 1:2 remained until the end of the game.

International practice is that the home team goes first.

And with Manchester United's comeback victory over West Ham United away from home, they extended their unbeaten record in the Premier League to 47 games, only two games away from Arsenal's longest unbeaten record in Premier League history of 14 games set 49 years ago!

This victory also allowed Manchester United to rise to second place in the Premier League standings, and they are only behind Guardiola's Manchester City on goal difference.

The Blue Moon performed very strongly at the beginning of this season, scoring 7 goals in the first 21 rounds of the Premier League, while the defense only conceded 3 goals, with a total of 18 goals, far exceeding Manchester United, whose goal difference was only 12.

Klopp's Liverpool also tied with the Manchester City duo. The Reds also achieved 7 wins and 6 draw in the first 1 rounds, and even the goal difference was the same as Manchester United, reaching 12, but their number of goals was only 15, less than Manchester United's 19 goals, so they can only rank third.

Following closely behind is Chelsea, the Blues currently have a record of 5 wins and 2 draws, with 17 points.

These four teams are also the four teams that are currently unbeaten in the Premier League.

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Manchester United's first game in October was against Hoffenheim, a dark horse in the Bundesliga, in the Champions League group stage. This Bundesliga team had long been in the lower leagues of Germany until 10, when it received continuous investment from SAP founder Dietmar Hopp and hired Flick as the team's head coach in 2000. Hoffenheim then began to expand and was promoted to the Bundesliga in the 2001-2007 season.

In the first season of the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim continued the crazy trend of three-step jump in three years. With the outstanding performance of the forward trident Ibisevic, Demba Ba and Obasi, Hoffenheim drew with Schalke 17 in the 04th round and became the second newly promoted Bundesliga team after Kaiserslautern to become the half-season champion with 17 points in 35 rounds. Among them, Ibisevic had an amazing performance of scoring 17 goals in 18 rounds and won the Bundesliga half-season top scorer.

However, due to the increase in injuries in the team after the winter break, especially Ibisevic, who had a stunning performance in the first half of the season, tore his cruciate ligament in the warm-up match against Hamburg during the winter break and was reimbursed for the season. Hoffenheim was unable to continue the madness of the first half of the season and suffered the bitter fruit of 12 consecutive defeats.

After the end of the season, they only ranked seventh and missed the European competition.

After the baptism of the first Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim gradually lost its dark horse character after its stunning debut and gradually fell into mediocrity. It even almost got relegated in the 2012-2013 season, and finally survived the relegation play-offs.

Starting from the 2016-2017 season, Hoffenheim began to recover under the leadership of young coach Nagelsmann. That season they finished fourth in the Bundesliga, qualified for the Champions League play-offs, and finally entered the Champions League finals.

Last season, Hoffenheim went one step further, ranking third in the Bundesliga and qualifying for this season's Champions League.

In the first round of the group stage, Hoffenheim drew 1:2 with Shakhtar Donetsk away from home, performing well.

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Manchester United players didn't know much about Hoffenheim before. It was only when they drew Hoffenheim in the Champions League group stage that they looked up some information about them.

There are two most noticeable people in this team, one is their frontcourt offensive core Kramaric, and the other is their captain and defensive core Vogt.

Mourinho also made some arrangements for these two players before the game, but in the actual game, his arrangements did not work.

Nagelsmann is worthy of being the most popular young coach in the world football today. He had already anticipated Mourinho's arrangements. Hoffenheim's key offensive players in this game were not Kramaric and Vogt as Mourinho judged.

Hoffenheim drew in the first round of the Champions League away game against Shakhtar Donetsk. Facing a super dark horse team like Manchester United at home, Hoffenheim chose a conservative counterattack tactic.

However, this does not mean that they will defend the backcourt from the start. Nagelsmann decided to attack at the start and catch Manchester United off guard.

Nagelsmann's tactics worked, and Hoffenheim scored the first goal just 44 seconds into the game. Brenet passed the ball to Demirbay, who, facing the dense crowd of Manchester United players in front of him, chose the most perfect route to send a surgical through ball, and Belfodil took the ball into the penalty area and pushed the ball into the near corner to score.

