Chapter 731: The Battle of the No. 1 Family in England

Manchester United defeated Manchester City 4:2 and won the FA Cup, which became the focus of media attention and reports the next day.

Reuters: "At Wembley Stadium, Mourinho's Manchester United defeated the powerful Manchester City 4-2 and won the FA Cup for the 15th time in history. This is also the first time that a team has won the oldest football tournament for four consecutive years."

"Manchester Evening News": 2:4, Manchester City was completely defeated by Manchester United. Guardiola's team lost to Manchester United for the 10th time in the past three seasons.

The Times: Mourinho has won his 16th championship trophy as Manchester United coach. His goal? To win the treble for two consecutive years?

Not only the British media, but other mainstream European media also paid close attention to Manchester United's winning of the FA Cup.

Xinhua News Agency: The English FA Cup was founded in 1871. This year is the 148th anniversary of the FA Cup. Manchester United is the most successful team in this oldest modern football competition. They have won the championship 14 times before, ahead of Arsenal, which has won 12 times. Now they have expanded their lead. Coach Mourinho, who is good at leading his team to win cup championships, has won another cup championship trophy.

Germany's Kicker: Sixteen titles in three years, Mourinho established Manchester United's third empire.

The front page headline of Portugal's Record: Bruno, the God of Football!

French L'Equipe: Kante helped Manchester United win the FA Cup.

Dutch Telegraph: Van Dijk is the core of Manchester United's defense and he is the absolute hero of Manchester United's FA Cup victory!

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After the Manchester United team returned to Manchester from London with the FA Cup trophy, they once again held a grand championship float parade.

This is the first time that Manchester United has held a championship celebration after a week. A week ago, the team celebrated its 16th Premier League title, and now it celebrates its 15th FA Cup title.

Although Manchester United has held too many championship celebrations in the past three years, Manchester United fans are still very happy.

After all, who would complain about their team winning too many championships?

After a night of crazy celebrations, Mourinho did not give the team a holiday. Instead, after the start of the new week, he led the entire Manchester United team south to Spain to begin preparing for the Champions League final on the evening of June 6.

In fact, Manchester United was late in preparing for the Champions League final. Their opponent Liverpool started preparing for the Champions League final after the final match of the Premier League a week ago.

But there is no way around it. Liverpool will have no other games after the end of the league, but Manchester United still has to play in the FA Cup final, so preparations for the Champions League final can only be postponed.

However, there are a full two weeks to prepare, which is more than enough time.

Manchester United rented Real Madrid's Valdebebas training base as their training venue for the Champions League final.

At this time, the La Liga had also ended, and the Galacticos, which had failed to win any of the four major titles in a season, had been disbanded, so they agreed to temporarily rent their training base to Manchester United.

The relationship between the two giants is very complicated. They are direct competitors in many cases, but they also trade many players with each other. However, when the team was disbanded and entered the off-season, Florentino still agreed to rent the training base to Manchester United.

At about the same time, Liverpool also came to Madrid, but they rented Atletico Madrid's training base as a training base to prepare for the Champions League final.

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The day before the game, on the morning of May 5, Manchester United and Liverpool went to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium to train to adapt to the venue.

Later, at the pre-match press conference of the two teams, Mourinho and Klopp both praised their opponents in the final and expressed their expectation for an exciting game.

Everything seems to be harmonious.

However, the two teams are, after all, the biggest rivals, and the atmosphere between the media and fans of the two teams before the game was not very harmonious.

The last time Liverpool reached the Champions League final was in the 2006-2007 season, 12 years have passed since then. Therefore, Liverpool club and Liverpool fans around the world believe that Liverpool should win the championship.

Especially if Liverpool loses the Champions League final, it means that Manchester United will be tied with Manchester United in the number of Champions League trophies, which is something that Liverpool fans absolutely cannot tolerate.

As for Manchester United, the team only won the European championship last year, so they naturally hope to relive their old dream. That way, they will become the team that can defend the Champions League title after the reform, just like Real Madrid.

Moreover, if Manchester United can beat Liverpool, they will tie Liverpool in the number of Champions League titles. And because they are far ahead of their arch-rivals in the number of English top league titles, they will truly step on Liverpool's corpse and ascend to the throne of the top giants in England.

