The cheering sounds of Red Devils fans floated in the sky of Dream Theater, and the atmosphere was highly shocking.
Ten years later, when the proportion of non-local fans in the Red Devils stands exceeds 60%, we will never see such a scene.
But it is precisely because of this fiery atmosphere that Millwall, who came as a guest, inspired stronger fighting spirit.
After the start, Millwall turned the tables and firmly controlled the initiative of the game. It was obvious that Manchester United's players were very tired, and their fighting and running were at least one level behind Millwall.
Scholes played as an attacking midfielder to press Pirlo, and the two defensive midfielders Butt and Keane restricted Nedvěd. Manchester United made up its mind to compete with Millwall for control of the midfield.
But their run made their wishful thinking come to nothing.
Pirlo and Makelele have formed a tacit understanding in the past period of cooperation. In the past, Makelele and Nedved were in the midfield, one behind the other. In order to stabilize the defense, Makelele rarely stepped forward, so he and Nedved
Nedved is a bit far away, but Pirlo is next to him
It's different. Pirlo liberated Nedved and also activated Makelele's offensive support ability. When Scholes ran back and forth to harass Pirlo, Pirlo transferred the ball to Makelele's feet.
, and then proceed to the next step through movement and Scholes' selection.
Cole retreated to harass, and Southgate stepped forward to participate in the offensive support. In the space in the midfield and backfield, Millwall would never lose the ball easily.
Faced with pressure, Pirlo received the ball and kicked it, either crosswise or back-passing. After three consecutive kicks, he rushed forward. Makelele passed the ball back to his feet, and Pirlo got rid of Sko.
With his back to the ball, Nedvěd was knocked down from behind as soon as his foot touched the ball. Keane took the direct pass.
foul.
Referee Boll stopped the game and awarded a free kick.
Keane stepped back without reasoning, staring intently at Nedvěd.
As soon as the Czech stood up, he put the ball at his feet. Before he could straighten his back, he kicked the ball backwards.
Take the free kick!
Pirlo picked up the ball near the center circle, stopped the ball and made a long overhead pass. The ball went directly over the head of Manchester United's defensive midfielder.
Larson on the left wing was right in front of the penalty area, blocked Neville with his back and used his chest to remove the ball, and then used the instep of his outside foot to knock the ball away from him the moment it fell. From stopping the ball to passing the ball, the action was done in one go, concisely and concisely.
grace!
Almost at the same time, Capdevila came in at high speed from the left and drove the ball straight to the baseline. Neville turned around and was obviously a step too late to catch up.
Capdevila's dribbling down the ball caused the entire Manchester United defense to turn around and recover, but he made a cross pass more decisively.
This was a kick that touched the ground. The ball quickly flew towards the goal area. Trezeguet and David May were about to grab the front spot, but this made Schmeichel afraid to attack and used his body to occupy it.
Trezeguet, who was in the position, knew that he could not catch up with the ball, so he deliberately strengthened the physical confrontation so that May could not make a clearance!
The ball rolled past the two of them, and Schmeichel was shocked. He turned around and ran towards the back post, but he was not as fast as the ball. Shevchenko unexpectedly rushed to the ball, met the ball with a push and shot the ball easily.
Goal.
"Shevchenko, Shevchenko, Shevchenko! What a powerful striker! He scored again! And it was at Old Trafford. The defender Capdevila has been steady this season.
He has firmly settled into the main position, and his performance is amazing. He is a full-back, but in Millwall he not only has to defend, but also does the work of full-back assists! Millwall leads Manchester United by one goal away from home.
!”
After scoring, Shevchenko pointed at Capdevila and ran over. Other teammates also ran over. They hugged each other tightly, symbolizing their unity!
"Martin, this goal seems very simple, but did you notice that Nedved kicked off the ball, Pirlo made a long pass, Larsson took the ball and distributed it, Capdevila passed the ball, and Trezeguet was in front
Attracting the attention of the defense, Shevchenko stepped in and scored. Millwall's frontcourt offensive players were all involved in the entire process of the goal. If it were just the frontcourt players, maybe Manchester City
United could still defend, but Capdevila's unexpected assist came forward, which caused a loophole in Manchester United's defense. Look, Neville stopped Beckham. I guess he must have asked the opponent to return to defense.
Deeper, otherwise, Neville has to guard Larsson and Capdevila by himself? Don’t be kidding, it’s already difficult to guard Larsson without making mistakes.”
"Haha, I agree with your point of view. Ferguson's expression is not very good. Well, in the past few games, his expression has not been good. He pointed at his disciples and seemed to want them to work harder."
Aldrich raised his arms and cheered, then raised his fists in the air with a proud look on his face.
The camera was focused on him and Old Trafford booed him.
It doesn't matter, just boo.
A head coach who is intimidated by boos has a bad future!
Anfield, Highbury, White Hart Lane, Stamford Bridge, Upton Park... every stadium that booed me will remember me!
The players on the court were very calm after celebrating. Nedvěd was the first to jog back, and the expression on his face suddenly changed.
After the kick-off, Manchester United wanted to reverse the situation, but their offensive formation was cut into pieces by Millwall's defense from the center field. As soon as Beckham stopped the ball on the wing, Larsson came to him and made a move
In a defensive posture, he took the ball forward and took a step forward. Capdevila, who was waiting for him to do this, successfully stole the ball and then passed the ball to Larsson. Beckham counterattacked and Larsson kicked the ball.
