On April 21, the 2016/2017 Champions League semi-final draw ceremony was held at UEFA headquarters.
In the end, the top four matchups were Real Madrid VS Atletico Madrid and Liverpool VS Monaco.
Liverpool got a top draw, and the Madrid duo once again staged a city derby in the Champions League.
With the joy of being drawn into the Champions League semi-finals, Liverpool faced their opponents in the FA Cup semi-finals the next day.
At 19:00 on the evening of April 22, the 2016/2017 FA Cup semi-finals between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur officially began.
After the FA Cup enters the semi-finals, it will no longer be held at one party's home court, but will all be held at a neutral venue: Wembley Stadium.
It can be regarded as providing a fair and just playing environment for both sides.
Of course, for both sides of this game, Tottenham Hotspur is a London team and can buy tickets more conveniently. There are obviously more Tottenham fans entering the stadium than Liverpool fans.
But after all, the number of fans will not be completely crushed like in the opponent's real home game.
At Wembley Stadium, which has a capacity of 90,000 people, there are about 40,000 Tottenham fans, 30,000 Liverpool fans, and the other 20,000 neutral London fans and various guest tourists.
Liverpool are not at an absolute disadvantage.
Of course, for the current Red Army, no matter how many supporters are in the stands, it is difficult to cause too much interference to their game. As long as it is a neutral stadium, the environment for their games is basically the same. With the strength of Liverpool's lineup, they are not afraid of any opponent's challenge.
Although Tottenham performed well in the league and ranked third in the standings, second only to Liverpool and Chelsea, they are still unable to challenge Liverpool in this FA Cup semi-final.
For Tottenham, which lacks a championship, it is of course necessary to fight hard to enter the semi-finals. Therefore, their possession rate is the same as Barcelona and higher than that of Liverpool.
However, their skills are not as good as Barcelona, so the ball possession rate is only higher than that of Liverpool, but not that high. This results in Liverpool having more chances to gain the ball than when playing Barcelona.
Only 8 minutes into the game, Tottenham made a mistake in controlling the ball in the midfield due to Liverpool's high pressure. Midfielder Dembele's attempt to pass the ball to full-back Son Heung-min was interfered by Willard and made a mistake. Firmino, who was back on defense, intercepted the ball halfway and passed it to Coutinho. Liverpool immediately launched a quick counterattack.
Willard's forward penetration attracted the attention of many Tottenham defenders, who tried to intercept and mark him. However, this time Villard's advance to participate in the attack was just a feint. Villard did not touch the ball at all during the whole process. In the end, Firmino caught the ball near the left corner of the small penalty area and shot a shot, attracting goalkeeper Lloris to rush towards the closer point. , but Firmino made a cross pass and passed the ball in front of the goalkeeper.
Defender Alderweireld, who was returning to defense in the middle, did not dare to tackle the ball, fearing that it would be an own goal if he shoveled the ball into his own goal, so he was unable to reach the ball and clear it.
Mane, who inserted behind him, had no such scruples. He immediately made a flying tackle, successfully touched the ball and shoveled the ball into the empty goal.
In the first 8 minutes, Liverpool took the lead in scoring, leading Tottenham Hotspur 1-0.
This is an FA Cup semi-final that determines the outcome. Taking the lead in the first 8 minutes is naturally a huge piece of good news. The Red Army fans at the scene and in front of the TV applauded enthusiastically. Mane, who scored the goal, also The teammates celebrated enthusiastically.
The Tottenham players were a little frustrated.
After rushing into the semi-finals, they were only one step away from the final and the championship. However, facing the big devil Liverpool, although they were fully mentally prepared, they still did not expect to concede the goal in just 8 minutes.
This was a huge blow.
But the game had to go on. Head coach Pochenotti clapped hard on the sidelines to cheer up his disciples. Captain Harry Kane also stood up to cheer up his teammates, asking everyone to cheer up and continue the game.
