As Drury's loud voice echoed out on the broadcast, Old Trafford erupted into an absolute frenzy of celebration.
Mahrez excitedly ran over to Ling, proudly shouting, "Ling, that pass—only I could control it! I swear, if it were anyone else, they'd have let it bounce twenty meters away!"
"Who are you talking about? Romelu?" Luke Shaw chimed in with a breathless joke as he joined the hug.
"He'd have controlled it straight into his own goal."
"Hahaha! But seriously, that pass of yours really had some serious power behind it," Pogba laughed heartily, jumping on their backs.
"If I hadn't put enough power on it, Jorginho would have intercepted it halfway," Ling retorted, not without a hint of annoyance at Mahrez's boasting.
"How else could it have reached your feet, Riyad?"
Earlier, his shooting angle had been perfectly blocked by Rudiger, and Kepa had positioned himself cleverly near the far post.
Even curling it perfectly into the top corner would have been difficult to score.
So he had no choice but to take a creative risk, and fortunately, the result turned out brilliantly.
When he passed the ball, he deliberately aimed it extremely hard for Mahrez's left foot.
The "King of Dribbling's" left-footed ball control is undoubtedly among the top five in the world right now.
Moreover, Mahrez can seamlessly transition an impossible touch into his next shooting move.
Even when Ling occasionally has a moment of technical brilliance, he admits he couldn't quite match Mahrez's silken first touch.
"A goal is a good goal!" Matic patted the shoulders of his younger teammates, a joyful, toothy smile spreading across his usually stern face.
Matic was genuinely enjoying his game now.
Partnering with Kante and Herrera in defensive midfield—both highly mobile, energetic players—meant the Serbian only needed to focus on dominating aerial duels and winning physical battles.
He didn't have to worry too much about the attacking front either.
Whether it was Ling or Mahrez, they rarely wasted the golden opportunities that came their way.
"There are only three minutes left in the first half. Let's push hard and aim to take the outright lead before halftime!" Wan-Bissaka shook his braids, speaking with youthful confidence.
"The boss said to tighten up the defense and focus on the second half," Ling corrected, raising an eyebrow toward the touchline where Mourinho was gesturing for calm.
"Well, let's do as the boss says then," Wan-Bissaka chuckled awkwardly.
He certainly didn't dare go against Mourinho's direct instructions.
....
Not far away, the Chelsea players were all hanging their heads, their eyes filled with nothing but tactical confusion and frustration.
Every team needs a leader to unite the players when the chips are down, but not everyone can become one.
Fortunately for Chelsea's rivals, the Blues hadn't solved this leadership vacuum for a long time.
The Blues used to always have loud, commanding voices in the dressing room—titans like Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, and Petr Cech.
But all of them had long left.
Where was Chelsea's true leader now?
Azpilicueta? He was a great defender, but he truly lacked the vocal, imposing captaincy qualities needed in a crisis.
Not long ago, when Kepa famously refused to be substituted, 'Azpi' couldn't even persuade his own goalkeeper to leave the pitch.
If it had been John Terry wearing the armband, would Kepa have dared utter a single word of defiance? Absolutely not.
Or Gary Cahill? He was the official club captain, but he couldn't even make the starting lineup anymore.
Could he really be the captain from the stands?
Hazard was even less likely.
He was a magical player, but no one would follow a player lacking ultimate professional discipline as a leader.
...
Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel, invited as a guest pundit for Sky Sports, said to Gary Neville in the studio, "Right now, the Chelsea players simply aren't communicating on the pitch, and no one is stepping up as a leader to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. A team desperately needs such a figure, and that's exactly what this current Chelsea side is missing."
"Back in the day, if we were conceding two goals before halftime, John Terry would smash up the dressing room and rally us," Mikel continued, shaking his head. "By the time we stepped back onto the pitch for the second half, we'd win the game purely on willpower."
Neville nodded in somber agreement.
During that period, Chelsea was indeed mentally indestructible and gave his Manchester United side endless trouble.
Last season, Neville had worried that Manchester United would follow Chelsea's current path of player power and lack of leadership.
Neville sighed and said on air, "For a team with ambitions, a true leader is the most important position on the pitch."
...
When the match resumed for the final few minutes of the half, the entire Chelsea team clearly lost their direction, muddling through without knowing what tactical plan they were actually playing.
Sarri was even more furious on the sidelines, pacing back and forth in sheer frustration, chewing frantically on his tobacco.
Fortunately for Chelsea, Manchester United did not recklessly seize the momentum to intensify their attack.
Instead, following Mourinho's strict orders, they calmly defended in a mid-block, keeping their shape.
