After this round of the Premier League, we entered the European competition day.
On November 22, Liverpool sat at Anfield at home and faced the challenge of Juventus in the fifth round of the Champions League group stage.
Because Liverpool has already qualified early, but they have not yet locked in the first place in the group. In this game, as long as Liverpool does not lose, they can lock in the first place in the group.
Therefore, Klopp made a large rotation in this game. Many main players sat on the bench and were not even included in the main roster.
Anyway, as long as Willard continues to start, Liverpool will not be too weak in offense and defense. Even Juventus is unlikely to win. After all, Liverpool still has home court advantage.
In fact, this is also the case. After the game started, Liverpool, which had rotated most of its main lineup, did not start a confrontation with Juventus. Instead, it moved its formation slightly backward and launched a defensive counterattack.
Juventus, who wanted to win, had to take the initiative to provide assists, because if there was a tie, Liverpool could still lock in the first place in the group. If Juventus wants to reverse the points, they must win the last two rounds, including this one away victory against Liverpool.
But this is the home court of the Red Army, which has its own combat effectiveness BUFF bonus. In addition, both Velarde and captain Henderson are still in the starting lineup, and it is indeed difficult for Juventus' offense to achieve any results.
In the 14th minute, right winger Cuadrado passed the ball from the right to Mandzukic. Although Mandzukic got stuck in the penalty area and grabbed the first point to attack the goal, he was still defended by Velarde. Interfered and pushed the ball over the crossbar.
In the 21st minute, Juventus made a comeback. Left winger Alex Sandro cut inside and passed the ball in an inverted triangle. Midfielder Marchisio stepped in from the back row to meet the ball and shoot furiously, hitting a long shot of good quality. , but was blocked by Wijnaldum rushing from the side and flying to block the hole of the gun.
After all, all the main players are playing. Juventus's offensives are wave after wave, which seems to be endless, but they are always unable to score goals.
Instead, Liverpool scored first in the 29th minute.
This was exactly Liverpool's counterattack from the backcourt after Juventus' frontcourt attack was interrupted. When Willard rushed to the center with the ball, he saw Lallana on the left running out of the gap, so he made a long diagonal pass. , sending the ball to the front of Lallana's movement.
Lallana shook off the full-back to receive Willard's pass, then went down, used the change of rhythm to open up the passing gap, and then made a cross.
Sturridge successfully grabbed the first point in the middle, but was blocked by Juventus center back Bonucci, making it difficult to directly header the ball. So Sturridge decisively chose to ferry the ball to the goal. The horse inserted in the back row.
Mane received the ball from Sturridge on the right side of the top of the penalty area. He leaned on Khedira who was closely guarding him and shot a high-quality shot without stopping the ball. The volley sent waves across the world.
This ball is not only powerful and fast, but also goes straight to the upper right corner of the goal. It can be described as a superb performance. Even Buffon, the world's top goalkeeper, failed to save the ball. In the end, he could only watch the ball fly into the goal.
With Mane's volley kicking the world wave, Liverpool took a 1-0 lead at home.
However, after all, Liverpool has rotated too many people, especially the back line. In addition to the No. 32 center back Matip starting, Milner, Lovren, and Klein have all been rotated.
To a certain extent, this has led to the problem of insufficient tacit understanding in the back line. Even with Villard checking for leaks and filling in gaps, it is not easy.
Before the end of the first half, in the 42nd minute, Juventus finally used teamwork to tear apart Liverpool's defense. Pjanic made a highly penetrating pass and passed the ball to the attacking center back Luka. Behind Si.
Mandzukic appeared behind Lucas at the right time. After receiving a pass from Pjanic, he made a move to shoot. Another central defender Matip flew to block the hole of the gun. As a result, Mandzukic did not shoot, and his foot fell. The ball was pushed to Alex Sandro who rushed into the penalty area from the left.
Sandro received Mandzukic's cross pass on the left side of the penalty area, pushed the ball without stopping, and successfully scored the ball into the near corner.
Goalkeeper Karius was shaken by Mandzukic's false shot and real pass in the center, and his save was not timely and failed to prevent Alex Sandro's goal.
Juventus tied the score at 1-1.
The final score of the first half was 1-1.
After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again in the second half. Of course, Liverpool could accept a draw, but Juventus wanted to win.
Therefore, the game situation in the second half was similar to the first half. Juventus was still the main attacker and the Red Army was mainly defensive and counterattack.
This makes Juventus very uncomfortable. As the Serie A class leader, they are the type who are good at defense and counterattack.
But the situation forced Juventus to attack. Although their defense was no longer slow after losing the ball, they still couldn't keep up with Velarde.
In the 64th minute, after receiving the ball intercepted by Henderson in the backcourt, Willard directly began a long-distance run. After passing Mandzukic and Marchisio, he passed the ball to Mane who was receiving from the side.
Then he bypassed Khedira, who was trying to block him, and rushed to the front of the Juventus penalty area. After receiving Mane's return pass, he passed the Marseille center back Bonucci with a maneuver and directly dribbled the ball. After reaching the penalty area line, he took a shot.
This is something that neither the other central defender Rugani nor the goalkeeper Buffon expected. Rugani rushed from the side to tackle, but the ball flew over his body and there was nothing he could do.
Buffon wanted to attack Willard's single shot, so he took two steps and stood in the small penalty area close to the small penalty area line.
As a result, Willard came up with a lob, and it went straight to the blind corner.
Buffon hurriedly fought back, but also attacked diagonally, unable to catch the ball.
Although the speed of the ball was not fast, Buffon was unable to catch up. In the end, he could only watch the ball fall into the goal frame against the lower edge of the right crossbar.
Willard helped Liverpool rewrite the score again and regain a 2-1 lead.
This score lasted until more than 80 minutes. Just when Klopp replaced Mane, Henderson, and Wijnaldum, thinking that the game was going to be won by this score, in the 84th minute Juventus Tusi got a penalty kick instead.
The reason is that Cuadrado dribbled the ball from the right and cut inside, trying to pass to the center of the penalty area. As a result, the ball accidentally hit the full-back Alberto Moreno who stepped forward to intercept, forming a point in the penalty area. ball.
There's no way, it's just luck.
Of course, it’s also the fault of Alberto Moreno for not putting his hands behind his back when he stepped forward to block him. If he had the ball behind his back, there would certainly be no handball problem.
This penalty kick was taken by Marchisio. Marchisio did not let this opportunity slip away and succeeded in one stroke, sending the ball into Liverpool's goal.
With this goal, Juventus successfully escaped from Anfield with a score of 2-2, but Liverpool also relied on this draw to accumulate 13 points with four wins and one draw, surpassing second-place Juventus with only 8 points. With a full 5 points, Tooth secured the first place in the group stage standings one round ahead of schedule and will have a certain advantage in the knockout draw.
