i am a football star

Chapter 113 The Tenacious Pompeii Legion
Recently, Liverpool has renewed their contracts with Harvey Alonso and Daniel Agger one after another. It can be regarded as temporarily retaining two players. Alonso was even sold because of conflicts with Benitez before.

The Premier League game has not yet started, Liverpool suffered a blow, Gerrard was injured in training, and will be absent for more than half a month. Whether he can play in the first round of the Champions League and Real Madrid is still uncertain.

On February 2th, Liverpool's away game against Pompeii's Portsmouth came.

Gerrard was absent due to injury without hesitation, Heynckes replaced him with Modric, and Agger returned from injury and started in place of Carragher.

So Liverpool's formation became goalkeeper Reina, four defenders Aurelio, Stertel, Agger and Arbeloa, three midfielders Javier Mascherano, Xavi Alonso and Modric, and Babel on the striker. Replaced Dirk, Torres, and Liu Ting as partners.

There are two people in the Portsmouth team who are more familiar with Liverpool. One is the former England international Saul Campbell. He has played for Arsenal for many years. He has a stable defense and excellent physical fitness.

In fact, Campbell was born in the youth training camp of Tottenham, Arsenal's rival in the same city. He played for Tottenham for 9 years. Later, he moved to Arsenal and made him the most hated player by Tottenham fans. Campbell played for Arsenal at White Hart Lane for the first time. ! !
Campbell is still a hated object of Tottenham fans. Before the start of the European Cup jointly hosted by Ukraine and Poland in 2012, the retired Campbell said in a TV talk: "I warned England fans not to watch the European Cup live, because there is racist violence there." Campbell also said: "If you go to watch the European Cup live, you may come back lying in a coffin."

In fact, what Campbell said was not groundless. At that time, there was a lot of trouble between Ukraine and Russia, because Ukraine was independent after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. Some people wanted Russia to return to its embrace, and some wanted independence. Ukraine was in a state of trouble, and Russia came out in a timely manner to create conflicts.

UEFA has clearly stipulated that the Ukrainian team and the Russian team cannot be divided into the same group in the group stage of the European competition, otherwise the first player to be killed on the field may appear.

Of course, UEFA does not stipulate a knockout match because the teams of the two countries basically cannot go far in the knockout match. Whether they can qualify for the group stage is a problem.

Although Campbell's reminder was a bit exaggerated, it was not unnecessary. However, many people came out to laugh at Campbell as a coward, especially Tottenham fans. They specially organized people to go to Ukraine to watch the game, and specially prepared a coffin board with the words: "We can do whatever we want", "Campbell, coward" and so on to satirize Campbell.

Another person who has a relationship with Liverpool is Peter Crouch, a tall guy who is more than 2 meters tall. He is a well-deserved tall guy. Crouch played for Liverpool for 3 seasons and was only sold to Portsmouth by Liverpool last summer.

To be honest, although Crouch's strength is not the main force in Liverpool, he is still a good tactical player. He can be used when needed. His height can attract the opponent's defense once he stands in the penalty area.

As the tallest player in the history of the Liverpool team, Heynckes originally wanted to keep him, but Crouch wanted the main position to ensure participation in the 10 World Cup, and finally left.

This game is also Crouch's old host.

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Zhan Jun said: "Portsmouth is a 442 formation in this game. The goalkeeper is England's David James. The back line is Herdalson, Campbell, Distin and Glenn Johnson. The midfielders are Bel Haji, Mullins, Davis and Basinas. The two forwards are Liverpool generals Peter Crouch and Nugent."

Liverpool launched an attack at the beginning, and Manchester United has been chasing them fiercely recently. Since Ferguson came out to express his opinion, Manchester United has won 7 consecutive victories.

Liverpool wants to take all three points, and Portsmouth is not to be outdone. Now the Pompeii are ranked 14th in the Premier League, and they are only 3 points away from the relegation zone. Every point is also very important to them. Crouch, who is facing the former owner, is also in good condition.

In the 4th minute, Crouch headed the ball and another Portsmouth striker Nugent volleyed. The ball was confiscated by Reina.

