From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 391 Another critical year

In the last week of November, Manchester United faced two back-to-back games against the Hammers West Ham United.

On the afternoon of November 11th, a focus match of the 27th round of the Premier League started at Old Trafford Stadium. Manchester United faced West Ham United.

The Hammers, under the leadership of rock coach Bilic, ended the league in seventh place last season. The French midfielder Payet in the team even shined and became a hot figure in the European arena.

However, in the Croatian's second season coaching the Hammers, Payet lost the magic of last season, and West Ham United's performance was also somewhat poor. After the first 12 rounds of the league, the Hammers only ranked 17th in the standings. name, the points are also 1 point higher than the relegation zone, and there is a risk of falling into the relegation zone at any time.

Coupled with Manchester United's overwhelming historical record of 17 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses against West Ham United at home in the Premier League, the Red Devils were somewhat underprepared for this game.

West Ham took the lead in just 90 seconds. Payet passed a free kick from the right, and Sakho rushed into the net before Ibrahimovic from the edge of the penalty area.

Manchester United, which was lagging behind, accelerated its counterattack, and West Ham shrank its defense to respond.

Manchester United equalized the score in the 21st minute. Bruno made a diagonal pass from the frontcourt, and Ibrahimovic's header from the small penalty area went into the goal after getting rid of Collins' defense.

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The game immediately reached a deadlock, and the score remained unchanged until the 85th minute of regular time.

At this time, Manchester United made the last substitution adjustment, Mourinho replaced Lingard with Fellaini.

However, this is not a conservative substitution adjustment, because after the Belgian midfielder came on, he did not appear in the defensive midfielder position where he often plays, but formed a double center with Ibrahimovic.

Facing the iron wall of the Hammers, Mourinho had no choice but to use rough crosses from the wing and header tactics as a last ditch effort.

In the 88th minute of the game, Bruno passed the ball to Mata, and Mata passed the ball to Rashford. After Rashford broke through from the side, he passed the ball to Bruno in an inverted triangle.

Bruno suddenly took a shot from a small angle. West Ham United goalkeeper Randolph was caught off guard and let the ball go over his head and into the goal.

Manchester United completed the lead with Bruno's 16th Premier League goal of the season, and maintained this one-goal advantage until the end, maintaining a 5-point advantage over Chelsea in the standings.

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Three days later, on the last night of November, it was still Old Trafford, and the opponent was still West Ham United. The two sides met again, but this was no longer the Premier League, but the quarter-finals of the League Cup.

Ibrahimovic helped Manchester United open the scoring in the first 94 seconds. Rooney made a direct pass from the center circle. Gundogan played the ball with the heel of his left rib. Ibrahimovic pushed the ball into the net from the penalty spot, but he was tackled by Adrian and fell to the ground in pain. Couldn't celebrate the goal.

West Ham United tied in the 35th minute. Obiang made a large-scale transfer to the right. Payet burst into the front of the penalty area from the left rib and volleyed hard, causing De Gea to take the ball away. West Ham United forward Ash, who was born in the Manchester United youth training camp, Leigh Fletcher succeeded with a left-foot shovel shot from 7 meters in front of the goal, rewriting the score to 1:1.

This was Ashley Fletcher's first goal in 11 games for the Hammers after moving to West Ham United in the summer transfer window.

Manchester United started the second half exactly like the first half. 137 seconds after the kick-off, Valencia passed the ball with his heel from the right sideline. Gundogan hit the center from the right side of the penalty area. Rashford advanced to the upper left corner 11 meters in front of the goal to help Manchester United. The score was exceeded again.

In the 57th minute, Rashford almost scored another goal. Ibrahimovic passed the ball straight from the middle. Rooney passed the ball to the left side of the penalty area. Rashford's left-footed shot from 12 meters in front of the goal was blocked by Adrian!

But only 5 minutes later, Rashford's second goal finally arrived. Ibrahimovic made a pass from the right rib, and Valencia made a low pass from the right side of the penalty area. Rashford, who was unmarked in the middle, pushed into the empty goal 7 meters away from the goal, rewriting the score to 3:1.

Having secured the victory, Manchester United began to make substitution adjustments to reserve strength for the next game. But in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Manchester United scored their fourth goal of the game.

Piggy volleyed a pass from the left, Herrera broke through Ogbonna's shovel pass from the left side of the penalty area, and Ibrahimovic made it in one fell swoop 6 meters in front of the goal, locking the score at 4:1!

With this victory, Manchester United became the last team to reach the League Cup semi-finals this season.

In the subsequent semi-final draw, the double red match that many people expected did not take place. Manchester United met Hull City, while Liverpool faced the Saints Southampton.

