Chapter 162 Nine

There is only one corridor between the dressing rooms of the home and away teams at Anfield.

Despite the poor conditions in the visitors' dressing room, the atmosphere in Atletico Madrid's team is quite relaxed at this time. Simeone only came in and briefly praised the players' performance before walking out of the dressing room and leaving it to the players.

In the absence of the manager, the group of youngsters were even more open, Saul put his stereo in the middle of the dressing room, turned up the volume to the maximum, and a group of Atletico Madrid players began to dance awkwardly in the cramped visiting dressing room.

It was a stress-free game that made the players very relaxed.

Li Qingshan scored a goal in the first half to make him the top scorer in the Champions League, and his teammates congratulated him.

Perhaps the biggest significance of this game for Atletico Madrid is just to brush up on Li Qingshan's data.

And in the home team's dressing room just across the corridor, the atmosphere is completely different.

All the Liverpool players are in their places, except for Steven Gerrard.

Steven Gerrard took Brendan Rodgers' place and stood in the centre of the dressing room with the illuminated Liverpool crest at his feet.

The dressing room at Anfield is much more luxurious.

Steven Gerrard was foaming at the moment, setting up his tactics for the second half, while Rodgers had to sit on the sidelines. Due to Liverpool's declining results, Rodgers has also lost his authority in the dressing room, and in the usual games, he is still the one who stands in the middle of the dressing room to arrange tactics to direct the game, but when it comes to the critical game, the moment of life and death, Liverpool's legendary captain Gerrard obviously does not trust Rodgers.

"We need to attack! Offensive! ”

Gerald emphasized.

"Our performance in the first half was a shame! A disgrace to any professional footballer! ”

'Whatever the situation, even if we don't have any hope of qualifying in this game, we shouldn't play like this.

"I'm sure everyone already knows, the good news came from the other game, Roma are 1-0 ahead of Borussia Dortmund away, what it means, I believe everyone knows very well! We still have hope of qualifying! ”

"But it's going to take our game! If we don't play well ourselves, then we can't blame others. ”

"If you want to win, you have to attack!"

"In the second half, we'll make a substitution, Felipe!"

Gerrard turned to Coutinho, who was sitting on the other side.

With Cuinho fresh back from injury, Brendan Rodgers did not start the Brazilian.

"You play in the second half, no problem!"

Coutinho nodded.

Gerald received a satisfactory answer before turning his head to look at Rogers.

The meaning is obvious, of course, the substitution must be approved by the manager.

Poor Rogers was now completely hollowed out, reduced to a rubber stamp.

And he was also very conscious of rubber stamps, nodding silently, indicating that he absolutely obeyed the arrangement of the Liverpool dressing room bigwig.

Steven Gerrard seemed to be fully involved in the role of manager at this point, and he even took out the tactical board.

'In the second half, we focused on the left side and when Felipe came on the pitch we tried to get the ball to his feet.

"Felipe, when you get the ball on the wing, you can go down the bottom and cross or you can cut inside and shoot! It's up to you, you're a real genius, you can do it, right? ”

"Of course!" Coutinho replied without hesitation.

I'm a real genius!

Sterling was very unconvinced when he heard Gerrard's words, but he didn't dare to say what was in his heart.

Because Gerrard has completely ignored him, Coutinho came on, and it must be Sterling who will be replaced. And Gerald didn't even say a word to him when he made this decision.

……….

The halftime passed quickly.

Brendan Rodgers came out of the dressing room early, and the outcome of this game has little to do with him.

After the resumption of the second half, Rodgers sat firmly in the dugout as if he were an outsider to the game.

In fact, too, now the man in charge of this game has become Gerrard.

Philippe Coutinho replaced Raheem Sterling and came on the left side of Liverpool's attack.

The Brazilian rising star was quick to threaten when he came on.

In the 49th minute, Coutinho cut inside with the ball on the left side of the midfield, and then pulled out his foot and shot angrily.

The soccer ball was pulled out of an elevator ball, spilled into the air and plummeted.

"Coutinho shoots!"

"Ahhhh The crossbar blocked his goal. It was the closest Liverpool had ever come to scoring since the start of the game! ”

'The Brazilian was able to create such a threat as soon as he came on the pitch and Liverpool's substitutions were immediate.

Coutinho himself also regretted that if this goal was scored, it would have a great impact on the whole game.

Liverpool showed an aggressive attack from the start.

Atletico Madrid were unrelenting, and they were quite involved in attacking, with both teams suddenly picking up the tempo from the moment the whistle blew in the second half.

Liverpool, encouraged by Philippe Coutinho's shot, also began to press aggressively.

In the 53rd minute, it was Coutinho again, who received the ball on the flank and turned nimbly past Insua before slotting a cross over Lambert's head.

Lambert met the ball and headed for the top, but unfortunately it was slightly off.

Atletico Madrid soon returned to color. Rodriguez crossed from the left, Li Qingshan crossed to the middle at the back point, and Mandzukic grabbed the point in the middle, but unfortunately the football passed his feet and could not help Atletico Madrid open the score again.

The two sides come and go, and there is a rumor in front of the door.

It looks like both sides could score and be scored at any time.

But luck was on Atletico Madrid's side.

In the 63rd minute, Atletico Madrid scored his ninth Champions League goal in the group stage through a corner kick and Li Qingshan's header, stretching the score to 2-0!

As soon as this goal was scored, Liverpool's breath was basically unloaded.

Even if Gerrard kept roaring on the pitch and boosting the morale of Liverpool's players, it still didn't help.

Rodgers still sat motionless in the coach's box, even when he saw Li Qingshan put the ball into the goal, he didn't react.

He knew he had no future ahead of him at Liverpool after what had happened in the dressing room today.

He sat down in his chair with gloomy eyes, and in the stands behind him, many Liverpool fans shouted at him.

These things are automatically blocked by him.

In the ensuing game, neither side was able to score.

Liverpool lost 2-0 at home to Atletico Madrid and finished bottom of their Champions League group.