Chapter 790 Master and Disciple

At the end of the 36th round of the Premier League, Manchester United has a 3-point advantage over Liverpool in the standings.

Then, the FA Cup semi-finals of this season began. Two four-team matches between Manchester and London were held at the new Wembley Stadium.

On the evening of July 7, the match between Manchester City and Arsenal took place first. In this duel between Guardiola and Arteta, Arsenal had the last laugh. With Aubameyang's double goal, Arsenal unexpectedly defeated Manchester City 18:2 and reached the FA Cup final for the 0st time!

A day later, the other semi-final was between Manchester United and Chelsea.

Although the 37th round of the Premier League will be played in three days, Mourinho still sent out his full starting lineup in this FA Cup semi-final.

On the one hand, this is because Manchester United not only has a 3-point advantage in the league, but also a considerable goal difference advantage, which means that as long as they win one of the remaining two rounds, they can basically lock in the Premier League championship. On the other hand, because the FA Cup has reached the semi-finals, as long as they win the last two games, they can win the FA Cup for the fifth consecutive time, which is also very tempting for Manchester United.

Manchester United might not have taken the FA Cup champion's £200 million bonus seriously in the past, but in the face of the epidemic, Manchester United's revenue will definitely be greatly affected. At this time, winning the FA Cup and receiving a £200 million championship bonus can also make up for the team's losses a little.

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The impact of the epidemic on European leagues is huge. There is no income on match days, commercial endorsements have also been cut, and many teams are facing difficulties in operation.

Under such circumstances, major clubs have to tighten their belts and cut club expenses.

The first club to announce a pay cut was Juventus. On March 3, Juventus officially announced that after consultation, the team's players and coaching staff unanimously agreed to give up their salaries from March to June this season. This decision will save the club 29 million euros in salary burden.

On April 4, Serie A officially announced that the 6 Serie A teams had reached a salary reduction agreement: "If the league cannot be restarted, the players will give up 20 months' salary, that is, accept a 4/1 salary reduction. If the league can be restarted, the players will give up 3 months' salary, that is, accept a 2/1 salary reduction."

Subsequently, La Liga clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid also announced salary cuts. Barcelona officials said that the club's board of directors and all professional team players would cut their salaries by 70% to tide over the difficulties together; Real Madrid announced that the players, coaching staff and senior management of the football and basketball first-teams would voluntarily reduce their salaries by 10%-20% this year.

It is worth mentioning that the salary cuts at Juventus were initiated by players led by Cristiano Ronaldo, while the salary cuts at Barcelona were something the players were reluctantly forced to accept under pressure from multiple parties at the club.

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However, while the teams in the other four major leagues have cut salaries, with the exception of Arsenal, which has cut salaries by 12.5%, the rest of the Premier League giants, including Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea, have not cut salaries.

There is basically no salary cut in the Premier League. On the one hand, it is because of the toughness of the players. On the other hand, it is also because the bosses behind the Premier League clubs are all "super rich" and have no shortage of money.

For example, Manchester United's owner, Jassim, is a member of the Qatari royal family and is worth tens of billions of dollars. Qatar made its fortune in oil, so the impact of the epidemic is not that great.

Another reason is that Manchester United's revenue capacity is too strong. The epidemic has hit the team's match day income hard, but for Manchester United, match day income is only a small part.

Take the 2018-2019 season as an example. Manchester United, which won the treble for two consecutive years, has a total revenue of more than 8 million pounds, of which the match day revenue is as high as 2 million pounds. This figure is the highest in the Premier League and even in the whole of Europe.

Of course, Manchester United can have such high match-day revenue mainly due to its huge home stadium capacity. Both the previous Old Trafford Stadium and the current temporary home Millennium Stadium are super stadiums that can accommodate more than 7 fans.

In addition, the team's peripheral product development is also very strong.

However, the match-day revenue of £2 million only accounts for about 25% of Manchester United's total revenue.

Of course, when the team can earn an extra 200 million pounds by trying harder, the club naturally hopes to get this extra income.

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Chelsea also attaches great importance to this FA Cup semi-final.

Chelsea's performance on all fronts this season has been less than satisfactory.

In the league, they withdrew from the championship early, and in the Champions League, although they advanced as the first in the group, and the strength of their opponent was not too strong, it was the dark horse team of the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig. However, in the two knockout matches in March, they were defeated by RB Leipzig twice and stopped in the round of 3.

In this case, the FA Cup becomes the only trophy Chelsea can compete for this season.

