Chapter 8 Two Wars

The match between Manchester United and Liverpool is an English derby, not only because the two teams have won the first and second most championships in the top league in the history of British professional football, but also because every double red match, the players of the two sides always fight with hatred for their sworn enemies.

Retired former Manchester United captain Gary Neville is famous for his hatred of Liverpool. Six years ago, he became "the most hated person of Liverpool fans" for his forgetful celebration in front of the Liverpool fans stand.

With the passage of time, the person wearing the Red Devil No. 2 shirt has become Rafael. However, the Brazilian, who has just got the No. 2 jersey this season, quickly entered the role. In today's game, he carried forward the old captain's deeds and acted as a pioneer in the fight against Liverpool at Anfield.

After the opening of this game, Liverpool took the lead, hit the left side of Manchester United guarded by Evra several times, and sent two central defenders, Ferdinand and Evans, a high-quality cross. Fortunately, Raphael saved the risk on the defense line several times to protect the door of the Red Devils: in the 7th minute, Liverpool's counterattack broke through. In the gap behind Evra, Sterling sent a precise cross, Suarez's cushion shot was magically saved by Lindgard, and when Suarez tried to make up a shot in front of the disarmed Lindgard, Raphael returned to the defense and cleared the ball.

In the 12th minute, Sterling passed Evra on the right and passed to the back point. Raphael, who was only 1.73 meters tall, headed the ball out of the goal in front of the Liverpool player. After the game, Raphael also shouted at his teammates and expressed dissatisfaction with their loss on the defense. In the 15th minute, Gerrard opened the corner. The ball poses a threat, and Raphael, who is 1.73 meters tall, headed the ball in front of the goal...

And if it's just a good performance on the defensive end, it's a little reluctant to say that Rafael acts as a "pioneer in the fight against Liverpool". The real highlight of the Brazilians is in the second half. Specifically, it's the 51st minute of the second half - not long after Gerrard volleyed for Liverpool's opening record, Manchester United by Valencia In the right cross, Shinji Kagawa stopped to Raphael in the chest in the penalty area. At this time, the Brazilian youngster showed his samba gene. He did not choose to stop the ball, but directly shot from the left foot arc ball, and the ball also concentrated on the far post and bounced into the dead corner. Reina's whip was too long, and Manchester United equalized at Anfield!

In the 65th minute, Raphael fouled Gerard in the middle circle. The Red Army commander naturally reprimanded Raphael, but the Brazilian young general showed no weakness. The two cursed each other, but Fortunately, there was no conflict in the end.

This is the second goal of Rafael, who is a defender after five rounds of the league, and his first goal in the league this season is also wonderful and significant - Manchester United played against Fulham at home in the second round of the league. Raphael received Ashley Young's cross header in the 41st minute, expanding the score to 3 for Manchester United. -1, ensuring that the Red Devils can win the first victory of the season.

Today, to score a goal at Anfield, Raphael not only laid the foundation for the team's reversal, but also allowed himself to raise his eyebrows on this field that brought humiliation to himself. A year ago, at Anfield, Rafael not only suffered the bitter fruit of 1-3 defeat with the team, but also in a conflict between the two teams. Rafael, who was jointly crushed by Suarez and Carragher, took the No. 2 jersey from the Canadian team as a well-known "anti-Liverpool fighter" today, and was finally able to give Liverpool a heavy blow back and beat the Red Army into the relegation zone in one fell swoop!

Thanks to the two main competitors, Smarin and Phil Jones, who have been exempted from the game due to injuries, Rafael's chances of playing this season have been relatively stable, but his answers are also satisfactory enough.

In fact, the Brazilian post-90s player's trend is not so good this year. In the game last season when Manchester United was tied by Everton 4-4 and lost the key victory, he made a low-level mistake that led to the opponent to equalize the score. In the final of this summer Olympic Games, he was also Rafael's poor defensive guide on the right. Brazil scored two goals and lost the championship by Mexico.

