Chapter 371 10-Man Chelsea
On the left, Jiang Yuan took the ball and adjusted himself, waiting for Matip to run over. Jiang Yuan started to bicycle kick, and after finding an opportunity, he kicked a high ball with his left foot and sent it to Ibrahimovic in the penalty area.

"Ibrahimovic, header!"

"The ball goes in! A header from Ibrahimovic, Chelsea takes the lead again!"

Oh Jesus!

Mignolet ran out from the goal line and told the referee that the ball was offside. Chelsea players ignored everything, Ibrahimovic ran to the right penalty area, followed by Jiang Yuan.

He jumped up from a jogging position, threw an uppercut in mid-air, and let out another excited roar after landing.

Who else could have scored the winning goal against Liverpool, who were at the top of the standings, before the end of the first half?
Nearly 6 fans of the home team were silenced by Ibrahimovic's headers. They were already discouraged when the referee suddenly blew the whistle.

what the fuck?

When Jiang Yuan heard the whistle, he turned around immediately and looked at the referee Clattenburg. The referee raised one hand, and then there was a "beep" sound.

Disallowed Goal
LIV:CHE=1:1
damn it!

"Referee, referee!"

Terry and Azpilicueta ran up at the first moment, and together with Pogba who was already at the top of the arc, the three of them surrounded Clattenburg and kept talking.

"Not offside! This can't be offside!"

"There's a guy dragging behind, believe me, it's not offside!"

Azpilicueta's face was all red, and the winning goal in the first half was blown off, which had a devastating impact on the morale of the team's players.

"Back off"

Being able to referee in the Premier League, Clattenburg's ability to withstand pressure is absolutely first-class.

"Referee, please listen to me, please listen to me for a moment, our players..."

"I said, back off!"

Clattenburg reached into his shirt pocket to take out a card, and Terry hurriedly pulled Azpilicueta away, fearing that he would receive an unnecessary yellow card because of the argument.

"Wooww!!!"

"Clap clap clap!"

“Liverpool!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The fans in the Anfield stands became restless. For them, they definitely hoped that Ibrahimovic's goal would be blown off.

Ibrahimovic held his head in his hands and looked at Jiang Yuan: "Am I really offside?"

Jiang Yuan shook his shoulders:

"Maybe"

The offside judgment mechanism in the five major leagues is relatively complete. The linesman also raised the flag just now, and it is most likely offside, but because Ibrahimovic and Jiang Yuan are both close to the center, their vision is definitely incomplete.

Ibrahimovic shook his hands and swung his right leg violently on the grass, directly lifting up a piece of grass on the ground.

In fact, Ibrahimovic himself is also quite embarrassed. Fans say that he is weak when playing against strong teams. Ibrahimovic is also a human being. He also watches the news. When he sees the fans' comments, Ibrahimovic's idea is to prove himself by scoring goals against strong teams.

The problem is that I can’t prove it, which is really frustrating!
“Beep, beep—!”

"At 46 minutes, the first half of the game ended. After Ibrahimovic's header was blown off, the score between the two teams returned to 1:1."

"This is undoubtedly a strong match. The strength gap between the two sides is almost the same. It depends on who can make it to the end."

What the CCTV commentator said was actually just some polite remarks. Although the score was 1:1, Liverpool, playing at home, was obviously stronger than Chelsea.

Liverpool's strength lies in the fact that they can create many opportunities on both the left and right offensive lines, but Chelsea only has one powerful left wing.

Then there is the backcourt defense. Liverpool used a 433 formation. Apart from Emre Can who was in poor form, Wijnaldum and Henderson were very active in defense, which made up for their shortcomings in defensive techniques.

Liverpool's defense is also an area that Mourinho emphasizes in the locker room.

"In any league, if you want to be ranked first, defense is more important than offense. Why do they (Liverpool) have more points than us after 22 rounds?"

"Because his defense is very stable!"

Mourinho stared at Kante and Pogba.

William's injury is an unchangeable fact, and Mourinho cannot expect Jiang Yuan to use ninjutsu like the Japanese to create a clone. Under objective conditions, Chelsea needs to improve Kante and Pogba the most.

There are only two defensive midfielders in the 4231 formation, which seems to be relatively few, but Kante is equivalent to about 2 people. As long as Pogba can show sufficient defensive level, 1 defensive midfielders in front of the back line will be enough.

It was hard for Pogba not to understand what Mourinho meant. He had been wronged by Mourinho several times before. Pogba controlled his temper in the previous times, but resentment will accumulate slowly. Mourinho always brings himself up before the game, at halftime, and after the game. It would be a lie for Pogba to say that he didn't care.

"Well, you can let him play as a pure defensive midfielder. Don't go to the front to support. I can pass the ball to Jiang in front."

Pogba pointed at Kante and said with a smile.

"What are you talking about?"

