Chapter 837 Blue Fox Blocks the Road

Before Christmas, the League Cup quarter-finals will start one after another.

The first game was an upset as Premier League team Newcastle lost 0-1 to Championship team Brentford away from home.

In another strong dialogue that followed, Arsenal suffered a 1:4 defeat at home to Manchester City, and Arteta was once again severely punished by his master Guardiola.

On the evening of December 12, the last two quarter-finals continued. Tottenham Hotspur beat the Championship team Stoke City 23:3 away.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the final quarter-final kicked off at Goodison Park, with the Red Devils Manchester United facing the host Toffees Everton.

Mourinho continued to rotate the lineup, with Harry Kane and Bruno leading the team. With Harry Kane's goal in the 88th minute and Bruno's last-minute goal in the 6th minute of injury time, Manchester United defeated Everton 2-0 and advanced to the semi-finals of this season's League Cup.

In the subsequent draw, Manchester United again drew Manchester City, while Tottenham drew the best lot and faced Championship team Brentford.

This is the third time in the past four years that a Manchester derby has been staged in the League Cup semi-finals. In the previous 2017-2018 season and the just-concluded 2019-2020 season, the League Cup semi-finals also staged a Manchester derby, and Manchester United won in the end.

Due to the epidemic, the schedule of this season has been greatly compressed, which has resulted in this season's League Cup semi-finals no longer being the previous two-round knockout match, but a single game to decide the winner.

According to the schedule, this Manchester derby will be held on the evening of January 1 next year.

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After defeating Everton and entering the League Cup semi-finals, it was Christmas. However, the Manchester United team did not take a holiday, because the team would face Leicester City in the 15th round of the Christmas battle at noon on Boxing Day.

Manchester United beat Everton 2-0 in the EFL Cup in midweek, achieving five consecutive wins in all competitions. In the Premier League, the Red Devils have won 2 consecutive games since losing to Crystal Palace in the second round.

As it was only 60 hours since the League Cup semi-final, Mourinho continued to rotate the players in this away game at the King Power Stadium. Romero guarded the goal, Dalot, Lindelof, Tuanzebe and Luke Shaw formed the back line, Bruno partnered with Fred and Bellingham in the midfield, and Mahrez, McTominay and Rashford formed the front trident.

King Power Stadium.

When the game reached the 77th minute, Manchester United intercepted the ball in front of the 30-meter area in their own half, and Bellingham made a long pass over the top to launch a quick counterattack.

Bruno sprinted forward at great speed from the left wing.

"Manchester United launched a counterattack."

"The referee didn't blow the whistle, Bruno successfully countered offside!"

Bruno quickly caught up on the court and stopped the ball on the left side of the penalty area.

Leicester City's right-back Justin is also very fast in returning to defense. In this game, he has been keeping a close eye on Bruno.

The two were going one-on-one inside and outside the penalty area.

Facing Bruno who was approaching with the ball, Justin treated him as a formidable enemy and took a defensive posture. At the same time, he kept reminding himself in his mind, be careful and don't be fooled!

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When entering Justin's defense zone, Bruno suddenly started, increased his speed, then lowered his left shoulder and rushed to the baseline.

Even though Justin had repeatedly reminded himself not to be fooled, and even though he had been fooled by Bruno twice before, when Bruno suddenly changed speed and suddenly pretended to rush into the penalty area to the left side, Justin was still fooled.

He didn't know what was going on behind him at all. He didn't know whether Bruno would choose to cross after going down.

The guy in front of me is very proficient with both feet. He can cut inside and shoot, or cross the ball from the bottom, making him very difficult to defend.

And as soon as he moved, he felt the figure in front of him flicker.

Bruno dunked the ball back and squeezed into the penalty area almost brushing against Justin's side.

Justin was cautious and reacted immediately after realizing he had been tricked, but Bruno had already rushed into the penalty area with the ball, so many of his actions had to come to an abrupt halt.

What he didn't expect was that as soon as Bruno rushed into the penalty area, before he could react, he started to hit!

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"Bruno just hit the door!"

"The ball went in!!!"

"In the 78th minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack after stealing the ball. Bruno quickly dribbled the ball from the left and rushed into the penalty area. Facing Justin's defense, Bruno calmly chose to shoot directly."

"Leicester City goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel reacted but was unable to stop the ball from going into the net."

"This goal was scored by Bruno who dribbled the ball from the left and shot directly after creating an angle. It can be seen that he has a great feel for this area."

"It was the third goal of the game and the second for Manchester United in the match."

"It can be said that this was a wonderful game. From the beginning of the game, both sides played not conservative at all."

