novelraw Chapter 586 - 398 Ferguson: Tang is a great player, even during my tenure, we were defeated twice!
Chapter 586 - 398 Ferguson: Tang is a great player, even during my tenure, we were defeated twice!
"Ah, offside, what offside am I in!"
At this moment, Icardi finally calmed down completely, looking like a wilted eggplant.
He immediately realized he had made a fatal mistake.
Rooney stormed over and grabbed Icardi’s neck, shaking him back and forth.
"Are you stupid? That ball from De Bruyne wasn’t offside, you rushed in and headed it, making it offside! You’ve killed us!"
De Bruyne was indeed the most agitated of all.
He had held back an entire match, finally about to score, and Icardi came in at the last moment, essentially clearing the ball away.
De Bruyne was fuming, rolled up his sleeves and charged at Icardi. If Schneiderlin and Carrick hadn’t held him back, the Belgian really wanted to beat Icardi up.
Icardi, give me back my goal!
In the stands, Mancini and Chiwo looked at each other, speechless.
They couldn’t believe Icardi would make such an amateur move.
In fact, when judging a forward’s level, positioning, point-robbing, and goal sense are very important, but there’s one thing equally crucial: a sense of positioning.
As a forward, you must first be clearly aware of whether your position is behind the offside line.
In situations like Icardi’s earlier, he was obviously in an offside position, otherwise De Bruyne wouldn’t have avoided passing to him.
"I find it unbelievable, Mr. Mancini, is this Icardi’s level today? He’s acting like a 15-year-old kid."
Mancini nodded, somewhat gleefully said:
"When I was at Manchester City, competing with Manchester United for four years, I’ve never seen one of their forwards do something so nonsensical. Honestly, I’m very curious about Sir Ferguson’s expression now, wonder if he’s at the venue?"
Seeing the conflict so intense, Manchester United’s coach Van Gaal feared Rooney, De Bruyne, and Icardi might start fighting, decisively, he immediately substituted Icardi with Depay.
Icardi clearly wasn’t happy, he hadn’t scored yet, how could he be subbed out?
So he dawdled, and under the referee’s constant urging, slowly walked off the field.
At this moment, thunderous applause erupted at the Etihad Stadium!
All Manchester City fans stood up, cheering for today’s hero and extraordinary talent Icardi!
The decibel levels of the cheers were so high, it even exceeded those when Agüero scored!
The broadcaster meanly cut to several close-ups of Blue Moon fans in the stands at this moment.
Fans were filled with undisguisable smiles, their mouths curled with joy, eyes beaming, waving arms, dedicating all their cheers to Icardi alone.
"Icardi!"
"Icardi!"
"Icardi!"
These cheers also bewildered Manchester City players on-site; since when did our fans cheer and applaud for the opponent’s players?
In the live broadcast.
-[Mauro has made a name for himself today, all fans at the Etihad stood up cheering for him!]
-[Hahaha, I’m gonna laugh to death, this rare century event of a bizarre point-grabbing was matched by Icardi!]
-[They haven’t seen China’s Mao Biao, but they witnessed Argentina’s Mauro!]
-[An originally evenly matched game was ruined by Icardi’s tough interference.]
-[Subbing out is right, if he doesn’t go down, Rooney and De Bruyne will apply to go off the field themselves!]
-[First leg scored an own goal, this round missed an open goal and ruined De Bruyne’s, Icardi truly is a curse for Manchester United!]
-[Can’t really say that, he’s still scored quite a few goals for Manchester United this season.]
-[This match is really great, full of show effects, is this an improvisational game or a pre-designed script, it’s truly entertaining to watch!]
A woefully performing Icardi, after being substituted, even ignored Van Gaal’s extending hand, just sat on the bench drinking water sullenly.
Finally, Manchester City firmly controlled the pace of the match.
Second half, 75th minute.
Keeper Caballero first launched a short ball, passing to defender Ranocchia.
Substituted Dutch forward Depay was very proactive, spotting Ranocchia receiving the ball with his back, he rushed up quickly.
Ranocchia heard a wind behind him, based on the running speed and position, even without seeing Depay, could immediately judge it’s his charge.
He quickly pivoted with the ball and faced Depay directly, then hooked the ball with his right foot to the left!
This stop-to-accelerate transition was extremely smooth, even speedy step Depay got swayed off balance, almost stumbled!
The match’s reaching its final stage, a 1:0 score doesn’t guarantee safety, as it could be equalized anytime.
Ranocchia swiftly passed the ball to Toure, then pressed up, trying to start an attack from the center-back!
Toure was nearly drained, but seeing Ranocchia charging forward, as a midfielder he had no reason to give up.
Tang Long in the middle was closely marked, Toure had no confidence to curve the ball past other players to deliver to Tang Long’s feet;
So he simply passed the ball to Kolarov on the left flank, and similarly started to move up.
Center-back and midfielder’s push-up instantly dragged two Manchester United defense players back, shifting the formation forward significantly.