Chapter 338 Equal Record

The UEFA Champions League theme song made people excited, as if they had inexhaustible power. Li Qing noticed the TIFO show performed by Liverpool fans in the KOP stands, and his hands clenched subconsciously.

European Overlord!

Liverpool!

Back!

"Beep~"

Accompanied by the whistle of German referee Brüch, the first leg of the 2017-2018 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals began.

Montella, an Italian who took over the position of Sevilla head coach in November last year, fielded the strongest lineup in this game. The players stood in a 4231 formation, with goalkeeper Soria, defenders Navas, Kjaer, Lenglet and Escudero, N'Zonzi and Pizarro as double defensive midfielders, and three forwards were Joaquin Correa, Franco Vazquez and Sarabia, with Ben Yedder at the forefront.

Liverpool, who played at home, also fielded the strongest lineup, with goalkeeper Karius, defenders Robertson, Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Arnold, midfielders Milner, Henderson and Chamberlain, and forwards Mane, Firmino and Li Qing.

Liverpool, who had the advantage of kicking off, quickly launched an offensive. The visiting Sevilla was obviously well prepared and responded with an iron bucket formation.

The Italian head coach Montella is full of defensive blood. Although he has only coached Sevilla for a short five months, he has already given Sevilla what he can instill.

In Montella's plan, the team will first defend Liverpool's three axes, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack. Even if they can't retreat from Anfield, they will take away one or two priceless away goals.

Liverpool's offensive ability is the best in Europe, but its defense is in sharp contrast. As long as they seize the opportunity...

"aoaooaooaooooooo——"

Montella was thinking about it, and was suddenly startled by the huge cheers from the sky above Anfield.

His attention instantly returned from nothingness to reality. He saw Li Qing, who had the ball, dribble past N'Zonzi and Navas, and face central defender Lenglet directly.

"Foul!"

Montella subconsciously took a step forward and shouted at the players on the field.

In fact, the players on the field had their own judgment of the game, and there was no need for Montella to remind them. The most important thing was... there was no chance to foul!

Lenglet stepped forward to defend, and Li Qing flicked the ball to the left with the outside of his left foot. The ball rolled to Firmino, who was standing at the top of the penalty area, and then went around Lenglet and continued to run forward.

Firmino directly passed the ball diagonally to the space behind Lenglet, which was the direction of Li Qing's forward insertion. Goalkeeper Soria left the goal to attack.

Unfortunately, Li Qing took the ball away one step ahead, which meant that Soria's goal-abandoning attack became useless, and he could only watch Li Qing face the empty goal...

"Goooooooooooooooal——"

The iconic elongated voice of Sky TV commentator Andy Gray sounded in the Anfield live studio.

"The ball is in! The ball is in!"

He Wei, the commentator of Tianchao Channel 5, shouted excitedly: "Li Qing helped Liverpool score the first goal in the first minute of the game! The fastest goal of the Champions League this season was scored! He received Firmino's through ball and flashed past the attacking goalkeeper Soria to score an empty goal, 1:0!!"

The Liverpool fans in the audience burst into huge cheers, one wave higher than the other.

Liverpool coach Klopp raised his arms and shouted, venting the huge pressure of scoring the first goal.

Sevilla is indeed the weakest opponent to advance to the quarterfinals of this season's Champions League, but the biggest feature of football games is that they are full of uncertainty. Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of one.

So Klopp excitedly celebrated the goal and made a tactical gesture to the captain Henderson, indicating that the players should play steadily and not be impatient.

Manchester United was overturned by Sevilla at home, and Liverpool, which he coaches, does not want this to happen.

Montella was indeed upset to lose the ball first as a guest, but as a professional football coach, he knew that it was common to lose the ball first. He had also predicted that they would lose the ball first at Anfield before the game, but he didn't expect to lose the ball so early.

Even though they lost the ball first as a guest, Sevilla did not show their fangs, giving people a feeling that they would maintain the score of 0:1 until the end of the game.

Perhaps it was a warning from the loss of the ball, Sevilla did a very good job in the subsequent defense, especially against Li Qing.

Li Qing was closely guarded, and the degree of Liverpool's offensive threat was greatly reduced. However, despite this, other Liverpool players began to show their power, taking advantage of the Sevilla players' defense against Li Qing with more people, and began to create threats on the left.

In the 18th minute of the game, Henderson passed the ball directly to the left, Mane got the ball and cut inside to shoot, but was blocked. Chamberlain got the ball and faked a shot to shake off Pizarro who was defending, and then swung his right foot to shoot a cold arrow.

The football flew to the upper left corner of the goal like a cannonball, and goalkeeper Soria was out of reach.

The score on the scoreboard has changed from 1:0 to 2:0.

Klopp and Montella's reactions are in stark contrast, the former is ecstatic, the latter shakes his head and sighs.

Everyone is lucky, Sevilla coach Montella believes that the team may still advance to the Champions League semi-finals!

Losing away is something they thought about, but as long as they get enough away goals, what does it matter if they lose?

So, Sevilla tried to launch an attack and get away goals at Anfield.

Liverpool's tactics under Klopp are very mature. Seeing that Sevilla was about to counterattack, he took the initiative to ask the team to retreat half-court and let Sevilla, whose offensive ability was not outstanding, attack.

After a long period of dominance without scoring, Sevilla players became a little irritable. In addition, many players participated in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time. They lacked understanding of the compact rhythm of the Champions League and had no good coping strategies. Even the main players So does Coach Montella.

In the 42nd minute of the game, Li Qing's long shot from outside the penalty area during the counterattack helped Liverpool expand the score to three goals.

Juli TV commentator Zhan Jun shouted excitedly: "Liverpool leads Sevilla 3:0 at home. As long as this score is maintained until the end of the game, there is more than 90% possibility of advancing to the Champions League this season. Semifinals!”

Under the cheers of all the Liverpool fans, Liverpool regained control of the game. However, considering that there was a Merseyside derby on the weekend, the entire Liverpool team consciously stopped playing and conserved their energy.

A three-goal win over Sevilla at home almost guarantees that they will advance to the Champions League semifinals this season. There is absolutely no need to continue scoring goals. It would be troublesome if Sevilla accidentally scores an away goal.

In the 67th minute of the game, Li Qing took advantage of a direct free kick to help Liverpool score another goal, turning the score into 4:0. Li Qing also increased his number of goals in the Champions League this season with his hat trick in this game. To the 17th goal, thus tying Cristiano Ronaldo's single-season scoring record set in the 2013-2014 Champions League.