Four days later, at 20:00 on the evening of April 14, the second leg of the Europa League quarter-finals between Liverpool and Dortmund officially started.
With a total score of 2-1, and two away goal advantages, and the second leg was at home, everyone thought Liverpool could advance easily at Anfield.
Unexpectedly, the Hornets were so lucky in this game, while Liverpool were so unlucky.
Only 5 minutes into the game, Dortmund, who was attacking with all their strength, played a tacit pass and cut cooperation to tear apart Liverpool's defense. No. 10 midfielder Mkhitaryan completed a high-quality shot at the top of the penalty area.
Velarde sensed Mkhitaryan's shooting intention based on the opponent's passing and cutting, and moved in advance to rush from the side and intercept the ball with a flying tackle in an attempt to destroy the ball.
As a result, he was unlucky. Although he touched the ball with his foot, he not only failed to destroy the ball, but instead let the ball hit his foot and formed a line change. Goalkeeper Mignolet, who had already judged the path of the ball and saved it, finally He could only watch helplessly as the ball flew into the goal from behind him.
Willard did something bad with good intentions and gave the opponent a goal from a change of direction.
"ah?"
"Did the ball go in?"
"Villad did something bad with good intentions. He originally wanted to make a tackle and destroy it, but unexpectedly he helped Mkhitaryan to hit a deflection ball, which avoided goalkeeper Mignolet's save and let the ball fly in. Liverpool's goal."
"Dortmund scored a lightning goal in the first 5 minutes to tie the total score at 2-2. However, now Liverpool has 2 away goals and Dortmund only has 1. If both sides end the game with this score, Liverpool will still advance with more away goals."
"So Dortmund have to keep scoring goals."
Indeed, the advantage now still lies with Liverpool. Therefore, despite losing the ball, Velarde and his teammates are not too panicked. As long as they can stabilize the defense and take advantage of Dortmund's weakness in attacking aggressively and the empty backcourt, they can score a fatal blow.
However, football matches are sometimes so unpredictable. Not only did Liverpool fail to score on the counterattack, but Dortmund scored again just 4 minutes later.
In the 9th minute, Dortmund once again played a wonderful team attack, and finally Royce rushed into the penalty area to grab a shot from the left rib.
The ball was of good quality, but the angle was not tricky enough. Goalkeeper Mignolet subconsciously stretched his foot and blocked the ball with his foot.
But the ball's second landing point was still grabbed by a Dortmund player. Aubameyang got ahead of Lovren who was trying to clear the ball, fell to the ground and stabbed the ball successfully into the goal.
In less than 10 minutes, Dortmund scored two goals in a row, leading 2-0 away from home and 3-2 on aggregate, and erased Liverpool's two away goal advantage.
The commentator from the German TV station jumped up excitedly in the commentary box and roared crazily:
"Toooooooooooooooooooooooor..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Reus' shot, Aubameyang's follow-up shot."
"Dortmund scored two goals in the first 10 minutes, taking a 3-2 lead on aggregate and tying Liverpool's two away goal advantage."
"Klopp probably didn't expect that his former disciples at the Hornets would give him such a slap in the face at Anfield."
Indeed, Klopp is very depressed. Dortmund was his last club, and Hummels, Schmelzer, Piszczek, Reus, etc. were all his former disciples.
As a result, these disciples did not show any favor to him. They scored two goals in the first ten minutes. Liverpool's 2-1 victory and two away goal advantages in the first leg in the away game were suddenly wiped out. The score was behind.
If the game ends with the current score, Liverpool will lose.
Dortmund's offense looks very fierce, and Klopp wonders if his team will continue to concede goals. But now it is Liverpool who are lagging behind in the total score, so he has no choice but to wave his hand to signal the Red Army to attack heavily.
After the ball was kicked out of the center circle, two full-backs, three midfielders, and three forwards all pressed towards Dortmund's half.
Henderson was injured, so Firmino played as the right forward and Milner played as the right midfielder in this game. When Milner advanced with the ball in the right area of the midfield, Willard approached Milner through flexible movement. Then when Milner was intercepted by Dortmund midfielder Castro, he received the pass from Milner. ball.
But the threat of Willard is well known. As soon as he took the ball, Dortmund's midfielder Weigel, attacking midfielder Mkhitaryan, defender Papastathopoulos, etc. all surrounded him and tried to join forces. Cut the ball off his feet.
Under normal circumstances, Willard will not force a breakthrough because his dribbling skills have not reached full value. One-on-one is okay, and the breakthrough success rate is good. But one against two, or even one against three, it is possible to lose the ball.
In addition, Willard himself is not alone, so to be safe, he will usually pass the ball out.
But this time, Velarde didn't pass the ball. The team conceded two goals in a row, and the teammates were in a daze, especially the players in the midfield and backfield.
