Chapter 89, 2 Away Games

On October 2, 2013, in the second round of the Champions League group stage, Manchester United drew 1-1 away from Shakhtar Donetsk.

It was only a one-day break after returning to China. On the afternoon of October 4th, Jin Taige immediately led his players to Sunderland in northeastern England, ready to challenge their next league opponent on the road the next day. Derain.

Manchester United played a total of 3 games this week, and the next two games were away games. Manchester United's players were already exhausted. From the two days of training, Jin Taige has found that the players are tired and lacking in energy. .

Jin Taige is preparing for a large-scale rotation in this game to give the main lineup a better rest.

However, the good news is that Kante is back, which makes Jin Taige very happy. He confirmed Kante’s injury again and again. The team doctor told him that there was no problem, and he was relieved to add Kante to the starting list.

Manchester United sent a number of substitutes today.

The standard 4-4-2 formation, with Alisson starting in the goalkeeper position, Jones and Van Dijk in the back line, Alonso and Rafael are separated on the left and right; midfielder Fletcher and Kagawa Shinji, left and right are Ashley Young and Valencia, forwards are Icardi and Martial.

In this game, although Jin Taige lined up most of the substitute players, but because of the strong back line, and Sunderland's strength is not strong, Jin Taige is sure to completely freeze Sunderland's attack line.

In the end, the result of the game was exactly as King Tiger thought. They froze Sunderland's attacking line and let Sunderland's attacking players return empty-handed; but to King Tiger's disappointment, although Sunderland did not score, but Manchester United didn't have any good scoring chances either.

In this game, Sunderland played a defensive counter-attack, no, it was defensive to be precise, there was no counter-attack at all. For the vast majority of the game, Sunderland's 11 players all huddled in their own half to defend, and Manchester United's players couldn't find any good opportunities at all.

Sunderland has already made up its mind, facing the defending Premier League champions, if they can score 1 point at home, they will win. Therefore, Sunderland ignored the huge boos from the fans and defended at home.

There are no big names in Sunderland, but there is one person who has to be mentioned, and this is O'Shea.

O'Shea once spent a glorious decade at Manchester United. Since he joined the Red Devils in 1999, he was loaned to Bournemouth and Antwerp for two consecutive years for training before returning to Manchester United. This stay is ten years. From 2001 to 2011, O'Shea has witnessed the ups and downs of Manchester United and the growth of a generation of stars. Although he moved to Sunderland in 2011, O'Shea has always been a hero in the hearts of Manchester United fans.

In the player tunnel, O'Shea looked at Manchester United's starting lineup and was filled with emotion. In this starting Manchester United squad, apart from Rafael, Fletcher and Valencia, he is not familiar with the rest. Even these three people are all young people of their own juniors, and now they have grown into excellent players.

Manchester United's successor. O'Shea thought with emotion.

He has won 1 Club World Cup, 1 Champions League trophy, 5 League Championship trophies, 2 FA Cups and 3 League Cups with Manchester United. Manchester United gave him the stage and honor, and he left all his best youth there, and all the best memories of professional football in his heart are all bright red. Those exciting games, those bloody goals, those desperate defenses, those brothers who share weal and woe.

O'Shea looked at the Manchester United starters in the player tunnel, and it seemed that his eyes were a little blurry. The Neville brothers, Keane, Scholes, Beckham, Ruud, those familiar figures, as if they were just yesterday. Still wearing a bright red shirt, ready to fight for the glory of red.

O'Shea was in a daze, when a man walked in front of him and hugged him: "Brother,

haven't seen you for a long time! "

O'Shea took a closer look: "Paul?"

It was Scholes who embraced O'Shea. Scholes came to the player tunnel and came to see O'Shea. He looked at O'Shea in front of him and was very emotional. Among the brothers of the Red Devils, few are still playing on the field. He looked at O'Shea and said happily: "It's good to see you."

"Yeah, that's great." O'Shea also said, he looked behind him, "Ryan they didn't start?"

Scholes nodded: "The last game was too fierce on the road, and they rested this game."

"How does the assistant coach feel?"

"It's good, but every time I run out of the tunnel, I still want to run to the field uncontrollably."

O'Shea was happy: "You retired, Ryan and the others didn't play either. This game was much better."

"We will definitely get three points here."

"Let's go and see."

When Scholes walked out of the player tunnel, O'Shea slowly recovered.

The players of the two teams ran out of the player tunnel. O'Shea did not run on the field, but turned and ran to the Manchester United bench. He embraced Ryan Giggs, Vidic, Evra, Rooney, etc., and embraced these former brothers. Giggs is also very happy to see that O'Shea can play the defensive core in Sunderland.

Leaving Manchester United was the path O'Shea chose, and the brothers sincerely wish him all the best.

Don't look at the time off the court, O'Shea is like a family with old Manchester United; but after returning to the court, O'Shea suddenly changed. When facing Manchester United players, he showed no mercy at all. When he tackled with his foot, he seemed to be facing the enemy, and he handled the ball simply and neatly. O'Shea used his solid defense to block Manchester United's attack again and again.

After the whole game, Manchester United's attack group has done their best. The two new aids, Icardi and Martial, fought until the last minute of the game, still trying to find opportunities to score; Lu's Ashley Young and Valencia also played brilliantly, threatening Sunderland's flanks in a row; Alonso and Rafael also frequently assisted in the attack, wanting the team to assist in the offense. Although everyone worked hard, until the last minute of the game, Manchester United were still unable to break the door of Sunderland.

The final score was fixed at 0-0, Sunderland's tactics were successful, they got the result they wanted, while Manchester United regrettably only took 1 point away.

In two consecutive away games, Jin Tiger didn't get the results he wanted. He was a little depressed, but competitive sports are like this, no one can win all the time.

After the game, Manchester United returned to Manchester overnight. On the bus home, Jin Taige was still not at ease. He thought to himself: I can finally make time now to deal with that matter well...