From the man behind the football king to the football king

On the afternoon of August 1, 2020, at the New Wembley Stadium.

When referee Anthony Taylor blew the whistle to end the game, Arsenal's players were celebrating, even though they didn't win in terms of score!

The scoreboard showed the time of this game, 120 minutes, and the score was 0:0.

Yes, this game went into overtime, but it still couldn't be decided.

This is the FA Cup final of the 2019-2020 season, with Arsenal playing against Manchester United.

The two teams are the most successful teams in the FA Cup, the oldest event in modern football history. Manchester United has previously entered the FA Cup final 22 times and won 15 times, while Arsenal has entered the final 20 times and won 12 times.

Today's FA Cup final is Manchester United's 23rd time in the FA Cup final, and Arsenal's 21st time.

Since the league failed to qualify for the European war, this FA Cup final became Arsenal's only chance to enter Europe, otherwise the Gunners would not be able to appear in the European arena next season.

Facing Manchester United, who had just won the Premier League for four consecutive times with 99 points and was in high spirits, Arsenal adopted a tactic of defending and counterattacking in the first half of the game. Arteta almost pulled all the players on the field back to his own half to defend, and finally successfully froze Manchester United's attack.

This is an extremely rare performance for Arsenal, which has always been known for its artistic football in the Premier League.

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During the halftime break, many commentators ridiculed Arsenal, believing that Arteta's team adopted a 901 or even 1000 formation and successfully maintained a draw.

Manchester United attacked 21 shots in the first half, but still failed to break Arsenal's goal.

The double central defenders of Tierney and David Luiz, plus the Argentine goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez behind them, made Arsenal's defense impregnable.

Facing the wolf-like Manchester United, it is understandable that Arteta was forced to defend and counterattack.

After all, in the just-concluded Premier League season, 106 goals were scored in 38 league games, almost an average of 3 goals per game. Who is not afraid?

Moreover, because of the disappointing performance in the Premier League, Arsenal failed to qualify for the European War, and the FA Cup became their last seat in the European War.

In this case, it is understandable to be more conservative in this FA Cup final.

But no one expected that after the start of the second half, Arsenal still adopted a strict defense tactic, including striker Lacazette, and everyone retreated across the board.

Obviously, Arteta decided to die to the end!

Arsenal had only a few nine shots in the whole game, one shot on target, three shots off target, and five shots blocked.

The ball possession rate was only 37.6%, just over one-third.

And in the whole game, 57.5% of the football was played in Arsenal's half.

On the other hand, Manchester United had 40 shots in the whole game, but only five shots were really threatening and were blocked 20 times.

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In the 90-minute game, there was one controversy in the first half and the second half.

In the first half, there was a penalty kick. At that time, Bruno rushed into the penalty area with the ball, but was fouled by Arsenal midfielder Xhaka from the side and back.

The VAR referee reminded that the foul should be within the penalty area line, which should be a penalty kick. But after watching the VAR replay, the referee Anthony Taylor still insisted on his penalty, gave Xhaka a yellow card, and awarded Manchester United a free kick on the edge of the penalty area line.

Although the Manchester United players led by Bruno protested solemnly, Anthony Taylor was unmoved and said that if the Manchester United players did not disperse, he would take out the card, forcing the Manchester United players to disperse helplessly.

There was another time in the second half when Bruno scored a single goal, but the linesman raised the flag to indicate offside and blew off the goal, but the VAR replay showed that the offside penalty was very reluctant.

After escaping the disaster twice, Arsenal finally managed to keep the score of 0:0 until 120 minutes later. Neither side scored a goal, and the game was dragged into a penalty shootout.

It can even be said that Arteta and his Arsenal came for the penalty shootout from the beginning of the game!

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The penalty shootout is the most suspenseful, cruelest and most dramatic part of the football field.

According to the official data given by FIFA, the penalty hit rate is 79%. But in fact, the hit rate is useless. Anyone standing on the penalty spot and facing the goal will always worry about the 21%, because that is the key to victory.

Former England national team coach Hoddle once said that even if you kick a thousand or ten thousand times, you still can't practice the penalty skills in the key battle, because the pressure in reality cannot be restored.

Some research institutions have shown that the key to winning a penalty shootout is not penalty kick skills. Eighty to ninety percent of it depends on psychological factors, and ten to twenty percent depends on physiological factors, which has nothing to do with penalty kick skills.