In the 7th minute, Nugent made a pass, and Crouch headed the goal in the penalty area. The ball was weak and was confiscated by Reina.

Although Crouch is tall, his body is thin and his waist is weak, so that he can grab a header but can't match his strength. This is his biggest flaw.

Liverpool's first shot appeared in the 8th minute. The counter-attacking Liverpool was driven forward by Aveiroa, crossed the penalty area from the right side of the penalty area, and Modric followed up and hit the side net.

In the 11th minute, Liverpool got a free kick in the front court. Alonso quickly sent it out. Liu Ting quickly broke into the penalty area and hit the goal. The whole Portsmouth team was caught off guard.

Zhan Jun said: "A good goal! It's a pity that it was blocked by the post. Liverpool's fast serve made the opponent's defense weak. Liu Ting's breakthrough was also very decisive, but it was almost in the end."

In the 17th minute, Modric dribbled the ball past the old Campbell in front of the penalty area and passed the ball to Torres. Torres shot wide from the left side of the penalty area.

In the 20th minute, Agger fouled Nugent and Bacinas took a free kick 22 meters away from the goal slightly above the crossbar. This is Portsmouth's most threatening shot so far.

The offensive and defensive rhythm of the two teams is very fast, and there have been several shots in 20 minutes.

In the 27th minute, Liu Ting passed the ball from the left, and Agger, who was undisturbed, hit the goal in front of the penalty area and was blocked by the experienced Campbell.

After half an hour in the first half, Liu Ting found that Babel, who replaced Dirk in the starting line-up, had no performance at all and was completely invisible on the field. It seemed that although Dirk was just a coolie striker, he was really a better choice for Liverpool.

A guy like Babel who lacks ability and doesn't know how to work hard will only play as a substitute in his life.

The coaching staff on the sidelines also discovered this problem. Hermann said to Heynckes: "Joseph, Babel's performance is not good. Let the opponent let him go defensively to block Liu and Fernando. We should find a way to make adjustments."

Heynckes said: "I know, let's talk about it in the second half. You can't give him a chance and make a substitution before half-time, right?"

The head coach seldom made substitutions in the first half except for accidents such as injuries. On the other hand, if he made a substitution in the first half, wouldn't that mean that the head coach's pre-match arrangements were wrong and the head coach didn't do a good job of pre-match preparations?
At the end of the first half, although Liverpool had two chances, they still failed to rewrite the score. The two sides returned to the locker room with a score of 0:0.

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Midfielder Heynckes did not make too many adjustments, but only asked to strengthen the offense.

Shortly after the start of the second half, Portsmouth players scored a goal, but it was their own goal.

In the 49th minute, Liu Ting received a pass from Alonso from the left and easily passed Glenn Johnson. Although Glenn Johnson did not defend well, he was very fast and soon came back to entangle Liu Ting. Liu Ting was forced to the bottom line of the penalty area.

Liu Ting saw that Liverpool had Babel in the front and Torres in the back in the penalty area, so it depended on whether they could grab a point and stab them.

Babel at the previous point had the best chance. Liu Ting's breakthrough had attracted Portsmouth's defense, and he was in a position with little interference.But he didn't seem to expect that Liu Ting would pass the ball. He started slowly, so he could only reluctantly fall to the ground and shovel the ball, and the ball flew past his feet.

Babel's shovel missed the ball, but Portsmouth's players made a misjudgment. Behind him, Herdalsen thought that Babel would shovel the ball, and was not ready to clear the siege.

"Goooooooal!!! Own goal!!! Portsmouth's own goal, Herdalsen's own goal, no one thought the first goal of the game would be so dramatic."

"Liu made this own goal. His breakthrough created a good opportunity. Babel had the opportunity to score the ball, but he started too late and missed the opportunity. Instead, he made this own goal by mistake."

The goal silenced Fratton Park, and Portsmouth fans did not expect such an own goal to give their opponents the lead.

To a certain extent, Babel made a contribution, but it did not prevent Heynckes from substituting him. He should have scored the goal, but he missed a good opportunity. If Portsmouth hadn't been unlucky, this opportunity would have been completely missed.

In the 57th minute, Heynckes replaced Babel with Louie.

(End of this chapter)