Chapter 754: Entering the European Cup Again

Chapter 754 Entering the European Cup Again

Because Portugal has already qualified for the European Championship next summer, and the two opponents are not strong, Bruno did not join the Portugal national team this international match day after consultation with Santos. On the one hand, this will allow Bruno to get enough rest time, and on the other hand, it will give Santos the opportunity to observe more new players.

Despite the absence of Bruno, the core of the midfield, Lithuania and Luxembourg were too weak. Portugal still defeated Lithuania 6:0 at home, and then won Luxembourg 2:0 away, thus occupying the first place in the group with a record of 8 wins in the group matches.

As expected, the four UEFA Nations League A winners all finished in the top two of their respective groups in the European Cup qualifiers, securing their qualification for the European Cup next summer. So the remaining four finals will be played by the 4 third-placed teams and the six fourth-placed teams with the best results, who will compete for the remaining four finals through two rounds of play-offs.

According to the schedule, the play-offs will be held on the international match day in March next year. However, Bruno knows that with the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of next year, the two rounds of play-offs will be postponed to October and November next year. As for the European Cup, it will be postponed to 10.

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The two-week international match day is over and the Premier League resumes.

Manchester United welcomed the dark horse of this season, Sheffield United. This newly promoted team performed very well. After the first 12 rounds of games, they achieved a good record of 4 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses, ranking sixth ahead of Arsenal.

This season's Premier League standings are somewhat unexpected.

We are nearly a third of the way through the season, but at the top of the standings, some familiar faces are gone and some new faces are emerging.

In the post-Wenger era, Arsenal ranked only sixth in the Premier League in the first season under Emery's leadership. Fortunately, the team reached the Europa League final. Although it failed to win the championship, it at least retained a bit of face for the Gunners, so Emery was not fired.

However, in Emery's second season as Arsenal coach, the Gunners' performance did not improve at all. In the first 12 rounds, they only achieved 4 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses, and the goal difference was negative, ranking seventh in the standings. This put Emery under great pressure, and reports in the media that Emery was fired were rampant.

Fortunately, in the Europa League, which Emery is very good at, the Gunners performed well, achieving 4 wins and 3 draw in the first 1 rounds, leading with a 4-point advantage and qualifying is imminent, which also prevented Emery from being fired immediately.

As Arsenal's arch-rivals in North London, Tottenham and Arsenal are completely brothers in distress.

After reaching the Champions League semi-finals last season and reaching the top four in the Premier League, Tottenham fell into a slump in the new season. In the first 12 rounds, they only achieved 3 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses, ranking 14th.

Fortunately, Tottenham's performance in the Champions League is not bad. Although they were humiliated by Bayern 4:7 in the first four rounds of the group stage, they are still ranked second in the group with 2 wins, 2 draw and 1 loss, and are 1 points ahead of Red Star Belgrade behind them. They are about to qualify, which also saved Pochettino. In addition, there are no good coaches unemployed at home, so the Tottenham management did not fire Pochettino.

However, Emery and Pochettino are still the Premier League head coaches with the highest odds of being sacked, and they may be announced to be sacked at any time.

There are teams that perform poorly, and naturally there are teams that perform well to fill the gaps.

Leicester City, which once won the Premier League championship as a dark horse, has driven the overall performance of the Foxes with the team's meritorious player Vardy's outbreak again this season. In the first 12 rounds, they achieved 8 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, surpassing the two giants Chelsea and Manchester City and ranking third in the Premier League standings.

Another dark horse is the newly promoted Sheffield United. The Blades currently rank sixth in the standings, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference, closely following Chelsea and Manchester City.

………………At Bramall Lane, Manchester United did not have a good start. Due to the influence of the FIFA virus, most of the Manchester United players seemed a little tired, and Sheffield United played very actively at home, suppressing Manchester United with a strong style.

After saving Manchester United twice with wonderful saves, De Gea's goal was still lost in the 19th minute of the game. Mousset squeezed Jones and cut into the right side of the penalty area and passed the ball back. Lundstran's shot from 10 yards was blocked by De Gea's legs, and Fleck blocked the ball from the edge of the small penalty area.

Manchester United, which was behind, did not improve in attack. Sheffield United continued to have the upper hand in the confrontation, and Norwood and Lundstram's shots from outside the box were both blocked.

Manchester United had only one shot in the first half, which was Mourinho's worst half-time performance since he coached Manchester United.

During the half-time break, Mourinho made a substitution, with Lingard replacing Mbappe who was performing poorly.

However, the substitution did not have a significant effect. After the start of the second half, Manchester United was still suppressed by Sheffield United on the field.

Sheffield United extended the lead in the 52nd minute. Fleck passed the ball and Mousset broke through to the top of the penalty area and shot into the lower right corner, changing the score to 2:0.

Seeing the situation was not good, Mourinho made another substitution, replacing Gundogan with Greenwood.

By sending out four forwards, Mourinho is planning to fight for his life on the away field.

Manchester United, fighting a desperate battle, finally burst out with energy, and Bruno also demonstrated his responsibility as captain and core of the team.

Manchester United equalized in the 72nd minute. Lingard's cross from the right was cleared and Bruno shot into the far corner from 15 yards on the left side of the penalty area.

Manchester United equalized in the 77th minute. Rashford made a cross from the right side of the penalty area, and the 18-year-old Greenwood, who had just replaced Gundogan, shot into the net from the edge of the small penalty area.

Manchester United reversed the score in the 79th minute. Bruno passed the ball to the left, and Luke Shaw passed the ball back from the left side of the penalty area. The unguarded Rashford pushed the ball into the net with his left foot from 10 yards.

Manchester United scored three goals in just seven minutes to reverse the score. Their morale was high and they attacked Sheffield United's goal frantically. However, their luck seemed to have run out. Although they shot again and again, they did not get the fourth goal of the game. Instead, Sheffield United counterattacked and scored again just before the game entered injury time.

In the 90th minute, Robinson made a cross from the left side of the penalty area, McBurnie stopped the ball with his thigh from 10 yards and shot, but De Gea blocked it and the ball still went into the net. Manchester United players complained about the opponent's handball foul, but VAR reviewed it and determined that the goal was valid.

This is the first time that Manchester United has conceded three goals in a single game to a newly promoted team since September 2014.

In the end, Manchester United was tied 3:3 by Sheffield United away from home, ending their -game winning streak at the start of the season and their -game winning streak across seasons.