Ferguson: Tang Was a Great Player. Even If I Were Still in Charge, We'd Still Have Been Beaten Twice!
"Ah, offside! What am I offside?!"
Only at this moment did Icardi completely calm down, his whole body wilting like a frostbitten eggplant.
He immediately realized he had made a fatal mistake.
Rooney stormed over, grabbed Icardi by the neck again, and shook him back and forth.
"Are you stupid? De Bruyne's shot wasn't offside, but you rushed in and headed it in, so it was offside! You've ruined our game!"
De Bruyne was the most emotional of all.
He had been holding back all game, and just when he was about to score, Icardi essentially cleared the ball at the last moment.
De Bruyne was furious, and he rolled up his sleeves and charged at Icardi. If Schneiderlin and Carrick hadn't held him back, the Belgium would have really wanted to beat Icardi up.
Icardi, pay me back for that goal!
In the stands, Mancini and Chivu looked at each other in bewilderment.
They simply couldn't believe that Icardi would make such an amateurish move.
In fact, judging a striker's level involves many factors, such as positioning, positioning, and shooting instinct, but one thing that cannot be ignored is positional awareness.
As a striker, you must first and foremost know whether you are behind the offside line.
In the situation Icardi just described, he was clearly in an offside position; otherwise, De Bruyne would have passed the ball to him.
"I can't believe it, Mr. Mancini, is this Icardi's level today? He's behaving like a 15-year-old."
Mancini nodded, somewhat gloatingly saying:
"When I was at Manchester City, I competed against Manchester United for four years, and I never saw one of their strikers do something so absurd. To be honest, I'm really looking forward to seeing Sir Alex Ferguson's expression. I wonder if he's even here?"
Seeing the intensity of the conflict, Manchester United manager Van Gaal, fearing a fight between Rooney, De Bruyne, and Icardi, immediately substituted Icardi with Depay.
Icardi was clearly very unhappy; he hadn't scored yet, how could they substitute him?
So he dawdled and, under repeated urging from the referee, slowly made his way off the court.
At that moment, enthusiastic applause erupted at the Etihad Stadium!
The entire Manchester City crowd rose to their feet, cheering for today's hero and unparalleled genius Icardi!
The cheers were so loud, even louder than when Agüero scored!
The director deliberately played hard to get, showing close-ups of several Blue Moon fans in the stands at this moment.
The fans' faces were beaming with undisguised smiles; their lips curled back, their eyes widened, and they waved their arms, giving all their cheers to Icardi alone.
"Icardi!"
"Icardi!"
"Icardi!"
The cheers left the Manchester City players bewildered. When did our fans start cheering for the opposing team's players?
Live stream room.
Mauro really made a name for himself today! The entire Etihad fanbase stood up and cheered for him!
- [Haha, I'm dying of laughter! Icardi managed to pull off such a bizarre, once-in-a-century moment of timing!]
They hadn't seen Mao Biao from China, but they had seen Mauro from Argentina!
-[What was originally a closely contested match was completely ruined by Icardi.]
[It was the right decision to leave him on the field. If he hadn't, Rooney and De Bruyne would have both asked to be substituted!]
- [He scored an own goal in the first leg, missed an open goal this leg, and also thwarted De Bruyne's goal. Icardi is truly a jinx for Manchester United!]
-[You can't say that, he still scored quite a few goals for Manchester United this season.]
-[This match is really exciting, the entertainment value is off the charts! Is this a live match or a pre-planned script? It's so thrilling to watch!]
Icardi, who had a terrible performance, ignored Van Gaal's outstretched hand after being substituted, and sat down on the bench with his head down, starting to drink water.
In the end, Manchester City firmly controlled the tempo of the game.
75th minute of the second half.
Goalkeeper Caballero first took a short kick, passing the ball to center-back Ranocchia.
Substitute Netherlands striker Depay was very active, and when he saw Ranocchia receiving the ball with his back to goal, he quickly rushed forward.
Ranocchia heard a whoosh of wind behind him, and based on the speed and position of the runner, even without seeing Depay, he could immediately tell it was him charging forward.
