Chapter 283 The Reds vs. Reds meeting at the end of the year!

英国当地时间12月16日周日的下午13时30分，07/08赛季英格兰足球超级联赛第17轮的重头戏，黑衣黑裤的曼联在客场挑战红衣红裤的利物浦在安菲尔德球场拉开帷幕！

双方英超交锋30场，利物浦7胜7平16负处于下风，其中主场4胜3平8负。而双方历史交锋173场，利物浦57胜50平66负，也还属处于下风。

For the third time in history, Liverpool coach Benítez did not change the starting lineup. Manchester United also fielded the starting lineup that had won consecutive league games.

Liverpool's starting lineup is a standard parallel 4-4-2:

The goalkeeper is No. 25 Reina;

The back line from right to left is No. 17 Arbeloa, No. 23 Carragher, No. 4 Hyypia and No. 6 Riise;

The central midfielders from right to left are No. 11 Benayoun, No. 20 Mascherano, No. 8 Gerrard and No. 7 Kewell;

The forward duo is No. 9 Torres and hardworking No. 18 Kuyt.

Manchester United also started with a parallel 4-4-2 formation:

The goalkeeper is No. 1 Van der Sar;

The back line from right to left is No. 6 Wes Brown, No. 15 Vidic, No. 5 Ferdinand and No. 3 Evra;

The central midfielders from right to left are No. 7 Cristiano Ronaldo, No. 4 Hargreaves, No. 17 Li Qi and No. 11 Giggs;

The forward duo is No. 9 Rooney and No. 32 Tevez.

Ever since Scholes was injured and Giggs recovered, Sir Alex Ferguson began to like moving Lizzie's position to the middle. This is the third consecutive league round in which Lizzie started in the middle of the midfield. After all, Lizzie's athleticism and coverage are better than Carrick, and his game reading and organizational abilities are better than Anderson. Although his technical ability is not top-notch and his defensive style is not strong, he is stable and comprehensive, which convinces his teammates.

Therefore, combined with Leeds' ability to break through on the wing, Sir Alex Ferguson began to use Leeds as the first substitute for the two old men of Manchester United. Whoever was injured or in poor form would be replaced by Leeds. When Giggs was not in good form, Leeds would play on the wing. When Scholes was injured, Leeds would fill in the middle.

In recent games, Li Qi has basically completed his task playing in the middle of the midfield beyond Sir Alex Ferguson's expectations. On the one hand, Li Qi's own strength is quite good, and on the other hand, he has not encountered any real test, and the opponent has not carried out any targeted restrictions or damage to Li Qi.

But today at Anfield, Li Qi encountered a double challenge. The first challenge was the two villains standing against him on the court - Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano.

One of them is the captain of the Red Army, who was born in 80. He has always been regarded as the best all-around B2B midfielder in the world. His anticipation, physical confrontation, long pass, athletic ability, long shot and header ability are all world-class. Moreover, the energetic captain is always full of fighting spirit and often performs a great reversal in desperate situations, such as the Istanbul Miracle in 05. (Well, I will stop here at the right time...)

The most important thing is, as Liverpool's own child, at Anfield, Gerrard seems to have been buffed with a sacred aura, and his state is as unmatched as Qiao Feng with bgm turned on!

Another one, Mascherano, born in 84, has recently been praised as having the potential to become one of the toughest defensive midfielders in football history. Mascherano, who debuted from Argentina's River Plate in 03, has a large defensive coverage area, accurate positioning, strong stealing ability, strong sense of substitution, and excellent positional sense. He has first-class defensive skills, fast and accurate footwork, and rarely commits fouls.

And these two evil stars seemed to be at odds with Li Qi today, and they gave Li Qi a warning from the very beginning!

At the beginning of the game, in the second minute, Li Qi received a pass from Hargreaves in the midfield; fortunately, Li Qi observed the situation behind him before receiving the ball, stuck in position, lowered his center of gravity and protected the ball with his back, because at the moment Li Qi received the ball, a huge force came from behind him, and Gerrard got involved with Li Qi without any hesitation, not giving Li Qi the space to turn around and handle the ball easily.

