Chapter 996 Precision Guidance
Of course, there are people who have conspiracy theorists. For example, some people on the Internet speculated whether Salah deliberately faked an injury to avoid the game in order to avoid embarrassment.
Such remarks will certainly cause disgust and controversy. But no matter what, Salah's departure is an irreversible result.
For Manchester United fans, they actually hope to see Salah leave the field. After all, given Salah's recent form, if he stays on the field, he will pose a great threat to Manchester United.
His unexpected injury not only saved Manchester United from a troublesome opponent, but also completely disrupted Liverpool's pre-match arrangements, thereby further reducing the threat posed to Manchester United.
Look at Klopp's expression. When the TV broadcast showed Klopp's close-up, he clenched his teeth and his brows were twisted into a mess, which shows how unhappy he is.
And Manchester United fans just want to see the same expression on their mortal enemy's face.
Salah eventually limped off the field with the help of the team doctor, while Origi, who replaced him, ran onto the field.
Klopp walked over to greet Salah and hugged him as a comfort to him.
Salah then took his seat and an ice pack was quickly wrapped around the underside of his right thigh.
Andy Gray said: "I hope the injury is not too serious, because the Champions League semi-final will be in a week..."
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Liverpool lost a key player just ten minutes into the game, which made many people worried about Liverpool's prospects.
The strength of the two teams is very close, and it is difficult to say who will definitely beat whom, so any unexpected factors will attract attention because they may cause the balance to unbalance.
Obviously, the balance was broken after Salah was injured and left the field.
United will certainly seize this opportunity to keep putting pressure on Liverpool, just as they did before Salah was injured, when Greenwood's cut-in shot was very threatening.
Manchester United fans in front of the TV were very excited and couldn't wait for Manchester United's next offensive frenzy.
But before that, they must force Liverpool to take a corner kick.
After the corner kick, the ball was not headed by Koulibaly, but was punched out by Van der Sar.
The Liverpool fans in the stands sighed in disappointment, while the Manchester United fans in front of the TV began to look forward to the team's counterattack, but first the ball had to fall into the feet of the Manchester United players.
As expected, the football fell at Bruno's feet at the top of the penalty area.
After Bruno raised his foot to take the ball off, he turned around and used his body to protect the ball, blocking Henderson who was rushing towards him behind him.
But this also made him turn his back to the direction of attack, and it seemed that he could only choose to pass sideways or back, making it very difficult to deliver a fatal pass.
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Henderson stuck behind Bruno, while other Liverpool players swarmed towards their own half and quickly returned to defense, intending to nip Manchester United's idea of a quick counterattack in the bud.
Henderson continued to put pressure on Bruno from behind, but he couldn't commit a foul. He was very careful because Bruno was not very strong and could easily fall down. In addition, Bruno was a very cunning player. Who knew if he would dive again?
Under his pressure, Bruno seemed to have no choice but to dribble the ball back.
But just after Bruno lightly tapped the ball back, he swung his right foot forward and kicked it back quickly, knocking the ball hard behind him with his heel. It passed between the legs of Henderson who was caught off guard and brushed past the Liverpool players who were quickly returning to defense.
Some Liverpool players saw the ball slipping away from their feet and raised their arms reflexively to indicate offside.
No matter which Manchester United player received the ball, he was definitely offside!
They looked back and saw Harry Kane receiving the ball!
Offside!
Many Liverpool players just stood there. Instead of continuing to defend, they raised their arms high, like good students actively answering the teacher's questions in class.
But what surprised them was that they did not hear the referee's whistle!
Anthony Taylor did not blow the whistle, and the linesman did not raise the flag either.
Harry Kane was not offside?
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"Not offside! Harry Kane received the ball, good shot!"
In shock, only Alisson reacted the fastest, and he chose to abandon the goal decisively.
The other Liverpool players were all stunned and no one continued to follow up to defend Harry Kane.
Harry Kane received the ball and adjusted himself at the same time, then shot with his right foot!
His right foot rubbed the football into an arc, which just bypassed the attacking Alisson and flew directly to the back corner of the goal!
Alisson was powerless to stop the shot and could only turn his head and watch the ball fly into the goal he was guarding...
"GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLL!!!!!!" Andy Gray shouted excitedly, "GOAL!! Harry Kane! The game has only started for eleven minutes and Manchester United has taken the lead away from home!"
"Good shot! Harry Kane! He scored the first goal for Manchester United! The situation has become extremely unfavorable for Liverpool. Not only did they lose their number one general Salah shortly after the start of the game, but now they have conceded a goal first!" Zhan Jun said somewhat disappointedly.
As a Liverpool fan, Zhan Jun tried to remain neutral as much as possible when commenting on the game, but when Liverpool lost the ball, he was in a very bad mood.
But he immediately began to praise Bruno for the assist: "This is Bruno's 24th assist in the Premier League this season! He is only two assists away from the record of 26 assists in a single Premier League season he set three years ago. At the same time, this is Bruno's 2nd assist in the Premier League, and he is only 142 away from the Premier League assist record of 162 assists held by Manchester United star Giggs! Giggs used 20 games to set the record, but Bruno only used 632 games to make 142 assists!"
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After the goal, Harry Kane ran towards the corner flag area and turned around to wave to his teammates, signaling them to come up and celebrate.
Liverpool players ran towards the referee Anthony Taylor with open arms to protest and complain to him.
They thought that Harry Kane was definitely offside at the moment Bruno passed the ball!
Before passing the ball, Bruno didn't even look back to see the situation behind him. He just kicked the ball back. How could it not be offside?
But Anthony Taylor remained calm in the face of questioning by a group of Liverpool stars. He said: "Gentlemen, if you have any questions about my decision, you can look at VAR. But this ball is not offside."
He pointed to the VAR video on the sidelines of Anfield.
The Premier League began using VAR technology in the 2019-2020 season three years ago, and it has become more mature now. For controversial balls like this, the video referee team will definitely intervene. If there is really offside, the goal will naturally be cancelled. Even if there is only suspicion of offside, they will report it to the referee, who will watch the replay and make a decision in person.
The TV broadcast signal will also appear here, so there will definitely be a replay of this ball in a while. If there are Liverpool players who question his refereeing, they can watch the TV replay themselves. If they don’t believe in the referee’s eyes, they must believe in advanced technology, right?
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On the other side, Manchester United players didn't care about the protests of Liverpool players. They were celebrating to their heart's content, celebrating the goal unscrupulously in the territory of their arch-rivals, amid the boos from the stands.
After showing the celebration of Manchester United players, the TV broadcast quickly cut to the moment when Bruno passed the ball to Harry Kane.
Through slow motion and freeze-frame, as well as the assistance of virtual technology, everyone can clearly see that at the moment when Bruno kicked the ball out with his heel, as many as three Liverpool players were positioned further back than Harry Kane.
Harry Kane was still among the Liverpool players at the time. He suddenly accelerated forward after seeing Bruno pass the ball.
Bruno's pass was timed perfectly and Harry Kane's run was also very good.
The tacit cooperation between the two made this goal a no-brainer!
A group of Liverpool players who were chattering around the referee also looked up at the big screen. When they saw the results presented by technical means, they all fell silent.
At the moment Bruno passed the ball, Harry Kane was definitely not offside.
This is a very, very beautiful heel pass.
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"Bruno's pass was so beautiful, it was accurate and sudden in a concealed situation. Liverpool's defense was completely fooled by him, and he didn't even look back at the situation behind him, he just passed the ball to Harry Kane's feet... This is not the first time that Bruno has shown such a pass without looking at people in a game. Sometimes it really makes people wonder if he has eyes behind his head..." Zhan Jun naturally praised Bruno.
The moment when Bruno passed the ball was replayed over and over again on TV. Ostensibly to see if Harry Kane was offside, but in fact everyone was admiring Bruno's "magic skill".
Without looking at the target or the ball, Bruno was looking at Gundogan who was nearby when he kicked the ball with his heel. This action made everyone think that he would pass the ball to Gundogan, but he didn't...
If he had looked back, it might have alerted Henderson.
But he didn't do that, so the Liverpool captain didn't notice until the ball passed between Henderson's legs...
The subsequent TV broadcast also gave the VAR system's lines. At the moment Bruno passed the ball, Harry Kane was obviously half a body length behind the rearmost Liverpool defender!
