Manchester United legend

Chapter 106
Manchester United's opponent in the quarter-finals of the Champions League is Porto.The first leg was home to Manchester United, and Cantona once again put on an excellent performance.

He beat the opponent with goals, drove the team with his excellent performance, and finally created this wonderful victory.

The Manchester United team performed well. In Patty Schrant's words, "We played them out of the field with skill and confidence. This is Sir Matt Busby's way of playing. Alex should be proud of this." Of course, Giggs, who was criticized by Ferguson, also performed very well.

In the end, Manchester United played the masterpiece of the European war this season: swept the opponent 4-0!The huge advantage in the first round made the second round almost tasteless. Manchester United drew with their opponents 0-0 in the second round away and successfully advanced to the semi-finals.

Manchester United's opponent in the semi-finals is Borussia Dortmund in Germany.The first Manchester United away trip to Germany, the time of that game was the most difficult time for Manchester United, the league title race was at its most intense stage, Ferguson could not even piece together a suitable lineup: Giggs and Irvine were both on the bench, and Paul Jost did not play.

But even so, Manchester United still played impressively in the away game, and the scene was no worse than their opponents.In fact, Dortmund should be more thankful for God's blessing: Manchester United controlled the situation in the two rounds, but Ferguson's team repeatedly missed opportunities in front of the goal. Cantona, Giggs, Beckham and others even wasted countless good opportunities to score goals.

Dortmund created no more than four chances in two rounds, far less than Manchester United's nearly 10 chances.In the second round, Dortmund's Ricken scored with his first shot, giving the Red Devils a head-on blow.

Manchester United also created a lot of chances when they suppressed the opponent's attack in the game, but Cantona suddenly fell silent, and Beckham and Giggs were unable to recover.

The whole team squandered countless chances to save themselves. In fact, Manchester United blasted a full 21 kicks without scoring a single goal.

Gary Neville recalls, "In the Dortmund first leg, we had three great chances. Butt hit the post, Eric missed from 15 yards and Beckham's chance was blocked on the line.

We were really unlucky, but Dortmund seemed to have won the lottery, and their goal was reflected on Pallister and into the net!We deserve better than 0-1.

However, even if Jost received a yellow card in Germany and the second leg was suspended at home, we still have reasons to give it our all.

In his absence we put Eric behind Andy Cole and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to strengthen the attack.

We were down to 0-2 on aggregate when Russ Rickon took the lead with their first attack.The game had just started, but even though we needed three goals to come back, we didn't give up.

We kept attacking, we kept pressing, we created unbelievable chances.The best one ever came from Eric.

Cole's cross found him six yards inside the box, but just before the equaliser, Jurgen Kohler blocked the way and Eric's shot hit him.In the end, we could only accept two 6-0 defeats. "

Gary Neville noticed the desperation in Cantona's eyes, "It was a big blow for Eric, even after we defended the Premier League and celebrated in the Hacienda, everyone had a good time, but Eric was absent-minded, and he has been since we were out of the Champions League.

We soon found out that the loss to Dortmund and the way it was lost must have had a huge impact on Eric.We weren't beaten by a great team, we just didn't take our chances. "

Ferguson rejected the notion that his side had underperformed in both games: "I have no criticism, my players have given everything and I can't ask for more than a few fewer goals."

Both rounds were defeated by the opponent by one goal, and the Red Devils obviously would not be convinced.

Ferguson later confirmed: "After being unfairly treated by the cruel reality, Cantona came to talk to me the next day. He was the most sad and disappointed one."

In fact, the loss to Dortmund in the semi-finals gave Ferguson two revelations: First, the well-prepared Manchester United in their heyday can completely fight against opponents like Dortmund, and they will not necessarily fall into a disadvantage on the scene.

The second point is that Manchester United's loss was just bad luck. This enlightenment was verified again later in the final between Juventus and Dortmund.

Although Dortmund ended up beating Juventus 3-1, the score looked like a big gap.

But in fact it was Juventus who had the advantage, but Rickon opened the scoring for Dortmund with a world wave 35 meters away, and then defeated the old woman who had to attack aggressively through a steady counterattack.

Another factor that has to be mentioned is that the biggest star of Juventus at the time, Del Piero, was put on the bench by Lippi and was unable to start because of his serious injury.

Juventus, who were always under the control of their opponents, had fallen behind their opponents by two goals in the 34th minute. In the end, in order to reverse the disadvantage as soon as possible, Lippi decided to take the risk of dispatching Del Piero, who had not yet recovered, to play in the second half.Lippi's transfer took effect after 15 minutes, Juventus chased the score to 1 to 2, and this important goal that may bring the team back to life was scored by Del Piero.But in the end, Piero still failed to save the team's defeat.

It is very likely that Ferguson gained confidence again from these few games.

Although they lost to Juventus twice, it can already be seen from the score that the gap between Manchester United and the top European champion teams is very small.

In the match against Dortmund, Manchester United even has the advantage.

Although Manchester United's Champions League trip did not reach the final, it allowed us to see new forces that have been rising.

The 92 generation is growing into the backbone of the team. Their vigor, control, and skillful passing and cutting cooperation in the game, as well as their quick-silver and pervasive offensive football, have gradually made many fans fall in love with this team.

For many Manchester United players, being able to reach the quarter-finals is enough to be proud, and reaching the semi-finals is already considered a great achievement, an unexpected surprise.Even Ferguson believes that Manchester United's Champions League journey this season is not a failure.The semi-finals of the Champions League, this is already a huge improvement for Manchester United.

(End of this chapter)