Chapter 881 FA Cup 6th Title

Chapter 881 FA Cup th Title

The game time passed quickly and the first half was over before we knew it. Both sides went into halftime with a score of 0:0.

In today's game, Manchester United drew the home team, so they used the home team locker room at the new Wembley Stadium.

In the locker room, Mourinho was making tactical arrangements for the team.

"Chelsea is anxious!"

"All they think about is attacking!"

"Our chance has come!"

Mourinho said to the team's left winger Rashford: "I allow you not to return to defense for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Go forward! Attack! Fight their counterattack!"

Rashford's eyes lit up. This was what he loved to hear the most.

Then, Mourinho said to the team's midfield core, captain Bruno: "Counterattack with long passes! Don't go through the midfield, just like we did in training, and quickly reach their hinterland."

Rashford and Mourinho both nodded.

"Kane, it's time to play your fulcrum role!" Mourinho turned his head and looked at the team's center forward Harry Kane and said.

"Understood!" Harry Kane nodded. As the team's center forward, he is tall and strong, with good confrontation and heading abilities.

"Harry Kane's job is to pass the ball to you! Boy, do you know what you should do?" Mourinho stared at Rashford and said.

"Kick that damn football in!" Rashford said gritting his teeth.

"Ha, that's right!" Mourinho laughed and pushed the two men back into the field. "Go, kick Chelsea's ass."

………………

The fifteen-minute halftime break passed quickly and the second half of the game began immediately.

After coming out of the locker room, Mourinho did not return to the court directly, but went to the bathroom.

When he returned to the court, the game had already started. He stood in the tactical guidance area to watch the game. A few minutes later, he walked straight back to the coaching seat. Instead of sitting down, he took a bottle of water, unscrewed it, took a sip, and spit out most of it.

He was a little nervous.

This was a decision he made himself. After returning to the field, he had been observing the situation on the field. At this moment, Mourinho suddenly decided that it was time to counterattack!

What made him make this decision was his eyes and everything he saw: Chelsea seemed impatient after failing to attack for a long time, and they didn't seem to be worried about Manchester United's attack at all.

In this attacking free kick opportunity in the frontcourt, almost all Chelsea players came out, leaving only two players in their own half.

Unable to score in open play, Chelsea were clearly desperate to take advantage of this set-piece opportunity to score.

This is Manchester United's chance! A chance to counterattack!

Mourinho realised this immediately.

He didn't know what the result would be. Maybe Manchester United's attack would fail, and Chelsea would seize the opportunity to score because they no longer defended. But Mourinho gave the order to attack without hesitation!

He has done so much work, isn't he waiting for an opportunity like this?

If Tuchel had calmed down after missing this opportunity and Chelsea had played more rationally, it would have been very difficult for Manchester United to score again.

When the time is right, take action!

………………

"Hakim!" Tuchel stood on the sidelines and raised three fingers, shouting to Ziyech who was about to take a free kick. This meant to tell Ziyech that this free kick should use the number three tactic.

Seeing the players nod to indicate that they received the signal, Tuchel walked towards the coach's seat. When he turned his head, he saw Mourinho not far away spitting water, wetting his shoes, and looking a little flustered. Tuchel's mood, which had been annoyed by the team's long-term failure to attack, suddenly improved a lot.

"Zesot, what do you think of Manchester United's performance today?" Tuchel asked his assistant Löw.

"The defense was very good, but..." Löw didn't know what words to use to describe it for a moment, "It's not like the Manchester United I remember. They were too conservative today, as if they were going to play a penalty shootout right from the start..."

"Yes." Tuchel nodded. "But this is Mourinho's characteristic. Although Manchester United has rarely been so conservative in the past few seasons, as long as he wants, Manchester United can completely shrink back and park the bus. It's just that Mourinho underestimates our offensive ability. We will definitely be able to break the deadlock. As long as we score the first goal, the rest will be..."

Tuchel stopped talking because he saw his assistant showing an extremely surprised expression, or a somewhat panicked expression, and said to Tuchel: "Thomas! Look quickly!"

Tuchel turned his head to look inside the field, and his eyes widened, because he saw Manchester United striker Harry Kane fighting for position with his own defender Reece James.

And above their heads, the football was falling.

Manchester United's counterattack?

They finally pressed it out?

Tuchel has long been dissatisfied with Manchester United's defensive tactics and wants them to press forward, but he swears that this will not be the case now.

………………

Harry Kane jumped up suddenly, he jumped very high, won the header battle against Reece James, and then headed the high ball from captain Bruno to Rashford who was rushing forward!

