Klopp doesn't know if it can become a new trend, but he knows that judging from the half-hour game, although his Red Army's ball possession rate lags far behind, it is actually ahead in terms of offensive threat. Barcelona.
Defensively, Barcelona failed to pose much of a threat to them. In addition to Willard's help in defense, the tacit defense established by Milner, Klavan, Matip, Klein, Wijnaldum, Emre Can and others after long games is also here. It had a huge impact in the game.
Barcelona wanted to rely on the personal skills of Messi, Neymar, Suarez and others to achieve the effect of surpassing several people in a row, but encountered huge difficulties in this game.
Of course, because of the presence of Messi, Neymar, and Suarez, the MSN combination has still scored a lot of goals in other games and is powerful in Europe. Liverpool still cannot be careless.
If someone suddenly performs exceptionally and shines, it may break the situation.
Sure enough, before the end of the first half, in the 43rd minute, Messi used a deft Matthews pass from the right to pass Wijnaldum's interception, and then played a wall-to-wall coordination with Suarez. Passed by full-back Milner, and then dribbled the ball straight into the penalty area.
When Villard, who was returning to defense, was about to catch up with Messi and interfere with him, Messi decisively passed the ball to the back of the left rib of the penalty area. Neymar rushed into the penalty area from the left and made a diving dive to the top of the penalty area. The ball goes into the goal.
The ball did hit the goal frame. Unfortunately, heading the ball was not Neymar's strong point. The goal was the result of his efforts to control it, but he was no longer able to control the angle.
Although the angle of the ball couldn't be said to go straight into the goalkeeper's arms, it was not far off. Goalkeeper Mignolet subconsciously reached out and swatted the ball from the air, and then made a supplementary shot without waiting for Iniesta who rushed into the penalty area. , he made a second dive and held the ball under his body.
Barcelona finally relied on the personal abilities of Messi and Neymar to create a threat. Unfortunately, Neymar's final blow failed to survive the tricky angle and was successfully resolved by goalkeeper Mignolet. Barcelona fans at the scene and in front of the TV could only I can shake my head and feel regret.
Soon, the first half ended and everyone entered the halftime break with a 1-0 score. Liverpool, playing at home, temporarily took a one-goal lead.
In the knockout match, which was played first at home and then away, the one-goal lead was really not that big, so they took a 15-minute break. After the game restarted in the second half, Liverpool did not shrink its defense, but continued to press high and get the ball. Immediately launch a strong counterattack.
Barcelona, on the other hand, was unable to pass the ball to the frontcourt under Liverpool's high pressure, and could only continue to make meaningless backcourt passes like it did in the first half.
Although Villard and others seem to be being passed around by Barcelona's backcourt, everyone knows that this is not a good thing for Barcelona.
On the one hand, under the pressing threat of Velarde and others, Barcelona could not control the rhythm well, discover Liverpool's loopholes, and then launch an attack from the backcourt. On the other hand, once the ball is lost in the backcourt, Liverpool launches a counterattack, just like the last ball lost, which is extremely dangerous for Barcelona.
But even so, Barcelona can't come up with a solution because they no longer have the ability to create opportunities, discover opportunities, and exploit opportunities as before.
It is not reliable to rely solely on the occasional personal flashes of Messi and others. And it just so happened that Messi, Neymar and others were not in good condition in this game, and they did not shine much. This may be related to the environment of the away game. Even if they occasionally flashed, they were intercepted by Liverpool.
When the game came to the 58th minute, Barcelona's attack failed due to Liverpool's pressure. Neymar's breakthrough was directly intercepted by full-back Klein, and then launched a counterattack.
In this counterattack, Velarde, Wijnaldum, Coutinho, Firmino, Mane and others collectively pressed forward, putting huge pressure on Barcelona's defense.
Finally, thanks to smooth passing and movement, Barcelona's defense was torn open. Coupled with Willard's strong attraction, it attracted the attention of three defenders. Then Wijnaldum received Mane's inverted triangle pass without any defense and took the penalty kick in the penalty area. The ball kept coming nearby and he pushed the ball easily into the lower right corner of the goal.
Liverpool changed the score again and expanded the score to 2-0.
This score, even in a two-round match, is considered a relatively advantageous score. Therefore, the Red Army fans at the scene and in front of the TV celebrated even more enthusiastically. Wijnaldum, who rarely scored a goal, also excitedly rushed to the sidelines to interact and celebrate with the fans.
When the score is only one goal behind, Barcelona can still hold on. I believe that even if they fall behind by one goal on the road, they will have a chance to reverse it at home.
But after the score became two goals behind, Barcelona's players became unsteady.
If the first round ends with this score, even if we return home, it will still be quite difficult to break through the Liverpool defense led by Willard and complete a two-goal comeback.
Therefore, Barcelona became anxious and began to strengthen their offensive in an attempt to score goals. As long as you can score a goal, even if you lose 1-2 on the road in the end, you can still get an away goal. In the second round at home, even if you only win 1-0, you can still score more away goals. Advantage eliminated Liverpool and advanced to the semi-finals.
Barcelona naturally stepped up their attack at Anfield.
But their passing control has changed from the effective and threatening passing control in the Guardiola era to a non-threatening and sleepy passing control.
Barcelona, which lacks Xavi, is already far away from that Cosmos team in terms of midfield organization. In terms of the suddenness, effectiveness, and success rate of organizing passes, they are all very different.
The direct manifestation is: the error rate increases greatly.
When there is not a large number of forward attacks, Barcelona can still rely on their skillful backcourt passing and control to firmly control the ball at their feet. If they do not let Liverpool get the ball, there will be no threat.
When they now start to attack forward, they will inevitably have to come into contact with Liverpool's midfielders, and the turnover rate will naturally increase.
As a result, Barcelona's counterattack not only failed to break down Liverpool's defense, but instead accelerated the number of times they lost the ball and were counterattacked by Liverpool.
In the 71st minute, Barcelona's counterattack had not yet achieved results. Their midfield organization made a passing error. Roberto was about to pass a ball to Messi but was forced by Wijnaldum and made a mistake. The pass was deflected. .
And Willard reacted super quickly, rushing forward immediately and intercepting the ball. While stealing the ball, facing Messi who was counterattacking, Velarde also showed off a Marseille spin, passing Messi, and then drove straight in with the ball to launch a counterattack.
Coutinho, Firmino and Mane saw that Willard successfully intercepted the ball, immediately turned around and sprinted, launching a counterattack.
In the end, Willard passed two people in succession, and after a successful collision with Coutinho, he dribbled the ball into the penalty area, relied on Pique who was desperately returning to defend, and fired the ball into the Barcelona goal with a powerful shot. the lower left corner.
Willard scored twice to help Liverpool improve the score to 3-0 at Anfield.
