Mascherano remained focused throughout the whole process. As soon as he saw where the ball landed, his first reaction was to push it out.
But as soon as he moved, he suddenly felt a huge pressure on his face. It felt like the whole mountain was collapsing, making him feel that his body became extremely heavy.
He and the opponent took off almost at the same time, but the Argentine midfielder, who was only 1.74 meters tall, was easily squeezed away by the opponent.
As soon as they made contact, Mascherano knew that he and his opponent were not in the same weight class at all.
After squeezing Mascherano away, the Manchester City player gave Giroud's header a powerful header and blasted it into the left side of Liverpool's goal.
Goalkeeper Reina was positioned on the right side and was out of reach of the ball.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"
"In the 71st minute, Manchester City took a corner kick and scored with a header from Javi Martinez!"
"One to zero!"
"After attacking the whole game, Manchester City finally broke through Liverpool's goal."
"What a wonderful corner kick attack!"
"Liverpool once again suffered a set-piece defensive error. Benitez's team has been criticized for its zonal defense this season, but he has always adhered to his judgment, and tonight, at Anfield, he once again failed to defend the set-piece.
And lost the ball."
"This is already Manchester City's sixth corner kick tonight. They have never scored before, but this time, Javi Martinez calmly seized the opportunity."
On the sidelines, after Gao Shen saw Javi Martinez's final decision, he excitedly raised his hands high and cheered vigorously for the Spanish midfielder.
As he said in the pre-match preparation meeting, Liverpool's set-piece defense problem is not the so-called zone defense or man-marking. These are appearances. The real problem is the players.
It's like Barcelona.
In fact, Barcelona often lose points on set pieces because their players are short, but can this be said to be a problem with Barcelona's defensive tactics for set pieces?
Even if other tactics are used, can the problem of Barcelona players being short be changed?
The real reason is that as modern defensive tactics become more and more sophisticated, set-piece offense is becoming an increasingly important offensive method, so more and more points will be lost from set-pieces.
For a team with a tight defense like Liverpool, because it is difficult for opponents to break through their defense in positional battles, they rely more on set kicks. Therefore, Liverpool lose more points from set kicks. This is actually a kind of survivor.
deviation.
But no matter what, after tonight, the Red Army's set-piece tactics will definitely be criticized again.
Gao Shen looked at Javi Martinez rushing out of the stadium to celebrate, and at the Manchester City players following him, and he felt so happy.
As long as he has a ball in hand, what else is he afraid of?
…
Benitez soon understood why Capello was so angry that he vomited blood.
Because after taking the lead by one goal, Gao Shen no longer bombarded like before, but chose to retreat, patiently and slowly controlling the ball, and slowly losing it to Liverpool.
Gao Shen is almost holding a microphone and telling the world loudly: It is enough for labor and management to win one goal!
Benitez took several deep breaths to calm down and did not curse, but he still made a substitution and replaced Benayoun, allowing the winger to form a frontcourt with Babel and Kuyt.
trident.
Manchester City has withdrawn. If Liverpool, who are playing at home, don't want to surrender, they can only increase their offensive intensity.
The first thing is to steal the ball from Manchester City's feet.
If you want to steal the ball from Manchester City, you have to apply more pressure in the midfield and frontcourt, and then the team's overall formation must be further forward.
If the formation is further forward, more gaps will be exposed behind it.
In the 78th minute, Manchester City made a continuous pass in the midfield. Rakitic distributed the ball to the right and handed it to Robben. The Dutch stopped the ball and cut inside. After getting rid of Insua, he scored in the penalty area.
He hit a curve ball with his left foot from the right side of the arc.
After the football drew a beautiful arc, it fell into the left side of Liverpool's goal.
Two to zero!
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
The Dutch Peter Pan quickly rushed out of the stadium, pointing excitedly with his hands in front of his body, causing the Manchester City fans in the stands to cheer and scream.
After joining Manchester City, Robben's performance on the right has become increasingly outstanding.
This also made everyone admire Gao Shen's vision and training ability for players even more. All those who had previously expressed doubts about Gao Shen's employment have now changed their stance and adjusted their tone.
Everyone can see that Robben is getting more and more comfortable playing on the right.
What's more, he looks healthy.
…
"It's done!"
Gao Shen, who scored when Robben scored, clenched his hands into fists and shouted loudly.
Two to zero, this lead is enough.
Although there are still more than ten minutes left in the game, Manchester City only needs to do one thing, and that is to patiently pass and control the ball.
If Liverpool doesn't press out, that's the best thing. If the Red Army presses out and grab the ball, then Manchester City will counterattack Liverpool just like they did just now.
