Arsenal and the Manchester United players jogged into the stadium from the players' tunnel. They shook hands before the game.
Qin Xiong looked calmly at the Manchester United players in front of him as they walked past. He shook hands with them routinely.
Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, the Neville brothers, van Nistelrooy, as well as the similarly young and eye-catching Rooney and Ronaldo.
Rooney had short hair like Qin Xiong, but Qin Xiong's hair looked thicker. Ronaldo looked like a handsome young man with a beautiful hairstyle. He even dyed a few strands of blonde hair.
Qin Xiong, who had no concept of fashion, did not think Ronaldo's hairstyle was very attractive. He only knew that the Portuguese player was a runner-up in the UEFA European Championship in the summer, which was a great achievement.
There was also Rooney, whose value was more than four times that of Qin Xiong. It was inevitable that this would be the topic of Fleet Street before the game.
With the whistle of referee Mike Riley, Manchester United kicked off and the game officially began.
Qin Xiong exhaled and his expression suddenly changed. He was full of fighting spirit!
Manchester United and Arsenal both played 4-4-2, and it looked like everyone's formation was very similar.
The pace of the game was extremely fast from the start.
Neville's long pass from the backfield found the second striker, Rooney, and Qin Xiong rushed to the football's landing area first. He jumped and headed the ball to Ljungberg on the flank. Rooney did not grab the landing area, but affected Qin Xiong's landing, causing Qin Xiong to lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Mike Riley did not judge Rooney for a foul based on the principle that it was advantageous for the offense. Qin Xiong quickly got up from the ground and ran forward.
Ljungberg crossed the ball to the middle, and Qin Xiong ran to the left two meters in front of Scholes. After Scholes followed his movement, he suddenly pulled the ball back to the right and sped up. After a diagonal kick, he swung the ball out of an angle and cut back to kick the ball to the left wing to Reyes.
To Qin Xiong's surprise, before he passed the ball to Reyes, he realized that Reyes was in a good position to receive the ball. But when the ball rolled to Reyes's feet, Gary Neville had already closed in on him.
The Spaniard should have taken the initiative to run in the direction of the rolling football. He waited for the ball in place, which was obviously not a good habit.
Gary Neville did not wait for Reyes to display his footwork skills and directly seized his position in the confrontation. His combination of neutralizing and attacking at close range caused Reyes to lose control of the ball and kick the ball out of the sideline.
Gary Neville ran to kick the ball out of the sideline and threw the ball directly to Ronaldo on the right wing.
The Portuguese player had a good feel for touching the ball. His visual sense was smooth and natural. This was the difference in skills. It was clear at a glance, unlike many English players who even stopped the ball slightly rigid, as if they were doing a teaching demonstration. That was not natural enough.
Ronaldo took advantage of the situation to dribble the ball and scamper along the sideline. He quickly pushed the attack to the sideline in the dangerous zone in the front field.
Ashley Cole was guarding him from the side.
When the two players were less than two meters away from each other, Ronaldo began to pedal.
His technical movements were still perfect.
Once, twice, thrice.
After the third pedal, Ronaldo noticed that Ashley Cole began to be unable to keep up with his rhythm after making a mistake in his prediction.
But as he pushed forward on the bicycle, he was getting closer and closer to the end line.
When Ronaldo was ready to pass, Ashley Cole, whose center of gravity had obviously been shaken, chose to fall to the ground and use his tackle to destroy the football under Ronaldo's feet.
People far away could not see what was happening at the end line position on Arsenal's left flank. They only saw Ashley Cole's tackle foot extend in front of Ronaldo, and then the football rolled out of the end line.
Ronaldo was ready to kick the corner kick, but Mike Riley pointed in the direction of the Manchester United half, indicating that it was Arsenal's attacking ball.
Ronaldo looked dissatisfied and protested to the referee, but the referee did not respond. At the same time, many Red Devils fans in the stands began to talk.
They were dissatisfied with Ronaldo.
After appreciating the Portuguese genius' exquisite and gorgeous skills last season, the Red Devils fans at Old Trafford began to become aesthetically fatigued.
He could surpass people brilliantly, but he seemed to be overly obsessed with showing off his football skills.
