Chapter 728 Deadly Achilles Heel
On the evening of April 8, Anfield Stadium.
When the international referee from Denmark, Krauss Bo Larsson, blew the whistle at the end of the game, the entire Anfield became silent, and countless Liverpool fans in the stands were choked up.
The big red scoreboard showed the final result of the game, one to three.
International practice, the home team is in front and the away team is in the back.
This is undoubtedly a disappointing home result!
Liverpool, from coaches to players, are all surprised by this result. There may even be many people who still don't know why they lost and why it was so miserable by the end of the game.
...
When the whistle sounded, Yang Yang squatted in Chelsea's penalty area full of depression.
He had just finished a shot, but it was saved by Cech.
This was definitely not a night for Liverpool!
Although, Yang Yang opened the scoring in just six minutes to open the door for Liverpool.
Pride will be defeated!
This is a term that popped into Yang Yang's mind at this moment.
The advantage over Chelsea over the past few years, and the embarrassment of Chelsea's invincibility so far this season, coupled with the 6-1 rout of Manchester United before, and the 5-0 thumping of Aston Villa, have left Liverpool. There is a sense of over-optimism and even a little bit of arrogance.
The stadium is like a battlefield, and arrogance means a fiasco!
Manchester United was arrogant, Ferguson was arrogant, so they lost horribly at their home, losing 1-6.
Now, it's Liverpool's turn.
The one-to-three home score can almost be said to have completely ruined Liverpool's hope of qualifying and pushed the Red Army to a dead end.
So what is the reason for this result?
Three goals, two from the substitute right back Ivanovic in this game, and one from Drogba.
And interestingly, all three came from corner kicks!
Set-pieces, high points, these are the common features of the three goals.
Hiddink really deserves to be a world-class coach, keenly grasping a fatal spot that Liverpool has long been covered up, that is, the lack of positioning ball defense ability.
Both Abeloa and Aurelio are full-backs with both offense and defense, but they are not high. Carragher is good at ground defense, fast, and has a wide range of activities. On the contrary, he has no advantage in grabbing high points. The third ball is from His defensive error against Drogba.
Needless to say in the midfield, Mascherano was suspended for accumulating yellow cards, Gareth Barry and Xavi Alonso had no advantage in golf, and when Liverpool won the Champions League last time, they stood on Harvey Alonso. Next to Alonso is the tall and strong midfielder Mohamed Sissoko.
It can be said that Liverpool has always had hidden dangers in the problem of high set-piece defense, especially in the face of a team like Chelsea with many tall players.
Hiddink obviously has a purpose. In this game, he won the right back Bosingwa, who has performed well this season, and arranged the tall Ivanovic to start. In this way, the entire back line except Ashley Cole. Besides, each one is tall.
There is Ballack in the midfield, Drogba in the forward line, and all three lines are supported by high points.
When Chelsea took a corner kick, this group of tall players made a stop in the Liverpool penalty area, and the shock and deterrence can be imagined.
...
Liverpool themselves are also not without mistakes.
Perhaps it was because of the continuous battle, or perhaps because of some carelessness, Benitez was also insufficiently prepared before the game.
For example, Ivanovic is not given enough attention.
The Serbian defender joined Chelsea in January 2008. It is interesting to say that the Chelsea manager Grant did not give him even a minute of time in the second half of the season, but only let him play with the second team.
This season, after Scolari took office, Ivanovic's status has not changed.
The Premier League has played 31 rounds so far, and Ivanovic has only made nine appearances, two of which were garbage time and one in the second half, so much so that he joined the team for more than a year. , but everyone is still very unfamiliar with him.
Before the fight against Liverpool, everyone thought that Bosingwa would be the best candidate for Chelsea on the right, and he might even let Essien play as a guest right back to freeze Yang Yang, but no one thought that Hiddink would let Ivano Vicky to play this position.
It was difficult for the Serbian defender to restrain Yang Yang. In less than six minutes, he gave Yang Yang a chance to score.
But then Chelsea defended all the way and did not give Liverpool many chances. Instead, they used three consecutive corner kicks to break Liverpool's goal again and again.
In fact, Yang Yang had already realized something was wrong when he conceded the first goal in the first half and was equalized by Chelsea.
At half-time, he conveyed his thoughts to Benitez, and the Spaniard obviously noticed it, so he made an adjustment and made Gerrard mark Ivanovic when guarding corners.
But Chelsea had too many high points, Gerrard missed out, and the Serbian defender scored the second goal.
