Chapter 309: Manchester United's counterattack, the decisive battle of the FA Cup! Medium (1k+

After the game started, both sides played more openly. Of course, this may not be a good thing, after all, Arsenal played more cautiously, mainly threatening Manchester United's defense through long passes.

But it is not wrong to say that Arsenal is open. Although the defense line is relatively far back, the three lines are not tightly contracted; that is, the formation is low defense and long pass counterattack, but deep down they still play ground pass and cut technical control.

Moreover, what surprised Li Qi was that Arsenal was the only team among the recent teams that did not arrange close man-to-man defense against him!

I don't know if Professor Wenger is too confident in the technical strength of his team, or if he just thinks that the FA Cup is just for fun, and that winning is good, but losing is no big deal and would make him happier?

Therefore, Li Qi, who played as a shadow striker in this game, was very happy. He would definitely live up to the position of the offensive core and must defeat Nana!

After all, Li Qi, who had been in the peak of Dream Team II, did not think that Arsenal's technical passing and control were anything special, at least there was nothing to brag about in this game;

The core player Fabregas is still too young and obviously scared. He cannot control the passing and cutting technique on the field, so he can only wait to be beaten by the speed impact flow!

In the 4th minute, Li Qi stopped Wes Brown's long pass with his chest and then passed the ball to the side;

Evra quickly made a cross from the bottom; although the ball was blocked by Hoyt, it still fell in front of the Brazilian teenager Anderson who was following up.

The latter chose to volley the ball directly from the corner of the penalty area without stopping, but the ball was shot too straight and was held down by Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Then in the 7th minute, Gallas’ careless pass almost led to a big mistake;

Li Qi accurately predicted the route of the ball that Gallas would pass to Fabregas, intercepted it in advance, launched a counterattack on the spot after blocking the ball, and sent a straight pass to Park Ji-sung on the right.

Rooney and Anderson in the middle immediately cut into the penalty area to form a double ghost shot.

Fortunately, Lehmann attacked in time and stopped Park Ji-sung's powerful sweep with one hand at the edge of the small penalty area...

Arsenal was obviously suppressed after the start of the game, and almost every touch of Li Qi posed a threat.

In the 13th minute of the first half, when Li Qi retreated to receive Carrick's through pass, he suddenly missed the ball and cut back, making a wall pass with Rooney behind him, and immediately broke through Arsenal's defense.

However, Rooney's pass was a little too strong and Toure seized the opportunity when Li Qi stopped the ball a little too far and made a tackle to clear the ball at the edge of the penalty area.

Manchester United won the second corner kick on the left side after the opening, which was handled by Li Qi.

The corner kick that Li Qi took before was very threatening, and this time, Li Qi again spun the corner kick from the left side towards the middle of Arsenal's small penalty area.

Bendtner and Vidic rushed to score and luckily cleared the ball at the front point, but due to interference, the ball was not headed far away.

Anderson, who was lurking at the edge of the penalty area, rushed forward and headed the ball back to the small penalty area before Fabregas could...

Rooney jumped high, overpowered Hoyte, and headed the ball from 4 yards in front of the goal!

The ball was smashed into the net from Lehmann's hand!

Before the Arsenal players guarding the goal posts had time to react, Rooney scored a second corner kick with a header from close range! There was no offside! Manchester United led the visiting Arsenal 1-0!

The Red Devils' morale was boosted after the goal, especially Li Qi. Although it was not a direct assist from Li Qi, the entire attack was planned by him and the threat was also created by him;

So his confidence is growing, and Arsenal’s current defense has no way to deal with him!

Soon, just three minutes later, Li Qi proved this again.

In the 17th minute, Arsenal, who were behind, tried to attack and equalize the score, but the ball failed to get over the heads of Manchester United's main defense line, and then Manchester United launched a counterattack.

Carrick gave the ball to Anderson, who cut inside and made a cross-run cooperation with Lizzie. After taking away the defense, he gave the ball to Lizzie and Hoyt one-on-one outside the left corner of the penalty area.

Li Qi imitated Ronaldinho on the left wing, dribbling diagonally towards the penalty area, first learning from Giggs to touch the ball in small steps, then learning from Ronaldo to do two or three bicycle kicks to fake the opponent, and then a shoulder drop fake move learned from Messi;

This combination of moves immediately deceived the center of gravity of Hoyt and Toure who was preparing to assist in defense behind him!

Immediately afterwards, Li Qi made another fried meatball, flicked the ball with his right foot, and with a smooth move with his left foot, he overtook Hoyt from the outside and cut into Arsenal's penalty area!

Hoyt was completely thrown off, and Li Qi easily made it to the end line after shaking off the defense, and was about to cross the ball with his left foot...

Li Qi, who had triggered the explosive point by dribbling past the defense, had already found the gap, but he did not choose to pass the ball first, but instead made a fake pass, which allowed Hoyt to directly shovel and rush out of the baseline;

After getting up, Toure, who was assisting in defending the second point, was also tricked into jumping up to intercept the non-existent overhead pass...

When Li Qi moved to his right foot, the four defensive players in Arsenal's back line were either outside the baseline, close to the baseline, or too close to the goalkeeper.

So Li Qi aimed behind Toure, in front of Gallas, and at the edge of the small penalty area near the goal corner and sent an overhead pass...

This time, Toure had no time to jump a second time and could only watch Li Qi's overhead pass accurately sent behind him!

Fletcher, who came in from behind, took advantage of Rooney's cover, ran diagonally, bypassed Gallas' defense, and headed the ball, just 4 yards in front of the goal, almost the same distance as Rooney's first goal, and it hit the net under Lehmann's armpit!

