After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again. Manchester United regained their strength and launched a strong attack again, striving to score at least two goals in the second half to equalize the total score and drag the game into overtime.
At the same time, taking advantage of Liverpool's high number of injuries and players' fear of injury, the intensity of physical collisions was increased.
This really hits Liverpool's weakness, especially Henderson and Sakho, who have been injured recently and only returned from injury in this game. It's not that they are not brave, but their bodies are subconsciously afraid of the recurrence of old injuries.
Although other players are fine physically, they are also subconsciously afraid of injury, so they feel a little overwhelmed.
Fortunately, Willard didn't have this problem and stood up in time to fight back hard. Although Manchester United's offense deliberately avoided Velarde, the ultimate goal of football is always to shoot.
Willard used his awareness and speed to set up his main position within 30 meters of the goal. He was always able to defend well while also retaliating against Manchester United's physical collision tactics.
In the 54th minute, Rashford dribbled the ball through Henderson's defense, faced Klein's interception, and wanted to hit the wall with Mata before entering the penalty area and shooting.
However, this intention of hitting the wall was seen through by Velarde, who rushed forward and made a flying tackle at the moment Mata was about to catch the ball. He successfully scooped the ball away and knocked down Mata.
Mata screamed exaggeratedly and fell to the ground, but the referee ignored him and allowed Emre Can, who got the ball, to continue playing.
Liverpool took the opportunity to launch a counterattack. When Mata saw it, he could no longer pretend, so he had to stand up and continue to play with a limp.
Velarde's tackle was very clean. Mata was indeed tackled a little, but he was not seriously injured. Mata was a bit pretentious, trying to trick the referee into calling a foul on Velarde and taking a free kick in the frontcourt. .
Fortunately, the referee was aware of the situation and clearly saw that Velard tackled the ball first and then brought down Mata. Moreover, Mata was not seriously injured, so he did not call Velard a foul.
As the game continued, Willard's presence became the anchor of Liverpool's backcourt. Although they have not been able to score in the frontcourt, Manchester United has also been unable to break through Liverpool's gate.
As time went by, Manchester United became increasingly impatient. After all, they are the lagging side, and the total score is still two goals behind. People still have a little hope, and they have to be impatient and have to fight.
However, when the time came to the 69th minute, although Liverpool still did not score a direct goal, they got a corner kick opportunity through a counterattack. Lallana's shot caused Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea to save the ball from the bottom line. .
Seeing De Gea save the ball from the bottom line and Liverpool get a chance for a corner kick in the frontcourt, Velarde's eyes lit up and he immediately ran up to Manchester United with Sakho, Lovren, Emre Can and others. He went to participate in a corner kick challenge in the penalty area.
Of course, there are Origi, Henderson and so on.
For a time, five or six people from Liverpool were standing in the Manchester United penalty area, which made the Red Devils players very nervous. The Manchester United fans in the stands also booed loudly, trying to interfere with Liverpool's corner kick attack.
The commentators also said:
"Lallana's shot was saved by De Gea and failed to score."
"But Liverpool still got a corner kick."
"Liverpool rotated a lot of players in this game, and playing away from home and in poor form, forced Willard to focus most of his attention on defense and was unable to participate too much in the offense. Liverpool has not scored a goal yet. Enter."
"Willard can only use this set-piece opportunity to create a threat to Manchester United."
"Villad's height, physique, jumping, heading skills, etc., are definitely a threat in the Manchester United penalty area."
"Coupled with the cover of Sakho, Lovren, Origi and others, set kicks must be the way that Liverpool has the highest chance of scoring away goals."
Amid the nagging of the commentators, Milner, who took the corner kick, had already kicked the ball. Unfortunately, the ball was a bit far away from where Willard was and flew to the back point.
And Willard stood in the front of the center.
It's not that Milner didn't want to pass to where Willard was, but that his footwork wasn't superb enough and the pass was too big and flew to the back point.
Just when Willard was slightly disappointed, the benefits of many Liverpool players entering the penalty area to participate in the fight for the top were reflected. Although the ball flew to the back point, there was still Liverpool player Emre Can fighting for the top, and the fight for the top was The header was successful. He caught forward Rashford, who was returning to defense, by his side. He jumped up and headed the ball back to the area in front of the goal.
Just in time, Velarde followed the flight path of the ball and moved two steps toward the center, and the ball was ferried to him.
However, there is also a problem with Emre Can's header transfer. The angle of the transfer is a bit wider, and it does not fall in front of Velarde, but behind him.
If Villard goes to use his head, he will only push the ball out of the penalty area to clear the ball. If you use the back of your head to push the ball, even if you can barely push the ball towards the goal, there will be no strength at all. No matter how awkward the angle is, it will not pose any threat to the goalkeeper.
