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

Chapter 557 Falling Behind

Bruno was a little slow and hesitated, not knowing where to pass the ball. The ball under his feet was intercepted by Fernandinho. The Argentine midfielder moved very quickly and cleanly.

"Fernandinho steals the ball from Bruno!"

There was a cheer from the stands of Etihad Stadium.

Bruno hurriedly chased back, trying to steal the ball, but his movement was a little too big and Fernandinho fell to the ground.

The referee Martin Atkinson blew the whistle immediately, calling Bruno for a foul in stealing the ball!

Bruno did not go to Fernandinho, but quickly retreated. He was afraid that the opponent would take a free kick quickly and catch his team off guard.

But Manchester City did not do so. Their players pressed forward one after another, but the free kick was taken slowly by center back Kompany.

Bruno stepped back, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head slightly.

It seems that today's game is more difficult than he expected...

It’s not that Bruno has never been frozen out of a game. Whenever he performs poorly, his team performs poorly, whether it’s Manchester United or Udinese.

Mourinho, as a coach who has been following and observing him for many years, how could he not know this? It's just that few teams can freeze Bruno for a whole 90 minutes without stopping, because he has super running ability and excellent physical fitness, which can make him energetic at the last moment of the game, while his opponents are often exhausted after being led by him to run for almost the entire game.

So Mourinho was not too worried about Bruno being frozen out. He believed that Bruno would be able to find a way as time went on.

In addition, there are Kante and Gundogan behind him, and Rashford, Harry Kane and Mbappe in front of him. They can all get closer to Bruno and help him break through the difficulties.

The game has only started for ten minutes, so there is no need to rush. Just wait and see what happens.

………………

Mourinho thought so without even lifting his butt from his seat.

Another person who was sitting on the Diaoyutai like him was Manchester City head coach Guardiola. He sat on a chair, crossed his legs, watched the game leisurely, and even had the leisure to chat with people around him.

Guardiola really has nothing to worry about. Judging from the first ten minutes of the game, the match was within his expectations and did not go off track.

The three midfielders were very successful, completely blocking Bruno's possibility of passing the ball forward and breaking through. Judging from Bruno's performance, he didn't seem to have many options when facing three people.

Previously, the media had been praising Bruno as an all-around warrior, and some even said that Bruno would become the third best player in the history of world football. He was dismissive of this, thinking that maybe Bruno was really good, but definitely not to that extent.

The third king of football? Boy, you are still too young...

Bruno was surrounded by three people. He was not facing man-to-man defense, but zone defense. Therefore, no matter where he was, he would face such tenacious defense, and no matter how he ran, he could not disrupt Manchester City's solid defense.

The opponent's formation remained very compact and intact, with no chances on the flanks or in the middle.

………………

In desperation, Bruno had to pass the ball back and sideways frequently.

As a result, Manchester City had more opportunities. They seized the opportunity when Bruno could not pass the ball forward and launched frequent attacks, each of which was very threatening.

First, Bernardo Silva made a sudden attack outside the penalty area, making De Gea very embarrassed.

Then Sterling made a shovel shot in the penalty area, and the ball went out of the goal. Sane also seized the opportunity to threaten Manchester United's goal with a surprise attack.

De Gea once again saved David Silva's long shot, and his performance was already very, very good, but he had no intention of being complacent. He was under tremendous pressure and didn't know when his goal would be lost.

Bruno was also anxious, he knew that if you defend for too long, you will lose. Even though Manchester United's defense was the strongest in the Premier League this season and the team that conceded the fewest goals, facing Manchester City, which was famous for its offense, simple defense would not prevent Manchester United from conceding goals, or even winning.

Moreover, blindly defending will only make Manchester City's attack more and more fierce.

We must use counterattacks to suppress Manchester City's momentum.

He did think of a way, which was to foul the opponent. The reason why Fernandinho, Mkhitaryan and David Silva were so rampant now had a lot to do with the fact that they were clean. If he let the three opponents get yellow cards on him, the situation would be very different...

If you pass the ball, the chance of committing a foul is too small, so you still have to dribble the ball yourself, and the opponent will commit more fouls...

Bruno thought so and decided to increase the time he had the ball to lure the opponent into committing a foul.

He did fall, but referee Martin Atkinson did not give a card, just blew his whistle.

He got up and continued playing.