After the game restarted, Tottenham stepped up their offense. Although the 4231 formation focused on defensive counterattacks, now that they were behind, they had to step up their offense.
However, Tottenham's passing control is worse than that of Barcelona. The breakthrough skills of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and others are not as good as those of Messi and Neymar. Not only was he unable to break through Liverpool's defense led by Willard, but he frequently conceded the ball and was threatened by Liverpool's counterattacks that threatened his own goal.
In the 14th minute, Willard once again hit a threatening shot with a breakthrough shot from the right.
It's a pity that his left foot is inverted, and his "shooting" and arcing "techniques" have not reached the full value of 100. This time the shot was not in its best and perfect state, and the ball finally missed the far post and flew out of the baseline.
Even so, Tottenham goalkeeper Lori and the fans were scared into a cold sweat, and then they became a little timid and unable to attack.
After the 1-0 score lasted for about half an hour, Liverpool finally seized another opportunity in the 39th minute.
This was a corner kick that Mane shot and caused the goalkeeper to save and fly out of the baseline. Coutinho took the corner kick. Willard, who stepped forward to participate in the challenge for the top, overwhelmed three Tottenham defenders in the penalty area. He jumped high and made a strong move. A powerful header hit the goal and smashed the ball directly into Tottenham's door.
No matter the goalkeeper Lloris, or the defenders Alderweireld, Dier, etc. who were closely marking Velarde, they could only watch in despair, unable to do anything.
Velarde's physique, jumping, and heading skills are all so disappointing.
Liverpool extended the score to 2-0.
This score, in a knockout match that determines the outcome, is already very nerve-wracking. Therefore, Tottenham had to strengthen their offensive in the rest of the first half, aiming to get a goal back before the end of the first half.
What was unexpected was that before the first half was over, just three minutes later, in the 42nd minute, Liverpool took advantage of Tottenham's aggressive attack, grabbed the ball and launched a quick counterattack.
This time, Velarde passed two people in the midfield and then hit the wall with Firmino. Then he received Firmino's return pass from outside the penalty area and shot a violent long shot without stopping the ball. A powerful and heavy long-range shot hit the world, a full 28 meters away from the goal, and a heavy kick blasted the goalkeeper and sent the ball directly into the upper left corner of the Tottenham goal.
The "shooting" skill with a full value of 100 allows Willard to shoot whenever he has a chance. No matter how far the distance is, he has a full physique and enough shooting power.
That's what happened with this ball. Velarde saw that goalkeeper Lori was a little to the right, so he took a long shot from such a long distance.
As expected, the shooting power brought by his perfect physique made his long-range shot perfect, but Lori was unable to reach it due to positioning issues. In the end, he just made a save, but in fact it was far away from the path of the ball. Shang Yuan could only watch helplessly as the ball flew into the upper left corner against the far post.
Before the first half was over, Willard scored twice, helping Liverpool lead Tottenham 3-0, basically sealing the victory.
In a football match, it is difficult for the opponent to come back with a three-goal lead. Otherwise, the miracle of Istanbul in 2005 cannot be called a miracle.
Therefore, during the halftime break, Liverpool made substitutions, replacing Firmino and Coutinho to rest and prepare for the next Premier League game at home.
As long as Liverpool draws in the next Premier League game and scores more than 1 point, they will be able to win the Premier League championship four rounds ahead of schedule, regardless of the outcome of their rival Chelsea.
Liverpool's behavior of substituting two players at halftime obviously angered Tottenham and was seen as arrogant. Therefore, in the second half, Tottenham not only strengthened their offense, but also strengthened their fighting and collision, trying to scare Liverpool and take advantage of Liverpool's fear of injury. Psychologically, see if you can take advantage of the situation and then convert it into goals.
Other players may be afraid of this move, but Villard, who has increased his physique to full strength and has full injury resistance, is obviously not afraid of this move.
After discovering the signs of Tottenham, Willard began to actively retaliate against those Tottenham players who increased their collision intensity.
