Football’s First Defender

The score is still Liverpool 1-0, occupying the leading advantage at home! It's just that, after the continuous attack at the beginning of the game, because Liverpool's offensive coordination depends on the wide range of running of all players to pull away Chelsea's solid defense, the physical strength of Liverpool players is actually consumed on the offensive end. Very big!

And when the Liverpool players intend to try to use possession, slow down the pace, and take a breath, it is the long-awaited opportunity for the Chelsea players!

You know, apart from Drogba, who is an orthodox center and rarely participates in defense, other Chelsea players, including Kalu and Malouda, have very good ability to attack!

Under Chelsea's players, who suddenly launched a high-level siege, Liverpool's midfielders, after their physical fitness declined, were not as good as before. Chelsea easily regained possession of the ball!

For the generals of Chelsea, they were full of energy and fighting spirit in this game, and they came here to wash away their humiliation!

You know, just last season, Chelsea encountered Liverpool 5 times in the league, Champions League, and English League Cup third-tier battlefields, but they were undefeated! It can be said that Chelsea is the biggest sufferer of Liverpool!

However, in the two rounds of the league this season, under the coaching of Scolari, Chelsea was double-killed by Liverpool. Not to mention that since Abramovich took over Chelsea, Chelsea has always had the upper hand against Liverpool. The last time the slightly civilian Chelsea was double-killed by Liverpool in the league, it also dates back to the distant League One where Liverpool dominates. Era!

This is definitely a shame for Chelsea, who are at their peak at this stage, and who think they are not weaker than any opponent!

Returning to the game, for the two teams that are evenly matched, when one team wants to suppress the opponent for a certain period of time, it will inevitably pay a certain price. It depends on whether the price is worth it and whether it can achieve a satisfactory result. As a result!

For Benitez, since he chose to attack from the beginning of the first half, he intends to use his physical fitness to gain an advantage on the scene and take the lead in scoring at home. At least the current situation of the game is completely in his own hands. The rest is to do a good job of defending in the rest of the half to contain Chelsea's offense. After all, Chelsea's offensive tricks are only so many in the eyes of Benitez. Nites thinks that his targeted defensive arrangement is pretty good!

"If I can counterattack and score another goal, then the rhythm of the entire knockout round will be in my hands, and Chelsea will have nothing to fear!"

What Benitez hopes most now is that the team can block under Chelsea's attack, and wait for an opportunity to counterattack and score another goal, then Chelsea is likely to collapse directly at Anfield!

It's just that Benitez's defensive arrangement is very targeted, but this Chelsea team may be different from the Chelsea in his impression!

"Chelsea's attacking chance!"

"It's still Malouda, looking for opportunities on the left!"

"This time, Malouda took the initiative to dribble the ball closer to the middle, and passed the ball short to Ballack who came over!"

"Balack didn't stop the ball and directly put the ball in front of Malouda!"

"It seems that this is a two-person teamwork that has been trained many times. After Malouda completed the passing action, he already knew how to insert into the penalty area, and just ran to Ballack's through ball position!"

"However, Arbeloa's follow-up defense was quite successful. It didn't give Malouda too much room to accelerate, and Malouda didn't have a shooting angle, so he couldn't directly complete the goal!"

"However! Malouda made a sudden stop in the process of going down, then turned around, flicked the ball, and hit the goal directly!"

"Abeloa has been following Malouda. Even though Malouda stopped suddenly, Abeloa wanted to stop, but after all, he is the passive side, so the forward inertia is obviously greater. , leaving a certain space for Malouda!"

"Malouda! He stopped and turned around! He hit the door directly!"

"From the gap that Arbeloa leaked, it was a direct volley!"

"Go in!" Malouda shouted loudly in his heart!

This is the quarter-finals of the Champions League. For every offensive player, he wants to be able to dominate the game by scoring goals and become the winner of the team. Every offensive opportunity, at this high Levels of play are rare!

Malouda relied on the 2v2 with Ballack, the small-scale cooperation, and his sudden stop and turn in the process of marching, so he was able to get rid of the defense and instantly obtained an excellent goal space. !

With this type of attack, Aveiroa may not give Malouda such a breakthrough opportunity in the entire series. Only this time, he can complete a fatal blow!

In fact, this kick, Malouda, after completing the sudden stop and turning, and then directly volleyed, it can be said to be extremely coherent and smooth, and the quality of the shot is also excellent!