Li Qi thought that such a fierce close-range pressing would not give him a chance to turn around and get rid of it? But in the next moment, Li Qi knew why Gerrard dared to attack him recklessly, because just as Li Qi leaned on Gerrard and was about to use the force to half-turn around to bypass Gerrard's defense, another huge force came from the side!

With a snap, Mascherano slightly stepped forward and snatched the ball from Li Qi's feet.

Li Qi was double-teamed and fell to the ground. However, Li Qi was not the type to be dazed or self-pitying during the game. After falling, Li Qi immediately wanted to get up and chase back to make up for his loss of position in the middle of the midfield. However, before Li Qi could stand firm, he was pushed from behind by Gerrard and fell flat on his face!

When Li Qi got up again, Liverpool's midfield interception was over. Torres received Mascherano's through ball and cut into the penalty area to shoot a powerful shot, but Vidic, who was concentrating, flew over and blocked it out of the baseline.

In response to Li Qi's confused and puzzled look, Gerrard spat sarcastically: "This is Anfield, sissy!"

Li Qi knew that he was not only targeted, but also plotted against, and this was the Premier League's red derby!

Li Qi did not argue with Captain Jie. Li Qi has always been a person who would never say anything if he could use his kicks. But this was just the beginning. If he directly used his kicks to teach Captain Jie what Taekwondo and underworld were, he would probably be scolded by Sir Alex: If you have the guts, don't leave after school! See you in the woods!

Li Qi's eyes quickly turned fierce, and the stare between him and Gerrard seemed to have sparked electric sparks... But Li Qi didn't like this, so he turned and glared at the black-clad referee next to him. Seeing that the black-clad man seemed to be accustomed to such small movements and intense scenes, Li Qi understood the scale of the penalty for this game: it seemed that this was definitely not an easy game.

When the corner kick was replayed, Ronaldo and Rooney came over and patted Li Qi on the shoulder, giving him a few quick reminders.

C Ronaldo: "They are targeting you, be careful, pass the ball quickly! Don't get entangled!"

Rooney: "Don't be scared, let's beat them, give me the ball and I'll lead you to beat them!"

But what Ronaldo was thinking was: You kid, I knew this would happen to you, just hand over the ball! Hahahaha…

Rooney was thinking: At the critical moment, Li Qi is still not strong enough, and it is still up to me to turn the tide! Worship, tremble! Hehehehe...

Sir Alex Ferguson on the sidelines saw Li Qi's mistake, but did not blame Li Qi, because facing the double-team of those two monsters, in the Premier League, no, in the current world football, no one can guarantee not to make mistakes, not Zidane, not Ronaldinho, not Kaka.

However, Sir Alex did not pay attention to Gerrard or Mascherano, but glanced meaningfully at another fat man in the home team's coaching booth, the Spanish tactical master Benítez - this was Li Qi's second challenge in this game, the master's layout and targeted restrictions.

Obviously, Benítez discovered the real role of Li Qi in this Manchester United team, and also prepared a set of tactics to restrict Li Qi. However, Sir Alex, who was chewing gum fiercely, always felt that these two people should not be Benítez's killer moves, and there should be a real back-up. After all, Li Qi, who has experienced many finals, must have encountered the scene of double defensive midfielders in the first time, and this is also a normal response in training games: 1. Don't let Li Qi catch the ball easily, 2. Don't let Li Qi turn around easily, 3. Double-team or assist defense at the first time...

The game continued, and the intensity of the game was almost at its maximum from the beginning. Not only Li Qi made mistakes, but also C Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney from Manchester United made mistakes. It was not easy to protect the ball and then handle it accurately under Liverpool's traditional high-pressure pressing. On the contrary, Hargreaves from Manchester United had a certain space to pass the ball in the midfield. After all, Liverpool had withdrawn most of its troops to target the Four Little Swans.

