Adhering to Guardiola's passing and controlling football thinking, Manchester City tried to keep the ball at their feet. When you have the opportunity, attack forward. When there is no chance, he will play in the midfield and back to delay time. When Liverpool's defense has a hole, he will suddenly move forward and launch a fast break.
But Manchester City's passing football has obviously not reached the peak level of Barcelona, and there were a lot of mistakes under Liverpool's high pressure. Although Liverpool cannot take advantage of every mistake, the occasional opportunity that appears is fatal to Manchester City.
In the 83rd minute, when Mane forced David Silva, who was holding the ball, to pass the ball across to Yaya Toure, Velarde moved forward decisively and rushed towards Yaya Toure at high speed. .
Yaya Toure took aim at Velarde's forward press and wanted to pass the ball to De Bruyne, who had better skills, but saw that De Bruyne was also pressed by Wijnaldum. Others Sterling, Aguero and others also have no chance.
Time was running out. Yaya Toure glanced back and saw his teammate Fernandinho. Every time he thought about it, he passed the ball back to the full-back Fernandinho.
But the ball was still on the way, and Coutinho had already rushed towards Fernandinho. Firmino, Mane, Velarde and others also moved forward in their overall formation, facing Fernandinho. Possible ball directions were closely guarded.
Facing Coutinho's pressing, Fernandinho couldn't find a way to get the ball out. Also, time was tight. He had no choice but to turn around and pass the ball back to goalkeeper Caballero.
But from David Silva to Yaya Toure, and then to Fernandinho, there was finally a problem with the passing of the three. Fernandinho's backpass was not strong enough, and the power of the pass was insufficient. Smaller.
Firmino, who was rushing towards the center back Stones, saw Fernandinho pass the ball back to the goalkeeper and ignored Stones at all. He rushed past Stones and left Stones behind. behind.
By the time Stones realized that Fernandinho's pass was not strong enough and the goalkeeper might not get it, and tried to turn back to defend, it was already too late.
Even the super-fast Velarde had already rushed forward, keeping pace with Stones, rushing towards the penalty area, and was soon surpassed by Velarde again.
Firmino caught up with Fernandinho's weak back pass on the penalty area line before goalkeeper Caballero attacked.
However, goalkeeper Caballero is already very close to him. Whether Firmino hits the goal or passes the goalkeeper, he may lose the ball. Fernandinho, who missed the pass, is two or three behind him. Once you delay the position, you may miss the opportunity.
Fortunately, before Firmino caught the ball, he had already seen Villard rushing up from behind.
Although Velarde was basically parallel to Stones and Otamendi at this time, he had confidence in Velarde's speed, so he did not stop the ball and made a smash pass the moment he caught up with the ball. Kicked the ball to the center of the penalty area.
The ball rolled in front of goalkeeper Caballero. Caballero wanted to fall to the ground to save, but couldn't reach it, so he had to turn back to defend.
But where can we catch up?
The ball rolled to the middle, and Verard, as Firmino expected, rushed out from between Stones and Otamendi. Otamendi tried to reach out and pulled the foul but failed to pull him down. Willard.
Velarde rushed into the penalty area, received Firmino's cross, and volleyed directly. With full "shooting" skills, he whipped the ball into the empty goal without any suspense.
Goalkeeper Caballero took two steps back and then stopped in despair. He could only watch the ball fly into the goal.
In the 83rd minute, Liverpool scored another goal during the on-the-spot counterattack opportunity obtained by pressing in the frontcourt. Willard scored twice, helping Liverpool rewrite the score to 3-1, two goals ahead of Manchester City.
Although this is Manchester City's home court, there is not much time left, and Liverpool's defense has always been solid, making it difficult for opponents to penetrate, let alone conceding two goals in ten minutes.
Willard's goal basically sealed the victory for Liverpool.
Sure enough, in the remaining time, despite Manchester City's aggressive attacks, they were still unable to break through Liverpool's defense. Liverpool used the overall defense and constant substitution tactics to delay time, maintaining the score until the end.
In the end, after the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game, Manchester City did not score a single goal. Liverpool defeated their powerful enemy Manchester City 3-1 in an away game and once again won the league and continued to lead the standings.
After this round of Premier League matches, time has entered FIFA match day, and international players from various countries have returned to their national teams to start playing World Cup qualifiers.
On March 23, in the 13th round of the South American World Cup preliminaries, Argentina faced Chile at the Monument Stadium at home.
Chile is currently ranked fourth in the standings, but the fifth and sixth places are only 2 points behind Chile. The top four direct qualifying spots are also in jeopardy.
However, if they can get even 1 point on the road, they still have a lot of room for maneuver. Therefore, Chile's tactics in this game are very clear, which is to defend and counterattack.
Unfortunately, facing Argentina, where Villard, Messi, Aguero, and Di Maria all played, Chile's defense only lasted until the 24th minute before it fell.
The reason is that Willard passed two people in the midfield and passed the ball to Messi. Messi dribbled the ball from the right into the penalty area, passed one person again, and then was tripped by center defender Jara who stretched his leg out of desperation.
