Legend of Green: Rise of the Red Rebels

At 16

:30 on 26 February 2017, referee Andrea Marinaner (the one who couldn't tell the difference between Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gibbs) blew the whistle on time for the start of the 16-17 League Cup, and Robertson won Smalling on the side, so United kicked off first.

Ibrahimovic gently flicked the ball, and he did not rush forward, but turned back and watched the ball pass under the feet of his teammates, jumping in small broken steps and slowly moving towards the rear of FC United.

As we all know, although Ibrahimovic is up to 1.95 meters tall, he is not a center forward, he is not satisfied with staying in the box with himself, Ibrahimovic is a top technical and comprehensive striker, with his own offensive system, the ability to carry the ball on his back is a nightmare for defenders, as long as he is there, a mid-table team can be brought to the league championship by him, and around him, even a second-rate star can play top statistics.

What makes fans talk the most is Ibrahimovic's way of scoring, all kinds of barbs, scorpion tail swings, heels, world waves, usually a player scored a ball that can blow for a lifetime on Ibrahimovic can make a half-hour highlights.

I think the fans are familiar with these things, and Lu Wei is also familiar with them, but he didn't think of how to limit Ibrahimovic's play, and he couldn't think of it, and the only person who could limit Ibrahimovic's play was himself.

Neither Martial nor Jesse Lingard were the ones who could control the ball in midfield, so United's playmaking work was handed over to Juan Mata and Pogba, who was not ashamed of his hairstyle today, and after receiving a pass from Rojo, he flipped the ball into the air and passed it to Mata with a fancy outside foot.

Accustomed to it, Mata rolled his eyes, honestly stopped the ball with the arch of his foot and turned around, observing his teammate's movement before Pogba passed the ball, and as soon as he finished turning, he shoved the ball to Jesse Lingard, but this attempt was sabotaged by the astute McGim.

But Mata is not an idle person, in the first time of losing the ball launched a counter-grab, McGim knew that he could not control the ball, immediately passed the ball to Madison, Maddison knew that Herrera was not far behind him, so did not turn around with the ball, but dunked the ball to the left, intending to attack from the wing.

Although Herrera is not a sticky bean-bag defense, he also follows Madison's forward route, not allowing him to comfortably break through and pass, and only leaves Madison with a return pass.

Madison's ability to hold the ball is not very strong, and he took two steps to see that there was no chance to pass the ball back to Robertson, who kept kicking the ball to the right with a big foot, this pass was still less powerful, failed to pass in front of Bowen, and Rojo also ran to the landing point and competed with Bowen for a header.

1.82-meter Bowen and 1.86-meter Rojo did not fall behind in the battle for the high-altitude ball, but the two failed to control the football in each other's pushing, the football was pushed by Rojo two meters away, Bowen jumped and landed the first time to run over to get the ball, but Rojo is also a person who participated in the World Cup final after all, and stopped Bowen behind him with his arm extended, and kicked the ball to Pogba in two steps.

Although Pogba's style of play is sometimes fancy, his foot technique really does not look like a black man, a change of rhythm dodged Sollot, who came to press, and he carried the ball forward, all the way through the half, until McKim came to interfere and gave the ball to Martial, who cut inside with the ball and Ibrahimovic to hit the wall and then inserted into the box.

Tavernir's speed is not slow, stretching out a kick in advance to clear Ibrahimovic's pass out of the bottom line, Mata walked to the corner area to prepare for a corner, waiting for his teammates to stand in position, stretched out his arm to open a corner, the football flew straight to the middle to find an assist in the front of Smalling, but was relieved by Tarkovsky, who had taken a good position, and the offensive and defensive roles were changed again.

At the beginning of the game, both teams did not have any temptation, directly played a frontal attack, Manchester United around Ibrahimovic and Pogba as the core of the attack, FC United with two sides as the core of the attack.