After what felt like an eternity for the Blues, they finally heard the halftime whistle.
The Chelsea players felt little relief, all hanging their heads in silence as they walked toward the away locker room.
In stark contrast, the Manchester United players walked down the tunnel with their heads held high.
..
The fifteen-minute halftime break passed quickly.
No one knew exactly what Maurizio Sarri had said in the away dressing room, but when the Chelsea players emerged from the tunnel, each of their face was grim beyond words.
Sometimes, pumping up a team needs to be combined with a realistic assessment of the actual situation, relying solely on tactical verbal motivation rarely achieves great results when morale is broken.
In this regard, Sarri really needed to learn from the man-management skills of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, or Jurgen Klopp.
Moreover, someone on the pitch needs to step up as a role model.
Chelsea used to have absolute titans like John Terry and Didier Drogba, but who in this current squad could be called "iron-willed"?
BEEP!!!
The referee blew the whistle to start the second half.
Eden Hazard passed the ball back to Jorginho, who then played it sideways to Mateo Kovacic.
Kovacic had intended to dribble forward but found absolutely no teammates making runs nearby to support him.
'How the hell are we supposed to play like this?'
With 45 minutes left until the end of the match, the Chelsea players had clearly already lost their fighting spirit.
Even forcing a draw on the night to take Manchester United to penalties seemed highly unlikely given the shift in momentum.
Kovacic suddenly regretted agreeing to come to Chelsea.
As the old saying goes, "One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, one who stays near ink gets stained black."
In an environment where everyone is slacking off and passing the blame, it's hard to stay true to your original professional intentions.
'I should never have come to Chelsea in the first place.'
Kovacic grumbled inwardly as he safely passed the ball back to Cesar Azpilicueta.
"Push the formation forward! Defend in a mid-to-high block, and win back possession as soon as possible!" Ling waved his arm violently and charged ahead.
Since Chelsea was clearly in poor mental form, United had to take absolute advantage of the situation and aim to end the match within regular time.
After all, penalty shootouts don't just test skill—there's a massive amount of luck involved.
Avoiding penalties unless absolutely necessary was the primary, non-negotiable goal Mourinho had set for the Manchester United players during his halftime team talk.
Limited by the inherent weakness of the 4-3-1-2 formation in providing defensive width, Manchester United didn't commit all their forces to a reckless high press. Instead, they cleverly used the intelligent positioning of their forwards to restrict the opponents' central passing lanes.
From a bird's-eye view, Jeremy Ling, Paul Pogba, and Riyad Mahrez formed a distinct, parallel line of interception.
"I'll take him!" Ling signaled for Pogba to stay disciplined in the center and actively charged diagonally toward Azpilicueta.
His pressing movement was carefully calculated, intentionally exposing space in the middle, as if luring the Spanish defender to pass there.
Jim Beglin: "Look closely at the screen, Peter. The positioning of Manchester United's three most advanced players is much further forward than before, but they aren't fully pressing."
Peter Drury: "Ah, I see it, Jim. They are setting a central pressing trap! It is a classic Mourinho tactical play!"
As soon as Drury finished speaking, Azpilicueta took the bait and passed the ball forward centrally. Before Jorginho could receive it safely, a teammate screamed a warning.
"Jorgi! Someone's behind you!"
N'Golo Kante clung to the Italian's back like a stubborn immovable shadow.
Only when they faced each other as opponents did Jorginho truly realize how frustratingly difficult Kante was to deal with in possession.
He couldn't turn and release the ball forward at all, so he had to withstand Kante's immense physical pressure and blindly pass it out to the left with his weaker foot.
The ball rolled quickly toward Ross Barkley.
This guy was once hailed as a famous English wonderkid, but in actual, high-pressure matches, his decision-making often seemed utterly useless.
Disgruntled Chelsea fans had even given him a cruel nickname, "The Attack Terminator!"
Ander Herrera kept chattering incessantly in Barkley's ear, closing in without extending a leg, just heavily piling on the psychological pressure.
Barkley sadly did not live up to Herrera's expectations of a fight, making a disastrous passing error in his flustered, panicked state.
Peter Drury: "Barkley... oh, he's given it away so cheaply! He tried to find Jorginho again, but Kante anticipated it and intercepted halfway!"
Jim Beglin: "Barkley's pass was far too careless under pressure! Let's see if Manchester United can seize this golden opportunity in transition!"
Gary Neville in the studio even pretended to shake his head in disbelief, which made John Obi Mikel beside him feel nauseated, thinking, 'no wonder Neville is so unpopular with opposing fans.'
(Well tbh, Many manunited fans hate neville too!)