In the second leg of the League Cup semi-finals, Manchester City faced Liverpool at home.
As a guest at the Etihad, Liverpool adopted a steel-barrel formation throughout the game, causing Manchester City's attacks to fail again and again. However, the home team still patiently controlled the ball and the situation.
Until the fifty-sixth minute of the second half.
Liverpool made a steal at the front of the penalty area, passed the ball to the midfield, and handed it to Mascherano.
The Argentine midfielder passed the ball to Biglia, but Manchester City counterattacked on the spot, forcing Biglia to pass the ball back to Mascherano again, and then distributed it to the right wing.
Tonight, Liverpool's right back is Martin Kelly, a 21-year-old youngster who is 1.91 meters tall and not very flexible. Mascherano suddenly separated the sides, catching him off guard and unable to stop for a moment.
By the time Martin Kelly turned around and chased to the sideline to stop the ball, tonight's starting left winger Gareth Bale had already rushed in front of him and blocked his front, forcing the Liverpool youngster to quickly pass the ball.
The ball moves back.
The ball was almost missed by Gareth Bale's foot.
Martin Kelly was a little lucky. He turned around immediately and blocked Gareth Bale with his body.
One characteristic of Manchester City's frontcourt pressing is that when the ball reaches a narrow area on the wing, which is most conducive to pressing, once an opportunity is created, everyone around will move at the same time.
When Martin Kelly turned around, protected the ball, and wanted to pass it back to Skrtel, he found that David Silva had quietly rushed forward, threatening this passing line.
The reason why a young general is a young general is that he lacks experience and gets nervous easily.
The originally imagined passing line was blocked, and Martin Kelly was a little frightened. Gareth Bale was coming up behind him again, and he might be surrounded by David Silva at any time.
This immediately made the young Liverpool player anxious. He did not dare to let the ball stay at his feet for any longer, and directly passed the ball back from a long distance.
The ball passed Skrtel and passed directly back to the penalty area, looking for goalkeeper Reina.
And all experienced defenders know that this kind of long-distance pass back to the goalkeeper is unacceptable because it is very dangerous.
The return pass cannot be too strong and the ball speed cannot be too fast, otherwise, if you are not careful, it will be an own goal.
Once the distance is extended, passing with low intensity and slow ball speed often means that the uncontrollable time is lengthened.
At this time, as long as there is a person in the middle who suddenly rushes out, he may get ahead of the goalkeeper and intercept the ball in any minute.
Just like Manchester City's Van Persie.
He has been lurking between the two Liverpool central defenders, Skrtel and Agger. When Skrtel pulled to the left wing of Manchester City to meet Martin Kelly, Van Persie also moved over, hoping to be able to communicate with David
·Silva double-teamed Skrtel.
But he always paid attention to maintaining balance with Skrtel, for fear of going offside.
When he saw David Silva threatening Skrtel and Martin Kelly being forced back, the experienced Dutch center immediately recognized his opportunity.
In this case, Martin Kelly has only one outlet for the ball, and that is the goalkeeper.
So he pushed forward decisively.
There is no need to consider whether it is offside when intercepting the opponent's back pass!
When Martin Kelly was so anxious that he was thinking about passing the ball back to the goalkeeper, how could he bother to observe the opponent's movement in private?
He just kicked the ball back and kicked it out.
But as soon as the ball was kicked out, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
He saw the figure of a Manchester City player wearing a sky blue jersey, who had quickly rushed into the penalty area.
Goalkeeper Reina also realized the danger, abandoned the goal and rushed out.
However, Martin Kelly's return pass was not fast and powerful. As soon as the ball entered the penalty area, it was immediately intercepted by Robin van Persie. The outside instep of his left foot stopped lightly, and the football was like
An obedient baby, Van Persie stopped Reina, who was attacking in front of him, and fell towards the baseline behind him.
Reina missed the opportunity. Faced with such a threat, there was only one option that was not an option.
foul!
But at this time, a foul will result in a red card and a penalty kick!
The Spanish goalkeeper chose to stop suddenly, turned around and chased back.
After passing Reina, Van Persie quickly rushed to the left side of the small penalty area. Near the baseline, he caught up with the football that he had just stopped and fired with his left foot.
The ball almost followed a straight line and rolled quickly towards Liverpool's goal.
Reina tried his best to save, but where could he save it?
When Agger returned to the small penalty area, he fell to the ground and made a sliding shovel, trying to destroy the shot, but it was missed. The ball almost missed the left post and penetrated into Liverpool's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the fifty-sixth minute, Liverpool's iron wall finally exposed its fatal cracks under Manchester City's high pressure!"
"Martin Kelly's backpass gave Van Persie an excellent opportunity. The Dutch center passed goalkeeper Reina and opened the scoring for Manchester City, 1-0!"
"Van Persie! Manchester City's goal scorer tonight!"
After the Dutchman scored, he quickly turned around and rushed out of the stadium.
The whole Etihad Stadium was shouting his name.
One to zero!