According to gossip, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has issued an ultimatum to Lampard. If Chelsea fails to win the FA Cup, Lampard, the Blues legend, will definitely pack up and leave after the end of the season.

Under such circumstances, Chelsea players played very actively in the game.

Soon, the first half of the FA Cup semi-final was over and time entered halftime.

The score on the electronic scoreboard of the new Wembley Stadium is: Manchester United 0:1 Chelsea!

Just nine minutes into the first half, Manchester United midfielder Fred was sent off with a red card. During a scramble, Fred raised his arm and hit Chelsea midfielder Kovacic in the face. The latter fell to the ground in pain. The referee believed that Fred had deliberately elbowed him and directly showed him a red card.

Mourinho was furious on the sidelines. In his opinion, a yellow card was enough because Fred hit Kovacic in the face accidentally and it was not a very bad deliberate elbow.

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This red card was completely an accident, which disrupted Mourinho's tactical deployment of the team. Manchester United played very passively throughout the first half of the game.

Finally, after the time entered the injury time of the first half, William got the ball in the frontcourt and passed it to the left. Azpilicueta got the ball and made a cross pass from the bottom. Giroud stretched his legs and shot in front of the goal. The ball touched De Gea and slowly rolled into the net.

The score on the field was changed to 0:1, and Chelsea broke the deadlock.

"You did a great job, guys," Chelsea manager Lampard said to his players.

"We are leading by one to zero now, but that's not enough. They are one man short. What we have to do in this game is to keep scoring goals and win by a big score."

"Remember, our goal is revenge! Revenge for the disastrous defeat away from home at the beginning of the season! Revenge for being beaten twice in the league! Revenge for being beaten four times by Manchester United this season!" Lampard said excitedly.

Today's encounter is the fifth match between Chelsea and Manchester United this season. Chelsea lost to Manchester United in the previous two rounds of the league, as well as the fourth round of the European Super Cup and the League Cup. Chelsea has thus become the team that has lost the most games to Manchester United in a season, second only to Manchester City, which has lost to Manchester United 5 times.

For Chelsea, which has already become one of the top European clubs, this is undoubtedly a shame!

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Before the game, Lampard was still worried about how to beat Manchester United. Lampard knew very well that Chelsea was not as strong as Manchester United, and his tactics were learned from Mourinho, which was also restrained. This made his Chelsea feel suppressed in blood when facing Manchester United.

Although the team owner issued a kill order before the game, Lampard knew in his heart that Chelsea was in great danger in this game, and the biggest possibility this season was to lose all four major titles.

Unexpectedly, the referee was so helpful and sent Fred off right away. Lampard saw the possibility of winning the game, even by a big margin.

Therefore, during the entire fifteen minutes of halftime, Lampard was in a very happy and cheerful mood.

A day ago, in this place, Arteta led his team to defeat his mentor Guardiola. Lampard believes that today he can continue Arteta's glory and lead his team to defeat his mentor Mourinho.

Lampard thought of another thing, that is, thirty years ago, Ferguson relied on an FA Cup to keep his position as Manchester United coach, and then led Manchester United to become the Premier League hegemon. Now, Lampard may repeat Ferguson's history.

He has a feeling that he is going to be the protagonist!

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In the home team locker room at the new Wembley Stadium, Mourinho was also making final arrangements.

"The first 15 minutes of the second half are crucial. Although we cannot judge whether Chelsea will play a conservative counterattack or press forward to attack, I want to emphasize that no matter what, I don't want to see any more goals conceded. Even if it means sacrificing offense, we must do a good job of defense and not lose the ball. If we let Chelsea lead by two goals, we will be very passive." Mourinho said with a serious expression, "After 15 minutes, we will speed up."

"Marcus (Rashford) and Kylian (Mbappe), I need you to be more active on the wing and take turns tearing them apart on both sides."

"Harry (Kane), in the second half of the game, you should pass the ball to your teammates. Kylian (Mbappe), Marcus (Rashford) and Bruno should work hard to find shooting opportunities."

Chelsea's defenders are all tall and strong, while Mbappe and Rashford from Manchester United are at a physical disadvantage. Therefore, Harry Kane, who has strong confrontation ability, will need to play more of a bridgehead role in this game.

"N'Golo (Kante), you have a heavy task and the team needs you to work harder," Mourinho said.

After Fred was sent off with a red card, Manchester United only had Kante as a defensive midfielder on the field, and his defensive task was very heavy.