Istanbul, Turkey, 9 December 2004.

"Dong, you need to pull up more runs and try to give Rooney more space to shoot."

"Ronaldo, reduce dribbling in the midfield, increase the attacking speed, but near the big penalty area, you can show off your sassy work."

“……”

In this game, Dong Fangzhuo was positioned as a winger by Ferguson, mainly to pave the way for Rooney's goal.

Away at Fenerbahce, United only need a draw to secure a place at top of the group, while Lyon will only finish second unless United lose this game even if they win at home to bottom-bottom Sparta Prague.

Judging from the odds given by Spinach before the game, it is almost impossible for Manchester United to lose away from home, and Spinach is optimistic about Manchester United to score points on the road.

Fenerbahce would not qualify for the Champions League group even if they win against Manchester United, and even if they were given three points, they would not be able to catch up with United and Lyon. However, they are only three points behind Sparta Prague at the bottom of the group, and if they lose at home to Manchester United, and Sparta Prague win away to Lyon, they will not even qualify for the Europa League and will be beaten back by Sparta Prague.

So Fenerbahce actually needs at least one draw as well.

The best result, naturally, is a draw.

But the two sides will not play tacit ball, so naturally they can only play the main force. Alex Ferguson made another change in the starting line-up, this time completely different from before.

In training before, he had been trying to change the traditional 442 to a 433 formation, but he never put it into action, and this time he really put the 433 formation into the game.

It was a big disadvantage for Dong Fangzhuo, because he played the position of left winger, not the middle. Some are like the positions played by Smith before, in the 442 big formation, although Smith is theoretically a fullback, but more as a winger, and now Dong Fangzhuo has also been forcibly transformed by Ferguson.

Of course, Dong Fangzhuo's left winger is just a front, and unlike Smith, he is not fixed in that position, in fact, there are still Rooney and Dong Fangzhuo in front, but he needs to be often pulled to the wing. The most important guy in this formation is actually Ronaldo, Ferguson changed this formation only because he wanted to fully liberate Ronaldo, and he found out a long time ago that the closer Ronaldo is to the goal, the greater the threat.

This has also led to changes in midfield, with Alex Ferguson coming up with Fletcher, Kleberson and Paul Scholes in midfield. Fletcher is on the right, Scholes is in the center and Kleberson is on the left. It's definitely a bold change.

"This change of formation is very dangerous, after all, it has not been used in actual combat." Lineker expressed his concern, "The lord is bold, changing the formation in such an important game, it is a loss of trust of the first three boys, of course, there is Giggs sitting on the bench, once he finds that the change of formation is not working, he will immediately change back to the original formation." ”

"Ferguson also seems to have reached some kind of agreement with Ruud van Nistelrooy, called Ruud van Nistelrooy back and didn't let him go on holiday like Smith, Ruud van Nistelrooy is still on the bench and looks a lot calmer today, knowing that Ruud van Nistelrooy is currently the top scorer in the Champions League, Ferguson can't really abandon him."

Although Dong Fangzhuo's position is a bit disadvantaged, he is also quite flexible, he can pull the side, he can also pull to the middle, and if necessary, he can also switch positions with Ronaldo, which is a new position. But for Dong Fangzhuo, it is also full of challenges, because his shortcomings are too obvious, his skills at his feet are not enough, his breakthrough ability is weak, and if he plays well, he naturally doesn't need much, if he doesn't play well? The shortcomings are clear.

Of course, the biggest benefit is Rooney, he is in the middle, so the attacking points are coming to him, especially the interaction with Ronaldo, they can play a high level of cooperation between them.

Of course, Dong Fangzhuo is not without benefits, although he lost more opportunities to get close to the goal, creating space for Rooney, but this thing is relative, Rooney and Ronaldo attract most of the firepower, he also has a chance on the left side, and occasionally can connect with Ronaldo's long pass, at least in training, the effect is good.

Rooney was very excited at the beginning, knowing that Rooney's debut for Manchester United was at home to Fenerbahce, and Rooney scored a hat-trick. Now on the road, Rooney naturally wants to continue to play in the first leg.

It's just that he has now become a thorn in the side of Fenerbahce's players, and he will definitely not let Rooney humiliate them again, so after the opening, Rooney was closely watched by the opponent's two noon, Rooney basically had no chance to get the ball, and he was sandwiched by two central defenders at a young age, which is definitely a supreme honor.

On the contrary, Dong Fangzhuo was on the left side, but he was only defended by the opponent's right back, and there was no pressure from Rooney in the middle. However, when the ball reached his feet, he basically passed the ball to his teammates as soon as possible, and chose to cut forward without the ball. He always believes that technological breakthroughs are always the second option.

