The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 327: The law of the jungle

Only with strength can you have status, otherwise you will only be manipulated and played with by others, becoming a victim with nowhere to seek justice. Even in a competition of the level of the Champions League, the jungle rule of the jungle of the weak is the same.

--Inscription

The Red Devils not only compete in the domestic league this season, but also in European competitions, namely the European Champions Cup, the highest level of European club competition.

The Champions League has been expanded this season, with 32 teams participating and an additional qualifying round. The winners of the qualifying rounds will enter the Champions League finals. The 16 teams that enter the finals are divided into 4 groups, with 4 teams in each group playing a round-robin group stage, and the top two teams advance to the knockout stage. The 8 teams are divided into two semi-zones for the knockout stage until the champion is decided.

This year's Champions League adopts a series of new rules: each team wins 3 points instead of 2 points; each team has 3 substitutions; player numbers must be fixed; goalkeepers are not allowed to catch the pass with their hands... and so on. The last rule is mainly aimed at passive play. In previous games, there were a lot of passive defenses that wasted time. The defender passed the ball back, the goalkeeper caught the pass with his hands, held the ball for a long time and then passed it to the defender, and repeated the cycle, wasting a lot of game time. The most special example was in the semi-final of the UEFA Cup between Torino and Real Madrid in the 1991-92 season. Torino goalkeeper Marchegiani kept catching the pass with his hands, deliberately wasting up to 5 minutes of game time at a time. The fans booed and the referee couldn't punish him. The game was so ugly that a large number of fans left the field to protest.

This near-scandal forced UEFA to decide on new rules, which subsequently became universally accepted.

The Red Devils were placed in Group A of this year's Champions League, with opponents Gothenburg, Galatasaray and Barcelona. In this group, Barcelona was in the first tier. At that time, it was one of the two giants in La Liga. It was the runner-up of the last Champions League, the champion of the previous one, and a regular in the quarterfinals. It was coached by the famous coach Cruyff, and the team was full of powerful players. "World Footballer of the Year" Romario and "European Footballer of the Year" Stoichkov played together. It was a well-known giant in Europe.

From today's perspective, this group is clearly divided into strong and weak teams. Barcelona and Manchester United are the favorites, and the gap with the other two is huge. But it was not the case back then. Manchester United was not well-known and did not have the influence it has now. The team was only appearing in the Champions League for the second time under Ferguson. Last season, Manchester United did not play well in the Champions League and was directly eliminated by Galatasaray.

Ferguson is ambitious. He hopes that the Red Devils can make a difference in Europe and regain their former glory of winning the championship.

The Red Devils had a good start in the group stage. In their first match, they beat the Swedish champions Gothenburg 4-2 at home. In this match, the Red Devils swept the field, Giggs scored twice, Kanchelskis and Lee Sharpe scored one goal each. The Red Devils' wingers were very sharp and they won the first game smoothly. Later, the Red Devils were affected by the multi-line operations. The result of the away game against Galatasaray was not too bad, but they faced a strong challenge from Barcelona when they returned to their home court.

The Red Devils played at home and were not afraid of Barcelona's reputation. They attacked actively at the beginning and soon broke the deadlock and took the lead with Mark Hughes, but Barcelona relied on Romario and Bakero's outstanding performances to score goals and overtook the score. The Red Devils fought back fiercely after falling behind, and kept attacking the opponent's defense. In the 79th minute of the second half, they finally created an opportunity, and Lee Sharpe scored a wonderful goal to equalize the score.

