Chapter 124: Unpopular

The European season is now in the late stages of the season, and the Premier League is no different.

For Manchester United, their schedule has not been easy. Despite the away win against Chelsea, the game had a big impact on United's fitness. And the next game is the 26th round of the English Premier League, away to Sunderland!

At present, the competition for the relegation zone is quite fierce, in addition to Aston Villa, who are currently at the bottom of the table with only 16 points, the next is Sunderland, who are in second to bottom, they have only 20 points so far, and the two teams in the bottom three and fourth are Newcastle and Norwich, and these three teams are currently on 24 points, in addition, Swansea with 27 points and Bournemouth with 28 points are also in danger of relegation, so the league is getting closer to the end, the fighting power of the relegation team should not be underestimated.

It is said that the Black Cats have nine lives, but Sunderland are undoubtedly the favourites for relegation this season. They have had a very poor league run before, despite a 2-2 draw with Liverpool in the last round, but they are winless in the last four league games, the relegation situation is quite serious, and they have conceded 49 goals in the first 25 league games, the most of any team in the Premier League. They will face one of the most powerful attacking combinations in the Premier League. As a result, not many were optimistic about Sunderland's prospects ahead of the game.

Ahead of the game, Sunderland's boss and Premier League relegation expert Sam Allardyce said: "I want to tell the players to stick to their style of play, we will fight until the end of the season, relegation is not hopeless, so we will not give up. ”

Although he said not to give up, in fact, Allardyce did not take this game as a goal to score points, after all, the opponent is Manchester United. Rather than fighting hard against Manchester United in this game, it would be better to save some energy to deal with their direct relegation rivals and pick up points against those teams in the lower middle and lower tiers.

Sam Allardyce, who is known as a "relegation expert" in the Premier League, took over Sunderland's coaching midway through last season and helped Sunderland, who were deep in the relegation zone at the time, to avoid relegation.

Sunderland's situation also looks very bad this season, so it will be interesting to see if the relegation specialist will be able to use his magic until the end of the season.

Carlo Ancelotti made some changes in this game, after all, the last round of the league was quite taxing for the team, plus there is a Champions League last-16 knockout first leg in midweek. Despite the fact that the opponent was Belgium's Gent, Ancelotti was on the safe side and made appropriate changes in this game.

Sam Allardyce fielded a 433 formation at home, which at first glance seemed to be an attacking formation, after all, there were three strikers up front.

However, when the game began, it was discovered that the two wingers on either side did not press on the attack at all, with the three defensive midfielders in midfield holding the middle, while the full-backs and wingers on the flanks controlled the space on the wings of Manchester United. Up front, only one striker, Defoe, remained.

The two wingers, Khazri and Ndoye, seemed to be more like two full-backs, with Sandro actually playing in a 451 formation.

United also don't seem to be able to recover from the fatigue of the previous game, and with the proper rotation of the midfield and the front, the United have dominated possession, but the attacking threat has not been played.

Marcus Rashford came in for Angel Di Maria and started the game as a left winger.

However, in the thirtieth minute of the game, Rashford was beaten back by Sandro after forcing a break on the flank.

Defoe receives a cross from a team-mate in the box and shoots home in front of goal.

Sunderland scored first at home!

Sam Allardyce immediately walked to the sidelines and the England old-school coach saw hope of a point in the game.

He waved his arms and shouted loudly for the Sunderland players who were celebrating their goals to pay attention to the defense!

Despite conceding a goal, Manchester United's players don't seem to be alert, and Manchester United's attack in front is not fluid, Rashford on the left side often gets the opportunity to get the ball, but the young player's experience in handling the ball is still very immature, whether it is passing the ball or breaking through with the ball himself, the timing of the choice is a little problematic.

Li Qingshan in the box could not get a pass from his team-mates, Sunderland had a heavy accumulation on the flanks and on the edge of the box, and Rashford's ability to handle the ball was clearly not comparable to Di Maria. Li Qingshan also tried to pull out and get the ball at one point, but when he finished turning, he was full of opposing players, and the Manchester United players seemed to be too light on this opponent, as if they only needed a light blow to knock the opponent down. But when Sunderland scored, the United players tried to get nervous, only to find it not so easy to get into shape.

Therefore, when Li Qingshan took the ball and turned around, almost all the passing lines in front of him were cut off by Sunderland, who was far more active than Manchester United. Manchester United's players, on the other hand, are more motivated to run than they were before the goal was conceded, but they seem to have lead on their feet when they run.

Li Qingshan had no choice but to pass the ball back and let the team reorganize the attack.

Until the end of the first half, United were unable to equalise.

At half-time, Carlo Ancelotti was a rare frenzy in the dressing room, and he scolded the players on the pitch to a bloody head. He was very unhappy with the team's performance in the first half and even planned to replace all 11 players on the pitch if possible.

Of course, this is impossible because he only has three substitutions in his hands.

And before the start of the second half, Ancelotti made a substitution adjustment - three people at once!!

Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini and Angel Di Maria stood on the sidelines and replaced Marcus Rashford, Blind and Fusumensa.

However, the substitutions had no effect as Sunderland were awarded a penalty less than a minute into the second half!!

After kick-off in the second half, Sunderland played the ball at the back, and Manchester United veteran O'Shea launched a long ball that Ndoye played into Smalling's arm as he crossed the ball down the middle!

Penalty kick!!

The referee blew the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot, and the referee was unmoved, no matter how much the United players protested.

Defoe scored the penalty with ease!

Two to zero!!

"At the beginning of the second half, Manchester United was already two goals behind, is this game going to be a big upset?"

De Gea was reluctant to get the ball out of his own net. The whole team was out of form in this game.

In the next game, Sunderland was fully recovered, although Manchester United launched a wave of onslaught, but the Sunderland players who were aiming for relegation broke out with great combat effectiveness.

It wasn't until injury time that substitute Di Maria scored a face-saving goal for Manchester United after receiving a header from Li Qingshan.

Just after three minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game.

The whole stadium is boiling!!

Sunderland beat Manchester United 2-1 at home!! Although this game is the early match of the current round of the Premier League, it is already possible to book the biggest upset of this round of the league in advance.