Chapter 646 End of the Game

For the top clubs in the Premier League, the League Cup is just a game to train substitutes and young players. After all, in the minds of the English people today, the status of the FA Cup is much higher than that of the League Cup.

However, the main reason why the League Cup is not taken seriously is the prize money. The current sponsor of the League Cup is the Thai beverage giant Carabao, and the sponsor of the FA Cup is Emirates Airlines.

The FA Cup champion prize money is two million pounds, while the League Cup is only a mere 100,000 pounds, and the runner-up will be halved.

Mane joked with Li Qing that the prize money of the League Cup champion and runner-up added up to less than half of Li Qing's weekly salary. Just based on this point, it is difficult for the League Cup to attract people's attention.

Of course, the League Cup is still very attractive to the middle and lower teams in the Premier League. After all, they have not had the strength to win the league championship for a long time, so they can win the League Cup championship to boost morale when the top teams do not pay attention to it.

At the same time, the most important point is that the League Cup championship can be regarded as the second way to participate in the Europa League the following year.

In this way, small and medium-sized clubs can use the League Cup to get the opportunity to play against foreign strong teams, and thus they can appear on TV and newspapers more often, get more tickets and TV broadcast revenue, and expand their influence.

If they accidentally break out and create good results in the Europa League, it will definitely be a great joy for domestic fans!

Therefore, clubs like Bournemouth are obviously much more concerned about the League Cup than Liverpool.

Of course, it is not that Liverpool does not attach importance to it. It is also because the team has recently increased its injuries, the league has entered the sprint stage, and the FA Cup is about to start. The club's top management and Klopp have discussed and made a decision to appropriately give up the League Cup.

After all, if Liverpool wins this round of the League Cup, they will have two semi-finals with Tottenham in January. In January, Liverpool still has three rounds of leagues and one round of FA Cup to play. If the FA Cup enters the next round, there will definitely be another round of games at the end of the month.

In other words, not counting the League Cup, Liverpool will have at least four games to play next, which will be a severe challenge for the players' physical strength.

But as a head coach, Klopp has his pride. Although he has made compromises, he did not completely choose the players from the youth team in the personnel arrangement, and from the beginning, he decided to let Li Qing start.

Liverpool is the team with the most League Cup titles. If they win the championship this year, Liverpool will not only successfully defend the title, but also win the League Cup for the tenth time.

From the beginning of the season, Klopp has made it his mission to defend all the titles of last year. Li Qing also made bold statements about dominating the country and Europe, so the old and young two people basically determined the tone of this game.

Of course, there are not many main players in the lineup. The goalkeeper is Mignolet, and the defense line is Morello, Randall and Anthony and Connor from the youth team.

In the midfield, Camacho, Wilson, Curtis Jones and Marko Grujic got the chance to start, and the forwards were Origi and Li Qing.

In this game, Liverpool's defense was under great pressure. There was no way. When none of the main players were on the court, Klopp gave them the task of not losing the ball in the first half.

This was the first time that Klopp gave such an order to his players at his home stadium. Except for Li Qing, the other Liverpool players were almost angry.

However, Bournemouth, with all the main players, did give Liverpool a great test. In the last round of the league, their offensive power was still very eye-catching. Although the team lost three goals, they also scored three goals.

Therefore, Bournemouth is an absolutely strong offensive team with weak defense, and it is destined that this game is likely to be a goal battle, so nearly 40,000 fans poured into Anfield Stadium.

Bournemouth's players came with the confidence of winning. After they got Liverpool's starting list, they were surprised to see Li Qing's name, and then they saw the names of others and their hearts were settled again.

No matter how powerful Li Qing is, he is just one person. Liverpool's almost full substitute and youth team defender lineup made Bournemouth's players think they would win this game.

But from the beginning, the game was not as good as they imagined.

Thirty minutes later, Liverpool did not lose the ball or score a goal, and the same was true for Bournemouth.

At the end of the first half, the situation was still the same. Bournemouth still had no goals, but of course they were glad that they didn't lose the ball.

During the halftime break, Klopp did not make any tactical arrangements in the locker room, but only said: "In the second half, you all listen to Li Qing. You play the way he arranges you to play. If anyone doesn't listen, he will be replaced!"

Klopp's words stunned Liverpool's players. They looked at each other in confusion, and Klopp had already left the locker room leisurely.

Li Qing was also surprised, but he quickly calmed down, and then smiled at his somewhat confused teammates and said: "Do you want to win and play against Tottenham? Then follow me!"

In today's game, Bournemouth played very hard to be honest, but the reason why they have not been able to break the deadlock on the field is that they lack a shooter who can end the game.

Although Solanke appeared on the field, he was not the main force. Before he had run-in with the team, it would be useless to let him play now.

Although Li Qing is a forward on the field, he is actually further back. With the talents of [Offensive organizer] and [Never stop running], Liverpool's defenders today, under the leadership of Li Qing, are running more actively than usual.

Of course, running actively is one aspect, but running in place is the key. With a solid defense, the opponent lacks players who can end the game, so when the two sides are deadlocked until the last minute, Li Qing began to show his power.

In the 85th minute of the game, Liverpool got a free kick in the frontcourt, and Li Qing scored the penalty kick, and Anfield was instantly jubilant.

Five minutes later, Li Qing activated [Superstar Moment] and directly killed the game. Bournemouth players looked at the cheering Liverpool players with incredible eyes.

The Liverpool executives in the stands were helpless about this. The League Cup reached the semi-finals, and the club could not still give up in the two-round semi-finals.

Klopp was a little happy. Such a lineup can actually defeat the opponent. It seems that defending the League Cup championship this year is not a luxury!