Chapter 820 Dominance
Sometimes, in a football match, if the tactics are right and the players are feeling the kick, goals will come.
When the game reached the 45th minute, which was when the first half was about to enter injury time, Bruno was double-teamed by Mazraoui and Gravenberch during an attack and failed to create a threat, so he passed the ball back to Luke Shaw on the left.
The latter made a cross to the back of the penalty area. Harry Kane grabbed the first point and headed the ball back into the penalty area.
Bellingham followed up and shot directly, but his shot was interfered by Klaasen and hit Blind.
There was a melee in the middle, Harry Kane and Rashford went to grab the ball, and Ajax's midfielder and central defender also joined in the pressing.
And as if by some strange coincidence, someone kicked the ball and it rolled towards Bruno.
Bruno was on the left side and was a little surprised when he suddenly faced the ball, but he quickly reacted.
Tadic rushed towards him fiercely, but Bruno was very calm at this time. Instead, he took a step towards the middle, avoided Tadic, and kicked a ground ball with his right foot.
The football flew from Tadic's side to the lower left corner of the goal.
When goalkeeper Onana reacted, he dived to the side again, but this time, the Cameroon goalkeeper failed to save Bruno's shot like before, because the shot was fast and sudden, and by the time he reacted and dived to the side, the ball had already rolled into the goal.
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“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLL!!!!!”
"In the 45th minute, Bruno seized an unexpected opportunity and scored a goal against Ajax with a ground ball. It was a very sudden goal."
"Manchester United's goal came very suddenly, but it also reflects that Bruno's ability to seize opportunities at critical moments is indeed very stable, and he now looks more relaxed and at ease when playing."
"This is Bruno's 77th Champions League goal, and his total number of goals in the Champions League has reached 80. This number ranks him third in the Champions League's historical scorer list. The only ones ahead of him are Yosi with 115 goals and Cristiano Ronaldo with 130 goals! And a number of active or retired superstars including Raul, Lewandowski, Benzema, etc. have been left behind by Bruno!"
"This is only Bruno's sixth season in the Champions League. In the past five Champions League seasons, Bruno has maintained a very high scoring rate. In his previous 56 Champions League games, he scored 76 goals, which even exceeded his goal efficiency in the club. It seems that he was born for big scenes!"
"The reason for this is not just because Bruno has a high goal efficiency in the Champions League, but because he has maintained a higher goal efficiency in all major competitions than in ordinary games."
"Take the Champions League for example. Of his 77 goals, 42 were scored in the knockout stages, accounting for 54.5%!"
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After scoring the goal, Bruno rushed out of the stadium and celebrated the goal wildly.
The TV live broadcast slowed down the whole process of the goal. At that time, the entire front of the penalty area fell into chaos, and no one knew where the ball would come from.
Through slow-motion replay, we can see that it was Harry Kane who poked the ball to Bruno's side.
"Tadic seemed out of form tonight. He should have been more steady in his handling of the ball this time and should not have dived so hard. As a result, Bruno was very smart and made a move to the middle, and it was so easy to get past him." Davis looked very disappointed.
As a former product of Ajax's youth training system and an experienced all-round midfielder, Davis is well aware that a key reason for the mistake in this goal was that Tadic failed to stop Bruno and he dived too hard.
"This is the role of a key star." Van Persie praised, "Give him a little chance, Bruno can create goals, and he also caused a lot of trouble for Ajax's defense throughout the first half."
Lisandro's injury, Tadic's yellow card, and the goal just now...
"Bruno is still not in his best condition." Van der Vaart said helplessly.
Rather than saying that Bruno performed too well, it is better to say that Ajax's state is a bit sluggish, especially Tadic, and Ten Hag's tactics were completely suppressed by Mourinho, causing Ajax to be passive all the way.
"If we keep going on like this, we'll suffer in the second half sooner or later," Davis said worriedly.
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The goal at the end of the first half allowed Manchester United to enter the halftime break with a 1:0 lead.
Mourinho was very satisfied with the team's performance in the first half, especially Bruno, who he thought had basically met his expectations. Rashford and Mbappe also received Mourinho's affirmation because they successfully formed an impact on Ajax's defense.
The madman expressed the hope that Rashford and Mbappe would continue to attack Ajax's defense in the second half and use their speed to create threats.
