Chapter 925 National Team History No. 3
Chapter 925 National Team Ranks Third in History
Manchester United, who advanced to the Champions League knockout stage two rounds in advance and secured first place in the group, will soon face their city rivals Manchester City in the 11th round of the league.
This is the first leg of the two sides' league match this season, but it is the third Manchester derby this season.
Since Bruno has not had any rest since the end of the last international match day and has played all six of Manchester United's games in the past three weeks, Mourinho arranged for Bruno to be on the bench in this round of games.
Bruno was substituted in the 0th minute, and the score was still 0:. Neither side could score, but Manchester United, who were at home, had the upper hand on the field.
After Bruno came on the pitch, Manchester United seemed to have found their backbone again.
In just three minutes, Manchester United once again attacked outside the penalty area in the frontcourt.
After Bruno got the ball on the right, he suddenly passed the ball to the right side of the penalty area and quickly cut into the penalty area along the right rib.
Harry Kane rushed out of the penalty area, received the pass from Bruno on the right, and passed it back to Cancelo who was making a forward run.
The Portuguese right-back stopped, took a look at the penalty area, and gently pushed the ball into the penalty area with his right foot.
Bruno leaned his body against Manchester City center back Stones, stopped the ball to his right with his right foot, turned around, blocked Stones with his body, and swung his left foot to hit directly.
A quick curved ball flew directly into the upper left corner of Manchester City's goal.
From stopping the ball, turning around to shooting, the whole process was done in one go. The movements were extremely smooth and there was no obstruction at all.
Manchester City's central defender Stones was unable to stop him the whole time and could only watch him turn around and shoot.
Bruno's name once again resounded throughout the new Old Trafford!
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Amid the cheers, Bruno opened his arms like a glider, with a bright smile on his face.
On the sidelines, Manchester City coach Guardiola was very depressed at first. His team had persisted for more than an hour, but Bruno completely disintegrated their efforts of the past hour in just three minutes, which made him very angry.
But he knew he couldn't blame anyone, including Stones.
The England international centre-back has tried his best. He has done everything he can to stop Bruno, but there is nothing he can do.
Mourinho jumped up with excitement after Bruno scored.
With this goal, the game is secured!
By defeating Manchester City, the last strong rival, Manchester United safely passed the first devilish schedule of this season.
Many media outlets that were pessimistic about Manchester United said at the end of the last international match day that this devilish schedule would be a turning point for Manchester United this season, a turning point from prosperity to decline. As long as Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City perform well, Manchester United will most likely fall from the top of the standings.
However, three weeks later, Manchester United won three consecutive league games, further consolidating its advantage in the league standings.
The game ended with a score of 1:0. Manchester United won a narrow victory over Manchester City thanks to Bruno's goal after coming on as a substitute, achieving their th consecutive win at the start of the Premier League season.
As Chelsea was unexpectedly tied by Burnley at home in this round, Manchester United's advantage in the standings has expanded to 7 points before the schedule has even reached a third!
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In mid-November, the last international match day of 11 is about to arrive. Portugal will face Ireland as an away team and Serbia at home in the final two rounds of the European qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup.
在目前的A组积分榜上，葡萄牙以六连胜高居小组第一，多赛一轮的塞尔维亚以5胜1平1负，两分之差排名第二；曾经的鱼腩卢森堡2胜4负，积6分排名第三；爱尔兰1胜2平3负积5分排名第四，阿塞拜疆1平7负只拿到1分小组垫底。
Since there are 13 qualifying places in the European zone of the Qatar World Cup, the promotion rules of this qualifying round are that the first place in the 10 groups will advance directly, and the second place in the 10 groups plus the two teams that qualify through the UEFA Nations League, a total of twelve teams, will play two rounds of play-offs to decide the remaining 3 places.
So for Portugal, they have not yet secured qualification for the Qatar World Cup.
Of course, since the top two teams, Portugal and Serbia, are both far ahead of the third-placed Luxembourg, the qualifying teams and the teams participating in the play-offs can only be between Portugal and Serbia. Luxembourg, Ireland and Azerbaijan have already been eliminated.
However, Portugal's first game on this international match day will give them the opportunity to lock in a direct ticket to the Qatar World Cup in advance.
As long as they can beat Ireland, which has already been eliminated, away from home, they will secure first place in the group one round in advance!
