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The day after the draw was completed, the Red Rebels' UEFA Super Cup against Liverpool was held at the Stade Louis II in Monaco. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Although neither side is willing to give everything for a Super Cup, in reality, neither of them is willing to give up this trophy easily, after all, only the team that won the Champions League and the UEFA Cup is eligible to enter the UEFA Super Cup, and neither of these trophies are so easy to obtain.

The Red Rebels have lost the Super Cup for the second year in a row, with Jose Mourinho's side jokingly accused of suffering from a phobia of the Super Cup, and this season they lost to Chelsea in the English Community Shield, and now they are in good form with Liverpool.

As close as the Red Rebels' schedule, Liverpool have a tight schedule, with a league game against Charlton Athletic before the Super Cup and a strong Arsenal side after the Super Cup, so Rafael Benitez's side are also not prepared to give their all in the Super Cup, and they have also deployed some substitutes.

The goalkeeper is Reina, the left-back is Academy graduate Volnock, the centre-back combination is Carragher and Hyypia, the right-back is the Spanish star Josemi, who joined Liverpool last season but has not played much, Alonso, Hamann, Garcia, Pongler and Gerrard form the midfield, and Cisse plays the striker.

Rafael Benitez is clearly looking for a three-day league clash with Arsenal, which is undoubtedly tempting compared to the heavyweight leagues, but it is even more important to take all three points in the league and continue to lead the table.

Like Benitez's calculations, Mourinho's starting line-up is filled with a number of young players.

Goalkeeper Casey? Keller, the backline from left to right is Lahm, Nemanja Vidic, Curtis and Alves, and the back three are Mikel and Michael? Johnson and De Rossi, the two wingers are Ribery and Robben, and the single striker is Villa.

Mourinho's 433 tactics are actually adjusted from 4231, making the original forward back a little later, but putting De Rossi's organizational forward forward to the front, so that Michael? Johnson and De Rossi took turns attacking Liverpool's defence, while Mikel played as a lone midfielder, but his task was more to comb the ball.

The Nigerian star has performed well at the World Youth Championships, he has excellent skills and a good passing level in the Nigeria national youth team, although he has taken on a lot of defensive responsibilities in the Red Rebels, but Mourinho's team advocates pressing up front, and the defensive task of the midfielder is not heavy.

With Mikel at the end, Mourinho hopes to keep his defensive level while further stimulating his attacking and passing skills, which is also a trick that Mourinho learned from Louis van Gaal.

Under Louis van Gaal, Yaya? Toure's attacking potential has been tapped, and he has now even overwhelmed Vieira to become the core player of Manchester City, responsible for the team's organization, and has performed well, which makes Mourinho reflect and have to admit that he really underestimated Yaya? Toure.

In fact, Xiao Yu once mentioned Yaya to him? The attacking potential of Toure and Mikel, even De Rossi and Essien have been mentioned by Xiao Yu, Mourinho attaches great importance to Essien and De Rossi, and the offensive potential of the two players has also been tapped, although they now take on a lot of defensive tasks, but their central push and back row insertion are one of the weapons of the Red Rebels.

And in letting go of Yaya? After Toure, Mourinho had to pay attention to Mikel, especially after the World Youth Championships, Mikel's outstanding performance made Mourinho feel that if he was just to be a sweeper, it would be a waste of his attacking talent.

Of course, that's not to say how good Mikel is offensively, but he shouldn't just be a defender.

…………………… In the game, Liverpool pressed heavily from the start, and took advantage of a mistake by the Red Rebels to score a goal in the 11th minute, which greatly boosted Liverpool's morale.

But Jose Mourinho's side have gradually found their groove after a chaotic start, and Michael? Johnson and De Rossi played in central midfield, and while they were both defending and looking for opportunities to get involved, combined with the wide range of Villa, Ribery and Robben up front, the Red Rebels quickly stabilized the situation.

