With the referee's whistle, the Champions League final between Liverpool and Inter Milan officially began!
Liverpool kicked off first. After Torres kicked the ball to Qin Xiong, Qin Xiong did not immediately launch an attack. Instead, he passed the ball back.
The two teams opened up their formation, but the pace was not fast. After all, this was a final with the highest honor at stake.
It was not wrong for both sides to face it with a cautious attitude.
Liverpool passed the ball in the middle and back of the field. The players familiarized themselves with and adapted to the field, getting into the game state, especially unifying the sense of rhythm of the players in the team. This was the most important thing in the early stages of the game.
Mourinho stood on the sidelines and observed Liverpool's starting formation.
Comain did give him a big surprise.
Kuyt, who performed well in the battle to eliminate Bayern Munich, was actually on the substitutes' bench!
Instead, it was Lucas.
Liverpool's formation could be said to be very similar to Inter Milan's.
Mourinho put Pandev on the substitutes' bench for only one reason: he was afraid of Liverpool's attack!
If Pandev played, then Inter Milan's attack group would be Snede + Pandev + Eto 'o + Milito.
It was indeed very strong, but there was a lack of protection for the defense.
Mourinho would be confident to play against the average strong team. But against Liverpool, whose offense made many opponents tremble in fear?
He still had to add a layer of protection.
Three defensive midfielders!
Zanetti + Cambiasso + Motta.
Snede was in front of the back line, and Eto 'o was lying in ambush near Milito. If they really wanted to fight back, as long as the back line could complete the transition between offense and defense and play with speed, then the counterattack actually needed not only three players, but maybe two players would be enough.
This was Mourinho's deployment, but he did not expect Comain to have the same effect as his lineup.
It also looked like three defensive midfielders.
Lucas + Alonso + Mascherano.
Gerard was in the middle in front of the back line, and then Qin Xiong and Torres became the vanguard to attack.
Liverpool was clearly wary of Inter Milan.
At least it seemed that way.
But when Liverpool's first shot appeared, Mourinho's expression suddenly changed.
That was in the fifth minute of the match.
When Gerard ran from the middle to the right flank to receive Johnson's pass, he quickly passed the ball to the middle. Alonso plugged in from the middle and then diagonally passed the ball to Qin Xiong's left flank.
Qin Xiong crossed the ball and dribbled past Zanetti. Without waiting for Cambiasso to close in and snatch the ball, he raised his leg and blasted the goal!
Thirty-five yards from the goal!
The football bypassed Lucio's head and began to fall. César pounced horizontally to block the ball out of the end line.
Liverpool's first shot was a long shot, and it was a threat!
Mourinho recalled the process of how the shot had appeared. Only then did he realize the true intention of Koeman's line-up today.
Not 442.
It was 433!
At least it was not an extremely aggressive 433.
Qin Xiong and Gerard were active on the flank near the middle area, Alonso was in the middle, and Torres was in front!
Torres's position was crucial because he always pressed on the back line led by Lucio and Samuel, forcing Inter Milan's back line to not move forward to avoid exposing the space for Torres to reverse the offside.
It was a defensive instinct that did not need to be thought about.
Qin Xiong, Gerard, and Alonso all had the ability to pass a kick with great penetrating power!
The back line naturally could not press forward. Otherwise, if Torres reversed the offside and his teammates sent an exquisite straight pass from behind, then everything would be over!
Because Torres contained Inter Milan's back line, the back waist line could not be too far away from the back line.
Don't forget, Qin Xiong had an extremely strong dribbling ability to break through.
The back waist line had to maintain a sufficient distance from the back line to avoid the dangerous situation of facing the back line after Qin Xiong broke through line by line.
Because of this, the back waist line was about 30 to 40 yards away from the goal.
In this way, Liverpool used a deterrent force to shape the offensive situation, and then they began to unscrupulously shoot long shots!
Qin Xiong, Gerard, and Alonso, the three players, not only had the ability to deliver threatening balls, but they also had a characteristic, and that was, they were very good at long shots!
It could be said that Comain's arrangement of the players was a good display of the two advantages that the three players had in common.
They could deliver threatening balls that might appear to exert the threat of long shots!
Most importantly, Liverpool did not appear to be aggressive in this way, and the back line was very stable!
They would not give Inter Milan wide space to counterattack!
Johnson and Aurelio came to the midfield at the right time to support, but they would never rush forward again.
Lucas and Mascherano were well-behaved in guarding the backfield. They would be an important force to cut off Inter Milan's counterattack in the front field.
In the eighth minute of the game, Motta passed the ball to Snede. The latter encountered intensive defense in the middle and the defensive midfielder did not move. Alonso and Gerard alone made Snede feel a lot of pressure. Snede still passed the ball to Eto 'o on the side.
Eto 'o's characteristics were more prominent in his positioning and seizing opportunities. He was not a master of long-distance attacks and dribbling to break through. After he encountered Liverpool's full backs and defensive midfielders, he wanted to pass the ball to Milito in front of the penalty area. But after the football was passed out, it was immediately intercepted by Skrtel.
When Inter Milan lacked wide space to counterattack, Eto 'o's speed advantage could not be played at all. Milito could have been a finisher or a fulcrum, but he was caught in Liverpool's multi-man defense and his role was difficult to play.
Mourinho told himself to calm down. He had to continue to observe for a while to see if Liverpool would stick to this style of play for a long time.
Kerman, on the other hand, stood calmly on the sidelines.
In the face of this final, his first consideration was not how to play Liverpool's advantage.
But how to restrict the opponent!
Although Liverpool scored goals like a hot knife through butter and bombarded their opponents with indiscriminate attacks, Comain would not let his guard down in the final. Moreover, the opponent was Mourinho.
Inter Milan did not have the capital to go head-to-head with Liverpool. It was not that Inter Milan's offense was not strong enough, but that Mourinho was too cautious. His first thought should be whether Inter Milan's defense could withstand Liverpool's swift counterattack once Inter Milan and Liverpool went head-to-head.
Because of this, Inter Milan's tactical strategy of defensive counterattack was not difficult to predict at all. Therefore, Mourinho might as well generously admit it before the game. It was not a secret at all, and it was not full of mystery.
In order to contain Inter Milan's counterattack, the first thing was space. The second was the number of defenders. Combining these two points, Comain formulated the tactical strategy for this game.
During the game, Comain inadvertently glanced at Mourinho and thought to himself, I won't give you the chance to take the lead like six years ago!
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