The coaches, players and fans are all very happy to reverse Chelsea, advance to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, and continue to compete in the world's oldest competition.
The only thing that is a bit regretful may be those fans who specially made celebration banners and came to the scene to celebrate Willard breaking through the 200-goal mark in his career.
Before this game, Willard's total career goals had reached 198, and he only needed two goals to break the 200-goal mark. For today's Velarde, scoring two goals in a single game seems to be a piece of cake. Therefore, many fans came to the scene with great expectations, preparing to witness the 200-goal milestone in Velarde's career. .
Unexpectedly, Chelsea performed so well in this game, forcing Velarde to focus more on defense. In the end, he only scored one goal, reaching 199 goals, but still failed to break the 200-goal mark.
This caused many celebration banners, drawing boards, etc. specially prepared by fans to go to waste and failed to be displayed.
The next game is another away game in the Champions League. Many fans are destined to not be able to go there and will have to miss Willard's 200-goal milestone, so it is a pity.
But there is no way, life cannot be perfect, just like Willard failed to win the Laureus Best Athlete Award.
The next two games are tough battles. One is the first leg of the Champions League 1/8 finals away to Porto, and the other is the EFL Cup final. Liverpool will compete with Manchester United, their mortal enemy, for the EFL Cup championship this season.
Although the English League Cup championship does not have high gold content, it is still a championship trophy after all. Especially for Manchester United, they need to win the English League Cup and obtain a guaranteed qualification for next season's European war. If they fail to win the EFL Cup and are squeezed out of the top six in the league, Manchester United may miss the European competition next season. This is unacceptable for the giant Manchester United.
Therefore, Manchester United will definitely fight hard in this game. Needless to say, even if Liverpool plays with all its main players, it may not be able to guarantee victory. It is indeed a tough battle.
But there is no room for failure in the Champions League, everyone can only hold on and give it a try! If they want to make a difference, wealthy teams and star players have to adapt to the physical and mental pressure of fighting on multiple fronts and competing for championships on multiple fronts.
At 20:45 in the evening on February 21, with the referee's whistle, the first leg of the 2016/2017 Champions League quarter-finals between Porto and Liverpool officially started at Porto's home stadium, the Dragon Stadium.
Porto is undoubtedly Portugal's super giant, and it is a prestigious presence throughout Europe.
Sometimes the Portuguese league's European war points will surpass France, ranking fifth in Europe. Therefore, among the five major European leagues, except for the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, which are the top four, the fifth major league is not fixed. Some fans think it is Ligue 1, and some people think it is the Portuguese Super League.
However, with the development of football commercialization, the Portuguese Super League has gradually become a place to cultivate talents for other top leagues. The fifth league of the five major European leagues has gradually been fixed as the richer French Ligue 1. The Portuguese Super League is regarded as the sixth largest league. .
In the lineup for this game, apart from Porto's veteran Casillas, who transferred from Real Madrid, Velarde has never heard of anyone else. This shows the serious loss of Portugal's stars.
The top stars basically go to the five major leagues. It is difficult for leagues like the Portuguese Super League to compete with the teams in the five major leagues. Even if they break out occasionally, the outstanding players among them will immediately be snapped up by the major giants in the five major leagues next season, instantly losing the opportunity to continue to compete for European glory.
The Portuguese Super League, like the Eredivisie, has actually become a talent training library and youth training base for the five major leagues.
The reflection in this Champions League quarter-finals is that Porto, playing at home, tried their best to win at home, but in the end they could not break through Liverpool's defense.
Liverpool, despite playing away from home, scored quickly.
After playing for just over ten minutes and getting used to the atmosphere of the away game, Liverpool forced the opponent player to make a mistake through a high press in the 17th minute, intercepted the ball, and launched a quick counterattack on the spot, finally led by Coutini. O'Xia cut inside and passed the ball in an inverted triangle, passing the ball to the top of the penalty area.
Velarde, who was following in the back row, rushed forward, fired furiously at the ball, and hit an earth-shattering heavy artillery world wave. The subsequent speed statistics showed that the speed of Velarde's world wave hit the goal exceeded 100, reaching 100. 109 km/h.
Midfielder Danilo Pereira flew to block the hole of the gun and failed to touch the ball. Defender Marcano in the penalty area tried to clear the ball with a header but failed to hit the ball. Although goalkeeper Casillas was a world-class goalkeeper before, he is now a world-class goalkeeper. After all, he was old and his reaction was a beat slower. In addition, Velarde's ball was too powerful, too fast, and the angle was too tricky. Even if it was a long shot, Casillas could not touch the ball and could only watch. The ball flew into the goal.
As Willard's heavy bombardment succeeded, thousands of Red Army fans who were traveling with the team to Portugal suddenly clapped and cheered excitedly. Many fans who had been prepared quickly pulled out the banners, drawing boards, etc. they had prepared. Make a presentation.
The commentators also explained loudly:
"The ball went in!!!"
