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

Chapter 795: First Finals Lost

New Wembley Stadium, afternoon of August 2020, 8.

When referee Anthony Taylor blew the whistle to end the game, Arsenal players were celebrating, even though they didn't win the game!

The scoreboard showed the time of this game, 0 minutes, and the score was 0:.

Yes, this game went into overtime, but the winner was still undecided.

This is the FA Cup final of the 2019-2020 season, with the Gunners Arsenal facing the Red Devils Manchester United.

The two teams are the most successful teams in the FA Cup, the oldest tournament in modern football history. Manchester United has reached the FA Cup final 22 times and won 15 times, while Arsenal has reached the final 20 times and won 12 times.

Today's FA Cup final is Manchester United's 23rd time in the FA Cup final, while Arsenal's is 21st.

As the team failed to qualify for European competitions in the league, this FA Cup final became Arsenal's only chance to advance into Europe, otherwise the Gunners will not be able to appear in the European arena next season.

Facing Manchester United, who had just won the Premier League title for the fourth consecutive time with 99 points and were in high spirits, in the first half of the game, Arsenal adopted a tactic of defending and counterattacking. Arteta pulled almost all the players on the field back to his own half to defend, and finally succeeded in freezing Manchester United's attack.

This is an extremely rare performance for Arsenal, which has always been famous for its artistic football in the Premier League.

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During the half-time break, many commentators ridiculed Arsenal, believing that Arteta's team adopted a 9-0-1 or even 10-0 formation and successfully maintained a draw.

Manchester United fired 21 shots in the first half but still failed to break Arsenal's goal.

The double central defenders of Tierney and David Luiz, plus the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez behind them, made Arsenal's defense impregnable.

It is understandable that Arteta was forced to defend and counterattack against the ferocious Manchester United.

After all, in the just-concluded Premier League season, 38 goals were scored in 106 league games, an average of almost 3 goals per game. Who wouldn't be afraid?

Moreover, due to disappointing performance in the Premier League, Arsenal failed to qualify for European competitions, and the FA Cup became their last spot in European competitions.

Under such circumstances, it is understandable that they were more conservative in this FA Cup final.

But what no one expected was that after the start of the second half, Arsenal still adopted a defensive tactic, including striker Lacazette, and everyone retreated across the board.

It is obvious that Arteta has decided to stay put to the end!

Arsenal had only nine shots in the entire game, one on target, three off target, and five blocked.

The ball possession rate was only 37.6 percent, just over one third.

Throughout the game, 57.5 percent of the time, the football was played in Arsenal's half.

In contrast, Manchester United had 40 shots in the whole game, but only five were truly threatening and 20 were blocked.

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During the 90-minute match, there was one controversy in both the first and second half.

In the first half, it was a penalty kick. Bruno dribbled into the penalty area, but was fouled from the side by Arsenal midfielder Xhaka.

The VAR referee reminded that the foul should have been within the penalty area line, which should have been a penalty. But after watching the VAR replay, referee Anthony Taylor still insisted on his decision, gave Xhaka a yellow card, and awarded Manchester United a free kick on the edge of the penalty area line.

Despite the stern protests from Manchester United players led by Bruno, Anthony Taylor remained unmoved and said that if the Manchester United players did not disperse, he would pull out a card, forcing the Manchester United players to disperse helplessly.

There was another time in the second half when Bruno had a chance to score, but the linesman raised his flag for offside and called off the goal. However, VAR replay showed that the offside call was very forced.

After escaping danger twice, Arsenal finally managed to maintain the score of 0:0 until minutes. Neither side scored a goal and the game was dragged into a penalty shootout.

It can even be said that Arteta and his Arsenal were heading for a penalty shootout from the beginning of the game!

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The penalty shootout is the most suspenseful, cruelest and most dramatic part of the football field.

According to official data from FIFA, the success rate of penalty kicks is 79%. But in reality, the success rate is useless. Anyone standing on the penalty spot, facing the goal, always worries about the 21%, because that is the key to victory.

Former England national team coach Hoddle once said that even if you kick the ball a thousand or ten thousand times, you still can't develop the penalty kick skills in key battles, because the pressure in reality cannot be restored.

Some research institutions have shown that the key to winning a penalty shootout does not lie in penalty kick skills. Eighty to ninety percent is based on psychological factors, while ten to twenty percent is based on physiological factors, which has nothing to do with penalty kick skills.

Some say penalty kicks are the perfect test of stress tolerance.

