When Qin Xiong stood next to Suárez at the kickoff point in the center circle at Stamford Bridge, he habitually looked at the opponent's half of the field.
What greeted his eyes were Drogba and Torres, which made him feel a little strange.
It was not that he had not met his former comrades on the field, but it had never happened so quickly!
Just before he left the team to attend the Ballon d 'Or awards ceremony, he had showered and faced Torres naked in the same locker room. A month had passed since then. After he returned, he looked down at his jersey. It was still Liverpool's red, while Torres's jersey had become Chelsea's blue.
There was a sense of deja vu that things had remained the same, but people had changed.
But he quickly put the distracting thoughts to the back of his mind and began to run after the kickoff. The game had begun!
Torres was strong. The outside world thought he was strong. Looking at his past performances in the club and the national team, he was very strong!
But top players and top teams were not born to be a perfect match.
The outside world had no way of knowing whether Ancelotti had specifically asked for Torres. It was meaningless to discuss it again. But when Abramovich took over Chelsea, Torres's name had always been on the list of star players he had bought.
Now that Torres had joined Chelsea, he needed to integrate into Chelsea's system. It would take some time for him to adapt.
The striker needed to adapt more than the other players because the striker was the core of the team's offense!
They could only wait and see if Chelsea's steely and tough style could be combined with Torres's elegant and agile style.
Today, Chelsea's 43-3-12 formation was more like a 4-4-2 formation in a diamond-shaped midfield.
In the actual attacking positions, Lampard and Mikel were the center midfielders, and Anelka was in front of them.
After the arrival of Torres, Ancelotti had to use Torres first. He also had to use Drogba and Anelka. He had a sudden idea in this game to ambush Anelka behind the striker. It was a bit similar to how he used Kaka in AC Milan.
Liverpool did not use Raúl in this game. Comain was able to change his line-up at will because he had more resources at his disposal.
In order to contain Chelsea, their strategy was to confront him head-on in the middle lane, with one attacking and one defending on the flanks!
The left wing relied on Qin Xiong's offense to suppress Bosingwa's flank assists, so that the opponent did not dare to move easily.
The right wing relied on Kuyt's defense to curb Ashley Cole's ability to assist. At the same time, Gerard had a tendency to be aggressive in his attacks, which also put a certain amount of pressure on Ashley Cole.
In that case, Chelsea could only attack from the middle!
After the lack of support from the flanks, the battlefield would be concentrated in the middle, which would increase the intensity of the confrontation.
This was a game where every inch of ground was fought for.
Chelsea also adopted a similar strategy in defense.
On the one hand, they relied on Mikel and Bosingwa to contain Qin Xiong. In the middle, Lampard and Essien could fill in at any time or resist Gerard's attacks. On the left, they relied on Ashley Cole's ability to assist to suppress Kuyt.
The two teams' technical and tactical clashes were tit for tat.
In the first 20 minutes of the first half, the game was in a stalemate, and the physical confrontation became the main theme.
However, after 20 minutes, the two teams had found their own rhythm and gradually began to launch threatening attacks.
Chelsea could indeed create opportunities to shoot by pushing through the middle of the front and middle of the field.
But most of them were long shots from the periphery. There were few penetrating attacks that could penetrate into Liverpool's penalty area.
First of all, this almost crippled Torres. He needed a certain amount of space and needed to cooperate with his teammates in a small area. Chelsea's style was somewhat incompatible with him.
This left Torres in a state where he could not touch the ball most of the time when he was playing alone.
Chelsea's consecutive long shots failed to hit the goal range. When Liverpool's defense was concentrated in the middle, and even the full backs supported the middle to defend, they could not find a good opportunity to shoot even if they could push the offense to the danger zone 40 yards away from the goal.
The long shots with little threat just returned the ball to Liverpool.
The Red Army's offense gradually began to shine. Compared to Chelsea who could only rush and attack in the middle, the Red Army was able to play a combination of attacks from the sides and the center.
At least Qin Xiong was able to steadily control the ball on the left and push forward. Coupled with the energetic Baines shuttling up and down, Liverpool's attack on the left flank was vigorous.
In the 28th minute of the game, Suárez inserted diagonally behind Ivanovic in the penalty area to receive Baines' cross from the bottom. Čech bravely blocked the near corner of the goal, leaving Suárez a hair's breadth away from breaking the goal.
Chelsea found that they seemed to freeze Qin Xiong, but it only forced Qin Xiong away from the goal. Qin Xiong was still able to create an offensive threat with his teammates.
In the 34th minute of the game, when Chelsea's attack in the middle was blocked and Anelka failed to break through Mascherano in front of the penalty area, Liverpool quickly switched from defense to offense. Alonso passed the ball diagonally to Qin Xiong.
When Mikel rushed over, Qin Xiong kicked the ball out. The football rolled to the front of Gerard in the middle. Qin Xiong quickly rushed forward after he kicked the ball out. When Gerard passed the ball back to Qin Xiong's feet, Qin Xiong stood in place to control the ball again.
Essien rushed over and Lampard returned to the defensive midfielder position to compete with Gerard.
When Mikel came back, Qin Xiong pretended to lift his leg to pass. It looked like he was going to hang the ball into the penalty area.
Essien was two meters away from Qin Xiong. He did not lift his leg to block, so it was naturally useless. He was also worried that he would be bypassed by Qin Xiong's feint.
Yes, Qin Xiong was feinting. He did not pass the ball. Instead, he knocked the ball behind him with his heel.
After knocking the ball, he quickly rushed to the middle.
The smart Gerard ran to the right front to contain Lampard, making space in the middle in front of the penalty area.
Qin Xiong knocked the football behind him and it was received by Baines. This time, Baines did not push the ball towards the end line. Instead, he passed the ball from Mikel to the middle.
Essien moved horizontally to try to block Qin Xiong's forward path.
When the football rolled to Qin Xiong's eyes, Qin Xiong actually had a chance to shoot. He also lifted his leg and pretended to kick the goal.
This time, Essien lifted his leg to block Qin Xiong's attack because he was not sure if Qin Xiong would do so.
Would Qin Xiong, who had not shot for a long time, just want to find the feeling of blasting the goal?
He was wrong!
When Qin Xiong used his right foot to kick the ball back behind him and dribbled to break through in front of his eyes, Essien really felt helpless.
Giving Qin Xiong space was equivalent to giving him infinite possibilities!
And these could be the most fatal poison for defensive players. They could paralyze, confuse, mislead, and confuse their defensive judgment!
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