Fenerbahce who is fighting at home is not easy to mess with, in order to avenge the 2:6 defeat away, they tried their best, Rooney and Dong Fangzhuo have always been stuck to death by their defenders, only Ronaldo is still active, he continues to move closer to the middle, relying on the cooperation with Scholes and Fletcher, repeatedly tearing apart Fenerbahce's midfield defense, but when he burst to the front of the big penalty area, he couldn't get up, the defense was too dense, one person's strength was not enough after all, after trying to shoot two feet in front of the big penalty area, Ronaldo changed his mind, still seeks the cooperation of Rooney and Dong Fangzhuo.

But the ball can't be passed.

There is only one Cristiano Ronaldo, which is far from enough. Fenerbahce held on to them and might have worked much better if Ryan Giggs had been on the left.

But now that the opening game is only about ten minutes, Ferguson cannot make adjustments now, and it can only be said that Kleberson and Dong Fangzhuo on the left side need to make an attack on the line.

Blocked on the right and in the middle, Scholes had to try to move his attack to the left.

Knowing that Dong Fangzhuo did not have Giggs's strong breakthrough ability on the left side, Scholes still pushed the ball to him.

Dong Fangzhuo is not afraid of breaking through with the ball, he just reduced such entanglements before.

In the face of Scholes's oblique plug, Dong Fangzhuo didn't play complicated, just one move-

Running along the ball, when receiving the ball with his left foot, he added force to the front, kicked the ball more than two meters in front, and then relied on the strong explosive force to get rid of the opponent's entanglement in an instant, and when he caught up with the ball again, he directly crossed with his left foot.

He doesn't have that many fancy. If he can take out his opponent with one move, he will definitely not use a second move.

It's not pretty, but it's functional.

Highball!

The ball whizzed up and flew high in an arc over Fenerbahce's penalty area.

Looks like it's too much! Everybody thinks so.

All eyes follow the path of the ball.

"What a fool to pass the ball."

"The footwork stinks!"

The cross ball was not passed to the big penalty area, but passed through the big penalty area, and naturally no one would be optimistic.

But the next moment, everyone was dumbfounded!

Dong Fangzhuo's cross was not a big pass, but a deliberate pass. Because Ronaldo on the right side instantly got rid of Fenerbahce's entanglement at the left back and rushed straight up. Dong Fangzhuo's over-the-top cross turned out to have enough purpose, and people just wanted to find Ronaldo!

The two of them formed a good tacit understanding, one on the left and one on the right, and it was not untargeted at all.

Cristiano Ronaldo managed to unload the ball, and then when the returning Fenerbahce left-back arrived, he slammed a right-footed smash and the left-back saved.

And at this moment, Dong Fangzhuo has already swished back in the left side of the triangle! Wayne Rooney led two centre-backs into the six-yard box.

Cristiano Ronaldo's left foot rolled the ball into the middle.

At this moment, Dong Fangzhuo's side was not followed, and the closest to him were Fenerbahce's two backs, but no one could catch up with Dong Fangzhuo's pace of shooting posture.

Bang –

His right foot was pinpointed on the ball, and it whistled towards the top left corner of the goal.

But at this time, a central defender who was originally targeting Rooney jumped to the left and flew to block the gun's eye!

Unfortunately, the ball hit the opponent's left thigh and bounced out of the penalty area.

The petite Scholes didn't wait for the ball to land outside the penalty area, aiming at the timing of the ball's falling, and volleyed directly with his left foot, a bit like the kick kicked by Zizou in 02.

Whew-

This time, the ball changed direction and flew to the other side.

It's just that Zizou's shot was pressed, and Scholes's shot finally spun up to the sky, both of them were midfield masters, but Scholes was still a cut behind Zidane.

Corner kick!

Scholes shook his head, feeling sorry for his shot and ran towards the corner flag.

Looking up at the big penalty area, Manchester United didn't put in much attacking power, only four people roaming in the big box.

He didn't think much about it, and went straight to the ball, front point.

Dong Fangzhuo struggled in the middle for a while, got rid of the entanglement in an instant, rushed to the front point, aimed at the landing point of the ball, and looked back at the moon with one move!

The ball was successfully rubbed by him to the back post.

Seeing the ball whizzing, Rooney poked his head out with all his strength at the back point, but he was still half a beat slower and didn't touch the ball!

The ball went off the line......

"There is Dong everywhere!"

"It's a pity that these three chances ......"