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

Chapter 755: The Battle Between the Two Reds

Manchester United, whose winning streak was ended, faced Ajax at home in the fifth round of the Champions League group stage in the middle of the week.

Although Manchester United had already qualified for the knockout rounds two rounds in advance and secured first place in the group, they did not intend to save their strength in the game. After all, they had just been tied by their opponents in the league, and Mourinho did not want the team to suffer two consecutive defeats.

At home, Manchester United got off to a dream start and took the lead in the 7th minute. Rashford made a cross from the left and Bruno volleyed the ball without stopping. Onana was not prepared for Bruno's shot and could only watch the ball fly into the goal behind him.

In the 20th minute, Bruno made a long pass from the midfield, and Rashford made a volley without stopping the ball, which went slightly wide. At the same time, the linesman raised his hand to signal offside.

Although Manchester United's attack in the first half was fierce, they failed to score the second goal and entered the halftime break with a score of 1:0.

After the change of sides, Manchester United continued to attack and expanded their lead in the 55th minute. Bruno passed the ball diagonally to the penalty area, Harry Kane passed the ball back to his teammate in front of the goalkeeper, and Gundogan, who came in from behind, shot into the empty goal!

In the 68th minute, Ajax scored a goal. The ball was thrown out from the right sideline, and Dest passed the ball to Tadic on the right side of the penalty area. The latter passed the ball to the middle with a low shot, and Ziyech followed up and shot into the far corner.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Ajax 2:1 at home, achieving five consecutive wins in the group stage, and the winning streak of the entire Champions League was extended to 21 games!

In addition, their unbeaten record in the Champions League has been extended to 31 games!

………………

On the evening of December 12st, Manchester United played against Aston Villa at home in the 1th round of the Premier League.

曼联近14次对阵维拉取得11胜3平，在双方近39场交锋中仅负1场，其余38战取得32胜6平。双方英超交锋48场，曼联34胜11平3负占据上风，其中主场19胜4平1负。这是双方的第187场交锋，曼联98胜39平49负占据优势。

Whether from the historical record or the team's strength, it is reasonable for Manchester United to win at home. However, after the game started, the situation gave Manchester United fans a bad feeling.

Villa took the lead in the 11th minute. El Ghazi's cross from the right missed the far post, and Grealish cut into the penalty area from the left and shot a curved ball into the upper right corner.

However, before the end of the first half, Manchester United equalized the score. In the 42nd minute, Bruno made a cross from the corner, and Rashford headed the ball from the edge of the small penalty area and hit the left post, and the ball bounced into the net.

In the second half, Mbappe and Fred's shots from outside the penalty area lacked threat. Rashford fell under Gilbert's defense on the left side of the penalty area, and the referee refused to award a penalty.

Aston Villa almost took the lead again. In the 63rd minute, Trezeguet made a diagonal pass from the right side of the penalty area, and Grealish's shot from the edge of the small penalty area went wide.

It is said that those who survive a disaster will be blessed in the future. Manchester United, who escaped the disaster, turned around and scored a goal, overtaking the score.

In the 64th minute, Fred made a tactical corner kick from the right, Wesley headed the ball but it went far away, and Lindelof headed the ball into the goal from the left side of the small penalty area, changing the score to 2:1.

But Manchester United's lead lasted only two minutes. Villa equalized in the 2th minute. The Red Devils cleared the corner kick, Targett made a diagonal pass, and Mings, who successfully got out of offside, volleyed the ball into the net in front of the small penalty area.

The linesman called offside, but VAR reviewed the goal and ruled it valid.

最终双方握手言和，曼联在联赛中连平后，在积分榜上被利物浦反超。曼联12胜2平拿到38个积分，利物浦则是13胜1负拿到39个积分。

This is also the first time that Manchester United is not at the top of the standings again after four months since the first round of this season.

However, a day later, Bruno won the 2019 European Golden Ball, the third time he has won this award in his career.

In this regard, Bruno also won the European Golden Ball and the World Footballer of the Year in 2019, defending the two major awards.

………………

Manchester United suffered two consecutive draws in the league, and voices unfavorable to Manchester United appeared in the British media, saying that Manchester United has fallen into a slump and that Liverpool will be the league champion this season.

However, Manchester United quickly slapped the faces of those media that were pessimistic about Manchester United with facts.

On the evening of December 12, the 4th round of the Premier League kicked off, with Manchester United hosting Tottenham at home.

After a slump in early November, Pochettino's Tottenham rebounded, winning three consecutive games after the international match day. In the Champions League, they beat Olympiacos 11:4 at home and advanced to the Champions League knockout stage one round ahead of schedule. In the Premier League, they also won two 2:3 victories over West Ham United and Bournemouth respectively.

Two consecutive league victories also allowed Tottenham to quickly climb to sixth in the standings. Coupled with advancing to the knockout stage of the Champions League, Pochettino finally came back to life.

On the contrary, Emery, who was in a better situation than Pochettino before, was fired by Arsenal before December. The Gunners welcomed their second head coach after Wenger, former team star Arteta.

The eyes of the whole world are on Manchester United to see whether the Red Devils will suffer three league defeats for the second time since Mourinho took over.

In Mourinho's first season as Manchester United coach, Manchester United suffered a three-game losing streak near the end of the league. First, they lost 0:2 to Arsenal, then lost 1:2 to Tottenham, and then drew 0:0 with Southampton. They almost lost the first league title in the post-Ferguson era.