However, Ancelotti has always trusted the young player. This summer, he gave Rafael a new four-year contract and said to the official website: "This child has been strengthening his ability since joining. His energy and enthusiasm are obvious to all. He has the potential to become the best border guard in the world."

As An Shuai said, the enthusiastic and unrestrained way of playing football is Rafael's label, as evidenced by his ability to become the second scorer in the Red Devils' league from the right-back position this season. Rafael also enjoyed his current way of playing football very much. When he accepted Manchester United's official game day program United Review, he said, "When I was a child, my position was actually a striker. I liked the header I scored against Fulham very much. I think I need to improve my defensive level, but I also like the feeling of forward attack. Why do I like football so much?"

After losing 0-1 to Goodison Park in the first round, Manchester United won the rest of the games they participated in this season, which was also a smooth sailing.

However, in addition to Everton, the Red Devils also have an unbeatenable opponent, that is, the penalty. Before this game, Manchester United got a total of three penalties in this season's league and Champions League matches, but all three penalty kicks were lost by the Red Devils. In this game against Liverpool at Anfield, Manchester United got the fourth penalty of the season in the 81st minute with a 1-1 draw, and it was none other than Van Persie, the Dutch killer who just joined Arsenal from Arsenal this summer...

In the first two starts of the season for Manchester United, Van Persie brought two victories to Manchester United with four goals.

Although in the recent two games of the league and the Champions League, Van Persie failed to make another contribution, and his performance on the field also tends to be silent.

But in today's game, in the 81st minute, when Manchester United got a penalty at the critical moment, it was still the Dutchman who went to the penalty spot to win for the team: in the face of the boos in the Anfield stands, Van Persie, who had scored 4 goals against Liverpool five times, did not hesitate. He ran smoothly and put the ball. Pushed into the dead corner on the right side of the goal, and although Liverpool goalkeeper Reina saved the right direction and also pounced on the ball, he still could not stop the ball from flying into the goal. Van Persie's fifth goal against Liverpool in the last six times. With this goal, Manchester United also defeated Li away in the league for the first time in the past five seasons. Wupu!

The key to these five goals is to equalize the score against Fulham, the hat-trick against Southampton is to reverse the final, and to win 3 points against Liverpool. Without Van Persie, Manchester United would have lost 7 points in the table.

In fact, despite losing a penalty in the third round this season, Van Persie is still the first penalty for Manchester United in Ancelotti's mind.

When talking to the Mirror about Nani's penalty after playing against Galatasaray in the Champions League, Ancelotti said that he should have declared the fact that Van Persie was Manchester United's chief penalty: "To be honest, I don't know why Nani sent that penalty. I think it should be given a penalty to Van Persie. I guess it was Nani who grabbed the ball. It's my fault. Next time I will talk to them in advance.

According to OPTA data, today's penalty shot is also Van Persie's only shot in today's game. In fact, although Van Persie, who has scored 5 goals in 5 games, ranks first in the Premier League scorer list, he has only 14 shots in the league this season. The number of times in the Premier League is only tied for sixth place, but the rate of his shooting into a goal is as high as 35.7%, ranking first among the strikers of the five teams: Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, compared with his opponent on the field today, Liverpool's kill star Suárez 8%. The ball conversion rate is several times higher!

Van Persie's efficiency is not only reflected in the success rate of shooting - you should know that so far this season, Van Persie, who has three starts and two substitutes, has only been out of the field for 311 minutes in England, that is to say, the Dutchman can score a goal in an average of 62.2 minutes. What a terrible efficiency!

You should know that La Liga also played 5 rounds. Messi scored 6 goals in 391 minutes, scoring 1 goal in an average of 65 minutes; Cristiano Ronaldo scored 2 goals in 335 minutes in 4 rounds, with an average of 1 goal in 167.5 minutes; Jovitic ranked first in the Serie A scorer list, who played for 360 minutes, on average He scored a goal in 90 minutes; Thomas Mueller, who is temporarily ranked first in the Bundesliga scorer, also scored an average goal in 90 minutes.