What's more, if you head the ball with the back of your head, it's difficult for Willard's 93 header to create a threatening and tricky angle.
In a flash of lightning, Willard's superb consciousness came into play. He first turned his body along with the trajectory of the ball, facing away from the goal, then opened his arms to stop Manchester United center back Smalling who was trying to get to the top, and then suddenly took off, leaping high, with a stretch and graceful movement. With his overhead kick, he got ahead of defensive midfielder Fellaini who rushed over from the side and tried to clear the ball with a header, and kicked the ball in the direction of the goal with an upside-down golden hook.
Fellaini was almost hit in the head by Willard's toe after completing the upside-down golden hook. Fortunately, he saw that he could not grab the ball at the end and dodged it in time, otherwise he might have been kicked by Willard. to the head.
But even so, Fellaini had no time to think about this thrilling experience. Instead, he watched in horror as the ball kicked out by Velarde's upside-down golden hook flew diagonally above Martial's shoulder, and then flew forward without hesitation. Into the Manchester United goal.
Although goalkeeper De Gea was in a relatively upright position, Velarde's upside-down golden hook prevented him from judging the path of the ball in advance. He could only wait for the ball to be kicked by Velarde and then follow the flight path of the ball to make a save.
But the first point of the contradiction is here. The place where Velard shot the overhead kick was less than 10 meters away from the goal. Moreover, with the power of the shot brought by Velarde's body, the ball was kicked solidly, even if it was an upside-down golden hook. , the power is quite sufficient, the speed is not slow, and it has a bit of a tricky angle.
Therefore, even De Gea is considered the world's top goalkeeper, and his reaction was not slow, but in the end he still failed to save the ball. He could only watch the ball pass by his fingertips and fly into the goal.
The commentator from Liverpool City TV jumped up excitedly from the commentary box, grabbed the microphone and roared loudly:
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Willard!"
"Upside down golden hook!"
"The great Alan Willard!"
"He scored with a perfect overhead kick at Old Trafford, helping Liverpool level the score at 1-1. At the same time, he also extended the total score to 1-4 and regained three goals. lead."
"Not only that, Willard's overhead kick also helped Liverpool score an away goal. Manchester United did not score a goal in the first leg at Anfield."
"In this way, Liverpool not only leads by three goals on aggregate, but also has an away goal advantage."
"If Manchester United wants to advance to the next round, it will be useless even if they score three goals to equalize the score in the remaining time. They will still be eliminated by Liverpool with more away goals."
"If they want to advance to the quarterfinals, they have to score four goals in a row and beat Liverpool 5-4 on aggregate."
"But this is impossible. Even if Liverpool has rotated a lot of players, as long as Willard is there, it is impossible for Liverpool to concede so many goals with less than half an hour left."
"Therefore, Willard's goal was not just as simple as an upside-down golden hook, but a goal that directly and completely killed the suspense of the game."
"I can announce that Liverpool has won the 1/8 finals and is about to advance to the Europa League quarter-finals."
The commentator is right. Anyone who knows a little bit about football knows that Willard's upside-down golden hook is a goal that directly kills the suspense of the game. In the remaining time, no matter how hard Manchester United struggles, it is impossible to reverse the comeback.
Therefore, not only Velarde who scored the goal, but also his teammates and fans celebrated enthusiastically. Velarde himself was very excited to score a goal on the enemy's territory and help the team seal the victory. He celebrated with his teammates for a long time and took the opportunity to delay for a while.
After the game restarted, Liverpool, which had completely secured the victory, made another substitution, replacing Emre Can, Lovren, and Klein to rest. At this point in time and this score, Klopp is no longer worried about Manchester United's counterattack.
In fact, this is also the case. Although Manchester United also replaced three people in a row and attacked with all their strength, Liverpool, who had turned into a big bus and iron barrel formation, concentrated on defending. Coupled with various supplementary defenses under Velarde's super high awareness, they did not give them anything decent at all. shooting opportunities.
In the 88th minute, Martial created a huge threat through a free kick opportunity, bypassing the wall and sending the ball towards the near end of the goal.
However, goalkeeper Mignolet saw through his shooting intention, moved to the near end in advance, and successfully pushed Martial's threatening direct free kick over the crossbar, but Manchester United still failed to score.
This was also Manchester United's last threatening shot of the game.
After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Liverpool defeated the Red Devils Manchester United 3-0 in the first leg at home, 1-1 in the second leg away from home, and 4-1 in both legs, and advanced with their heads held high. Quarterfinals of the Europa League in the 2015/2016 season.
The first English El Clasico in European history ended with Liverpool's victory.
