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

On the afternoon of April 4, a key match of the 28th round of the Premier League kicked off at the Millennium Stadium, with the Red Devils Manchester United playing against the Blues Chelsea at home.

Although Manchester United's advantage in the standings has shrunk sharply due to the loss to Manchester City in the make-up match four days ago, and is only 3 points ahead of Liverpool, which is second in the standings, Mourinho still made a comprehensive rotation of Manchester United's lineup in this game, because 48 hours after the end of this game, Manchester United will face Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final at home.

Because the schedule is too tight, 48 hours is not enough for the players to recover their physical strength, so Manchester United must make a choice, either give up this Premier League game or give up the upcoming Champions League semi-final.

This choice was very difficult, but Mourinho decided to strategically give up this Premier League game without much hesitation. Because in the Premier League, Manchester United still has a 3-point advantage and is also in an advantage in terms of goal difference, which gives them a certain margin of error in the Premier League.

Even if Manchester United loses to Chelsea in this game and Liverpool and Manchester City both win, they will only be tied by Liverpool and will still be 1 point ahead of Manchester City.

In this case, as long as Manchester United beat Huddersfield and Cardiff City in the last two rounds of the league, they will still have a high probability of winning the league championship.

But if we give up Ajax's home ground in the Champions League semi-final, it will be very difficult to turn the tables away from home.

After successively eliminating two super giants, Real Madrid and Juventus, no one dared to underestimate the Jia family.

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In the match against Chelsea, Mourinho rotated all eleven players and played with an all-substitute lineup.

Chelsea also made some rotations. The Blues have already bid farewell to the league title race, and the Europa League title has become their only hope of winning this season. So Sarri decided to focus on Thursday night's Europa League semi-final, when they will visit Frankfurt.

However, because there is a four-day gap between the two games, the schedule is much better than that of Manchester United.

Manchester United took the lead in the 11th minute. After a series of passes in the frontcourt, Greenwood made a lob pass, Ashley Young followed up and faced Kepa, pushing the ball to the middle, and Mata followed up and shot successfully.

The audience gave Mata a round of applause. Today is the 31st birthday of this Spanish sweet man. It is naturally a very happy thing to score a goal at such a moment.

Chelsea equalized the score near the end of the first half. Rudiger took the ball in the midfield and shot directly from a distance. Romero missed the ball and Alonso followed up with a shot that hit the inside of the right post and bounced into the goal, changing the score to 1:1.

This was also the final score of the game, Manchester United won a draw at home.

In the other matches of this round, Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5-0 at home, earning enough goals and catching up with Manchester United by 1 point; Manchester City beat Burnley 1-0 away, 2 points behind Manchester United at the top; Tottenham and Arsenal both suffered upsets in order to save their strength for the European war next week. Tottenham lost 0-1 to West Ham United at home, and Arsenal lost 0-3 at the King Power Stadium.

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When the Premier League reached its 36th round, it became cruel and bloody.

Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City engaged in a fierce battle for the league title.

曼联36轮29胜5平2负，打进100球失35球，净胜球65个，积92分排名第一；

利物浦36轮28胜7平1负，打进85球失22球，净胜球63个，积91分排名第二；

曼城36轮29胜3平4负，打进89球失24球，净胜球65个，积90分排名第三；

热刺36轮22胜2平12负，打进65球失39球，净胜球26个，积68分排名第四；

切尔西36轮20胜7平9负，打进60球失41球，净胜球19个，积67分排名第五；

阿森纳36轮20胜5平11负，打进68球失54球，净胜球14个。积65分排名第六；

莱斯特城36轮15胜6平15负，打进51球失48球，净胜球3个，积51分排名第七；

狼队36轮14胜8平14负，打进45球失48球，净胜球-3个，积50分排名第八；

沃特福德36轮14胜8平14负，打进50球失53球，净胜球-3个，积50分排名第九；

It is obvious from the standings that the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool, the three northwest powers, are championship contenders, and the competition is very fierce, even brutal.

With the performance of these three teams, they would all be able to win the league championship in a normal season. However, now the competition is fierce and it may not be certain who will win the championship until the last round.

The three London teams are competing for the remaining Champions League spot, and the points among the three teams are very close. Arsenal is relatively at a disadvantage, which is why they strategically gave up the Premier League in the middle of the week.

