Three days later, on September 27, Liverpool sat at Anfield at home and faced the challenge of Lyon in the second round of the Champions League group stage.
However, the weather for this game was not good, it was raining lightly, so everyone had to fight hard in the rain. The stands were not full, with only more than 40,000 people seated. The light rain fell on the court in wisps, filling the entire court with a moist atmosphere.
At 20:45 in the evening, with the whistle of the referee Nehuis, the second round of Group H of the 2016/2017 UEFA Champions League group match between Liverpool and Lyon officially began.
Derby County 4-0 in the EFL Cup and Hull City 5-0 in the Premier League, two consecutive games with zero shutouts and a big win. Whether from the perspective of continuation of form or luck, Klopp must let the goalkeeper get stuck. Rius continues to start.
Mignolet, on the other hand, continued to sit on the bench helplessly, while the other main players basically got the starting lineup.
Therefore, the position of goalkeeper is a test of luck. Sometimes you are unlucky and no matter how good your ability is, the head coach can only let one of the goalkeepers start consecutive games out of consideration for the continuation of his form. Mignolet only had one round of rest in the English League Cup, but Karius caught the opportunity.
Now, Mignolet's idea on the bench is that Liverpool won three points in this game, but Karius conceded two or three goals, making the coach disappointed with Karius, and he will play in the next game. It’s ready to start.
Of course, no matter what, the game on the field has officially begun.
After the game started, Liverpool took advantage of their home court to attack Lyon's half. With his excellent awareness and skills, Alan Willard led his teammates to continuously attack the visiting team's defense, threatening Lyon's goal.
However, Lyon was very self-aware and did not attack Liverpool at Anfield. Instead, they sent out a 541 defensive counterattack formation to stabilize the defense first and then wait for opportunities to counterattack.
Coupled with the weather and the venue, there were many mistakes during the passing and movement process. Liverpool continued to attack for more than ten minutes without being able to threaten Lyon's goal, and could only start to slow down the attack.
Although Willard's physical fitness is fine, Coutinho, Firmino, Mane and others cannot continue to attack with high intensity.
When Liverpool slowed down their attack, Lyon occasionally started counterattacks when they got the ball. However, the defense led by Willard did not give the visiting team a chance, and Lyon was also unable to break the Red Army's goal.
The poor weather and field conditions caused many mistakes on both sides. Even with the Red Army's offensive ability, they have never been able to score a goal.
Until half an hour into the game, at the 34th minute, Willard dribbled the ball through the middle and attracted a lot of Lyon's defensive attention. He then passed the ball to the open area near the left corner of the penalty area.
No. 10 Coutinho is about to receive the ball, but Lyon's defense has a lot of people, and someone immediately comes up to block Coutinho's possible breakthrough or shot route.
The defensive line on the right also began to move to the left.
As a result, Coutinho did not stop the ball at all, nor did he shoot. He directly volleyed a pass and passed an exquisite pass. It flew across the entire Lyon penalty area and landed on the right side of the penalty area. In the gap.
Coutinho, Velarde and Firmino, as well as the inserted Wijnaldum, have attracted Lyon's defense to the extreme left, resulting in weak defense of Mane on the right.
Although there was a full-back Rebus following Mane, he was not superior in height, physique, or speed. He was squeezed behind Mane and watched helplessly as Mane dived to the right rib of the penalty area and headed the ball. Towards the goal.
Goalkeeper Anthony Lopez was attracted to the left side of the goal by the ball passed by Velarde to Coutinho. At this time, he wanted to turn around and fight back, but it was already too late. The opposite center of gravity moved in the opposite direction, preventing him from catching up with the horse. The inner fish leaps to the top.
The ball flew into Lyon's goal before Lopez, who was rushing back, could get his hands on it.
Liverpool opened the scoring and led 1-0 at home.
After taking the lead, as usual, Liverpool's formation retreated slightly, attracting Lyon to press out their formation for a counterattack, and then attack the visiting team's counterattack.
Lyon knows what Liverpool is planning, and this is not a knockout match that determines life and death. Therefore, although the Lyon team strengthened some offense after the game restarted, they did not invest a lot of people and did not leave too many gaps for Firmino and others in the backcourt.
Coupled with ordinary luck, Liverpool failed to expand the score during the rest of the first half.
Willard once had a long shot from outside the penalty area, but unfortunately it hit the outside of the goal post and bounced off the baseline, failing to score.
After a 15-minute rest, the two sides changed sides and fought again in the second half.
After the time entered the second half, Lyon still adhered to the tactics of the first half and did not attack aggressively, always guarding against Liverpool's counterattack.
This prevented Liverpool, who wanted to steal a ball and expand their lead, from succeeding. However, the Lyon team, which did not invest much offensive power, has never been able to score and equalize the score.
Anyway, the score of 1-0 can be won by three points, so Liverpool is not in a hurry.
Finally, after the score remained deadlocked for 70 minutes, the Lyon team finally started to get anxious and stepped up its offensive.
After all, it would be better if you can take away one point or even three points from the away game. And if you don't attack, you will only have 0 points, and you will also lose three points to your rival Liverpool.
Therefore, Lyon's attack finally began to strengthen, and the formation began to press forward.
The opportunity that Willard had been waiting for finally arrived in the 79th minute.
This was a ball passed to him by his teammate after intercepting it in the backcourt. Instead of taking the ball to break through on his own, Villard and his teammates started passing, cutting, running and quick counterattacks. With his superhuman speed, Villard even directly Overtaking Firmino and about to overtake Lyon’s backline.
At this time, Coutinho on the wing passed the ball and sent it into the penalty area.
However, the ball was not passed well and did not match up with Velarde's movement, so it was a bit lagging.
Velarde could only stop and prepare to catch the ball, but the Lyon defenders who returned to defend also surrounded him, preparing to interfere with Velarde. Unless Villard gives the ball to his teammates, it will be difficult for him to take the ball off and shoot.
At this moment, everyone saw that Verard, who had stopped and turned around suddenly, jumped up in the air, and used an upside-down golden hook in the penalty area more than ten meters away from the goal, knocking Coutinho out of the penalty area. The ball passed into the penalty area from the wing was kicked towards the goal.
This was beyond everyone's expectations, and it was beyond the expectations of goalkeeper Anthony Lopez. He had already attacked the small penalty area line, preparing to deal with Willard's shot.
Unexpectedly, Willard did not stop the ball, but directly hit an upside-down golden hook and kicked a lob. The ball went over the head of goalkeeper Lopez and flew into the goal against the lower edge of the crossbar.
Although Lopez made a jump save, Velarde was lucky enough to hit the ball with his volley and hook shot, which just passed him and prevented his palm from touching the ball.
In the 79th minute, Willard turned and took off while running, and scored with an upside-down golden hook, helping Liverpool expand the score to 2-0.
This goal was so beautiful that not only the Red Army fans at Anfield, but also a small number of Lyon away fans applauded Willard.
