At 20:45 in the evening on April 4, with the whistle of referee Brech, the Premier League civil war between Liverpool and Manchester City in the first leg of the 2017/2018 Champions League quarter-finals officially began in the drizzle at Anfield Stadium.
Despite the poor field conditions, Manchester City once pushed the ball possession rate to more than 60% when Liverpool itself did not pay attention to possession of the ball and only focused on pressing high and counterattacking on the spot.
This is a relatively rare scene in recent Liverpool games. After all, even if Liverpool does not pay attention to possession of the ball, the skills of Willard, Salah and others, coupled with their strong overall strength, generally still have better possession of the ball than their opponents.
Only Guardiola's Manchester City can reduce Liverpool's ball possession rate to less than 40%.
However, Blue Moon failed to convert such a high ball possession rate into goals.
They lack a sharp forward who can convert possession into goals: Aguero.
Although Sane and Jesus are also considered top forwards, there is still a gap between them and Aguero. This resulted in Manchester City's shooting opportunities created through a large number of passes and cuts being wasted by Jesus and Sane.
In the 9th minute, De Bruyne made a wonderful pass with his heel on the line of the penalty area and knocked the ball into the left rib of the penalty area.
As a result, Sane, who entered the penalty area on the left, was caught off guard. He did not expect De Bruyne to pass the ball to him with a heel pass. He originally thought that De Bruyne would pass the ball to Jesus on the right rib, and then he rushed Entering the small penalty area and preparing to grab the second shot.
This caused him to rush too fast and failed to receive the ball from De Bruyne well. With almost no one to defend him, he had to brake suddenly and complete the shot in a very awkward posture, but without any power. , was easily confiscated by goalkeeper Mignolet.
Manchester City had possession of the ball but could not convert it into goals.
Liverpool, on the other hand, is extremely efficient. Not only Willard, but Salah was also in very good shape in this game. He scored Liverpool's first goal.
In the 14th minute, Willard got the ball in the backcourt and broke through the counter-attacks of David Silva and Kyle Walker. Then he found Mane with a long pass. Mane inserted the ball from the left into the edge of the penalty area and passed the ball. The Manchester City defender Both the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper went to guard Firmino, who was following up in the middle and seemed to be about to grab a shot.
As a result, Firmino rushed to the goal but did not shoot. Instead, he raised his foot and missed the ball. Goalkeeper Ederson and defender Kompany were knocked down by Firmino's fake shot.
The ball rolled smoothly to the back of the small penalty area. Salah, who followed up from the right, flew ahead of defender Laporte and successfully shoveled the ball into the empty goal.
Salah opened the scoring to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead.
The next game was even better. Without the sharp striker Aguero, Manchester City had empty possession of the ball, but could not convert it into goals.
Velarde, who has increased his defense to 97, not only did not allow Jesus, Sane, De Bruyne, David Silva and others to make any breakthroughs in frontal defense, he also directed his teammates to intercept Manchester City's absolute goal. Most of the offense.
Occasionally, one or two fish slipped through the net, and the threat was not great, and was easily resolved by goalkeeper Mignolet.
Until the end of the game, Manchester City failed to score even a goal.
Liverpool, however, relied on Salah's pass and shot and Velarde's hat-trick to beat Manchester City 4-0 at home, winning the first leg of the two-legged match.
This score was at home again, facing the Blue Moon led by Guardiola, so it cannot be said that it has completely killed the suspense of the second round. But taking into account Liverpool's record and the lineup configuration led by Willard, Liverpool's probability of defeating Manchester City in two rounds to advance to the semi-finals is still very close to 100%, and it is not an exaggeration to say 99%.
From a probability theory, Manchester City still has a chance, but from a practical point of view, this probability is almost zero.
Liverpool's Champions League semi-finals are basically stable, and they can once again devote all their energy to Premier League games and continue to maintain their advantage.
Three days later, on April 7, in the 33rd round of the Premier League, Liverpool challenged Everton away. Klopp only rotated Salah, and almost all the others played to ensure that they won the away game.
Everton really failed to cause any trouble to Liverpool. Although they played at home and fought hard, the final result was 0-3. Liverpool won the away game with three goals. Apart from anything else, Willard's two direct free kicks alone were disappointing enough.
If you don't foul, you can't stop Willard's technical breakthrough. A foul would give Willard a chance to score from a free kick.
With Willard's current skills, he can really treat a free kick as a penalty kick. As long as he is given a suitable penalty kick spot, the opponent must be prepared to concede the ball.
Liverpool's victory over Everton was completely predictable, but the result in another game that followed was even more ecstatic.
In a major game of this round, Manchester City plays Manchester United at home, this is the Manchester City Derby. I don’t know if it was affected by the 0-4 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League. Manchester City, who played at home, failed to win this game and lost to Manchester United 2-3.
As a result, after this round, Liverpool's lead over Manchester City has reached 9 points. As for the league, there are only 5 rounds left.
The possibility of Liverpool successfully defending the Premier League title is getting bigger and bigger.
