Manchester United's Christmas schedule has become extremely weird and relaxed, starting with a home game against Sunderland.
Manchester United has remained unbeaten with 10 wins and 4 draws in the past 14 games between the two sides. There have been 19 historical encounters between the two sides in the Premier League. Manchester United has an absolute advantage with 13 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss, including 7 wins and 2 draws at home. The only defeat was in March 1997.
An away defeat. Sunderland's last victory over Manchester United was in the fourth round of the League Cup in November 2000, but the history of winning at Old Trafford dates back to May 1968. There have been 130 historical encounters between the two sides, and Manchester United has won 55 times.
Dominated with 36 draws and 39 losses.
Manchester United threatened the opponent's goal 7 times in the first 20 minutes, completing one shot in less than 3 minutes on average, almost turning the competition between Old Trafford and Sunderland into a half-time game.
Offensive and defensive drills.
The smooth start to the game has something to do with Li Yu scoring an early goal for the team in the 5th minute of the game.
After Ferdinand made a clearance in the backcourt, Anderson launched an offensive. After receiving the pass from the Brazilian, Giggs broke through the two defenders in the middle and handed it to Rooney on the right. The well-prepared Xiaopang directly sent the ball to the far side of the penalty area.
At this point, Li Yu, who had already reached the goal, scored with a header from close range without being marked, 1-0.
This goal is not so much the work of Manchester United's No. 9 as it is a reflection of Ferguson's team's high-quality tactical qualities. From stealing the ball to instigating the attack, every connection is very smooth and clean.
In the 11th minute, Anderson passed a direct pass to Li Yu in the penalty area. Manchester United No. 9 received the ball comfortably after breaking into the penalty area, and volleyed vigorously. The ball hit the post and bounced out!
Sunderland goalkeeper Gordon broke into a cold sweat!
Only 11 minutes passed, and Manchester United's No. 9 had already beaten the Black Cats to a state of panic!
In the 18th minute, the "softie" once described by the British media once again staged a bloody scene: Li Yu received a long pass from Evra on the right, and coolly stopped the ball with his back and passed Basili.
At this time, the Manchester United 9 was kicked to the ground by the opponent, but he still got up tenaciously to participate in the attack, and handed the ball to Park Ji-sung near the penalty area. The latter helped Rooney complete the shot, and the old Manchester United player who uprooted the opponent
Basili, after Li Yu got up, he thought the referee would call a foul but there was no reaction!
If Li Yu only played well for half of the game, the British media would obviously not give a high score of 9 points after the game.
After changing sides and fighting again, Manchester United's No. 9 killer became more and more courageous.
In the 52nd minute, Li Yu made a beautiful heel pass in the frontcourt and found Evra who broke through behind him. The latter almost created a murderous opportunity at the bottom line. In the 54th minute, Manchester United's No. 9 was pulled by two opponents in the midfield.
Although he was being pulled, he unexpectedly got rid of all the tugging and firmly controlled the ball at his feet, which won bursts of applause from the fans on the sidelines.
In the 57th minute, Anders made a cross from east to west and found Li Yu in the penalty area. The latter calmly shot, and the shot hit Anton Ferdinand who was returning to defend and then refracted into the net. The Red Devils sealed the victory at home!
In the 82nd minute, Ferguson replaced Li Yu with Hernandez. When he slowly walked to the bench, the fans around him stood up and applauded him. Ferguson was even more rare with a smile on his face. Not only did he shake hands with the hero of the goal, but he also
He was patted affectionately on the head.
After that, he whispered to Li Yu, and his face burst into laughter. Manchester United No. 9 responded with a relaxed and confident expression.
Sunderland is not a soft persimmon. Before this game, Sunderland was ranked 6th. They had kept clean sheets in 9 of the previous 18 league games, which is second to none in the Premier League this season. This season,
Sunderland are veritable giant killers. They are 3-0 away from home
Defeated Chelsea, drew 2-2 away with Liverpool, and drew 1-1 with Tottenham; defeated Manchester City 1-0 at home, drew 0-0 with Manchester United, and drew 1-1 with Arsenal. In the match against the traditional top four and Manchester City, the Heat
In the match against the two upstarts, they achieved an unbeaten record of 2 wins and 4 draws.
