In the stands of Wembley Stadium, England national team head coach Capello and assistant coach Galbiati were carefully studying the lineups and tactics of both sides.
Tonight, there are England internationals on both sides.
For example, Manchester City has Ladon Baines in the lineup and Sturridge on the bench.
Manchester United also has two popular international players in Rooney and Carrick.
Judging from the situation after the game started, the international players of both teams performed pretty well.
Rooney and Carrick were both very active, and Leighton Baines faced a lot of defensive pressure against Valencia.
"The Ecuadorian winger from Manchester United is really fast and very strong. Baynes suffers a lot physically." Galbiati shook his head and said helplessly.
The England left back is only 1.7 meters tall, and when he is guarding Valencia, who is 1.8 meters tall and is stronger and faster than him, the pressure can be imagined. Not to mention Baines, even Ashley Cole
If you come, you won't get any advantage.
"But he did pretty well," Capello said.
Galbiati nodded, "Yes, it's quite satisfactory."
Leighton Bynes's advantage is not in defense, but in offense.
But tonight, facing Valencia's side attack, he failed to show his offensive threat in the first ten minutes.
"Gao Shen's use of the two wingers tonight was very interesting. They both retreated to the midfield position." Capello frowned.
The advantages of Gareth Bale and Robben are speed, both of them are very fast.
The key to the goal just now was Gareth Bale's pressing on O'Shea.
This can also be seen in Gao Shen's use of Gareth Bale in his formation tonight.
He looks more like a left midfielder than a left winger, and he keeps the distance from Leighton Baines relatively close, often dropping back to the full-back position to help defend and protect.
"Gao Shen is obviously adjusting Gareth Bale's best position. The winger is too far forward and the full-back is too far back. As for the full-back, it may be really good. His defensive ability is also quite strong. After all, he is a winger.
He was born as a defender," Galbiati analyzed.
Capello is convinced.
On Manchester United's side, after Lars Diarra joined, plus Sneijder, Park Ji-sung on the left, and Valencia on the right, Manchester United's midfield has obviously been strengthened a lot, especially the double midfielder.
"Ferguson's ability to train players is still good. Lars Diarra seems not to stick to the ball tonight." Capello said with a smile.
The French midfielder wears the No. 10 jersey at Real Madrid. Sticking to the ball is his old problem, but judging from tonight's performance, this problem seems to have improved a lot.
Of course, maybe it's because I'm new here and I'm a little more restrained.
But one thing is for sure, that is that Manchester United's midfield has indeed strengthened.
Especially with Fletcher still sitting on the bench.
It is really necessary. If Sneijder replaces Park Ji-sung and uses Fletcher to play in the back three, Manchester United's midfield will be stronger.
"The key is Manchester United's counterattack tonight. They played very fast and made more long passes." Capello has a very vicious vision.
After the opening, as soon as Manchester United steals the ball in the midfield, they will immediately launch a medium and long pass to Rooney or Valencia.
Obviously, this is Ferguson's game strategy.
Manchester City's high pressure, as well as passing and controlling the ball near the midline, left a lot of space behind the defense.
Both Rooney and Valencia can make good use of this area.
When Capello and Galbiati were analyzing the game in the stands, something suddenly happened on the court.
The Manchester United midfielder suddenly exerted his strength. After grabbing the ball, Sneijder quickly sent a long overhead pass directly to the right side of the frontcourt.
That is, playing on Manchester City's left side.
Rooney quickly stepped back and crossed to the right, blocking Kompany with his body.
The Belgian central defender tried to push away Rooney, but failed.
Lu Xiaopang’s nickname is not for nothing.
Rooney caught up with Sneijder's long pass on the right side of the penalty area, suddenly stopped, tried to dunk the ball past Kompany, and broke into the penalty area with the ball, but at this time, Leighton Baines was already in place.
.
Just as the two were about to complete the double attack, Rooney suddenly sent a cross pass and sent the ball into the penalty area.
I saw Valencia quickly slanting into the penalty area from the right rib, catching up with Rooney's pass, facing Jerome Boateng who fell into position in time, Valencia made a fake move, and the German central defender fell to the ground.
Tackle.
As a result, the Ecuadorian winger just feinted a shot and dunked the ball past Boateng. When Neuer was halfway through the attack, he calmly hit the ball with his right foot and equalized the score for Manchester United.
Valencia opened his arms excitedly and ran all the way to celebrate.
"What happened to this central defender? Why did he fall to the ground and make a tackle all of a sudden?" Capello felt very puzzled.
It's completely illogical, isn't it?
"It's probably a matter of his playing habits. I heard that he often fouled and got cards when he was in the Bundesliga, and he behaved very rashly. That moment just now was really..." Galbiati shook his head with a wry smile.
It’s really hard to describe in words!
If this were in Italy, a tackle like this would probably be relegated to the sidelines.
