Li Tiancheng tightened his coat. It was not yet October, and the Greek wind was already biting.
What's more biting than the cold wind is the score on the field.
1:0
International practice is that the home team goes first and the visiting team goes last.
The first half was coming to an end and Liverpool showed no signs of equalizing the score.
This is too unacceptable.
Of course, Liverpool's formation in this game is still 4231, but it has been slightly adjusted.
Because Kewell was injured, Garcia played the left center midfielder position.
Baros plays as a deep forward, with Cisse in front.
Warnock continues to serve as right center midfielder.
The defensive midfielder is still Alonso, Hamann partners.
Defender line: Riise, Carragher, Hyypia, Josemi.
Goalkeeper Dudek.
The lineup was not much different from the one that defeated Norwich a few days ago, but it didn't show any advantages at all.
Instead, the Greeks showed their discipline.
Olympiakos players are generally tall and powerful, so they chose to retreat as a whole, thus filling their own half, leaving only veteran Rivaldo to harass the Liverpool defense.
The Greeks used extreme defense to win the European Cup and create Greek myths. As a Greek giant, Olympiacos seems to have completely inherited the Greek tactics.
With his strong body and decisive and timely fouls, he would rather give Liverpool a free kick than let their cooperation work.
To make matters worse, they took an early lead.
In the 17th minute, Warnock fouled and Rivaldo took a free kick from the right. Stoltidis beat Hyypia and scored with a header 9 meters in front of the goal.
Liverpool's situation is even more difficult.
Cisse had no space to show his speed, and Baros seemed very uncomfortable in the deep-lying forward position.
Garcia's deft dribbling was always brought down, which gave Liverpool several good free kick opportunities. Unfortunately, the free kicks taken by Baros and Riise were either high or wide!
Alonso also seemed to be helpless. His passing and dispatching were of little use against such a defensive muscle forest, and when his teammates were not performing well enough.
Originally, he could still join the attack, and his long-range shots and final passes were also very good.
It's a pity that after Olympiacos took the lead, they had the courage to counterattack, and they always took advantage of Lengzi.
But today Dudek didn't know whether he was frozen or not. Regardless of whether the time was good or not, he always attacked, attacked, and attacked again, making the goal always full of danger.
This exposed Alonso's weakness. The range of movement is really small. After attacking the frontcourt, it is difficult to return to the defensive position in time. In this case, he does not dare to assist.
Li Tiancheng didn't know what other people thought, but he started to miss Gerrard anyway. If Gerrard was here, the situation would probably be much better, both offensively and defensively.
It's a pity that he has to take a truce for eight weeks, and water from afar cannot quench his thirst nearby.
Then there is Kewell. He is quite capable and can help the team. Unfortunately, he is sitting next to him right now. This guy has just recovered from injury. He strained his thigh during the game against Norwich. He said
Has it been restored? Who knows?
Then there’s me. They say the Premier League is fiercely competitive, but I’ve never encountered such a team. It all depends on my body.
I like challenges, but I don't like being abused. It's conceivable that if you were on your own and had no room to speed up and dodge, your situation would be similar to Garcia's. Being knocked down constantly would be the only outcome.
However, if you can connect with your teammates, it will be different. Baros is not very reliable, and there is also Garcia.
Besides, haha, maybe we can let them know that there is a price to pay for committing a foul...
As expected, at the end of halftime, Li Tiancheng got the instruction to warm up directly.
At the beginning of the second half, Li Tiancheng came on as usual, replacing Warnock and playing as the right center midfielder.
Warnock stretches his hips on both offense and defense, which only proves one thing: he is not yet able to adapt to the Champions League.
After Li Tiancheng came on the field, he discovered that there was a reason why his teammates did not perform as expected. On the surface, the physical confrontation was non-stop, which was uncomfortable enough, but secretly, small tricks were everywhere.
After resisting the opponent, Li Tiancheng was touched on his butt just as he was about to catch the ball. He was so excited that he even made a small mistake in stopping the ball. Fortunately, he reacted immediately and made a quick second move, finally regaining control of the ball.
But the rhythm was suddenly disrupted, so I had to pass the ball quickly.
Li Tiancheng turned around and glanced at the guy. This guy had no shame. A guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes could actually be so mean!
Endure the nausea, overcome the difficulties, and always keep trying.
I tried the 45° bombing again, and the effect was as expected. It was very bad. Carragher and Hyypia were blocked by Rivaldo in the backcourt. The best choice was to find Baros, but Baros
This nerve knife is really useless today - it's just that if you move back a few meters from the initial position, you won't be able to kick the ball?
Looking at Cisse again, Li Tian finally gave up this idea. His ability to grab high points is not as good as Baros!
Then there is the combination of wing and center. Li Tiancheng tries to dribble the ball himself or cooperate with Josemi who comes up with an assist to widen the width of the opponent's defense, and then quickly passes the football to the center or left, exchanging time for space, hoping that the opponent will have a loophole.
Or lack of concentration!
Then I discovered an old and helpless problem. With the forward stretching his hips, there was no long-range shooter outside the top of the penalty area.
Hamann was originally good at both offense and defense, so logically speaking, he was fine, but after all, he is older and tends to be more defensive. Alonso also has a small range of activities. Both of them have the same problem. It is easy to retreat when attacking in the frontcourt.
It will lead to loss of position in time.
In other words, Gerrard is missing.
Josemi passed the ball back, and Li Tiancheng was surrounded by Olympiacos and managed to get the ball to the top of the penalty area, but Baros directly fired a cannon into the sky.
It's not that Li Tiancheng doesn't want to go straight into the penalty area, it's just that the defensive personnel are too dense and they can't penetrate!
Moreover, the cooperation and position-changing situation with Baros was not ideal. After switching to the middle, the two men's running positions overlapped. Baros had no awareness of changing positions at all.
"After Lee came on the field, he did bring a lot of vitality to Liverpool, but it was not enough. Liverpool's forward group that they envied a few months ago seemed to have lost their sights!" BBC commentator Lineker was a little worried.
"Alonso also came up to assist, which was a bit risky, but with Hamann behind, a little risk is bearable."
"Oh, Lee was brought down. Lee and Alonso cooperated with each other to attack. Olympiacos chose to commit a direct foul and another free kick."
"This time it is Li who will take the kick. His free kick skills are very good. The arc and power are perfect. His famous work is the direct goal from the corner kick!"
"Oh! He just hit the door and flew out while grazing the beam!"
"The ball would have gone in five inches lower..."
Li Tiancheng shook his head. The wall was too high. In order to get over the wall, he deliberately raised the ball a little higher. As a result, the arc was not enough. It would be great if there was a way to make the ball fall directly from a high place.
Keep trying next time.
Continuous attacks yielded no results, and Rise couldn't hold it any longer. Regardless of the situation, he directly took a long shot, hoping to use a powerful force to create a miracle.