Chapter 305: Manchester Derby and the Afterglow of the Sun! (Updated 6K)

The night after the match with Portugal, Ricardo returned to Manchester to report after handling some personal matters.

Of course, Ricardo was on loan to London and returned with Sarafina. After all, that day was the Chinese New Year, and Sarafina, wearing a red Chinese cheongsam, was definitely going to celebrate with the scumbag Li.

For example, making dumplings, making hot pot, or cooking fried rice...

However, being in England, there is no holiday for the Spring Festival. On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Ricardo has to get up early to resume training. After all, the Manchester derby will be in two days.

When Ricardo arrived at the club, he learned that in another international warm-up match that was held almost at the same time as the friendly match between Italy and Portugal, England defeated Switzerland 2-1 at Wembley Stadium in London.

New coach Capello led the new England national team to victory in their first match, with the winning goals coming from Tottenham's Jenas and Chelsea's Wright-Phillips...

However, Manchester United's Wes Brown, Ferdinand and Rooney all played the whole game, while Carrick and Hargreaves also played nearly half of the game as substitutes.

It was only on the evening of February 2 that Manchester United gradually gathered all the first-team players who were participating in the national team matches;

After all, Manchester United's performance in the past two seasons has been so outstanding that, except for Scholes who has just recovered from injury, and Saha, Gary Neville and Sylvester who are injured, almost the entire first-team has been called up by their respective national teams.

Even Dong Yuanchao, Fletcher, Anderson, O'Shea and Park Ji-sung, who have not played many games this season, have been called up by their respective national teams.

During the intermission, only Foster, Pique, Iglesias and Scholes stayed at the club's base camp, and they could only train together with the second team...

Therefore, this wave of Fifa virus has a significant impact on Manchester United.

It was only after the training session that Ricardo realized that he had played relatively little during the national team match days;

In addition to the England national team players mentioned above, including Ronaldo, Giggs, Vidic, O'Shea, Park Ji-sung and Tevez all played the full game in the national team's warm-up match;

And Evra even returned to the club with an injury and needs to be absent for a while before returning...

Of course, the two national goalkeepers also played for 90 minutes each, but due to the special position of goalkeeper, the impact was not that great.

@

However, before the game, in addition to the bad news about the raging virus in France, Manchester United also had good news.

On the evening of February 2, the day when the first-team assembled, the Premier League officially announced the best players in January.

Thanks to the four consecutive wins in the league last month without conceding a single goal, Manchester United coach Ferguson and the Red Devils' top star Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly won the titles of best coach and best player respectively!

这也是年过6旬的弗爵爷第20次荣获这一殊荣，而后者也继2006年11月与12月连庄之后，第3次在这项球员荣誉的争夺中受到嘉奖。

At the beginning of 2008, Manchester United first celebrated the arrival of the new year by defeating Birmingham 2-0, and then they celebrated a crazy victory of 7-0 over Newcastle at Old Trafford, and Ronaldo even performed the first hat trick of his career in the game.

In the subsequent matches against Reading and Portsmouth, Ronaldo scored three goals again, helping the Red Devils celebrate the team's four consecutive wins in January with two consecutive 3-2 wins.

As of the 25th round, Ronaldo has regained the lead in the scorer list with 19 goals, surpassing Arsenal's Adebayor, and Manchester United will maintain a 2-point gap with Arsenal at the top of the league standings, still maintaining huge pressure on its main competitors.

Interestingly, the last time Sir Alex Ferguson won the Coach of the Month award was in February last year, but at that time he and his disciple Giggs won all the awards. This time, he and Ronaldo both won the award again.

Unfortunately, Ronaldo and Rooney received their fifth yellow card of the season in the last league game, and both were suspended in this round of the derby...

@

2008年2月10日，中午13时30分，07/08赛季英格兰足球超级联赛第26轮一场焦点战即将在老特拉福德球场展开争夺。

However, before the game started, the fans at the scene held a grand moment of silence.

7.3万名曼联球迷高举红白相间的围巾，3000名曼城球迷高举蓝白色的围巾，在1分钟的时间里共同为1958年2月6日曼联遭遇的慕尼黑空难默哀。

The live broadcaster at Old Trafford said that at this moment, Manchester is a "united city"!

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster, which has also been the theme of Manchester United in recent times.

The commemoration at Old Trafford was led by Manchester United's chaplain with hymns sung, and a permanent commemorative exhibition was opened on the wall of the south platform of the stadium, which was also renamed the "Munich Passage".

Before the game, captain Gary Neville lit 23 candles on the field on behalf of Manchester United - to commemorate the 50 players, officials, fans and journalists who died in the Munich air crash 23 years ago.

Manchester United's derby against Manchester City at home brought the commemorative activities to a climax!

Manchester United players wore red 1958-style jerseys without commercial logos or player names, while Manchester City also prepared a special edition jersey.

Moreover, the 23 ball boys who followed the players from both teams into the stadium were still wearing Manchester United's current jerseys, with the names of the 23 victims embossed on the back of the jerseys.

The two team coaches, Sir Alex Ferguson and Eriksson, also entered the stadium to lay flowers for the victims and led the audience in a minute of silence...

This is the 149st Manchester derby. Manchester United previously had the upper hand with 59 wins, 49 draws and 40 losses.

