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

Chapter 542 A battle of wits and courage

Manchester United players began to celebrate, but Tottenham coach Pochettino was very annoyed. He yelled and lost his temper on the field.

The person who made him unhappy was Moussa Dembele. He did not give any instructions to Moussa Dembele to mark Gundogan, but the Belgian made the decision on his own, resulting in Bruno being left unmarked.

Isn't it asking for trouble to leave such a threatening person unmarked?

Pochettino knew this very well, so he didn't let Moussa Dembele defend other people. It's just that he didn't explain this matter clearly to Moussa Dembele, so Moussa Dembele had his own ideas...

"Don't give him a chance!" Pochettino complained, spreading his hands towards Moussa Dembele.

Faced with the head coach's scolding, Moussa Dembele could only lower his head and remain silent.

He had no way to refute anything. The problem was indeed with him. If he continued to follow Bruno, there would always be someone to defend Gundogan, or the head coach would definitely be able to make corresponding adjustments and would not let Gundogan be left unguarded for a long time... These things were not something he should have to worry about.

Now, they are getting their comeuppance.

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Harry Kane's goal gave Manchester United the lead, but it did not cause Tottenham to lose their composure.

Because this is not a big blow. As long as they score one more goal and tie the score to 2:2, they can end Manchester United's winning streak.

Being able to end Manchester United’s 25-game winning streak is also a good result!

That’s a winning streak record in the top five leagues!

From now on, whenever someone mentions Manchester United’s 25-game winning streak, they will mention that their winning streak ended at the hands of Tottenham!

For a team of Tottenham's level, scoring a goal in more than 20 minutes is not too difficult.

They certainly stepped up their offensive, but they didn't go all out. The back line still paid close attention to marking several key players. Moussa Dembele no longer cared about Gundogan, but continued to follow Bruno closely, preventing him from passing threatening balls.

Bruno found that he was having trouble organizing the attack again. Although he knew that Manchester United was still not safe with the current score, he had no other choice.

Now that we have just lost the ball, Tottenham’s counterattack is very fierce, so it is better to avoid their attack.

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In the following time, Manchester United began to shrink their formation and play defensive counterattacks. It was not that Mourinho wanted to be conservative, but the current situation forced him to be conservative.

After the restart, Tottenham launched a fierce attack on Manchester United's goal. With Tottenham's offensive ability, if they had continued to fight back, Manchester United would have lost the advantage they had just gained. Because if Tottenham scored one more goal, the situation would be completely reversed, and they now had enough motivation to score.

Mourinho decided to defend thoroughly for at least five minutes. If they can hold on for these five minutes, Tottenham's morale will drop, and then Manchester United will attack again and fight with Tottenham.

In the last ten minutes of the game, if the score remained at 2:1, Tottenham would be impatient and start to attack aggressively, because they only needed one goal to equalize the score, and ten minutes would be a good time for them. If the time was too long, the chances of the opponent's sneak attack would increase greatly, and if the time was too short, they would not have enough time.

Ten minutes is reasonable.

In this way, when they pressed forward in large numbers, Manchester United would retreat appropriately and then start to counterattack using the speed of the two wingers. As long as the sneak attack was successful and they scored another goal, the game would be won.

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The game went as Mourinho planned. Tottenham attacked fiercely for five minutes but failed to break through. Manchester United's goal stood firm amid their fierce fire.

Fearing that their opponents would seize the opportunity to counterattack if they continued to attack, Tottenham began to retreat.

Manchester United also changed its defensive tactics and pressed forward to fight against Tottenham.

But this time, Bruno, as the controller of the team's rhythm, is not so enthusiastic about those attacks that require great risks.

More often than not, both teams were fighting back and forth in the midfield. Occasionally there would be a beautiful offensive organization, but the forwards of both sides would quickly waste these opportunities.

When the game entered the 80th minute, Pochettino made some gestures on the sidelines and Tottenham decisively launched a full-scale attack.

Not counting injury time, they only had ten minutes left.

At the same time, Mourinho also made a substitution decision. He replaced Harry Kane, who scored the team's first goal, with central defender Lindelof, and Manchester United changed its formation to 532.

Mourinho put Rashford and Mbappe in the front because they are faster than Harry Kane, have better skills, are good at dribbling and breaking through, have strong individual combat capabilities, and are suitable for counterattacks.