Some people say that penalty kicks are the most perfect test of stress resistance.

In real penalty shootouts, many players are very reluctant to take the first penalty kick because the pressure is too great.

Especially the first and fifth ones, which most players try their best to avoid.

But sometimes some people should step forward without hesitation.

As the captain and the most stable player in the team in taking penalties, Bruno volunteered to take the first penalty kick, and Harry Kane took the last one.

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After guessing the side, Bruno won, Manchester United got the right to choose the side, and Arsenal took the penalty kick first.

The first player to take the penalty for Arsenal was striker Lacazette. His psychological quality has always been quite strong, so he was entrusted with an important task by Arteta and was the first to take the penalty kick.

And Lacazette did not live up to Arteta's trust and calmly scored the penalty kick.

At this time, all the pressure was on Manchester United.

Bruno was the first player in Manchester United to take the penalty kick and took all the pressure.

When he stood at the penalty spot, facing Martinez, he was silently calculating in his heart: In the past few penalty kicks, he always pushed straight to the middle, but this time...

"The ball went in!!!"

"Bruno was very clean and neat, and pushed directly into the lower right corner of the goal at a very fast speed. Martinez thought Bruno would push to the middle again, but he didn't expect Bruno to change his strategy this time."

"Manchester United chose Bruno as the first penalty taker, obviously also valued his strong ability to withstand pressure, and Bruno did not disappoint the outside world's expectations and calmly took the penalty and scored."

"His performance in this game was also quite outstanding. If it weren't for the referee Anthony Taylor's two misjudgments, I believe the game would not have been dragged into a penalty shootout."

"No matter what the final result is, after scoring this penalty, Bruno can leave the new Wembley Stadium proudly."

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After Bruno, in the second round of penalties for Arsenal and Manchester United, Xhaka and Rashford also calmly took the penalty and scored.

In the third round, Aubameyang missed the penalty, but Gundogan calmly scored, which immediately gave Manchester United hope.

Later, Pepe also scored in the fourth round, but Mbappe made a mistake when he took the penalty.

Then Ceballos, Harry Kane, Tierney and Kante also scored.

Until the seventh round, David Luiz scored and Maguire made a mistake.

When Maguire kicked the ball out, Manchester United's vice-captain knew it was over.

He knelt down on the penalty spot and cried.

The pressure was too great!

At this critical moment, no one would blame Maguire. On the contrary, Bruno and Harry Kane walked to Maguire's side one after another, hugged the vice-captain, and other Manchester United players also gathered around one after another.

Many people had tears in their eyes and were unwilling in their hearts.

Manchester United performed very well, but encountered a defensive Arsenal, and the referee's misjudgment eventually dragged them into a brutal penalty shootout, losing the first final in nearly four years.

This was also the first time Bruno participated in a penalty shootout in the final in his career, and it was also the first time he lost in the final in his career!

Originally, if they could beat Arsenal, Manchester United would become the first team in the history of the FA Cup to win five consecutive championships, but unfortunately, Manchester United had no chance to change this record.

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The Manchester United players on the bench also ran into the stadium, and everyone surrounded Maguire. No one tried to persuade him, because at this time, it might be better for him to cry bitterly.

Arsenal players celebrated wildly.

The penalty shootout defeated Manchester United, and they won the first championship in nearly five years and qualified for the Europa League next season.

However, Wolves, who performed well in the league and ranked seventh in the end, could not continue to play in the European war.

At this point, the Premier League teams' places in the 2020-2021 European war have all been settled. Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, the four top teams, will participate in the Champions League, while Leicester City, fifth in the standings, and FA Cup champion Arsenal will directly participate in the Europa League group stage next season. Tottenham, sixth in the standings, will need to participate in the Europa League play-offs to compete for the qualification for the Europa League group stage next season.

After Arsenal won the FA Cup, Manchester United's domestic events in England in the 2019-2020 season have all ended, but this does not mean that they can relax.

On the contrary, the most critical moment of this season is coming: the Champions League knockout round is about to start!

According to the schedule, in addition to the two-round quarter-finals that have ended in mid-March, 8 teams including Manchester United will complete the unfinished 4 Champions League quarter-finals second rounds on the evening of August 7 and August 8.

However, the subsequent Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals will no longer be played in two rounds, but will be decided in one game.

This means that this season's Champions League will only have 11 games in the main competition stage, instead of 13 games in previous seasons!