The sixth professional football player who started with Manchester United

Chapter 49 The crime of non-war
The 15-minute break passed quickly.

After the end, when the players from both sides returned to the court, Chelsea chose to make substitutions.

It's just that this substitution made everyone feel incredible. DiMatteo actually replaced Mikel and replaced Nigerian winger Moxie, who also appeared on the left side of Hazard.

No one thought that Chelsea, who were at a numerical disadvantage and two goals behind in the score, chose to attack, and replaced a defensive midfielder.

Even the commentator of the local London TV station was in disbelief in the live broadcast room.

No one can understand what gave Di Matteo such confidence.

Perhaps it was the first Champions League championship in Chelsea's history won after the fire last season that gave Di Matteo confidence. Di Matteo started his coaching career in 2008. The Milton Keynes team in the League One won No.3 in the League One at the time, but lost the game in the play-offs and failed to enter the Championship. Di Matteo coached West Bromwich Albion in the second year , At that time, he led the team to the second place in the league and successfully led West Bromwich Albion to the Premier League.

Di Matteo also won the honor of the best coach of the month in his first season in the Premier League, but after that, West Bromwich Albion's performance declined sharply and he was fired in February 2011.

After Di Matteo's application to coach Birmingham was rejected, he accepted the invitation of then Chelsea coach Villas-Boas to return to Chelsea as an assistant coach.

Who knows that last season, Boas's coaching performance made the club very difficult to be satisfied. After losing 1-3 to Naples in the first round of the Champions League quarter-finals, Boas dismissed get out of class and Di Matteo served as the interim head coach.

The 11 weeks of coaching Chelsea last season also became Di Matteo's highlight moment.

In the end, Chelsea also won the Champions League and the FA Cup.

So maybe it’s the results last season that gave Di Matteo a high level of confidence, or maybe it’s the unbeaten record in the first eight rounds of this season that gives him confidence. Anyway, Chelsea, with one less player, actually played Manchester United after the start of the second half. A confrontation started.

After Ferguson saw the change in the opponent, he also yelled at the players on the field.

Then after attracting the player's attention, he made a gesture.

After receiving Ferguson's instructions, the entire Manchester United team began to consciously retract their formation. As a result, Chelsea unknowingly began to press forward, so it seemed that Chelsea had the upper hand.

Di Matteo stood expressionlessly on the sidelines, watching the game situation on the field.

The Chelsea fans in the stands saw that their team was missing one person and actually had an advantage on the court, and they also stood up and cheered toward the court.

Everything seems to be going in Chelsea's favour.

But what they don't know is that there is always a moment of tranquility before the storm comes, or perhaps it is true to the old saying, if you want it to perish, you must make it crazy.

In fact, if you carefully observe the game on the field, you will find that although Chelsea are attacking, there are very few opportunities to threaten the goal. Chelsea mostly adopts a long pass to the penalty area, or It was after a series of inversions from the periphery, seeing that there was really no chance, a blind long-range shot ended.

The time came to the 68th minute. Torres, who had besieged Chelsea for nearly 5 minutes, took a long shot from the outside and was directly confiscated by goalkeeper De Gea.

Immediately after De Gea got up, he looked up to the front, then threw the ball with an accelerated hand, and sent the ball directly to Carrick's feet. Carrick, who did not stop the ball, handed the ball to Dabao underfoot.

As early as Carrick received the ball, Dabao had already observed the position of his teammates in front.

Therefore, facing Carrick's pass, Dabao also did not stop the ball. He directly followed the direction of the football and made a perfect long pass. The football flew behind Chelsea's defense in an instant.

Because the formation is too high.

The moment Dabao passed the ball, Rooney and Robin van Persie in front started at the same time and instantly crossed Chelsea's defense.

Only then did Di Matteo on the sidelines realize how big a mistake he had made.

Rooney quickly caught up with the football. Facing Petr Cech, who had no choice but to attack, Rooney sent the ball to the right with a cross pass.

Van Persie made a light push to the empty goal, and the football slowly rolled into the empty goal.

3 to 0. At the 70th minute of the game, Manchester United extended their advantage on the court to three goals. After scoring the goal, the Manchester United players gathered together happily.

The tens of thousands of Chelsea fans in the stands looked at the Manchester United players celebrating on the field and booed loudly, but there seemed to be some fear in the boos.

In fact, what Chelsea fans feared is indeed happening.

In the 87th minute of the game, Dabao suddenly dribbled the ball in, and when he was about 25 meters away from the goal, he suddenly took a long shot.

With a well-prepared volley, Cech was completely unprepared for Dabao's shot.

From Dabao shooting to the football flying to the goal, it is almost a few seconds.

The unprepared Cech only had time to stretch out his hand, and the football hit the post and bounced into the goal.

Cech, who was lying on the ground, glanced helplessly at the football in the goal.

4 to 0, Manchester United's advantage once again expanded.

After this goal, Ferguson also replaced Dabao.

In the end, this goal was also the last goal of the game, 4-0, Manchester United ushered in their nine-game winning streak in the league this season.

After the game, when Ferguson shook hands with Di Matteo, he patted Di Matteo on the shoulder. Based on Ferguson's understanding of Chelsea, I am afraid that the opponent's life will not be easy after this game.

At the press conference after the game, the reporter of the London Times also pointed the finger at Di Matteo.

"Mr. Di Matteo, may I ask why the defensive midfielder was replaced by a winger when there was one player missing?"

"Actually, we have a great chance. I don't think this score can explain anything."

It can be seen that Di Matteo didn't want to answer this question at all. In the end, he perfunctorily stopped talking. But just as Ferguson thought, Di Matteo's substitution strategy at halftime after this game It received a lot of doubts, and many media criticized this substitution.

For a time, with these criticisms and questions, the position under Di Matteo's butt became a little unstable.

(End of this chapter)