In Ligue 1 in Ligue, Ibrahimovic scored 7 goals in 5 games and played for 450 minutes, averaging 1 goal in 64.3 minutes. That is to say, so far, Van Persie is the most efficient player in the five major leagues.

As the holder of the goal record in Manchester United's history, Sir Charlton also has high hopes for Van Persie. In his column he wrote for Manchester United's official website, Charlton also praised Van Persie: "We are all very happy that we can have Van Persie. He can find where the goal is with his head down. For the supporters of any team, it is very pleasant to have a rotten player like Van Persie. Thanks to our good performance against Arsenal in recent years, we can win his appreciation, otherwise he will not have made up his mind to join us.

In such a war, Li Yu rarely appeared in the news, and the state of Manchester United No. 9 is becoming more and more worrying!

However, Ancelotti didn't think so: "You only see goals and assists. Please don't forget LEE's contribution to both offense and defense. Of course, in the next game, I will activate his offensive strength!"

With the head coach's guarantee and praise, the fans can finally be relieved and wait for Li Yu's highlight performance. Manchester United No. 9 has always had such a tradition. When his teammate highlights, he looks a little dim. As long as the team needs him, Manchester United No. 9 is definitely the first person to stand up. !

Just as people were preparing for the start of the next round of the league, Manchester United had unexpected bad news.

Manchester United's Portuguese winger Nani is really not doing well. In addition to renewing his contract, he has been fighting with his teammates on the training ground a few days ago, and Old Trafford's career seems to have come to an end.

The Sun revealed that on the training ground at Manchester United's Carrington base, Nani had a conflict with reserve midfielder David Petrucci. At that time, Pedroc had a fierce tackle against Nani, which made the Portuguese very dissatisfied. He rushed to find the other side, and the two sides had a quarrel.

The conflict escalated. The Sun said that Nani punched Petrucci, and the latter was unwilling to show weakness and twisted with the Portuguese. The teammates quickly intervened and separated the two.

Nani's conflict with his teammates this time. Although it is not a rare thing on the training ground, it is obviously harmful to his Manchester United career. Previously, he hoped to renew his contract with the team and sought a weekly salary of 130,000 pounds (currently 90,000), but the club refused his salary request.

The Sun said that this conflict may annoy Ancelotti, who has a very strict attitude towards the players, which will make Manchester United's firm determination to clean up Nani. The Red Devils may accept any offer close to 25 million pounds in the winter.

When the game came, it made another one!

Boas is against the sky!

The last time Tottenham Hotspur won at home at Manchester United dates back to 1989, when it was England's legendary striker Reinkel who scored for Tottenham. In the 23 years since then, Tottenham Hotspur has never won at Old Trafford, with a miserable record of 18 losses and 4 draws. However, today, the record of Tottenham's shame is once in the new coach Boas, and the Portuguese used a victory to help the team conquer Old Trafford again after 23 years.

Tottenham Hotspur ushered in a dream start. Vertongen opened the record for Tottenham Hotspur in less than 2 minutes, and Bell's long-distance run in the 32nd minute gave Tottenham Hotspur a two-goal lead.

Manchester United performed very poorly in the first half, and did not have a shot until the 44th minute. After the game, even Ancelotti admitted that the team did not enter the form in the first half.

But Boas, who led by 2 goals, did not dare to take it lightly, because Manchester United won the last time they were 2 goals behind and had to follow until May 2009, when the opponent was Tottenham Hotspur!

On September 30, 2001, Tottenham Hotspur led Manchester United 3-0 at halftime, but was stunned by the Red Devils scoring five goals in the last 45 minutes.

Sure enough, Manchester United launched a crazy counterattack in the second half. Nani, Dempsey and Shinji Kagawa scored three goals in a row in three minutes, and the score became 2-3. However, in the following 30 minutes, Tottenham still resisted Manchester United's crazy counterattack and kept the victory to the end.