The Red Devils did not play conservatively in the Champions League that year, and played very exciting offensive football. This 2-2 game can be regarded as the masterpiece of the Red Devils. The Red Devils players played very confidently at home, and their technical and tactical levels were not inferior to their opponents. Their tactical awareness and teamwork were no worse than their opponents. Mark Hughes, who once played for Barcelona, ​​played at a level far beyond his level in Spain. He made his opponents suffer in the last European Cup Winners' Cup final. He still played well in this game, with full impact, and put great pressure on the opponent's defense line. Although the opponent's defenders were on guard, Hughes still scored a goal for the Red Devils with his rich experience and superb shooting skills. Lee Sharp was a young man who was not afraid of tigers. He frequently tried to pass the opponent boldly on the wing and actively attacked the opponent's defense line. He had the advantage in many one-on-one situations, successfully got rid of the opponent's bottom cross, and tried to cut into the middle to shoot with the ball, and also tried to directly enter the penalty area to receive the ball. McClair's cross was very accurate, and Lee Sharp entered Barcelona's penalty area at the same time, facing the ball with his back, and he was trapped in the crowd. It seemed that he had missed the best route for the ball and could only watch the ball slip past him. Lee Sharp had a brilliant idea and a flash of inspiration. He turned his back to the goal and knocked the ball with his heel without thinking, and without even looking, he easily sent the ball into the opponent's goal.

It was a pity that the Red Devils didn't win the game, because in the last 15 minutes of the game, they had already taken an absolute advantage, and many attacks had pressed into the opponent's penalty area, and the only thing missing was the accuracy of the shot. Giggs, Hughes and McClair all had good shooting opportunities, but they were ultimately unable to capture the opponent's city. When they played against Barcelona away at the Camp Nou, Ferguson gave up the Dane Schmeichel and used local goalkeeper Walsh. And it was this decision that led to the big defeat. Barcelona was very aggressive, and Stoichkov broke the Red Devils' goal 2 minutes into the game. Walsh's save was really eye-catching. Barcelona then used a quick counterattack to tear open the Red Devils' defense line. Stoichkov changed speed and rushed straight into the Red Devils' penalty area, easily kicking and scoring the second goal. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Red Devils pressed out to attack, Barcelona's counterattack was even more sharp. Romario and Ferrer made sneak attacks and scored one goal each, and the score was finally rewritten to 4-0. The Red Devils were passive throughout the game and conceded a goal early on, which disrupted the execution of their tactics. The entire team had to press forward but were also targeted by the opponent, and there was nothing they could do about the huge defeat.

The next match for the Red Devils was against Gothenburg. The Red Devils players were not used to the grass field in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the sudden rain. The team played a bit distracted and lost their way. They were passive at the beginning. The high-pressure tactics made the defense line weak, and the team's defense also had loopholes. Gothenburg seized the opportunity of the Red Devils' excessive pressure and quickly scored a goal to take the lead. The Red Devils were impatient and were successfully attacked by the opponent again. Although the forward scored 1 goal, the opponent scored two more goals! In the end, the Red Devils lost 1-3 and left Sweden very depressed.

In this match, the core player of the Gothenburg team, Blomqvist, played amazingly, which Ferguson and the entire coaching team could not forget. The dream of the Red Devils to equalize was shattered by Blomqvist, who defeated the Red Devils with his outstanding performance alone. The Gothenburg team played very well in the wing tactics in this match. Blomqvist showed his power in the drizzle, and he took the lead in breaking the deadlock for the Gothenburg team in the 11th minute. In the second half, after Hughes equalized the score in the 64th minute, he immediately responded strongly. One minute after the Red Devils scored, Blomqvist assisted Alinmark to score, helping the team to lead 2-1 again. Then Blomqvist dribbled the ball through the penalty area and was knocked down to win a penalty, which he easily scored. In this way, Blomqvist finally led the team to a 3-1 victory over the Red Devils.

Ferguson was greatly shocked, and then he couldn't forget Blomqvist, and tried every means to bring this winger under his command.

红魔此战失利，5场比赛1胜2平2负仅取得5分，只剩下理论上的出线可能。小组第一的哥德堡已经稳获出线权。红魔的竞争对手变成了巴萨，他们5场比赛后2胜1平2负积7分，占据了主动。

The Red Devils' last group match was at home against Galatasaray. The Red Devils had to win big in this match, and then the result of another match would depend on it. The Red Devils played a nearly perfect game inspired by the fans, beating the Turkish team 4-0. But in another group match, Gothenburg played a tacit game with Barcelona at Camp Nou, and the two teams ended in a 1-1 draw.