Manchester United's two semi-finals will be played on the evening of January 1th and January 10th, first home and then away.

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On the afternoon of December 12, Central European Time, FIFA announced the list of three candidates for the 2 World Footballer of the Year. Players Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from La Liga and Bruno Fernandez from the Premier League were finalists.

This result has been expected by the whole world.

<divclass="contentadv">In this summer, Ronaldo led the Portuguese team to win the European Championship. In addition to the European Championship, he also helped Real Madrid gain another victory in the Champions League and win the 10th Champions League trophy in the club's history.

Bruno's performance this year was equally eye-catching. He helped Udinese win the second Serie A championship in team history. After moving to Manchester United, he helped Manchester United defeat Chelsea, Liverpool and other giants in the Premier League, ranking first in the standings. After three years, Manchester United finally showed signs of revival. In the national team, he and Ronaldo won the European Cup together, and became the Golden Boot and the best player of the European Cup. They were the number one contributor to Portugal's victory.

As Ronaldo's old rival, Messi's team honors this year are slightly inferior, but he still led Barcelona to win domestic championships such as La Liga.

However, everyone with a discerning eye knows that it is extremely unlikely that Messi will win against Ronaldo and Bruno this year. The real competition will begin between the Portuguese twin stars Ronaldo and Bruno.

However, the final result will not be announced until January 1 next year.

Not only the FIFA World Player of the Year, the upcoming final competition for the 2016 European Ballon d'Or will also be a competition between Bruno and Cristiano Ronaldo.

According to the schedule, FIFA will announce the final results of the 12 European Ballon d'Or in Paris, the headquarters of "France Football" on the evening of December 12, Central European Time.

FIFA's Best Player and Ballon d'Or have been merged for 6 years before. This year is the first time that the Ballon d'Or has returned to its original form. After the return, "France Football" magazine also made some adjustments to the evaluation of the Ballon d'Or. First of all, the list of candidates for this year's Ballon d'Or has been changed from the previous 23 to 30, and the announcement of the players shortlisted for the top three has been cancelled. ; Secondly, the head coaches and captains of national teams of various countries will no longer have the right to vote.

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Manchester United's first game in December came on the afternoon of December 12. This was the 4th round of the Premier League. Manchester United visited Goodison Park to challenge Toffees Everton.

This is the penultimate game of this round. Before this, the games of the Premier League's top players have ended.

Manchester City, who played first, lost 1:3 at home to Chelsea, suffering their third defeat of the season.

However, Conte, who once again won in a strong dialogue and led his team to become the second team to win eight consecutive games this season, seemed very low-key after the game. He said Chelsea is still not the favorite to win the championship. He said: "We have to look at the situation after the first half of the league, because the Premier League is not simple. Now we are playing well and are very confident, but the important thing is that we must continue to improve. We still have room for improvement.”

接着出战的热刺在白鹿巷球场5:0血洗了斯旺西，阿森纳则是在客场5:1横扫了才连续两场败在曼联脚下的西汉姆联，不过利物浦却是在一场进球大战中，爆冷在客场3:4负于伯恩茅斯。

Chelsea's consecutive wins in the Premier League have put a lot of pressure on Manchester United. Because once they fail in this game, their advantage in the standings will be reduced to one game.

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Regarding this game, both Everton players and Manchester United players seemed very confident before the game.

Everton's center forward Lukaku said in an interview with British and Belgian reporters: "...Manchester United is a very strong team, but we are not weak either. We play at home and we can win against any opponent. .”

Everton captain Baines also said: "We know that Manchester United is a team that is very good at attacking, and we will not let them score easily in the game."

In response, Manchester United star Ibrahimovic hit back: "Our tactics are very simple, there is nothing to keep secret, we just have to use our best attack to defeat our opponents!"

Bruno also expressed his belief in victory in an interview: "There is no other outcome except victory. The only way we can go to compete for the league championship is to win. I can't think of any other choice..."

Manchester United captain Rooney's answer was much shorter. Facing the reporters' cameras, he just said "Yes, we will win.", and then turned around and left in a cool manner.

Compared with the players, the head coaches of both sides are a little more cautious.

Everton's head coach Ronald Koeman said in a low-key manner that home court advantage did not play a role in the game against Manchester United. The game was full of variables.

The Dutchman said: "I don't know who will be the winner until the end of the game. All I can say is that we will give our best for ninety minutes or more."

Mourinho was not as arrogant as his men. He did not talk about the result, but said that his team would take this game seriously.

Fans from both sides are also paying close attention to this game. The tickets at Goodison Park, which can accommodate more than 40,000 people, have long been sold out. There are more than 2,000 Manchester United fans who come to cheer for the team in the away game. The rest are all I'm an Everton fan.