After the World Cup qualifier, Gao Xiaodong returned to England and continued to play in the Premier League.
At this time, good news came from Asia. Gao Xiaodong was selected as the last six candidates of Asian Footballer of the year.
Although Gao Xiaodong has won the FIFA World Player of the year award, the AFC does not allow Gao Xiaodong to participate in the selection of the Asian player of the year award on the ground that he did not participate in the Asian Games.
Of course, Gao Xiaodong doesn't care, but his fans and Chinese fans are very dissatisfied. They think it's discrimination against Chinese football and Gao Xiaodong.
The pressure of AFC is also great. After all, it is unreasonable for the selection of Asian Footballer of the year to exclude the World Footballer of the year. Fortunately, this year Gao Xiaodong came back to participate in the Asian competition of the World Cup qualifier. This is a step for AFC, and AFC immediately selected Gao Xiaodong into the final six candidate list.
In addition to Gao Xiaodong, the other five people are Shinji kawawa of Japan, juzizhe and Lian Jixun of South Korea, agili of Iran and jeparov of Uzbekistan.
Among the other five, only Xiangchuan zhensi plays in the five major leagues in Europe, but his fame can't compare with Gao Xiaodong at all. It can be said that the other four are nobody. As long as the AFC puts Gao Xiaodong on the shortlist, Gao Xiaodong will basically win the prize.
At the end of the international game, Manchester United's first opponent is the promotion of Javier Mascherano.
Swansea was the third place in the championship last season. After a disastrous one-out-of-four playoff, Swansea finally reached the Premier League. It is the first Welsh team in English history.
Swansea has been playing in the low-level League. In 1981-1982, Swansea was promoted to sixth place, which is also Swansea's best result in England's top league. Although Swansea and Cardiff are in the English league, they are more honored in the Welsh cup. Swansea won the Welsh cup 10 times. But it's a team like this. At its worst, the whole team is worth only one pound. In 1997, a London company bought Swansea. At that time, Swansea invested millions of pounds, but it didn't last long. The team was finally sold to an Australian Consortium at the price of 1 pound. However, the consortium wanted to sell players to buy money. Finally, Swansea "survived" with the intervention of professional league. In difficult times, the team couldn't even pay the electricity bill. The team won the 1999-2000 season Winning the championship of the British C (the fourth level league) gives the team life.
Swansea's success is inseparable from coach Rogers. Rogers was the youth coach of Chelsea in 2004 and the reserve coach in 2006. Rogers tends to attack, which is very different from that of Jose. Under the leadership of Jose "love" Rogers, Swansea finally eliminated reading in the playoff to enter the Premier League and completed the amazing "quadruple jump".
This team is similar to Chelsea. They are tough and fierce. In addition, they have few players to play for the national team and they are full of energy.
Manchester United played very hard against Swansea when Gao Xiaodong beat the promoted Javier Mascherano with a free kick in the second half.
The process is not good-looking, or even ugly, but the fans can accept that FIFA virus is not so easy to remove, to get three points, not to be left behind by Manchester City, this is the biggest good.
The end of the league, followed by the Champions League and Benfica for the top of the group.
Manchester United are playing at home. As long as they beat Benfica, they will be able to win the first place, which will be very helpful for the devil's schedule at Christmas.
Manchester United's away game against Benfica was very ordinary. After a 3-2 victory, United naturally didn't want to give Benfica any more chances.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has sent out his strongest attack team to take the lead and defeat Benfica's confidence and morale.
However, the day does not follow people's wishes. Benfica took the lead in the third minute.
This is Benfica's midfield vitsell's right-hand goal. Pereira's pass and Gatan's small angle shot from the right side of the penalty area were blocked by Manchester United defender Phil Jones's left leg.
1: 0
Benfica took the lead with a lucky own goal.
It was a big blow for Manchester United, who then stormed and bombed Benfica wildly and finally equalised in the 30th minute.
This is Benfica defender Bruno Cesar fouled Gao Xiaodong in his own half. After Gao Xiaodong and Evra passed the ball in succession, Gao Xiaodong suddenly blocked with one foot, Rooney stopped the ball, pulled the guard, and smashed the goal with one foot to make the score 1-1.
Then Manchester United attacked like a tide, completely suppressed Benfica in the half court.
Benfica are well prepared. In the face of such a difficult situation, they play very tenaciously. Manchester United have such a big advantage, but they can't score all the time.
Until the first half of the 45th minute, Evra left cross, Gao Xiaodong in the front of the restricted area direct volley.
Goalkeeper Artur struggled to save Gao Xiaodong's long-range shot, but the alert Hernandez made up the net in the penalty area and changed the score to 2-1.
Manchester United returned to the dressing room with a one goal advantage, and Ferguson felt his start was good and did not adjust.At the beginning of the second half, after Benfica's successive passes, Aimar made a 45 degree cross from the side, and de GEA made a mistake to clear the ball to Bruno. At the foot of Cesar, Cesar started to shoot and de GEA saved, but the ball hit Ferdinand's body to change the line and bounced in front of Aimar. Aimar pushed the empty goal and changed the score to 2:2.
in the first half, he gave a big gift, and in the second half, he gave a big gift again, which made Gao Xiaodong and other veteran players angry.
But now is not the time to complain. Gao Xiaodong and the old players can only encourage their teammates to cheer up and continue to put pressure on Benfica.
Ferguson saw the equaliser, but also very anxious, he replaced the experienced veteran Berbatov, replaced the young Hernandez.
Ferguson's substitution was timely. After Gao Xiaodong and Evra passed the ball continuously, Gao Xiaodong scored the left, Nani crossed, Berbatov headed the goal from 10 yards, and the ball bounced into the net.
3: 2. United took the lead again.
Although Benfica people know that there is little hope of winning, they still launched a fierce counterattack, trying to score again at the last minute and level the score.
United's leaders played steadily and didn't give Benfica many chances to shoot. In the end, United beat Benfica 3-2 at home and secured the top of the group.
Back in the Premier League, the 13th round of Manchester City against Liverpool, Manchester United against Newcastle, Manchester City encounter a strong opponent, this is a good chance for Manchester United to chase points.
However, Manchester United still didn't wake up from the FIFA virus. The game was very bad. Gao Xiaodong was at the back of the field, and the attack was weak. Gao Xiaodong was at the front, and the defence was empty. In the end, Manchester United were tied 2-2 by Newcastle United at home.
Fortunately, Manchester City also failed to seize the chance of Manchester United making mistakes. They drew 1-1 with Liverpool and failed to open the gap with Manchester United.