Football’s First Defender

There are four rounds left in the Premier League. With the Champions League semi-final draw opponent determined, Liverpool will once again face an intensive and difficult schedule challenge.

Liverpool's opponent in the semi-finals was the old club of Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, Barcelona!

Unlike the two-round battle between Liverpool and Bayern, which was extremely fierce and stalemate, facing Paris Saint-Germain, which has invested heavily in recent years, Barcelona easily won both rounds, with a total score of 5-1.

The combination of Barcelona MNS was popular in Europe for a while. Its powerful attacking power and the combination of Real Madrid's frontcourt BBC became brighter for a while.

When the result of the draw is confirmed, one of the gimmicks in this group of semi-finals may be that Suarez will face the old owner, and whether the Liverpool team can prove that their offense has completely got rid of the remnants of the Suarez era.

Last season, Liverpool's strength on the offensive end was inseparable from Suarez's stunning performance.

And this season Suarez moved to Barcelona, ​​immediately plug and play, seamlessly connected with Barcelona's offensive system, became the best helper in front of Messi and Neymar.

It makes Barcelona finally have a center player who can really fit the team's pass control system.

And Liverpool, in the early days of Suarez's departure from the team, performed extremely poorly. The team has not yet adapted to the problem of how to attack without Suarez, and encountered considerable troubles in various competitions at the beginning of the season.

After a period of running-in and tactical adjustments, Liverpool was reborn from nirvana and returned to the ranks of the first-line strong teams.

These two rounds of the Champions League semi-finals will be the best chance for Liverpool to get rid of Suarez's "remnants" and prove their latest offensive system.

However, with Chelsea's efforts, the FA rejected Liverpool's request for a league extension.

The 36th round of the Premier League, the most critical championship battle, Chelsea's home game against Liverpool, will be held in the middle of the two rounds of the Champions League semi-finals as scheduled.

How to choose between the Champions League and the league will still make the players suffer from fatigue, and there may be poor condition. Completing three games a week will be the biggest test for Rogers.

Three strong duels, within a week, Rogers' choice will be crucial.

The best result is that the two lines blossom together, and Liverpool can make breakthroughs in both competitions and hit two championships at the same time.

The worst result is that in the case of poor physical fitness, Liverpool's two lines collapsed at the same time, and the efforts of the whole season came to naught.

Of course, no matter what, for the league, games have to be played one by one.

Before the start of the Champions League semi-final, in the penultimate round of the Premier League, Liverpool hosted the penultimate QPR!

QPR, which is still 4 points away from the relegation zone, has been struggling to win recently, and has already failed relegation with a high probability.

In this game, Liverpool carried out a certain degree of player rotation to stay strong for the midweek Champions League.

At this critical moment of the championship, it may be a bit overwhelming to carry out rotations. However, Rogers can only take a risk. He has to find a way to save the players' physical energy.

Fortunately, the overall strength of the Queen's Park Rangers team is not strong, and the players also lost their aggressiveness when there is a high probability of relegation, and they are perfunctory about the game.

Liverpool, who were playing at home, easily broke the deadlock first amidst the cheers of the fans, and then expanded the score in the second half while still maintaining the pressure.

Afterwards, based on the principle of keeping strength, Liverpool took control of the game, and in the game, relying on their own steady performance, they kept the 2-0 score until the end of the game.

It's just another venue, Chelsea beat Everton with the same difficulty. Liverpool's mortal enemy, with a one-goal lead at home, was reversed by Chelsea 2-1, which can be said to be disgusting to Liverpool.

The points gap between the two championship teams is still only 2 points. If Liverpool loses away to Chelsea in the next round of direct confrontation between the two teams, then Chelsea will overtake by one point and regain the top spot.

Whether to keep the league or hit the Champions League, in the final decision stage, Rogers' judgment is indeed tested.

And at least judging from the first leg of the Champions League, Rogers definitely has no intention of giving up the Champions League.

After all, the ten Champions League games have already been played, and they have reached the semi-finals. In the last two or three games, facing the Big Ears Cup in front of them, Liverpool will not just give up like that.

Due to the away game first, at the Nou Camp, Rodgers' lineup is still slightly more defensive.

"Liverpool, who are playing away, changed their previous arrangement today and deployed a considerable amount of troops on the defensive end."

"The formation of five backs shows Liverpool's determination to keep the score away and bring the suspense of the game back to Anfield."

"In the quarter-finals, Yang Feng, who performed quite amazingly, is still the absolute core of Liverpool's backcourt, in the center of the three central defenders."

"Moreno, Lovren, Skrtel, and Flanagan lined up in turn. Today they will form Liverpool's defense line, defending the strongest offensive combination in Europe, and defending their old teammate Suarez."

"In terms of the configuration of the three defensive midfielders, Lucas, Emre Can, and Henderson will form a defensive hardness in front of the defense line to limit Barcelona's offense in the middle of the game."

"The two counterattack points in the frontcourt will be Balotelli and Sterling."

"In this game, Rodgers chose to deploy Bashen. Perhaps compared to Sturridge, Balotelli's threat in the counterattack may be greater..."

Liverpool's tactical arrangement, this game is to rely on defense, defend the game, the best counterattack can be played, if you can't defend, then try to lose as few as possible, bring the game back to Anfield, and have a chance to win and advance in the second round ...

Unlike Liverpool, who played in an unconventional defensive lineup, Barcelona, ​​sitting at the Nou Camp, naturally played with the most stable lineup with all the main players.

Barcelona's classic 433 formation.

The front field relies on MSN to charge forward.

In the midfield, Busquez, Rakitic, and "Little White" Iniesta will dispatch and transfer the ball.

On the back line, there is a central defender combination of Pique and Mascherano. Both of them can make their own offensive contributions when Barcelona's offense needs it.

Left-back Alba and right-back Alves are also synonymous with offensive defenders, and they can open up offensive space for Basara.

Barcelona, ​​who are playing at home, will naturally not be obedient. They must use their own offensive methods to establish a large enough advantage in the first round of the home game.

At the beginning of the game, Barcelona created a very threatening attack by Iniesta in the middle.

Iniesta, before Henderson's tackle was completed, kicked a pass and passed the ball directly to the frontcourt.

Suarez and Neymar started at the same time and inserted into the hinterland of Liverpool's penalty area.

Neymar stopped the ball, rushed forward, and directly formed a single-handed goal, and then the referee Rizzoli directly blew the whistle, indicating that Neymar was offside.

This time, Rizzoli blew the whistle very slowly. From the replay of the game, it can be seen that Rizzoli's penalty was handled quite properly.

When Iniesta passed the ball, Suarez and Neymar advanced at the same time. Neymar advanced too fast and was offside, but Suarez was not in an offside position.

Rizzoli needs to decide who gets the ball in the end.

After Neymar received the ball, Rizzoli directly called the offside penalty, which was quite accurate.

A fair referee is the greatest blessing for such a high-level competition.