Robertson's high-quality cross was cleared by Smalling, Pogba held the ball in the middle to shoot from distance, Taphnir broke past Rojo into the box and crossed was blocked by Bailly, Ibrahimovic attracted a defensive score in the middle to shoot Jesse Lingard deflected, and for a while the two teams played equally, making it impossible to see that Manchester United's opponent is a Championship team.

When there is a stalemate in football, there is always a star who single-handedly changes the direction of the game, but the person who came forward first today did not wear a green and gold jersey.

In the 18th minute, Pogba held the ball in the middle and slammed the heel to Herrera, Herrera led the ball forward to break through, Hayden front defense saw that Herrera's foot ball was relatively large, directly a flying tackle wanted to shovel the ball out, but Herrera was waiting for him, stretched his leg to pass the ball to the left, let the ball out of Hayden's control, and he was thrown to the ground by Hayden's tackle.

However, Herrera was ready so he was not injured, but he still held his calf in pain, and referee Marina decisively blew a foul and gave Hayden a yellow card, and Manchester United won a free kick from 27 meters.

This position is very angled, the distance is not far, see Pogba and Ibrahimovic standing in front of the ball, FC United is also like a big enemy, Bowen, Maddison, McGim and Sollot form a four-man wall, Mendy is also standing on the goal line, waiting for Manchester United's shot.

Is it Ibrahimovic or Pogba to take the penalty, Mendy thought so, he did not consider the possibility of passing, because Lu Wei said in preparation for training that Manchester United's direct free kicks rarely choose to pass, whether it is Ibrahimovic or Pogba are very confident people, as long as there is a possibility of scoring, they will choose to shoot directly, and the person who takes the free kick is likely to be Ibrahimovic.

Sure enough, it was Ibrahimovic, the referee's whistle, Ibrahimovic did not hesitate, ran to the football in three or four steps, kicked a powerful free kick, the football with some arcs around the top of Maddison's head, passed by Sollot's ear, the football flew over the wall and began to fall, Mendy had stretched his body to the extreme when he saw the football, but still couldn't reach it, the ball was too fast, the quality was too high, and the football drilled into the lower left corner of the net.

In the 19th minute, United took the lead, and Ibrahimovic scored and ran to his own half, jumping up and punching in celebration, receiving congratulations from his teammates and cheers from the fans.

Worthy of the horse in the red rabbit, the man in Ibrahimovic, Manchester United has never created a threatening attack, just such a free kick opportunity, let Ibrahimovic score a wonderful goal, Lu Wei's brows began to wrinkle.

After reopening the ball, the two teams are still playing in the same way as before the goal did not happen, and the lag is also in Lu Wei's budget, after all, Manchester United is Manchester United, so even if it is suddenly broken by a free kick, FC United does not have any mood swings and continues to play at their own pace.

The Reds' offensive was getting tougher, with Smalling and Bailly frequently in the box, Herrera also receiving a yellow card while defending Maddison, and in the 27th minute, McGim almost helped FC United equalize with a close kick, De Gea fell quickly and reached out to save the ball.

In the 31st minute, Sollot ran out of the open space to receive a pass from Maddison and shot with his left foot, the football hit the foot of the defender Smalling to produce a line change, De Gea reacted very quickly, although the body had lost its center of gravity, but still blocked the ball with his foot, and rushed to hold the ball under him before Sollotte could make up the shot.

As the saying goes, those who waste chances are punished, and in the 38th minute, Ibrahimovic and Jesse Lingard switched positions, Ibrahimovic attracted the defense and then passed the ball to Lingard, who awkwardly pushed the ball out with the arch of his foot, and the ball flew through between Tarkovsky's legs and flew towards the goal.

Mendy, whose vision was blocked, could not react and could only quickly fall to the ground to reach the football, but the angle of the ball was also very tricky, although the ball was not fast, but it still could not prevent the ball from entering the net.

At 2-0, Ibrahimovic provided an assist after scoring a world wave, and FC United were already two goals behind.