"Mourinho obviously knows that Manchester United's defense is not solid. Even if they defend tightly, they may not be able to stop Leicester City's attack. Because this team, which once created the Leicester City miracle, had scored 26 goals before this game, and is one of the most powerful offensive teams this season. So Mourinho chose to go head-to-head, and he is obviously full of confidence in Bruno's condition and strength."

"Bruno lived up to the coach's trust. In the 22nd minute of the first half, he made a wonderful pass to assist Rashford to score the first goal for Manchester United."

"But in the 31st minute, Leicester City took advantage of Manchester United's backcourt error to steal the ball. Barnes fired a shot from outside the penalty area, but Romero failed to save it, and Leicester City equalized the score."

"Both sides played not conservatively at all, and the game was very exciting."

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Bruno got up from the ground and hugged his teammates one by one, celebrating his 18th goal in the Premier League this season.

Following closely behind him are Salah, who scored 13 goals, and Vardy, Son Heung-min and Lewin, who also scored 11 goals.

Whether it is Salah, Vardy and others, they are still some distance away from Bruno.

But most importantly, Bruno wants to win!

From the more than one-hour game process, it can be seen that Leicester City is indeed very strong. The midfield composed of Ndidi and Tielemans is stronger than the combination of Bellingham and Fred, but the current situation is that both sides are evenly matched in terms of ball control.

This was something Bruno had not thought of before. He had never expected that with Kante and Gundogan, the two main midfielders, taking a rest, young players Bellingham and Fred would be able to do so well in terms of ball possession.

Although we know that Bellingham will grow into an all-around midfielder with good offense and defense in the future, the boy is too young at the moment and is not even 18 years old.

The players are active in running and, most importantly, have solid technical skills. This makes Manchester United's midfield full of creativity.

With McTominay in the frontcourt, Rashford on the left, and Mahrez and Chen Tao, Manchester United's entire midfield and frontcourt offense is quite outstanding.

If we have to point out shortcomings, it is that the defense is not stable enough. Lindelof and young player Tuanzebe have not had many opportunities to play this season, so there are some problems with their performance on the field.

But precisely because of this, Mourinho resolutely chose to gamble and go out to fight against Leicester City.

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This kind of game is very exhausting, so after 65 minutes, Mourinho replaced Fred with Kante to strengthen the interception and defense in the midfield, but the overall formation remained unchanged.

Sometimes football games are like this, you have to gamble and take risks.

Manchester United's tradition has always been to take risks.

To put it bluntly, the so-called creativity means taking risks. It is difficult to be creative if you blindly seek stability.

Although Leicester City ranked third before this round of games, teams such as Everton, Chelsea, Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City are chasing very closely behind them. If they are not careful, they will be at risk of being squeezed out of the Champions League zone, so every game and every goal is crucial.

After falling behind by one goal, Leicester City launched a massive counterattack, increasing the intensity of the attack and even pushing up the back line.

After all, this Manchester United team is mostly composed of substitutes, and its strength is definitely far from that of the Manchester United team with all its main players. Facing Leicester City, which is in excellent form this season and is fighting back with all its strength, Manchester United's defense was ultimately unable to hold.

In the 84th minute, Leicester City cooperated on the right, Justin made a lob pass, Perez inserted into the penalty area and made a low cross shot near the bottom line, Vardy pushed the ball in front of the small penalty area, Tuanzebe stretched his legs to block it, but the ball changed direction and Romero was unable to save it, and the football flew into Manchester United's goal.

The score on the field became 2:2, Tuanzebe scored an own goal, and Leicester City equalized the score again!

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This was also the last goal of the game. In the end, Manchester United drew with the Foxes Leicester City in the Christmas battle on Boxing Day.

However, what makes Manchester United feel a little relieved is that the teams behind them, such as Liverpool, Southampton, Chelsea, and Tottenham, have also suffered setbacks in this round. Liverpool tied 1:1 with relegation team West Bromwich Albion at home, Southampton drew 1-3 with Fulham away, and Chelsea lost 8: to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Manchester United still maintains an -point advantage in the standings.

The power of the Christmas devil schedule was fully demonstrated in this round of games.

With Manchester United drawing with Leicester City away from home, this means that Manchester United's previous 12-game winning streak in the Premier League has come to an end.

At the same time, Manchester United's record of 23 consecutive away wins in the Premier League was also ended. However, Manchester United's unbeaten record in the Premier League away games is still continuing: since losing to Liverpool away in the 12rd round of the league last season, Manchester United has remained unbeaten in the following 3 away games, with a record of wins and draws.