Chapter 664: No Useless Competition

On the evening of November 11, Olympic Park Stadium.

This was the fifth round of the 2018-2019 UEFA Champions League group stage. As Manchester United had advanced to the knockout stage two rounds in advance and had already secured first place in the group, Mourinho once again made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup in this game, and even Bruno sat on the bench.

However, their opponent Lyon takes this game very seriously.

In the first four rounds, Lyon only achieved three draws and one loss. Currently, it ranks third in Group F with a disadvantage in goal difference, and the situation for qualifying is very bad.

Under such circumstances, Lyon can no longer afford to lose the home game against Manchester United, otherwise they will most likely lose hope of qualifying.

After the start of the game, Lyon, who played at home, took the lead in launching an attack, using the speed and personal ability of striker and former Manchester United player Depay to frequently create threats from the beginning of the game. In the second and fourth minutes, he created dangerous situations twice in a row. One of them was a direct pass that almost led to a one-on-one opportunity, but at the critical moment Lindelof decisively slid in the penalty area to clear the ball.

Manchester United then quickly stabilized its position, using its overall strength advantage to maintain a steady rhythm and effectively defend the opponent's two wings, forcing Lyon's subsequent attacks to be difficult to pose a threat.

In the first ten minutes, Manchester United had only one shot, from Mahrez, but it failed to pose a threat.

However, under the close watch of Ashley Young, Lyon's French international Fekir on the left was also restricted and lost his threat, making it impossible for the trident of Fekir, Cornet and Depay that Bruno Genesio relied on to create any threat.

………………

Both teams deployed very targeted tactics and played important roles. It was difficult for either team to break through the other's defense during the game, making the game intense but somewhat dull.

Both sides were very dedicated and tried their best to break through the opponent's defense, but at the same time they also tried their best to avoid mistakes.

But in the 31st minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack.

Right-back Dalot dribbled the ball across the center line and passed it to Mata in the middle.

The Spanish midfielder dribbled the ball forward and suddenly passed it to the left to Lingard. Lingard got the ball on the left and was closely guarded by the opponent's right back Rafael. When he passed the ball, the ball accidentally touched Rafael's foot and failed to fly into the penalty area to find McTominay, but landed on the left side of the penalty area.

Mahrez quickly caught up from behind, took the ball before anyone else, and shot with his left foot. The ball shot into Lyon's goal at an extremely fast speed, and Manchester United was the first to break the deadlock on the field.

All Manchester United players rushed out of the field and hugged Mahrez to celebrate this hard-earned goal.

Bruno was sitting on the bench and saw Mahrez score a goal. He jumped up and clapped loudly.

"It's so beautiful!" Bruno exclaimed sincerely.

It seems that Lyon made a mistake in this ball, but in fact Mahrez's personal ability is also very important. Lyon's defensive space was so small at that time. If Mahrez didn't stop the ball well at the first time, he would definitely be too late to adjust, and the defensive players would come over. Mahrez's handling was also very clever. He shot directly after stopping, giving the Lyon central defender no time to react or make up for it.

………………

Manchester United went into halftime with a one-goal lead.

Mourinho spoke highly of the team's performance in the first half, believing that everyone played what the team had practiced hard before and put considerable pressure on the opponent, but he also encouraged the players to keep up the good work.

After the second half, Lyon conceded a goal at home, but still played calmly. When the frontcourt was unable to open up, left wingback Mendy frequently moved forward to participate in the attack. After conceding a goal, Rafael on the right was obviously reminded by Bruno Genesio to focus more on defense in the second half.

Mahrez and Mata are both active on this side, and with the addition of a very attacking Ashley Young, Lyon's defensive pressure on the right is also quite great. How can they allow Rafael to make frequent runs?

In the 56th minute, Lyon launched an attack. Mendy on the left quickly inserted and made a diagonal pass to the penalty area on the left.

Manchester United center back Smalling made a mistake in his first clearance and failed to kick the ball far away, causing chaos in the penalty area. Fortunately, Lyon's center forward Depay started a little slowly and his subsequent shot was blocked by Smalling's body and went out of bounds.

Although they failed to score, Lyon's close shot still made everyone in Manchester United break out in a cold sweat.

But in the final analysis, Mendy's sudden insertion is still quite threatening.

Just four minutes later, Lyon made a comeback, with Mendy still making a one-two pass with left winger Fekir. Fekir made a diagonal pass into the penalty area at the front of the penalty area. Cornette and Smalling competed for the header, and Fekir headed the ball into the goal ten meters in front of the goal.

