i am a football star

Chapter 166 Team Injuries
After the last two rounds of the World Cup European qualifiers, the French team first beat the Faroe Islands 5:0 at home, and then defeated Austria 3:1 at home, successfully qualifying for the play-offs.

Denmark, Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy, and the Netherlands all directly qualified for the World Cup with the first place in the group. Only France, the European powerhouse, fell to the play-offs. In the play-offs, Portugal and Russia were relatively strong. This is what France wants to avoid.

In fact, with the current state of the French team, it is not necessarily easy to play against anyone, and those who can make it to the playoffs have two waters.

At the end of the qualifiers, some stars have announced their farewell to next year's World Cup. The biggest player is Barcelona's Zlatan Ibrahimovic. His Sweden failed to win against Portugal and was eliminated after finishing third in the group. In addition, there are also big-name stars such as Manchester United's Berbatov and Chelsea's Petr Cech.

The issue of Liu Ting becoming a French citizen also spread rapidly during this period.

In China, some people also criticized him, thinking that he should join the Chinese team, but Schiller Wagner and Zhang Qiming helped them deal with it, so the problem is not big.

The national team is back and the league is about to start again.

Liverpool will go away to challenge the black cat Sunderland. Sunderland drew with Manchester United in the last round of the league away game. They are currently on the same score as Liverpool in the standings, only behind Liverpool in terms of goal difference.

The reason why Sunderland was nicknamed the Black Cat was that in the 36/37 season, a fan brought a black cat into the stadium to watch the FA Cup final. Sunderland defeated the opponent and won the FA Cup. The fans believed that the black cat brought them good luck, so the black cat became a symbol of the team for a while.

In fact, after Sunderland got the nickname of the Black Cat, it has only won the FA Cup once. The other championships were won before the nickname of the Black Cat, so feudal superstition is not necessary.

During the national team game, Liverpool was hit hard, Torres and Gerrard were injured successively.

At present, it is only the main lineup. Liverpool has Torres, Gerrard, Gareth Bale and Agger with four injuries, both in the front, middle and back.

On October 10, the 17th round of the Premier League came. Liverpool went to challenge Sunderland away. Most of the media were not very optimistic about Liverpool winning.

In addition to the civil war among the four giants, a giant like Liverpool has the lowest odds of winning in most other games.This result is mainly due to the fact that Sunderland has been in good form since the beginning of the season. In the last round, they drew away with Manchester United, while Liverpool's core players were injured one after another, and they lost to the leader Chelsea in the last round of the league.

What Eunuch Hai meant before the game was: We may encounter some difficulties, but we must not lose, and we will never accept two consecutive losses.

In short, keep the balance and win.

The two-game losing streak has dealt too much blow to the team. After this league game, there will be a match between the Champions League and Lyon, and then the main event of the league. The red derby in the Premier League against Manchester United.

Everyone agrees with Heynckes' analysis, but reality often does not advance as imagined.

At the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, the opening time was only 5 minutes.

"Goooooooal!!! Unbelievable! Sunderland scored Liverpool's goal in just 5 minutes. This is simply a wonderful start." Sunderland's local broadcast commentary cheered loudly.

Just 5 minutes into the game, Liverpool's defense made a mistake, and the opponent's striker Darren Bent seized the opportunity to score a goal.

Such an opening was the last thing Heynckes wanted to see, but it happened, and he had to command the defense from the sidelines.

Soon, the commentators discovered that Liverpool actually played a defensive counterattack against a team like Sunderland.

This is also impossible. Liverpool suffers from injuries and low morale. Sunderland is just the opposite. They have high morale but no injuries. Heynckes doesn't know the saying that people have to bow their heads under the roof, but he understands this truth.

In the next first half, the game became not very good. The two sides kept strangling the midfielder, and neither had a good chance for each other.Sunderland's one-goal lead can be relieved for the time being, while Liverpool is not in a hurry to attack under the instructions of Heynckes. The old coach Hai has already said on the sidelines that he will think of a way in the second half.

During the intermission, Heynckes said: "Remember, in the second half we have to play offensively at the beginning, and we must score as soon as possible, so that they can attack. Sunderland has been in a good state recently. They must want to beat us at home. Then we can have a lot of opportunities to reverse the score."

"Lucas and Javier (Javier Mascherano) pay more attention to the defense..."

Due to injuries, Liverpool started this game with a 442 formation, with Liu Ting and Kevin Dirk serving as striker partners, and the midfield four were Harvey Alonso, Mascherano, Shinji Kagawa and Lucas.

Carragher's state continued to decline, and he would make mistakes from time to time on the court. Heynckes had given up on him, but there was no good defender in the team, so he had to arrange other players to wipe his ass.

At the beginning of the second half of the game, Liverpool started the attack. Although Sunderland had some preparations, they still failed to withstand this wave of offensive.

