With the persuasion of his teammates, Willard no longer paid attention to the curses in the stands, but focused on the game and began to play with more strength.
In the 6th minute, Everton forward Lukaku attacked with the ball. Lukaku, who is 191cm tall and weighs 100kg, runs like a tank. As soon as center back Sakho was hit by Lukaku, he lost his center of gravity and fell to the ground. The key is that Lukaku has not committed a foul yet.
Seeing that Lukaku was about to dribble the ball into the penalty area, Velarde, who returned to defense, arrived in time and squeezed Lukaku from the side. Although Lukaku was not knocked over, Willard was not much weaker than Lukaku, so he still shook Lukaku's body.
The key is that unlike Velarde, in addition to his high-attribute physique, he also has superb dribbling skills. While being shaken by Willard's collision, Lukaku lost control of the ball at his feet and was a little wide.
Upon seeing this, Willard immediately tackled the ball from the bottom side and successfully used his toes to touch the ball before Lukaku touched it again. It rolled into the penalty area and fell to the feet of teammate Klein.
Lukaku was tripped by Velarde's outstretched foot and fell into the penalty area. He reached out to ask the referee for a penalty kick, but referee Bobby Medley smiled and shook his head, indicating that there was no penalty kick. Let Liverpool play on.
Willard ignored Lukaku who fell to the ground, immediately got up and participated in the attack.
Klein's ball was passed to Lucas on the wing. Lucas made a gesture and passed it to Firmino in the frontcourt. He deceived Everton midfielder Barry in front of him to take a step back and then passed the ball. It was given to Willard who advanced in the middle.
Seeing Willard preparing to catch the ball and knowing that he is a big threat, Everton's other midfielder McCarthy decisively put the tackle in, preparing to commit a foul to stop Willard's counterattack in the midfield.
But Willard was faster than McCarthy and successfully touched the ball before McCarthy. While receiving the ball, Marseille made a spin and passed the sliding tackle McCarthy, then turned around and dribbled the ball towards Everton's penalty area.
"pretty!"
"Villad got up after intercepting Lukaku's ball and immediately moved forward to participate in the attack. When receiving the pass from Lucas, he used a Marseille spin to pass McCarthy who was flying in the tackle."
"Quick counterattack from Liverpool."
Everton midfielder Lennon, who was returning to defense, entangled Velarde and kept pulling at Velarde's clothes, trying to slow down Velarde and then take the opportunity to steal the ball.
However, Willard's physique was too strong. While blocking Lennon with one arm, he dribbled the ball forward and observed the movement of his teammates.
This was originally a quick counterattack. Although Everton players were desperately trying to defend, Liverpool's Lallana, Coutinho, Origi, Firmino and others, as well as Lucas after completing the pass, They are all sprinting without the ball.
This is Klopp's total attack and total defense tactic. When attacking, he is like a wolf pack. As many as five or six players will participate in the attack. Sometimes the full-backs can run into the opponent's penalty area, and multiple players can grab points at the same time. , causing the opponent to lose sight of one thing and take the opportunity to complete a shot and score a goal.
This was the case this time. The collective intervention of Firmino and others caused Everton's defense to focus on one thing and not the other. It was impossible to maintain the integrity of the defense. It was led astray by Firmino and others, and a huge gap appeared on the left. of neutral.
The advancing Velarde no longer hesitated, and directly passed the ball diagonally to the open area of his left foot in the penalty area.
Coutinho, who was originally positioned parallel to the opponent's back line, suddenly accelerated the moment after Velard completed the pass, passed the outside of the full-back Oviedo, and chased in the direction of the ball.
Although Oviedo reacted and immediately accelerated to catch up, he still failed to destroy the ball before Coutinho.
Coutinho was the first to touch the ball, without stopping the ball, he directly passed the ball diagonally and sent the ball into the penalty area.
Origi in the center missed the ball, but Firmino on the right rushed into the penalty area from the right side, received Coutinho's pass on the right side of the penalty area near the corner of the small penalty area, and shot. This caused two defenders, Mori and Baynes, to fly at the same time to block the hole of the gun. Goalkeeper Joel Robles also stood in front of the goal on the right side, half-crouched, ready to pounce at any time.
As a result, Firmino did not shoot, and the foot that fell was a fake move. The fake shot and real pass not only knocked down the two defenders, but also nailed the goalkeeper to the near corner. Then, he spiked the ball back in an inverted triangle and sent the ball back to the penalty area near the penalty spot.
After passing the ball to Coutinho, Velarde did not watch the show from outside the penalty area. Instead, he continued to move forward without the ball and rushed into the penalty area, just waiting for Firmino's pass.
In fact, Firmino also saw Velarde's movement, so he gave up his shooting opportunity in the penalty area, leaving the shooting opportunity to Velarde who was in a better and more open position. At the same time, if Velarde can score a goal, he can also give a strong counterattack to those who criticize Velarde.
Sure enough, Velarde did not disappoint Firmino. With a shot as high as 92 and the already empty defense in the middle, Willard met the ball near the penalty spot of the penalty area and pushed the ball directly to the lower left corner of the goal.
Goalkeeper Joel Robles was on the right side of the goal, too far away and beyond his reach. He didn't even make a save, but watched the ball roll toward the lower left corner.
After previously entangled with Coutinho, Oviedo, the full-back who rushed into the penalty area, fell to the ground and tackled, trying to clear the ball from the goal line, but failed to touch the ball and fell into the goal with the ball.
As the ball rolled steadily into the goal, Willard opened the scoring for Liverpool, scoring a lightning goal in the first 6 minutes and rewriting the score to 1-0.
After scoring the goal, Velarde was so excited that he didn't even care about Firmino who selflessly provided him with an assist. Instead, he turned around and rushed to the stands of the fans who had provoked him before, shaking his fists at the extreme fans on the stage in celebration. , irritating the other party even more angrily, scolding louder, and some people threw down the water bottles in their hands.
But Velarde no longer cared about the opponent's scolding. With a smile on his face, he stared at the fans provocatively and raised his eyebrows. The meaning was simple: I scored a goal and you fell behind.
This left those extreme Everton fans with no choice but to be helpless and furious.
Velarde was then surrounded by his teammates, who hugged and celebrated before pulling him away from the stands. But he cannot be allowed to continue to confront the opponent's extreme fans. If the referee thinks that he is deliberately provoking the fans and gives a card, it will not be worthwhile.
Just express your intention to fight back.
After finishing the celebration, Verard hugged Firmino and expressed his gratitude to him for giving up the close-range shooting opportunity just now and instead selflessly passing the ball back to give him the opportunity.