Had a one-on-one with Capdevila.
Beckham ran backwards, but Capdevila stopped the ball and passed the ball to Makelele who was in the back position. The rhythm of the game was firmly in Millwall's hands.
Before Beckham could turn around halfway through, Makelele and Pirlo played a one-two, and the ball was passed to Capdevila on the wing.
Capdevila took the ball and made a fake pass, and Beckham was deceived into losing his center of gravity. Capdevila quickly dribbled the ball forward, and Neville had no choice but to pull aside to block it. Capdevila
Villa didn't give the opponent a chance to get close at all and passed the ball to Larsson who was in front of him.
Larsson got the ball at the baseline and attracted May to defend him. Instead, he took the ball back two steps, then passed the ball to Nedvěd who came in from behind. Then he turned inside and cut in front of the goal.
Devide understood the situation and knocked the ball back forward without stopping, tearing apart Manchester United's defense.
Larson met the ball deftly and pushed the ball into the far corner, easily sending the ball into the net.
Schmeichel angrily roared at the defense, while May and Pallister raised their hands to signal that Larsson was offside.
Before Larsson shot, the linesman raised the flag to signal that he was offside.
A false alarm at Old Trafford.
Larson put his hands on his hips and looked a little depressed: It was obviously a good goal!
The cooperation just now was extremely exciting, but it was ruled offside.
Aldridge went to put pressure on the fourth official, whether it was offside or not, he was going to do it.
He protested to the referee team members one after another. Through the slow-motion replay on the big screen, it was difficult to tell whether Larson was offside or not. From a neutral point of view, it is acceptable to judge or not to judge. In the blink of an eye, you can
We cannot ask referees to be more accurate than machines.
In particular, Larson obviously recovered and then rushed forward after passing the ball, just to prevent offside, but he returned from the offside position first. Therefore, it is subjectively easier to be judged as offside.
Manchester United escaped, and the game continued. The eagerness to equalize the score forced Manchester United's formation to press forward, and Scholes had not yet completely established himself in the attacking midfielder position. Last season, he was more of a shadow forward.
.On the road to helping Manchester United win the championship, ten goals are extremely precious.
Historically, Pirlo was criticized for his defensive shortcomings. Aldridge believes that the main reason is that he was always trained as an attacking midfielder when he debuted. In this era, you cannot say that the attacking midfielder does not practice defensive skills, but the classical attacking midfielder has
His defensive ability is really appalling, and because of this, the classical attacking midfielder will disappear from Europe in the future.
Therefore, in the past year or so, Aldridge has transformed Pirlo's training, not only to make him understand the importance of organization in his position, but also to strengthen his defense. Even if his speed and explosive power still cannot make him
People are satisfied, but the defensive awareness can be seen from the positioning has been greatly improved, and the enthusiasm for fighting has nothing to do with ability. The key is awareness, just like Harvey in the future, you can't say how good his defensive skills are, but in
When pressing in the midfield, whether he participates in defense is crucial to the entire team.
It is enough for Pirlo to harass Scholes. Once Scholes shows signs of moving forward, Makelele, who is responsible for the interception, will completely stifle Manchester United's offense.
Because of this, Manchester United tried several times to hand the ball to Scholes to organize the attack but failed. Playing on the wing would also fall into the defense of Millwall's offensive players who retreated to compress the space.
Several attacks had little effect. Keane chose to dribble forward by himself. He also has good offensive organizing skills, but he obviously dribbled too much this time and was flanked by Nedved, who was more active in running.
Fang stole the ball, and Nedved, who was counterattacking on the spot, passed the ball to Trezeguet, who was retreating in front to receive the ball, and then strode forward himself.
Butt hurriedly went to mark Nedved, but before he could catch up, Trezeguet passed the ball back to Nedved. The latter picked the ball into the penalty area. After passing the ball, the former turned and rushed towards the penalty area.
, the timing of passing and running was just right, the ball passed over the heads of Pallister and May, and Trezeguet rushed towards the small penalty area, and the two central defenders had to turn around. As a last resort, Pallister stretched out his foot to trip
Down with Trezeguet.
Bol decisively stopped the game, pointed to the penalty spot, and at the same time took out a yellow card and gave it to Pallister.
Old Trafford was filled with boos, feeling that Trezeguet was diving.
But shown in slow motion, it was definitely a penalty.
If Trezeguet hadn't stuck to Pallister and didn't rush forward to get an absolute chance for a single shot, I'm afraid it wouldn't have been as simple as a yellow card.
Aldrich was still dissatisfied and thought it should have been a red card.
The fourth official chatted with him patiently.
"Fifty-fifty, Schmeichel also has a chance to attack and destroy the ball."
"My players have already started to speed up. At the same distance, if Schmeichel, who is still standing on the goal line, starts to speed up again, can he be faster than my forward?"
"Oh, it didn't happen. We can only guess, don't you think so?"
"You're a bit scoundrel when you say that. Forget it, I won't argue with you. I'll complain if the penalty kick doesn't go in."
Aldridge and the fourth official laughed at the end.
Sometimes refereeing is difficult.
Larsson stood in front of the penalty kick. Facing the boos that filled the sky from Old Trafford, he calmly took a run-up and then calmly pushed the ball into the dead center of the goal. Schmeichel guessed the direction but was unable to pass the ball.
Block it out, after all, it is a theoretical blind spot.
Millwall took a two-goal lead away from home, and it was only 28 minutes into the first half.