So Willard decided to try to score a one-stop goal to boost the team's morale. Although there was no guarantee of success, it was still early and he wanted to give it a try. If it doesn't succeed, it's not too late to change the strategy later.
As a result, everyone saw that after receiving Milner's pass, Willard, who was surrounded by three Dortmund men, did not pass the ball back to Milner, but instead made a series of small actions such as making balls, pulling the ball, and spiking the ball. , just broke out from the encirclement of three people, even if the midfielder Mkhitaryan pulled and pulled behind Willard, he was unable to hold Willard.
After breaking through the encirclement of three people, Willard's eyes suddenly became brighter. Facing Hummels, another central defender blocking the path in the penalty area, Velarde looked up at Coutinho, who was coming forward to connect on the left, and made a gesture to pass the ball to Coutinho. This caused Hummels to shift his center of gravity to Coutinho's side.
As a result, Willard moved the ball to the other side, got out of the way of Hummels, and dribbled the ball into the penalty area.
Although Hummels reacted very quickly, he immediately turned around and fought back, and reached out to pull Velarde. But Velarde did not give him another chance to cause damage. He blocked Hummels on the other side of his body and prevented him from touching the ball. He raised his right foot and volleyed the ball to the lower left. horn.
Full-back Piszczek rushed over diagonally and tried to destroy the ball with a flying tackle, but failed to touch the ball. The ball flew past the toe of his shoe.
Goalkeeper Weidenfeller predicted that Willard would play in the lower right corner, so there were some problems with his positioning. By the time he saw Willard kicking the ball into the lower left corner and making a save, it was already too late and beyond his reach.
The ball flew into Dortmund's gate like lightning against the turf.
At this time, the game time had only reached the 11th minute.
All the Red Army fans in Anfield suddenly came to life from the depression of conceding two goals in ten minutes. They stood up from their seats and clapped wildly, cheered, roared, and, led by the on-site announcer, shouted for Willard. Name, worship him.
The England commentators in the commentary box also shouted:
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Several goals from Willard!"
"After receiving a pass from Milner on the right side of the frontcourt, he was surrounded by three Dortmund players."
"But Velarde did not pass the ball out. Instead, he resolutely chose to go it alone, rushing left and right, successfully breaking through the siege of Weigel and three other people, and then used a changing rhythm to get rid of Hummel on the line of the penalty area. Si, dribbled the ball into the penalty area and scored a goal."
"Willard saved the Red Army, he helped Liverpool get a point back, the total score is now 3-3, both sides have two away goals."
"Both sides are back on the same starting line."
"If the game ends with this score, and the two sides have the same total score and the same number of away goals, then overtime will have to be played."
"However, judging from the current situation with both sides scoring three goals in 11 minutes, I'm afraid there will be no shortage of goals in the future."
"I hope it is the Red Army that wins and advances in the end."
Willard's goal really boosted the morale of the Liverpool players. Conceding two goals in ten minutes just now really made everyone a little confused. Fortunately, Willard did not pass the ball to his teammates and chose to go it alone. Otherwise, it is really unclear what will happen when the ball reaches the feet of his teammates!
Now that Willard has scored a goal to equalize the total score for everyone, everyone is back on the same starting line, so let’s just treat the game as starting again!
At Anfield, Liverpool has never been afraid of anyone!
After the game restarted, Dortmund still wanted to continue to launch an onslaught, regain the lead in the total score, and gain an advantage in away goals.
Once Dortmund scores the third away goal, it is a 1 vs. 2 goal. It is useless for Liverpool to regain the total score. They have to lead Dortmund in the total score.
But after Willard's one-stop goal and the equalizer of the total score, Liverpool no longer had the chaos at the start, and Dortmund no longer had the luck they had in the first 10 minutes.
Therefore, the game entered a stalemate stage. Neither side could score a quick goal and began to fight and exhaust each other.
Willard once wanted to pass several people in a row for the second time and score a one-stop goal. Unfortunately, it turned out that his previous one-stop pass also had some luck.
After Dortmund was fully prepared, it was difficult for Willard to pass several people directly to the penalty area and score a goal.
Not to mention anything else, when more than two people are guarding, one person will pull, push and interfere, while the other person is waiting for the opportunity to move. As long as Villard moves a little bigger and makes a slight mistake in controlling the ball, it will be destroyed. .
Don't steal the ball directly, as long as you successfully poke the ball away from his feet, it will be considered a success. For this reason, even a little tactical foul is normal. As long as it is not a malicious foul and the action is not big, the referee will usually just call a foul and not give a card.
Under such circumstances, Velarde could only strengthen his cooperation with his teammates, reduce the frequency of his breakthroughs, and began to provide assists to his teammates, hoping that his teammates would not let him down.
