From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 545: Tie the team's undefeated record

At 2 pm on February 3rd, local time in the UK, Manchester United faced Huddersfield at Old Trafford. This was the 26th round of the Premier League.

Before the game started, good news came from Turf Moor Stadium, the Red Wine Army Burnley tied Manchester City 1:1. This means that as long as Manchester United can beat Huddersfield Town at home today, they will once again expand their advantage in the standings to 10 points.

However, playing two games in a week has made Manchester United's main players generally not in good physical condition, especially in this game. It has only been 65 hours since the end of Manchester United's game with Tottenham. Even if Bruno has a system, he still feels that his physical condition is not good.

Therefore, in this home game, Mourinho made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's starting lineup. Among the players who started the game against Tottenham, only goalkeeper De Gea continued to start today.

Because of the crushing defeat at home in the first leg, Huddersfield knew the gap between themselves and Manchester United. Although Manchester United made a large-scale rotation, Huddersfield was still very low-key at the Theatre of Dreams. After all, they are now deep in the relegation zone, so they plan to set up a solid defense at Old Trafford and take 1 point.

Manchester United, without top attackers such as Bruno, Harry Kane, Mbappe and Rashford, was helpless in the face of the opponent's iron formation and was unable to break through the opponent's defense.

In the first half of the game, the referee made several controversial decisions. He turned a blind eye to McTominay and Mata being knocked down by opponents in the penalty area, which was met with overwhelming boos from the home fans at Old Trafford.

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Mourinho was very dissatisfied with the team's performance in the first half, so he made two substitutions in the midfield. Bruno replaced Mata, and Harry Kane replaced veteran Ibrahimovic.

Mourinho's two substitutions quickly took effect.

In the 55th minute, Manchester United broke the deadlock. Bruno made a cross from the left, and Harry Kane volleyed the ball into the near corner of the penalty area. This was his 19th league goal this season, ranking third in the scorer list after teammate Bruno and Liverpool striker Salah.

Manchester United's morale was boosted after breaking the deadlock, and they formed an siege on Huddersfield on the field.

But soon, Manchester United encountered another controversial penalty. In the 61st minute of the game, Harry Kane broke into the right side of the penalty area and fell under the opponent's close defense, but the referee still ignored it.

The referee ignored three penalties, which caused a complete uproar at Old Trafford.

Mourinho on the sidelines was furious. The Magic Bird completely forgot the series of praises he had made to the referee after the game with Manchester City, and also completely forgot what he had said about having the utmost respect for the referee.

As the captain on the field, Bruno also protested to the referee, but his attitude was relatively mild and he did not overstep the line.

The protests of Manchester United players still put a lot of pressure on the referee, which meant that when a Manchester United player was brought down by the opponent in the penalty area again, the referee dared not ignore the opponent's foul and awarded Manchester United the penalty kick they deserved.

In the 68th minute of the game, Bruno was tripped by substitute Hefele at the edge of the penalty area. After a moment of hesitation, the referee awarded a penalty.

Bruno took the penalty kick himself and easily scored, changing the score to 2:0.

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This was also the final score of the game. Manchester United extended their unbeaten record in the Premier League to 28 games, just one step away from the team's longest unbeaten record of 29 games.

曼联队史上曾经有两次29场英超不败，分别是1998年12月到1999年10月，以及2010年4月到2011年2月。

而29场的不败记录，在英超历史上仅仅排在第四位，身前还有阿森纳在2001年12月到2002年10月创造的英超30场不败，切尔西在2004年10月到2005年10月创造的英超40场不败，以及阿森纳保持的49场的英超历史最长不败记录。

It is worth mentioning that two of the top three unbeaten records were broken by Manchester United, and Arsenal's 30-game unbeaten record in the Premier League was also broken in some way with Manchester United, because the person who broke the unbeaten record was Wayne Rooney, who later transferred to Manchester United and grew into the team captain and team record holder.

This victory not only allowed Manchester United to extend their record-breaking streak to 28 games, but also allowed them to once again lead the standings by 10 points.

With only 12 rounds left in the Premier League, it is almost a foregone conclusion that they will win the 15th Premier League title in team history.

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It is February 2018. In the middle of this month, the Champions League will resume after a long hiatus and start the 2/1 finals. Many fans can't wait, after all, the major leagues have been a bit dull during this period. Except for Serie A, the leaders of the five major leagues are already more than 8 points ahead of the second place.

