host must win

Chapter 226 Selected for Two Awards

On the evening of October 10, the third round of the UEFA Champions League group stage, Group E-H, four groups of eight games started.

Manchester United headed north to Glasgow, Scotland, to challenge the overlord Rangers of the Scottish Super League.

This game is not only the championship battle between the Premier League and the Scottish Super League, but also the battle between Ferguson and McLeish, and the battle for the first place in Group E.

In the first two rounds of the group stage, Glasgow Rangers scored 1 win and 1 draw, beating Manchester United and Stuttgart to rank first in Group E.

Although the game is known as the "British Civil War", the starting lineups of both sides are a bit funny. The Rangers do not have a Scotsman, and Manchester United, which is famous for cultivating local players, only has 1 English players in the starting lineup.

Because of the loss to Stuttgart in Germany in the last round, this caused some changes in Manchester United's group qualification. Ferguson naturally did not want the team to suffer a two-game losing streak in the Champions League, so in this game, Manchester United will be the main force.

Rangers started the situation looking good, but the good mood of the home team fans did not last long.In the 5th minute, Yin Jun dribbled the ball long-distance from the midfielder and cooperated with Ruud van Nistelrooy in a two-on-one match. Four Rangers players failed to guard him, broke into the penalty area and stabbed into the dead corner, opening the scoring for Manchester United and scoring a goal.

After that, the Rangers took strict precautions, and Manchester United patiently waited for the opportunity.

After changing sides in the second half, Manchester United was at No.70 two minutes later. Yin Jun assisted Phil Neville, who had just come off the bench, to make another victory, expanding the score to 2:0, and Manchester United basically sealed the victory.

And 5 minutes later, Yin Jun broke the Rangers' goal again and scored twice.

It was also his fourth goal in the Champions League this season.

In the end, with Yin Jun's brace and Phil Neville's goal, Manchester United beat the Glasgow Rangers 3-0 away and regained the first place in the Group E standings.

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The time has entered late October, and the candidates for major awards have been released one after another.Among them, fans all over the world are most concerned about the list of candidates for the World Footballer and the European Ballon d'Or.

On the second day after Manchester United finished the Champions League group match against Glasgow Rangers and returned to Manchester, the 2003 World Footballer of the Year list was first announced.

As a year without a World Series, the impact of the European results is undoubtedly very large.Compared with the UEFA Cup, which is becoming more and more tasteless, the UEFA Champions League, which gathers almost all European giants, has an increasingly significant impact on players being selected for the two lists.

As last season's UEFA Champions League champion, Manchester United, who also won the Premier League title, is undoubtedly the biggest winner of this World Footballer of the Year candidate list.Five players including Yin Jun, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Scholes, Keane and Ferdinand were all shortlisted, the same number as the star-studded Real Madrid.

In fact, with the addition of Beckham, who has already moved to Real Madrid, Manchester United is the team with the largest number of shortlists. After all, the main performance of Beckham's shortlist for this shortlist was achieved in Manchester United in the first half of the year.

According to the selection process, FIFA will select the final list of three candidates in late November, and these three will participate in the final competition of this year's World Footballer of the Year at FIFA headquarters in mid-December.

Judging from the current odds for the World Footballer of the Year offered by major European gaming companies, Yin Jun is one of the popular candidates.

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The shortlist for the World Player of the Year is out, but the shortlist for the European Ballon d'Or will not be announced until early November.However, in another candidate list announced earlier, Yin Jun was also selected, and that is a new award created by the Italian media "Turin Sports" this year: the European Golden Boy Award!
In the shortlist for the first European Golden Boy Award announced in the middle of this month, many young talents who have played in European football have been shortlisted, and Yin Jun was also selected without any suspense.In addition, Manchester United's new aid Cristiano Ronaldo and youth player Fletcher were also selected for the shortlist.

However, compared to Yin Jun, who is the biggest favorite for the award, Ronaldo and Fletcher are basically soy sauce roles, and there is basically no possibility of winning.

Yin Jun's competitors in the European Golden Boy Award are mainly two Dutchmen, Van der Vaart who plays for Ajax, and Arjen Robben from Eindhoven.In addition, the Brazilian genius Kaka, who only joined AC Milan in the summer, has also risen very quickly in the new season, and the current voice is also very loud.

But in fact, people in the industry already know that Yin Jun, who is already the most popular candidate for this year's World Footballer of the Year and the European Ballon d'Or, is no matter whether it is Van der Vaart and Robben, the two prides of the Eredivisie. Kaka, the newly-emerging Brazilian genius, is destined to play the role of accompanying runner.

If "Turin Sports News" does not want to make a joke in the first year of the establishment of this award, it is basically impossible for players other than Yin Jun to win this award.

After all, if Yin Jun won the World Footballer of the Year or the European Golden Globe Award, but did not win the European Golden Boy Award, then "Turin Sports News" will have a headache and will lose this award at the beginning of its establishment credibility.

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The long league is always full of ups and downs and uncertainties. It is impossible for any team to be smooth sailing and will always encounter various problems.

Due to Manchester United's continuous battles in the Premier League and the Champions League, coupled with the large number of Chinese players, the impact of the national team's match day is also very huge, and the consumption of players is too large.

Under such circumstances, Manchester United ushered in the 10th round of the Premier League.Ferguson hopes to use this victory to catch up with Arsenal, but Ferguson, who was suspended for 2 games by the FA this week, can only command the team by phone from the sidelines.

In this game, Ferguson has a completely different midfield from the Champions League in the middle of the week. Neither Roy Keane nor Yin Jun appeared in the match list. Djimba, Ronaldo, Giggs and Fortune occupied the midfield position .

Ferguson's formation at the beginning of the game was somewhat disdainful of the opponent's practice. Giggs rarely appeared in the right midfielder position, and Ronaldo was pulled to the left.

Before the game, Ferguson, who was fined to stand in the stands, joked easily, saying that if the game was lost, it would be the fault of assistant coach Perrin), but the joke of losing the game finally came true.

After a chaotic 1-1 first half, United fell behind shortly after the start of the second half.In the 66th minute, Boa Mott made a pass from the left. Ferdinand failed to make a clearance. The ball hit Fortune and bounced to Malblanc's feet. The Frenchman scored with a low shot from 15 yards in front of the goal.

Manchester United then began substitution adjustments, Scholes and Yin Jun came off the bench.

Manchester United, who had a last stand at Old Trafford, attacked desperately, but this gave Fulham more space to counterattack.In the 79th minute, Malblanc made a direct pass to the left side of the penalty area, followed by Japanese midfielder Junichi Inamoto who volleyed and scored.

After that, Manchester United continued to strengthen their offense, but it was futile in front of Fulham's defensive line.

Although Yin Jun regained a victory in the 89th minute of the game, he could not change the defeat in the end. He lost 2:3 and suffered his first defeat in the league this season.

(End of this chapter)