After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Chelsea attacked for a while at the beginning of the second half, trying to equalize the score, but it failed.
Although the Liverpool team is in poor condition due to injuries and a tight schedule, Chelsea is not much better. They got off to a bad start this season, got into a locker room struggle, and experienced a coaching change midway. This game was also an away game.
Except for Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Willian, Pedro and others are in average condition. As for Hazard, Liverpool has free agent Willard to guard him. No matter how Hazard runs or changes positions, he can't get rid of Willard.
Velarde's consciousness, reaction, physique, speed, etc. are all superior to Hazard. Even if Hazard performed exceptionally well in this game, his strength could not surpass that of Willard. It can only be said that he occasionally took advantage.
But Willard is not alone, he also has teammates. Therefore, even if Hazard occasionally breaks through Velarde, it will be difficult to shoot. When passing the ball to a teammate, it is difficult to guarantee that the teammate will pose a threat.
This makes Chelsea's offense inefficient and threatens the Red Army's goal much less often than Liverpool.
Liverpool, playing at home, began their counterattack after overcoming the Blues' attack at the beginning of the second half.
A one-goal lead does not give the Red Army soldiers a sense of security, because they may be equalized at any time due to a lucky ball. If you can lead by two goals, you will be considered a winner.
It is a pity that Velarde rarely participates in the offense because he has to mark Hazard, who is in excellent condition. Coutinho, Sturridge and other players were in average shape in this game.
In the 61st minute, Willard finally sent a wonderful pass from the backcourt, allowing Coutinho to make a pass from the left wing. He passed a ground ball and Sturridge was at the line of the small penalty area. Got a good shooting opportunity.
As a result, he actually flew away due to interference from Chelsea center back Mikel.
The commentators were stunned:
"Coutinho crosses!"
"Chance!"
"Sturridge..."
"Shoot..."
"Oh, my God..."
"Sturridge actually hit the ball away from the small penalty area line and didn't even hit the goal frame."
"As long as the ball hits the goal frame and doesn't hit goalkeeper Begovic directly, the probability of scoring is very high."
"Unexpectedly, Sturridge failed to seize this opportunity and actually knocked the ball away, wasting an opportunity to expand the score."
Red Army fans uniformly sighed in the stands, obviously feeling sorry for Sturridge's wasted opportunity. Sturridge himself couldn't believe it. He put his hands on the back of his head, holding his head and watching the ball flying over the crossbar, with a look of disbelief and annoyance on his face.
Firmino, who rushed into the penalty area and was about to grab a supplementary shot, stepped forward, patted Sturridge on the shoulder, comforted him, and pulled him out of the opponent's penalty area, waiting for Begovic's goal kick and restarting. Start the game.
Subsequently, after the two sides maintained a balance of power for more than ten minutes, Chelsea began to strengthen its attack. After all, time was running out and they were only one goal behind. It would also be good if we could score a goal, escape from Anfield and get a point.
In the 79th minute, after Hazard took the ball and attracted an interception from Velarde, he immediately passed the ball out without waiting for Velarde to get close.
Fabregas received a pass and successfully passed the ball over the heads of Emre Can and Lovren, and landed in the penalty area.
Center forward Bertrand Traore turned his back to the goal, leaning on Kolo Toure, and made a header pass to the right midfielder Pedro who was inserted from the side.
Pedro rushed into the penalty area and volleyed without stopping the ball about 14 meters away from the goal. He hit a volley and went straight to the goal.
Unfortunately, although Pedro's ball had enough power, the angle was not tricky enough. The goalkeeper Mignolet, who was focused on it, made a sideways dive and successfully saved the ball out of the post.
Chelsea did not get any chance in the subsequent corner kick. Red Army center back Lovren grabbed the first point and pushed it out of the penalty area. Then Willard got the second point to control the ball, and then Liverpool launched a counterattack.
However, this counterattack failed. In the end, Milner made a mistake when passing the ball to Firmino. He failed to pass the ball accurately and was intercepted halfway by the Chelsea defender.
After the time entered the 80th minute, both Liverpool and Chelsea made substitutions one after another. Chelsea strengthened their offense, while Liverpool removed Firmino and Coutinho and replaced them with two defensive players to strengthen their defense.
Milner, who started as a right back, stepped up and formed a double forward with Sturridge to continue to put pressure on Chelsea's defense and retain the possibility of counterattack.
The result was that Liverpool replaced two people in a row, allowing Chelsea to increase their attack intensity in the last few minutes. In the 91st minute, Willard intercepted the ball and passed it to Emre Can, and then Emre Can kicked The long pass directly penetrated Chelsea's empty backcourt defense, and Sturridge caught the ball against offside, creating a semi-single opportunity.
After Sturridge dribbled the ball to the edge of the penalty area, facing the defender chasing him and the goalkeeper attacking in the penalty area, Sturridge did not take credit, but passed the ball diagonally to the side.
Milner, who followed in the back row, received the ball without any defender and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal.
Although goalkeeper Begovic blocked Sturridge in front of him and rushed over, he was still beyond his reach. He could only watch the ball roll past his eyes and then into the goal.
In the 91st minute of stoppage time, Liverpool expanded the score to 2-0, completely sealing the victory.
If it is still early, 2-0 is not necessarily safe. But it is already the 91st minute of stoppage time, and Liverpool will definitely win this game.
Sure enough, despite Chelsea's desperate attack in the remaining time, even the central defender pressed forward into the Liverpool penalty area to compete for the aerial ball.
However, Liverpool, which was fully defensive, easily maintained the score until the end of the game, without allowing Chelsea to get even a goal back, let alone tie it.
After 4 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game. Liverpool defeated Chelsea 2-0 at home and continued to maintain the momentum of chasing the top Leicester City, waiting for the blue fox Leicester City to make a mistake.
And Willard, after scoring in 6 consecutive games, finally stopped scoring consecutive goals. In the first 6 games, Villard scored a total of 11 goals in the Premier League and Europa League, almost averaging 2 goals per game, which is shocking.
Fortunately, in this game, Velarde finally stopped scoring consecutive goals. Otherwise, all the top forwards in the Premier League would be ashamed.
Naturally, Hazard is responsible for this. Although Hazard did not help Chelsea score even one goal in this game, his condition in this game was really very good. Even Velarde was hit by him three times. , which is something Velard has never appeared since entering the Argentinian Serie A.
In addition, Hazard's dribbling, passing, ball control, movement, etc. in this game were top-notch in all aspects. In the post-match rating, Hazard was even elected the best player on the spot. Velarde and Firmino and Milner who scored goals are not as good as him.
This is one of the reasons why Willard did not score any goals or assists in this game, which drew too much attention from Hazard.
It's really hard to say what this game would have been like if Liverpool didn't have Willard, a top defensive player. Liverpool might really lose at Anfield.
