Red Rebels

The packed Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was filled with people and the stands were filled with darkness.

Whether they are fans or Manchester United fans, these people who come to watch the game all wear black, which symbolizes going to the funeral. Black suits, black T-shirts, black jackets, black sweaters... everyone's arms. They are all wrapped with a black arm gauze, and the expressions on their faces are either serious, crying, sad, or reluctant... There are various expressions of farewell!

If uninformed people walked in, they would exaggerate and mistakenly believe that today's Millennium Stadium is not holding an FA Cup final, but a massive memorial service. And if they pay attention to the fans in the stands, You will understand in your heart the banners you pulled out.

This was truly a memorial service!

Memorial service for Red Devils Manchester United!

As early as when the Glazer family announced the full acquisition of Manchester United and removed Manchester United from the stock market and turned it into a private company, many Manchester United die-hards began to call for them to refuse to go to Old Trafford to watch the game and refuse to let Manchester United go to Old Trafford. The Glazer family earns even a penny from them, and at the same time they want to die for Manchester United at the Millennium Stadium!

Yes, they do love Manchester United and are extremely loyal, but that was before the Glazer family invaded. After that, Manchester United was no longer the Red Devils in the minds of fans!

In the past two years since entering the Premier League, with the rumors of the Glazer family acquiring Manchester United gaining momentum, the attendance rate at Old Trafford is still high, but as Keane said, people eating steaks and drinking coffee account for a lot of them. Most of them are not here to watch the game, and they will not even cheer for a goal or cry for a goal conceded. They are here for vacation and enjoyment!

On the other hand, the 55,000-seat stand was full every game. After investigation by the Ministry of Commerce, it was found that the number of seats in the stand could no longer meet the needs of fans. This made Xiao Yu decide to expand the third floor of the stadium after the season. Moreover, the entire third floor will be constructed at once, which will increase the attendance of the stadium to 80,000. The entire project is expected to take one year.

During this year, the first and second floor stands can continue to be used. The addition of the third floor will not affect the normal operation of the stadium. However, it is indeed unreasonable to start the expansion less than a year after the completion of the construction. Xiao Yu and others were unexpected.

If you analyze the reasons carefully, it is not difficult to find that a large part of the fans who flocked to the stadium came from Manchester United. They were angry that the Glazer family bought Manchester United and turned to defect. In addition, Manchester City left Manchester, making the situation in the past two years The number of fans has increased rapidly.

Good results, a rapid increase in the number of fans, low ticket prices, and an unbeaten record at home so far have attracted more fans to watch the game, which is why the football market is so popular today. .

However, Xiao Yu also discussed with Mark David that after the third floor of the stadium is built, it will not continue to expand in the short term, but will focus on improving services to fans. After all, the attendance rate of 80,000 is enough for the fans. The stadium has become the largest football stadium in England except for Wembley Stadium, which is under construction, and there is not much significance in expanding it.

While announcing the expansion of the stadium, the Glazer family, which had just taken over Manchester United, also proposed to expand the stands of the Old Trafford Stadium. However, due to the poor location of the Old Trafford Stadium, it had not been done before. There is room for expansion, which makes the expansion of Old Trafford too expensive and can only be done step by step.

This year, the Old Trafford Stadium will expand the northeast and northwest corners and add a second-floor stand, which can increase the attendance of the Old Trafford Stadium by 8,000. The construction period will last one year. It is expected that the Old Trafford Stadium will be Attendance can reach 76,000.

Although the stadium expansion plan was also announced, it was welcomed and supported. Fans have long been calling for the stadium to be expanded to use the number of seats to make up for the difference in ticket prices with other top Premier League teams.

But what Manchester United received was ridicule and ridicule, everyone made the same voice,

That's when the Glazer family began to be unable to resist poaching money from Manchester United.

Fans came into the stadium for everything before the game.

The South Wales Police Department was worried about what these angry fans would do in the stadium, so they specially arranged a large number of people to come to the stadium to maintain order. However, no one expected that the fans did not cause trouble, but in such a way to vent his anger.

The Red Devil is dead!

RIP!

Born in 1878, died in 2005, Manchester United rest in peace!

...one after another, shocking banners, and impressive expressions. When the live broadcast camera swept across the stands of the Millennium Stadium, and across the living bodies that seemed to have had their souls emptied out, everyone was stunned. Feel silent.

Yes, this is a big memorial service!

The most ironic thing is that the opponent of the Red Devils Manchester United in this game is!

There is probably nothing more ironic than this in the world!

Thinking back to 1998, when Murdoch wanted to acquire Manchester United, breakaway was established. At that time, Xiao Yu concluded that within 10 years, Manchester United would definitely be acquired and replaced.

It has only been 7 years since Manchester United was acquired by the Glazer family, but it has become a well-known powerhouse in Europe and even has the opportunity to win the European Champions Cup this season. This undoubtedly slapped the Manchester United directors hard. !

The fans were powerless to purchase capital. All they could do was wear black clothes to watch the game and attend this massive memorial service. This resulted in vendors outside the Millennium Stadium making a huge profit. All the black clothes All were in short supply, because in addition to Manchester United fans, fans also wore black clothes.

These clever vendors don't just sell clothes, they also sell American flags with Glazer's image on them, priced at £5 and selling very well.

"This kind of thing could have been prevented!" Xiao Yu said sadly.

