host must win

In the early morning of April 4, domestic time, the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League were in full swing. Manchester United faced Roma at home.

The game has drawn particular attention due to last week's clash between the two teams, which was also mixed with clashes between fans and police.Due to Scholes' suspension, Ferguson replaced him with Fletcher, partnered with Carrick and Yin Jun in the midfield, while Ronaldo, Rooney and Giggs formed the striker trident. In addition, O'Shea appeared At right-back, Brown filled the vacancy left by Vidic's injury.Roma Perotta was also suspended, Pizarro returned to the main lineup at the end of the hearing, while Taddei was injured before the game and was temporarily replaced by Vucinic in the starting lineup.

When the international referee Rubeus Michel from Slovakia rang the bell for the second time, Yin Juncai led the Manchester United players slowly out of the home team locker room.

When we came to the entrance of the player channel, the players of Roma had already stood in a team here.

The players of the two teams are from all over the world. Although they are not familiar with each other, they have known each other after the first round of the match, so they greeted each other politely.

In European football, especially the four major leagues, whether they are big or small, God knows when they will transfer to teammates, so off the court, they are more polite to each other.

As the captains of the two teams, coupled with the friendly remarks before the game, Yin Jun and Totti also talked and laughed.

Rubes Michel led the referee team to confirm the players before going on the field and a series of tasks.

In such a peaceful situation, no one expected that the upcoming game would be a very "bloody" massacre!

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Spalletti is quite different among Italian coaches. He advocates offense and has a variety of tactics, but in the Roma team, he is most famous for his no-front wolf tactics.

Totti was pushed to the front, with Mancini, Vucinic and Williamson behind him, De Rossi and Pizarro as the double midfielders. This style of play pays attention to Totti's retreat. The organization of the ball, as well as the fast diagonal penetration of other players behind.

But Manchester United has also made sufficient preparations for this. Ferguson even thought of Rome's opening attack.So at the beginning of the game, when Roma launched a massive offensive against Manchester United, the Red Devils were more defensive.

In this game, Ferguson used the double midfielder combination of Carrick and Fletcher, and Yin Jun came forward.

After the game started, the combination of Fletcher and Carrick firmly blocked Roma's attack.The Red Wolves couldn't break through Manchester United's defense, so they could only frequently shoot long shots from the outside.

In the first 10 minutes, Roma had a total of three or four long-range shots. They were kicked by Pizarro, Totti and Vucinic, but none of them could create a threat. All three shots missed the goal.

After sustaining Roma's opening attack, Manchester United gradually stabilized their position and began to plot a counterattack.

After all, this is Manchester United's home court!
Although the Manchester City Stadium is not as big as the Old Trafford Stadium, in the eyes of crazy Red Devils fans, there is actually no difference.

When Manchester United started to attack, the Manchester United fans in the stands completely turned the entire stadium into a raging red sea. The stadium seemed to be a small boat floating in the ocean with the waves rising and falling.

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At the beginning of the game, the Roma players launched a crazy attack on Manchester United and frequently created murderous intentions.Manchester United goalkeeper Van der Sar became the busiest player in the defense.

But with Carrick, Fletcher and Yin Jun at the front of the penalty area, Roma can only impose threats through long-range shots. Although Manchester United's defense line and Van der Sar did not make mistakes, it still gives people a feeling of precarity. .

Especially when Rome launched an attack from the left, Mancini hoisted the ball into the penalty area. Van der Sar quickly abandoned the goal and took the ball out of the air before Vucinic, which shocked everyone. In a cold sweat.Then Van der Sar didn't have any extra time to think, and kicked the ball forward with a big foot.

He wanted to pass directly to the left to find Giggs, but at this time, Giggs was still in his own half and couldn't catch up at all.The ball went straight out of bounds and turned into a foul for Rome.

This was a mistake by Manchester United. Van der Sar made a mistake in his busy schedule. Although it did not cause losses, it also caused the team to lose the ball.

The Dutch goalkeeper held up his left hand and apologized to all his teammates.

Yin Jun clapped his hands vigorously, encouraging his teammates not to be discouraged, as long as they survive this period of time, the team will be stable!
Everyone in Manchester United is also psychologically prepared for this situation. Ferguson said before the game that because of the loss at home in the first leg, in order to recover the unfavorable situation as soon as possible, Roma is likely to attack.And this period of time may be 10 minutes, or 15 minutes, or even if it is longer, it may be 10 minutes.

The tactics of Italian coaches are very changeable, who can guess their minds?
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Spalletti has been on the sidelines since the start.When the bald man in Italy saw Van der Sar kick the ball out of bounds, he couldn't help applauding and encouraged the Roma players loudly: "Great! That's the way it is, keep putting pressure on them!"

After Spalletti shouted, he turned around and walked to the visiting team's coaching bench.

The opening attack, this is the game strategy he formulated. In addition to losing the game at home in the first round, Roma was in trouble, and they would be eliminated if they did not win the second round. In addition, he wanted to disrupt the rhythm of Manchester United.

Because of the reconstruction of the Old Trafford stadium, Manchester United had to say goodbye to the most terrifying devil's home stadium in Europe in recent years this season, but the powerful Red Devils immediately turned the city stadium into an even more terrifying devil's home stadium.

In this season, Manchester United has played 23 games in the city stadium, with an unimaginable record of 22 wins and 1 tie!
Since Manchester United began to use the City Stadium as their home in August last year, no team has ever been able to take away a victory here, whether it is England's traditional top four Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, or European powerhouses Celtic, Copenhagen , Benfica and Lille all failed to get out of here.

And the only one who can not lose here is Wenger's Arsenal.Although the overall performance of the Gunners this season is somewhat disappointing, they have become the only team in Europe that can draw with Manchester United at the City Stadium!
The slogan that Roma yelled was victory, but in fact Spalletti knew very well that it was even more difficult to win at Manchester United's home court.

However, despite knowing the difficulties, Spalletti did not want to admit defeat.

This is the first time in the past 23 years that Rome has entered the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Spalletti wants to go one step further, and even reach the final all the way to win the first Champions League in team history!