"I can't understand why Gao Shen let him play as a central defender?" Capello felt very incomprehensible.
Logically speaking, if such a reckless player is placed in the key position of central defender, it will be very fatal.
Just like Manchester United's goal just now, it really shouldn't have been.
If it is a mature and experienced central defender, he can just block Valencia with his body.
"Gao Shen will regret it!"
…
In fact, Gao Shen has no regrets.
He had long been mentally prepared for Jerome Boateng's mistake.
It's not that he doesn't pay attention to this cup competition, but that he pays more attention to the players' familiarity with the rhythm of the Premier League game, especially the rhythm of this strong dialogue, which is even more important.
What's more, this is only the first half.
So, after Gao Shen lost the ball, he walked to the sidelines, applauded the players vigorously, and encouraged them to keep up their efforts.
"It doesn't matter, stay patient and focused, keep working hard!" Gao Shen shouted loudly.
Captain Kompany and others are also trying to boost the team's morale.
…
As both sides scored a goal each, the game gradually opened up.
Especially Manchester City.
After the start, the young new players gradually gained a firm foothold, scored goals, and lost goals. Gradually, they let go of their burdens and began to devote themselves to the game.
A goal was conceded in the 23rd minute, but in just four minutes, Manchester City used a corner kick to threaten Manchester United's goal.
Yaya Toure's header went slightly over the crossbar.
But Manchester United was not a waste of money. They responded quickly and got a corner kick opportunity, which also resulted in a shot.
After the two sides let go of their hands and feet, they gradually launched an offensive.
The game scene also became more exciting.
Manchester City controlled the ball, and Manchester United used active running to press their opponents, and quickly counterattacked after grabbing the ball.
At the 39th minute, after the Manchester United midfielder stole the ball, Lass Diarra tried to drive the ball forward, but Rakitic snatched the ball back and sent a diagonal pass.
Gave it behind Evans.
I saw Van Persie running back quickly. Although Evans followed closely behind and stretched out his hand to pull hard, he could not catch Van Persie. The Dutchman rushed to the left side of the penalty area and met Rakitic's pass.
, a volley shot with his left foot directly sent the football into the upper right corner of Manchester United's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"
"Van Persie!!"
"Manchester City went over the top again, with a goal from Robin van Persie!"
"Robben's goal just now came from his assist, and now he has personally contributed another goal."
"We can see the slow motion of the goal. Evans had an obvious foul on his hand, but he didn't catch it and was slipped by him. Van Persie looked very motivated tonight."
"Two to one!"
…
Just three minutes later, Manchester City launched another offensive.
After Robben got the ball on the right, facing the Brazilian teenager Fabio, he made a quick and dexterous emergency stop and cut inside. After getting rid of Fabio, he dribbled the ball horizontally and cut inside to the middle without waiting for Las Dia.
Pulled over to double-team, and sent a curve ball with his left foot.
The ball fell towards the back of the goal.
Just like a bolt of lightning, Gareth Bale quickly broke into Manchester United's penalty area, rushed past O'Shea, jumped high in front of the left post of the goal, and headed the ball towards the goal.
Van der Sar was moving quickly to the left, but Gareth Bale deliberately pushed a backward point and sent the ball into the right side of Manchester United's goal, three to one!
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"
"Two goals in three minutes!"
"Gareth Bale's late pass was so sudden that Manchester United's defensive players were unable to react in time."
"Of course, he should be grateful to Robben. It was Robben's wonderful cut in from the right and the curved ball with his left foot that created an excellent scoring opportunity for him."
"Three to one, Manchester United are in a very dangerous situation now!"
…
No one expected that the two sides would play so unrestrainedly before the end of the first half.
In stoppage time, after Manchester United successfully intercepted the ball in the backcourt, Carrick got the ball in his own half and sent a long diagonal pass to the left side of Manchester City's defense.
Two players, Valencia and Leighton Baines, competed for speed on the wing, but the Ecuadorian winger relied on his strong body to squeeze Baines away, got the ball first, and brought it to the right side of Manchester City's penalty area.
After attracting Kompany, he passed the ball to the center of the small penalty area.
Rooney rushed up in the middle, got ahead of Jerome Boateng, fell to the ground and shot the ball into the Manchester City goal, which was close to Chi Chi.
Two to three!
The whole Wembley Stadium was completely blown away!
All the fans were extremely excited.
No one expected that the first half of this game would be so exciting.
Especially in the final stage, both sides played more and more unrestrainedly, and the more they kicked, the more they let their hands and feet go, without holding anything back.
Five goals!
This made the entire first half incredibly exciting to watch.
Obviously, both sides failed to field the strongest lineup due to various reasons, but the players on both sides also performed very hard.
Especially on the offensive end, they all performed very well, and no one wanted to be inferior to the other.
This also made the 85,000 fans at the scene mesmerized.
They are all looking forward to the second half, expecting this to be another exciting offensive battle.