Leicester City, Wolves and Watford are competing for the last Europa League qualification, and the three teams are fighting fiercely.

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Premier League teams not only compete fiercely in the Premier League, but also in European competitions.

In the Champions League, three of the top four teams are Premier League teams, with Manchester United and Ajax competing for one final spot, while Liverpool and Tottenham are competing for another final spot.

Liverpool has performed very well this season. Not only has it been closely following Manchester United in the league, but it has also advanced all the way to the semi-finals in the Champions League.

But this also puts Liverpool in a dilemma. On the one hand, they have never won the league championship in the Premier League era, which makes them lag behind their arch-rivals Manchester United in the number of top league titles.

After Mourinho took over Manchester United and the Red Devils regained two Premier League titles, the number of top league titles won by the Red Devils has risen to 22, ahead of Liverpool, which won the old English First Division title 18 times.

If they lose to Manchester United in the league title race again this season, they will be five behind Manchester United in the number of top league titles.

In the Champions League, Liverpool still has a certain advantage. They have won the Champions League five times, ahead of Manchester United, which has won four times. In addition, they have won three UEFA Cups, also ahead of Manchester United, which has only won one Europa League. However, Manchester United has won one European Cup Winners' Cup, which Liverpool has not.

In general, Liverpool leads Manchester United 8:6 in the number of wins in the three major European cups.

This is also the reason why Liverpool fans still insist that they are the top club in England.

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However, judging from the current situation, all aspects are not favorable to Liverpool. Not only are they behind Manchester United in points and goal difference, but their opponents in the Champions League are also stronger than Manchester United's opponents.

If Liverpool lose both the league and Champions League titles this season, not only will they be tied by Manchester United in the number of Champions League trophies, but they will also be far ahead in the number of top league titles. At that time, they will no longer have the possibility of competing with Manchester United for the title of England's top giants.

This has also led to Liverpool doing everything possible to compete for the championship on both fronts.

Liverpool has also been very competitive. In the league, after a recent draw with Manchester United away from home, they have won nine consecutive league games, including victories over strong opponents such as Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea.

The team's unbeaten streak has now reached 15 games, with the last loss being a 1-2 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

They only lost one game throughout the season, the fewest among all Premier League teams. Manchester United lost two games.

Moreover, judging from the current strength of Liverpool and Manchester United, Liverpool is undoubtedly at a disadvantage. Manchester United is the undisputed number one in the world football today, whether in terms of team value or lineup depth.

The reason why Liverpool was able to win the championship on both fronts, apart from good luck, was the strong desire of the whole team to win the championship.

All Liverpool fans have one thing in their hearts: they must not lose to Manchester United again!

They must defend their glory as the top club in England!

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However, at the moment Manchester United does not have much energy to think about the competition with Liverpool, because what they really need to face now is the challenge from the Dutch giants Ajax.

In preparation for the life-and-death battle with Ajax at home, Mourinho and his coaching staff produced a large amount of documentation about Ajax, including all the match reports and player data from the league, Dutch Cup and Champions League, and in-depth analysis of where the two teams performed well and where they failed.

The materials in the coach's office alone filled up the entire desk, and the research on the opponents was also very detailed.

Of course, it's not just Manchester United, I believe the same is true for Ajax of Ten Hag.

The two semi-finals are not just about the millions of euros in prize money, but also about the final and the championship, potential income of over 100 million euros, and a championship prize of over 10 million euros.

If this were a business with a turnover of tens of billions, which company would not devote all its efforts to research?

In order to better prepare for this game, Mourinho even made special arrangements in the players' room.

Bruno and Gundogan were placed in the same room.

Obviously, both of them will start in the midfield.

The reason why they were arranged in one room was to give them the opportunity to study carefully how to defeat their opponents in the game.

The night in Manchester was uneventful, just like any other match.

Bruno talked to Liu Xianer on the phone for a while.

She and some of the team's female family members also traveled with the team to the away game and stayed in the same hotel as the team, but visits between them were prohibited.

Bruno then chatted with Gundogan for a while and then fell asleep.

In the systematic training ground, he simulated Ajax's midfield and backfield defense for training and familiarized himself with it for a night. He hopes to have a better performance in the Millennium Stadium tomorrow.