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Chapter 973
After the match with Birmingham, January has come to an end. In this month, Manchester United has only one game left.

On the 30th of the end of the month, Manchester United went away to play Saints Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

The final result of the game was 2:1. Manchester United, which was also half-substitute and half-main, took a two-goal lead in the first half. Fan Bizhuang and Hernandez contributed to the team respectively.Although a goal was scored by the opponent in stoppage time, it had no effect on the overall situation.

Manchester United successfully advanced to the sixth round of the FA Cup.If we can go one step further, Manchester United will reach the semi-finals, and the final is only a stone's throw away.

In the past January, although Manchester United's performance has had ups and downs, the worst result was a draw by Tottenham. They will doze off, but when they wake up, they are still unstoppable ferocious tigers.As for the situation of being as fierce as a tiger in the first half and being as weak as a cat in the second half, no matter who it happened to, it would not happen to Manchester United.

This kind of strength is actually very disappointing to the competitors who are struggling to catch up. Manchester United this season is too stable. They tried their best, but they couldn't catch up—let alone narrow the gap It's a blessing not to be pulled bigger and bigger.After all, no one is as cruel as Manchester United, who can win crazy games without losing.

It was as if Manchester United were tied by Tottenham before. This was a good opportunity to chase points. Chelsea, Liverpool and other teams behind them also took advantage of the situation to narrow some gaps. But in the next round, Manchester United returned to normal and continued to win. Some strong teams have lost the chain again.The point difference was widened again.

Therefore, it is a wise saying that there is no team that is always victorious and undefeated. The difference lies in who can win more and grab more points.At the beginning of this season, Manchester United has gone on the road of frantically grabbing points.

It can be said that although there are still more than three months before the end of the league, everyone knows that if there are no accidents, there is almost no suspense about who will be the league champion this season.

……

When many tycoons have lost confidence in the league title this season, Manchester United still continues to consolidate their lead in the standings.

As time entered February, Manchester United defeated Aston Villa with a crisp 3:1, making a good start for the new month.

Then he was a guest at Wolverhampton in the Midwest, beating the Wolves 2:1.

However, the momentum of Manchester United's three-game winning streak soon stopped. In the Manchester Derby with Manchester City in the middle of the month, Manchester United was unexpectedly tied 0:0 by Manchester City in an away game.

It is indeed a pity for Manchester United to fail to double-kill their rivals in the same city this season, but it has little impact on the overall situation of the league.

Followed by the sixth round of the FA Cup, Manchester United played away against Crawley.

The Crawley team can be regarded as a big dark horse in this year's FA Cup. This team is very unfamiliar to many people, including local British fans, because although their team building history is long enough, in fact , They were not a professional team before, and they did not even turn into a semi-professional team until nearly 70 years after the team was established.

That is, this year, after they won the championship in the All England League, they were promoted to the Second Division of England.

It is such a semi-professional and semi-amateur team that stumbled all the way to the present and became the first non-professional league team to advance to the sixth round of the FA Cup in 17 years. This is really shocking. Glasses.

But it's normal to think about it. The FA Cup is an event that teams of all levels across the country can participate in. When teams in high-level leagues don't pay much attention to this event, many low-level teams have The opportunity to show their faces, they don't have to achieve any good results. For them, being able to gain a sense of presence in the cup, making people recognize them, know their names, and even have the opportunity to play against powerful teams, that I am satisfied.

In the history of the FA Cup, there are many examples of dark horse teams going all the way through, and even reached the semi-finals and even the finals. Of course, the dark horse of the Crawley team is indeed a little too dark, and it went all the way to the sixth round.

But in any case, this is a "fish belly" that is not even considered a professional team. Naturally, Ferguson will not let his team "go all out" against such an opponent.

Therefore, in this game, Ferguson dispatched a starting lineup that was almost dominated by substitutes. Even Fan Bizhuang, who currently has the highest attendance rate in the team, sat on the bench. As for Kaka, Scholes and other teams The main force stayed in Manchester City directly, and did not come with the team at all.

Speaking of it, Crowley is also a very interesting team, and it can barely have something to do with the two Manchester teams-Manchester United is nicknamed the Red Devils, while Crowley's home jersey is also red, and their nicknames are It is the "Red Devil", which is only one letter away from Manchester United.