尽管曼城赛季初在主场取胜对手，但曼城上次做客老特拉福德取胜还是1974年4月27日，此后34年来27次做客仅取得11平16负未尝胜绩。

双方英超历史交锋21场，曼联12胜5平4负占据上风，其中主场6胜4平。

However, the lineup of this game was a test for Sir Alex Ferguson. The top offensive players Rooney and Ronaldo both missed the game due to accumulated yellow cards. Only two of the four little swans that became famous this season were left, and both of them were new players.

In addition, Evra, the most important assist engine of the back line, was also absent due to injury, and was also affected by the virus...

After some discussion and coordination, Sir Alex still arranged a standard parallel 4-4-2 starting lineup:

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Van der Sar;

The back line from right to left is No. 2 Wes Brown, No. 4 Vidic, No. 5 Ferdinand and No. 3 O'Shea;

The midfield quartet is No. 6 Park Ji-sung, No. 10 Scholes, No. 8 Anderson and No. 11 Giggs;

The two forwards are No. 7 Li Qi and No. 9 Tevez.

First of all, do you think this jersey number is wrong?

Actually, that's right, because this is the special number of the retro jersey specially made for this game with official authorization from the Premier League. There are only numbers 1 to 16, so only the players on the game list will be numbered.

In addition, this is the first time that Li Qi started as a forward in this game.

This is mainly because Manchester United's forward line is really empty. In last week's reserve team match, even Dong Yuanchao was injured, and Saha will not be able to resume training until next week at the earliest. In addition, Rooney and Ronaldo are suspended...

Sir Alex Ferguson hesitated among Giggs, Anderson and Lizzie. Who should he let play as a striker and partner with Tevez?

First, Li Qi often played as a striker in Sevilla, and he was the most familiar with this position among the three.

Secondly, at the beginning of the season, Tevez tried to play as a lone striker and a forward striker, but the effect was not good because Tevez was limited by his height and weight.

Although the Argentine beast is sturdy and plays fiercely, his weight and playing style are not that of a center forward; and Tevez's greatest threat comes from advancing with the ball. He is an offensive player who must control the ball with his feet.

In fact, Li Qi is also this type of player. After all, although he stands in the forward position in Sevilla, he does the work of an organizing shadow striker or attacking midfielder. He usually partners with either Fabiano or Kanoute, who is black and hard, to open up space.

Moreover, Spanish defenders also pay more attention to positioning and anticipation, unlike Premier League defenders who love close combat...

But no matter what, Li Qi's 1 meters tall and weight of nearly 87 kilograms make him more like a center than Tewks!

Finally, Li Qi's ability to judge the high ball and head the ball is better than that of Tevez. Even the most scarce ball-playing technique for a center, Li Qi played quite well in the training match. After all, they all fall into the field of assists and passing the ball.

However, Sir Alex and Li Qi may not have taken into account that training matches and official matches are different, especially in terms of match intensity, which is a world of difference!

It doesn't matter. At least in this game, Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't have many more choices. At least on paper, Li Qi playing as a center forward seems to be the best arrangement.

The advancement in the midfield and backcourt will be left to the two veterans!

As for the opponent Manchester City, just like in the first leg, they deployed a 4-4-1-1 defensive counterattack formation.

What Li Qi is particularly looking forward to is that Sun Jihai, the Chinese star who has been very unstable in his appearances this season, will be on the bench in this game and he has a good chance of making an appearance as a substitute in this game!

Finally, I have the chance to compete with Chinese players again! This makes Li Qi excited with an inexplicable emotion, like a little regret and some regret? In short, it is a very wonderful feeling. No need to think, it must be the influence of old Li Qi...

Soon after the game started, Li Qi had a very intuitive feeling that although they were also affected by the virus, the symptoms of Manchester City players were obviously much milder. At least they were more agile in running in the midfield and frontcourt than Manchester United.

Yes, at the beginning of the game, Manchester United was not unable to run or was reluctant to run, after all, it was a derby; but compared to Manchester City's players, Manchester United's players felt like their bodies were filled with lead, heavy, stiff and slow...

Especially the two veteran midfielders who were highly expected by Sir Alex before the game, seemed unable to run right after the start of the game.

Giggs played two away games, playing the full 90 minutes for Wales and Norway in the national team warm-up matches, so his status in this game was obviously with the dark purple arrow pointing downwards!

Scholes returned from a long injury and played well in two halves, but his performance in the last game was average due to lack of physical reserves.

Although Scholes was one of the few players in Manchester United who was not affected by the coronavirus in this game, his performance was only average, with the light blue arrow pointing diagonally downward.

As for other Manchester United players, their arrows are basically pointing downwards or diagonally downwards. Only a few such as Van der Sar, Vidic and Anderson are barely in average condition, with green parallel arrows.

As for whether there is a state where red is pointing upwards, or orange is diagonally pointing upwards?

Sorry, none.

Even Li Qi himself can only be a green parallel arrow at best...

The above is Li Qi's observation result after 10 minutes of the game. As a forward, Li Qi, except for touching the ball when kicking off and just now he couldn't help but retreat too far to receive the ball, Li Qi has not properly received the ball from Manchester United's midfield and backcourt to the front line.

Manchester United's midfield was completely suppressed by Manchester City, especially Manchester City's defensive midfielder Hamann and left winger Petrov, who were in an explosive state with their heads pointing upwards and turning purple!

The former made it impossible for Manchester United's ball to cross the half court, and the latter had already laid flat on Manchester United's right defense line several times, like crossing a main road in the morning...