Having qualified early, the atmosphere within the Argentine team is quite good. This FIFA match day is actually an opportunity for the Argentine national team to rest.
On August 31, in the 15th round of the South American World Cup preliminaries, Argentina challenged Uruguay away. After rotating many main players, Argentina finally defeated Uruguay 2-0 with a long shot from Velarde and a direct free kick. .
Five days later, in the 16th round of the World Cup preliminaries, Argentina faced Venezuela at home, and there was no suspense about winning. Velarde scored again, and Messi broke into Longtan and scored successfully. Argentina defeated Venezuela 3-0 in the end and won this World Cup. With two consecutive wins in the preliminaries, they continued to lead the standings with an unbeaten record and secured the first place in the South American World Cup preliminaries standings in advance.
The competition in South America is no longer difficult for Argentina, led by Messi and Velarde. Everyone is looking forward to next year's World Cup in Russia.
Returning to the club, on September 9, in the fourth round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Manchester City away.
Guardiola's Manchester City is one of the few teams in the Premier League that can pose a huge threat to Liverpool.
Especially now that Guardiola is entering his second season coaching Manchester City. After last season's running-in, this summer's signings and pre-season training, Manchester City's melon-style passing and control has become more smooth.
And this game is Manchester City's home court. The players have a status bonus at the Etihad Stadium. Guardiola also sent out an unexpected 3142 formation to fight against Liverpool.
This is a variant of the 352 formation, but the two wing backs have become full midfielders, which is more offensive. The three backs + single midfielder at the back also have greater defensive pressure. It depends on whether the six offensive players in the frontcourt can suppress it. Stop your opponent.
As a result, the Manchester City team really played in an extraordinary state in this game, and Liverpool didn't know whether it was due to the back and forth of FIFA match days or because of the huge success last season, which led to some underestimation of the opponent. Most of the players were not in shape. .
Although Willard participated in the stranglehold in the midfield and Van Dijk sat in the backcourt, Manchester City still used De Bruyne's assist in the 19th minute, allowing Aguero to grab a shot in the penalty area.
Manchester City scored first, leading Liverpool 1-0.
In the 28th minute, after Willard forced De Bruyne to make a pass error, the ball was intercepted by Henderson. Willard got rid of De Bruyne and ran out of the gap. After receiving the pass from Henderson, he started dribbling the ball from the backcourt and continuously broke through David Silva, Fernandinho and Otamen. After three defenders, Dee blocked center back Stones on the line of the penalty area and blasted the ball into the lower left corner of the Manchester City goal with a powerful shot.
Willard equalized the score for Liverpool.
But not long after, in the 36th minute, Manchester City scored again.
It was De Bruyne again, and it was he who sent a wonderful pass before Willard approached, assisting forward Jesus to score from the left rib of the penalty area, helping Manchester City rewrite the score to 2-1 and regain the lead. .
Velarde had a threatening long-range shot before the end of the first half, but unfortunately he failed to block it and finally hit the crossbar and bounced into the penalty area. Firmino's header shot was also blocked by the defender's interference. It missed the target and missed the door frame.
The two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 2-1, with Blue Moon playing at home temporarily leading by one goal.
Liverpool was trailing at halftime, which is still a rare sight to see in Liverpool these days. Therefore, Klopp criticized the performance of the team's players except Willard at halftime, hoping that everyone would cheer up in the second half, reverse the lead, and take away three points from the Etihad Stadium.
But sometimes the state is really not something you can achieve by working hard, fighting hard, and going all out. If you can achieve whatever you think in your heart, then everyone wants to win and not lose, but in fact there is always something wrong in the end. One party cannot fulfill this wish.
This is what happened to Liverpool today. Even though everyone was thinking about running hard and fighting hard, the actions and results they made during the game were not satisfactory. Either the pass was wrong or the shot missed the goal frame. Sometimes Villard even stepped forward to participate in the attack. As long as Mane and others moved a little to help, or hit the wall for Villard to cooperate, they would make mistakes or the pass was not enough, causing Villard to lose. He had the best chance, but in the end he barely managed to score but failed to score.
On the contrary, Manchester City used a team attack in the 56th minute of the second half to once again tear open Liverpool's defense. Aguero's backheel pass in the penalty area assisted Jesus's shot less than 10 meters away from the goal. The goal was extended to 3-1.
This score made Klopp furious on the sidelines. He directly used Milner to replace Alberto Moreno, who was unfocused and made mistakes in the defense, and used Sturridge to replace his poor performance. The good Salah was also replaced.
Klopp's substitution of two players in a row also made the Red Army players feel the anger of the coach. After the game restarted, they became more willing to fight, grab, and head-on, hoping to reverse the situation.
The tough fight finally paid off in the 71st minute. Sturridge gained the upper hand in the battle with Fernandinho at the front of Manchester City's penalty area, grabbed the spot, and sailed the ball with a header. The top of the ball went to Firmino who came in from the wing to connect.
Firmino stopped and ran towards the bottom line. The shortcomings of Manchester City's three-centre-back system were exposed. Otamendi did not dare to close in and pressed hard, so he could only barely block the inside line to ensure that Firmino did not cut inside.
But Firmino didn't think about cutting inside. Instead, he kept changing his rhythm during the process. After opening the passing gap, he started to pass about seven or eight meters away from the baseline and lobbed the ball in. restricted area.
Otamendi flew to block the hole of the gun and tried to destroy Firmino's cross, but failed and missed the ball.
The ball flew into the penalty area. Velarde, who followed up at high speed in the middle, passed Sturridge and rushed into the penalty area. Under the attack of two defenders, Stones and Danilo, he still saw the landing spot and jumped high. , successfully grabbed the first point and headed the ball into Manchester City's goal.
Willard scored twice to help Liverpool draw the score to 2-3, but they were still behind. Therefore, Velarde did not celebrate. Instead, he rushed directly into the goal after landing, picked up the ball and returned to the center circle. He placed the ball at the midpoint and signaled Manchester City to kick off quickly.
But Manchester City made a substitution at this time, replacing Jesus, who was slightly uncomfortable due to the fight, with Sane, and continued to fight against Liverpool without shrinking the defense.