Mourinho sneered: "Paul, do you think you are smart?"

The Portuguese is a real professional coach. How could he not have thought about what Pogba said?

Let Kante play as a pure defensive midfielder, doing the defensive task of two people alone, and then let Pogba play as a false attacking midfielder?

In theory, they seem invincible, but in reality, with this style of play, Chelsea will be out of the Champions League zone in a few weeks.

"Just tell me which team in the top five leagues has only one defensive midfielder."

Mourinho looked at Pogba expressionlessly. He just turned his head away, his body still facing Hazard and Jiang Yuan.

"I know, but our team is special..."

"Pull him down!"

Mourinho roared suddenly, and Pogba pouted, shrugged, and spread his hands three times in a row.

To be honest, in Mourinho's eyes, Pogba is becoming more and more like a fool.

In modern football, among the four basic positions, forward, midfielder, defender and goalkeeper, the role of the midfielder is absolutely the first. Especially in the fast-paced games like the Premier League and La Liga, if there is no midfielder who can control the ball in the team, the opponent's midfielder will strangle you directly.

The fact is, midfielders must not only be strong, but also in large numbers!

"Don't make any substitutions in the second half. Control the tempo in the first 15 minutes and then decide whether to attack or defend depending on the situation."

“Why does it depend on the situation?”

Ake looked up into Mourinho's eyes and said, "We almost scored in the first half. If we give Jiang and Zlatan more chances, we can win in the second half."

Boom!
Mourinho knocked on the tactical board with his right fist. On the tactical board were some data charts from the first half of the game posted by Brown. Chelsea's threatening attacks were only 60% of Liverpool's.

"Why should we depend on the situation? Because the opponent is stronger than us, use your brain to play football, whether it is an advantage, a balance of power or a disadvantage, our way of handling it should be different!"

While speaking, Mourinho looked up at his Vacheron Constantin watch.

"We can gather outside now and play with momentum in the second half. What I want is momentum and attitude!"

……

At the beginning of the second half, when the players entered the field, the home team's fans began to put pressure on Chelsea.

We are all veteran fans. There are three most important time periods for cheering from the stands: at the beginning of the first half, at the beginning of the second half, and 3 minutes after the team scores a goal. Cheering during these three times is the most useful.

The camera was directed to the center circle, Ibrahimovic stepped on the ball with one foot, and passed the ball directly back to Courtois after the referee blew the whistle.

gogogo!

Pogba gestured to the players in the front court and ran forward with Kante. Liverpool players had long guessed that Chelsea would do this, and Klein and Wijnaldum ran towards Jiang Yuan at the first opportunity.

Of course, Jiang Yuan never thought that he could get the first point. When the ball kicked off, Azpilicueta was standing very forward. After Jiang Yuan pulled away the defensive player, the Spanish full-back took the ball and then started to move forward.

The full-back pretends to be a winger!
"Azpilicueta goes down the wing, look towards the middle!"

"Oh, I'm a little anxious because it's a fast break. Azpilicueta has to get the ball out early, otherwise there will be no chance when the Liverpool players arrive."

"Azpilicueta! Make a high pass to the middle, Matip heads the ball out, and Azpilicueta gets the ball again and passes it straight to the end line, Jiang Yuan!"

"Inverted triangle!"

"Pogba, good position!"

"Just hit him!"

duang!

The ball hit the crossbar and then bounced on the grass. It was just around the goal line but didn't go in.

!!!

Sensing the opportunity, Ibrahimovic rushed forward, and the ball was right next to Mignolet's head, but Mignolet had not yet caught the ball with his hands.

This is a very good opportunity, and it can be scored with just a light touch!

Ibrahimovic had a strong desire to score, so when faced with this situation, he raised his foot without hesitation.

As a result, Mignolet's hand was faster, and Ibrahimovic's outstretched foot did not have time to retract, and kicked Mignolet directly on the right cheek.

"Hey! Hey! Referee!"

Mignolet fell on the grass, holding the ball tightly in his hands. Liverpool players rushed up and surrounded Ibrahimovic.

"Fuck you!"

Lovren reached out to push Ibrahimovic, then Firmino and Emre Can. Although Ibrahimovic was strong, he could not withstand the three people on the opposite side. Jiang Yuan was close and reacted quickly. He ran up and pushed Firmino. Pogba also came over to prepare to join the battle.

As for Terry, the Blues captain was anxiously explaining to the referee: "He retracted his foot, I saw him retract his foot, and Mignolet deliberately moved his face closer!"

Terry is experienced and he knows very well that there are only two possible outcomes for Ibrahimovic in this situation.

Yellow card or red card. Ibrahimovic himself felt guilty, so he did nothing after being pushed away by Lovren.

