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

On the afternoon of February 2, the entire Manchester United team arrived in Madrid to prepare for the first leg of the Champions League round of 24 against Real Madrid two days later.

On the evening of the 25th, the fifth and sixth rounds of the quarter-finals kicked off, with two Premier League teams playing. Manchester City won 3:1 at home against Napoli, while Chelsea lost 0:1 to RB Leipzig away.

Four teams competed in the Champions League knockout stage, but only Manchester City won!

This has completely overturned everyone's perception of the Premier League team that was extremely strong in the Champions League last season.

It was also at this time that people realized how serious the internal friction in the Premier League was.

The powerful Liverpool fought hard with Manchester United in the league, but was badly damaged. In the Champions League, they suffered a 1:4 defeat, which basically announced their elimination early.

Tottenham and Chelsea are both striving to qualify for the Champions League next season, and they are also fighting hard against Premier League teams. In addition, the strength of their opponents is not weak, and they both lost.

Only Manchester City, which almost withdrew from the league title race early and whose qualification for the Champions League was not in suspense, could focus its main energy on the Champions League. In addition, it was playing at home and achieved a big victory.

Under such circumstances, Manchester United's away game against Real Madrid was not favored by bookmakers and the media. On the one hand, it was because they were fighting fiercely with Liverpool in the Premier League, and on the other hand, their opponents were too strong.

Real Madrid, known as the king of the Champions League, has been often beaten by Barcelona in La Liga in recent years, but in the Champions League, they are the undisputed kings. Anyone who meets them will be beaten to a pulp.

Of course, as the Champions League champion for the past two years and having created a new unbeaten record of 32 games in the Champions League, Manchester United is also an opponent that no team wants to face.

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In the first decade of the new century, Manchester United and Barcelona were the most successful teams of the decade.

Manchester United has always maintained its competitiveness in the Premier League. Although the rise of Chelsea has had a certain impact on them, Manchester United has not become silent, but has become stronger and stronger. In the Champions League, Manchester United reached the Champions League final in the 2007-2008 season and the 2008-2009 season, and won the championship once. It can be said that Manchester United has been very successful in the past decade.

Another successful team is Barcelona. Although Barcelona fell into a slump at the beginning of the century, they returned to their strong team from the 2003-2004 season, suppressing Real Madrid in the league, winning the Champions League twice in the 2005-2006 season and the 2008-2009 season, and won an unprecedented six championships in 2009.

Therefore, the match between Manchester United and Barcelona was also called the European Derby.

After entering the 2010s, as Xavi and Barca aged, Barcelona gradually declined, while Real Madrid reached its peak under the leadership of Cristiano Ronaldo, reaching the top of Europe in the 2013-2014 season and winning the 10th Champions League trophy in team history; then, under the leadership of Zidane, Real Madrid became the first team to successfully defend the title since the reform of the Champions League, becoming the veritable king of the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo laid the foundation for his success as a player in the Champions League.

Manchester United's situation was similar to that of Barcelona. With the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, the retirement of Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville, the aging of the golden central defender duo of Ferdinand and Vidic, and especially the retirement of Ferguson, the team fell into a trough.

However, with the arrival of Bruno and Mourinho at Old Trafford, the Red Devils quickly achieved a revival. They overthrew Real Madrid's domination of the Champions League and became the second team after Real Madrid to defend the Champions League title after the reform, becoming the new overlord of the Champions League.

Under such circumstances, the match between the two teams that successively defended the Champions League title was widely called the new European derby by the media, and attracted attention from all over Europe and even the world.

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In the match against Real Madrid, Mourinho still deployed a 433 formation. However, in the midfield trio, Fred and Kante partnered as double defensive midfielders, and Bruno still played as attacking midfielder. The front trident was a combination of Harry Kane, Rashford and Mbappe. The four defenders from right to left were Cancelo, Maguire, Van Dijk and Luke Shaw, and De Gea guarded the goal.

This is Mourinho's standard configuration when facing strong teams.

"This is a relatively conservative starting lineup," Andy Gray commented succinctly.

Mourinho sat in the coaching booth, staring at the field. The Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid was a crucial away game. If Manchester United couldn't get a decent result, it would be very difficult for them to advance.

Mourinho was ready for a tough battle. He fielded Kante and Fred as a double defensive midfielder in order to confront Real Madrid head-on.

