Chapter 257: Three Consecutive Wins in the Champions League

Li Qing took the trophy of the best player of the month in September from the staff of the Premier League with an expressionless face. The interviewer faced the camera and asked curiously: "Li, you look unhappy, why?"

"I am the best player of the month every time. Do you think I can be happy?"

Li Qing spread his hands and said it seriously.

"..."

The female reporter who was interviewing Li Qing twitched her mouth slightly. Her good professionalism finally turned into a smile: "Li, you are really good at joking."

"I am not joking..."

The Premier League team reporter soon ended, and Li Qing also had a new nickname among his teammates.

Pretender!

In fact, Li Qing did not pretend much, because he has been the best player of the month for as long as he debuted, which can be said to be unrivaled.

To be honest, why did he pretend?

The best coach of the month in September was won by Manchester United head coach Mourinho, who beat Manchester City head coach Guardiola and Liverpool head coach Klopp.

In fact, Mourinho's election is somewhat controversial, because Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool all had 3 wins and 1 draw in September. The only difference is that Mourinho's team conceded the least goals in September.

Two days later, at 8:45 pm on Wednesday, Liverpool faced the challenge of Roma at home.

Roma, led by Di Francesco, did not use the usual 433 formation in the away game, but a relatively low-key 451, with goalkeeper Alisson, defenders Kolarov, Manolas, Fazio and Bruno Perez, midfielders Florenzi, Nainggolan, De Rossi, Strootman and Gerson, and Dzeko at the front.

Liverpool may have considered that they will challenge Tottenham at the new Wembley Stadium this weekend, so they made some rotations in the lineup, but the formation did not change, still 433, goalkeeper Karius, defenders Robertson, Van Dijk, Lovren and Arnold, midfielders Emre Can, Wijnaldum and Milner, forwards Salah, Firmino and Li Qing.

Di Francesco, who got the Liverpool starting lineup, had a headache. In order to prevent Li Qing from making trouble in the midfield, he arranged three central midfielders, De Rossi, Nainggolan and Stroman, who are both offensive and defensive, in the midfield, and also the all-purpose Florenzi, in order to limit Li Qing, who has been playing as a front midfielder in the past two months.

As a result, Klopp did not put Li Qing in the number 10 position, which means that Di Francesco's targeted deployment before the game was completely useless.

Of course, being able to be the head coach of the Italian Serie A giant Roma, Di Francesco's ability to respond on the spot is still very good. The guest at Anfield is to maintain a draw and win. There are corresponding arrangements for Li Qing not to appear in the number 10 position, but the players will need time to adapt to Li Qing's playing style on the wing.

Liverpool has performed well in the new season. Last weekend's double red meeting was a bloodless 3:0 win. In the Champions League group match held at Anfield in the middle of the week, Liverpool fans believe that the team they support will definitely win the game.

Li Qing is the name that Liverpool fans in the audience like to shout the most, because... Li Qing's performance is too eye-catching.

Liverpool has never lost a game when he played!

If it weren't for the fact that Li Qing was one man short in the strong dialogue at the Etihad Stadium, it is very likely that Li Qing would lead Liverpool to win the game away from home and maintain his undefeated record in his career.

That is why Roma players pay special attention to Li Qing's activity area.

Less than ten minutes after the start of the game, two Roma players received two yellow cards from Li Qing.

Fortunately, Roma did not lose the ball first away from home. On the contrary, it relied on veteran Dzeko's role as a fulcrum in the frontcourt to pose a great threat to Karius's goal.

Li Qing, who was fouled by Roma defenders continuously, did not flinch. He fought more and more bravely. In the 19th minute, he played a two-on-one with Wijnaldum and Firmino. When all Roma players thought he was going to cut inside, he suddenly passed the ball to Arnold who joined the attack from behind.

Suddenly, Roma's solid defense line exposed serious problems at that moment.

Arnold cut into the penalty area and sent a precise inverted triangle pass after attracting enough attention. Li Qing, who ran to the penalty spot, pushed the ball directly without stopping. The ball rolled along the grass to the lower left corner of the goal, and goalkeeper Alisson was out of reach.

With the first goal, the second goal became a matter of course.

Li Qing's excellent performance attracted the attention of a large number of Roma players, so that Salah, who originally played for Roma, was ignored, so Li Qing made a long diagonal pass of more than 50 meters to teach them a lesson.

Salah, who received Li Qing's long pass, chose to change direction and pass Alisson, and then scored an empty goal.

The broadcast screen showed that Roma coach Di Francesco had a very ugly face. He thought he would fall behind at Anfield before the game, but he didn't expect to fall behind by two goals so easily.

Falling behind by two goals as a guest, and there was another key league in the country at the weekend, he was wondering whether he should give up this game in advance. There are two qualifying places in the Champions League group stage. Liverpool, who is in good form, occupies one of the qualifying places, and the other place will be between his team and Atletico Madrid.

In the third round of the group match that ended last night, Atletico Madrid drew 0:0 with Qarabag away, which means they only got two points in the first three rounds. Even if they lose to Liverpool in this round, they will still get four points and rank second in the group. As long as they fight hard against Atletico Madrid in the fifth round, they can definitely compete for a qualifying spot.

Besides, the fourth round is a back-to-back home game against Liverpool. He is confident that he can lead the Wolves to win at home!

Of course, Di Francesco did not give up this game. He just thought about the strategy for the Champions League group stage in advance.

However, after 90 minutes of the game, Roma, who tried to draw, did not even score a goal away from home. In the end, Liverpool defeated Roma 2:0 at home and ranked first in the group with three consecutive wins. Roma, who lost, ranked second with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss and 4 points. Atletico Madrid ranked third with 2 draws and 1 loss in three games and 2 points. Qarabagh ranked last in the group with 1 draw and 2 losses in three games and 1 point.

Since Liverpool leads Atletico Madrid, which ranks third in the group, by 7 points, it means that Liverpool, who played back-to-back at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, will advance to the group two rounds in advance and lock in the first place in the group!

Such a result really makes Liverpool very excited, but head coach Klopp and his players are very focused. The fourth round of the back-to-back group match with Roma will have to wait until the second of next month, and Liverpool's top priority is to face the 9th round of the 2017-2018 Premier League, away to challenge Tottenham!

Liverpool's lead is only two points. Manchester City, which is two points behind, will face Burnley in the 9th round. Manchester United, which is three points behind, will face Huddersfield. It can be said that this is a game that can definitely win three points, so Liverpool cannot afford to lose when visiting the new Wembley Stadium.