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

Chapter 766: First Defeat and End of Decline

After the change of sides, neither team made any substitutions, but both teams increased their pressing intensity and got more and more chances.

In the 47th minute, Mane made a cross pass from the flank, Robertson passed the ball across the penalty area, and Salah's shot unfortunately missed. The Egyptian winger knelt on the ground in frustration and pounded the grass.

In the 48th minute, Liverpool launched an efficient and quick counterattack. After three passes and two falls, Henderson suddenly attacked from the top of the penalty area and shot with his left foot. De Gea touched the ball with his fingertips and then the ball hit the post. Manchester United escaped the fate of being scored for the third time.

But Manchester United quickly responded and continued to threaten Liverpool.

In the 56th minute of the game, Manchester United also launched a wonderful quick counterattack. After Kante and Bruno successfully surrounded Wijnaldum in the midfield, they broke through to the top of the arc with the ball and almost broke the Liverpool goal guarded by Alisson with a long shot.

Two minutes later, Manchester United once again launched a beautiful quick counterattack. Mbappe and Bruno cooperated with each other through the wall and broke into the penalty area. He made a powerful shot from the left, but unfortunately it was a high cannon!

The game gradually reached a stalemate, but that didn't mean it was boring or uninteresting. In fact, the two sides fought back and forth, which was very exciting.

In the 62nd minute, Liverpool quickly counterattacked. Mane passed Maguire and broke into the penalty area. He fell to the ground and shot slightly off target!

Four minutes later, Kante intercepted the ball and pushed away Wijnaldum, and his long shot from the top of the arc was saved by Alisson!
In the 71st minute, Luke Shaw fouled and blocked Salah's breakthrough and received a yellow card!
………………

Seeing that the score was deadlocked, the head coaches of both sides prepared to make substitutions.

In the 73rd minute, Manchester United made a substitution. Mourinho replaced Gundogan and Rashford with veteran Mata and young Greenwood!

The two substitutions allowed Manchester United to gradually take the initiative on the field, but they were unable to overtake the score. Seeing the situation was not good, Klopp immediately made substitutions.

In the 81st minute, Liverpool made substitutions, Fabinho and Origi came on to replace Mane and Firmino!

The fight between the two sides on the field was still fierce, but the score remained at 1:1, and neither side was able to break through the opponent's defense.

In the 86th minute, Mourinho played his last trump card and replaced Luke Shaw with young player Dalot.

This substitution also revealed Mourinho's intention, that is, he intends to accept the current 1:1 situation, intends to call it a day at Anfield and maintain the current results.

However, Manchester United could accept a draw with Liverpool at Anfield, but Liverpool, who were aiming to win their first Premier League title in the Premier League era, would not agree to such a situation. They continued to attack Manchester United's goal madly amid the singing of 50,000 fans at home.

However, the score on the field remained unchanged and the game entered a three-minute injury time.

………………

Just when the game was about to end in a draw, the situation changed.

In the 92nd minute of the game, Manchester United's corner kick was cleared, Alisson kicked the ball forward to find Salah, who made a high-speed run to get a single shot on De Gea and scored with a push, 2:1!

Alisson, who provided the assist, also slid on his knees to celebrate, while Salah, who scored against Manchester United for the first time in his career, also received a yellow card for taking off his clothes to celebrate!
What was originally a chance to score was scored by the opponent in a counterattack, which was hard for Manchester United players including Bruno to accept.

But after the game resumed and Manchester United kicked off from the center circle, the referee blew the whistle three times for the entire game, leaving no chance for Manchester United to continue attacking.

At the end of the game, Liverpool defeated Manchester United 2:1 and achieved 15 consecutive home wins across the season!

After Manchester United's 25-game unbeaten streak across the season was ended, they were already 4 points behind Liverpool in the standings when two-thirds of the season was about to pass!
After the game, many British media said that after losing this decisive battle in the Premier League, Manchester United has been drifting away from the Premier League championship this season, and it will be difficult for them to win the first four consecutive championships in the history of the Premier League!

………………

The news that Manchester United lost to Liverpool and suffered their first defeat of the season became one of the most watched news in the world this weekend. Major media in various countries reported this event. And most media began to be optimistic about Liverpool winning the Premier League championship this season.

Just when the whole world began to look down on Manchester United, they quickly stopped the decline.

Three days later, on the evening of January 1, in the 22th round of the Premier League, Manchester United faced Burnley at home.

Burnley, who played away, took the lead in launching an attack and frequently created threats from the beginning of the game. In the second and fourth minutes, they created dangerous situations twice in a row. One of them was a direct pass that almost created a one-on-one opportunity, but at the critical moment, Van Dijk decisively slid in the penalty area to clear the ball.