In the 54th minute, Velarde and Eriksen collided while competing for an aerial ball in midfield. As a result, Velarde was uninjured, but Eriksson was hit in the chest and could not get up for a long time.
The key is that both of them jumped up and collided in the air at the same time, and there was no extra movement. Therefore, the referee did not show Willard any yellow cards. He just gave the ball to Tottenham in the end, but there was no threat. .
In the 61st minute, defensive midfielder Wanyama tackled Lallana and shoved Lallana out of bounds with the ball. He was almost injured, but Wanyama only received a yellow card.
Two minutes later, Willard seized the opportunity and used a cleaner flying tackle to knock Wanyama away with the ball. But this time, Velarde's movements were cleaner and neater. On the surface, it seemed that Velarde tackled the ball first, and then Wanyama himself was unable to avoid it and was tackled down.
In fact, with Velarde's skills and reflexes, if he hadn't intentionally tackled the opponent, he would have been able to avoid it in time.
But since he was retaliating deliberately, Velarde would not hold back, and the opponent deserved to be shoveled.
Of course, these are minor issues.
The real revenge came in the 67th minute, because center back Alderweireld elbowed Sturridge when fighting for the top. Willard also deliberately jumped up and elbowed Al during a corner kick. Deweireld.
This time, Velarde headed the ball into the goal, but the referee blew it away under tremendous pressure and gave Velarde a yellow card.
But Tottenham didn't feel comfortable, because Alderweireld's eyebrow bone was broken by Willard's elbow, and he was bleeding profusely. Even after the team doctor stopped the bleeding, he was unable to continue the game and was forced to be replaced.
Although the Tottenham fans in the stands yelled at Willard, it did not stop the Red Army fans from applauding Willard.
Moreover, Tottenham also discovered Willard's retaliatory actions, recalled the precedent of those players who fell under Willard's "butcher's knife" and were carried off on a stretcher, and began to restrain their actions.
After their actions subsided, Willard's revenge also slowed down, and the game finally returned to normal.
But regardless of normal games or fierce competition, Tottenham obviously can't beat Liverpool led by Willard.
When the time came to the 76th minute, Mane made a pass from the right. Center forward Sturridge on the substitute field made a header in the penalty area. Velarde stepped in from the back row and met him on the line of the penalty area. The ball was fired furiously, and when he hit a volley and hit the world with a heavy cannon, center back Dier rushed out of the penalty area and flew to block the hole of the gun.
His back block did block the ball and blocked the ball, but it was not a successful block.
Because the part where he blocks the ball is his outstretched arm. Not only was a penalty awarded for handball in the penalty area, but also because of the huge force of Willard's volley, his arm was dislocated and he fell to the ground in pain.
After checking and performing first aid, the Tottenham team doctor waved for the stretcher again and carried Dell off.
Tottenham were forced to make substitutions again, and everyone once again saw the huge power of Willard's heavy bombardment.
There was no suspense in the penalty kick. Velarde volleyed the ball directly into the upper right corner. Goalkeeper Lori was helpless and could only watch the ball go into the net in despair.
Willard scored a hat-trick to help Liverpool extend the score to 4-0, completely killing all suspense in the game.
Even so, Willard's goals haven't stopped yet.
Perhaps Tottenham's fierce fighting and flagrant fouls in the middle of the game angered him, and his game was somewhat deliberately retaliatory.
Before the end of the game, in the 87th minute, Willard intercepted the ball in the backcourt and ran directly with the ball. After passing three people, he was finally pulled down from behind by midfielder Dembele, and got an excellent free kick opportunity. .
It was this free kick opportunity in the frontcourt that was taken by Willard in one fell swoop, sending the ball into Tottenham's goal with a perfect full-moon scimitar.
In the end, the score of this game was 5-0. Liverpool slaughtered Tottenham Hotspur with five goals in the FA Cup semi-finals and advanced to the 2016/2017 FA Cup finals. They will compete with Assen in the other semi-finals. The winner of Manchester United vs. Manchester City will compete for the FA Cup championship this season.
