After the start of the second half, Benitez discovered the changes in Leeds United in Liverpool.
Obviously, Morientes was restricted when attacking. Matteisson kept harassing him next to Morientes, leaving him no comfortable opportunity to get the ball.
Originally, after Morientes retreated, Benitez arranged for Fowler, who was hiding behind Morientes, to move forward.
However, as soon as Fowler moves forward, he will encounter Mills.
Mills plays as a full-back most of the time and is not slow at all, so Fowler can't get rid of him at all.
Scott Parker also returned to the defense line to help the two central defenders fill in to prevent other Liverpool players from running in.
Parker was originally responsible for the front part of the penalty area, but now De Jong has returned to the line of the penalty area, and Parker and Parker are firmly in front of Leeds United's defense.
Here at Liverpool, due to the absence of Gerrard and Alonso. Benitez sent out a double midfielder combination of Sissoko and Hamann. This combination is enough for defense, but in terms of offense and organization, it is much worse than the previous two.
When the game reached 55 minutes, Liverpool got an offensive opportunity.
Liverpool's left wing wanted to replicate the cooperation of the first half's goal, and Warnock moved closer to the center, hoping to attract the defense of Leeds United's right back Milner today and give up the wing to Riise.
Warnock just passed the ball to Riise, and when he came to the middle, he found that Milner did not come to him, but rushed towards Riise.
A good opportunity. Seeing that Milner was not coming, Warnock quickly took two steps forward and waited for Riise to pass the ball to him so that he could enter the penalty area and attack.
However, he was delayed in waiting for Riise's pass, because Riise was surrounded by Milner and Graveson, and the two of them blocked the passing route.
It wasn't that Riise didn't want to pass, but that he saw Parker standing not far in front of Warnock. If he passed the ball, it might be intercepted. Then when he hesitated, Milner and Gravesen closed in and restricted him to a small area near the touchline.
"Pass the ball! Pass the ball!"
Because he was close to the visiting team's coaching bench, Riise could celebrate and heard the voice of his head coach Benitez, asking him to pass the ball out.
After Rise heard this, his already impatient heart became even more flustered.
I want to send it too, but where can I send it?
Morientes? Fowler? Warnock? Haman?
Yes, it can be passed to Haman.
The moment Gravesen was about to reach out and poke the ball, Riise crossed the ball and sent it diagonally behind Hamann.
Just as Hamann was about to get the ball, he was hit by a person behind him. Then he slowed down and was caught up by the person behind him, who hit the ball first.
Haman took a look and saw a white jersey with a big "14" number on the back. He knew who it was without looking at the jersey.
Damn Kevin Davis.
Davis returned the ball directly to Graveson, who had just forced Riise.
"Bang~"
Without thinking, Gravesen found a gap in Liverpool's left defense.
Rise just plugged in and hasn't gone back yet.
Seeing his teammates win the ball, Van Persie will definitely be in that position.
Yes, it was Robin van Persie on the right who got the ball again.
After stopping the ball with his right foot, he knocked the ball with his left foot and went forward.
Carragher hurriedly went up to cover the defense. He knew that this Dutchman had two brushes whether he was passing or shooting, and he did not dare to be careless.
When he reached the corner of the penalty area, Van Persie tapped his right foot again, preparing to throw away Carragher and cut inside.
But Carragher was also guarding against this move and immediately turned around to stretch his legs to destroy the ball.
However, Van Persie was still a step faster. He touched the football with his left foot first and moved the ball a little further to the center, avoiding Carragher's kick.
Then, Van Persie followed the ball, jumped over Carragher's outstretched leg, and completed the inside cut.
At this time, Smith, who was playing on the right today, also came to the center, waiting for Van Persie's pass.
Hyypia expertly stood in the passing route of Van Persie and Smith, ready to intercept the football coming this way.
Originally, Hyypia was not prepared for this. When he saw Carragher defending Van Persie, he went to mark Smith who was coming over.
It's just that Carragher was passed by Robin van Persie.
Originally, Smith's defense should have been completed by Liverpool's two midfielders, but now these two midfielders cannot come back because they are close to other Leeds United forward players.
Benitez saw Leeds United's Kevin Davis, De Jong, and Graveson pushing forward desperately in the frontcourt, and then glanced at Lee George who was watching the attack excitedly on the other side. There is a feeling that today I have a double waist and a small waist.
When Van Persie saw Hyypia's position on the field, he simply stopped passing the ball and chose to do it himself.
A powerful and heavy shot with his left foot, the ball flew directly towards the upper left corner of the goal.
Just as he was about to score, a hand suddenly appeared and blocked the ball out of the baseline.
Reina!
Liverpool's goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who has performed extremely well this season, completed this defense with a save that can be recorded in the textbook.
"Fxxk!" Van Persie, who did not score a goal, shook his fist and said a curse word.
"Why don't you pass it to me?" Smith stretched out his hand, indicating that his place was empty.
"Idiot, didn't you see that No. 4 in red standing on the passing line?" Van Persie pointed at Hyypia and said.
"Asshole, you just don't want to pass the ball to me."
"I don't care about you."
"You are the cancer of the team..."
Hyypia looked at the two Leeds United players and recalled the media reports that Robin van Persie slapped Smith on the court.
It seems that the Leeds United dressing room is not harmonious.
On the sidelines, Benitez immediately made adjustments. After seeing Morientes being restricted, he replaced Morientes with Cisse.
George Li saw this substitution and smiled secretly.
Now that the only offensive arrow that can threaten Leeds United has been replaced, the game will be even easier to play.
Sure enough, after Cisse came on the field, Liverpool's offense did not improve, but instead played a bit messy.
Without the frontcourt fulcrum, it is impossible to just rely on Cisse's speed advantage to attack.
Warnock and Luis Garcia repeatedly tried to get behind the Leeds defense, but were blocked. After all, although Matteisen and Mills are not tall enough, they are not very fast and can turn around quickly.
After Mills intercepted Fowler's pass to Cisse again, Mills directly chose to advance through the middle.
Because Liverpool has only Sissoko and Hamann behind Fowler, the gap in the middle is a bit large, so Mills can advance calmly.
It wasn't until near halftime that Sissoko came up to defend. Mills didn't think much about it and directly chose a long pass.
This time, he found Smith on the left. Smith found the gap between Hyypia and Finnan and got the ball in the gap.
Kevin Davis moved to the right, taking Hyypia out of position, so there was a lot of space left for Smith.
Finnan took advantage of Smith to stop the ball and hurried up.
Immediately after Smith protected the football, he made a deft half-turn, got rid of it and passed it to Bynes who came in from the left.
The unmarked Baynes made a rare shot into the penalty area.
However, he was still pounced on by Reina who showed great bravery.
But Reina didn't hit the ball far, and after blocking it, it flew in the other direction of the goal.
Van Persie, who came from the right, was near the far post and finally took advantage of the ball before it flew out of the baseline. He made a diving jump and headed the ball into the Liverpool gate.
1 to 1.
After scoring, Van Persie came to the sidelines to celebrate with the fans.
Smith, who was running behind him, jumped on Van Persie's back, hung one hand around Van Persie's neck, and raised the other high.
Hyypia was furious when he saw this harmonious scene at Leeds United.
fraud!
