host must win

Chapter 208 Fumu Showdown
On the evening of Friday, August 2003, 8, local time in France, at the Stade Louis II in Monaco, the UEFA Super Cup was played between Champions League champion Manchester United and UEFA Cup winner Porto.

This is only the third time the Red Devils have participated in the competition.Previously, Manchester United had participated twice as champions of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1991 and as champions of the Champions League in 1999.

For the first time, Manchester United defeated the opponent at Old Trafford with a score of 1:0 in the match against the then Champions League champion Belgrade Red Star, winning the first and only European Super Cup in team history .

Since 1998, the UEFA Super Cup, the opening match of each new season, has been played at the Stade Louis II in Monaco.

In 1999, Manchester United, which won the triple crown, played in the European Super Cup, but they were defeated by the UEFA Cup champion Lazio. Salas's goal beat the Red Devils and made the team miss the fourth championship trophy that year.

Reappearing in the European Super Cup after a lapse of 4 years, Ferguson does not want to repeat the mistakes of 4 years ago, and hopes to end all the matches before the first national team match of this season with a championship trophy.

Because of participating in the UEFA Super Cup, Manchester United was forced to postpone the fourth round of the Premier League this weekend.After the European Super Cup is over, Manchester United players will fly to various parts of the world to participate in their respective national team games.

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As one of the few wealthy teams in the world, although Manchester United lost the two members of the Class of 92, Beckham and Nicky Butt, as well as the Argentine star Veron in the summer, but with Yin Jun, Cristiano Ronaldo, O With the rapid rise of young people such as Xie and Fletcher, coupled with the fact that Ruud van Nistelrooy, Scholes, Giggs and other old players are still in form, Manchester United's lineup is still strong, and it is definitely the strongest club in world football today. one.

Especially as Manchester United won the UEFA Champions League, the Premier League and the League Cup last season, the small triple crown, Ferguson's second red dynasty is coming!

And Manchester United's opponent Porto, as a traditional Portuguese giant, also has famous players such as Deco, Carvalho and Baya.

Of course, at this time, no one knows that Porto's strongest link is their coach Jose Mourinho.This madman, who can still be called young, will conquer Europe in the near future and become Ferguson's lifelong enemy.

In real time and space, the famous football coach who has played against Ferguson more than 10 times is unique in his record.Like Mourinho, Scorpion Baba is the only one who can gain an absolute advantage.

But in this time and space, with Manchester United winning the Champions League last season, the match between the two started a few months earlier in the UEFA Super Cup.

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Ferguson and Mourinho both lined up a 442 starting formation. For Manchester United, the goalkeeper is Howard, the back line is composed of Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Wes Brown and Sylvester, and the midfield four is composed of Yin Jun, Scholes, Roy Keane and Giggs led the way, while Van Nistelrooy and Forlan formed a double arrow.There are 11 players in the entire starting lineup, and only the goalkeeper position is the new aid who joined in the new season.

For Porto, the goalkeeper is Baia, the back four are Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, Carvalho and Ricardo Costa, Alenichev, Costinha, Deco and Maniche partnered in midfield, and Delly and McCarthy formed the striker.

Ferguson didn't know that in another time and space, Mourinho could be called his nemesis.Even if he knew, Ferguson would never be afraid to face Porto, which is obviously not as strong as his own.Therefore, after the start of the game, Manchester United played quite strongly on the field and took the initiative to launch wave after wave of offensives towards Porto's goal.

Mourinho's team was able to take advantage of the Portuguese team's ball possession advantage to wrestle with Manchester United in the opening stage, and even took a certain amount of initiative. The ball possession rate in the first 10 minutes was as high as 60.00%. Manchester United defended well.The back line of Gary Neville, Ferdinand, Wes Brown and Sylvester was very solid and did not give Porto too many opportunities. Roy Keane was also very good in midfield.

With a solid defense, the team has more chances to counterattack. Therefore, it is very interesting on the game scene. Porto has the advantage, but Manchester United has the advantage in scoring opportunities. There are not many threatening attacks to save the giants.

This is the gap in overall strength. Although Manchester United is slightly inferior in ball possession, they have more threats to attack.

This is also the disparity between the top four league teams and the Portuguese super teams. Porto's offensive combination that swept the Portuguese Super League could not be a threat to Manchester United at all.

Maniche, who killed the Quartet on the wing of the Portuguese Super League, was completely misfired and did nothing.

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Judging from the game, Porto's strength is indeed not as good as Manchester United.

After the 10th minutes of the game, Scholes got an excellent opportunity by interspersed running in the middle. He received Yin Jun's pass from the wing and kicked a strong shot, piercing Porto's goal.

1:0, Manchester United made a fantastic start!

However, under the training of Mourinho, Porto is also a good fighter.Although the score was behind, they did not mess up because of this. On the contrary, the whole team shrunk and strengthened their defense to prevent Manchester United, whose morale had been boosted, from scoring again in a short period of time, thus establishing the victory.

In the next twenty minutes, although Manchester United continued to attack, Porto's defense led by Carvalho and others was also very solid, and Manchester United did not give Manchester United any more chances.

After 35 minutes of the game, Porto once again took possession of the ball and attacked aggressively at the last moment.But Manchester United's defense was solid, goalkeeper Howard performed well, and finally kept the score of 1:0 until the half-time break.

At the beginning of the second half, Porto aggressively attacked, hoping to take advantage of Manchester United's unstable foothold to score a goal to equalize the score.Maniche cut into the penalty area from the left, shot a lob with his right foot outside the corner of the small penalty area, and the ball went out from the top corner of the far post.

Time passed bit by bit, Porto and Manchester United both used two substitutions.Solskjaer and Ronaldo came off the bench for Manchester United, while Mourinho replaced Jankaskas and Bosingwa respectively.

Porto, who fell behind, had to take the initiative to attack, but this is not what Mourinho's team is good at.So on the scene, it seems that Porto is very aggressive in attacking, but there are still not many shots that really threaten Manchester United's goal.

Porto, who was crazy about attacking, gave Manchester United a chance to fight back.

In the 83rd minute of the game, after receiving a long pass from Scholes on the right, Ronaldo suddenly started and cut in with the ball.

Solskjaer understood and retreated from the front, seemingly to meet Ronaldo, but in fact he pulled out Carvalho.

Ronaldo made a diagonal pass with his right foot, and Yin Jun quickly crossed into the penalty area, stopped the ball, and shot, all in one go, and the football hit the net!

2:0, Manchester United sealed the victory!

(End of this chapter)