Manchester United legend

Chapter 242 Erwin's farewell match
To some extent, the English team is indeed not the center of the world in terms of signings.

In addition to economic strength and the team's business strategy, it is true that even the wealthiest teams in the Premier League, including Manchester United and Chelsea, are unable to withstand the vigorous transfer transactions that have taken place in Italy and Spain, which also means that the world's best talented stars will not be able to come to England.

Ferguson himself said, "Everyone wants to buy Zidane, and everyone wants Batistuta to join. As for Figo, it was also our goal. But if we can't afford the transfer fee, we can't give the players a satisfactory salary."

Before the official start of the league, Manchester United held a series of grand commemorative activities in August.The theme of the event is "Salute to the veteran player Irwin" - to commemorate the contributions made by the old hero Irwin in the team to Manchester United for more than ten years.

The event launched advertisements, commemorative T-shirts, promotional posters, held multiple exhibitions, and the club also prepared commemorative medals and souvenirs for Erwin.

The highlight, of course, is a memorial game at Old Trafford.This commemorative match was held on the evening of August 8, and the two sides were Manchester United and Manchester City, their city rivals who have returned to the Super League.

Many fans actually don't know that Irvine's memorial game is the first game held for active players since Manchester United coached Ferguson, but the fans who came to watch the game actually know that the tribute in the game is far more important than the score compared to the outcome.

On the day of the game, the audience was full, and more than 54000 fans came to the Old Trafford Stadium. Many of them held commemorative slogans such as "I love Irwin", "Great No. 3", "Thank you for your efforts!", "Championship Merit"... or self-made signs.After entering the arena, enthusiastic fans also sang various songs praising Irwin.

The joyful and excited fans rendered the entire Theater of Dreams into a huge and brilliant stage.

Both teams attached great importance to this special commemorative match and sent their main players to participate.

This also makes the game big names gathered, star-studded.Manchester United has Jost, Beckham, Giggs, Cole, Sheringham these main players, and Manchester City's newly joined former World Player of the Year Weah also started.

Of course, the undoubted protagonist in the game is Irwin-the nearly 35-year-old veteran.

Before the start of the game, the Manchester United Club specially presented Irving with a commemorative plaque for the 10th anniversary of his performance. At this time, the audience burst into stormy applause.

After the game officially started, ball critics and reporters discovered that this was not just a friendly match, let alone a commemorative match.

Manchester United's players are enjoying the atmosphere of paying tribute to and congratulating their predecessors, but the opponents regard this game as a rare opportunity to learn from the strong players in the league, and regard the game as a league level, and they all use their breastfeeding energy to fight against Manchester United players.

The advantage of the game was quickly grasped by the full-scale Manchester City players, who continued to attack under the leadership of Weah.

Despite the lack of average strength of their players, even though their tacit understanding is also insufficient, they still played with a rare spirit.As a result, the offensive and defensive situation is easy, and Manchester United's defense begins to bear increasing pressure.

Irwin was the first to feel embarrassed and struggling. The veteran, who made his 478th appearance for the club, faced the constant attacks of his opponents and began to have some embarrassment of powerlessness and powerlessness.

Although Weah in the opponent's team is not young, he has shown a high level of competition on the court. He keeps causing trouble for Manchester United's defense.

Especially in the left area of ​​Manchester United, although Irwin is the "master" of the game, Weah did not give him any face. Instead, he used flexible movements to get rid of Irwin's defense many times in one-on-one contests.

Not only that, Manchester City's players fought fiercely throughout the court, and used the technique of falling tackles many times, which made the Manchester United players feel nervous.

Weah soon wounded Irwin with a reckless tackle, and Ferguson had to replace Irwin with a young Wallworker.

When Irwin was injured and left the field, the fans once again gave him overwhelming applause.That is a sincere thanks and tribute to the veteran.

In this game, Manchester United did not have much offensive and did not have an advantage on the scene. It was not until the 14th minute that Manchester United had a shot and hit the goal frame. Scholes volleyed the ball to the penalty area of ​​the penalty area.

In the 21st minute of the game, Manchester City played a simple corner kick. Kennedy's corner kick flew straight into the penalty area, and Wickens headed the goal, just brushing the lintel and flying out.

Manchester United broke the deadlock in the 36th minute. Sheringham found space in the penalty area and scored with an arc volley from 20 yards. Manchester United led 1-0.

In the second half, the two sides replaced a large number of substitute players, and the game seemed to return to a friendly match.

After that, the game was basically uneventful. One minute before the end of the game, Cole dribbled the ball with his left foot in front of the goal and cleverly tricked the goalkeeper Weaver and scored the second goal.In the end, Manchester United defeated Manchester City 1-2.

Shortly after the Memorial, Manchester United ushered in the Charity Shield match.

It was also a preview of the start of the new Premier League season, with Manchester United and Chelsea playing the last game before the old Wembley Stadium was demolished and rebuilt.

United have barely updated their squad - Barthez is the only newcomer in the starting line-up.

And Chelsea sent their new foreign aid to form a new blue team.After the game started, Chelsea had the upper hand. The Blues were obviously hungrier and more aggressive, and their form looked better than Manchester United.

Zola still made United's defense difficult to man-mark alone, while Chelsea's fast-moving front attack looked very sharp, often cutting the United defense to pieces.

From the first half, KS Chelsea's Poyet and Stanich suppressed Manchester United on both sides. They continued to create threats from the two sides, while Zola's dispatch and command in the middle were very imaginative, and the delivery to the forwards also increased a lot.

In the 22nd minute of the first half, the black and strong Hasselbaink found a gap and took a strong shot. His shot rubbed against Stam's feet and changed direction. Barthez was helpless.Chelsea lead 1-0.

In the second half, the two sides obviously strengthened the pressing and confrontation, and the actions were much rougher, and various fouls emerged in endlessly.Keane is the hottest player in the Manchester United team. He can't bear the team falling behind, can't bear the team being suppressed, and can't bear the ubiquitous harassment and fouls of the opponents. He regards those as a kind of malicious provocation.

(End of this chapter)