i am a football star

Chapter 158 European Super Cup

Four days after the end of the second round of the league is the third round, and the schedule is relatively tight.

Liverpool is also at home in the third round, and will face a visit from Aston Villa.

Villa finished fifth in the league last season. Although they let go of the head star Gareth Barry this season, there are stars such as Milner and Ashley Young in the team. The strength is still good. It is a team capable of causing trouble for Liverpool.

In fact, the result was the same. In the first half, Liu Ting's goal helped Liverpool take the lead. In the second half, Villa scored two goals in a row to overtake the score. Torres received a second pass from Gerrard in the 81st minute to help the team equalize.

In the end, Liverpool and Villa drew 2:2 at home, which was also the first draw in the Premier League this season.

In this game, Liverpool had an overall advantage in terms of statistics, but was tied by their opponents at home, and goalkeeper Cavalieri became a sinner.Two goals, the first one was that Cavalieri accidentally let go of the opponent's low-threatening shot and was shot into the net by the opponent. The second goal was not a must. Cavalieri's positioning error prevented him from saving the ball.

In this round, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United all scored three points. The three London teams Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea won three consecutive victories. After three rounds, Liverpool has fallen behind the leader by 5 points.

The draw gave the media something to say.

"Daily Mail" said: "Everyone knows that Reina's departure will have a great impact on Liverpool, but they didn't expect it to appear so soon. I think what Liverpool have to do now is to find a better goalkeeper before the transfer market closes, but there is only less than a week before the summer transfer deadline. Already out of league championship contention..."

Although the "Daily Mail" is exaggerating, it is true that Cavalieri is useless, and Heynckes is also having a headache for this matter.

Heynckes is talking to his assistant about the next game.

Herman said: "How about letting Joe Hart start in the next game? Anyway, the next game is not an important game."

Eunuch Hai said: "Okay, that's the only way to go, the remaining time is not enough for us to find a good goalkeeper and come back."

Liverpool's next game is not a league game, but a European Super Cup game. At that time, Liverpool's fourth round of the league will also have to be postponed, and a make-up match will be selected later.

If it is for those teams that have not won the Super Cup, like Bordeaux where Liu Ting stayed before, they must make every effort to prepare for the war to win the game and add a different trophy to the team's room of honor.

For European giants, the European Super Cup is just a warm-up match with trophies. Liverpool has participated in the European Super Cup five times before and won three times. This is the sixth time for Liverpool to participate in the European Super Cup.

Previously, Liverpool had won five Champions League titles and three UEFA Cup titles. However, during Liverpool’s first two Europa League wins, the Super Cup was played by the Champions League winner against the Cup Winners’ Cup winner. Later, after the merger of the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Cup, it became the UEFA Champions League champion.

On August 8, other teams in the Premier League were busy preparing for the fourth round of the league. The entire Liverpool team boarded a plane to France and went to Monaco to participate in the UEFA Super Cup.

Liverpool first went to Nice, France according to the scheduled route, and then took a helicopter to Monaco.

This is the second consecutive year for Liu Ting to participate in the UEFA Super Cup. Last year, he represented Bordeaux with a hat-trick against Manchester United, helping Bordeaux win the UEFA Super Cup for the first time in team history. Now he is representing Liverpool in the UEFA Super Cup.

At the small airport in Monaco, Liu Ting was once again welcomed by local fans.

Heynckes intends to carry out some rotations in this game, mainly for defensive players. Liu Ting, Torres and Gerrard on the offensive line will not rest, and they must give UEFA a face no matter what.

Even if you don't pay much attention to the UEFA Super Cup, if you send a bunch of substitutes, it will be a slap in the face of UEFA.

Liverpool's opponent in the UEFA Super Cup is the Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk. In the Europa League last season, the Ukrainian team defeated the German team Werder Bremen in the final. That Bremen team was formed with Ozil as the core of the midfield. The Shakhtar's ability to beat the opponent shows that the strength is still good.

There are indeed several good players in the Ukrainian team, mainly their Brazilian attacking combination. In the future, they will go to Manchester City’s midfielder Fernandinho, Chelsea’s wide player William, and AC Milan’s striker Luis Adriano. He has been bought by Barcelona and will report to Barcelona immediately after the Super Cup. The other three are all Brazilian players.

The foreign aid policy of the Ukrainian League allows rich Ukrainian teams to introduce a large number of Brazilian talents. After these talents are cultivated, they will be sold to the five major leagues to recover the cost or even make a small profit. Therefore, the Ukrainian League has become a duo between Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev.

The European Super Cup is dispensable for Liverpool, but it is very important for Shakhtar Donetsk. They are holding back their energy and want to win the first European Super Cup championship in their team history. The players in the Shakhtar team also want to use this to attract the attention of European giants.

At 19:45 in the evening, the European Super Cup started on time.

More than ten minutes into the game, Heynckes on the sidelines began to frown slightly.

The miners are completely defensive to the end, blocking the door firmly first, and then seek a counterattack when they have a chance.