Firmino wanted to help Mignolet get revenge, Jiang Yuan stood between him and Ibrahimovic, and the two almost got into a fight, but fortunately Mane came to mediate. Mane was good at mediating, first signaling Jiang Yuan to calm down, and then hugged Firmino tightly.

During the conflict, Clattenburg blew the whistle and then took out a red card from his left breast pocket.

"oh my god, it's a red card, a red card for Zlatan Ibrahimovi"

"What? Come on!"

Ibrahimovic bypassed Jiang Yuan and rushed straight towards the referee Clattenburg. Mourinho also hurriedly complained to the fourth official.

A red card was given at the beginning of the second half. Should we still play the second half?
"Please leave, sir, please leave"

Clattenburg gestured "please". The red card had been drawn, the kind that could not be taken back.

In the camera, Ibrahimovic shook his hands and walked off the field angrily, while Clattenburg took a pen and wrote "away 9" on the red card, which is Ibrahimovic's jersey number.

[Fuck, isn’t this referee an idiot?]

[Except for that offside goal, Ibrahimovic was not a normal person in this game. Please stop praising Ibrahimovic, okay?]

[Awesome, great Clattenburg. Famous referee, capable! ]

[Playing with chicken feathers, except for Xiaojiang Hazard and Kante, are the other Chelsea players human? 】

[It's over, isn't it? How can we play against Liverpool with one less player? ]

[No, is there anyone who really thinks Chelsea can beat Liverpool? Even if Ibrahimovic didn't get a red card, Chelsea couldn't win. Ibrahimovic is not as good as Costa. Isn't this Mourinho's problem? He's playing well, why sell Costa? ]

[Hiss… Chelsea is in trouble. Although it’s normal for the third place to lose to the first place, I just feel uncomfortable.]

[If William hadn’t been injured, Liverpool would definitely not be able to laugh now]

[I am really impressed by Ibrahimovic. He was obviously offside when he got the ball in the first half, but he still kept moving forward.]

[Liverpool is too strong, Klopp is awesome! ]

In front of the bench, Mourinho and Ibrahimovic who was sent off symbolically high-fived each other. Although he was very unhappy, Mourinho didn't say anything.

The words "it depends on the situation" said during the halftime have now come true. What kind of counterattack is there? It's already good enough to maintain this score!
"Go to the back, everyone go to the back!"

Mourinho kept gesturing, signaling the team's two full-backs, Azpilicueta and Ake to temporarily give up their forward runs.

Now that they are one man less, facing the powerful Liverpool, it is unlikely that Chelsea can reverse the situation. The most important thing is to defend well.

In Mourinho's eyes, there are only two results for this game.

Either it's a 1:1 draw, or Chelsea loses by at least 2 goals!

“Fucking Chelsea!”

"Wohoo!"

Liverpool fans in the stands were immediately excited, Klopp was also very excited, and Lallana replaced Coutinho who was exhausted.

The logic is simple. If the score is evenly matched and you have the advantage, then quickly replace the forward who is full of energy and charge forward!

The game was going on for 58 minutes and the Chelsea players were already sweating profusely. Jiang Yuan and Falcao had not stopped in the front. If Falcao had not been so active in returning to defense, Mourinho might have replaced him long ago.

I don’t know if it was because there was one less person playing, but Pogba’s defense became more and more active, and Courtois was also very powerful. From the beginning of the second half to now, in more than 20 minutes, he made 4 super wonderful saves.

"Beautiful! Courtois hit Firmino's header horizontally, it's a corner kick for Liverpool"

"We can see that when the score was 1:1 with one more player, Klopp organized the team to launch a large-scale attack. Obviously, he was not very satisfied with the score!"

"Liverpool is still top of the league this season, and has three points more than second-placed Manchester City. If they can beat Chelsea, Liverpool will not drop out of first place before the 25th or 26th round."

"Corner kick, Emre Can, pass it to Mane! Head it directly!"

“GOOOOOO—AAAAAAA—LLLLLLLLL!!!”

"With Mane's goal, Liverpool started from 0:1 and now they have reversed the score!"

"Hey, wait..."

The CCTV commentator suddenly fell silent halfway through his speech. Although the score in the upper left corner of the screen had become 2:1, Clattenburg at the scene was pressing on the earphone with one hand, as if he was listening to the report from the referee on the sidelines.

About 5 seconds later, Clattenburg blew the whistle and crossed his hands before opening them to the sides.

Mane knocked down Courtois while competing for a header, so the goal was invalid.

"call……"

Jiang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. Because Ibrahimovic was sent off, Jiang Yuan often had to pretend to be a center forward.

If I remember correctly, this should be the most tiring game he has played this season!

The only hope now is to maintain this score, and if there is a chance, we can launch a few counterattacks.

After the goal was blown off, the Liverpool players on the field were obviously a little depressed. Chelsea had bad luck today, not only was a goal blown off for offside, but Ibrahimovic was also sent off.