During the period when Liverpool were attacking aggressively, Mikel showed the bravery and perseverance of a good defensive midfielder in front of the defence, and in the 16th minute, if he hadn't tripped Gerrard decisively, Liverpool's soul might have gone to the next city, and then the Red Rebels would have been a difficult game.

The foul was rewarded with a yellow card, but Mikel's performance won the admiration of Mourinho, who improved their defensive skills a lot, but the young guys were not consistent enough and lacked consistency, which led to Mourinho's daring to use them.

After gradually stabilizing the situation, the Red Rebels began to incorporate the rhythm into their preferred process, Michael? Johnson, De Rossi and Mikel are not weak in passing, and the three of them are two in front and one behind, forming a strategic depth. Johnson and De Rossi took turns to assist, while Mikel was behind them in charge of combing and passing.

Mikel's pass and Michael? Johnson is different, both are good at controlling the tempo, but Mikel is more likely to choose lateral passes, or return passes, Michael? Johnson, on the other hand, is adept at playing mid-to-long balls and can also pass through balls, and his attacking ability is better than Mikel's.

That's why Mourinho has put Mikel at the back and encouraged the two full-backs to be bold forward.

After stabilizing the situation, Mourinho's series of adjustments immediately allowed the Red Rebels' attack to suppress Liverpool, especially the two wings, and the advance of Alves and Lahm made Liverpool's wing attack completely collapse.

In the 37th minute, Alves on the right side of the Red Rebels made a diagonal pass, Carragher predicted accurately, and pushed the ball out of Villa, but it was blocked by Michael? Johnson intercepts the ball.

The England midfielder slowed down the tempo of De Rossi with a couple of passes and, after a few adjustments, suddenly crossed diagonally to the right and hit behind Warnock.

After half a season of recuperation, Robben really failed to recover to his best, but his speed is still there, and his tacit understanding with his teammates is still there.

Villa also started when Robben was in an offside position, and stabbed Robben's pass into the gate guarded by Reina, 1:1!

After stubbornly rallying the score, the Red Rebels took advantage of the victory and pursued and completely overwhelmed Liverpool in momentum.

In the 43rd minute, before the end of the first half, Mikel broke the ball and handed it to De Rossi, the Italian midfielder sent the ball into the box, Ribery volleyed, and the Spanish goalkeeper Reina did well to save the ball, but caused a stirring in the box.

In the confusion, Villa was in a critical position and fired the ball towards goal before Hyypia, only to be saved by Reyna again with a close-range shot that was God's help.

Robben picked up the ball on the right and hit the goal, but it was just over the goal.

It was also the best chance the Red Rebels had in the first half other than to score, but who would have thought that two successive inevitable shots were blocked by Reina.

The first half ended in a 1-1 draw, with Jose Mourinho and Benitez both unhappy, with both sides making minor changes in midfield, and although there were no substitutions, they were both set up to target the opposition's tactical holes.

At the beginning of the second half, the two sides went directly into the stage of fighting bayonets, no one admitted defeat, no one was timid, the Red Rebels were frequently threatened by two full-backs, but the central defenders composed of Carragher and Hyypia, plus Reina behind them, these three players performed well, and defused the Red Rebels' attacks again and again.

Time passed minute by minute, the score on the field was still 1:1, the Red Rebels attacked more and more urgently, and Liverpool was also suppressed by the Red Rebels' fierce offensive for a while, but it was never able to shake the door of Liverpool.

Mourinho took the lead in making adjustments, he replaced Robben with Aguero, who was obviously physically exhausted, and let Aguero play as a midfielder, specifically responsible for harassing Alonso in the middle, not allowing the Spaniard to easily organize and pass, as for the right side, Mourinho gave Alves absolute freedom.

When he was at Benfica, Alves often played a wonderful performance of eating the entire right side alone, he used to play right midfielder at the earliest, and his speed and technique were not bad, although he changed to full-back, he did not dare to be as reckless as before, but he still has the strength to turn the entire right side into his own corridor.

…………………… Mourinho's changes soon paid off, with Alonso under more pressure than before under the interference of Sergio Aguero, especially in the Red Rebels midfield, which led to a slight disarray in Liverpool's midfield.