Last season at Old Trafford, Ferdinand's own goal in the 94th minute helped Manchester United escape from death and score 1 point at the last moment; and in the away game, Manchester United only relied on Nani's goal worth a thousand dollars.
ball, a narrow victory and an advantage on the scene
Sunderland. Manchester United has only failed to score in two games this season. One of them was an away game against Sunderland. Sir Alex Ferguson said before the game, "It would be great if we could get 1 point against Sunderland in October."
Luckily, that was our toughest road game of the season."
However, the historical record is obviously in favor of Manchester United. Sunderland has only won one away game in the Premier League this season, which was a 3-0 defeat of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Since defeating Manchester United 2-1 away from home in May 1968,
Sunderland have not won a league game at Old Trafford in the past 42 years. The last time Sunderland defeated Manchester United in the league was in March 1997.
Moreover, among the 10 visiting teams that visited Old Trafford in the Premier League this season, only West Bromwich Albion returned with 1 point, while the other 9 opponents fell to the Red Devils. Sunderland coach
Bruce is a disciple of Ferguson. After this game, the master and apprentice faced each other 16 times in the league. Ferguson achieved an unbeaten record of 12 wins and 4 draws. After today's game, Bruce even said, "Many football players who came to Old Trafford
The team has already lost in the tunnel.”
This statement is not exaggerated. After the Spanish World Cup champion Juan Mata drew with Manchester United in the last round of the Champions League group stage, he said with lingering fear, "Old Trafford is really a terrible battlefield!" Even the 100-year-old Manchester United
Diehard Les Burgess also came to the scene today to cheer for the Red Devils. Ferguson's disciples also rewarded more than 70,000 devoted fans with a half-way championship.
Compared with the starting lineup that defeated Arsenal 1-0 at home in the last league game, Sir Alex Ferguson made two changes in the starting lineup. Giggs and Park Ji-sung replaced Fletcher and Nani respectively.
The first 45 minutes of this campaign was the best 45 minutes Manchester United played this season, even better than the 7-1 victory over Blackburn. During this half time, Manchester United bombarded Sunderland's gate wildly.
It exploded, and the "Black Cats" didn't even have a shot before halftime.
No wonder Sir Alex Ferguson said excitedly after the game, "We might even beat four or five of them in the first half." This is true. In addition to Li Yu's goal, Manchester United No. 9's furious shot at the center post and Anderson's furious
The shot hit the lintel, and the opponent's goalkeeper Gordon was unable to do anything. In addition, Anderson, Rooney and others also missed scoring opportunities.
From November 20, when they defeated Wigan 2-0 at home, Manchester United defeated Blackburn 7-1 at home, Arsenal 1-0, and Sandwich 2-0 in the following month.
Manchester United won 4 consecutive league victories. After this campaign, Manchester United finished 17 league rounds and achieved a record of 10 wins and 7 draws. It still remains undefeated in the league and has become the only one in this country among the 98 teams in the five major European leagues.
The team that remains undefeated in the season league.
Previously, in the history of the Premier League, Manchester United ranked first on Christmas Day five times, and they had the last laugh three times. After this campaign, Manchester United ranked first on Christmas Day for the sixth time. This is also the first time Manchester United has ranked first on Christmas Day since 2006.
After that, they topped the league for the first time during the Christmas period.
In the previous 18 seasons of the Premier League, Manchester United won 7 half-time championships, 2 of which were reversed by Arsenal. They were in the 1997-98 season (Manchester United led the Gunners by 10 points at half-time and ended up trailing Arsenal by 1 point).
And the 2003-04 season (Manchester United led the Gunners by 1 point at half-time, but fell 15 points behind Arsenal in the end). In the other five times after winning the half-time championship, Manchester United successfully won the final championship.
In other words, if Manchester United wins the half-way championship, there is at least a 71% chance of winning the final championship. What's more, Manchester United has finally reversed its opponents and won the championship 6 times without winning the half-way championship.