In the more than two years since then, Manchester United has not suffered three league defeats. ………………

At home, Manchester United played very actively and quickly broke the deadlock.

Six minutes into the game, Manchester United took the lead with their first shot. Lingard fought with Sanchez on the left flank, Rashford took the ball and broke into the penalty area on the left side, 6 meters away from the goal, and shot hard. The ball bounced in front of Gazzaniga's goal and was tipped into the near corner by his fingertips, 13:1.

Rashford almost scored his second goal in the 25th minute. Lingard made a cross pass from the left, and Rashford shot hard from 25 meters in front of the goal and the ball hit the crossbar and bounced back!

Tottenham equalized the score in the 39th minute. Vertonghen made a cross from the left, Fred headed the ball to the back post, Aurier's shot from a small angle was blocked by De Gea, and Ali leaned on Fred to hook the ball and turned to shoot into the far corner from 5 meters away from the goal.

Manchester United players complained that Ali had handballed, but VAR determined that Ali did not have handball and the goal was valid.

Just 70 seconds into the second half, Rashford broke through Aurier on the left and cut into the penalty area near the bottom line, but was stepped on the instep by Sissoko and fell to the ground. The referee decisively awarded a penalty!

Bruno pushed the ball into the bottom right corner and Manchester United took the lead again 2:1!

In the subsequent game, although both sides attacked and defended, neither side was able to break the opponent's goal again. The score of 2:1 was maintained until the end of the game, and Manchester United defeated Tottenham at home.

………………

Three days later, Manchester United visited the Etihad Stadium for the first round of this season's Manchester derby.

In the 2nd minute, Bruno passed the ball and Mbappe shot with his right foot from 16 meters away, but Ederson was in a good position to block the ball!

Manchester United gave a strong start at the start!

In the 9th minute, Rashford passed the ball directly into the empty space on the left rib, Bruno made a low shot from a small angle, and Ederson blocked the ball with his foot!

In the 16th minute, Mbappe made a pass from the right, Harry Kane followed up with a powerful shot with his right foot, but Ederson flew to save the ball!

Manchester United, who were on the offensive, finally broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute of the game. Rashford broke into the penalty area and was brought down by Bernardo Silva. After VAR intervened, a penalty was awarded. Bruno calmly deceived Ederson and scored in the opposite direction, scoring his ninth penalty of the season.

In the 25th minute, Manchester United launched a high-quality counterattack. Bruno made a diagonal pass to the empty space on the left, and Rashford broke into the penalty area and shot low with his right foot into the far corner. Manchester United took a two-goal lead away from home.

In the 27th minute, Mbappe made an inverted triangle pass from the right, and Harry Kane made a right-footed lob shot from the edge of the penalty area. The ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced into the net!

Less than half an hour into the game, Manchester City was trailing 0:3!

No one could have imagined such a situation. The Etihad Stadium was dead silent.

A scene that Manchester City fans were even more reluctant to see happened two minutes later.

In the 29th minute, Harry Kane and Mbappe played a wonderful wall pass. The Manchester United center forward broke into the penalty area and decisively kicked a low shot with his left foot. The ball flew into the net from the near corner, changing the score on the field to 0:4!

Two Manchester United players cooperated to break through Manchester City's four-man defense!

In the last minute of stoppage time in the first half, Walker broke through the right and made a low pass to the end line. The ball hit the arm of Fred who fell to the ground to intercept, but no penalty was given after VAR intervened.

Manchester United went into halftime with a huge 4:0 advantage.

………………

After the second half, Manchester City launched a fierce counterattack, but Manchester United's defense was very solid. Facing the host team's wave after wave of attacks, Manchester United's defense withstood the test until the 85th minute of the game, when Manchester City center back Otamendi scored a face-saving goal in a corner kick attack.

In the end, Manchester United defeated Manchester City 4:1 away.

It was a very intense derby. Although Manchester City was in control of the situation, Manchester United's counterattack was incisive and Mourinho's tactics were very successful.

Judging from the statistics, Manchester City had 22 shots compared to Manchester United's 11, twice as many as the visiting team; shots on target were 5 to 7, corner kicks were 16 to 3, and the ball possession rate was 71.9%. Manchester United won the game with efficient counterattacks.

Despite this, Manchester United still failed to regain the top spot in the standings because Liverpool performed equally well. They won 3-0 away against Bournemouth. After losing to Manchester United in the 9th round, they ended their 17-game winning streak across the season and once again won seven consecutive league games, suppressing Manchester United with a 1-point advantage and occupying the top spot.

However, Guardiola's performance in his fourth season as Manchester City coach was somewhat disappointing. In 16 league games, the team only achieved 10 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, ranking fourth in the standings, 13 points behind Liverpool, 12 points behind Manchester United, and even 6 points behind Leicester City, which was third!

It can be said that the Blue Moon has bid farewell to the competition for the league championship early this season!

Fortunately, Manchester City performed well in the Champions League, achieving 5 wins and 3 draws in the first 2 group matches, with the same points as Juventus, and only ranked second due to the disadvantage of goal difference.

Since Manchester City played against Lokomotiv Moscow at home in the last round of the group, while Juventus challenged Leverkusen away, Manchester City actually had a chance to reverse Juventus and take first place in the group.