The suspense of the championship in the highly watched Premier League and La Liga is not great. Given the stability of Manchester United and Barcelona, ​​the possibility of a reversal in the remaining dozen rounds is very small.

With the league being a bit boring, the Champions League will naturally attract special attention.

One of the reasons for looking forward to the Champions League is, of course, its own excitement. The Champions League is the highest level of football competition in the world. As the Champions League has attracted more and more attention and the economic benefits of participating in the Champions League have become more and more considerable, the teams that have participated in the Champions League for a long time have gradually formed a "circle".

Whether from the perspective of attracting players or fans, the Champions League is a very important factor, and its importance is still increasing. If this trend continues, the Champions League will naturally become more and more elite. The group stage may become more and more boring, but in the knockout stage, it will become more and more intense.

Specific to this season, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich each have their own hidden worries. Paris Saint-Germain is aggressive but not unstoppable. The Premier League giants are collectively heading for the Champions League knockout stage... It is difficult to say who is the biggest favorite to win the championship now. There will be many teams that have the idea of ​​winning the championship, and this idea may not be completely fantasy from a practical point of view.

It is somewhat unexpected that the Premier League and La Liga have such a clear leader at this stage this season.

When the leaders are in high spirits, there will naturally be some teams that are relatively lost. For these teams, the Champions League is undoubtedly an opportunity to "get back on track".

Real Madrid basically only has the Champions League title to compete for, and Manchester City is also looking forward to performing well in the Champions League.

Even if Barcelona wins both domestic titles, if Real Madrid can win the Champions League for the third time in a row, this historic achievement will be enough to overshadow its arch-rivals; it may be more difficult for Manchester City to win the title, but if they can play well in the Champions League and go as far as possible, Guardiola will face less pressure.

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After winning Huddersfield, Manchester United finally had a chance to breathe. In the next two weeks, they will play one game a week, which is too relaxed for Manchester United this season.

Especially in the week of early February, the time interval between Manchester United's two games was as long as eight days! Their game against Huddersfield was on the afternoon of February 2, and the next game against Newcastle was on the afternoon of February 2!

However, this is also the only time in this season when Manchester United's schedule is relatively relaxed, because after late February, Manchester United will face a death schedule of fighting on four fronts.

Under such circumstances, except for the Premier League where Manchester United has a relatively obvious advantage, losing any game may cause Manchester United to miss a championship!

Because there was relatively ample time, at Bruno's suggestion, Manchester United management, with Mourinho's consent, took a four-day short vacation.

However, the players were not allowed to take individual vacations. Instead, the entire team flew on a special team plane to the team owner's hometown, the small Middle Eastern country of Qatar, to enjoy the warm sunshine and beaches.

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I don't know if it was because the Manchester United players were not used to the cold England after staying in the warm Qatar for a few days, or if they suddenly relaxed after a long period of high-intensity competition and it was very difficult to get nervous again. In any case, in the away game against Newcastle, Manchester United players performed very badly in the first half. Facing Newcastle, ranked 16th in the standings, Manchester United could not attack for a long time and the two sides went into the halftime break with a score of 0:0.

After the start of the second half, Manchester United continued to attack Newcastle's half, but first Harry Kane's goal was cancelled due to a foul, and Mbappe's determined shot was cleared by the opponent's defender Lejeune on the goal line.

When Manchester United players became a little anxious and the whole team pressed forward to attack, their city was lost.

In the 65th minute, Newcastle counterattacked. Although their attack was stopped by Manchester United at the cost of a foul outside the penalty area, Shelvey's free kick was passed into the penalty area, Lejeune headed the ball, Gayle passed it back, and Matt Ritchie shot low into the net from 10 yards.

1:0, the home team took the lead, and Manchester United was once again on the verge of losing.

Seeing the situation was not good, Mourinho quickly made substitutions. Rashford and Mbappe were both replaced by Lingard and Mahrez.

But until the 424th minute of the game, Manchester United still failed to break through Newcastle's iron wall. In desperation, Mourinho could only use his last trick. He replaced Gundogan with Ibrahimovic, and Manchester United changed the formation to , with four forwards.

Manchester United fought hard and finally equalized the score in the 87th minute. In the corner kick melee, Harry Kane and Ibrahimovic's two consecutive shots in front of the small penalty area were blocked by Gayle, but facing Bruno's follow-up shot, Newcastle finally had no one to stop it.

In the end, Manchester United drew 1:1 with Newcastle, getting their second draw of the season, but they also tied the team's unbeaten record of 29 games.

Bruno scored another goal, bringing his league goal tally to 33 this season.