Liverpool, which defeated their arch-rival Manchester United and won the EFL Cup, could not celebrate with the fans when they returned to their home base. Because Liverpool's schedule is very tight now. There will be another Premier League game against Leicester City in three days, and it will be an away game.
Therefore, Liverpool, who returned to their home city overnight, only took a day off, held a small celebration banquet, and then returned to the base to prepare for the next round of the Premier League game.
At 21:00 on the evening of February 27, in the 26th round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged the defending champion Leicester City away.
Last season, Leicester City unexpectedly climbed to the top of the Premier League and staged a miracle for the Blue Foxes, but this season they were brought back to their original form. Especially after midfield defensive champion Kante moved to Chelsea, the Blue Fox defense is as fragile as paper. It is currently ranked fourth from the bottom in the standings and is only one step away from the relegation zone.
With Leicester City about to fall into the relegation zone, no matter who their opponent is, they will fight to the end. What's more, Liverpool just competed with Manchester United in the English League Cup final three days ago. This is an away game. Leicester City, who is playing at home, has no reason not to go all out and strive for points.
Even if you only get one point, it's still good.
Leicester City did play well in this game, and Liverpool was indeed affected by the EFL Cup final and was in poor form.
Even if Klopp rotates a few people, there is nothing that can be done if everyone is in poor overall condition.
In the 17th minute, Willard finally dribbled the ball past two people and got a chance to take a powerful long-range shot from outside the penalty area. He encountered Schmeichel's superb performance and forced his shot straight into the blind corner, which was extremely threatening. The big world wave long shot saved the bottom line.
Liverpool also failed to grab the first point from the subsequent corner kick, and was pushed out of the penalty area by Leicester City defender Huth to clear the ball.
In the 28th minute, the Liverpool attack line led by Willard had not yet scored a goal, but Leicester City scored the home team's first goal with the assist of winger Albrighton and Vardy.
Leicester City leads Liverpool 1-0.
The King Power Stadium suddenly fell into carnival.
Vardy has indeed stepped up, growing from an amateur player to a top striker in the Premier League, and has also become an inspirational idol for many ordinary players and fans.
Just when many people thought that Liverpool with Willard could quickly equalize the score, Vardy scored again in the 39th minute.
This time, full-back Fuchs suddenly stepped in to assist. When Willard went up to intercept, he and his teammates hit the wall and broke through.
Although Willard immediately reminded his teammates in the penalty area to pay attention to Vardy's marking, Fuchs, who completed the pass after hitting the wall, still accurately sent the ball to Vardy, and it was a ground ball.
Although there was interference from central defender Matip on his side, Vardy still opened his arms and leaned on Matip, and easily pushed the ball passed by Fuchs into the goal.
The distance was too close, and Mignolet had no choice but to watch the ball go into the net.
"Goooooooooooooooooooal..."
"Vardy!!!"
"Two goals!"
"Vardy scored twice to help Leicester City lead Liverpool 2-0."
"What a surprise."
"The entire Liverpool team, which had just won the EFL Cup, was out of shape. They were beaten hard by Leicester City, who were eager to gain points and avoid relegation. It was rare that they fell behind by two goals in the first half."
“It’s really difficult to beat the relegation teams in the second half of the season.”
"Of course, Leicester City goalkeeper Schmeichel's performance today was also very outstanding. If he hadn't blocked left and right, blocking many threatening shots from Willard and Liverpool, the Blue Fox would not have been there now. Lost the ball.”
"The whole Leicester City team is in very good condition today, and it is really possible to hand Liverpool their first defeat in 2017."
Indeed, since entering 2017, Liverpool has won all games and has never lost a game.
If this game is lost, it will be Liverpool's first defeat of the new year, which neither Klopp nor Willard, nor the Red Army players and fans want to see.
Therefore, after the game restarted, Willard transformed into an attacking midfielder and began to dribble the ball from left to right in the center and front, trying to create opportunities for his teammates.
However, not only did Leicester City's goalkeeper perform well, but the defenders also performed very well in this game. They not only blocked Willard's breakthrough route many times, but also blocked other players' routes to catch or shoot.
Before the end of the first half, in the 44th minute, Willard passed two people on the right side of the penalty area and attracted four Blue Fox people to double-team. Naturally, there were a lot of gaps elsewhere.
Willard fiddled with the ball left and right to create space for the pass, then kicked the ball between the legs of midfielder Drinkwater and passed it to Coutinho who rushed into the penalty area.
Coutinho rushed into the ribs of the penalty area from the left and volleyed hard without stopping the ball, trying to kick the ball into the near corner.
As a result, just a moment after he completed the shot, full-back Danny Simpson arrived in time and made a flying tackle, successfully destroying Coutinho's ball out of the baseline.
"Coutinho!"
"Shoot!!!"
"Oops, the ball was blocked from the baseline by Danny Simpson."
