Chapter 998 Thunder

La Liga has played 33 rounds so far. Real Madrid, in first place, has 78 points, the same as Manchester United, but they are 15 points ahead of second-placed Barcelona and third-placed Sevilla, and have basically secured the league title in advance.

意甲排名前二的米兰双雄，在33轮后分别拿到了71分和69分，在多赛2轮的情况下还落后曼联7分和9分。

Not to mention the dominant Bundesliga and Ligue 4. With four and five rounds remaining, respectively, the gaps between the top and second-place teams are nine and 5 points, respectively. Dortmund's chances of catching up to Bayern Munich's nine points in four rounds are practically impossible, while Marseille's chances of catching up to 9 points in five rounds are limited to a theoretical sliver: Paris Saint-Germain must lose their final five games, while Marseille would win all five, allowing them to secure the title on goal difference.

Originally, Manchester United also had the suspense of ending the championship early, but due to the multi-line battles, Manchester United's energy was distracted by the Champions League and FA Cup, resulting in 1 draw and 1 loss in the past two rounds of the league. Not only did it fail to take advantage of the opportunity of direct confrontation between Liverpool and Manchester City to widen the gap with the two teams, but was instead overtaken by 3 points by the two opponents.

Up to now in this marathon, the first place winner has to sprint with all his strength and dare not slack off at all, for fear of being pulled down by the opponent behind him.

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During the half-time break, Mourinho made some adjustments to the team in response to the situation in the final stages of the first half where the team was beaten very badly by Liverpool's two flanks. However, Mourinho's adjustment was not to strengthen the defense of the flanks, but to strengthen the offense of the flanks.

Mourinho believed that to curb Liverpool's rampant wing attacks, they had to use a more aggressive wing attack than them. When Manchester United's wing attacks were more intense, Liverpool's wingers were forced to switch to defense, naturally having no time to attack and no way to threaten Manchester United's defense.

This "fighting violence with violence" approach is not Mourinho's style, but it is very consistent with the style of his opponent today, Klopp. However, after six years of coaching Manchester United, Mourinho's personality and even his coaching style have changed a lot.

This is also closely related to Manchester United's outstanding performance in the past few years. The continuous victories and championships have not only made the players of Manchester United full of confidence, but even Mourinho began to change his previous style.

Manchester United has more capital to play on the wing than Liverpool because they have Cancelo and Greenwood on the right, and Rashford and Luke Shaw on the left. These four people have extremely strong attacking ability and are also very fast. They can form that kind of continuous wing attack and continuously put pressure on Liverpool.

In comparison, Liverpool's offensive power on the wing is slightly weaker, especially after Salah was injured and left the field, Origi was unable to completely fill the gap left by Salah.

Despite this, Klopp has no intention of giving up. In Liverpool's locker room, Klopp is asking his team to continue to strengthen the offensive on both flanks in the second half.

"Use our speed on the wing to overwhelm them!"

The head coaches of the two teams chose the wing as the location for the final battle.

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In the second half of the game, both sides changed sides and no one made any substitutions.

Because of the same adjustments, the two teams started to confront each other on the wing.

In the 46th minute, Greenwood broke through on the right and made a cross. Harry Kane knocked the ball away due to the close interference of Koulibaly.

A minute later, Mane launched a quick attack on the left side of Liverpool. After a wall pass with Thiago, he dribbled the ball towards Manchester United's penalty area. However, when he broke through at the end, he took a little too far and Kante seized the opportunity to cut in, protecting the ball and causing it to roll out of the baseline.

In the 50th minute, Liverpool launched a very threatening attack from the wing again. Robertson sent a lob pass from the left side of the frontcourt to the left side of the penalty area.

After receiving the ball, Origi was approached by Maguire, while Kante came over to surround him.

Under the pressure of two Manchester United players, Origi was unable to control the ball well. The ball rolled out, and De Gea quickly attacked and kicked the ball out before Luis Dias!

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Both teams launched a strong attack on the flanks. Mane, Greenwood, Arnold, Luke Shaw, Robertson, Rashford, Luis Dias, Cancelo and other wingers were active and appeared in close-up shots many times.

In comparison, the players in the middle seem to be quieter.

During this period, Bruno's most important job was to divide the football into two parts.

In fact, his job is quite important, because choosing the right time to pass the ball often determines the success or failure of the attack. If the ball is passed too early, teammates will not be able to catch it. If the ball is passed too late, the speed of the attack will be slowed down, giving the opponent time to set up the defense.

