April 19th. Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth.
"Beautiful! Absolutely majestic!"
"Jesse Lingard delivers a whip-cracking corner from the left, and Chris Smalling leaps like a salmon to head it into the net!"
"In the 29th minute of the first half, Manchester United breaks the deadlock and takes the lead on the South Coast!" Peter Drury announced, his voice carrying the excitement of the title charge.
Jim Beglin chimed in with his analysis. "Currently sitting in 12th place with 44 points, Bournemouth has no realistic hope of finishing in the top six, nor are they in danger of relegation. They are on the beach, figuratively speaking, so their performance towards the end of the season hasn't been particularly motivated."
"This is wonderful news for Manchester United, as they won't need to exert too much effort to secure this match and can save more energy for the Champions League semifinal in seven days."
Drury continued, "I have watched young Ling progress from a bench player at the start of the season to where he is now, standing on the precipice of his first league championship. It is a fairytale rise."
"By the way, Jim, the first Chinese player to win the Premier League was Dong Fangzhuo, technically, though his contribution was minimal. If it weren't for injuries back then, perhaps he might have had a chance to shine at Old Trafford. But Ling is writing a new chapter entirely."
"Let's not pop the champagne too early, Peter," Beglin warned. "Yesterday, Manchester City thrashed Swansea 5-0, and their form hasn't been significantly affected by the derby loss—in fact, they've become even stronger, like a wounded beast."
Drury recalled the 2011-12 season when Manchester City staged that infamous comeback.
Although the story sounded wonderful for the neutrals, if it were to happen to Ling now, it would be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions.
As the two chatted, time continued to pass.
In the 70th minute of the second half.
Ling continued his red-hot form from the previous match, completing two consecutive breakthroughs down the flank before being tripped by a clumsy defender in the penalty area.
Beep!
The referee decisively blew the whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.
Penalty to Manchester United!
Man United's first designated penalty taker was Juan Mata, and the second was Romelu Lukaku.
However, since missing a penalty early in the season, Lukaku had never actively asked to take one again.
"Ling, take it! Give it your all! Don't let Salah pull ahead—I've never seen the Golden Boot award up close before!"
Mata generously handed the ball to Ling, truly living up to his reputation as the kindest and most gentle man in football.
"Thanks, Juan!"
Ling had no reason to refuse.
No athlete can turn down individual honors when they are within reach, and he was no exception.
But Mohamed Salah's recent performance for Liverpool had been staggering, with his goal tally reaching an incredible 34 goals.
Based on his memories from his previous life, Salah had only scored 32 goals by the end of the season.
Ling guessed that his own changes to the course of history—the "butterfly effect"—had spurred Salah to unleash his hidden potential even further.
The pressure on Ling was immense, but sometimes, being too anxious could lead to poor shooting form.
After the referee blew the whistle, Ling took a deep breath and sprinted toward the goal.
Bang!
With a dull thud, the ball flew straight into the bottom right corner of the net.
Although Bournemouth's Asmir Begović guessed the right direction, the shot was too precise and powerful, and he couldn't get a strong enough hand on the ball to keep it out.
After the match resumed, there were no further major twists, and it ultimately ended 0-2.
Manchester United secured the victory and continued to lead the Premier League standings, keeping City at bay.
...
Around 8 p.m., everyone returned to the Carrington Training Base.
After bidding each other farewell, they headed home.
Ling first went to the cafeteria for a quick meal, then returned to his dorm to freshen up before starting to study match footage of AS Roma.
Over the past few years, Roma had been a force to be reckoned with in European competitions.
Although they often faced financial shortages in their "loan-to-buy" deals and frequently sold key players to fill the gaps, they consistently unearthed players with diverse qualities and managed to blend young talent with seasoned stars.
After replacing Rudi Garcia and Luciano Spalletti one after another, Eusebio Di Francesco's unique and precise pre-match strategies had unleashed tremendous energy in this Roma squad.
Their 3-0 victory over Chelsea in the group stages was enough to make people sit up and take notice.
Yet they managed to lead a historic comeback from the desperate situation of being 1-4 down against Barcelona, delivering a match worthy of being recorded in football tactical history books forever.
Ling primarily studied Roma's defensive strategy—specifically, how they managed to neutralize Barcelona's strongest element, Lionel Messi.
In simple terms, it boiled down to two words: Disrupt and Isolate.
Since Roma employed a three-center-back formation, they could use numerical superiority to suppress Messi centrally.
Combined with midfield dominance and aggressive pressing, Barcelona's attack was nearly silenced.
In the first half of that match, Messi had only six touches in the attacking third, with just one inside the penalty area.
How could United break through this iron cage?
Ling immersed himself in the match footage, attempting to find solutions through individual skill.
Half an hour later, he jolted awake as if from a dream.
His perspective had been too narrow.
When viewed from an overall tactical standpoint, the approach instantly became clear.
Roma habitually used high pressing to force opponents into playing long balls from their own half, leveraging their height advantage to dominate aerial duels against the smaller Barcelona forwards.
This tactic worked perfectly against the Catalans.
After all, among Barcelona's forwards, only two players stood taller than 1.8 meters: Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez.
But Manchester United was completely different.
Mourinho's "Land of Giants" formation never fell behind in aerial battles.
With Lukaku, Pogba, Matic, Smalling, and McTominay, they often held a distinct physical advantage over any team in Europe.
Still, if he could recognize this, Di Francesco certainly could too.
Ling spent another half-hour analyzing before studying his direct opponents.
Federico Fazio, formerly of Tottenham, had transferred to Roma for just €3.2 million this season.
Against Barcelona, he was a monster, making 5 successful tackles and winning 11 aerial duels.
Alessandro Florenzi, the engine on the right.
And Daniele De Rossi.
Having played for Roma since 2001, he'd now served the club for 17 years.
Perhaps many casual fans weren't familiar with him, but when discussing football's great loyalists, he ranked alongside Totti.
Since the summer of 2009, he served as Roma's vice-captain, waiting until Totti's retirement in the 2016-17 season to finally wear the captain's armband permanently.
Though nearing the end of his career, he possessed vast match experience and remained Roma's indispensable spiritual leader and midfield general.
Ling intently watched match footage, quickly familiarizing himself with their technical characteristics.
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