"In the La Liga match last weekend, Real Madrid not only lost to Levante in an upset away game, giving up the top spot in La Liga, but also lost its star player Hazard. The Belgian winger was injured in the game and is said to be basically out for the season. This is Hazard's fourth injury since joining Real Madrid. The first three injuries caused him to be injured for a total of 100 days and missed 19 games." Martin Taylor said, "Perhaps Florentino has regretted spending million euros to bring the Belgian winger to the Bernabeu last summer."

Andy Gray smiled and said: "Although Hazard had injuries when he was at Chelsea, generally speaking, his absence was not long. But after joining Real Madrid, his absence this season is almost the same as all his absences in previous seasons."

Martin Taylor took over the topic and said: "However, there is no problem with the depth of Real Madrid's lineup. Even if Hazard is injured, they can still form an extremely luxurious top lineup..."

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Mourinho's eyes also swept over the players of Real Madrid. Just looking at the defense line of Real Madrid, you can tell how strong this team is. Carvajal, Ramos, Varane and Mendy, these four defenders are all top defenders famous in the world football today.

Casemiro, Modric and Valverde in the midfield are also the current top midfielders, and Isco, Benzema and Vinicius on the front line are also well-known.

This is a tough battle, and Mourinho now hopes that Real Madrid coach Zidane will underestimate the opponent.

Today's game is definitely worthy of the title of "European Derby", so this game has also attracted considerable attention. At least 180 countries and regions around the world have chosen to broadcast this game live.

Manchester United had a tough time at the Bernabeu as they were met with tough resistance from Real Madrid.

Real Madrid head coach Zidane disappointed Mourinho. This gentleman not only did not underestimate the opponent, but also attached great importance to Manchester United and treated Manchester United as Barcelona.

Real Madrid, playing at home, even lowered their stance and resorted to fouls and lethal tactics to restrict Manchester United.

On Manchester United's side, the double defensive midfielder formed by Fred and Kante was also very tough, and there were frequent situations of people falling down throughout the game.

The game scene was very heated, the whistle sounded frequently, and the smoothness of the game was repeatedly broken.

It can be said that just by watching this game, it is hard to imagine that this is a game between the two top teams in the world football today. It is even more like a Premier League melee.

Both sides focused more on restricting their opponents and preventing each other from scoring goals, but they were greatly curbed on the offensive end.

The deadlock was not broken until the 39th minute of the first half. Manchester United made a mistake in passing the ball in the backcourt, Vinicius dribbled the ball and passed it horizontally, Isco easily pushed the ball into the goal, and Real Madrid took the lead at home.

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When Isco scored the goal, the huge Bernabeu Stadium erupted in crazy cheers.

Mourinho clenched his fists in displeasure, but finally failed to hold on.

He began to think about how to deal with the second half of the game when the score was 0:1. However, Mourinho soon found that the tactics and strategies he had just thought of became useless because Manchester United quickly scored a goal to equalize the score.

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Maybe it was because they finally scored a goal and the first half was coming to an end, so the Real Madrid players relaxed a little.

When Manchester United organized this attack and when Luke Shaw broke through from the wing to the middle, Real Madrid's defensive players did not actively defend. The lax defense allowed Bruno to calmly stop the ball at the top of the penalty area after receiving the pass from Luke Shaw, and then turn around and shoot more easily. The football drew an arc and went straight into the blind corner of the goal.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!"

Mourinho was stunned for a moment, then clapped excitedly in celebration.

"Well done, Bruno!" He expressed satisfaction with the team captain for stepping forward at the critical moment.

"Real Madrid lost the ball very quickly and they were only leading for three minutes!"

"This goal exposed Real Madrid's weakness. After scoring the goal, they relaxed. In addition, Casemiro's defensive awareness was half a beat slower than expected. It was ridiculous." Martin Taylor said mercilessly, "Casemiro was like an 80-year-old man, watching Bruno turn around and shoot."

The first half of the game ended at 1:1.

Logically speaking, two goals in the first half would give people the impression that the first half of the game should not be so boring, and it could even be said to be relatively exciting, but the audience who watched the game certainly did not think so.

Throughout the first half of the game, both sides seemed to have put all their energy into fierce fighting and defense. People were lying on the field, and on the sidelines, Manchester United coach Mourinho and Real Madrid coach Zidane were also yelling, and the atmosphere was manic.

If both sides had not scored a goal in the final moments of the first half, the entire first half would have been the least technically demanding and most brutal game in the Champions League in recent years.