Stoke City took the lead.
Stoke City has the highest respect for the powerful Manchester United. Their two strikers didn't even step forward after passing the ball in the middle, so they stayed in the middle to take over their midfield.
After a few passes in Stoke City's midfield and back court, the ball was immediately kicked to Manchester United's half and simply handed over to them.
Ferguson was speechless. He knew Stoke City would give up the ball to Manchester United and play defensive counterattack or even defensive counterattack. But he didn't expect Pulis to play so thoroughly that he didn't even feint after the opening.
He Hui, the commentator, joked: "it seems that Stoke City doesn't want to give Manchester United any space. If Manchester United want to win, it depends on their ability to break the bus."
Manchester United are well prepared for Stoke's tactics in advance. When they get the ball right, they pass the ball to Nani and attack from the side.
Attacking from the side, opening up space and breaking through the middle are the conventional tactics of breaking through intensive defense.
Obviously, Stoke City are more fully prepared. After Nani got the ball, winger Pennant quickly retreated to defend Nani with full back Wilkins.
There is no space, there are two people clip defense, Nani dare not face the scalp forward, he controlled the ball, waiting for his full back Evra assists to open the opponent's clip defense.
Evra saw the opponent's conservative, assists up quickly, he quickly forward air cut, attracted Pennant's defense, Wilkins to Nani.
Wilkins is not a very good defender. Nani is very confident when he faces him. He pulls the ball, shakes his upper body, and then makes another smash, trying to shake Wilkins' center of gravity and rush to the penalty area.
But Wilkins didn't care what he did. He just started and yanked Nani to the ground.
The referee immediately whistled, pointed to the foul and gave United a free kick.
Free kick is also a good way to break the intensive defense. Scholes takes the corner kick, and all the players United can grab are up.
Stoke City made up their mind to defend. They did a good job in defending the set pieces. Scholes curled in and the ball was headed out by Stoke City centre back Huth.
The second landing point is still under the control of Manchester United. Rafael passes the ball to Valencia, who then hangs into the penalty area.
Stoke City had a lot of players in the penalty area, but Huth grabbed the spot and went out.
The break was less urgent, and Huth headed the ball to his forward position, where Jones was.
Jones got the header in the fight with Gao Xiaodong, but he couldn't find the passing point around him, so he headed straight out of the sideline.
It's a waste of time, but it started from the first minute of the game, which caused the dissatisfaction of Manchester United fans.
"Shrink, shrink. NIMA's wasting time!"
"Is this going straight for 0:0?"
"This is the final! It's a shame to fight like this. "
"What's the shame? If stoke wins, they're city heroes.
……
Manchester United's players are not in a hurry. The game has just begun and they believe they have plenty of opportunities.
Manchester United continued to attack from the sidelines.
This time it's on Valencia's side.
Valencia's side break is not as tricky as Nani's. no matter how many people the opponent has on the side, he takes the ball to the bottom line and eats it with speed.
This move is simple and direct. In addition to fouls, there is no way for defenders to defend. However, Stoke City leaves little space for Valencia. When Valencia overtakes the ball, the ball goes out of the bottom line.
Stoke City serve the goal ball when the players are still not forward pressure, just a symbolic two forward head over the middle circle, and then wait for Manchester United to get the ball to continue to attack.
Manchester United is a team that focuses on attacking. Stoke sticks to the penalty area and doesn't even have the chance to attack. They just have to stick to it. Manchester United have no space and can't rush to it.
Manchester United have no choice but to cooperate patiently in the middle and the side to find the flaws of Stoke City.
Stoke have the title of "sky city" in the Premier League, which means that their players are very tall, good at confrontation and air defense, but it also causes them to turn too slowly.
However, Stoke's manager is also very clear about this, so he adopted the strategy of "tiger does not get out of the hole", using the advantage of the number of players to make up for the weakness of the players' slow turn and speed.
In the eighth minute, Manchester United passed the ball continuously, but they couldn't break through Stoke's two lines of defense. The ball returned to Gao Xiaodong's feet again. Gao Xiaodong didn't want to go back again. He took two steps horizontally and then hit the goal vigorously.
For Gao Xiaodong's shot, stoke goalkeeper Sorensen had been ready for a long time. He hit the ball with both fists.
The ball fell at the foot of Scholes, Scholes chaos in a long pass to find Rooney, but Rooney has not yet got the ball, behind him was hit, almost fell, the ball also lost.Stoke City's defender made a pass to find his own striker. The pass was more like a break, but it was accurately passed to forward Jones, who also took the ball and gave it to the core of the midfield, Esther Linton.
Stoke finally came out when they saw their front court holding the ball, or the core of the game, ethrington holding the ball.
Stoke City is a traditional English way of playing, with fast breakthrough on the side, 45 degree oblique long pass and high-altitude bombing. Double high forwards Jones and Kalou are at the top. Their task is to wait for the cross from the side in the restricted area and fight for the header. When the team is in the defensive state, they will withdraw to the midfield to meet other teammates or defend the high-altitude ball in their own restricted area. When they counter attack, they will take part in the drive with the ball near the midfield.
The two centre backs are mainly responsible for the defense in the middle. When attacking, they only make simple passes, mainly oblique passes to the two centre backs. Sometimes, when the opponent's defense is too tight, they just plug the two strikers. The core of the two ball control is the two wingers, Esther Linton and pennant. Their task is to use their personal skills to control the ball at their feet, and then get the ball up to the penalty area to fight for the top for their peers. When defending, they will return to their own midfield and get closer to the middle, and the two central defenders will compress the space in the middle. Two full backs today basically do not assist, just stay behind to defend.
Two midfielders went up after the ball was controlled by ethrington in the front, and there was only one defensive line left in the back.
It's very easy for ethrington to attack. He quickly moved forward along the side, forced Valencia to retreat, and then followed by a 45 degree cross to find the forward.
United's two centre backs, Ferdinand and Vidic, are not vegetarians either. Vidic headed the ball out of the box ahead of his rivals.
Gao Xiaodong grabs the second drop point, stops the ball in his chest, turns around and hits the side to find Valencia.
This pass from God's point of view won the voice of all Manchester United fans.
Valencia finally found the breakthrough space, he used the speed to quickly forward, hit through Wilson's defense, in the bottom line to send the ball into the penalty area.
Valencia's sudden is very good, but passes is very bad, the ball has been confiscated directly by Sorensen.
Stoke City attacked once and left a defensive line in the back, but they were still hit back.
After this time, stoke was honest, and they just stayed in the back court to defend. They gave the chance to attack by up to four people, determined to defend 0-0