Standing next to him is Prince Mike of Kent, England. As a representative of the royal family, he has come to participate in this FA Cup. He will shake hands with the players and coaches of both sides before the game. He will also After the game, a trophy is awarded to the winning team.

This was understood by the media as a special favor.

In the 2002/03 season, they reached the FA Cup final. The then Crown Prince Charles came to Wales in person to present the award. The incident that year was cited as a good talk by the media. However, in the 03/04 season, the royal family made it clear that they would not send Representatives attended, so the FA invited the elder Robson.

This year, the royal family arranged for Prince Mike to attend this football feast. Interestingly, they once again reached the finals. This was praised by the thoughtful media as a special treatment, because only this team can participate in the finals, and the royal family will be willing to do so. Send someone to present the award.

Of course, this rumor was quickly dispelled, because Prince Mike's decision was made two months ago, and it was not known at that time whether he would be able to participate in the finals.

However, due to his acquaintance with Prince Charles and his son, Xiao Yu had close contacts with the royal family and also knew Prince Mike, so he accepted the invitation and went to watch the game in the VIP box with him.

For Xiao Yu, this is a game with greater symbolic meaning than victory or defeat. Even if he loses, he will not feel regretful, because being able to appear in this place at this time is the greatest representative meaning in itself.

There are wins and losses in football matches, but the meaning remains forever!

I believe that even in a hundred years, not many people will remember the score of this game, but there will definitely be many fans who talk about the significance of this game, just like there are still many fans who talk about the situation when it was founded. Like Le Dao.

……………………Although Xiao Yu didn’t pay much attention to this game, Mourinho was not slacking off at all.

Manchester United's morale has been low recently, and the team's condition is not very good. On the other hand, they defeated Real Madrid and Juventus in the Champions League and reached the final. Although they lost the league championship, the morale of the team is very high.

In terms of personnel configuration, Gary Neville and Heinze were absent due to injuries. Ferguson arranged for O'Shea and Brown to start in their place. Therefore, in this game, Mourinho focused on asking the team to attack Manchester United's two wings.

The magic quartet composed of Villa, Ronaldinho, Messi and Kaká has continuously impacted Manchester United's defense from the beginning. Messi, in particular, has continued to create a lot of threats to Manchester United on the right. The forward movement of the two full-backs helped control the situation on the field from the beginning.

In order to suppress the midfield, Ferguson changed the formation to 433, arranging Scholes, Keane and Fletcher to play in the three midfield positions. Robinho, Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy formed the frontcourt trident. Diego was Placed on the bench.

However, a big drawback in Manchester United's lineup is Ruud van Nistelrooy. The presence of the Dutchman slows down Manchester United's frontcourt advancement. Although Ferguson arranged for Robinho and Rooney to help him, the actual effect was not Not ideal, the Dutchman has been affected by injuries this season, his condition is not as good as before, and he failed to seize several opportunities.

Looking back at the offense, the combination of Maicon and Messi on the right is becoming more and more tacit, and Ronaldinho on the left cooperates well with Evra, making the two wings completely suppressed Manchester United.

After losing Gary Neville and Heinze, Manchester United's wings were fragile. O'Shea and Brown were unable to stop Ronaldinho and Messi who were in good condition, causing Manchester United's defense to be defeated in less than 10 minutes after the opening.

Ronaldinho dribbled the ball in from the left, and after collaborating with Villa on hitting the wall at the front of the penalty area, he made a cross pass in front of the goal. Kaká stepped in from the back row and then stabbed the goal, 1:0!

After that, the game completely entered a stage of control. The double midfielder composed of Beckham and De Rossi had a hard time with the three midfielders of Keane, Scholes and Fletcher. However, the attack Suppressing Manchester United, the three of Keane could only fall into a tough battle.

At the last moment of the first half, Kaká took advantage of a counterattack opportunity and passed a sharp through ball. Villa used his speed to get rid of Sylvester and scored with a single shot, 2:0! This book is updated quickly on Baidu search {half}[^floating^}{^生]

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Ferguson made certain adjustments to the team's tactics during the halftime break. At the beginning of the second half, Scholes, who was more advanced, accurately sent the ball into the penalty area, and Ruud van Nistelrooy beat Vidic. , scored from a small angle and got a goal back for Manchester United, 2:1!

But there was a quick counterattack. Beckham's direct free kick caused Carroll to take a shot. Ronaldinho succeeded in making a follow-up shot, expanding the score again, 3:1!

Although Ferguson quickly replaced Fletcher with Giggs in the hope of strengthening Manchester United's offense, Mourinho also made adjustments and substitutions, which effectively restricted Manchester United's offense and continued to maintain the advantage on the field. .

After that, both sides had several decent opportunities, but they failed to score again. Finally, they defeated Manchester United 3:1 at the Millennium Stadium and won the second FA Cup championship in the club's history. At the same time, Manchester United was let go. The whole season was fruitless.

In this game that was considered a fig leaf battle by the media, the victory undoubtedly caused great irony to Manchester United, especially the countless fans of both sides wearing black clothes at the scene, which shocked onlookers.

No matter where Manchester United will go in the future, no matter what the purpose of the Glazer family acquiring Manchester United, but starting from today, after this game, the debate is over and the protest has lost its meaning.

Manchester United, rest in peace!