In the 46th minute, Liu Ting broke through with the ball in the frontcourt, and the Sunderland defender couldn't defend and had to foul. Anton Ferdinand received a yellow card for this.

Anton Ferdinand is the younger brother of Manchester United star defender Rio Ferdinand. If he hadn't scored an own goal at the last moment in the last game, Sunderland could even take away a victory from Old Trafford.

In the 50th minute, Sunderland's attack was jointly intercepted by Harvey Alonso and Skrtel in the backcourt.

Liu Ting ran back to the left side of the frontcourt, and the ball flew in front of him in a tacit understanding, allowing him to catch the ball comfortably and immediately started, throwing off his defender Philip Bardsley.

"Goooooooal!!! The goal has been scored! It's a beautiful counterattack. Facing such a counterattack, Sunderland is at a loss. Even if Torres and Gerrard are injured, we still have Liu!" The commentary of Liverpool TV shouted loudly.

"This is Liu's response. They scored us a goal in the first 5 minutes of the first half, and now we return one in the first 5 minutes of the second half."

This goal made Sunderland unstoppable for this game. It is reasonable to get a draw against Liverpool at home, but there is still enough time for Liverpool to continue to overtake the score. At that time, there may not be a draw.

If this is the case, we might as well attack, anyway, the opponent is not in a good state recently.Sunderland coach Steve Bruce thought so on the sidelines.

Steve Bruce was also a well-known star in his player era. He was the captain of Manchester United and the early pillar of Manchester United Ferguson's defense.

Bruce left Manchester United when he was old and started coaching the team after retiring. However, as a coach, his performance was neither good nor too bad. Last season, he led Wigan Athletic to relegation. This season, he switched to coaching Sunderland.

In fact, after Bruce coached Sunderland for a few years, he gradually turned the black cat into a nursing home for the Red Devils. Many of Manchester United's lesser-known players switched to Sunderland for the elderly under his guidance.Fame naturally went to the giants of the European minor leagues for retirement, and some went to the United States, Qatar, etc. for retirement.

The weirdest thing is that Bruce is also a novelist and has written three novels, all of which are football novels.

Unwilling to be equalized, Sunderland began to press out to look for opportunities. Liverpool also actively sought to attack, and the scene became better.

In the 54th minute, Liu Ting cooperated with Aurelio from the left and made a cross. Harvey Alonso put the ball on top of the stands.

In the 56th minute, Liu Ting dunked the opponent's defender Michael Turner's long-range shot from the penalty area.

In the 62nd minute, Sunderland striker Darren Bent's shot into the penalty area was blocked by Joe Hart with his calf, and the ball was finally cleared by Xiao Ma in the melee.

In the 66th minute, Sunderland's African striker Kenway Jones' long-range shot hit the crossbar and bounced off the bottom line. This was Sunderland's closest goal since the second half.

In the 78th minute, Liverpool finally got another chance.

Liu Ting cooperated with Xiangchuan hitting the wall in the middle, and then passed Anton Ferdinand on a bicycle in front of the penalty area. Liu Ting's continuous dribble made Sunderland's defense frightened. Immediately, three people moved closer to Liu Ting's breakthrough route and wanted to rely on the numerical advantage to defend Liu Ting.

At this time, Liu Ting slanted to the right side of the penalty area, and Dirk Dirk immediately ran back to receive the ball. This was a single-handed opportunity.

Has been working with Dirk for more than a year, and the tacit understanding between them has long been cultivated.

Coolidt didn't waste this opportunity either, he pushed a shot from the far corner and hit the post, but in the end the ball bounced back into the goal and Liverpool overtook the score 2:1.

Zhan Jun said: "This is a goal by Kevin Dirk, but Liu Ting should be the main contributor to this goal. His breakthrough made a hole in Sunderland's defense, and with a precise through ball, it can be said that Liu Ting helped Liverpool reverse the game on his own."

This goal made Sunderland even more uncomfortable. Steve Bruce on the sidelines was organizing a counterattack. Fortunately, there was not too much time left for Sunderland. Liverpool held on for the last ten minutes, and even Irving almost scored a single-handed goal in the 84th minute.

The away game relied on Liu Ting's one pass and one shot to help the team reverse Sunderland 2:1. Liverpool refused to lose two games in a row.

Although Liverpool won and reversed the game, they did not get much recognition. It is difficult to win against a black cat. The upcoming Lyon and Red Devils will make Liverpool's situation even worse, but Liu Ting still gets a lot of praise.

"Liverpool Echo" said: "At the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Liu can be said to have single-handedly helped Liverpool reverse the game. Liu's form is excellent. This is the only good news for Liverpool in the recent difficult schedule. In Italy, Liu's hat-trick helped the team reverse, and now Liu's one pass and one shot help the team reverse. Liverpool can't rely on Liu's state every time. Otherwise, like the last round against Chelsea, when Liu's state is not so good, Liverpool can only accept the loss. We need more people. Step up and help the team..."

(End of this chapter)