………………

But this trick doesn't always work. Sometimes the opponent may foul, and sometimes his ball will be intercepted by the opponent without committing a foul.

To prevent this, Bruno found Kante.

"Stay close to me," he told Kanter. "I need protection."

Kanter nodded: "Okay."

"Bruno suddenly changed his style... He dribbled more instead of passing." The commentator quickly noticed this change. "From the previous game, his pass hit an invisible wall. Maybe he thought it would be better to break through instead."

The commentators analyzed the reasons why Bruno did this.

"But to be honest, he's not a very good dribbler..."

"I think his dribbling is not fancy, but very practical. So I can only say that he is not good at using fancy dribbling to tease the audience, but it is probably not correct to say that he is not good at dribbling..."

While the commentators were arguing, Bruno had already dribbled the ball towards David Silva again, having spotted the weakness in Manchester City's three midfielders.

Fernandinho and Mkhitaryan are both regular midfielders, and their defense is not outstanding, but at least it is acceptable. Only David Silva was originally an attacking midfielder, and his defensive ability is really poor.

To commit a foul, we obviously have to find a way out from him.

Bruno rushed towards David Silva with the ball. David Silva saw the opportunity and tried to steal the ball, but Bruno gently pushed the ball to the side and passed by David Silva's body.

Although it was a foul, Bruno would not be easily knocked down by the opponent. Because what if he could successfully break through? Wouldn't that be a win?

So no matter what, don't fall down easily. Although you will get a foul, you may miss a fatal offensive opportunity.

If you can successfully break through, there is no need to commit a foul.

………………

Bruno knew that the chances of this happening were slim. Manchester City's defense today was almost impenetrable.

When David Silva faced Bruno's breakthrough, he did not stretch out his foot to trip him. He just kept his body close to him to prevent Bruno from completely getting rid of him, and then left the task of intercepting the ball to a professional.

He and Guardiola obviously took into account the problem of unprofessional defense, so his task was not to steal the ball but to interfere.

Sure enough, Bruno failed to get rid of David Silva and encountered Mkhitaryan who came to defend him. The Armenian midfielder had already come over from the right to help David Silva.

Under the double defense, Bruno could no longer hold on and fell to the ground, and the ball under his feet was kicked away by Mkhitaryan.

Kante took a step forward, took the ball cleared by Mkhitaryan, and then took a long shot!

The football went over the crossbar...

Bruno got up from the ground and opened his arms to the referee Martin Atkinson. He thought Mkhitaryan and David Silva must have committed fouls when defending him, but the referee Martin Atkinson smiled and shook his finger at him, indicating that he saw clearly that the other party did not commit a foul.

Seeing that the referee Martin Atkinson did not make any comments, Bruno angrily kicked the ball.

Kante did not come up to comfort him, but instead retreated and signaled him to go back to defense because Manchester City was about to launch an attack.

Seeing this, Bruno had no way to continue arguing with the referee Martin Atkinson, so he turned around and ran back.

If I want to find an opportunity, I have to wait for the next attack. I hope that before I find a way, Manchester United's defense can withstand the opponent's counterattack...

………………

Bruno hoped that his team could withstand Manchester City's counterattack and then continue to find a way to break through Manchester City's defense. But he didn't wait.

In the 25th minute, Manchester United's goal was finally lost under Manchester City's attack.

It was a corner kick, Sane drove the ball into the penalty area, there was chaos in front of Manchester United's goal, Manchester City center back Kompany broke away from Van Dijk's defense and scored with a header from the edge of the small penalty area, 1-0.

There was a huge cheer at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City took the lead in the first 25 minutes, which was a good start.

"GOAL! GOAL - Vincent Kompany!!!" The Manchester City commentator at the scene shouted passionately, "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!"

"Manchester City is leading! This is a good sign. Guardiola's team looks like they will have a chance to break the embarrassing record of ten consecutive defeats against Manchester United tonight!"

"The last time Manchester City beat Manchester United was in November 2014, when they beat Manchester United 11-10 at home in the 1th round of the Premier League. But since then, Manchester City has failed to win against Manchester United 0 times in all competitions, including 10 Premier League games, 6 League Cups and 3 International Champions Cup."

After scoring the goal, the Manchester City players seemed very excited. Obviously they all knew those "shameful records" and were full of energy and wanted to vent it.

Now they are about to get their wish.