This was Fletcher's 7th start of the season, his 6th in the league, and his first goal of the season! Fletcher was in excellent form in this game!

Manchester United, leading by two goals, became more aggressive in attack.

Two minutes later, after Li Qi received the ball in the middle and clearly passed it to the side, Park Ji-sung's cross accurately found Rooney who was lurking in the middle of the penalty area.

Unfortunately, the latter's lion-like header missed the goal by a hair's breadth, and the ball hit the crossbar and landed on the top of the net! The home team's spectators first cried out in pity, and then burst into thunderous applause. Manchester United almost scored three goals in 10 minutes!

Arsenal only woke up from their dream at this time, realizing that if they didn't cheer up and go all out, today would definitely not end well, so they began to intensify their fight, and even started to use some small and lethal moves to organize Manchester United's attack.

But Arsenal did underestimate Manchester United, or maybe Arsenal was just not in good shape, after all, the camp was full of injured players, and Manchester United changed their tactical play today, which made Arsenal extremely uncomfortable:

Manchester United seems to have never had a shadow striker like Li Qi who is both offensive and organizational.

Li Qi is also different from the classic attacking midfielder like Riquelme. He does not rely on unparalleled skills and accurate passing, coupled with a unique rhythm to tear open the defense;

Li Qi handles the ball very decisively and quickly. He often has already thought of plans A, B, C, and D before he receives the ball, and then executes them step by step. Therefore, although Li Qi still lacks the accuracy of touching the ball and the control of rhythm, he is very consistent with Manchester United's fast offensive speed.

In addition, Li Qi's running is also very active. He retreats deep vertically and moves horizontally very actively. He often appears at the most critical moment when he receives the ball, which makes Arsenal's defense against Li Qi very passive.

At the same time, Li Qi played a good role in shielding and filling gaps in his own defensive organization.

Therefore, after almost half an hour of playing, Arsenal found it difficult to pass through the midfield and did not even have a shot on goal.

Manchester United soon launched another offensive...

In the 28th minute, Li Qi, who was on the side, suddenly ran back to the top of the penalty area. Facing Fletcher's long pass, he volleyed the ball with the outside of his foot without stopping!

Li Qi's brilliant move prevented the entire Arsenal defense from reacting, and directly helped Rooney, who was cutting into the corner of the penalty area, to get a chance to score alone.

Unfortunately, Rooney hesitated this time and chose to pass the goalkeeper; but Lehmann saw through his move and he stayed in position while waiting for Gallas to return.

Finally, Rooney was forced to shoot from a small angle due to the interference of Gallas. Although the ball went through Lehmann's fingers, it hit the side net...

Arsenal escaped a disaster, but before Arsenal's defense could relax, Manchester United created another threat.

In the 31st minute, Li Qi and Carrick made consecutive short passes in the middle and successfully passed 2 to 2, which made Fabregas and Gilberto lose sight of the important points and attracted Hleb from the wing to return for support.

So Li Qi seized the opportunity and sent a straight pass behind Arsenal left-back Traore; the latter was attracted by Manchester United's right midfielder Park Ji-sung and did not notice that as Li Qi retreated, Fletcher, who had already run in from the side, had already gone around behind him!

Fletcher took the ball and cut to the bottom corner of the penalty area in one step, then sent a high-quality inverted triangle pass...

Rooney, who was in the middle, stopped the ball with his chest, then dribbled the ball to avoid Gallas's first attempt, and then shot into the far corner from 14 yards away from the goal!

Unfortunately, the ball that shot through Lehmann's fingers again hit the far post and went out of the bottom line.

During this period, Li Qi's central dispatch, Fletcher's flexible movement and Rooney's impact in the forward position constantly created threats that made Arsenal's defense tremble with fear.

So when Arsenal focused their defense on marking Rooney and Fletcher's forward runs, Manchester United changed their tactics again.

In the 35th minute, after Arsenal's counterattack failed, Manchester United fell into positional attack.

However, this time it was Carrick who suddenly turned half way around the center circle and sent a long pass over the top, instead of passing the ball to Li Qi in the middle for organization as usual.

Oh yeah! Where's Li Qi?

When Gallas and Toure were staring at Rooney and Fletcher in front of them, they suddenly found that Carrick's long pass accurately passed over their heads. Then they looked back and were shocked!

Fortunately, the two of them did not make a gesture with their arms outstretched as if they were in control of the situation, otherwise they would have been made into an animated picture like Pique and passed down through the ages.

Because Li Qi, who had just gone somewhere, suddenly appeared behind them like a ghost. The two completely forgot that Li Qi was a forward according to the starting position. Even if he was a shadow forward or an organizing forward, he was still a forward who could rush to the front.

But this time, Li Qi did not retreat to support. Instead, he followed the cover of Fletcher and Rooney and chose to take a detour to attack behind Arsenal's defense line, turning from an offensive organizer into an offensive terminator!

The linesman did not raise the flag, and Li Qi's run after the ball was very clear, and he successfully got back on offside.

Although Li Qi's stop was a little too far because he was a little excited, it just happened to increase the shooting angle and avoid Lehmann's frontal attack...

Things were easy after that. Li Qi didn't even need to feint, he just pushed the ball into the near corner with his left foot!

It all happened too fast, too suddenly, and too unexpectedly. From the time the attack was launched, it took less than 5 seconds for Li Qi to pass the goalkeeper and score. The entire Arsenal defense had just come to their senses and was about to pick the ball out of the net...

3 to 0! Just 30 minutes into the first half!

Professor Wenger on the sidelines had a livid face, and the Arsenal players on the field also looked unhappy. The situation of the game was completely controlled by Manchester United. If they didn't find a solution, they might be defeated by Manchester United in the first half!