Sunderland coach Bruce said after the game, "Everyone knows that Manchester United always plays much better in the second half than in the first half."
Now, with the same 17 games played, Manchester United is 5 points ahead of Arsenal and 6 points ahead of Chelsea. Although they are only 2 points ahead of Manchester City, the Red Devils have played 2 games less than their rivals in the same city.
In other words, once the winner is determined in tonight's battle between Arsenal and Chelsea, the losing side may be further widened by Manchester United; and if the two teams draw, this is the result that Ferguson most hopes to see. Therefore,
Tonight, Sir Alex Ferguson can drink red wine and sit in front of the TV to watch the fight between tigers and tigers. In a sense, there is only one winner in this duel, and that is Manchester United.
In 3 days, Manchester United will challenge Birmingham City away from home!
The last time Birmingham defeated Manchester United was on November 11, 1978. The Red Devils suffered a 1-5 defeat in the away game. However, in the 23 games since then in the past 32 years, Manchester United has remained unbeaten with 16 wins and 7 draws. The two sides have met in 12 Premier League games.
The advantage is obvious with 9 wins and 3 draws. In the 100 historical encounters between the two sides, Manchester United has 47 wins, 28 draws and 25 losses.
Lee Ok and Park Ji-sung both returned to Asia to compete in the Asian Cup!
Birmingham's home stadium, St. Andrews Stadium, is really a magical place. Before the game, Sir Alex Ferguson said when looking forward to this game, "Birmingham's home record is very good. It is always difficult to beat Birmingham at St. Andrews Stadium."
In each game, Birmingham only had 2 shots on target and scored one goal. Of course, compared to Chelsea, Manchester United seemed lucky enough. When Chelsea was at St. Andrews Stadium this season, Birmingham only had 1 shot on target, thanks to Bowyer.
The goal defeated the Blues.
After this campaign, Birmingham lost only one of its past 24 home league games, and that was a 0-2 loss to Everton in October this year.
Fletcher had a bad cold and Nani had a hip injury. The former was on the bench, while the latter was not included in the 18-man match list at all.
Compared with the starting lineup that defeated Sunderland 2-0 at home in the last round, Sir Alex Ferguson only made one change. He replaced Park Ji-sung, who represented South Korea in the Asian Cup, with Gibson.
Judging from the match record between the two sides, Manchester United has an absolute advantage. In the past 23 times (including 22 league games) between the two sides, Manchester United has not lost. The last time Birmingham defeated Manchester United was in November 1978. At that time, they won 5-1.
The score beat Manchester United, but unfortunately, Birmingham was eventually relegated that season. In the same year, Ferguson coached Aberdeen. He urged the team's defender McLeish to give up his accounting career and focus on football, and today he stands opposite him.
The Birmingham manager is none other than McLeish.
Before this battle, Manchester United won 1-0 in the past 4 meetings between the two sides.
This is the fourth time McLeish has played against Ferguson. He had drawn 1 and lost 2 before, scoring only 1 goal.
Birmingham have won only 2 of their past 15 Premier League games.
However, Manchester United has a poor away record in the league this season. In the previous 7 league away games, they only won 1 game, and that was the 2-0 away game against Stoke City in October. After this game, Manchester United has been unbeaten in the past 13 away games in the Premier League.
, they have drawn 7 away games in the past 8 league games. The last time they lost in an away league game was a 1-3 loss to Everton at Goodison Park in February. However, too many away draws have slowed down Manchester United's pursuit of hegemony.
.
In the 58th minute of this campaign, Rooney, who was in excellent form, broke the deadlock for Manchester United. However, 3 minutes later, the Englishman's shot hit the post and missed the opportunity for Manchester United to seal the victory.
After taking the lead, Manchester United tried to control the situation. In the 60th-65th minute, Manchester United's ball possession rate was as high as 78%.
In the 82nd minute, McLeish made a decisive move and replaced Beausejour with high center forward Zigic. Perhaps he had a premonition that something was not going to happen. In the 88th minute, Ferguson made a gesture on the sidelines to remind the Manchester United disciples that they must pay attention.
Defensively, hold on for the last few minutes.