Even, in order to achieve a better counterattack effect, Gao Shen simply replaced Suarez and replaced him with Sturridge.
In order to play this game well, Gao Shen arranged several main players including Suarez, Zabaleta and David Luiz to start.
You know, in the past, Gao Shen would arrange for the South American international players to rest after every national team match.
This time, in order to face Liverpool, Gao Shen made an exception.
As a result, Suarez's performance was not ideal throughout the game.
But as the top scorer in the Premier League, coupled with his active running, Suarez's tactical role is still very obvious.
Now, replacing Suarez with Sturridge will take advantage of the Englishman's speed and impact.
After changing people, Gao Shen couldn't help but laugh happily.
He had the urge to point his finger at Benitez and shout: Come here!
…
"Shameless!"
In front of the home team's coaching bench, Benitez cursed angrily.
He now truly understands why Capello has not had many good words to say about Gao Shen until now.
To put it bluntly, this guy is so shameless.
How hard did you attack before you scored?
As soon as he scored a goal, he immediately retreated. Do you want to lose face?
Although Benitez is very clear that this is actually a very pragmatic and wise choice, the problem is that he is now the lagging side, and how much he hopes that Gao Shen can continue to press and attack like before.
But soon, after seeing Manchester City playing very patiently, Benitez became desperate.
Without Torres, Liverpool's offense was very inefficient today.
There were only two shots on goal in the whole game, and there was no threat at all in the open battle.
The most important thing, Gerrard, who also has high hopes from Benitez, performed very mediocrely after meeting Javi Martinez. As for Kuyt, the former Dutch scoring champion did not perform well after coming to the Premier League.
, he plays more on the wing, and has long since lost the spirit of the top scorer.
"This bastard!" Benitez breathed out heavily.
He admitted that he lost!
And it was at home, Anfield.
When he realized this and looked back, he soon discovered that Gao Shen had bet his chips on set pieces from the beginning, so in this game Manchester City continued to attack and got a lot of set pieces.
Chance.
There are free kicks in the frontcourt, corner kicks, and throw-ins...
It is obvious that Gao Shen consciously wants to score Liverpool's goal through set pieces.
As long as he grabs a ball, he will use his advantage in passing and controlling the ball to retreat and force Liverpool to press out.
Don't forget, there is also Gareth Bale sitting on the senior bench.
And so far, he has only made two substitutions.
"It's really not easy!" Pellegrino glanced at Gao Shen in front of the visiting team's coach's bench and couldn't help but praise.
"We've fallen into a trap, Rafa."
Benitez snorted coldly.
It cannot be said that it was a trap, because Gao Shen was a conspiracy and he had enough chips.
If nothing else, he has more talents than Liverpool.
After Benitez knocked down a Torres, he basically had no forwards available.
And what about Gao Shen?
God knows where he got a backup like Giroud from?
The key is that both Suarez and Giroud are very cheap and easy to use.
Benitez has a headache on the left wing because Sua's performance is not ideal, but if Gareth Bale is in Liverpool, Benitez believes that the Welshman will be able to greatly improve Liverpool's offensive power.
Especially when there is a full-back like Glen Johnson on the right, it is not a dream to fly on both wings.
But the thing is, Gareth Bale belongs to Manchester City.
And all this is because of that damn Gao Shen!
…
"Congratulations, boss!"
Manchester City finally defeated Liverpool 2-0 away with goals from Javi Martinez and Robben.
As soon as he walked off the court, Biglia came over and shook hands with Gao Shen.
Even after joining Liverpool, Biglia reiterated more than once that Gao Shen is the head coach he respects the most and is the most grateful to, because it was Gao Shen who brought him to European football when he was still young.
Although he lost the game, Biglia still came over to congratulate Gao Shen.
"Thank you, Lucas." Gao Shen shook hands with Biglia, but quickly looked at Mascherano not far away and Benitez further away, and found that neither of them was interested.
Staring at him kindly, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Go quickly, otherwise, I'm afraid you will be in trouble later."
Biglia seemed to have sensed the crisis, and when he saw the gazes of Mascherano and Benitez, he immediately smiled helplessly.
"He was probably going crazy when Javi Martinez scored from above his head." Biglia teased his old friend, "As for our head coach, to be honest, boss,
Sometimes I feel like he is like a child."
Gao Shen burst out laughing.
Biglia also hurriedly said goodbye, saying that he would come over to visit Gao Shen at an arranged time and treat Gao Shen to dinner.
Liverpool and Manchester are very close.
But Gao Shen felt that what Biglia said was absolutely correct.
Benitez is really like a child sometimes, especially in his willful character.