This style of play is indeed a headache, and breaking the dense defense is an eternal problem in football.

Most of the Liverpool fans who came to watch the game live booed Shakhtar Donetsk's tactics, but this did not allow the miners to attack.

To be fair, Miner's style of play is not too much.

Among the attack combinations of major European teams selected by the European media in the new season, the attack combination of Liverpool's Liu Ting, Torres and Gerrard ranked third, which means that Liverpool's attack power is recognized as the third strongest in Europe.

Ranked first is the Barcelona attack combination with Messi, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta, and Harvey, and the second is the Real Madrid attack combination that includes Ronaldo, Kaka, Raul and Benzema.

This ranking is actually based on fame. Liu Ting believes that Barcelona's attacking combination is not inferior to Liverpool's, but Real Madrid's attacking combination has just been formed and has not played two official games. Just because this combination has Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, the former two World Footballer of the Year, it ranks ahead of Liverpool.

Facing Liverpool, the top three attacking combination in Europe, the miners chose to stick to it. If they are lucky enough to survive the penalty shootout, then it is hard to say who will win.

The miners insisted on their defensive tactics, and Liverpool had to find opportunities slowly, but time passed quickly, and the score was still 0:0 at the end of the first half.

This score does not satisfy Heynckes. Although he does not pay much attention to the Super Bowl, he does not want to play the game so aggrieved. If he loses in a penalty shoot-out after overtime, the loss outweighs the gain. Not only does he not win the championship, but the players are exhausted.

Heynckes said: "We continued to strengthen our offense in the second half. We must finish the game within 90 minutes. There are still many games waiting for us in the league. We cannot spend too much time on a Ukrainian team."

This arrangement of Heynckes actually has another purpose. If the mad attack fails to break through the opponent's goal, the long-term aggressive pressure is likely to give the opponent a chance. Therefore, Heynckes does not hesitate to be attacked by the opponent and lose the game. In short, do not play overtime, either win or lose within 90 minutes.

Eunuch Hai turned his head to Joe Hart, the goalkeeper who started the game, and said, "Joe, you did a good job in the first half, and continue to do so in the second half."

In fact, Joe Hart’s performance in the first half can only be said to be quite satisfactory. The miners had two counterattacks and there was no threat, but Joe Hart did not make low-level mistakes. This is what makes Heynckes happy.

Heynckes also knows that young players need encouragement, so I compliment him by the way.

At the beginning of the second half, Liverpool attacked wildly according to Heynckes' arrangement, but Liverpool was hit first before they could score.

In the 57th minute, Agger collided with the opponent's midfielder Guy with a knee during the fight. Agger fell on the grass and failed to stand up.

This time Liverpool's starting central defender combination is Agger and Skrtel, just to give the veteran Carragher a rest.Fortunately, Heynckes brought Carragher to Monaco, and now he has to let Carragher warm up.

But only 5 minutes later, Skrtel strained his thigh in a back-to-back defense, and Liverpool had to use a second passive substitution.

Zhan Jun said: "Liverpool is really unlucky. Both starting central defenders were injured within 5 minutes. I think this is a big blow to Liverpool. I hope they can hold on."

Heynckes on the sidelines is considering who to play.

There are seven substitute places in a game (previously there were only five in the Premier League, and there have been seven since 08). Except for the substitute goalkeeper who must occupy one, there are only six places left. For these six places, forwards, midfielders and defenders must be arranged. Generally, two substitutes are arranged for each.

In this game, Heynckes arranged Carragher and Gareth Bale as substitute defenders, a full-back and a central defender. Normally, such an arrangement was enough to deal with most situations. Who knew that the two central defenders were injured one after another. Bell is a typical attacking full-back. If he were to play the central defender, he would miss many goals. Heynckes had to consider other people.

After scanning the bench, Heynckes said, "Zizi, hurry up and warm up."

This choice is also reasonable. There is no central defender available now. Zheng Zhi is an all-rounder in the backcourt. He can play as a defensive midfielder or a defender, but he spends more time playing as a midfielder.

When Zheng Zhi played, Zhan Jun was saying: "Zheng Zhi got the chance to play, and he created another record. He became the first Chinese player to play in the UEFA Super Cup. If Liverpool can win at the end of the game, he will also become the first Chinese player to win the UEFA Super Cup."

Two people were injured and retired one after another. It took Liverpool more than ten minutes to recover from the blow and once again besieged Shakhtar Donetsk.

There are only about 10 minutes left in the regular time of the game, and the miners are more determined to stick to the end.

Seeing that the situation was about to develop in the direction Heynckes least expected, Liverpool finally created a chance.

In the 86th minute, Torres and Gerrard hit the wall continuously on the right. Then Torres swept the ball into the penalty area. Liu Ting tacitly appeared in the right position and pushed the ball into the lower left corner of the goal.

This was the only goal in the game. Liverpool also relied on Liu Ting's goal to beat Shakhtar Donetsk 1:0 and win the fourth UEFA Super Cup in team history.

(End of this chapter)