Even a giant team like Manchester United failed to defeat at home, or even just tied with Liverpool. It is even more difficult for other teams.
Everyone is more optimistic about Liverpool's prospects of winning the Premier League title this season. As long as Liverpool themselves don't collapse, the momentum for winning the championship looks somewhat unstoppable.
With the momentum of defeating Manchester United in the away game, three days later, on January 18, in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals, Liverpool challenged Southampton away.
Last season, Liverpool unexpectedly lost to Southampton on the road in the 31st round of the Premier League, laying the groundwork for the Premier League title to be taken away by Leicester City.
Therefore, Liverpool has a grudge against Southampton. Now that the two sides meet in the EFL Cup semi-finals, the Red Army must not only work hard to win the semi-finals and advance to the final to win the championship, but also avenge the humiliating failure of losing the championship after losing to the opponent last season.
In order to avenge their humiliation, enter the final, and compete for the championship, Liverpool naturally played their best in this game, ensuring that they would win away from home and establish a two-round lead.
After the game started, Southampton shrank its defense and tried to counterattack defensively. It would be great if we could drag the game to 0-0, drag the second round to 0-0, and then try our luck in a penalty shootout. If you accidentally score a counterattack goal during a defensive counterattack, it will naturally be more satisfying.
However, Liverpool did not get their wishful thinking.
Southampton, which was able to defeat Liverpool 3-2 at home last season, is obviously not as good as last season. Let alone scoring three goals, Southampton couldn't score a single goal, and it was still at their home court.
Velarde, whose attributes in all aspects have greatly increased, led his teammates to block all Southampton's few counterattacks. Southampton did not even have a decent shot in the entire first half.
An attack that could barely be considered a shot was a long shot about 30 meters away from the goal outside the penalty area, but it missed the goal frame by a long way.
As for Liverpool, with the mentality of revenge and reaching the final to win the championship, everyone was in good condition and fought very actively, creating a lot of opportunities in the first half.
If it weren't for Southampton's intensive defense and a little bit of luck, Liverpool would have completely killed the suspense of the game in the first half.
Even so, Liverpool easily led 2-0 in the first half thanks to Willard's brace.
In the second half, Southampton counterattacked to a certain extent, but not only failed to recover even a single goal, but conceded two more goals in the second half. In the end, they lost 0-4 at home to Liverpool. The two-leg semifinals were suspenseful. terminated prematurely.
Willard scored a hat trick.
Although there are two legs in the EFL Cup semi-finals, Southampton lost 0-4 at home. Can we still expect them to come back at Anfield in the second round?
That is impossible.
Liverpool's promotion to the final is already a certainty.
Therefore, back in the league, on January 21st, Liverpool faced Swansea at home. The Red Army continued to play with all its main players, striving to get all three points. The second leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals to be played later will allow for rotation.
Swansea was the first victim after Willard had just increased his "shooting" skill from 99 to 100, and became the backdrop for Willard's "seven goals in a single game" miracle in the Premier League.
At that time, they did not expect that Willard's shooting skills could reach such an accurate level, so that game gave Willard many opportunities to shoot, which directly led to Willard's seven-goal miracle in a single game and 0-8. Failed miserably.
The teams behind knew the horror of Velarde's shooting, and even outside the penalty area, they never gave Velarde a chance to calmly kick the ball. Therefore, although Velarde scored two or three goals in every game, But it is still very difficult to think about scoring seven goals in a single game.
Swansea are now ranked last in the standings, coupled with the humiliating defeat in the first half of the season and the high probability of not being able to beat Liverpool. In this game, Swansea simply fought back at Anfield and attacked with all their strength. Instead, Liverpool was defeated. He scored a rare goal.
Of course, their defense was also uncomfortable. They were penetrated four times by Willard's head and kick, and Firmino was the icing on the cake. In the end, Liverpool defeated Swansea 5-1 at home. While continuing to lead the standings, it also made Swansea's road to relegation even more difficult.
As for Willard, his number of goals in the Premier League this season has reached a terrifying 60 goals. The league has only played 22 rounds. There are still 16 rounds of the 38-round Premier League. It is entirely possible for Willard to create a miracle of reaching the 100-goal mark in the league in a single season.
Four days later, on January 25, Liverpool faced Southampton at home in the second leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals. After winning 4-0 in the away game in the first round, Klopp certainly would not waste the opportunity to rest the main players in this game and carried out a large-scale rest.
Southampton let go and carried out a fierce attack, not seeking a comeback, but just wanting to score one or two goals to save some face, so as not to be shaved off by the Red Army in both rounds.
This wish came true. After all, Liverpool had changed many of its main players, and the backcourt cooperation was not enough. Southampton penetrated the defense once and scored a goal.
However, Southampton also conceded three goals, eventually losing 1-3 to the Red Army at Anfield and losing 1-7 in two rounds, losing the chance to advance to the finals and compete for the championship.
Liverpool, on the other hand, has reached the finals for two consecutive seasons and may successfully defend the EFL Cup. Although the English League Cup does not have high gold content, it is still a championship honor after all. If you can win the championship, it will naturally be excellent.
Therefore, after the game, the players and fans celebrated enthusiastically at Anfield Stadium.
Later, the results of another semi-final came out. Manchester United defeated Hull City with a score of 3-2 in two rounds and advanced to the final. As a result, in the 2016/2017 English League Cup final, there was another English national derby scene between Manchester United and Liverpool.
This will make the English League Cup final, which was originally not a high-quality game, suddenly become exciting. Although Manchester United has not defeated Liverpool since Willard joined, it will not lower everyone's expectations for the Double Reds. Even if Manchester United can't beat Liverpool, it can definitely cause some trouble for Liverpool.
Not only is the historical grudge between the two sides, Manchester United coach Mourinho is not a simple coach, his winning rate in cup finals is quite high. Regardless of Liverpool's rapid progress on all fronts, it is still unknown whether they can defeat Manchester United led by Mourinho in the EFL Cup final!
Many Mourinho fans firmly believe that the Magic Bird will lead the Red Devils Manchester United to defeat Liverpool in the EFL Cup final and win this championship.
This is the mindless worship of fans.
But even for others, the finals haven't even started yet, and the outcome is really unknown. Even if everyone is more optimistic about Liverpool, no one can make a conclusion easily before the game is over.
After all, football has seen many upsets in which the weak defeat the strong, and there have been many upsets.