But while this job is important, it's not glamorous enough. How can a simple pass be as eye-catching as a lightning-fast dribbling down the wing?

Unless Bruno passes every pass without looking at the person, or makes a fancy heel pass, which is impossible.

Although Bruno's appearance rate is not as high as that of the wingers of the two teams during this period, it does not mean that he can be ignored.

In the 58th minute, Bruno received the ball in front of Liverpool's penalty area. He turned to the right, as if he wanted to pass the ball to Greenwood who was waiting on the wing.

Liverpool responded quickly and the overall defensive focus shifted there.

Bruno leaned back and swung his right foot, looking like he was really going to pass the ball. Even Fabinho in front of him took a step forward to intercept the pass.

But Bruno's right foot swung past the football, then he swung it back quickly, and the inside of his heel knocked the football from behind him to the middle.

At the same time, he quickly turned to the middle, and without giving anyone time to react, he kicked the ball just one step away from the top of the free throw arc!

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Bruno's shot was so unexpected that the Liverpool players were unable to react.

For example, Koulibaly, who was on the shooting path, didn't even have time to hide his open arms before the football hit him!

Handball!

Bruno immediately raised his arm and signaled to the referee Anthony Taylor.

Without letting him wait, Anthony Taylor's whistle sounded almost at the same time.

"Penalty?! Yes, penalty!" After seeing Anthony Taylor's gesture, Andy Gray said in a confirming tone.

Anthony Taylor blew the whistle and ran towards the penalty area, his hand pointing to the penalty spot!

This series of actions proved that it was definitely a penalty kick!

Liverpool's local commentator, however, spoke out for Koulibaly: "The ball hit his hand. Koulibaly had already made a move to withdraw his hand, but he just couldn't get past the ball quickly! This penalty is really far-fetched!"

What he said may seem reasonable at first glance, but it actually doesn't make sense at all.

Handball doesn't depend on whether the hand hits the ball or the ball hits the hand. If Koulibaly had his hands tightly pressed against his body when he was hit by the football, there would probably be some debate about whether Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty. But Koulibaly's arms were open when he touched the ball, so it must be a penalty. Don't say that Koulibaly was about to retract his arms. As long as he didn't retract his arms, such an excuse is meaningless.

You should know that in the 1998 World Cup, in the group match between Italy and Chile, Roberto Baggio kicked the arm of a Chilean player outside the penalty area. The referee decisively awarded Italy a penalty kick, which was finally scored by Roberto Baggio himself, ending his penalty nightmare in the United States four years ago.

So there is no problem with the penalty decision made by referee Anthony Taylor.

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Koulibaly and other Liverpool players also tried to appeal from this angle, but Anthony Taylor was unmoved and insisted on his decision. He stood at the penalty spot, shaking his head and waving his hands, signaling them to step back.

After watching the video replay, the video referee team did not intervene in the penalty. Obviously, they also thought that there was nothing wrong with the referee's decision, otherwise they would have reminded Anthony Taylor to go to the sidelines to watch the video replay.

"Eh? A penalty? It's a penalty! Manchester United gets a penalty!" Zhan Jun shouted. "Looking at the slow motion replay, when Bruno shot, Koulibaly did try to dodge, but his arm didn't get out of the way... But according to the rules, there's nothing wrong with the penalty!"

There is also heated discussion on the Internet:

"Shit, this ball is a hitter!"

"What's wrong with the ball hitting your hand? Your arm is spread out so wide, even if it gets hit by the football, it's definitely a penalty!"

"Did Bruno deliberately aim for Koulibaly's hand?"

"Well, he probably doesn't have such precise footwork..."

"That's hard to say..."

……

No one knows whether Bruno really did it on purpose, but after the penalty was awarded, he was immediately hugged by Gundogan next to him, and Harry Kane and Kante also ran up to celebrate with Bruno by high-fiving.

In any case, this penalty was created by Bruno.

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As Manchester United's well-deserved first penalty taker, and this penalty was also created by Bruno himself, so there is no surprise that Bruno is also the taker of this penalty.

Bruno placed the ball on the penalty spot, then stepped back and prepared to take the penalty.

The Anfield stadium, which had been very noisy before, fell into silence, and everyone was staring at Liverpool's goal with bated breath.

Especially in the Anfield Stadium stands behind the goal, those Manchester United fans didn't even move, for fear of disturbing Bruno.