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

Chapter 530: Destiny lies with Manchester United?

At 2018:9 pm Greenwich time on September , , the first semi-final of this season's League Cup kicked off at the Etihad Stadium, with the Blue Moon Manchester City facing the Red Devils Manchester United.

This was the first time the two sides met again after a month.

As the two sides met in the League Cup semi-finals, it means there will be at least four Manchester derby games this season.

For the fans, this is really great. After all, these two teams are arguably the strongest in the world of football, and every game between them is undoubtedly a football feast.

Both teams sent out their main players. On the one hand, this was the semi-final of the League Cup and they could compete for a championship as long as they defeated their opponent; on the other hand, neither team wanted to lose in the derby.

Especially Manchester City, who are playing at home, have suffered five consecutive defeats in the Manchester derby and cannot afford to continue losing.

After the game started, Manchester City launched a fierce attack on Manchester United amid the cheers of more than 50,000 home fans at the Etihad Stadium, as if they were going to swallow Manchester United in one bite.

Under Manchester City's wave-like attack, Manchester United could only defend themselves and had no power to fight back.

However, football matches are really magical. The first team to score was Manchester United, who played very passively away from home.

In the 33rd minute of the game, Manchester United player Luke Shaw made a cross from the left, the ball was cleared by Manchester City player Zinchenko, and Bruno, who was waiting outside, shot the ball and broke through Manchester City's defense.

This goal made Manchester City anxious, and they continued to attack Manchester United, hoping to equalize the score before the end of the first half.

In the 44th minute, Manchester City central defender Mangala was intercepted in the backcourt, Gundogan passed the ball directly to Harry Kane, Stones had no choice but to knock down the opponent. The referee decisively awarded a penalty kick, and Bruno took the penalty and scored!

Bruno scored twice and Manchester City fell behind 0:2!

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Trailing by two goals at halftime, Manchester City players were completely stunned.

In the first half, Manchester City had an absolute advantage in all kinds of statistics, and every time they attacked, it seemed like they were going to score a goal.

But in the end, they were already two goals behind without realizing it!

Is Manchester United, or Bruno, really their nemesis?

The Manchester City players were in a daze, and it felt like their three perspectives were about to collapse.

If there wasn't so little time left in the first half, given Manchester City's current state, they would probably continue to concede goals.

The halftime break gave Manchester City a chance to catch their breath and prevent them from completely collapsing.

After the start of the second half, Manchester City, having recovered some form, continued to attack.

At this time, Manchester City had no choice but to attack.

Manchester United continued to use defensive counterattacks to deal with Manchester City.

With equal numbers of players, Manchester United is really unable to compete with Manchester City for ball possession.

In the 51st minute, Bernardo Silva, who was brought in by Manchester City for a large sum of money in the summer, launched a counterattack. Sterling broke into the penalty area like a ghost and shot, but the ball was blocked by Romero from Manchester United.

In the 55th minute, Kevin De Bruyne passed the ball to Sterling at the top of the penalty area. Sterling made a triangle pass back and De Bruyne easily pushed the ball into the goal!

1:2, Manchester City pulled one back.

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Manchester City's morale was boosted as they closed the gap and continued to intensify their attack. Guardiola also made continuous adjustments, with Aguero and Kyle Walker coming on as substitutes.

On the Manchester United side, Mourinho sent out defensive stalwarts Fellaini, Herrera and Lindelof in succession, changing the formation to 541, vowing to take away a victory at the Etihad Stadium.

However, Manchester City had good luck. In the stoppage time, Bernardo Silva kicked the ball 45 degrees from the right to the front of the goal, and Aguero, who came on as a substitute, scored with a header!

2:2, Manchester City equalizes!

This draw also allowed Guardiola to end Mourinho's four-game losing streak and kept some suspense in the two-round League Cup semi-final.

With the end of this game, Manchester United's devilish Christmas schedule has come to a temporary end.

Their next game is in six days, next Monday night.

For Manchester United, it has been a long time since they could play a game a week.

After the international match day in mid-November, they played a total of 11 games in the next 52 days, an average of one game every little more than three days.

During this period, the longest interval between Manchester United's games was 115 hours, less than five days; the shortest was 46 hours, less than two days.

In other words, Manchester United's bench is still strong enough, and Mourinho is also doing his best to rotate players, otherwise it would be difficult for them to survive this period of time that can be called a death schedule.

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Nearly a week's rest allowed Manchester United players to get enough rest, which also made them full of energy for the upcoming 23rd round of the Premier League.

In the first home league game in 2018, Manchester United beat Stoke City 3-0 at home, with Valencia, Mbappe and Harry Kane scoring and Bruno providing two assists.

