From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 716 A bad start
Although the team's temporary home, the Millennium Stadium, is more than 200 kilometers away from Manchester, for Manchester United, which has a private plane, it is only an hour's journey, and this already includes the time to go in and out of the airport at both ends.

Therefore, for every home game of the team, Manchester United players live in Manchester and only take the team plane to Cardiff about two hours before the game.

Ajax arrived at about the same time.

As the dark horse of this season's Champions League, Ajax's strength has been recognized after they successively eliminated two giants, Real Madrid and Juventus, and no one dares to underestimate them.

Manchester United has also been studying Ajax and every one of their players during this period. Ajax is also the same. They are more cautious than Manchester United against the defending champions.

This battle not only attracted the attention of all fans in the UK and the Netherlands, but also attracted the attention of fans all over the world.

Before the game, everyone felt that neither side would be able to come up with any unexpected moves. Neither Ten Hag nor Mourinho would give the opponent too many opportunities. The key was to see who could seize the opportunity better and who made fewer mistakes.

When the game reached the 14th minute, Ajax center back Blind intercepted the ball in the penalty area, rushed forward with the ball, instigated a counterattack on the spot, and quickly made a long pass to transfer the ball to the left side of the frontcourt.

Neres took the ball from the left and cut inside, passing it to Schone in the middle. Ziyech passed it straight to Van de Beek, who was unmarked and scored easily.

………………

"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!"

Van de Beek turned and rushed off the pitch, celebrating wildly amid the boos of the home fans.

"In the 14th minute, Ajax, who were playing away, launched a quick counterattack. Ziyech made a cross from the right, and Van de Beek calmly seized the opportunity to score the first goal for Ajax and break the deadlock on the field!"

"This is the second time in this game that Ziyech has created a threat on the right side during a counterattack."

"The last time was in the sixth minute of the game. It was also an Ajax counterattack. Ziyech made a cross from the right, also looking for Tadic, but that time De Gea got the ball and failed to create a threat. But this time, Ajax finally seized the opportunity and broke through Manchester United's goal!"

"1:0!"

Ajax players are in a frenzy, as the game now going on is the Champions League semi-final!

But the Manchester United players were a little confused. They didn’t expect that their team would fall behind at home!
When Manchester United lost the ball in the frontcourt, they quickly returned to defense and Bruno also chased all the way back, but in the end Ajax still scored, which made him very depressed.

Bruno was very clear about how strong this Ajax youth team was, because the main young players in their team later became the favorites of major clubs in the five major leagues.

However, Bruno was still very unhappy.

………………

In fact, when Ajax played like this for the first time, Manchester United was already on guard, but unexpectedly Ajax still seized the opportunity and broke Manchester United's goal first.

Mourinho also made a plan for this situation before the game, so Manchester United was not panicked.

Looking at the first ten minutes of the game, the two sides were evenly matched, neither side had a good chance to score, and Manchester United had the advantage for most of the game.

After defeating Barcelona and Roma in succession, Manchester United is now in high spirits. Even if Ajax is very angry, they have to temporarily avoid the attack and choose a more reliable defensive counterattack tactic.

But Ajax seized their only chance and scored a goal.

Mourinho on the sidelines also quickly made adjustments, signaling Manchester United to start pressing forward again, which was a signal for an active attack.

Ajax still lined up a 4-3-3 formation in this game. Onana was the goalkeeper, Veltman, De Ligt, Blind and Tagliafico were the defenders, Van de Beek, De Jong and Schone were the midfielders, and Ziyech, Tadic and Neres were the frontcourt.

But after the opening, Manchester United played very aggressively on the left, and Luke Shaw and Rashford put great pressure on Ajax's right on this side, so Ten Hag made adjustments and De Ligt moved more to the right to assist in defending Veltman.

Veltman looks mediocre and seems to have no advantages, but in fact he has no flaws either. He works diligently on the court and does not make any big mistakes when facing Manchester United's attack. With the help of De Ligt, Ajax's right defense barely blocked Manchester United's left attack.

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Mourinho's tactics in this game mainly emphasize two points. One is to maintain the integrity of the tactics, which needs no further explanation. Facing a team like Ajax, it is impossible to win if you are loose, and Manchester United's biggest advantage is the overall situation.

Bruno was able to perform well precisely because he demonstrated his strengths on an overall basis.

The second point, which is also a targeted point, is to control the second landing point.