The referee whistled a penalty kick. Although the Chilean team tried its best to defend it, claiming that Messi was diving, how could the referee believe such a thing?
On the one hand, it is impossible for Messi to dive; on the other hand, the referee also believes in his eyes.
Penalties, no doubt about it.
This ball was personally taken by Messi who took the penalty kick.
There were no mistakes, and Messi easily kicked the ball into the lower right corner, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead.
Although the score was behind, the Chilean team did not counterattack rashly, but continued to stabilize its defense and wait for opportunities to counterattack. With only one goal behind, it is possible to equalize even at the last moment of the game. But once you are behind by more than two goals, it will be difficult.
So the Chilean team wisely continued to defend and did not attack Argentina.
Argentina was happy and relaxed. Anyway, the score was already leading. Everyone was very tired from the long flight. It was also a dream to slow down the attack and take a rest.
However, Velarde did not relax and continued to attack when he had the opportunity. Because he has to go all out in every game to achieve A-level performance, regardless of the score or situation.
In addition, he has full physical support, so he is not afraid of getting tired.
Even if his teammates are not very willing to cooperate, their strong personal strength and sometimes a little cooperation can help Willard complete the attack.
In the 39th minute, Villard first hit the wall with Di Maria in the midfield, then dribbled the ball past the two of them to the top of the penalty area, then dribbled horizontally to get out of the way, and then suddenly He kicked off the ball and fired a heavy shot across the world, once again opening the door to the Chilean team.
Velarde helped Argentina rewrite the score, and Argentina led Chile 2-0.
At this score, the Chilean team could no longer defend and began to launch a counterattack.
But at this point, Velarde stepped back to help defend. With Velard running all over the field to help defend, Mascherano, Biglia, Otamendi and others kept Argentina's defense airtight, and the Chilean team barely got any decent shooting opportunities. , the first half of the game was over.
After a 15-minute break, the game changed sides in the second half. The Chilean team replaced an offensive player at the beginning of the second half in an attempt to attack.
But Argentina's defense was rock solid and did not give the Chilean team any chance.
Instead, when the time came to the 59th minute, the Chilean team lost the ball in the frontcourt and Argentina made a quick counterattack. Velarde found Di Maria with a penetrating long pass.
Di Maria made a pass from the left and passed a ground ball. It just avoided the defender who was returning to defend at the front point and rolled into the path of Aguero.
Aguero successfully grabbed the ball in front of the goal and easily pushed the ball into the Chilean team's goal.
3-0, Argentina secured the victory, and it was impossible for the Chilean team to reverse the comeback. Therefore, Bauza began to make substitutions, replacing players with poor physical fitness such as Messi to rest.
In the subsequent games, the Chilean team attacked vigorously, probably thinking that even if they lost, they had to score to save some face.
But things went against expectations. Until the end of the game, the Chilean team failed to score even a goal. Instead, in the 78th minute, Argentina stole the ball and hit a counterattack.
This time it's Willard again.
After picking up the ball in the midfield, Velarde tore apart the Chilean team's defense through two consecutive collisions with Higuain and Aguero, and dribbled the ball into the penalty area.
When Willard enters the penalty area, his "shooting" skill is at full value, and there is no suspense.
Unsurprisingly, Velarde pushed the ball into the far corner. Goalkeeper Bravo was helpless and could only watch the ball roll into the goal against the far post.
The score became 4-0. The Chilean team was completely desperate and lost all confidence. They did not attack vigorously later, but instead tightened their defense to avoid conceding the ball again.
After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game. Argentina defeated Chile 4-0 and won the 13th round of the World Cup preliminaries.
In other games in this round, Colombia defeated Bolivia 1-0, surpassing Chile and reaching fourth place. The Chilean team fell to fifth in the standings.
After the first 13 rounds, Argentina ranked first with 35 points with 11 wins, 2 draws and 0 losses, while Chile ranked fifth with 20 points and 6 wins, 2 draws and 5 losses.
With five rounds left in the World Cup qualifying rounds and the top four qualifying directly for the main draw of the World Cup in Russia, Argentina is 15 points ahead of fifth-placed Chile and has a goal difference lead of a full 30 points.
Even if Argentina loses all the remaining games and Chile and the other top four teams win all, and Chile ties Argentina on points, it will be difficult to surpass Argentina on goal difference.
The Chilean team has won all, Argentina has lost all, and the possibility that the other three teams will surpass Argentina in points is infinitely close to zero.
Argentina has only a theoretical possibility of being eliminated.
Therefore, after this round of matches, Argentina has actually qualified from the South American World Cup preliminaries and advanced to the Russian World Cup main event.
In the next round of World Cup qualifying, as long as Argentina is undefeated or Chile does not win, Argentina will officially qualify.
Therefore, after finishing Chile's World Cup qualifying match, Argentina held a grand celebration with the fans at the Monument Stadium.
It can be said that Argentina has become the first team in the world to advance to the World Cup in the World Cup preliminaries, except for the host Russia.