He quickly pulled the ball back and turned to face Depay, then used his right foot to cut the ball to the left!
The acceleration following the sudden stop was extremely smooth. Even Depay, who has a very fast stride, was thrown off balance by Ranocchia and almost fell over!
The match is nearing its end, and the 1-0 score is not secure; it could be tied at any moment.
Ranocchia quickly passed the ball to Toure and then pushed forward, indicating an attack would begin from the center-back position!
Although Toure's stamina was almost depleted, seeing Ranocchia charging forward, he, as a defensive midfielder, had no reason to give up.
Tang Long was tightly marked in the middle, Toure lacked the confidence to get the ball past the other players to Tang Long's feet;
He simply passed the ball to Kolarov on the left wing, who then also began to make a run forward.
The forward runs of the center-back and defensive midfielder instantly drew two Manchester United defenders back, pushing the formation significantly forward.
Kolarov seized the opportunity and also began to cut inside, taking advantage of the space left by Toure and Ranocchia after they had drawn away the opposing players, and positioned himself in the defensive midfield position.
This commotion opened up a space for Tang Long in the middle, and Kolarov passed the ball to Tang Long before also making a forward run.
This surge of three defenders cutting forward was like three torrents of water instantly flooding the field, prompting the movement of the other players.
Tang Long knew there was no reason to slow down at this point. The entire formation was moving forward, and they had to make good use of this opportunity. Otherwise, if they missed it, their teammates' stamina would drop, and they might not see a second chance.
The attack started from the left flank, Tang Long decided to motivate Navas on the right flank.
He dribbled towards Navas, drawing the attention of a Manchester United player before flicking the ball to him.
After combining with Tang Long on the wing, Navas, though still a traditional Spain winger who likes to run into the middle, realized that his previous goal made him understand that forming some passing combinations with Tang Long was a better approach.
He continued to dribble the ball towards the baseline, intending to pass it back to Tang Long in a triangular pass.
It's still this spot, still the right flank of the penalty area!
While everyone was focused on Tang Long's next move after receiving the ball, he suddenly stepped forward, quickly approached the ball, and then flicked it behind him with his heel.
The football slowly rolled towards the edge of the penalty area.
This pass also caught the Manchester City players off guard.
This spot is empty, nobody's here!
Just when everyone thought it was a careless passing mistake by Tang Long.
A burly, dark-skinned man, about 1.9 meters tall, came rushing up with heavy steps, panting heavily.
"Get out of my way!"
With Toure quickly moved aside, and Agüero and Sterling in front of him moved aside.
They knew Toure was about to take a long-range shot!
Although Tang Long was facing away from Toure, he had already anticipated Toure's forward run thanks to the calculations of his AI System.
However, Toure wasn't very fast, so Tang Long deliberately tapped the ball slowly towards the middle. Although the ball rolled slowly, it just happened to match Toure's forward pace.
Toure took three steps in two, rushing forward before Carrick could block him, and unleashed a powerful shot with the instep!
De Gea was well-prepared on the goal line for this whirlwind shot, having anticipated Toure's intention to fire a shot with the instep and the position of his aim.
But Toure's powerful instep shot was full of force!
De Gea stretched out his long arm and touched the ball with his palm, but felt a sharp pain in his hand, as if his wrist was about to dislocate. With a thud, the ball hit his palm, bounced off the goalpost, and then bounced back into the penalty area.
Just as Toure, everyone stood still and watched, except for Agüero, who was lurking on the offside line. He accurately judged his position and that of the defender and then rushed forward.
Opportunity always favors the prepared mind, and by sheer coincidence, the ball bounced right back to Agüero easily tapped it into the empty net!
2:0!
Seeing Agüero score two goals in quick succession, Icardi was initially stunned, then repeatedly slapped himself in the face.
Snap snap snap snap snap!
If it weren't for the stunned Manchester United substitutes on the bench pulling him back, Icardi would have slapped himself so hard his face would have turned into a pig's head.
"Two balls, two balls!"
