Chapter 689: What a talent!

After entering March, Manchester United's first game was at home against Southampton Saints.

Before the game started, Southampton's Austrian head coach Ralph Hasenhuttl and Mourinho shook hands on the sidelines and exchanged a few words. The two men talked and laughed, and seemed to get along well. Finally, they shook hands again and said goodbye.

The Southampton head coach praised Manchester United for their beautiful game and praised Mourinho as an excellent head coach, saying that it would be difficult for Southampton in this game.

Mourinho complimented Hasenhuttl, saying that he was a talented head coach who had a successful precedent at RB Leipzig and quickly helped the team find the direction of victory after taking over Southampton. In this game, Manchester United will face a team worthy of respect.

Both of them were quite polite and seemed to respect each other, but when they turned around, both of them had serious expressions and both were extremely eager to win.

Mourinho's Manchester United must win this game in order to continue to maintain their advantage in the promotion zone of the standings, so that they can be more confident in facing the three-line battles of the league, Champions League and FA Cup in the future.

And Southampton also wants to win, they must catch up points as soon as possible to get away from the relegation zone.

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Hasenhüttl is a rising star in European football in recent years. Of course, this does not mean that the Austrian is still young. In fact, he is already 51 years old.

Hasenhüttl was not successful as a player, and spent most of his time in lower leagues. In the summer of 2004, the 37-year-old Hasenhüttl retired from Bayern Munich II. Three years later, he joined the Unterhaching club in the German second division.

In the summer of 2016, Hasenhüttl became the head coach of Bundesliga newly promoted team RB Leipzig, and the two sides started a legendary experience together.

Under the leadership of Hasenhüttl, newly promoted Leipzig once topped the Bundesliga standings, with 16 points in the 36 rounds before the winter break, only 3 points behind Bayern Munich.

In the second half of the season, Leipzig's performance declined, but at the end of the season, it still ranked second in the Bundesliga, ahead of Dortmund, becoming the biggest dark horse in the top five leagues and even in Europe.

In the 2017-2018 season, Leipzig's performance was still impressive, and they stayed in the Champions League zone in the first half of the season. In the second half of the season, they were not strong enough to compete on multiple fronts, and finally ranked sixth in the Bundesliga. However, with 53 points, they were only 2 points behind the third place.

In Europe, Leipzig only finished third in the Champions League group stage and was relegated to the Europa League, where they made it to the quarterfinals.

After the season ended, Hasenhuttl and Leipzig terminated their contract and were unemployed. Later, Southampton's performance was poor, and Hasenhuttl took over the Saints as a fire-fighting coach in early December.

His coaching at Southampton was very successful. When he took over Southampton in early December last year, the Saints were at the bottom of the standings with 12 win, 1 draws and 5 losses. After the Austrian coach took over Southampton, they achieved 9 wins, 13 draws and 5 losses in 3 league games, ranking in the top half of the standings during the same period. Southampton also escaped the relegation zone and is currently ranked 5th in the standings.

Although they have escaped the relegation zone, the Saints are currently only 1 point higher than the relegation zone, and the pressure to avoid relegation is still very high.

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Twenty-five minutes into the game, the score was still 0:0 and neither side had scored a goal.

Although the score was 0:0, the combined number of shots by Manchester United and Southampton had reached 6, of which Manchester United had 4 shots and Southampton had shots. From the data, it can be seen that both sides showed a strong desire to attack. Mourinho has given the team an order to win. Such a tough battle must be won with all efforts, and Southampton is also unwilling to be outdone.

"The game has been going on for 3 minutes. In terms of fouls, Manchester United has committed 5 and received a yellow card, while Southampton has committed 0 and received a yellow card," said commentator Andy Gray. "Although the score is 0:, we can see from the data how intense the game was."

Both sides gathered their forces in the midfield, trying to compete for the midfield control. On the field, people were thrown to the ground from time to time. Especially on the Manchester United side, Mourinho warned Gundogan seriously before the game that Gundogan must also do his best to help Kante defend in today's game.

So the audience saw that Gundogan, who previously gave people the impression of being a mediocre defender, was also desperately involved in defense today. The German international even once blocked a bullet hole at the top of the penalty area, which also won him warm applause from the Manchester United fans in the stands.

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In such a fierce game, both sides fought hard and it seemed that no one was sure of breaking the opponent's goal. At this time, a flash of the player's football talent finally changed the course of the game.

