Chapter 952: Striving for the 4th Consecutive World Club Cup

Chapter 952: Striving for the Fourth Consecutive World Club Cup

In the past few years, two Portuguese head coaches, Mourinho and Santos, have each led their teams to dominate world football, with Mourinho dominating the club and Santos dominating the national team.

As a Portuguese, Jardim felt proud, but he was also always thinking about the opportunity to defeat his two compatriots.

However, Jardim also knew that he had almost no such opportunity, unless he returned to Europe to coach, or to coach a national team.

However, something unexpected happened: the Saudi giants Al Hilal, whom he coached, won the AFC Champions League last season and got the opportunity to participate in the Club World Cup.

Moreover, in the second round of qualifying, his team swept the host and entered the semi-finals of the Club World Cup, thus getting the opportunity to play against Manchester United coached by Mourinho.

Originally, Yaldin also knew that even if Riyadh Crescent met Manchester United, the result would be disastrous.

However, he did not expect that in the match between the two sides, with the help of the right time and place, his team actually took the lead over Manchester United in the first half.

After the performance in the first half, Jardim was unwilling to just settle for a draw and still hoped to defeat Manchester United in ninety minutes.

So he quickly made a decision: continue attacking and try to score a goal in a short time!

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The head coach gave instructions and the entire Riyadh Crescent team followed them.

No one knew it was a wrong decision.

Although they had been running for 50 minutes, the Manchester United players now felt relaxed. On the one hand, as the night deepened, the temperature was dropping a little bit, and the sea breeze was blowing, making the players feel comfortable. On the other hand, Rashford's goal made everyone feel at ease.

At the same time, they also saw the gap in strength between themselves and Riyadh Crescent, which made them realize that Riyadh Crescent could not pose much threat to them.

In the first half, it was just an illusion under special circumstances...

So just when Riyadh Crescent stepped up its attack, Manchester United once again used a quick counterattack, with Rashford scoring twice to give Manchester United the lead.

And this goal was scored only four minutes after his last goal...

"Rashford!! Great! Another quick counterattack! Manchester United is leading! Manchester United has overtaken!" He Wei was so excited that he was a little incoherent in the commentary booth. He knew too well what this goal meant.

However, Rashford still had that "it's natural" expression on his face, with a faint smile on his face. He high-fived his teammates who came up to celebrate with him, and then gave them a simple hug, which was considered a celebration.

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The returned Manchester United team did not give Riyadh Crescent any chance to fulfill its wishful thinking.

In the 77th minute, Bruno was pushed to the ground by the opponent's player while protecting the ball in front of the opponent's penalty area, and the referee gave Manchester United a free kick.

This free kick, which was 28 meters away from the goal, was taken by Bruno himself. The free kick he kicked bypassed the wall of Riyadh Crescent and went into the goal.

"Bruno!!! Ahhhhhh! What a wonderful free kick! 3:1! Manchester United will definitely win this game!"

He Wei shouted excitedly. What excited him was not the goal, but the meaning of the goal: victory was decided!

Manchester United defeated Riyadh Crescent in the Club World Cup semi-finals and reached the Club World Cup final for four consecutive years!

Their opponent in the Club World Cup final is the Copa Libertadores champion Palmeiras, who won the other semi-final!

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This will be the first time Manchester United and Palmeiras meet again after 22 years.

Twenty-two years ago, Manchester United, who won the treble for the first time, participated in the Toyota Cup as the Champions League champions, and eventually defeated Palmeiras, who won the Copa Libertadores for the first time, 1-0, and won the continental championship for the first time in history.

A year ago, the two sides had the opportunity to meet again, but Palmeiras, the champion of the Copa Libertadores, lost unexpectedly to the Central American champion Tigres de Nuevo León in the semi-finals and missed the final.

In another semi-final yesterday, after Palmeiras defeated Cairo Nacional, they shouted the slogan of revenge for the defeat 22 years ago.

Palmeiras dares to say this because all aspects are currently in their favor.

Because Brazil is located in the southern hemisphere, it is now summer and the climate is similar to that of the UAE, which has a tropical desert climate.

Moreover, since the Brazilian Serie A ended in early December last year, Palmeiras, which is currently in the off-season, has had a good rest for its players. They have a very obvious advantage in physical fitness over Manchester United, which has experienced a long and high-intensity schedule.

