Revive Liverpool

Chapter 59 The UEFA Cup Quarterfinals Begin
As the saying goes, "When there is misfortune, good fortune rests on it, and when good fortune comes, misfortune rests on it." For Arsenal and Manchester United, the two favorites to win the Premier League this season, this sentence is appropriate.

Arsenal were held to a zero-to-zero draw by Sunderland at the Emirates Stadium yesterday.

Manchester United leads Arsenal by three points with one game less, and Manchester United has the opportunity to further widen the distance and determine the winner of the Premier League title early.

Unfortunately, however, Manchester United lost to Liverpool and failed to widen the point difference. Instead, the point difference changed from the previous four points to three points, with only one game difference.

And there will be a direct confrontation between Arsenal and Manchester United next, which makes the suspense of the Premier League championship even bigger.

However, these things have little to do with Liverpool. After all, the losses in the few games before the start of the season have made their chances of winning the championship very small.

Now the team's goal is to earn a place in the Champions League.

In this round of the match between Tottenham and Wolves, the two teams were tied, and the gap between Tottenham and Liverpool is getting wider and wider.

Liverpool's No.5 position in the league is becoming more and more stable, but the gap with the top four in the league has not narrowed, but it is only one point behind No.4 Chelsea.

Manchester City and Chelsea have won this round.

Liverpool failed to make it into the top four.

As long as Chelsea lose the chain and lose a game and Liverpool wins, then Liverpool will enter the Champions League.

However, Li Nan, who is a time traveler, knows that his fourth competitor in the league is not Manchester City or Chelsea.

It's Arsenal, which is now competing with Manchester United for the championship, and Arsenal lost the chain inexplicably at the end of this season.

Although they won the subsequent battle with Manchester United, the team kept losing to the mid-range teams in the league, unable to get league points, and gradually fell from the second place in the league to the fourth place in the league.

However, reality is often cruel.

Although Liverpool's impact on the Champions League seems extremely close.

But Liverpool captain Gerrard was injured at this time.

Steven Gerrard felt some pain in his groin after the game against Manchester United.

After being examined by the team doctor, the team doctor told Pochettino that Gerrard's groin injury was repeated.

In November last year, Gerrard was sidelined for a month and a half due to groin discomfort.

In fact, groin problems have always been Gerrard's old problems. In 2008 and 2009, he had two groin surgeries.

It is likely that Gerrard has to undergo surgery to completely cure, which also means that Gerrard's season is likely to end here.

Pochettino revealed the news to the media when he led the team to Portugal to prepare for the Europa League quarter-finals. He believes that Gerrard's injury is not optimistic.

"He felt uncomfortable in the groin, so we decided to let him stay and watch. Although he is very important to us, we decided not to play him in the Europa League."

Pochettino said, "We will get the exact news on Friday. Whether it is for the team or for Steph personally, this is a serious problem. We need to find the most suitable solution."

……

时间来到了当地时间3月10日下午18点00分，2010-11赛季欧联杯1/8决赛首回合比赛再次开锣，利物浦做客葡萄牙的AXA球场挑战布拉加队。

This round of the game will determine Liverpool's next attitude towards the Europa League.

If Liverpool can defeat the Braga team, then Liverpool will invest more energy in the Europa League. Although the Europa League and the league will not be regarded as equally important, there will definitely be a few more main players.

After all, it is also a critical period for Liverpool to hit the top four in the league.

And if Liverpool can't pass Braga's two-round challenge, then Liverpool's European career this season will be over.

Liverpool will try their best to hit the league rankings and ensure that they can participate in the Champions League next season.

Gerrard in Liverpool's starting lineup for this game was unable to participate in the next game due to injury, and Suarez was also unable to participate in the Europa League.

Pochettino chose a 541 formation for this game.

Glenn Johnson and Wilson appeared on both sides, with Carragher, Kyrjakos and Skrtel at centre-back.

In the midfield, Lucas, Powers, Spilling and Sterling form the midfield, and Griezmann is placed in front as a lone striker.

In the goalkeeper position is Navas.

Sterling has rarely appeared in the team's starting lineup recently, although he has always been on the bench for the team's games.

But Pochettino rarely chooses to use him, even if he makes him come off the bench very rarely.

It is true that Sterling's finishing touch is still a bit too rough.

His shooting skills still need to be pondered.

Every time Sterling wastes a chance in front of the goal, Pochettino always looks a little worried.

But in this Europa League game, Sterling once again got the chance to start. Pochettino wanted to see if the recent precipitation had some effect on Sterling.

After the start of the game, Liverpool still chose to defend as in the previous Europa League away game.

This can also be seen from the team's defensive formation.

In this season's Europa League group stage, Liverpool scored 3 draws in 3 away games and only scored one goal.

Liverpool's away game in the first stage of the Europa League knockout round also ended in a draw.

It can be said that this season's Liverpool is really a home dragon and an away worm in the Europa League.

Of course, this is also related to Liverpool's focus on the league this season and their abandonment of the Europa League.

If the main lineup starts every game in the Europa League, will the league still exist?

After all, the Europa League game time is not as reasonable as the Champions League game time schedule.

Often after the Europa League game is played away, it is necessary to prepare for the next round of the league game.

Therefore, there are generally only three or four main players in Liverpool's away game.

At home, the team's main players will send a few more.

Always take care of your own Liverpool fans. After all, you have worked so hard to come to Anfield to watch Liverpool games. If there are not a few of Liverpool's main players on the field, then their ticket prices will not be worth so much.

At the same time, the consumption of home games is always less, and it is better to fight more at home than to fight desperately away.

So the philosophy of Liverpool's Europa League away games this season is: a draw is not terrible, and losing is okay, based on defense, not offense.

In the 17th minute, Da Costa broke through the right side of the penalty area and was brought down by Kyrjakos. The referee awarded a penalty kick.

Then Alan took the penalty and hit the lower left corner of the goal, and Braga took a zero-to-one lead.

At the end of the game, Braga's goal in 17 minutes was the only goal of both sides in this game.

Although Liverpool lost this game, and there is no away goal.

If you want to advance, you must keep attacking and score goals in the second round against Braga.

(End of this chapter)