But the pity is that Hargreaves is a relatively pure defensive midfielder with excellent defensive ability, but relatively mediocre passing and organizational skills. This is why Liverpool dares to let Hargreaves pass the ball and organize, choosing the lesser of two evils.

However, Hargreaves also had his own countermeasures. Since he was not good at organizing, he would counter-rob the players, forcing Gerrard, Kewell, Benayoun and Torres from Liverpool to make frequent mistakes...

The presence of Hargreaves this season has allowed Manchester United to stand up straight in tough and dull battles against Liverpool. Liverpool's attacking players such as Torres and Gerrard have to deal with not only the defenders, but also this annoying stalker.

In the 9th minute of the game, Gerrard intercepted the ball from Ronaldo and made a long pass to Gerrard; the latter finally stopped the ball under the defense of Wes Brown, but was intercepted by Hargreaves from the side and the ball returned to Manchester United.

In the 25th minute, Kewell stopped the ball a little too long on the wing, and Hargreaves rushed up to confront him and snatched the ball from the Australian winger's feet.

When the statistics were compiled after the game, Hargreaves left behind astonishing defensive data. He completed 12 tackles with a success rate of 91%; this means that Liverpool lost the ball 12 times just because of him; he completely suppressed Mascherano, who was rated as Liverpool's best performer after the game. The latter only made 8 tackles and 3 clearances in the whole game.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that Hargreaves only committed one foul throughout the game. His defense relied on long-range running and accuracy rather than fierce kicks and reckless fouls. However, it was more dependent on Li Qi's selflessness. After all, the dirty work and melee work in this game were basically given to the young Li Qi in front of him, so Hargreaves could calmly pick up the leaks behind him.

The four defensive midfielders of the two teams in this game are all full of energy, have a large defensive coverage area, run actively, and accurately predict the ball path. However, compared with the other three, Li Qi has two small advantages. One of them is that due to a year of continuous on-site escape from private training, Li Qi is slightly better in small ball technology. Although it does not play a big role in this bloody melee, but combined with another small advantage, Li Qi played the role of one against two in the fierce confrontation most of the time!

The second advantage is Li Qi’s innate magical power, the breaking point moment.

Maybe it was due to the unwillingness after being provoked at the beginning, coupled with the fiery atmosphere of the legendary stadium Anfield, the raging fire in Li Qi's heart further stimulated Li Qi's adrenaline secretion and reflex nerve movement, so Li Qi's explosive moments in this game came a bit frequently, almost reaching the peak level, that is, once every less than 5 minutes on average.

In the 11th minute, Li Qi triggered the explosive point for the second time in the game. He accurately predicted the route of Carragher's pass to Gerrard from the backcourt. Then Li Qi started to intercept in advance, knocked Gerrard over to avenge the push, and also intercepted the ball without committing a foul.

However, Li Qi did not expect that Gerrard was also a real bitch on the court. After being knocked down, he actually pulled his pants! While Li Qi was crotch-fucked, Xiao Ma quickly came over and entangled Li Qi, hoping to block the ball at Li Qi's feet, or at least make a foul, because the position where Gerrard lost the ball was too fatal, not far from the top of the penalty area...

So at this time, it was an advantage for Hargreaves who was lying in ambush on the side. Li Qi, who had just triggered the breaking point, also understood the situation and had already thought of a backup plan. At worst, he would commit a foul with Mark, and the two of them would fall into Gerrard's arms together. Anyway, with the three of them entangled together, the man in black would probably not hesitate to stop the game.

Hargreaves picked up the ball that was poked out by Li Qi before Xiao Ma Ge was tackled, and then passed it straight to the front of the penalty area. However, Hargreaves is a pure defensive midfielder, and he really doesn't know how to adapt. Wouldn't it be better to pass the fatal pass to Giggs in the open space? And the middle road was lying on the ground, so he could just push two steps and pass it straight!