"Villade's heavy artillery shot from outside the penalty area opened the Porto gate guarded by Saint Cassie."
"Liverpool leads 1-0 away from home."
"More importantly, this is Willard's 200th career goal."
"We witnessed the 200-goal milestone in Velarde's career at the Estadio Dragone in Porto."
"And Willard scored these 200 goals in only 164 games."
"Among the stars who have scored more than 200 goals in their football careers, Velarde has the highest efficiency, whether it is Pele, Maradona, Gerd Muller, Ronaldo, or the flourishing Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Not as efficient as Velarde.”
"What's more important is that Velarde is a defensive midfielder, not a forward."
"Now we are not playing as a pure forward, but as a full-court free agent, and often have to bear a lot of defensive tasks."
"If Velarde is allowed to play as a pure forward and most of the shots are completed by him, then Velarde's scoring efficiency may be higher and more terrifying."
"But even now, Velarde's efficiency is shocking enough."
"What's more, Velarde, who can attack well and defend well, is obviously more useful to the team."
"It is said that a team offered a transfer fee of 150 million to bring in Willard, but it is obviously impossible for Liverpool to let him go."
"Gareth Bale is worth 100 million, but Willard needs at least 200 million to open his mouth. 150 million is completely insincere."
"Besides, if Liverpool lets go of Velarde, where will they find a replacement? It's totally impossible!"
"As long as Willard is here, it will not be a problem for Liverpool to win honors such as the Premier League, Champions League, and Triple Crown."
"Liverpool should use Willard as the core to form a team that can dominate the Premier League and Champions League for many years."
"The prospects for Willard and Liverpool are quite optimistic."
Amid the nagging of the commentators, Velarde and his teammates also celebrated the 200-goal milestone in their career, then returned to their own half and restarted the game.
Porto's schedule is at a disadvantage of playing home first and then away. If they lose at home, can they still pray for an away win and a comeback?
Therefore, Porto, which was trailing 0-1, had no retreat and could only attack aggressively in an attempt to reverse the situation.
However, Liverpool played with all their main players in this game, and with Velarde running all over the city to cover the defense, Porto's offense was unable to achieve any real results.
Moreover, most attacks were interrupted before they reached Liverpool's penalty area, and in turn were counterattacked by Liverpool.
The strength gap between the two sides is too obvious, and Liverpool's counterattack threat is much greater. Although Casillas is very experienced in competitions, he still has a considerable level of goalkeeping ability even at his age, saving many of Liverpool's shots.
However, Porto's defense was weak, resulting in Liverpool taking too many shots. Once there are too many shots, even Saint Cassie will be helpless with some of the shots.
In the 34th minute, Velarde caused a foul on Porto midfielder Ruben Neves through a breakthrough with the ball, and won a well-positioned free kick opportunity.
Velarde struck with a perfect curling free kick and sent the ball straight into Porto's goal.
Willard scored twice and Liverpool led 2-0 away from home.
After a 15-minute intermission, the two sides changed sides and fought again in the second half, but Porto's offense still failed to achieve any results. Liverpool, however, took a corner kick in the 59th minute. Klein took a corner kick and assisted Lovren, who stepped forward to participate in the aerial challenge, with a header, extending the score to 3-0.
With this score, not to mention this game, even the suspense of the second round was basically ended.
Therefore, Liverpool began to make substitutions one after another in preparation for the next EFL Cup final game.
Porto also took this opportunity to launch another fierce attack, but Velarde was still on the court, and Klopp's substitution was also for a frontcourt offensive player. Without moving the defense, Porto's offense was still unable to score any goals.
Instead, in the 76th minute, Porto's midfielder made a fatal pass pass, and Velarde reacted first and intercepted the ball before the Porto player receiving the ball.
Seeing that the opponent couldn't grab the ball, he directly tackled him with a flying tackle. However, Velarde's super high awareness allowed him to discern the opponent's dangerous moves, pick up the ball in advance, and then jump from the opponent's player who was flying. He passed by and then dribbled the ball forward.
This time, Velarde stole the ball from the midfield and went to Longtan alone. After passing three people, he dribbled the ball directly to the penalty area line. After seeing goalkeeper Casillas attack a little far, he directly chose Lob shot.
The ball flew over the head of Saint Cassie. Although Casillas tried his best to jump up and try to reach the ball, Velarde's perfect "shot" hit the ball. The height was just above the height of Saint Cassie's jump to save. After Casillas touched the air, he watched helplessly as the ball fell into the goal against the lower edge of the crossbar!
Willard scored a hat-trick to help Liverpool lead 4-0 away from home.
In the remaining time, the score was not changed again. After the referee blew the full-time whistle, Liverpool defeated Porto 4-0 away from home, completely killing the suspense of the two-leg quarterfinals.
There is no need to guess in the second round. Liverpool will definitely win on aggregate and advance to the Champions League quarterfinals.
