Manchester United legend

Chapter 74 The Final Battle
The day to decide the champion was Sunday, May 1995, 5.

At Liverpool's home court, the former king Dalglish led Blackburn to fight for the championship. Liverpool fans pulled up banners to welcome their own superstar.

Shortly after the opening, the anti-customer-oriented Blackburn team made a fantastic start. Shearer's goal helped Blackburn take the lead at Anfield.

At the same time, at Upton Park, West Ham adopted a defensive and assault tactic against Manchester United. The hatred planted by Ince for joining Manchester United in the early years made West Ham's Hammers extremely fierce.

Manchester United won this game without losing, and Ferguson mobilized his troops to attack with all his strength.

But the Red Devils have no other way to defend their opponents tightly.

Not only that, Manchester United, who was eager to attack, was defeated by their opponents in the 30th minute.West Ham attacked from the left and passed the ball from the edge of the penalty area. Hughes inserted in the middle and volleyed into the dead corner on the lower right of Manchester United's goal.West Ham lead 1-0.

The name of the goal scorer is familiar?Hughes, but not Manchester United's Mark Hughes. "Spark" did not start in this crucial game due to special reasons.It was scored by a player named Larry Hughes.

Manchester United, which was behind in the score, still had no better way, and could only drag their opponents to halftime.

If the two games ended like this, Blackburn would beat Manchester United to the title by five points.Ferguson used his unique "hair dryer" at halftime, and he blew every player on the field.

In the second half, it really worked. Manchester United launched a more violent offensive at the beginning. West Ham, who had confronted the Red Devils for 45 minutes, lost their physical strength and took the initiative to shrink their defense.

Manchester United's offense became sharper, firmly locking the game area in the opponent's half. In the 54th minute, Scholes made a cross from the right, and Cole scored a header from the center to help Manchester United equalize the score.

Almost at the same time, Barnes helped Liverpool tie Blackburn at Anfield.Manchester United once again saw the hope of the championship!
Both teams were listening to the radio to find out the scores.When he heard Liverpool's equalizer on the radio, Manchester United's assistant coach Kidd ran to the sidelines and shouted at the Manchester United players, and raised a finger in each hand to signal that Liverpool had equalized the score.

Knowing that Liverpool had equalized the score, Manchester United was motivated to launch wave after wave of charges in the opponent's half. The players were like soldiers who sacrificed their lives, rushing with the ball towards the goal that seemed to swallow everything.

Many times the ball was kicked back and forth in the penalty area, and the West Ham team even piled up 8 people in the penalty area!Manchester United used almost all offensive moves, long-range shots, bottom crosses, breakthroughs, group passes and cuts... Manchester United's defenders have become wingers and center forwards. Irvine and Pallister stayed in the opponent's defense zone more than in their own half.

Why did they dare to do this, because Manchester United has the "ball-stealing machine" Jost, who steals opponents time and time again on the court.Manchester United only left Jost and Gary Neville in the backcourt to defend.

However, they all failed in front of the opponent's bus.The most pity is Andy Cole. After he scored a goal, he seemed to suddenly lose his sense of shooting. Two shots from the side of the small penalty area and one extremely rare single-handed opportunity were all wasted by him one by one.

Miklosko became the only obstacle to United's title success, with the Czech goalkeeper suddenly becoming invincible, making several brilliant saves to deny United's shots.

He seems to be possessed by a god, and he seems to have performed the method of disintegrating the demon. The whole person seems to have three heads and six arms, and even every part of the body can be saved.

Almost all of West Ham's players became defenders, and they even used their bodies to block the hole when Manchester United players shot.

In this way, Manchester United attacked West Ham madly, but they never scored the opponent's goal again.

The fierceness and cruelty of the battle, the balance that may be broken at any time, the sensitive and fragile score, the reckless attack, and the desperate defense... The two sides fought with all their strength, making this game more like a life-and-death war!
On another pitch, an absent-minded Blackburn was overwhelmed by Liverpool's offense and organized the defense in a panic, only looking forward to the end of the game.

At the last moment, Redknapp still scored the winning goal to help Liverpool beat the mighty Blackburn.

After Redknapp scored, he ran to the cameras and took off his jersey to reveal a white T-shirt with a sentence written on it.

It read: "Don't question my ethics"

Why did Redknapp write this, because just the day before the game, Redknapp received a strange call.

The call turned out to be from Jost, and Jost said bluntly, "I heard that you are going to release water during the Blackburn drinking game?"

Redknapp was furious when he heard it. He said it was an insult to the Liverpool team.The two men then got into an altercation on the phone and Redknapp hung up in anger.

That's why Redknapp showed compassion.

When Liverpool led Blackburn 2:1 after scoring a goal, they had more goal difference and Manchester United only needed to score one more goal to win the championship.

Although the Red Army helped Manchester United see the hope of winning the championship, the Red Devils themselves failed to grasp it. They never broke through the goal of West Ham United. In the end, they had to give Blackburn the Premier League trophy that could almost be grabbed.