Because Liverpool beat Manchester City 4:3 at home in a key match a day ago, Manchester United's lead in the standings extended to 10 points.

British media have all stated that this season's Premier League title race has basically been settled.

The reason why this conclusion was drawn when there were still 15 rounds left in the league is that Manchester United is too terrifying this season. They have won 23 consecutive league games, and their Premier League winning streak record has been extended to 24 games!

Manchester City's performance was not bad either, they achieved 23 wins, 19 draws and 2 losses in 2 games.

With the exception of the last two seasons at Manchester United and the first two years of Mourinho's first term at Chelsea, such performances are an absolute sure win for the title.

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Manchester United's Premier League winning streak continues.

On the afternoon of January 1th, Manchester United visited Burnley.

As Manchester United will face Manchester City at home in the crucial League Cup semi-final next week, Mourinho has made a large-scale rotation in the lineup.

On Boxing Day last year, Burnley almost let Manchester United overturn at Old Trafford. Today, they once again gave the world hope of ending Manchester United's winning streak.

Until the 80th minute of the game, the score was still 0:0.

In order to win away from home, Mourinho replaced three key players, Bruno, Mbappe and Harry Kane, in the second half. However, Burnley has the best defense in the Premier League after Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea. Facing Manchester United's fierce attack, they managed to defend without any leaks.

They even threatened Manchester United's goal with several quick counterattacks. If their strikers were not so unreliable, Manchester United might have suffered their first defeat of the season at Turf Moor today.

Burnley has conceded the fourth fewest goals in the Premier League, with only 23 goals conceded in the first 21 games; but their offense is also the fourth worst in the Premier League, with only 23 goals scored in 19 games, only more than Swansea, Brighton and West Bromwich Albion.

Just when everyone thought the game would end at 0:0 and Manchester United would end their 24-game winning streak in the Premier League, in the 84th minute of the game, Manchester United scored!

Bruno passed the ball to the right, Harry Kane made a diagonal pass from the right, and Mbappe shot into the upper left corner from 12 yards on the left side of the penalty area.

1:0, Manchester United once again completed a decisive victory over Burnley!

Manchester United's Premier League winning streak record was once again broken to 25 games!

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Manchester United once again scored a decisive victory, which made Manchester City feel desperate!

Although they beat Newcastle 3:1 at home in this round, they are still 10 points behind Manchester United, and they have one less game left in the remaining league rounds.

Under such circumstances, Manchester City management had to hold an emergency meeting to adjust the goal of this season, which was to shift the strategic focus to the cup competition.

Of course, this does not mean that Manchester City will strategically give up the league.

After all, with their depth of bench, even if they play with a rotating lineup of substitutes, they can still easily beat the mid- and lower-level teams in the Premier League. And if the main players play, it is not difficult to beat the other four teams of the big six except Manchester United.

Since we are going to compete in the cup competition, the first one to be considered is the League Cup.

In the first leg of the match between the two sides, Manchester City drew with Manchester United at home. Although they lost the initiative, they still had a good chance.

After all, there is no away goal advantage in the League Cup semi-finals. As long as they can draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford, whether it is 0:0, 1:1, or any other score, both sides will enter overtime.

Of course, if they can beat Manchester United away, they can directly advance to the final.

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Since the international football winter transfer window opened on New Year's Day, undercurrents have been surging in European football.

Even in this winter window, the situation cannot be described as undercurrents, but rather as raging waves.

On January 1, Coutinho, who had been clamoring to leave Liverpool for several years, finally fulfilled his childhood dream and successfully joined Barcelona.

In order to get the Brazilian midfielder, Barcelona also paid a transfer fee of 1.2 million euros and attached a clause of 4 million euros, which means that the transfer can be up to 1.6 million euros.

It is said that in order to join Barcelona, ​​Coutinho even personally paid 1000 million euros to help Barcelona complete the transfer.

It’s a familiar plot and a familiar formula.

Liverpool, which received huge sums of money from Coutinho's transfer, also made waves in the transfer market. They spent 7500 million pounds to dig up Senegalese international center back Koulibaly from Serie A's Napoli.

Originally, Napoli, who intended to compete with Juventus for the Serie A title this season, did not want to sell Koulibaly, but Koulibaly was very determined to leave, so Napoli had to give in.

Among them, Senegalese striker Mane is said to have played a key role.

In addition to Liverpool, the other big six teams in the Premier League have also made big moves. Manchester City spent 6 million euros to dig out central defender Laporte from Athletic Bilbao, Arsenal spent 5700 million euros to get Aubameyang from Dortmund while sending away the young tiger Walcott, and Tottenham Hotspur dug Lucas Moura from Paris Saint-Germain for 5600 million euros.

In other words, Manchester United and Chelsea seemed to be relatively quiet and did not make much movement.