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

Chapter 575: The Winning Hand

Ederson's attention was focused on Kante's possible pass to Gundogan on Manchester United's right. He really didn't expect Kante to suddenly shoot, so Ederson's position was biased to the left. At this time, there was no time to adjust his position. He could only jump into the air and stretch his arms with all his strength, trying to block the sudden long-range shot.

"Kante - the ball is in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Along with James' roar, Manchester City's guardian Ederson fell from the air. His facial expression was desperate. He did not touch the football. The football passed over Ederson's right hand and suddenly went into the net, rolling the snow-white net high up!

In the 69th minute of the game, N'Golo Kante, the second most unlikely player to score a goal for Manchester United, scored. As for the first most unlikely player, it was naturally goalkeeper De Gea.

2:1, Manchester United took the lead again at the Etihad Stadium!

"A crazy kick... a world wave!! It came from Kante! He suddenly dribbled the ball forward, he passed Fernandinho, he deceived Otamendi, he shot, and he scored! Ederson lost to Kante... This was Kante's first Champions League goal in his career, scored in the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City! This French midfielder, he either doesn't score, or his goals are crucial goals!"

………………

Kante, who scored a crazy world wave, was running, but he only took two steps before he was surrounded by equally crazy and excited teammates. They knocked him to the ground and pressed him under them.

Their mouths roared with excited good words, excited swear words, and excited howls.

This goal is too crucial, and this goal boosts morale too much.

During this period, Manchester City's offensive was very fierce, and Manchester United's defense was frequently in crisis, feeling quite precarious.

As a result, Kante helped Manchester United score a goal to overtake the score, which undoubtedly completely killed the game.

After all, after Kante scored, Manchester United was already leading 5:1 in the total score of the two rounds!

Kante seldom scores goals, but every time he does, it is a crucial goal, and Manchester United has never lost a game when Kante scores.

Manchester United was celebrating wildly, while Manchester City was in deathly silence. No one could believe their eyes. They couldn't believe that the Manchester United player who had hardly ever scored a goal and almost never took a shot, the guy least likely to score a goal in the entire Manchester United team except goalkeeper De Gea and substitute goalkeeper Romero, actually scored a goal. And it was such a groundbreaking world-class goal, a world-class goal that made even Ederson and I surrender helplessly!

"When he was playing for Udinese, Kante had such a world-class goal." Sun Jihai said bitterly, "Yes, he seldom shoots, and it is even more rare for him to score goals, because his shooting skills are really bad. But for such a player, any goal he scores is super beautiful and super crucial. 1:2, Kante scored a wonderful world-class goal, and Manchester City fell behind."

"He fought very hard when defending, sweeping around, and he and his teammates built a solid defense in front of Manchester United's back line. When attacking, he scored a key goal that made people jump up and cheer. N'Golo Kante, no matter what the final result of this game is, he will vote for the best player." Zhan Jun said, not hiding his admiration and support for the Manchester United star.

………………

Getting up from the ground, Kante yelled at his teammates to protest against their abuse, and everyone laughed.

Manchester City's players were stunned. They couldn't accept the loss. But one person was not stunned. He rushed directly to the referee Felix Brüch.

It was De Bruyne. The Belgian complained and protested to the referee Brüchy. He believed that the starting point of Manchester United's counterattack, when Fellaini poked the ball from under his feet, was a foul against him, so the referee should have blown the whistle at that time. There is a cause for every effect, so Manchester United's goal was a foul and was invalid.

Felix Brüch shook his finger, Manchester United did not commit a foul, there was nothing wrong with the ball.

In fact, when Fellaini and De Bruyne were pulling each other, both sides had movements with their hands. According to Brühl's usual law enforcement habits, he might be relatively biased towards the home team and call Fellaini for a foul on pulling. However, for some unknown reason, when he was about to blow the whistle, Brühl hesitated slightly. It was this one second of hesitation that Manchester United's counterattack was launched. Then Brühl signaled that there was no foul and the game continued.

There is nothing wrong with this penalty. In that kind of tug-of-war, the referee could have called a foul on Fellaini, or not, or even called a foul on De Bruyne. The choice is entirely up to the referee.

So, from the perspective of the rules, there is nothing wrong with the referee Brühl.

Since no whistle was blown at that time, Brühl will naturally ignore De Bruyne's protest now.

………………

Seeing that the referee insisted that there was nothing wrong with Manchester United's attack, the usually good-tempered De Bruyne also lost his temper. He yelled at the referee: "Do you know how to blow the whistle?"

Yellow card!

Felix Brüch did not hesitate at all and decisively showed De Bruyne a yellow card, allowing the Manchester City midfield core to calm down.