This is a very simple, very direct counterattack.

Chelsea's free kick attack was very fancy. Just for the penalty kick, there were three players covering each other. Then they didn't take a high ball, but instead sent a diagonal ground ball, trying to use empty cutting to attract the attention of the defense and tear open Manchester United's defense at the same time.

However, Kante rushed forward in time and shoveled the ball out. After Bruno got the ball, he pulled it, turned around, looked ahead, and directly sent a long pass!

It was such a simple counterattack, without any technical skills, but it easily tore through Chelsea's defense at this moment. Among the two defenders who stayed in their own half, Reece James was pinned down by Harry Kane, and then lost to Harry Kane in the header, allowing the latter to successfully play a fulcrum role and head the ball to Rashford.

Another defender, Azpilicueta, was fighting and retreating. He wanted to hold the last line of defense, but he didn't expect that after Rashford received Harry Kane's header, he had no intention of stopping the ball and adjusting. He pushed the ball forward with his chest and moved so fast that he passed by him directly.

This is why he did not retreat enough and was too close to Reece James, unable to form an effective defensive distance and space to delay his opponent!

………………

"Harry Kane! Header pass!"

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"One-on-one opportunity! Rashford! He directly uses his speed to pass Azpilicueta," the MUTV commentator shouted.

"Into the box! The keeper comes out - SHOOT!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!!!!!

The attack by Chelsea's goalkeeper, former Manchester United player Dean Henderson, was completely routine, and the beautiful footwork of the Manchester United youth training genius shone at this moment: Rashford shook his former teammate to the ground with a light shake, and then the rest was easy, he gently pushed the ball into the empty goal!

"A beautiful goal! From our Rashford!" The MYTV commentator shouted excitedly, "1:0! We are leading Chelsea! Cheer, Red Devils!"

"It's incredible! Manchester United, who had been under pressure in the half-court defense, scored a goal! This was their first shot of the day! An extremely fast counterattack!" BBC commentator Lineker didn't bother to criticize Mourinho's conservative tactics at this time. He exclaimed in surprise, "Chelsea's luck is so bad. They shot as many as six times but didn't score. The opponent succeeded in one counterattack. It was a wonderful counterattack. Manchester United's goal efficiency is amazing!"

Although he was unhappy with Mourinho and Manchester United's conservative tactics, Manchester United scored a goal, so he had to praise them no matter how unhappy he was.

………………

Tuchel was completely stunned when he witnessed the loss of the ball:

what happened?

Is this a lost ball?

We lost the ball in just such a simple counterattack?

Tuchel was a little confused.

After taking the lead, Manchester United repeated their old tricks and used their conservative tactics in the first half.

This also made Chelsea, who tried to counterattack, very helpless. Their attack was like hitting a hard reef and fell apart!

At this moment, they thought of the helplessness of other teams when facing Chelsea. After all, after Mourinho's two coaching years, defense has been deeply rooted in Chelsea's bones, although at this moment there are not many players left from Mourinho's era in this Chelsea team.

After several consecutive unsuccessful attacks, Chelsea's morale became even lower, and their play became worse and more chaotic.

In such a situation, Mourinho resisted the urge to attack and insisted that the whole team defend with all their strength. So in the last ten minutes of the game, the following situation appeared: Chelsea's attack was weak and the scene was chaotic, but Manchester United had no intention of attacking. They only had defense in their minds. At one point, Chelsea only had two or three players in the attack, but almost all Manchester United players retreated to half the field.

"This is the ugliest FA Cup final I have ever commented on!" Lineker criticized, "Chelsea is in chaos and Manchester United has no ambition!"

………………

Of course, Chelsea is not completely without chance.

In the 88th minute, Thiago Silva launched an attack with a precise long pass. Chilwell made a forward run to cushion the ball in front of the goal. Van Dijk's clearance was blocked by Lindelof who returned to defense and the ball went into his own goal. However, VAR determined that Chilwell was offside first and the equalizer was ruled invalid!

Five minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to end the game, and Chelsea fans in the stands booed harshly.

Chelsea fans had a hundred reasons to be unhappy with this game, because their team had a hundred reasons to win the game, but in the end, the championship trophy was snatched away by Manchester United in a shameless way.

Tuchel looked extremely frustrated. He still couldn't accept the score or the course of the game.

But in any case, the result has been settled. Manchester United won the FA Cup championship in the 2020-2021 season. This is their fifth championship in six FA Cup finals in the past six years. It is also the th FA Cup championship in Manchester United's history!