Football’s First Defender

After the victory over Burnley, Liverpool took a rest day and flew to Portugal to prepare for the rematch with Porto.

Due to the big win in the first round, Liverpool even had the spare power to change the personnel in the midfield during the game.

Because Rogers not only has to prepare for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, but also for the players in the league to maintain their physical fitness and prepare for the subsequent games.

In terms of strikers, the combination of Balotelli and Sterling was used to counterattack.

The midfielder is the midfield combination of Lucas, Joe Allen and Lallana.

As for the defense, the five-back combination has rotated the two full-backs. Jose Enrique and Glenn Johnson, who has declined in form recently and cannot be guaranteed a main position, will start this game.

The three central defenders are Yang Feng, Skrtel, and Lovren.

With such a somewhat shabby lineup, Liverpool made it clear that they wanted to keep their lead in the first round in the away game, and it would be good to successfully advance.

Unlike Liverpool's "cowardly", Porto, which has almost lost the suspense of promotion, played quite openly in this game.

The team deployed a large number of offensive players on the offensive end, just as if they wanted to fight for honor at home regardless of the defense.

However, although Liverpool is not a defensive team, under the leadership of Yang Feng, and Liverpool already has a tight defensive lineup today, they have done a pretty good job of defending Porto.

Porto's oppressive attack in the half, in the end, only scored a goal.

After recovering a goal by a big score, facing the huge gap of 4 goals in the first round, it is still slightly insufficient.

Although at the beginning of the second half, Porto hit Liverpool with an unstable foothold. The team scored in a flash game and further narrowed the score, which made Liverpool feel a little nervous.

However, just as Rogers was about to make substitutions and adjustments and continue to strengthen the team's defense, Balotelli finally stood up in this game.

Balotelli, who wasted two excellent counterattack opportunities in the first half, finally played in the second half.

After receiving Yang Feng's long pass from the backcourt, Balotelli got rid of the defender outside the penalty area, and when Porto's other defensive players were not in place, he fired a heavy shot from outside the penalty area.

The ball went straight to the upper right corner of the goal, hit the junction of the post and the crossbar, and bounced into the goal.

This goal was very similar to the world wave in the semi-finals of the European Cup that year, and Bashen dreamed of returning to the top.

And the Porto Dragon Stadium, which had already been on the rise before, was instantly silent.

Due to away goals, Porto wants to score, and can only win by 4 goals in the remaining time. This is an impossible task for Porto.

After all, Liverpool is not Barcelona.

But it won't really leave so many opportunities for the opponent.

In the end, Rodgers was completely calmed down by Bashen's goal, and although Porto scored another goal before the end, the score was fixed at 3 to 1, and they won at home.

But that did not affect Liverpool, who advanced to the top 8 of the Champions League with a huge advantage in the total score of the two rounds.

The two lines played triumphant songs. In the final schedule of this season, countless kops are full of hope for the team.

Last year was a year of Liverpool's renaissance. This year, Liverpool fans hope that the team will successfully return to its true peak moment and be able to complete the great cause of defending the league title and standing on top of Europe at the same time.

To achieve such a goal, Liverpool still has a long way to go.

The game is played one by one.

In the Champions League, Liverpool, which has finished its rotation, continues to triumph in the league.

away to Swansea.

Today's Swansea is definitely a representative of the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League and the technical genre.

Its excellent record even surpassed Everton, a veteran second-tier team, ranking 8th in the league.

The team's technical reforms, as in the past, have now received results.

Moreover, this Welsh team has an extremely tricky vision in the transfer market. Mi Chu, who came from "Taobao", has been in the team like a fish in water. He has achieved both himself and the team.

Facing such a team in the away game, this season's giant killer, Liverpool dare not be careless.

At home, Swansea have only lost 3 of 14 games this season.

And when facing a giant team, in the last home game, they just defeated Manchester United 2-1, driving Manchester United out of the Champions League.

In the first half of the season, they also defeated Arsenal and drew with Manchester City.

It can be said that the illustrious record is in front of us, making Liverpool fully prepared for this game.

During the game, Liverpool also felt the pressure from their opponents.

Swansea did not fight against Liverpool. The priority is still the team's own defense. However, after the defense is successful, Swansea can have the capital to hold the ball for a certain period of time and play pass-and-control tactics To deal with Liverpool's frontcourt press, and further consume the physical energy of Liverpool players.

Quite strong tactical execution, reasonable staffing, and the cheers of tens of thousands of ball mills on the scene, let Swansea, although there are not many threatening offenses, but relying on possession of the ball, they can control the game. The rhythm does not completely let Liverpool in the hands.

Occasionally interrupting Liverpool's offensive rhythm also allowed Swansea to use a different method to limit Liverpool's offense.

The two teams scored a goalless draw at halftime.

In the second half of the game, Swansea continued to insist on their pass and control style of play. As long as there is a chance, they will pass the ball infinitely in the backcourt, allowing Liverpool players to consume more physical energy in this kind of pressing.

The inability of Liverpool to play a coherent offensive also affected the offensive state of the players, and some of the games fell into a stalemate.

The rhythm of Liverpool's game began to stagnate. On the other hand, Swansea, who played at home, showed an extraordinary performance with the support of the audience.

Swansea players ran harder, and Liverpool's offense was even more difficult to develop.

If the situation of the game continues like this, Liverpool may really not be able to successfully win the game away.

At the critical moment, Yang Feng played the role of Dinghaishenzhen.

For a pass-and-control team, the height of the players is generally not too high for smoother team passing coordination, so naturally they do not have any advantage when defending set kicks.

And Yang Feng is to seize the weakness of Swansea's lack of average height.

In this game, Liverpool used a lot of set-piece tactics to find Yang Feng's high point, but they were all resolved by the home team's defenders with all their strength.

However, Yang Feng himself did not lose confidence. Instead, he kept trying to adjust his position and find the best offensive position according to the defensive arrangement on the field.

In the 76th minute of the game, the hard work paid off. Yang Feng finally received a corner pass from Coutinho, interspersed into the middle area between the two defenders, took off forcibly, occupied a high point, and each left and right were under the defensive force imposed by the opponent. .

Then, he barely stabilized his figure in the air, and then shook his head to attack the goal.

When Liverpool was in a rare offensive stalemate, Yang Feng stood up again and helped the team break the deadlock with his own header!

The final score was 1-0 until the end. Liverpool withstood the attack of the home team in the last 15 minutes, and relied on the most cost-effective score to win the victory.