De Bruyne glared at the referee, but fortunately he had not lost his mind. He was so angry that he grunted, but finally lowered his voice and said, "Referee, I mean no offense, but you are indeed wrong."

"Listen to the referee." At this time, Fellaini came over and kindly advised his national team teammates.

De Bruyne's anger, which had just subsided a little, could no longer be suppressed. How dare you say "listen to the referee"?

De Bruyne didn't even think about it and pushed Fellaini down, "Go to hell!"

Fellaini sat down on the ground and looked at De Bruyne with an innocent and aggrieved look.

Yellow card!

The referee Felix Brüch's face turned green. De Bruyne attacked in front of him. This behavior was too bad. Moreover, he heard clearly what Fellaini said. Although the referee was not stupid and knew that this guy said this with bad intentions, objectively speaking, what he said was not wrong.

Of course, the most important thing is that De Bruyne cannot take action.

………………

Referee Brühl showed De Bruyne a second yellow card, followed by a red card.

Two yellow cards turned into one red card, and De Bruyne was sent off with a red card.

There was deafening booing in the stands at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City captain Fernandinho is negotiating with the referee Brühl.

"Wow, wow, let's see what happened? The referee showed De Bruyne two yellow cards in a row and sent him off." Zhan Jun shouted, "De Bruyne seemed to be dissatisfied with the referee's decision. He protested to referee Brüch, so he was shown a yellow card. Then something happened between him and Fellaini who was walking over. He pushed Fellaini down under the referee's nose and got a yellow card again. Two yellow cards turned into one red card, and he was sent off."

"This is an unexpected situation, a very bad unexpected situation." Manchester City star Sun Jihai shook his head and sighed, "It's too uncalm. Now Manchester City is 1:2 behind and one man short. The situation is very bad."

Guardiola was so angry that he jumped on the sidelines. He had already decided to make a substitution. Mkhitaryan had already finished warming up. Guardiola was ready to replace De Bruyne, who was exhausted, with Mkhitaryan to continue to strengthen the attack.

But now, De Bruyne has been sent off and all Guardiola's plans have been disrupted.

Most importantly, this made Guardiola a little panicked. He realized that the situation was not good and the possibility of losing the game increased sharply.

………………

De Bruyne was sent off, which became the most important turning point of the game.

On Manchester City's side, the substitution of Mkhitaryan has been temporarily withdrawn, and Guardiola needs to make a decision quickly to see how to make substitutions and adjustments.

Mourinho was very decisive. After seeing De Bruyne being sent off, he immediately asked Mata, Rashford, Mbappe, Ibrahimovic and others to warm up.

A few minutes later, Manchester City made a substitution, Mkhitaryan came on as a substitute and Bernardo Silva was replaced. Manchester City changed to 324. Guardiola was determined to go all out.

He could not accept the result of being defeated twice by Manchester United in the Champions League semi-finals. Anyway, the team was now behind in the score, so he might as well fight to the death. If he could score a goal through a fierce attack, although the result would still be elimination, at least he would not be defeated twice!

Mourinho immediately made substitutions, Mata replaced Fellaini, and Rashford replaced Kante, whose physical strength was also beginning to decline.

Manchester United also changed its formation to 4-2-3-1, with Herrera and Gundogan forming a double defensive midfielder, and Rashford, Mata and Bruno forming the three small guns behind Harry Kane.

Manchester United also immediately switched from conservative tactics to an offensive posture.

………………

After De Bruyne was sent off, for Manchester City it was not just one man less, but more importantly, when trailing 1:2, Manchester City had to press forward to attack with only a single defensive midfielder behind them, which meant that the space behind Manchester City's massive attack would be infinitely magnified.

In the 83rd minute of the game, Manchester United scored the third goal. Luke Shaw and Mata cooperated continuously on the left side, attracting Kyle Walker and other Manchester City defenders to concentrate on this side. Mata suddenly passed the ball sideways, Bruno received the ball and made a straight pass. Harry Kane held off Otamendi and knocked the ball to the right. Mbappe followed up and rubbed the ball, and the ball was transferred to the left again.

Behind the massive attack, Manchester City's defense was already short-handed, and now it was completely mobilized and in a mess. Bruno, who came in from the back, was left unguarded, and he made a beautiful header, and the ball flew between Ederson's hands into the net. Manchester United beat Manchester City 3:1.

In the end, the score of this focus battle was 3:1, and Manchester United defeated their city rivals Manchester City - away from home.

In this way, Manchester United achieved a double kill against Manchester City in the two-round Champions League semi-finals, and advanced to this season's Champions League final with a total score of 6:1.