The home team leads 1:0!

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However, the experienced Manchester United did not lose their composure because of this. Under the leadership of Bruno, they quickly stabilized the situation on the field and equalized the score in the 8th minute of the game.

Bruno made a precise through ball in the midfield, Rashford quickly made a run on the left, and facing the goalkeeper, he chose to pass the ball to Harry Kane who was making a run from behind. Harry Kane stopped the ball and then stumbled into the goal.

In the 15th minute, Bruno sent a straight pass from the midfield again. Mbappe forced his way past the defender on the right and his shot into the penalty area was blocked by Baumann's foot and went wide of the goal post.

In the 33rd minute, Mbappe made a series of dazzling passes in the middle of the penalty area, and the ball bounced incredibly to the feet of Harry Kane who was not guarded. The English striker was obviously not prepared for such a sudden opportunity, and his volley shot missed the target, and Manchester United missed the chance to take the lead again.

Two minutes later, Harry Kane suddenly shot in the penalty area. The ball drew a beautiful arc and flew towards the far corner of the goal, but was saved by Baumann.

At the end of the first half, Bruno tried a long shot outside the penalty area, but the ball went slightly over the crossbar.

In the 50th minute, Hoffenheim launched a quick counterattack with a long pass. Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea failed to touch the ball. Bruno ran dozens of meters and cleared the ball in front of the opponent's players.

In the 68th minute, Gundogan was injured and left the field, and Fred came on as a substitute.

Five minutes later, Mbappe got a one-on-one chance and broke into the penalty area, but the goalkeeper knocked him down with both hands. However, the referee did not award a penalty, which caused great dissatisfaction among Manchester United players.

In the 86th minute, Manchester United finally overtook the score. Bruno took the lead in the penalty area and made a steal, then shot into the far corner of the goal, changing the score to 1:2!

In the 92nd minute, Baumann attacked near the center circle, Bruno got the ball and took it to the left and lobbed it into the empty goal, breaking Hoffenheim's goal again.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Hoffenheim 3:1 away from home.

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Manchester United has a very tight schedule as they fight on multiple fronts. Before the international match day in October, Manchester United faced the 10th round of the Premier League. On the evening of October 8, they played at Old Trafford against Newcastle, a former Premier League powerhouse.

The continuous battles made Manchester United players look a little tired, and the defense was obviously not in good shape. Just 10 minutes into the game, Maguire and Van Dijk made eye defenses one after another, and Newcastle took advantage of the Manchester United defense's mistakes in not keeping a close eye on the players and scored two goals in a row.

Losing two goals in a short period of time made Manchester United players even more panicked. Manchester United midfielders, including Bruno, wanted to pass the ball directly through the opponent's defense line, and the strikers wanted to dribble and attack by themselves. The team's offensive organization was a mess.

At the critical moment, Mourinho made a firm adjustment. In the 18th minute, Mourinho replaced Maguire, who was in a slump, with Spanish attacker Mata to strengthen the attack.

After Manchester United players wasted several good opportunities, Mourinho firmly encouraged the players during the halftime break: Don't be afraid, as long as you dare to take the ball and dare to attack, victory will come!

This undoubtedly gave the panicked Manchester United players a reassurance.

Sure enough, Manchester United's offense improved significantly in the second half, and the states of Bruno, Rashford and other offensive players were activated one after another.

In the 70th minute, Bruno scored a goal for Manchester United with a direct free kick; in the 76th minute, Rashford received Bruno's heel pass and shot low into the near corner to equalize the score for Manchester United; in the first minute of injury time, Cancelo made a cross from the right, and Bruno jumped high and scored with a header.

Manchester United was in a desperate situation of falling behind by two goals, but they eventually scored three goals in a row and turned the game around.

Three consecutive games were won by reversal. For a time, the legend that they were not Red Devils if they could not make a comeback once again spread in European football!

This victory also allowed Manchester United to lead the Premier League standings alone, because in a key match of this round, Liverpool and Manchester City drew 90- after minutes of fierce battle at Anfield.