Liverpool's iron barrel formation is finally broken!
…
Noon on January 28th, Liverpool Anfield Stadium.
In the fourth round of the FA Cup, Liverpool faced Manchester City at home.
The atmosphere throughout the game was extremely intense.
The two sides played a total of four games in January 2012, including one league match, two League Cup matches, and one FA Cup match.
In the previous three games, Manchester City had two wins and one draw, remaining unbeaten.
This battle is about the right to advance to the FA Cup. With both the League and League Cup having failed, the FA Cup is Liverpool's only remaining hope, so Benitez is trying his best in this game.
Both sides scored one goal each in the first half.
For most of the rest of the game, the two teams remained in a stalemate.
Manchester City had the advantage in passing and possession, but Liverpool's defense was very careful.
Gao Shen also made continuous substitutions in the second half, trying to create a threat.
When the game reached the 88th minute, the score was still one to one, and no one could break the opponent's goal.
Manchester City once again controlled the ball and advanced to Liverpool's 30-meter area.
When Yaya Toure got the ball outside the top of the key, he used his body to hold Mascherano, then skillfully protected the ball with his right foot, and when Biglia grabbed the ball, he chose to pick the ball into the penalty area.
Arc top.
French center Giroud, who came on as a substitute, withdrew from the front, turned his back to the goal, and used his body to hold Daniel Agger behind him. When facing Yaya Toure's pass, he chose to use his left foot.
From the inside, there was another direct pass.
After the ball was picked up by Giroud, it crossed over Skrtel and fell to the left side of the small penalty area behind Liverpool's defense.
Sturridge went straight behind Skrtel at great speed, grabbed the ball before it hit the ground, and shot a volley with his left foot. He whipped the ball straight to the right side of the goal and hit the right side net of the Liverpool goal.
.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!"
"Man City! Another decisive victory from Manchester City!"
"This time it's Sturridge!"
"The local youngster from Manchester City's youth training received a pinball assist from substitute center Olivier Giroud and scored the winning goal for Manchester City!"
"Two to one!"
"At the critical moment, at a difficult moment when the team had a dense schedule, Manchester City's strong bench played a key role. Sturridge used his left foot to volley and score a key goal for Manchester City."
"Martin Kelly, this young Liverpool full-back, made a mistake in the return pass in the League Cup semi-final three days ago and the team conceded the goal. And tonight, he missed Sturridge again."
"But I have to say that I really can't blame Martin Kelly for this ball. After all, at 1.91 meters tall, it's really hard for him to compete with Sturridge for speed!"
"Manchester City has very rich tactical options. At critical moments, Gao Shen can always send in impressive players to change the trend of the game and break the deadlock."
"Giroud and Sturridge became the weight of Manchester City's victory tonight!"
…
Before Christmas and the devilish schedule during the winter break, countless people sang sad songs about Manchester City, thinking that it would be difficult for this team to advance on multiple fronts because it was too difficult.
How difficult is it?
From December 26th to January 28th, Manchester City played nine games in 34 days.
These include five league games, against West Bromwich Albion away, Sunderland away, Liverpool at home, Wigan Athletic away and Tottenham Hotspur at home.
In the two League Cup semi-finals, the opponent is Liverpool.
The opponents in the two FA Cup matches were Manchester United and Liverpool.
In other words, in these nine games, except for West Bromwich Albion, Wigan Athletic and Sunderland, they are all the top five teams in the league. Such a devilish schedule is almost life-threatening!
This was hailed by The Sun as the most difficult schedule in the history of the Premier League.
Some media even believed that Manchester City would never get out of this devilish schedule and would definitely lose.
Among the three fronts, trade-offs must be made.
But a month later, people discovered that Manchester City survived!
In the League Cup semi-finals, they won one and drew one in two rounds, eliminating Liverpool and successfully reaching the final.
The opponent in the final was Leeds United, who beat Cardiff twice in two rounds.
This is known as a showdown between the profound and the profound disciples.
The Sun even believed that this was a civil war between the Gao Shen couple!
But no matter what, Manchester City is the top favorite entering the final. Leeds United will hardly threaten Manchester City from any angle.
In the FA Cup, Manchester City defeated Manchester United and Liverpool and successfully advanced to the top 16.
After enduring a painful and devilish schedule, Manchester City finally turned their fortunes around and were drawn against Brighton in the English Championship.
This is known as the showdown between the tycoons of the Premier League and the tycoons of the Championship.
Let's see who is more cunning.
After Leeds United upset Arsenal, they lost 3-2 at home to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
After all, this dark horse in the League Cup failed to create surprises in the FA Cup.
But to be able to defeat Arsenal unexpectedly and reach the final of the League Cup unexpectedly, Leeds United's performance is eye-catching and amazing enough, especially the aggressive style of play adopted by this team, as well as the emergence of
Many of the players are attracting great attention.
Many people have also begun to look forward to Leeds United's performance after being promoted to the Premier League.
But I'm more worried.
Because more and more Premier League teams have begun to focus on Leeds United players.