In fact, Santos has made some preparations for this. Bruno did not start in the Manchester derby against Manchester City last weekend. In fact, Santos had privately communicated with Mourinho and Bruno, hoping that Bruno could reduce consumption in that Manchester derby so as to help the Portuguese national team qualify in advance.
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On the evening of April 12, at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
In the seventh round of Group A of the European qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup, Portugal will challenge the host Ireland away.
This game is also very memorable for Bruno, because it is his 80th game for the Portuguese national team. In the previous 79 games, he scored a total of 88 goals, ranking fourth in the national team's historical scorer list, second only to Cristiano Ronaldo with 113 goals, Ali Daei with 109 goals, and Dahari with 89 goals.
Therefore, before the game, many media were speculating whether Bruno could score a goal in this game, thus tying with Dahari and rising to the third place in the national team's historical scorer list.
After the game started, Portugal actively pressed forward and launched an attack, trying to eat up the opponent from the beginning. But Ireland was obviously well prepared for this, not only actively defending, but also making a sharp counterattack in the seventh minute, almost penetrating the Portuguese goal, making all Portuguese fans sweat.
Before the game, Ireland head coach Stephen Kenny publicly stated in the media that even if Ireland had been eliminated early, they would still do their best to snipe Portugal and Bruno at home.
As it turned out, his team's start was indeed surprising.
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Although the game started badly, Portugal did not play in a hurry at all.
Bruno was not in a hurry to score a goal. Not only that, he took the initiative to comfort his teammates and signaled everyone to remain calm.
After that, Portugal always controlled the situation on the field, patiently organizing and creating opportunities.
Because for Bruno, whether he can score in this game is not the primary thing. He can not score in this game, and Portugal can not win the game, but they must not lose!
In the current Group A standings, Portugal not only has a 2-point advantage, but also leads Serbia by a large margin of 16 to 8 in terms of goal difference.
In this game, as long as Portugal can get a draw, it can basically guarantee the first place in the group.
Unless they lose miserably to Serbia at home with a score of 4:0 or more in the last round!
But the possibility of such a thing happening is infinitely close to zero!
In the 20th minute, Bruno suddenly retreated from the frontcourt, received the ball with his back, and then passed it back to Nunez. He turned around and quickly inserted himself, and Nunez understood what he meant and passed the ball over the top to the penalty area.
Bruno used his acceleration to shake off all the defensive players and went straight into the penalty area. Facing the falling ball, he picked it up before the Irish goalkeeper came out and lifted the ball over the goalkeeper again and it fell into the goal behind him.
The entire scoring process is very simple and direct, but very effective.
1: 0!
This goal was Bruno's 89th goal for the Portugal national team. He also tied with Malaysian striker Dahari and rose to third place in the national team's historical scorer list!
However, it will take a long time for Bruno to continue to improve his ranking, because Ali Daei, who is ahead of him, has scored 20 more goals than him!
Even with Bruno's goal-scoring efficiency, it would be difficult to surpass the opponent in a short period of time.
After all, Bruno is currently in the national team, and he can only score 20 goals a year at most!
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With a score of 0:1, the two sides ended the first half.
After the change of sides in the second half, Santos adjusted the team's tactics and launched a wave of offensives at the beginning of the second half. Guedes scored a goal in the first four minutes of the game, extending the lead to 2:0.
In the 61st minute, Bruno assisted Ronaldo to score a goal, further expanding the score.
After taking a 3:0 lead, everyone in Portugal was still working hard.
From the beginning of the second half, Bruno took the initiative to take on more tasks of attracting defensive attention and setting up the formation for his teammates. His intention was very clear, which was to help the team score goals and completely secure the victory.
Even when setting records, Bruno was able to maintain this mentality and rationality, which made everyone in the Portugal team admire him very much, and they all benefited from Bruno.
In addition, Bruno would give gifts during festivals and often treat the entire team to dinner. Everyone respected him and he was very popular. So after the team took a 3:0 lead and secured victory, everyone began to reciprocate and consciously wanted to help Bruno score goals.
If he scores one more goal, he will surpass Dahari and occupy the third place in the national team's historical scorer list.
Not only that, Bruno will also tie the national team's record of scoring 2016 goals in a single natural year that he set in 20.
Before this game, Bruno had scored 2021 goals in 16 games for Portugal in 18. If he can score twice today, his goals for Portugal in 2021 will reach 20 again!