Bruno suddenly dribbled the ball from the middle and Southampton's defensive midfielder Ward Prowse stepped forward to intercept. Bruno pretended to break through from the middle, but suddenly passed the ball out and it was Rashford who received the ball.

After Rashford got the ball, he passed it back to Gundogan, who turned around and ran forward. Gundogan shook his ankle and passed the ball.

People thought that Gundogan passed the ball to Rashford who was already in position, but unexpectedly Gundogan passed the ball to Mbappe on the right.

Mbappe kicked the ball beautifully, then suddenly accelerated and beautifully avoided the interception of Southampton's veteran left-back Bertrand. After catching up with the ball, he did not cross the ball from the bottom, but suddenly cut inside under the double-team of two opposing players and rushed straight into the penalty area!

This change was unexpected by Southampton's defenders.

Southampton head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl was shouting anxiously on the sidelines, directing the team's defense.

Southampton goalkeeper Gunn was also shouting loudly, directing his teammates to chase and intercept Mbappe.

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After Mbappe attracted three Southampton defensive players, he did not continue to break through. Instead, he suddenly stopped and made a move to pass the ball to Bruno, who also made a move to come over to receive the ball.

This immediately attracted the attention of Southampton's defenders, and left center back Vestergaard immediately moved his body to block the pass.

Almost immediately after Vestergaard's move, Mbappe, who originally had no shooting angle, immediately saw a small shooting route.

Mbappe, who was originally planning to pass the ball to Bruno, made an instant change. He dribbled the ball back and then suddenly took a long shot from the top of the penalty area!

In the penalty area filled with people and legs, Southampton goalkeeper Gunn has been paying close attention to the situation in front of the penalty area, and then he saw a flash of white light...

Is this a long shot? !

Southampton goalkeeper Gunn's reaction was very fast. He tried his best to save the ball and succeeded in catching it. However, the shot was very powerful and hit the upper corner of the goal. Gunn barely managed to hold the ball up but still failed to stop it from moving forward. When Gunn fell in front of the goal, he looked up and saw that the ball had already flown into the net behind him...

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"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLL!!!!!"

Amid the commentator's loud shouts, the young Mbappe rushed to the corner flag area and celebrated the goal wildly.

Seeing the team lose the ball, Southampton head coach Hasenhuttl patted his chair in anger.

"Our players were attracted by Bruno," the assistant coach said beside him.

Hasenhüttl nodded. Bruno is the number one player in world football today, Manchester United's number one star and absolute offensive core. His threat is unquestionable. You can't just ignore the movement of such a threatening player. This instead gives Mbappe, the French boy, space and opportunities to shoot.

However, Hasenhüttl had to admit that Mbappe's goal was very beautiful. He dribbled the ball from the wing, cut inside and shot, all in one go. The quality of the shot was also very high.

Although he has only taken over the team for three months, Hasenhuttl has established prestige among Southampton players with his outstanding team performance. Despite falling behind 0:1, under the command of Hasenhuttl, Southampton players did not panic. After the game resumed, the loss of the ball stimulated the team to launch a more fierce attack on Manchester United's goal.

"Southampton's attack is too fierce." Faria said somewhat worriedly.

Mourinho did not speak, he stared at the field, the opponent's performance after losing the ball really surprised him. It seemed that the Austrian on the opposite side was really capable. He led the Premier League's second-to-last team, which was originally a mess, out of the relegation zone in just three months, and it was not just luck.

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Southampton's offensive efforts paid off in the 20st minute of the first half. Their center forward Austin made a cross pass, and the 25-year-old young player Valeri shot from yards on the right, but the ball was blocked by De Gea and went into the near corner.

This was the 20-year-old French full-back's first goal in his career.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"

"Valeri! Just now a young French man took the lead for Manchester United, and the next moment another young French man equalized the score for Southampton! 1:1! Before the end of the first half, Southampton's attack finally paid off!" shouted commentator Martin Taylor.

"Maguire was a little distracted in this defense and was blocked by Austin." Andy Gray shook his head. The central defender was blocked behind by the opponent's forward, and the result was naturally obvious.

"Manchester United's left-back Luke Shaw should take greater responsibility for this goal as he failed to keep up with Valeri," Martin Taylor interrupted.

Mourinho was furious on the sidelines and shouted loudly towards the field.

Mourinho was not unprepared for the loss, but he was a little upset that the goal was lost due to his own mistakes and confusion. Moreover, the loss at this time was really a bit of a blow to morale.