But what he didn't expect was that his intuition was so accurate. In the 89th minute, Birmingham took the ball from the right. Zigic put his hands on Ferdinand's back and jumped up high, using the joint between his chest and arms.
The ball hit the far post. The bad boy Bowyer, who had defeated Chelsea at home this season, completed the fatal blow in a suspected offside position.
Although Fletcher and Vidic raised their hands to indicate offside, and Van der Sar also ran to the linesman to indicate that Zigic had handballed first, the linesman insisted that there was no problem with the ball, and the Dutch goalkeeper had to go home disappointed.
The British News Agency stated that Zigic was suspected of fouling and handball during the ferry. Sir Alex Ferguson was very angry about this after the game, "It was a handball. Zigic fouled Ferdinand first. In such a high-profile event, you
Always hope the referee sees it all. If he doesn't, what can you do? Today, I have nothing to complain about my team, they worked very hard and only had two days off after playing Sunderland. They all
It’s hard to accept that I almost lost my socks, but got such a result.”
Birmingham coach McLeish simply admitted that Zigic handballed the ball, but denied that the Serbian international handball was intentional. Moreover, he believed that Bowyer was definitely not offside.
In fact, the entire Manchester United team is working very hard.
The "Daily Mail" reported that on Tuesday morning local time, the entire Manchester United team was waiting for the belated coach on the side of the M56 in the cold wind in Cheshire. Everyone had anger on their faces.
Most of the players were wearing thin sportswear. Veterans Giggs and Gary Neville were relatively experienced, so they wore thick winter clothing. Rooney wore a large Russian wool hat to protect his head and
ears, which made many teammates envious. After nearly half an hour of waiting, the Manchester United luxury bus carrying the coach finally arrived.
After this setback, facing Birmingham City, which had been fully rested due to the postponement of the last round of league games, the Red Devils were definitely not as physically strong as their opponents.
"Guardian" columnist McCalla claimed before the game that it was somewhat strange that Manchester United was currently at the top of the standings.
His reason is that Rooney has been out of action for a long time, and Manchester United has only won one away game this season.
But what Manchester United is thinking now is that they cannot continue to be "hacked" and suffer dumb losses.
Last season, in the home and away battle between Manchester United and Chelsea, Chelsea scored 6 points against Manchester United with two controversial goals from Terry and Drogba. Among them, Drogba's goal that beat Manchester United in the away game was obviously offside.
.Without that goal, Manchester United would have achieved an unprecedented four consecutive top-level league championships last season. In this campaign, Manchester United unjustly lost 2 points at the last moment, but we still don’t know how important these 2 points are to the final championship.
What impact will the pattern have?
If at the end of the season, Manchester United loses this season's Premier League championship just because of these 2 points, the loss will be huge.
Manchester United conceded a goal controversially in the 89th minute. They fell short in the away game and were equalized by the relegation team Birmingham. Coach Ferguson was very disappointed that the referee did not cancel the goal. "It was a handball. He (Zigic) hit us."
The central defender (Ferdinand) committed a foul first. He (Zigic) came from the right and jumped on the back of our central defender (Ferdinand). We hope the referee can see all this. If he doesn't see it, what is he here to do?
"
"In an event of this caliber, in such an important game, you always hope the referee can see it all. If he doesn't, what can you do? I have nothing to complain about my team today.
, they worked very hard and only had two days of rest after playing Sunderland. (Birmingham's last round of league was postponed and they got enough rest) They almost lost their socks, but they got such a result, which makes people feel
It's hard to accept. We deserved to win, we were clearly the better team."
Birmingham coach McLeish insisted after the game, "He (Bowyer) was not offside, absolutely not. It seemed that Zigic hit the ball to the far post with his own arm, but he definitely did not do it on purpose... all of this
It was such a mess. Intentional handball is punishable, but in other words, I don't mind."
An excited Bowyer said that Birmingham deserved to get 1 point. "Every time we play at St. Andrews Stadium, equalizing when we are behind is an achievement. I have scored goals at the last minute throughout my career. I think
I will keep doing this until I retire. We worked very hard and I think we deserved a point, but Manchester United had more possession."