Three minutes later, another corner kick, this time Ivanovic, but not Drogba.
Who would have thought that this season, Liverpool, which has been making great strides this season, fell to a corner kick.
...
Yang Yang grabbed his head hard and stood up from the ground.
His pre-match concerns were right, and Hiddink was really back on his feet.
The famous Dutch coach not only seized Liverpool's Achilles heel, but also insisted on hitting this weakness again and again.
It was a big gamble, and Hiddink won!
However, this is also a lesson for Liverpool.
Today's Liverpool is already the top team in Europe. Almost all teams are doing everything possible to dig and find the loopholes and weaknesses of Liverpool. Not to mention Chelsea's Hiddink, just say Hodgson's Fulham last weekend, also let Liverpool Almost capsized in the gutter.
This is European football!
Here, the competition is extremely fierce, a little carelessness, a little carelessness, a little complacency, a little decline in the state, may immediately lead to irreversible consequences!
Sometimes I think about it, this is not a bad thing for Liverpool, at least it is a wake-up call.
It's just that the consequences... it's really too painful!
Luckily there is a second round!
…………
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Yang Yang walked over and pulled Gerrard up hard.
The Liverpool captain was also in a sluggish state tonight. If he had kept his eye on Ivanovic, the second goal would not have happened.
"It's okay, there is still a second round, we still have a chance!" Yang Yang hugged Gerrard hard, comforting his teammates with red eyes.
Gerrard seemed extremely remorseful and sad, maybe he now figured out what was going on in the game.
"I was completely stunned," Gerald said regretfully.
"Don't think too much, the most important thing is the second round in a week." Yang Yang reminded again.
Now is not the time to regret.
The one-to-three score was indeed miserable, but it wasn't doomed.
Of course, trying to reverse Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is really difficult...
But anyway, the most important thing now is to keep hope.
Gerrard is also a strong man. Sadness and regret are only temporary. As the captain of the team, he also quickly understood that the most important thing now is not regret, but to get out of the slump as soon as possible and prepare for the final in a week.
The score of 1 to 3 determines that Liverpool must score more than three goals on the road to win. This will be a test of Liverpool's away attack ability and a challenge to the team's state.
After releasing Gerrard, Yang Yang walked towards Xavi Alonso.
But before he could get close, Xavi Alonso shook his head, "Don't worry, I'm fine, I'm just a little useless."
Who is not?
In terms of strength, Liverpool would never have been beaten like this at their home ground, but it just happened.
Three corner kicks, the first of which was that he missed someone, saying that it was all light.
"Hiddink is really amazing!" Xavi Alonso exclaimed.
Yang Yang nodded, and he thought the same thing in his heart.
During the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, many people only remembered the ugly behavior of the Koreans, but they were able to make it to the semi-finals of the World Cup. The Korean team also had enough strength to finish at the bottom. Hiddink's coaching definitely made the Korean team enter the semi-finals. The key factor.
Afterwards, whether he coached PSV Eindhoven or the Russian national team, and now put out Chelsea in the middle of the fire, he has shown amazing coaching strength, especially Chelsea, Hiddink's performance after coaching can be described as a new look.
But admiration is admiration, and I can say it in private, but Hiddink is now Liverpool's number one enemy.
"No matter how strong he is, in a week's time we are going to do everything we can to get him at Stamford Bridge!"
After Yang Yang patted Harvey Alonso on the shoulder, he turned and left.
It is conceivable that in the second round, Hiddink must have tried his best to defend and counterattack, which will be a great test for Liverpool.
Especially attack.
And Yang Yang is Liverpool's last hope!
...
As the team's number one star, the loss of this game has nothing to do with Yang Yang, because he performed very well and scored a goal shortly after the opening to give the team the lead.
The root cause of losing is the team's defense, especially set-piece defense.
Therefore, Yang Yang and Gerrard comforted their teammates one by one.
This defeat really stunned Liverpool, but it was not necessarily without benefits.
At the very least, the team can clearly realize that they are not as strong as their 6-1 rout of Manchester United showed.
As the saying goes, good and bad go hand in hand. If Liverpool can get back together, the battle at Stamford Bridge a week later may not be without the possibility of a reversal.
Especially when the Liverpool fans in the stands woke up from the defeat, the Liverpool anthem gradually sounded in the stadium. , with a bit of tragic and solemnity, but it also made the players in the stadium feel the power.
They haven't lost the support from the fans!
As Yang Yang said, there is still a second round, and it is not the time to despair!