"Simpson's flying shot was too timely to block the hole of the gun. If he had been a little closer, Coutinho would have kicked the ball into the goal."
"This goal was really thrilling. It's a pity that Liverpool were a bit unlucky."
"Today's Leicester City, the whole team is in very good condition. If we had shown this kind of condition and strength earlier, how could we have fallen to the fourth place from the bottom?"
"I can only say that Liverpool was unlucky today. Just after playing in the EFL Cup final and in the worst form, they happened to encounter Leicester City, who were in the best form this season."
"What a coincidence."
"Maybe Liverpool really may suffer their first defeat this year today."
Klopp certainly doesn't want to lose. Even if the Red Army has a huge points lead in the league, he wants to continue winning, win the championship early, and put more energy into the Champions League and FA Cup.
Therefore, at the end of the first half and entering the intermission, Klopp made substitution adjustments, replacing Firmino with Sturridge, who was in average form, and captain Henderson for Etienne Murray Can, strengthen the offense.
After captain Henderson came on the field, Liverpool's defense was strengthened. In addition, Leicester City, which was leading by two goals, also wanted to consolidate its lead. The offensive in the second half was not as fierce as the first half and was more defensive. Therefore, the Red Army They didn't concede any more goals in the second half.
Offensively, with Sturridge as the fulcrum in the penalty area, Liverpool's offense became more concise and effective. Finally, in the 74th minute, Willard passed the penalty area diagonally from the left, and Sturridge grabbed the first goal. With a header, Mane followed up with a volley from the side and successfully blasted the ball into Leicester City's goal.
Liverpool finally got a goal back and rewritten the score to 2-1, only one goal behind.
Next, Liverpool bombarded Leicester City's half and once had the ball possession rate twice that of Leicester City. However, with the united efforts of all the Blue Fox players and goalkeepers, Leicester City They insisted on holding on to the 2-1 score until the end of the game.
It is not that Willard has never made a threatening shot, but it was saved by goalkeeper Schmeichel Jr. and failed to really score.
Without Schmeichel's superb performance, Willard would have scored at least two goals today. However, there are no ifs in football. If you lose, you lose.
After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. With Vardy's brace, Leicester City defeated the top team Red Army Liverpool 2-1 at home and won the 26th round of the league. victory.
Liverpool, on the other hand, suffered its first defeat since entering 2017, and it was to a team ranked last. It was a huge upset, which caused many gamblers who lost money to "fix matches" on the Internet. of curses.
For gamblers, any game that does not allow them to win money is considered "match-fixing."
The same goes for Willard, who was unexpectedly kept clean by Leicester City in this game. It became one of the few games since joining Liverpool in which he started and played the entire game without scoring a goal.
The last time he started a game and kept a clean sheet was Argentina's away game against Brazil in the 11th round of the World Cup preliminaries on November 10 last year.
As for the club's games, it goes back to May 8 last year. At that time, Willard started and Liverpool beat Watford 3-0. However, Willard was kept clean in that game and did not score any goals. ball.
Since then, as long as Willard started and played a full 90 minutes in a club game, there has not been a game without a goal.
Today's game with a clean sheet by Leicester City can be regarded as a major achievement for the Blue Fox.
Therefore, after the game, the King Power Stadium, the home ground of the Blue Fox, was thrown into a carnival. Although their performance this season was very poor and far behind their performance in winning the Premier League championship last season, after today's game With the victory over Liverpool, their journey this season is not too disappointing.
After all, they defeated a team that had a high probability of winning the Premier League championship.
As for Velarde and his teammates, although they lost, they all consciously tried their best. It was just that they were in poor condition and their opponents performed exceptionally, so there was nothing they could do about it. Therefore, everyone did not run away after the game, but came to the stands of a small number of Red Army fans who accompanied the team on the away game, and interacted with these die-hard fans to pay tribute.
The fans did not blame everyone. They all understood the physical and mental loss caused by having just played the EFL Cup final in London three days ago, rushing back to Liverpool overnight to celebrate the championship, and then having to challenge Leicester City away from home. The game was in poor form, and it was reasonable to be upset by Leicester City.
After the game, there were not many media to criticize Liverpool's defeat. After all, we had just played the EFL Cup final three days ago. This was followed by another away game, and we were still facing Leicester City, who were fighting to avoid relegation. It is a recognized fact that the relegation team in the second half of the season is difficult to play. Losing away from home is understandable.
What's more, Liverpool's lead in the standings is so huge that it doesn't matter if they lose once in a while.
After the 26th round, although Liverpool lost, they still led Chelsea, who was second in the standings, by as many as 9 points. With a far lead in goal difference, this was a three-game gap.
It is still very difficult for Chelsea to catch up with Liverpool.
As for the gap between the third, fourth, fifth and other teams and Liverpool, it is even further, and it does not threaten Liverpool's status.