In a real penalty shootout, many players are very reluctant to be the first to take the penalty because the pressure is too great.

Especially the first and fifth ones, which most players try their best to avoid.

But sometimes, some people should step forward and take responsibility.

As the captain and the most stable player in the team in taking penalty kicks, Bruno volunteered to take the first penalty, while Harry Kane took the last one.

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After guessing the side, Bruno won, Manchester United got the right to choose the side, and Arsenal took a penalty kick first.

The first Arsenal player to take the penalty was striker Lacazette. His psychological quality has always been quite strong, so he was entrusted with an important task by Arteta and was the first to step up and take the penalty.

Lacazette did not disappoint Arteta's trust and calmly scored the penalty.

Now, all the pressure is on Manchester United.

Bruno was the first player in Manchester United to take a penalty kick and took on all the pressure.

As he stood at the penalty spot, facing Martinez, he was silently calculating in his mind: In the past few penalty kicks, he had pushed straight to the middle, but this time...

"The ball went in!!!"

"Bruno's shot was very clean and he pushed the ball directly into the lower right corner of the goal at a very fast speed. Martinez thought Bruno would push the ball through the middle again, but he didn't expect that Bruno would change his strategy this time."

"Manchester United chose Bruno as the first penalty taker, obviously because they valued his strong ability to withstand pressure, and Bruno did not disappoint the outside world and calmly took the penalty and scored."

"His performance in this game was also quite outstanding. If it weren't for the referee Anthony Taylor's two misjudgments, I believe the game would not have been dragged into a penalty shootout."

"No matter what the final result is, Bruno can leave the new Wembley Stadium with pride after scoring this penalty."

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After Bruno, Xhaka and Rashford also calmly scored in the second round of penalties for Arsenal and Manchester United.

In the third round, Aubameyang missed a penalty, but Gundogan calmly scored the goal, which immediately gave Manchester United hope.

Later, Pepe also scored a penalty in the fourth round, but Mbappe made a mistake when taking the penalty.

Afterwards, Ceballos, Harry Kane, Tierney and Kante also scored.

It wasn't until the seventh round that David Luiz scored the penalty and Maguire made a mistake.

When Maguire kicked the ball away, Manchester United's vice-captain knew it was over.

He fell to his knees at the penalty spot, holding his head and crying.

The pressure is too much!

At this critical moment, no one would blame Maguire. On the contrary, Bruno and Harry Kane walked up to Maguire and hugged the vice-captain tightly. Other Manchester United players also gathered around him one after another.

Many people had tears in their eyes and their hearts were filled with resentment.

Manchester United performed well, but encountered a defensive Arsenal team. Coupled with the referee's misjudgment, they were eventually dragged into a brutal penalty shootout and lost their first final in nearly four years.

This was also the first time Bruno participated in a penalty shootout in the final in his career, and it was also the first time he lost in the final in his career!

Originally, if Manchester United could beat Arsenal, they would become the first team in the history of the FA Cup to win five consecutive titles, but unfortunately, Manchester United has no chance to change this record.

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The Manchester United players on the bench also ran into the field and everyone surrounded Maguire. No one tried to persuade him because it might be better for him to cry at this time.

Arsenal players celebrated wildly.

After beating Manchester United in a penalty shootout, they won their first championship in nearly five years and qualified for next season's Europa League.

However, Wolves, who performed well in the league and eventually ranked seventh, were unable to continue playing in European competitions.

At this point, the places for Premier League teams to participate in the 2020-2021 European competitions have all been settled. The four top teams of Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea will participate in the Champions League, while Leicester City, ranked fifth in the standings, and FA Cup champions Arsenal will directly participate in the Europa League group stage next season. Tottenham, ranked sixth in the standings, will need to participate in the Europa League play-offs to compete for the qualification for the Europa League group stage next season.

After the FA Cup championship was won by Arsenal, Manchester United's 2019-2020 domestic competitions in England have all ended, but this does not mean that they can relax.

On the contrary, the most critical moment of this season is about to come: the Champions League knockout stage is about to begin!

According to the schedule, in addition to the two-legged quarter-final match that ended in mid-March, eight teams including Manchester United will complete the second legs of the four unfinished Champions League quarter-finals on the evening of August 3 and August 8.

However, the subsequent Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals will no longer be played in the traditional two-round format, but will be decided in one match.

This means that there will be only 11 games in the main competition stage of this season's Champions League, instead of 13 games in previous seasons!