This time the ball just brushed the post and went out of the bottom line.

………………

Two consecutive attacks created dangerous situations, and anyone could see that Manchester United's defense was in trouble. Dalot, another Portuguese right-back introduced by Manchester United in the summer, was unable to withstand the opponent's continuous attack.

"Mendy must be suppressed!" Mourinho shook his head.

Faria also nodded heavily.

Although Manchester United has already qualified and secured first place in the group, no one wants to lose a game if possible, especially in the Champions League. This is not only related to Manchester United's UEFA points, but also to the winning bonus.

You know, in this season's Champions League group stage, a win can earn you 270 million euros, but a draw only earns you 90 euros, a difference of 180 million euros.

There are no useless games in the Champions League!

Sometimes there is a path to follow in football matches. If Lyon continues to play like this on the left, it is only a matter of time before they concede a goal, and no one can guarantee whether they will be able to defend next time.

Only by suppressing Mendy again can Manchester United's defense be stabilized.

In the 65th minute, Manchester United made two substitutions, Cancelo replaced his Portuguese compatriot Dalot, and Bruno replaced Mata.

………………

These two substitutions had an immediate effect.

In the 67th minute, Manchester United once again intercepted the opponent's lateral pass in the middle. Ashley Young suddenly rushed forward, intercepted the pass to Fekir, quickly dribbled forward, launched a counterattack along the left, was counter-robbed by Lyon players, and quickly passed the ball to Bruno in the middle.

The Manchester United captain was also closely guarded by the opponent. After receiving the ball, he was unable to move forward directly and was forced to turn around to protect the ball and pass it horizontally to Mahrez, who sent it directly to the right side without stopping.

After Lingard stopped Mahrez's pass on the right, he saw Cancelo deliberately pressing forward, so he took the initiative to dribble inside, and then suddenly passed the ball to the bottom line. Manchester United's right-back sprinted quickly and caught up with Lingard's pass.

But this time, Lyon's left wingback Mendy reacted very quickly, chasing Cancelo all the way, not allowing him the chance to pass directly or cut inside, forcing Cancelo to suddenly stop on the right side of the penalty area and pass the ball back.

Bruno stopped the ball behind Cancelo and looked up at the penalty area.

McTominay was standing right between Lyon's two central defenders, but he pointed behind him, which was obviously a hint to Bruno to pass the ball to this position.

Bruno didn't wait for Lyon's defenders to come up, he adjusted himself and made a direct cross. The ball was pressed very low and very fast, and it went directly to the penalty spot in the middle of the penalty area.

………………

"Manchester United attacked from the right, Cancelo had no chance and passed the ball back to Bruno."

"Bruno adjusted and passed the ball low into the box to McTominay."

"McTominay used his body to block two Lyon central defenders, stopped the ball, turned around, and shot directly!"

“The ball goes in!!!!!”

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLL!!!!!"

"In the 68th minute, in the 68th minute, Manchester United scored the second goal of the game!"

"It was McTominay who scored the goal, a very good goal from the Scottish striker."

"We can see from the slow-motion replay that Bruno's cross landed very well, right near McTominay's right foot, and the Scotsman stopped the ball directly to his left, blocked two Lyon central defenders with his body, turned around and shot directly."

"The shot came very suddenly. Anthony Lopez obviously did not expect that McTominay could turn around and shoot in the double-team of two central defenders. This fully demonstrates the Scottish striker's superb personal ability."

"Of course, Bruno, who just came on as a substitute, also made a very accurate cross from the right. At the moment he made the cross, I seemed to see Beckham. It is said that Bruno once practiced crosses from the wing by watching a video of Beckham."

………………

After scoring the goal, McTominay rushed out of the penalty area excitedly, quickly grabbed Bruno's hand, and the two rushed to the sidelines side by side, cheering for the fans in the stands.

2: 0!

The more than 2,000 Manchester United fans who came to the away game kept shouting the names of McTominay and Bruno, and the head coach Mourinho on the sidelines also raised his hands and kept clapping.

They didn't expect that Bruno could help the team score another goal as soon as he came on the court.

Who could have imagined that? Not even Bruno himself.

In the previous goal, Bruno's cross was basically within the control range of McTominay's right foot, but what really played a decisive role was McTominay's stop and turn shot.

The 22-year-old Scotsman is becoming more and more like the Swedish god Taib!