At 20:45 on the evening of April 10, the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals between Manchester City and Liverpool officially started.
With a 4-0 lead in the first round, Liverpool's high-position pressing and on-the-spot counterattacks were naturally more resolute in this game. Manchester City, on the other hand, had to increase their offensive intensity when they were behind by a big score. They did not even dare to take extra possession of the ball like in the first round because there was not enough time.
Once there is a chance, Manchester City can only pass the ball forward and strive for a shot.
But Aguero's injury has not healed. Although he was on the squad for this game, he was on the bench and did not start. Manchester City's offensive end point still has problems.
It wasn't until the 36th minute that Manchester City, who had tried their best, scored the first goal of the two rounds for Blue Moon through Sterling's assist to Jesus, bringing the total score to 1-4 and giving them a little hope.
However, this hope was quickly extinguished by Willard.
Manchester City wanted to attack to equalize the disadvantage, but also did not want Liverpool to score away goals, so they were passive defensively. Although Klopp did not use all the main players, the presence of Willard alone left Manchester City in a hurry.
In the 41st minute, Willard got the ball in the midfield and passed two people to get outside the penalty area. However, many players of Manchester City failed to defend in place due to the attack.
Seeing that Willard was about to dribble the ball into the penalty area, defensive midfielder Gundogan reached out and pushed Willard in desperation.
With Willard's physique, it would have been possible to barely maintain his center of gravity without falling, but it was hard to say whether he would be able to continue to control the ball. After all, his body was affected.
Velarde was not a pedantic person and fell down in response. Although Gundogan tried to prove to the referee that he did not use any force and that Velarde was diving, the referee saw it clearly and awarded a free kick resolutely. .
There was no surprise. Velarde kicked the ball with a full-moon scimitar and easily sent the ball into the dead corner. Although goalkeeper Ederson judged the right direction, it had no effect.
1-1, Willard helped Liverpool equalize the score in the away game. More importantly, it was an away goal. Manchester City, on the other hand, did not score away goals.
Therefore, when the total score became 1-5, Liverpool not only continued to lead Manchester City by 4 goals, but also had the advantage of away goals. Moreover, the first half of the game is almost over.
This means that even if Manchester City scores four goals in the next game and equalizes the total score, it will still be useless and they will still be eliminated due to the disadvantage of away goals.
If they want to eliminate Liverpool, in addition to scoring 5 goals and leading Liverpool in the total score, they must not let Liverpool score any more goals.
This level of difficulty is comparable to climbing to the sky.
In fact, this is the case. Willard's away goal completely destroyed the confidence of the Manchester City players. In the rest of the first half and the second half, not only did they fail to score another goal, even Aguero It was useless to come on as an injured substitute in the second half. Instead, he conceded two more goals.
In the end, the game ended at 1-3. Liverpool completed the reversal after conceding a goal first, and used a total score of 7-1 in the two rounds to wash away Manchester City and advance to the semi-finals. Velarde also refreshed his total number of goals in the Champions League this season to 30 goals, breaking the 30-goal mark and creating an even more unattainable personal scoring record in the Champions League in a single season.
The total score of 7-1 was also the largest point difference in the quarter-finals, and the most goals scored by a single team. From this perspective, this season's Champions League championship is probably within Liverpool's grasp.
Of course, football is round, and just because Liverpool easily defeated Manchester City does not mean that others can easily advance with a big lead in the first round.
In another quarter-final match, Barcelona led Roma 4-1 in the first round, but went to the away game in the second round and was reversed 3-0 by Roma.
With the two sides drawing 4-4 on aggregate, Roma eliminated Barcelona, led by Messi, and advanced to the semi-finals of the Champions League with an away goal advantage, which was surprising.
Last season, Barcelona lost to Paris Saint-Germain 0-4 in the first round of the 1/8 finals, but returned to home in the second round and won 6-1. They reversed and eliminated Paris Saint-Germain with a total score of 6-5 and advanced. for the next round.
Everyone thought that Barcelona's reversal gene had awakened, but unexpectedly, this season it was knocked back to its original form, and was actually reversed by Roma.
It was really surprising.
At this time, many Barcelona fans missed Neymar. Because the classic battle of reversing Paris Saint-Germain last season was only completed with the participation of Neymar and even contributed the main force.
Now, Barcelona does not have Neymar, and the result is reversed by Roma, which is regrettable.
After the quarter-finals, all the teams that have advanced to the semi-finals are announced, namely Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, and Roma.
On April 13, the draw ceremony for the Champions League semi-finals was held. Everyone wanted to be drawn to Roma, but in the end it was the defending champion Liverpool who got what they wanted and was drawn to the weakest Roma.
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, old enemies in the European derby, had to fight in the semi-finals before facing off against Liverpool in the final.
It is conceivable that Liverpool will definitely have secured the Premier League title in advance and easily defeated Roma to advance to the final. They can wait for work in the final and face Real Madrid and Bayern, the winners of the semi-finals who fought to exhaustion.
The call for Liverpool to win the Champions League has become even louder.