Such remarks and statements made Liverpool fans very unhappy. Players from both sides had many conflicts before the game, which also made the Madrid police very busy in recent days.

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On the first day of June, at around five in the afternoon, the Liverpool bus drove out of the hotel where we were staying.

Afterwards, Manchester United's bus also set off from the hotel and prepared to head to the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.

At the same time, countless Manchester United fans from all over the world followed the bus and joined the fans outside the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium to welcome and escort the team.

The window of the bus was opened, and the team captain Bruno stuck his head out, displayed a Manchester United flag and waved it, which caused even louder cheers from the fans on the scene.

"Long live Manchester United!"

"Manchester United are the champions!"

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A few minutes after Manchester United's bus passed, Liverpool's bus also arrived.

Although Liverpool set out from their hotel first, they were a little far away from the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, so they arrived later.

Liverpool fans who were welcoming the Liverpool bus also cheered, but their voices were much smaller than those of Manchester United fans.

The Wanda Metropolitano Stadium can accommodate 68,000 fans. Although only a pitiful 16,000 tickets were sold to the two clubs, and the remaining 35,000 tickets were allocated by UEFA to sponsors and other partners, these tickets basically fell into the hands of fans of both sides in the end.

In the end, of the 68,000 tickets, Manchester United fans received approximately 38,000 tickets and Liverpool fans received 30,000 tickets.

Not only fans who bought tickets came to Madrid, but a large number of fans from both teams who couldn't buy tickets also came to the outside of the stadium to cheer for their respective teams.

On TV, the players from both teams had not yet come out, but the stands of the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, which can accommodate 68,000 people, were almost full.

Looking at the fans of both teams in the stands, this also caused complaints and envy from the fans of both teams in the bar. They were also extremely eager to watch the game live, but it was a pity that the tickets for the final were sold out almost as soon as they were released.

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The players have finished warming up and have returned to their respective lockers.

The head coaches of both teams will make final preparations for the most important game of this season.

Now is not the time to go over the tactics again. In fact, the tactics that need to be explained have already been explained countless times.

This is the final of the Champions League. In order to prepare for such a game, the coaching staff and players have held many meetings. They have been striving for perfection in training and have practiced tactics to the extreme.

Before such an important final, some coaches will not say much and would rather leave time to the players, allowing them to face the important final with a more relaxed attitude and mentality.

Some coaches like to talk endlessly and hope that their final pre-match mobilization will work.

In fact, many coaches like to give a final boost before the game. When the team's strength basically cannot be suddenly improved, boosting the team's morale and giving a final boost is the best way.

Klopp's coaching style is known for being positive, passionate and inspiring. He can accurately see the game situation on the sidelines and pass on tactics and fighting spirit to the players in a superb way.

It can be said that in the current world football, when it comes to motivating players, no coach can surpass Klopp.

"This is my fourth final as Liverpool coach, but we haven't won any trophies. Many people say that I, Klopp, am the runner-up and that Liverpool have no chance of winning the championship," Klopp said.

"This is the game I've dreamed of playing, after losing the last three finals and losing the Premier League three weeks ago, I've dreamed of doing it again with all of you."

Klopp looked at his students and said affectionately: "Because I have a very urgent feeling. In my eyes, you are so good that you deserve the praise of a Champions League title."

"...It has always been my dream to stand at the top of Europe with such outstanding players like you." Klopp said, "After the 90 minutes of the game, I hope to be able to lift the championship trophy with you."

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On the other side, in Manchester United's locker room.

Mourinho looked at his players and gave their final pre-match speech.

"We have won the Premier League and the FA Cup."

"The double is not enough, I hope it's the treble!" Mourinho said, "I believe everyone thinks the same as I do."

"No team in international football has ever won the treble for two consecutive seasons!" Mourinho smiled and looked at his players. "Let us, the strongest team, create this history!"

“Defending Triple Crown Champion!”

“Defending Triple Crown Champion!”

“Defending Triple Crown Champion!”

The players shouted loudly, their emotions were excited, and their faces flushed.

The coach is right, this kind of history should be created by the strongest of them!