Substituting a central defender is naturally to strengthen the defense. Three central defenders standing two in front and one behind can increase the thickness of the defense line and prevent the opponent from penetrating with one shot. At the same time, it can also increase the number of people in the penalty area, creating trouble for players like Ali and leaving him no room to perform.

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When Harry Kane came off the pitch, he was booed by the entire New Wembley Stadium.

As a former hero of Tottenham fans, Harry Kane chose to leave when the team needed him most, which made Tottenham fans feel betrayed.

The more you loved something in the past, the more you hate it now.

In today's game, Harry Kane scored a goal for Manchester United to overtake the score, and even celebrated after the goal, which made Tottenham fans even more angry.

Harry Kane acted as if he didn't hear the boos. He slowly walked to the sidelines, high-fived Lindelof, and then hugged head coach Mourinho.

"You did a good job, Harry. Go and have a rest now." Mourinho patted Harry Kane on the back and comforted him.

Harry Kane returned to the bench and high-fived his teammates one by one. The team was leading and there were only ten minutes left in the game. Everyone was in a good mood.

However, the Manchester United players on the field were not in such a relaxed mood. These ten minutes were nothing short of torture for them.

They must ensure that they do not concede a goal in the face of Tottenham's powerful attack within these ten minutes, while also waiting for opportunities to launch sneak attacks.

Bruno is in control of this degree. If the opportunity is not good, he would rather not launch an attack than give up the ball easily.

Ali stood on the front line and raised his hand to signal his teammates to pass the ball to him.

Manchester United's right-back Valencia glanced at him. This young man who has emerged in the past two seasons has put him under considerable pressure in today's game, making him very alert.

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While Valencia was thinking about something, Ali in front of him suddenly ran away.

Valencia looked around. Tottenham passed the ball to this side and Ali went up to receive it.

Valencia looked behind him and decided to press forward. There were three central defenders in the penalty area anyway. If he went forward and one more came over, there would still be two central defenders guarding the middle.

After Ali received the ball, he tried to turn around, but he bumped into Valencia who was pressing on him. Ali fell to the ground and lost the ball.

Valencia quickly kicked the football away, while Ali signaled to the referee on the ground that Valencia had committed a foul.

Valencia was very annoyed by Ali's action: I clearly did not commit any foul, can you lie for the team's victory?

So he leaned over and yelled at Ali: "Stop pretending, kid! Don't I know who you are? You are the best at pranks, but this is a competition arena!"

For the current Tottenham players, it is already a blood-thirsty moment. Hearing Valencia scolding him like this, Ali also frowned and retorted: "You did kick my ankle. I didn't play a prank! You'd better think clearly before you speak!"

The two people bickering in the back did not attract the attention of the players on the field. Instead, the Manchester United fans in the stands near the area where the two people were located cursed Ali loudly for diving.

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Manchester United is organizing an attack while Tottenham is retreating.

Ali lost the ball in the frontcourt, which was an opportunity for Bruno to exploit. After receiving the pass from Valencia, he made a wall pass with Kante. Kante passed the ball to him and helped him block Moussa Dembele at the same time.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Bruno passed the ball forward to Mbappe on the wing.

When Ali saw that the team was in trouble, he didn't bother to argue with Valencia and turned and ran back, while Valencia was waving his arms and chattering behind him.

Manchester United's attack eventually resulted in a free kick, and Mbappe's close-range shot was incredibly saved by Lloris, a save that excited the commentators supporting Tottenham.

"Lori! Hugo Lori! He made a world-class save!"

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Manchester United got a corner kick. For a team that is in a defensive position, the front field set-piece is an opportunity that must be seized. If they can use this corner kick to score a goal against Tottenham, they can completely stop Tottenham's idea of ​​a comeback.

In the current world football, no team can score two or even three goals against Manchester United in just five minutes!

Once the score became 3:1, Manchester United players could breathe a sigh of relief and no longer have to play the remaining few minutes of the game under tremendous pressure.

With this in mind, Van Dijk, Maguire, and Lindelof, who came on in the 80th minute, all ran to Tottenham's goal, ready to compete for headers.

When attacking, Tottenham go all out and are eager to score a goal, but that doesn't mean they are ineffective when defending and don't care about the safety of their own goal.

In fact, the first condition for a comeback is not to score a goal, but not to lose the ball. Because once the score becomes 1:3, it means that Tottenham will lose the game today, so Tottenham still attaches great importance to the defense of this corner kick.