If there is a player like Aimar who can hold the ball and come back to Alonso, I believe things will improve, but Garcia is clearly not such a player.

On the other hand, after the Red Rebels gave up the entire right side, Alves frequently staged the drama of rushing into Liverpool's half-time crosses, making Liverpool's left side completely suppressed by the Red Rebels, and the balance of victory gradually tilted in favor of the Red Rebels.

After Mourinho saw that the situation was tilting, he turned back to the dugout, clasped his hands around his chest, did not hurry, did not speak, just watched quietly and waited.

Sometimes, scoring goals in soccer is a natural process, rather than thinking that you will be able to score if you want to, so it is often seen that one side attacks but never scores, and the other team only occasionally sneaks up and wins the shot.

That's the situation for the Red Rebels now, with the dominance on the pitch, all Mourinho has to do is wait.

Benitez also saw that the team's midfield was suppressed and the left side could not burst out, but in order to save Aimar's strength and deal with Arsenal, he did not bring him to Monaco, and Owen did not come, which led to him now having fewer substitution chips on hand.

At the end of the day, not every team has a player mix as perverted as the Red Rebels, and every player is either a first-class star or a prospective first-class rookie, which means that Mourinho always has a steady stream of chips in his hands when he needs them.

After a season of running-in, Benitez has developed a strong main squad for Liverpool, but it is only limited to that set of lineups, on the bench, Benitez has two positions that are the most troublesome, one is the substitute for the forward Aymar, and the other is the organizational midfielder Xavi? Alonso's understudy.

It can be said that the characteristics of these two players determine that their replacements are not easy to find, so Benitez originally wanted to change his tactics and try to play without Aimar, but it turned out that when Alonso was restricted, Liverpool's attack was disrupted and did not pose much of a threat to the Red Rebels.

In the 83rd minute, Alves on the right side of the Red Rebels drove the ball into Liverpool's half and was immediately harassed by Pongele, but Alves immediately passed the ball to De Rossi, who passed to Aguero.

The Argentine youngster faced Sissoko and made a curling ball to the right side of the penalty area, Alves didn't know when to rush into the penalty area, unloaded the ball with his right foot, and decisively hit the goal with his left foot.

Reyna was focused, jumped over and slapped the ball out with one hand.

The ball didn't fly too far, but not far away, a white figure appeared behind Carragher like a ghost, touched the ball before him, knocked hard, and the ball rolled directly into the unguarded gate, 1:2!

It's Villa!

The Spaniard appeared in a crucial position like an unpredictable prophet, and he scored a goal for the Red Rebels!

At this time, the entire Louis II stadium was completely boiling!

No one knew why Villa was in that place at that time, maybe even he couldn't say why, but his archer instinct told him that he would only have a chance if he went there.

The result?

Reina's shot is really here, and the next thing he has to do is simple!

But such a simple thing is undoubtedly difficult for the Red Rebels, and for Liverpool, it is definitely a blow.

From leading 1:0 to being overtaken 1:2, Liverpool seemed very passive throughout the process, especially after the midfield was suppressed, Liverpool almost failed to plan a decent attack.

After being overtaken, many players including Steven Gerrard tried to fight back, but Mourinho waved his hand, and the Red Rebels turned from the original attacking state to a stable defense, and finally maintained the score until the end.

1:2, the Red Rebels finally touched the temperature of the trophy after missing out on the UEFA Super Cup for two consecutive years.

After the game, after the award ceremony of the organizing committee, when watching the Red Rebels happily celebrate winning the trophy, Gerrard said in an interview that Liverpool was sad to lose the first trophy that could be fought for in the new season, but the team's focus was on the Premier League.

'Last season's defeat was a surprise for us and I'm sure we've been able to make a comeback this season, we've done well in the first three rounds and I'm confident that against Arsenal we can get a satisfying result!'

Benitez said the same thing as Gerrard, but more firmly.

"Against Arsenal, we only have one way to win!"

(To be continued)