After Liverpool won the Champions League title, the team's confidence was very strong.
This made them cautious when facing Arsenal at home, but not overly conservative.
Amidst the cheers of tens of thousands of Red Army fans in Anfield, Liverpool immediately went on the offensive at the start of the game.
Alonso was very comfortable in the middle and backfield because Arsenal's formation was more backward. Arsenal continued the strategy formulated in the season to play in the away game, mainly to prevent counter-tactics.
Gerard received Alonso's pass as he ran to the front field, and then passed the ball to Zendeng in the confrontation with Qin Xiong. The Dutch veteran dribbled the ball directly down the flank. Lauren's defense was stable. When he did not encounter a breakthrough by the opponent, his positioning and following defense did not seem to have any problems.
The quality of Zendeng's pass was not good, and it was directly headed by Touré to clear the siege.
The football fell to Fàbregas's feet, and Gerard immediately counterattacked. Fàbregas had experienced three league victories and also scored goals himself. His confidence had obviously risen a lot, and the outside world also praised him.
He pushed the ball away from Gerard horizontally, and then without hesitation, sent the ball to Qin Xiong with a straight pass.
In the away game, Qin Xiong saved the work of organizing and controlling the field. When he stopped the ball, he turned to face Liverpool's half of the field and directly began to dribble forward.
Alonso had consciously retreated, but he did not expect Qin Xiong to advance so quickly!
He had no time to form a joint defense with Qin Xiong. He had to stand in his position to intercept Qin Xiong.
Qin Xiong stopped a meter in front of him and pretended to rush to the left. Alonso was wary of Qin Xiong's feint. When Qin Xiong's body retracted his center of gravity, his mind was alert: sure enough!
Just as he decisively lifted his foot to intercept the ball, he found that Qin Xiong's body had once again rushed to the left front!
Alonso was stunned to see Qin Xiong dribble past him. He suddenly realized that this was premeditated!
Indeed, Qin Xiong's first movement to the left was premeditated. But just because he retracted his center of gravity, it did not mean that he was going to break through in another direction. It was a deception!
When he brushed past Alonso, Qin Xiong saw the tanned and tough defensive midfielder, Sissoko, who had replaced the old Haman, rushing forward. Sissoko wanted to help Alonso and form a joint defense between the two defensive midfielders, but he did not expect that Qin Xiong would directly break through Alonso's defense without any entanglement!
As he rushed over, Qin Xiong made another change of direction and dribbled the ball to the right front. Sissoko immediately stopped and started again to keep up with Qin Xiong.
The two consecutive changes of direction had slowed down Qin Xiong's speed. It was difficult for him to get rid of his opponent when he was very close to Sissoko, but he did not intend to make another breakthrough. Sissoko's smart move was to always keep a sufficient distance from the rear line. This made it so that if Qin Xiong wanted to get rid of him, he was bound to fall into the rear line's second interception.
In that case, the probability of losing the ball was very high.
Qin Xiong decisively passed the ball diagonally to the front of the left front penalty area. Pires ran in position and there was a gap in front of him. He directly raised his foot to shoot. The football flew towards Liverpool's goal.
Liverpool's new goalkeeper, Reina, made a wonderful save and blocked the ball out of the end line with one hand!
"Arsenal's attack at the start of the game tested Liverpool's new goalkeeper, Reina. Qin Xiong continued his unstoppable state. He beautifully broke through Alonso in the front field, and then shifted the attack with Sissoko following. Pires chose to shoot. It was a high-quality shot, and Reina's save was wonderful! If he had been a little distracted, I'm afraid Liverpool would have conceded a goal soon after the start of the game! "
After being broken through by Qin Xiong, Alonso was unable to participate in the defense this time. When Arsenal was ready to kick the corner kick, Alonso glanced at Qin Xiong. He regarded Qin Xiong as a rare opponent in the Premier League. He thought that his team reaching the top of the Champions League was a proof of his strength, and it also represented that his first season in England was very successful and had made great progress. But at the start of the new season, whether intentionally or not, Qin Xiong made Alonso dispel the idea of becoming stronger in a head-to-head confrontation, because the pressure he felt now was invisibly emitted by Qin Xiong, which made it more difficult for him than last season.
Arsenal's attack from the corner kick did not succeed. Liverpool seized the opportunity to launch a wave of counterattacks. Gerard directly sent a threatening straight ball in the midfield. Morientes hesitated a little in front of Liverpool, and Silva intercepted the ball from behind. Arsenal successfully defended against Liverpool's fast attack.
The "unreasonable" Qin Xiong did not flexibly change positions to attack. Instead, he focused on putting pressure on Alonso in the middle.
He was clear-headed.
Alonso was the pivot of Liverpool's transition between offense and defense. The more pressure he put on Alonso, the more pressure he put on Liverpool, not only to oppress Liverpool's defense, but also to attack Liverpool's offense!
This effect was a two-fold gain.
In the 18th minute of the game, Qin Xiong passed the ball to Ljungberg in front of Alonso. Then he pretended to cut forward. Alonso immediately retreated, but Qin Xiong stopped again. Ljungberg passed the ball back to Qin Xiong.
At this time, Alonso saw that the distance between himself and Qin Xiong had widened. He chose to move forward again, but he regretted it after taking a step.
Because he saw that at the same time he moved forward, Qin Xiong also burst forward with an acceleration pass!
This time, he was bypassed too easily. Both of them were moving forward. As they crossed each other, Alonso did not have time to make a tackle, Qin Xiong just brushed past him!
After Alonso turned around, he was stunned to see that Qin Xiong was able to complete the change of direction freely. Qin Xiong widened the distance between him and Qin Xiong, and then observed in a flash.
Henry was always the number one target of Liverpool's defensive line. Sami Hyypia and Carragher would not let Henry run wild in Liverpool's penalty area. Qin Xiong could not send a good pass to Henry, and he still had good space to shoot, so Qin Xiong simply did it himself!
He kicked a long shot nearly 30 yards away from the goal!
The football blasted towards Liverpool's goal like a cannonball. Reina made a save, but he pounced on nothing. His hand could not touch the thunderous football!
Bang!
The football hit the crossbar of the goal and bounced out.
Outside the penalty area, Pirès followed up with a volley. Unfortunately, he did not control his footwork well and fired the anti-aircraft gun.
The hearts of the Reds fans were thumping. It was a false alarm. They did not expect that even though Arsenal's offense was not fierce, the offense that could reach the front field was very threatening!
"Liverpool's goal was almost lost! Qin Xiong's long shot hit the crossbar of the goal and bounced out. What's wrong with Alonso today? Is he not in form? It was hard to tell. His passing was as accurate as ever, and there wasn't much of a problem with his defensive moves. However, when it came to defending key points, he was always a beat slower than Qin Xiong. Perhaps it was because Qin Xiong was too fast. His condition was so good that it was shocking. His choice of timing to break through was amazing! Liverpool has to think about countermeasures. If they continue to play like this, I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before they concede a goal. "
Benítez walked to the sidelines with a heavy heart. The game situation was not optimistic.
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