Chapter 608 Double Red Meeting

On the afternoon of December 16, 2018, the 17th round of the Premier League officially kicked off, and a large number of fans began to pour into Anfield Stadium. The Red Army Liverpool will face the challenge of the Red Devils Manchester United at their home stadium today.

Because of the radical fans of the two teams after the Munich air crash and the Hillsborough tragedy in the last century, Liverpool and Manchester United have been at loggerheads.

Interestingly, two English clubs gave birth to two hostile Scottish coaches in the last century: Ferguson and Dalglish, two Scottish people with very strong personalities and a strong desire to win.

Because Ferguson won his first league championship after coaching Manchester United for seven years, and Dalglish was a steady winner when he coached Liverpool.

Later, Dalglish went to Blackburn and took the championship from Ferguson. Since then, the two have become natural enemies.

Later, when Dalglish became a TV commentator, he often besieged Ferguson in the media, which made the relationship between the two even more at odds.

Therefore, Sir Alex Ferguson said: "My greatest achievement in my life is to kick Liverpool off the throne!"

With such a coach, the two teams also have deep hatred for each other. Rooney once said that he hated Liverpool since he was a child, because Everton, where he debuted, is also Liverpool's mortal enemy in the same city.

And Liverpool's legendary captain Gerrard once said: "On the first day of Liverpool, someone told me to hate everything about Manchester United, their players, coaches, fans, and even their mascots!"

As for the grievances between Suarez and Evra, Torres and Vidic, etc., they all left a strong color in the collision history accumulated in the Red and Black Doubles.

It is precisely because of this that the significance of the Red and Black Doubles has long been higher than the significance of football itself, and it is precisely because of this that every year's Red and Black Doubles will appear particularly different.

So after Liverpool defeated Hoffenheim, Liverpool fans had already planned to "entertain" the arrival of their old enemy Manchester United.

In this atmosphere, the two teams announced the starting lineups of this game in advance.

Liverpool's starting goalkeeper is Alisson, defenders are Klein, Van Dijk, Lovren and Robertson, midfielders are Fabinho, Naby Keita and Shaqiri, and the forward trident is Mane, Firmino and Li Qing.

Mignolet, Moreno, Lallana, Milner, Wijnaldum, Camacho and Sturridge are waiting for the call on the bench.

Manchester United's starting goalkeeper is De Gea, the back line is composed of Lindelof, Smalling, Damian, midfielders Matic, Herrera, Dalot and Ashley Young are lined up, and the forward line is Lingard, Lukaku and Rashford.

Romero, Bailly, Valencia, Pogba, Mata, Fellaini and Martial are on the bench.

Both sides used the strongest lineup they could send, which made the fans watching the game even more excited. Former Manchester United coach Ferguson and former Manchester United CEO David Gill were sitting in the audience.

Liverpool CEO Peter Moore, owner John Henry, and owner Linda Pizzuti and other club executives also sat in the KOP stands.

The appearance of these people is enough to show that both sides are very much looking forward to today's Reds meeting.

The referee of this game, Atkinson, the "Condemned" has also been in place. This card-distributing machine who has enforced 13 Premier League games this season and issued 43 yellow cards and 1 red card, can also be seen that the FA attaches great importance to this game.

With Atkinson's whistle, the game began, and the players of both sides quickly entered the game state. Just two minutes after the start, Firmino shot from the right side of Manchester United's penalty area, and the ball hit the Manchester United player and bounced out of the bottom line.

Two minutes later, Manchester United also responded. Lukaku received a free kick and shot low in the penalty area. Although the ball entered the net, it was ruled invalid because of offside.

In the next game, Liverpool's players seemed very excited. Firmino, Mane and Fabinho continued to put pressure on Manchester United's goal frequently. For a while, there was a lot of panic in front of Manchester United's goal.

Li Qing seemed to be a little slow to warm up on the field, which had something to do with Klopp's deployment today.

Today's Liverpool midfielders were all three players who transferred in the summer. It was the first time that Li Qing started with the three of them in a game at the same time, and the cooperation between them lacked some tacit understanding.

In addition, Klopp put Mane on the right winger today, which was originally Li Qing's best position, and Firmino's position on the field was not fixed at the center forward, so Li Qing's position today was between the center forward and the left winger.

Therefore, Firmino often moved back involuntarily during the game, while Shaqiri, who was eager to show himself in the midfield, rushed to the front, and Li Qing often had to fill in the position, which affected his performance.

Therefore, in the first fifteen minutes, Liverpool seemed to have an advantage on the field, but in fact, the frontcourt offense was a little chaotic, and the chaos in the frontcourt offense would lead to chaos in the defense, as evidenced by Lukaku's almost goal in the fourth minute.

Li Qing was the team's captain on the field today. He saw clearly in front of the field that Firmino and Mane were both pulling back, so he became the center forward on the field.

As a center forward, scoring goals has become his only purpose on the field. Today's game cannot afford to lose. Maybe scoring a goal now can calm his teammates on the field.

But up to now, Li Qing has not touched the ball many times. Today's midfield teammates are really too active.

But this does not bother Li Qing. Since he can't receive the pass from his teammates, why not just grab one for himself!

At this time, Manchester United launched an attack on the field. Rashford got the ball in the midfield and Li Qing stopped him.

Facing his teammates from the national team, Rashford wanted to break through Li Qing. As a master who plays the same position as Li Qing in the club and the national team, he was full of energy today and wanted to overshadow Li Qing, so he started with the ball quickly.

Facing Rashford with the ball, Li Qing did not move. Even if he did not use his talent to steal the ball, Li Qing was confident that he could easily steal the ball from his opponent. Rashford's dribbling skills were still as rough as ever. With this little ability, he actually wanted to break through himself?

Sure enough, Master La, who wanted to get through Li Qing's crotch, actually brought the ball directly to Li Qing's legs and bounced out. Master La, who lost the ball, turned around and wanted to get the ball back, but how could his speed compare to Li Qing who had already started?

Li Qing stretched his body horizontally and blocked Rashford behind him. Then he pushed the ball forward and got rid of Rashford. Then he accelerated forward and faced Manchester United's defense line.