But the good news is that Liverpool's luck was not very good. Mane shot three times in the second half, one of which was blocked and two hit the post.

There was a question in the minds of the fans at the scene.

God...whose side is he on?
"Press forward, go right, right!"

Klopp was shaking his hands and shouting outside the court. It was obvious that even with one more player, the score could not be reversed, and the head coach was under a lot of pressure.

In Klopp's view, Liverpool's next attack should be on the right. Due to Ibrahimovic's absence, Jiang Yuan needs to assume the responsibilities of both winger and center forward at the same time, which makes it basically impossible for him to return to defense.

Liverpool did attack on the right, with Mane and Klein taking turns to attack from the bottom. The problem was that Chelsea had an insurmountable hurdle in their backcourt, and that hurdle was called Kante.

Snapped!
Henderson was about to pass the ball to Klein who was advancing, but Kante suddenly ran over from the wing and made a steal with one kick.

"Fuck!"

Henderson, in a rage, reached out and pulled, knocking Kanter down and committing a direct foul.

gogogo!

Terry whispered from behind, Pogba quietly moved over, held the ball with his right hand, and then made a long pass accurately to find Falcao who was running towards the middle from the right.

"Woww!!"

"Beep beep beep!!!"

Liverpool fans in the stands were shouting wildly, trying to disturb Falcao. Players like Falcao who have just returned from injury usually have a fragile mentality.

Sure enough, under the fierce bombardment of Liverpool players, Falcao made a mistake in his first stop. Fortunately, he adjusted quickly and finally stabilized the ball.

After stabilizing himself, Falcao began to move forward.

With one man less, Chelsea's number of attacks is definitely limited. For the Blues players on the field, every counterattack opportunity is very precious.

"Falcao, Falcao has a chance to rush directly into the penalty area. Let's see what Falcao chooses..."

"Falcao chose to slow down temporarily and be more conservative. Hiss, Falcao has lacked confidence in recent games. Liverpool players are returning to defense."

"Hazard runs over and Falcao passes the ball back. Huh? Passing back on a counterattack? Chelsea's way of handling this is a bit strange."

"Hazard, come on your own, 1 vs 2 with Milner and Coutinho, Falcao runs in front, Hazard can seek cooperation with his teammates"

To be honest, if the person at the right baseline was Jiang Yuan, Hazard would have passed the ball to him long ago. The problem is that the person standing at the right baseline is Falcao, who has just resumed the game.

The people who know a player's condition best are not his fans or his coach, but his teammates.

Hazard also knew that he had to stand up in this situation, so after making a quick decision, Hazard pulled the ball with his feet and suddenly ran between Milner and Coutinho.

According to statistical reports, Hazard has successfully passed the ball 1v2 four times this season. Looking at the entire top five leagues, this number is only second to Messi's 4 times, which can be said to be very exaggerated.

And Hazard did not disappoint today. One second before Milner was about to stretch his foot, the Belgian stepped on the ball diagonally in front of his left foot, scaring Milner so much that he quickly retracted his foot.

After some processing, Liverpool's defensive players were almost in place. As a former striker, Hazard knew that the success rate of scoring a goal through mobile warfare in this situation was not high.

It would be best if it could be a penalty kick, but considering Jiang Yuan's presence, a direct free kick outside the penalty area is also a good option.

So, Hazard kicked the ball with his right foot and suddenly cut in from right to left.

Pretend to shoot, but actually rush directly into the penalty area.

Hazard was smart enough to know that Lovren would not allow himself into the box, so he paused before running towards the penalty area, giving the Liverpool defender a chance to react.

"Stop it! Stop it! Keep an eye on Jiang!"

Mignolet was sweating profusely and kept signaling his teammates to defend. Wijnaldum, who was returning to defense, rushed towards Hazard from the side. The latter did not force his way into the penalty area, but instead moved to the right.

Just at this time Emre Can was almost in position. With the help of his running-up momentum, he kicked Hazard. The latter stretched out his foot to pretend to get a free kick, which scared Emre Can so much that he pressed his hands on the grass, completing a human handbrake.

Then, Hazard took a long shot and the ball went straight to the upper left corner of the goal.

Mignolet reacted very quickly, pushing off the ground with his left foot and jumping out.

Snapped!
"Mignolet saved the ball!"

"Oh my god, that was an impossible save! Liverpool kept their ball..."

"Hey, wait!"

The commentator had just mentioned that Liverpool was defending the goal when Mignolet's ball came over Henderson's head. It was thought that Henderson could take the ball off without any pressure, but Pogba suddenly ran up from behind.

The Blues' French defensive midfielder pushed Henderson away, put his feet on the grass, tightened his core, and headed the ball directly back into Liverpool's penalty area.

The one closest to the first point is Jiang Yuan!
……

(End of this chapter)