Similar to Manchester City, Crowley also has a "nickname" called "non-professional Manchester City"-because of the huge capital injection from the UAE consortium, Manchester City is now spending a lot of money in the transfer market Although Crowley is a non-professional team, in the past two years, there have also been huge investments by wealthy people and massive signings.Of course, their signings are not as strong as Manchester City, and they can't attract football stars, but the quality is not enough to make up for the quantity. Anyway, the Crowley team has a lot of fun buying people, and the local tyrants are catching up with Manchester City-so it becomes Manchester City ranked second, known as "non-professional Manchester City".

……

To be able to reach this point in the domestic cup competition, the Crowley team is lucky enough, and the strength is not too bad. At least as far as Ferguson observed in the game, the Crowley team is capable of gaining a foothold in the low-level league. .

But that's it.

Now that they have come to this point, the next step is the semi-finals. Naturally, Ferguson and his team will not give up this championship easily.

Even though he played as a full substitute, his strength is still significantly better than that of the Crowley team. In other words, in the top league, Manchester City, a big local tycoon, has been suppressed by Manchester United and has little power to fight back, let alone this "Manchester City No. [-]" ?
The process of the game was almost one-sided. Manchester United completely occupied the initiative on the field, and the goal came early. No. 12 minutes in the first half, Hernandez received Owen's pass and scored with a header from the center , the away team came out on top.

In the following time, although Manchester United attacked like a wave, almost beating the home team in the half court, but they were always lacking in finishing touches, and the offense was lively, but they still failed to score again. The final result of the game was fixed at 1:0.
Manchester United won a small goal and advanced to the FA Cup semi-finals.

And the Crowley team, who lost the game, was not discouraged. For such a result, this small town team had long been psychologically prepared. In fact, they were already very satisfied with being able to go all the way to the present.And the one who eliminated them was the overlord of the top league. It can be said that they lost, and they lost face.

After the game, the home fans gave warm cheers and applause to the Manchester United stars who came to the away game, and Crowley's players were like groupies, looking for Manchester United players to exchange jerseys and ask for autographs.

And Fan Bizhuang, who sat on the bench for 10 minutes in this game, is obviously the most popular and sought-after star. After the game, almost half of the players in Crowley's team approached him and proposed to exchange jerseys There is only one jersey, and Fan Bizhuang can only meet the request of one player, but Fan Bizhuang sent his autograph to the opponents who did not get the jersey.

It was unexpected that a football game turned into a "fan meeting" with a relaxed and harmonious atmosphere.

……

The league points advantage is obvious, and the domestic cup has also successfully reached the semi-finals. Manchester United can be said to have no worries in the domestic arena, which allows them to deal with the upcoming UEFA Champions League without pressure for the time being.

Time has entered the second half of February, and the flames of the European fixtures are finally rekindled.

Manchester United, who advanced as the top of the group, drew second in Group B in the semi-finals, from the veteran giants Marseille in the French League.

Marseille is indeed a traditional giant in the French league. This team was founded in 1899, and its team history has exceeded 100 years, which is considered to have a long history.In Marseille's honor room, there are nine Ligue [-] champions and ten French Cup champions. They also have a UEFA Champions League trophy.

In terms of the number of league championship trophies, Marseille ranks second in the French top league, second only to Saint-Etienne, which has won ten league titles. It deserves to be the first.

Judging from the honors received, Marseille is the NO.1 in the French league.

However, in recent years, with the decline of Ligue [-], the names of the top five European leagues have somewhat misplaced their names, and the Marseille team has gradually gone downhill. Not only has it lost much competitiveness in the "foreign war", even The domestic base camp has a trend of being unable to hold on. With the rise of Lyon, the status of the domestic leader has been lost, and even the position of the second child can't hold on-the rise of Paris Saint-Germain and Saint-Etienne With the impact of Monaco, in the current Ligue [-] arena, Marseille can only barely be regarded as a team with the strength to compete for the championship.

Nowadays, Ligue [-] is not considered the first-class level in European football, let alone a team that is not considered a top-notch team in this "pseudo-first-class" league. So when the result of the draw was announced, Ferguson could be said to be beaming with joy. One is signed, with Manchester United's strength and current excellent state, it is almost guaranteed to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

(End of this chapter)