Chapter 206: Call of Duty Again
The defeat to Milan left Manchester United on the side of the elimination. Four England teams competed in the Champions League, with two teams progressing to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Traditional Premier League giants Manchester United and Arsenal were knocked out, while Liverpool and Chelsea both advanced strongly.
Liverpool beat Bundesliga runners-up Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 home and away to advance to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with an aggregate score of 6-2, and Rafael Benitez's side were weak in domestic competitions but were on the verge of winning the Champions League.
Premier League leaders Chelsea lost 1-2 away to Barcelona in the first leg, but in the second leg they beat Barcelona with Ronaldinho 4-2 at home, and advanced 5-4 on aggregate.
Although Arsenal won Bayern Munich 1-0 at home, they lost 1-3 away from home in the first leg, and it was useless to return home.
United returned to Manchester in the second half of the night, by which time most of the people were already asleep in bed, so they were not harassed too much.
But the next day was different.
The British news agency has rated Manchester United's players, and most of the players are rated okay, but Cristiano Ronaldo, Silvestre and Howard have low scores:
Howard: 5 points
Poor play, no reaction at all to Kaka's long-range shot, it looks like I'm here to get a lunch box.
Brown: 6 points
As Gary Neville's stand-in, Brown defended poorly at right-back, but his contribution to United's attack was so small that Brown's attack paled in comparison to AC Milan's Cafu.
Rio Ferdinand: 7 points
There was only one mistake in the whole game, so Crespo shouldn't have been given that header. On top of that, Rio Ferdinand was quite good throughout the game and had a very good ability to read the game.
Sylvester: 4 points
Sleepwalking throughout the game, he was Milan's traitor at Manchester United.
Heinze: 6 points
His performance as a left-back was commendable.
Cristiano Ronaldo: 5 points
It seems that the ferocious defense of the Milan midfield has cast a shadow on the Portuguese mentality, and Ronaldo's feints are all small tricks for the opponent. Technically, Cristiano Ronaldo may have been tied with Kaka, but when it came to passing, it was clearly the Brazilian who had the better hand. Worst of all, he made an inadvertent desertion that allowed Milan to score the winning goal.
Dong Fangzhuo: 8 points
He was the leader of the pitch and the man who feared AC Milan the most, and his first goal of the game almost put United in the quarter-finals, but his team-mates could not provide him with more support, and when the team needed to score in the second half, he was lost in Milan's delicate defence along with Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, and he alone could not change the fate of the team.
Wayne Rooney: 5 points
It was his quietest game at United, with AC Milan's experienced defenders at the mercy of the game. Rooney had just two long-range shots in the second half, one five yards wide and the other 15 yards high.
Vanney: 6 points
United have pinned their hopes on the team's top scorer in Europe, squandering what he has been doing for the rest of the time except for the one that forced Nesta's own goal, and the night at the San Siro was not destined to belong to the Dutchman.
……
Judging from the rating of the British News Agency, Dong Fangzhuo seems to stand out from the crowd, 8 points is the highest score of the whole team, and the reassuring Ferdinand 7 points have become a rare player to be praised, and look at Howard, Silvesta, Rooney and Ronaldo's 5 points, and Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is not in form, can actually imagine the real situation on the field.
For the second season in a row, Manchester United have stopped in the last 16 of the Champions League, and this time there are no excuses for losing. In the face of Milan's experience and strength, Manchester United is too tender and too tender, Dong Fangzhuo They are not not fighting hard and don't want to score, but at the last moment, there is really no way.
Manchester United is not the same Manchester United as it was six years ago......
And what can really be seen clearly is actually two people, one is the coach who built Manchester United with his own hands, and the other is Dong Fangzhuo, who was reborn as the third captain of Manchester United.
Throughout Thursday, the Manchester crowd was talking about United's Champions League defeat, arguing that United had lost their former glory and that Ferguson had a lot to do to get back out of trouble.
On this day, Ferguson gave everyone a half-day off, Dong Fangzhuo wore a white hat and walked on the streets, and fans were talking everywhere.
"Ferguson is old, it's impossible to use a few young people to play the world, he can't play the 92 generation anymore, now he has to spend crazy money to buy the best players in the world, look at Real Madrid, buy the best players in the world, and what do we have?"
'Ruud van Nistelrooy was also used by Alex Ferguson, who favoured the youngsters and put Ruud van Nistelrooy on the bench so that he was out of form in the Champions League.
"Although China Dong can score goals, he is too characterless, in the multi-tactical system, he still can't make people feel safe, but it is undeniable that he has done well enough......"
Thankfully, Dong Fangzhuo lowered his hat and walked slowly, although the Manchester United fans were picky, they didn't flatten him to nothing.
The general of the defeated army, how can he speak bravely, as long as the words are not so ugly, Dong Fangzhuo will not take it to heart.
"Haha, I love Manchester United losing, it's better that they never win the league and the Champions Cup again!"
This one is definitely a Manchester City fan......
※※※※
The task is now much simpler for Manchester United, who are still alive in the FA Cup and Premier League, while their biggest rivals Chelsea are distracted by the Champions League, and United still have a chance in both competitions.
For Dong Fangzhuo, it was more than that, because he received a call from the national team leader in the morning.
He is due to report back to his home country after the FA Cup game against Southampton at the weekend. For Chinese football, the most important thing this year is to play well in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers in Germany.
On November 18 last year, after the Chinese team reached the quarterfinals in Asia as desired, the first game of the Chinese team was to play away against South Korea, South Korea, the strongest opponent in the quarterfinals group stage, there is no one!
Dong Fangzhuo has been busy with club competitions lately, and he almost forgot about the game in South Korea, the most difficult game in the group stage.
The goal of the Chinese team is, of course, to finish in the top two of the group and directly qualify for the World Cup in Germany. But Dong Fangzhuo knows that getting the top two in the group stage seems to be more difficult than Manchester United knocking out Milan in the Champions League.
However, even if they don't finish in the top two, the Chinese team can still compete for third place and then participate in the play-offs, but this is the worst mode.
For now, he can only focus on the FA Cup quarter-finals......