In this way, even though the Red Devils and Barcelona both had 8 points, they were still ruthlessly eliminated.

Regarding the defeat in the Champions League, Keane said: "I feel the world is very dark and I am very disappointed with the result. We had the ability and the opportunity, but we didn't seize the precious opportunity. We didn't qualify from the group because we were deliberately manipulated and bullied by our opponents. This makes us so angry."

Captain Bruce summed up the reasons for the defeat: "We were manipulated by others, but the final defeat was actually entirely self-inflicted. We lost two of the key games against three opponents in the group stage, and were tied twice, which doomed the outcome. UEFA stipulates that each team can only have three foreign players on the field. This rule has a huge impact on us. We are a lineup composed of players from many countries, and the head coach had to choose between Schmeichel, Cantona, Kanchelskis, Irwin and others, which seriously weakened the team's strength. In addition to personnel limitations, our failure to win against Galatasaray was the most inappropriate, and losing to Gothenburg was also inappropriate."

Ferguson was also full of regrets about being eliminated. "The Champions League always brings new challenges, which we need to familiarize ourselves with and get used to step by step. Our overall strength is insufficient and there is still a gap between us and the strong teams in Europe. Another point is that we need to face various new tactical styles and various new venues, which is not an easy task."

The Red Devils are indeed very experienced in the Premier League and have a psychological advantage against any Premier League team, but this has no deterrent effect in Europe. At that time, the Red Devils were also better at long-distance races such as the league season. Even if they lost a few games, it would not have much impact, but in the Champions League group stage with only 6 games, this is very dangerous. It can be said that the Red Devils must concentrate on these 5 games and cannot have flaws in any link, otherwise they will be punished.

The Red Devils also had the wrong competitors in the group stage this time. Barcelona was not very strong this season. They only played one good game in the group stage, which was a 4-0 victory over the Red Devils. In other games, they lost to Gothenburg and Galatasaray away, and their record was even worse than that of the Red Devils. Even after qualifying from the group, Barcelona was immediately eliminated in the knockout stage, losing to Paris, which was still unknown at the time.

Ajax won the Champions League that season, defeating the famous AC Milan in the final. As one of the most outstanding teams in the history of football youth training in the past 30 years, Ajax was led by Louis van Gaal, with many talented players under his command: Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer, Marc Overmars, Edwin van der Sar, Davids, Javier Litmanen, Nikola Kanu, Kluivert, Seedorf, Bergkamp, ​​Rijkaard... This star-studded Dutch team was full of talents that shocked people. Van Gaal insisted on an offensive style of play, continuing the Dutch national team's all-out attack and defense tactics, and played a passionate scene. Ajax's light shone on the Champions League stage, and the youth players who rushed out of the team became a dazzling starry sky shining in European football.

Ajax attaches great importance to youth training, and this group of young players is the most outstanding achievement in the past 30 years. With these young talents, Ajax won the Champions League, but this was their last time to win the Champions League. Ajax was also the target of poaching and robbing, and its own financial resources and influence were not enough to retain those new stars. After the Bosman Act was passed in 1995, Ajax was almost facing a catastrophe. The teams at the top of the pyramid of European football were frantically snatching various new stars, and Ajax was not immune, and stars left one after another.

The Red Devils were far from being a giant at the time, and their influence was not as great as Ajax. After Ferguson took over, the Red Devils had just squeezed into the Champions League. Ferguson still needed to learn and improve, and the Red Devils still needed to accumulate and strengthen, and the Red Devils still needed to continue to improve.

The Champions League throne is high above. Ferguson said: "Just like I was criticized for not being able to win the league championship, I have also been criticized and ridiculed for being too arrogant and ignorant about the idea of ​​the Champions League. But I think everything is possible. The Champions League is very accidental. We Red Devils are getting stronger step by step, and of course we will have the opportunity to challenge for the championship."