Manchester United then quickly stabilized their position, using their home advantage and passing and controlling the ball to stabilize the tempo and effectively form a defense against the opponent's two wings, forcing Burnley's subsequent attacks to hardly create threats.

In the first ten minutes, Manchester United only had one shot, from Bruno, but it didn't pose a threat. However, Manchester United's defense was good and Burnley was restricted and failed to create a threat.

Both teams deployed very targeted tactics and played important roles. It was difficult for either team to break through the other's defense during the game, making the game intense but somewhat dull.

Both sides were very dedicated, trying their best to break through the other side's defense, but at the same time they were also trying to avoid mistakes. But in the 31st minute, Manchester United launched a counterattack. Left-back Luke Shaw pushed the ball across the center line and passed it to Bruno in the middle.

The Manchester United captain dribbled the ball forward and suddenly passed it to Rashford on the left. Rashford got the ball on the left and was closely guarded by the opponent's right back. When he passed the ball, the ball accidentally touched his opponent's foot and failed to fly into the penalty area to find Harry Kane, but landed on the left side of the penalty area.

Bruno quickly caught up from behind, took the ball before anyone else, and shot with his left foot. The ball shot into Burnley's goal at an extremely fast speed, and Manchester United was the first to break the deadlock on the field.

All the fans in the stadium cheered wildly and kept shouting Bruno's name.

All the Manchester United players rushed out of the field and hugged Bruno to celebrate this hard-earned goal.

………………

In the 67th minute of the game, Manchester United once again intercepted the opponent's lateral pass in the middle. Luke Shaw suddenly rushed forward, intercepted Burnley's pass, quickly dribbled forward, launched a counterattack along the left, was counter-robbed by Burnley players, and quickly passed the ball to Bruno in the middle.

The Manchester United captain was also closely guarded by the opponent. After receiving the ball, he was unable to move forward directly and was forced to turn around to protect the ball and pass it horizontally to Gundogan, who sent the ball directly to the right without stopping.

After Mbappe stopped Gundogan's pass on the right, he saw Cancelo deliberately pressing forward, so he took the initiative to dribble inside, and then suddenly passed the ball to the bottom line. Manchester United's right-back sprinted quickly and caught up with Mbappe's pass.

But this time, Burnley's left-back reacted very quickly, chasing Cancelo all the way, not allowing him the chance to pass directly or cut inside, forcing Cancelo to suddenly stop on the right side of the penalty area and pass the ball back.

Mbappe stopped the ball behind Cancelo and looked up at the penalty area.

Harry Kane was standing right between Burnley's two central defenders, but he pointed behind him, which was obviously a hint to Mbappe to pass the ball to this position.

Mbappe didn't wait for Burnley's defenders to come up, he adjusted himself and made a direct cross, the ball was pressed very low and very fast, and it went directly to the penalty spot in the middle of the penalty area.

………………

"Manchester United attacked from the right, Cancelo had no chance and passed the ball back to Mbappe."

"Mbappe adjusted and passed the ball low into the penalty area to Harry Kane."

"Harry Kane used his body to block two Burnley central defenders, stopped the ball, turned around, and shot directly!"

“The ball goes in!!!!!”

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOALLL!!!!!"

"In the 68th minute, in the 68th minute, Manchester United scored the second goal of the game!"

"It was a fantastic goal from Harry Kane."

"We can see from the slow-motion replay that Mbappe's cross landed in a good spot, right near Harry Kane's right foot, and the England center forward stopped the ball directly to his left, blocked the opponent's two central defenders with his body, turned around and shot directly with great force."

"The shot came very suddenly. The Burnley goalkeeper obviously did not expect that Harry Kane could turn around and shoot in the double-team of two central defenders. This fully demonstrates Harry Kane's superb personal ability."

"Of course, Mbappe's cross from the right was also very accurate."

………………

After losing the ball again, Burnley seemed a little impatient and began to try to counterattack. After all, they had created many dangerous situations in front of Manchester United's goal and were only one step away from scoring.

Manchester United began to stabilize their defense and focus on counterattacks.

Less than six minutes after the second goal, when Burnley attacked the frontcourt, the pass was intercepted by Kante, and Gundogan made a long pass to Harry Kane in the frontcourt.

The Manchester United center forward dribbled the ball forward and the Manchester United trident started at the same time, quickly forming a three-on-three situation in the frontcourt, especially Mbappe on the right. After Burnley's right-back stepped forward to participate in the attack, his side was basically empty.

Harry Kane knew that he was slow in dribbling, so he immediately sent the ball to the right. Mbappe quickly dribbled the ball to the right side of Burnley's penalty area, attracted the defensive players, and suddenly passed the ball back to Harry Kane who was unguarded in the penalty area. The latter stopped, made a slight adjustment, and then made a low shot with his right foot and sent the ball into the lower left corner of the goal.

3: 0!

(End of this chapter)