Seeing that the ball was spinning and flew towards the upper left corner of the goal with a slight arc, Malouda was very satisfied. At least in terms of shooting, he had done his best!

The rest depends on the performance of the opponent's goalkeeper!

"Reina! Fly to the side!"

"This ball is in a position close to a dead end!"

"But Reina! Block it!"

"Reina's reaction speed is really too fast, the instant explosive power brought the body to a sufficient height, and then stretched the body, enough wingspan, and dragged the ball out of the crossbar with one palm!"

"Malouda's shot was brilliant! But Reina's save was even better!"

This is the case in the football field. For a wonderful game, both sides must play well to make the game exciting!

As far as Malouda's kick is concerned, facing ordinary opponents, even if Reina is given another chance to make a save, he may not be able to save it, but just this time in reality, Reina did it, Malouda could only helplessly shake his head and smile wryly!

Chelsea's corner chance!

In fact, Hiddink's intention to send Ivanovic in this game instead of Bosingwa, the regular main force in the past, is actually very simple!

Everything in football is relative! Ivanovic is indeed on the defensive end, and there are problems of slow recovery and insufficient flexibility, but what I want to deal with is that Ivanovic is tall enough and his header is good enough!

I think back then, when Hiddink was observing the Russian international, he saw the young Ivanovic in many matches in the Russian Super League, and his excellent header ability!

In the Lokomotiv Moscow team, Ivanovic's header ability is a strong supplement to the team's set-piece attack!

Although Ivanovic was still very young at the time, and he was still unable to match many players in the Russian Super League in terms of physical confrontation! But when there are strong players in the team and the high points of the opponent are contained, Ivanovic's ability to abuse food in 1v1 is extremely good!

Hiddink's impression was too deep. In the Moscow derby between Lokomotiv Moscow and Dynamo Moscow, Ivanovic was defended by a midfielder who was not too tall. Ivanovic, who has a height advantage, not only relied on the header in the corner kick tactic to give the team the first lead in that game, but also later, in the free kick tactic, grabbed the spot and sent assists to his teammates!

In that game, under the defense of the opponent's 1.8-meter midfielder, Ivanovic can be said to have played the best offensive performance of his career in the Russian Super League!

And Ivanovic's header ability is what Hiddink wants to use most now, a huge surprise for Liverpool!

Look at the height of Liverpool players!

For Liverpool, in the process of defending high balls, the most confident defenders are of course the two central defenders Skrtel and Carragher. The second one with excellent header ability is Didier Dirk!

The rest of the players don't have too many high points to take advantage of when defending high-altitude balls!

But Chelsea is different here! Drogba may be the hardest center forward player in the world, you Liverpool have to send a central defender to defend! Terry, England's main central defender who is also good at heading, you have to send someone to defend! Yang Feng, a central defender who has proven his header ability and judgment in many games, Hiddink does not believe that Benitez will not make arrangements!

So for Ivanovic, this right back who was not in the original plan, a tall right back, who can mark it?

The answer lies in the on-the-spot adjustment. In the corner kick defense, Liverpool used Harvey Alonso to defend Ivanovic!

The height difference between Ivanovic and Long Ge is 7 centimeters, and for Harvey Alonso, although he plays as a midfielder, he is definitely not the kind of "black and hard" midfielder player. For Ivanovic, the confrontation pressure caused by it is not that great!

"Malouda, take the right corner!"

"Yang Feng is still rushing to the front point, behind him, Dirk Dirk is closely following and defending Yang Feng, constantly exerting resistance and interfering with Yang Feng's take-off!"

"But the arc and height of the ball flew towards the area in front of the goal!"

"In the penalty area, Drogba and Terry, Chelsea's main attack points, are stuck in position, trying to compete for a header!"

"However, the height of the pass is still too high, past Drogba and Terry!"

"Later!"

"A blue figure!"

"Ivanovic!"

"Fast forward from the edge of the box!

"Jump for the header!"

"Harvey Alonso blocked in front of Ivanovic, but he couldn't form an effective block at all. The height and weight of the two are indeed not of the same order!"

"Ivanovic! Overwhelm Xavi Alonso with a header!"

"GOAL!"

"Ivanovic! Evened the score for Chelsea! Ivanovic, who unexpectedly got the chance to start in this game, made a contribution to Chelsea!"