No, a pure person does a pure thing. He didn't think much when he got the ball, and immediately passed it to Rooney in the middle of the penalty area. And his pass was not very good, the force was a bit too much, and the arc was a bit dependent on Rooney's weak foot... Hargreaves' pass success rate in the whole game was only 67.7%, even lower than Li Qi who was fighting with Captain Jay and Marko throughout the game. Although the latter's success rate was not as good as the usual 90%, at least it was still around 80%.

So Hargreaves's hasty pass gave Carragher the opportunity to make amends and disrupt Rooney's hasty shot...

However, when Li Qi's explosive moment came, it immediately gave people a bright feeling. Li Qi obviously reacted faster than Liverpool's double defensive midfielders, predicted more accurately, and was more agile in the fight! This surprised Liverpool's soldiers a lot. After all, the two great gods in the middle of their team were not good men and women! So Liverpool began to implement Bei Tushuai's plan currency, trying to bypass Li Qi's defensive area to pass the ball.

But this is not entirely useful, because Li Qi's coverage area is large, and when combined with Hargreaves's, it is even larger. The stadium is so small that Liverpool cannot completely bypass the middle if they want to create threats. Wouldn't that mean completely giving the midfield to Manchester United?

So Liverpool's two defensive midfielders began to get closer together, using short passes, assisting defense and backup defense between the two to target Li Qi's unpredictable early interceptions.

However, this cannot completely prevent Li Qi, because Li Qi's burst point is random, not only when defending, but also when organizing offense. Although sometimes it occurs when the ball is at the other end of the court, it is relatively rare. After all, it is triggered by Li Qi's attention or adrenaline.

In the 30th minute of the game, Hargreaves, who had been spinning in place, did not find a good point to pass the ball. He was about to be entangled by the defensive forward Kuyt. He was hesitating and struggling when he suddenly heard Li Qi shouting, "Here!"

So Hargreaves ignored Gerrard who was ambushing behind Li Qi and directly sent a powerful low ball over!

Li Qi shouted for the ball because he found that Hargreaves was about to take the ball away, and the position he was in was too dangerous, so he might as well give it to himself. If he lost Hargreaves, he would still have time to return to the key position. The second reason was that Li Qi had triggered the breaking point again. He clearly saw the wretched Jay who was lurking behind him and plotting something bad, and the sinister Ma who was ready to attack Hargreaves or himself at any time, and...

Just as Li Qi imagined, the dizzy Hargreaves was under pressure, and after Li Qi's loud reminder, he would definitely pass the ball with more force. Fortunately, it was a reliable low ball. If it was a high ball, it would be difficult to operate!

Li Qi pretended to lift his leg to stop the ball, but suddenly missed the ball. Then he made a 180-degree turn around Gerrard who pounced on him, and left the wretched Gerrard behind. Then, on the way forward, he deliberately leaned his body against the insidious Ma who had just reacted and was about to make up for the position, so that he could not speed up and catch up with him in the first time. Then, with the push from Ma Ge, Li Qi catapulted to start.

After receiving a kick from Giggs and being knocked back to his own forward route, Li Qi strode forward and approached Liverpool's penalty area defense line. Tevez and Rooney started to move forward from the left and right at the same time, suppressing and taking away Liverpool's two central defenders, leaving the middle road to the charging Li Qi!

However, just when Li Qi reached the edge of the penalty area and was about to shoot, Li Qi, who could not trigger the burst point continuously in a short period of time, was still careless. Unexpectedly, the insidious Ma did not give up and followed him all the way, breathing in Li Qi's exhaust gas for about 30 meters, and finally arrived at the moment when Li Qi shot.

Li Qi chose to push the ball into the far corner, but was intercepted by Xiao Ma Ge when the ball left Li Qi's instep! Then the ball changed direction and refracted out of the baseline, and Liverpool escaped!

This also made the whole Liverpool team feel a chill in their hearts. The Red Devils' new No. 17 is really difficult to deal with! It seems that Plansy must be activated!

……