Others tried their best to cooperate with Manchester United's front attack group.
After the second half, Manchester United still adopted the same tactics as in the first half. The Red Devils still adopted the high-pressure tactics and put pressure on Ajax.
It can be said that Manchester United is already familiar with this style of play. The players have already mastered the skills of knowing when to grab, when to lock, when to go up and when to go down.
Although Gundogan was there, Kante and Jebruno were still in the midfield, and the young player Bellingham also performed well, which made it easy for Manchester United to gain the advantage after the second half.
Less than five minutes into the second half, Bruno got the ball on the left, quickly dribbled inside and passed it diagonally to Harry Kane.
The England center forward had just received the ball and was about to pass it back to Bruno, but Tadic suddenly fell to the ground and made a tackle, revealing his studs.
Harry Kane was tackled to the ground, and the referee quickly blew the whistle, giving Tadic another yellow card, and then the two yellow cards turned into a red card, and he was directly sent off the field.
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One was injured and the other was sent off, both of Ajax's core players were sent off the field.
Ten Hag quickly made adjustments, replacing Kudus with Labiyad. The team began to change tactics, adopting a 441 formation, decisively shrinking the defense and retreating very far back.
It was obvious that Ajax had no way out and turned to a solid defense.
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This is something no one at Manchester United wants to see.
Bruno even felt that, to some extent, this red card was not a good thing for Manchester United.
If there was no red card and both sides had an equal number of players, Ajax would have tried every means to attack and equalize the score if they were one goal behind. But now a red card has completely cut off Ajax's idea of counterattack and they will only defend this score.
The subsequent game seemed to confirm Bruno's guess. Ajax began to defend the half court and the penalty area, allowing Manchester United to attack, but never left Manchester United with many opportunities.
The Red Devils took the advantage and began to press Ajax, but they were never able to break through Ajax's iron defense.
If a team is determined to defend tightly, it will be difficult for the opponent to break their goal easily, not to mention that Ajax itself is quite strong.
Even though Manchester United seemed to have a tactical advantage with Harry Kane and created several threatening attacks, they did not have any truly absolute chances.
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In this game, Manchester United defeated Ajax 1:0 away from home, achieving a crucial victory in this Champions League group stage.
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, Bruno sat on the bench and breathed a sigh of relief.
He was replaced by Mata in the 70th minute. In the last 20 to 30 minutes, Manchester United did not put in too much energy, but wasted more time.
Ajax lost 0:1 to Manchester United at home. They did not achieve a satisfactory score and even seemed to lack competitiveness in the process. Ten Hag's lineup was completely suppressed by Mourinho.
Although it is only the first group match, in fact, Manchester United is full of confidence and believes that if nothing unexpected happens, the team will successfully advance as the first in the group.
Bruno can see that Ten Hag, who coached Manchester United in another future, has some things, but not much. Such a coach may be able to achieve some results in a second-tier league with less competitiveness with a luxurious team, but it is difficult to succeed in a highly competitive top league like the Premier League.
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Manchester United won a narrow 1-0 victory over Ajax away from home, but they were unable to take the top spot in the group standings because in another group match that was taking place at the same time, Atalanta swept Midtjylland 4-0 away from home, thus suppressing Manchester United with a goal difference advantage and taking the top spot in the group.
However, in this round of the Champions League group stage, the first group match was a huge upset. Real Madrid, known as the king of the Champions League, lost 2:3 to Shakhtar Donetsk at home!
In the first half, Tite passed the ball and caused Varane to score an own goal, and the Miners led 3:0; in the second half, Modric scored a world wave to make up for the deficit, and Vinicius scored just 15 seconds after coming on as a substitute. In the end, Real Madrid unexpectedly lost to their opponent with a score of 2:3, setting the biggest upset of the day.
The Premier League teams all performed well, with Manchester City beating Porto 3:1 at home and Liverpool beating the powerful Atletico Madrid 2:1 away. Only Chelsea failed to win, as they were tied 0:0 at home by the Europa League champion Sevilla.
而在欧联杯赛场，英超球队表现更加具有统治力。阿森纳客场2:1维亚纳快速，莱斯特城主场3:0大胜柔亚，热刺也是在主场3:0大胜林茨。
7 games, 6 wins and 1 draw, the Premier League has proved to the world why they are the number one league!