At the moment when referee Foy blew the whistle at the end of the game, Boas was finally able to release his long-bearance **. He waved his right arm and hit the front with his right fist hard, like a boxer, smashing the spell in front of him that he had been away from Manchester United for 23 years!

Boaz put his fists in front of his chest, jumped and roared angrily, and even pushed away the assistant who wanted to celebrate with him. This roar not only vented the tension of the game, but also the extremely heavy pressure on his shoulder.

After the defeat at Chelsea last season, Boas's transfer to Tottenham Hotspur in the new season is not favorable, and there have been many infighting in the team recently.

In addition to the French national goalkeeper Lori, who can't play the main force, a number of stars in the Tottenham team collectively found Boaz to have an "ultimat" dialogue, and expressed dissatisfaction with the Portuguese's training and tactics, protesting the excessive amount of training.

In addition, in the club's interpersonal relationship, technical director Sherwood is likely to leave because of his discord with Boas. Previously, Boaz mercilessly fired Tottenham's chief scout Ian Broomfield, which also caused dissatisfaction in the team. But with this key victory at Old Trafford, Boas has greatly consolidated his position in the team.

Last season, Boas led Chelsea to visit Old Trafford, but the Blues lost 1-3, and Torres also missed an incredible empty goal. It seemed that God didn't want Boas to win.

Recalling that game, Boaz said: "It's not easy to challenge Manchester United away, but that doesn't mean you don't have a chance to win when you take offensive football. At the end of the game, it still depends on whether you can seize the opportunity. If Chelsea had scored at that time, the result might have been different.

This time, Boas succeeded. He not only ended the embarrassing record of 23 years of away defeat against the Red Devils, returned the shame of losing to Manchester United, and also avenged the defeat of his opponent last season. Interestingly, Liverpool's new coach Rogers also ushered in the first victory of the new season with a big win in this round. These two former Mourinho's former goalkeepers completed their counterattack on the same day. Maybe what awaits them in the future will be a brighter future.

In the just-concluded 6th round of the Premier League home game between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, the Red Devils fell behind 0-2 in the first half. Although they saw the hope of equalizing the score in the second half, they lost the game 2-3 in the end, but their second defeat of the season, and the six consecutive wins in all competitions ended.

Ancelotti said in an interview after the game: "This is a very wonderful match. We didn't get into the game at all in the first half. It was a very bad start. Tottenham broke the deadlock with a refracting goal. Our defense was really bad. After that goal, we started to play headwind, and it was not until the second half that we could try to change the situation of the game.

"Our performance in the second half was great. What should we get from the game (at least 1 point), but we were so unlucky."

After Li Yu assisted Nani to score a goal for Manchester United, Tottenham used a mistake on Manchester United's defensive line to rewrite the score to 3 to 1 within 1 minute, which gave the Red Devils a great blow. Ancelotti said: "I think we should deal with this situation better. It's not good to lose the ball immediately after we scored a goal. If we can keep the score of 1-2 for a few minutes, we may be able to win the game.

There were also several controversial penalties in the game. Nani and Shinji Kagawa fell in the penalty area one after another, but the referee Fui ignored it. When talking about the two controversial penalties, Ancelotti said: "There are indeed a few debatable points. I think the fall of the first half (Nani) was an obvious penalty. Maybe Nani's movements were a little exaggerated. He didn't have to do that, but he was obviously pushed from behind. The second omission was in the second half. I'm not sure.

Manchester United lost at home, but after the game, Li Yu's name became the headlines of all media. When will Manchester United's No. 9 frozen shooting boots be enlightened!

It was Li Yu's downturn that led to Manchester United's failure to equalize or overtake the score at the last moment.

Objectively speaking, it is too far-fetched to blame all the responsibility for the loss on Li Yu, but it is also a fact that Li Yu has not scored recently.

Facing doubts, Manchester United No. 9 chose to be silent and was determined to fight back against all doubts with goals.