He clearly should improve his efficiency, and not tirelessly perform moves like pedal, flower insertion, and reverse footing.
Qin Xiong did not encounter a big problem in the offense. Today he was playing as a center midfielder, not as an attacking midfielder, so he could easily get rid of Scholes when the rhythm of offense and defense was very fast, and provide ammunition for his teammates on the offensive side.
But Arsenal's problem was too obvious!
Reyes was "humiliated" by Gary Neville from the first minute of the game, and then lived in his opponent's shadow.
Qin Xiong passed to Reyes three times, and all three attacks ended at Reyes's feet!
"The images in the first ten minutes of the game tell us a fact. The gap between Reyes and Pires is still very obvious! He can't replace Pires' role in Arsenal's tactical system. Can he pass the ball forward? No! Could he get past Gary Neville? No! Can he get rid of him horizontally and pass to his teammates? No! "
Perhaps the insignificant Community Shield at the beginning of the season and the lack of strong opponents since the start of the league tournament made Reyes, who had some wonderful performances, think that he had gotten rid of the nightmare of the Premier League's rough tackling.
He was wrong!
Very wrong!
When he was in this high-intensity and intense game, he was at a loss from the moment he was suppressed by Neville's tough tackling in the first minute.
It was like a replay of yesterday's nightmare!
Henry naturally saw Reyes's predicament in the front line, so Henry, who was already leaning to the left when attacking, took the initiative to pull the side. When he pulled the side, he attracted Gary Neville's attention and changed direction to reduce the pressure on Reyes.
Therefore, there was a linkage effect. Bergkamp had to go forward. Otherwise, who would break into the penalty area?
Qin Xiong met a master, who might be the only master left in England.
Scholes!
In the locker room before the game, Vieira reminded him to always keep an eye on Scholes!
But in the actual game, Qin Xiong found that he could not keep an eye on Scholes at all!
The England midfielder was not the type of player who was used to sticking to the ball.
He ran actively and had an unparalleled sense of looking for openings. Then, when he received his teammates, he touched the ball and sent it out!
Before Qin Xiong could snatch the ball, the other side had already passed the ball. In addition to the fast pace of the game, Manchester United focused on the offense of the two wings and the frequent plugging of the full backs, Qin Xiong could not defend against Scholes at all.
This was also what gave Vieira a headache. Vieira could personally admit that Scholes was the strongest and most difficult player to defend against among all the opponents he had encountered in England.
The other side would not give you a chance to snatch the ball!
Qin Xiong was not annoyed or disappointed!
Because when he learned how to integrate into the English game, one of the people he referred to was Scholes!
The other side was a template he learned from. Plus, he was not an excellent defensive tackle player, so it was normal that he could not keep an eye on the other side.
With Scholes' command in the midfield, Manchester United could repeatedly launch attacks in the wings.
And the effect of Rooney's ambush behind van Nistelrooy at the start of the game was not ideal. He was completely frozen by Vieira!
Ronaldo could not give van Nistelrooy effective support. Ryan Giggs was tightly blocked by the conscientious Lauren and Touré, who focused on the defensive side. Manchester United's offense was met with a strong sniper from Arsenal.
The changes in Arsenal's offense caught Qin Xiong off guard.
After Henry moved to the side, Bergkamp's offense in the middle would be magnified. He was blocked by Manchester United's more players.
When Qin Xiong cleverly passed an overhead pass to Bergkamp in front of Phil Neville, he was surprised to see Bergkamp make a mistake in stopping the ball!
The Dutchman did not stick the ball to his feet and did not show his skill in stopping the ball. Instead, he let the ball out of his foot control when he unloaded the force, and then Silvestre's big kick came to the rescue!
Wenger looked dignified on the sidelines.
This was the main reason he brought in Qin Xiong!
If Silva was not also absent due to injury, he would definitely let Qin Xiong play in Bergkamp's position.
Bergkamp was old after all.
His level was still very high, and his experience and awareness were unparalleled.
But if his performance was evaluated after a season, he would at least start with 70 points. But this did not mean that Bergkamp could maintain a higher level of consistency throughout the season!
Physical condition was the foundation of a player's competitive state. The veteran Bergkamp did not seem to play well today.
Arsenal's offensive threat value was very low, very low …
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