Icardi was wailing incessantly; his cries were so pitiful.
It could even be heard on the broadcast, surprising the fans watching the live stream. "Hey, who's shouting?"
Icardi's teammates on the Manchester United bench assumed he was frustrated because the team was two goals down to Manchester City.
His teammate was trying to comfort Icardi, saying there were still eight rounds left in the league, and even if they lost this game, they would still have a chance.
But what they didn't know was that the two goals Icardi mentioned didn't mean Manchester United were two goals down to Manchester City away from home, making the league title increasingly distant;
In fact, he's already two goals behind Agüero in the real-time Premier League top scorers list!
Two balls!
From leading by three goals to trailing by two, Agüero scored five goals in just a few games!
With his rivals for the Golden Boot rising to prominence while he remains stagnant, Icardi is extremely frustrated.
Forget about the European Golden Shoe, at this rate, my Premier League Golden Boot is going to slip away too, ah...
The ball went in.
Sir Alex Ferguson, who was enjoying his retirement in his old country villa in Scotland, sighed and turned off the television with trembling hands.
In the last round of the Manchester Derby, Manchester United suffered a humiliating 1-7 defeat to Manchester City at home.
Sir Ferguson was invited to watch the match from a VIP box at Old Trafford.
He was so angry during that match that he felt dizzy and even had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Although he was unharmed afterward, the incident left the old lord with lingering fears!
So even though he received a ticket from Manchester United this time, he repeatedly refused, saying he wouldn't dare go to watch the game live again.
After turning off the television, the old gentleman lay half-reclined on the sofa, clutching his chest with his hand, extremely glad he hadn't gone to see it live.
Although the 0-2 scoreline is much more respectable than the 1-7 scoreline in the first leg.
But if the old Jazz had witnessed Icardi's two incredible plays in person, he might have been furious.
"Is this Van Gaal any good?" Sir Alex Ferguson's wife placed a plate of strawberries on the coffee table. "The combined score of the two games was 1-9. If you were still the manager of Manchester United, such an absurd margin of defeat would never have happened."
Ferguson waved his hand, looking exhausted.
When Manchester United were thrashed by their city rivals in the first leg, many media outlets questioned Van Gaal's coaching ability, believing he was far inferior to Ferguson, given the humiliating scoreline.
Many are even calling for Sir Alex Ferguson to return to Manchester United and save the team.
But after watching the second leg of the match, Ferguson felt that this assumption was simply not valid.
"Honey, don't you understand? It's not a problem with any particular head coach. Even if you switched Pellegrini and Van Gaal's positions, the result would still be the same."
"The key is that Tang from Manchester City! If Tang were at Manchester United, Manchester City wouldn't be the ones to beat them both times, but them!"
His wife looked surprised when she heard the old lord say that.
"That's impossible. For all these years, haven't you always told me that a team isn't a team of one person, that football is a team sport? How could one player bring about such a dramatic change to the team?"
Ferguson said, "One person? No! Don may be one person, but as long as he's on the field, he can bring about change for the whole team. That's what makes him great!"
He pushed up his glasses and muttered to himself.
"A great player, Tang, he's truly a great player..."
The match is over!
Manchester City defeated their opponents 2-0 at home, achieving a season double over Manchester United.
They've widened the gap to 5 points in the standings.
Mancini and Chivu left the field together. On the way, after discussing the performances of several England players, including Sterling, Rashford, and Lingard, the conversation naturally turned to Tang Long.
"Their second UEFA Champions League against Inter Milan is about to begin, Christian, what are Inter Milan's chances of winning?"
"Unless we shut down Tang, we have at most a 20% chance of winning. However, sending multiple players to defend Tang will create gaps for other Manchester City players, which is exactly what Pellegrini wants to see. So, it all depends on Laino's strategy."
Mancini sneered, recalling Laino's appearance with disdain.
"Laino? What tricks can this good-for-nothing come up with?"
Chivu said, "Not necessarily. In the first leg, they held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw, and crucially, they secured a valuable away goal. If they had just held on for a 0-0 draw, Inter Milan could have advanced."