Football's No. 1 Prodigal Son

The next day after winning the Club World Cup, Manchester City's players hurried back to the UK.

Because in the future, Manchester City still has a series of tough battles to fight.

On January 15, Manchester City played against Manchester United at home.

On January 18, Manchester City played against Arsenal in the first round of the League Cup.

On January 21, Manchester City challenged Bolton away.

On January 25, Manchester City challenged Arsenal away in the second round of the League Cup.

This tight schedule is also amazing, leaving Manchester City with no chance to breathe.

Especially the players have to go through more than ten hours of flight, which is a very difficult test for their physical fitness.

What's worse is that Essien flew directly to Ghana to prepare for the African Cup, which made the team's midfield one less player to rotate.

After returning to Manchester, Yang Luo gave the players two days off to let them adjust to the time difference and take a rest.

As for tactics, they were all put aside.

However, although they had two days of recovery, the players' physical condition was still not at their best.

Fortunately, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho were in good physical condition, and with Wright Phillips and Luca Toni who had rotated before, they could form a very strong frontcourt.

Manchester City's starting lineup for this game was Cech, Sun Jihai, Kompany, Lescott, Milner, Makelele, Joey Barton, Ronaldinho, Wright Phillips, Ronaldo and Teacher Toni.

On the Manchester United side, the starting lineup is goalkeeper David James, and the back line is Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Heinze, Park Ji-sung, Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The two flanks that Manchester United was originally proud of are now a bit shabby in Yang Luo's eyes.

In this game, Yang Luo's main idea is to attack Manchester United's two flanks.

Especially Manchester United's right side, which is Yang Luo's main attack direction.

In this game, he deliberately chose Milner, who was born in the midfield, to play as a left back, just to let him cooperate with Ronaldo and frequently make back insertions!

On the Manchester United side, after seeing Manchester City's starting lineup, the old Sir Alex Ferguson immediately realized that this was Manchester United's best chance to end their losing streak against Manchester City!

So he decisively gave the players an order: "Attack with all your strength, focus on Manchester City's left defense!"

In the eyes of the old Sir, Manchester City's left center back Lescott and left back Milner are Manchester City's absolute weaknesses, and they should seize this opportunity!

The head coaches on both sides actually thought of the same thing, and this matter became interesting.

Before the game started, Manchester City put the newly won Club World Cup trophy on the field, so that all fans can share this joy together.

During this year, Manchester City won the Champions League, European Super Cup and Club World Cup. This is a dream season for Manchester City fans.

Even the commentator Lineker couldn't help but say: "Manchester City's rise is really amazing. If their management framework is stable enough, they may be the representative of English football in the future."

Alan Hansen interrupted and said: "Perhaps in the future, only Abramovich's Chelsea can compete with them!"

After the brief ceremony, the referee blew the whistle to start the game.

Soon after the game started, Tuchel and Ferguson discovered this problem at the same time.

It seems that both sides want to make a big fuss on this side!

Now we have to see which side is harder!

In the seventh minute, Manchester United took the lead.

After Scholes got the ball, he made a long pass and passed it to Park Ji-sung.

After Park Sam-fei stopped the ball, he took a few steps to the middle and passed the ball to Gary Neville who came in from behind.

Although the future literary giant's number of forward insertions has decreased with age, his assist ability has not deteriorated at all.

He just took a look at the situation in the penalty area and made a direct cross at a 45-degree angle!

Van Nistelrooy in the penalty area adjusted his pace, rushed in front of Kompany, and headed the ball!

He deliberately headed a rebound ball for this ball to increase the difficulty of the opponent's goalkeeper's save!

But obviously he underestimated Cech.

The Czech goalkeeper stretched out his long legs in a flash and blocked the ball!

Lescott rushed forward and cleared the ball with one kick!

Ferguson on the sidelines held his head in his hands, unable to believe that the ball was actually blocked!

But the situation on the field did not allow him to forget

Unfortunately, because the ball that Lescott cleared came to Joey Barton's feet.

Barton took a look at the situation in the frontcourt and made a long pass directly to Ronaldo's feet!

At this time, Gary Neville had not returned to his position, and there was no defensive player in front of Ronaldo!

Fletcher hurried over to make up for the position, but Ronaldo had already started to speed up, and with just one acceleration and change of direction, he completely threw him away!

The Portuguese began to speed up, and his two legs were almost running out of the shadow, and it took only a few seconds to kill to the front of Manchester United's penalty area!

Rio Ferdinand made up for the defense, but Ronaldo directly passed the ball to Tony in the penalty area.

Tony leaned on Wes Brown and passed the ball back to Ronaldo who moved horizontally to the top of the arc.

Ronaldo made a fake shot, but his ankle suddenly turned and sent a small straight pass!

Wright Phillips inserted at high speed and shot directly at the football!

The ball was extremely fast. David James just stretched out his hand subconsciously, and the football passed through his fingertips and flew into the goal!

One to zero, Manchester City took the lead!

The fans at the scene cheered loudly, and their team once again led the rivals in the same city!

This made them feel particularly comfortable.

Yang Luo was relieved immediately.

Van Nistelrooy's header just now really shocked him, but fortunately everything was saved.

And judging from this quick counterattack, these Manchester City frontcourt players are in good shape!

As long as the attack is stable, Manchester City will not lose this game!

But Ferguson's face was quite ugly.

He was not very dissatisfied with his defense, but kept thinking about the scene of Manchester United's attack just now.

Manchester United created a great threat in that ball just now, but it was unfortunately resolved by Cech's magical save.

If Cech hadn't made this magical save, Manchester City would not have had this counterattack opportunity!

The results were very different!

Lineker said in the studio: "Both teams created very good opportunities in this transition. In my opinion, Manchester United had better chances than Manchester City. But the goalkeepers of the two teams determined the different results."

Alan Hansen said: "A good goalkeeper can be worth half a team. I quite agree with this statement. With Cech, Manchester City's goal is more stable than Manchester United's!"