When the referee blew the final whistle, Manchester United's players were almost exhausted.West Ham United players and fans celebrated wildly, as if they had won a great victory.

In fact, this game ended with a 1-1 draw. In fact, West Ham United did not need 1 or 3 points at that time, but they were united, with high morale, and their ultimate goal was to crush Manchester United's hopes of winning the championship.

This is not only about grievances, but also about dignity. For West Ham United, all the honor of fighting to the death may lie in this.

Later, Gary Neville’s memories were like this: “We and Blackburn started a crazy competition for the league title. They didn’t have the championship temperament of Manchester United, they didn’t have as many talents and superstars as us, but they had a goal machine Alan Shearer and an experienced head coach Kenny Dalglish.

Gary Neville recalls bitterly, "Our last game was away at West Ham - it was make or break.

Blackburn are two points ahead but they have a tough Liverpool away so we have a good chance of overtaking them.But when I heard the starting list, I was as surprised as everyone else, and the boss actually hid the "spark".In the past few months, "Sparks" started every game and scored goals constantly.

He's the backbone of the team, one of our leaders.I'm still not sure why the boss didn't start him in a game that had to be won.

We attacked the opponent like crazy, but unexpectedly we fell behind.Nevertheless, we still have enough chances to win.At the critical moment, Andy Cole equalized the score for us.

Not only that, we also pressed our opponents in the penalty area to attack violently. In the last 10 minutes, we even had three or four lore chances.But Lady Luck has not favored us.One goal is enough to win the league - that's all we need.There is sometimes a fine line between success and failure.

The atmosphere in the locker room after the game was the most hopeless I have ever experienced.

Throughout my career, I have always handled failure very well.Especially as you get older and you learn how to take a hit.

But that was indeed a low point.My first title fight ended in tragedy.On the long drive home, I felt bouts of nausea. "

Yes, the reality is so cruel. Manchester United fought to the last moment, but fell before the West Ham goalkeeper and the goal line. They had to watch the final outcome. The Red Devils had to give up the league title to Blackburn in Liverpool, who lost.

The media, which has always been mean to Manchester United, was finally moved after this game.

In addition to the news celebrating Blackburn's luck to win the championship, the newspapers on the second day also showed great regret for Manchester United, and at the same time offered comfort.

After the game, Ferguson said with regret, "We put in enough effort, but maybe God is against us. For such a result, we can only accept it, even though we were so close to the final victory.

The third year of the Premier League gave birth to a new champion - Blackburn, and the success of the new champion looks more like a myth.

布莱克本上次夺得顶级联赛冠军已经要追溯到1914年，当时他们才是第2次夺得联赛冠军（第1次是在1912年），没想到的是，他们的第3次一等就是80年！
They also became a strong contender for the championship last season. This season they finally had the last laugh, and they also became the second team to win the Premier League title.

To sum up the success of Blackburn, it is inseparable from the amazing amount of money invested by Jack Walker, the owner of Blackburn at the time, the contribution of superstars in the team including Sutton and Shearer, and the unity and cooperation of the entire team, which has played a stable and continuous high level.

Perhaps the most important reason is that their coach is Dalglish.Walker appointed Dalglish as manager in 1991.It was this former Liverpool superstar who brought Blackburn to the top of the championship.

Dalglish beat Ferguson again, although he was still powerless to prevent Manchester United built by Ferguson from becoming the overlord of the Premier League.

Judging from the comprehensive results, although the Blackburn club has a long history, it is not a traditional giant.

In 1991, the Blackburn team was even playing in the second division.It was Walker's generosity that pushed Blackburn to a miracle. In just five years after he bought Blackburn, he transformed a struggling team in Group B into the new leader of the Premier League.

Manchester United lost their defending champions and could only taste defeat.This season has been unforgettable for Ferguson. For a long time after that, when Ferguson celebrated his 26th anniversary of coaching Manchester United, he also selected this game as the one he "most wanted to change the ending of the game" in his Manchester United career.

Recalling this fateful game, Ferguson still said excitedly: "Over the past 26 years, if I can change a game, it is the game against West Ham. At that time, we were so close to the championship. I had a hunch that Liverpool would not lose at home.

The game process was just as I expected. We tried our best, but the goddess of fate seemed to no longer favor us at that time. This is our destiny.But in fact, the opposing defender Blake once had an obvious handball foul in the penalty area, which was an unmistakable penalty.But the referee didn't give a penalty.In the end, we can only regret to miss the league title. "

The loss of the league championship was a huge blow, but the pride of the Scots made Ferguson send congratulations to Dalglish. Interestingly, when Ferguson wrote the congratulations card, he did not forget the appendix: "Devon Lodge is a horse, a racehorse... I am sure your father must have supported this horse, because my father supported it." Before this sentence, Ferguson said, "Congratulations to your Blackburn for winning the championship. Although we have given everything and we ended up with different endings, everything is over. , let us move forward, congratulations!"

(End of this chapter)