Tadic is the offensive pillar of Ajax's frontcourt. When defending, it is very difficult for Manchester United to compete with him for the first point, so Mourinho's defensive strategy is to compete for the second point.

By the same token, Harry Kane's tactical role in the frontcourt is also extremely obvious. He can get the ball and steal the ball, so the most important thing for Manchester United's offense is to grab the second landing point.

But what Mourinho could think of, Ten Hag could also think of, so Ajax deployed heavy troops near the penalty area, not giving Manchester United any chance easily. Both teams are very defensive teams, and they know each other well. The coaches of both teams also tried their best to show their best defensive formations, so the game was very intense, but not exciting at all. It can even be said that neither side created any decent opportunities.

………………

After Ajax scored the first goal, Manchester United pressed forward further but still failed to create a threat and eventually fell behind 0:1 in the first half.

During the halftime break, Mourinho praised the team's performance in the first half. Apart from the goal conceded, Manchester United really did not give the opponent any other chances, but Van der Beck scored.

"It was luck that Van de Beek scored, but no matter what, I am very satisfied with the team's performance in the first half. We still have to continue this state and performance in the second half."

The head coach's confidence was quickly passed on to the players, but losing to Ajax at home was obviously beyond the acceptance of Manchester United players.

At the very least, it's only halftime now, and giving up early is not Manchester United's style.

Bruno worked very hard in the first half, and at this time he was also encouraging his teammates in the locker room to keep up the good work and try to equalize the score or even reverse the opponent while defending the goal in the second half.

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After the two sides changed sides in the second half, neither side was able to create good opportunities.

Ajax continued to play steadily. Manchester United launched a period of attack at the beginning of the game, but did not have many good opportunities.

Bruno was also a little bit silent in the frontcourt. Ten Hag obviously also specially formulated a defensive strategy to restrain Bruno, and naturally would not give him another chance.

The game was intense and dull. Both sides even played with restraint. After 70 minutes, there was not a single yellow card in the whole game, but the atmosphere was very tense.

Everyone knew that both sides were on high alert, and it was just a matter of seeing who would make a mistake first.

Ajax wanted to score another goal to establish their advantage, because leading by one goal did not give them a chance of winning against Manchester United.

Manchester United wanted to equalize the score or even reverse the opponent.

The team behind made the first substitution. In the 70th minute, Mourinho replaced Rashford with Mahrez and moved Mbappe to the left. He obviously hoped to create more opportunities with Mahrez's cross ability on the right. After all, Harry Kane's advantage in the penalty area was still very obvious, and Mbappe did not have many good passing opportunities when facing Tagliafico.

Ajax also made a substitution quickly, with Mazraoui replacing Schone.

This is a positional substitution, Ajax still has to counterattack.

………………

The game time is passing by bit by bit.

Manchester United, who were able to defeat Barcelona in two rounds and slaughter Schalke 04, encountered tenacious sniping from Ajax at home.

There was really no chance at all in the whole game. The young team trained by Ten Hag is really very strong. It is not a fluke that they can eliminate Real Madrid and Juventus in a row.

After both sides made a substitution, they seemed to stop making substitutions tacitly.

Time went from seventy minutes to eighty minutes, and then to eighty-three minutes.

Mourinho made his second substitution, with Fred replacing Gundogan.

Others may not know, but everyone inside Manchester United knows it very well. This is to let the team fight for the last few minutes. Regardless of whether they can score a goal in the last moment, at least they have to suppress Ajax's fighting spirit.

Fred came on the field to form a double defensive midfielder with Kante in order to free up Luke Shaw and Bruno.

Ten Hag was obviously well aware of Mourinho's intention, so he followed Manchester United and made a second substitution. Veteran Huntelaar replaced Ziyech.

Ajax's intention is also very clear, attack? Okay, I will defend steadily and wait for an opportunity to counterattack you.

If you are not afraid of death, come on!
The battle between the two coaches was very targeted, each clamping down on each other's weaknesses, and every substitution was very targeted.

After Fred came on, Luke Shaw began to press forward boldly, and Bruno further expanded his range of activities, actively running to the wings and into the penalty area, patiently looking for opportunities.

Ajax continued to shrink its defense, waiting for the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Whether it is Bruno, Mahrez or Mbappe, the goal is very clear, which is the second point snatched by Harry Kane.

(End of this chapter)