Of course, the schedule of the Club World Cup is also more favorable to Palmeiras. Palmeiras, which plays the semi-final one day in advance, will have four days of rest, while Manchester United will only have three days of rest.

It is worth mentioning that Palmeiras’ head coach Abel Ferreira is also Portuguese.

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Three days passed in a flash, and the 2021 Club World Cup final kicked off at 2:12 pm on February , local time in the UAE.

"Welcome to the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup. The two teams are last season's Champions League champions Manchester United and 2021 Copa Libertadores champions Palmeiras!" commentator He Wei introduced to the audience.

With the referee's whistle, the game began.

"Although the sun has set for two hours, the temperature in Abu Dhabi is still 30 degrees when the game is going on. This is a test for the players on both sides..."

"Before the game, Manchester United was not favored because they had one day less rest time than Palmeiras. In fact, Manchester United has been playing two games a week since November last year and is now very tired."

"Before coming to the UAE to participate in the Club World Cup, they had only played four Premier League games in eight days, and they were tied by their opponents three times. You know, before that, Manchester United had only tied two games in 4 Premier League rounds!"

"It can be said that Manchester United is now exhausted, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is at the end of its strength!"

"In the semi-final three days ago, although Manchester United won 3:1 in the end, they were very passive at one point in the game. In the end, it was Bruno, the five-time World Footballer of the Year, who scored a goal and made an assist, that helped Manchester United achieve a big turnaround."

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"As the champion of the Copa Libertadores in the past two years, Palmeiras' strength is unquestionable. Although they don't have any big-name stars, most of the players play in Brazil. But under the coaching of Portuguese head coach Abel Ferreira, this Palmeiras team has a very strong overall team spirit."

"In the first match of this Club World Cup, they beat last year's Club World Cup runner-up Cairo National 2-0, which was a bloodless victory. In addition, Palmeiras has very good physical fitness, which makes all parties more optimistic that they can beat Manchester United in the final and win the championship."

"Of course, as the champion of the Club World Cup for the past three years, Manchester United is a very magical team. Just like their nickname, they are always full of magic and can become the final winner under very unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, it is not easy for Palmeiras to stop Manchester United from winning four consecutive Club World Cup titles..."

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After introducing the background of the game, He Wei took the time to introduce the starting lineups of both teams to the TV viewers.

"Although the team played the semi-final only three days ago, Mourinho still sent out almost all the main players. The starting striker was Harry Kane, Rashford and Greenwood, the midfield was Bruno, Gundogan and Bellingham, Luke Shaw, Van Dijk, Maguire and Cancelo formed the back line, and De Gea guarded the goal... It can be seen that at the critical moment, Mourinho still trusted his main players more..."

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Before the game, media experts were indeed not optimistic about Manchester United defeating Palmeiras in the Club World Cup final.

But after the game started, the situation was somewhat different from what they expected.

Just six minutes into the game, Manchester United launched a threatening attack.

Harry Kane, wearing the No. 9 jersey of Manchester United, pulled to the right side and Greenwood passed the ball to him, which was offside.

After receiving the ball, Harry Kane did not dribble along the sidelines, but directly passed the ball to the back of Palmeiras' penalty area.

Rashford headed the ball ten meters away from the goal!

"Rashford!!"

The football went straight to the back corner of the goal, and Palmeiras goalkeeper Weverton made a great dive and caught the ball.

But because Rashford's header was very powerful and at a very tricky angle, Weverton was moving forward at the time. Facing the ball that was pushed behind him, it was already very difficult for him to touch the ball. He had no control over how far the ball would be blocked, and the ball didn't even leave the small penalty area...

At this place, Bruno, who came in from behind, accelerated quickly and rushed towards the football, then headed the ball!

This time, Weverton was totally powerless and could only watch the ball being headed into the goal by Bruno from not far away from him!

"Bruno--!! The ball is in! It's in!! It's in!!! Just six minutes into the game, the five-time World Footballer of the Year showed his ability to the whole world and scored the first goal for Manchester United!!!" He Wei shouted excitedly.

After scoring the goal, Bruno ran towards Harry Kane who passed the ball from the wing, and the two hugged each other. Then he turned and waved to Rashford, signaling him to come up and celebrate.

In fact, he didn't need to wave, not only Rashford, but all the Manchester United players in the front rushed up, surrounded them and celebrated the goal together.