On the evening of April 29, Old Trafford.

When German referee Herbert Fadel blew the whistle for the end of the game, there was a tsunami of frenzy at Old Trafford and the United fans were in celebration.

Although, in terms of scores, they did not win!

The scoreboard shows the time of the game, and after 120 minutes, the score is still 0-0.

Yes, the game went to overtime, but it was still impossible to tell the winner.

……

This is the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, with Manchester United hosting Liverpool.

The first leg between the two sides took place a week ago at Anfield and ended up 0-0.

After the game, there was a heated discussion among the media and fans around the world, and Ferguson's team was met with huge criticism.

Because Manchester United adopted a counter-attacking tactic on the road, almost all the players on the pitch were pulled back to their own half, and finally succeeded in freezing Liverpool's attack.

After the game, the Liverpool Echo newspaper sarcastically mocked Manchester United, believing that Ferguson's side had adopted a nine-to-one, or even ten-to-zero formation, and managed to get a draw away from home.

Liverpool had 21 shots on goal but couldn't find the back of the net for Manchester United.

The duo of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, combined with Edwin van der Sar behind them, have made the Reds defensive impregnable and arguably the most defensive team in European football this season.

Against a wolf-like Liverpool side, it was understandable that Alex Ferguson kept an away draw.

After all, at Anfield, who is not afraid of losing 0-5 if it is as strong as Barcelona?

But what no one expected was that after returning to the home stadium, Manchester United still adopted a strict defensive tactic, except for Cristiano Ronaldo, everyone else retreated.

United had just five shots on goal throughout the game, one on target, three off target and one blocked.

Possession was only 37.6 per cent, two percentage points more than in the first leg.

For the whole game, 57.5 percent of the time the football was played in the United half.

Liverpool, on the other hand, had 19 shots on goal but only five were really dangerous and 10 were blocked.

There was one controversy in the first half and one in the second half.

The first half was a penalty, when Yang Yang rushed into the penalty area with the ball, but was dragged by Manchester United and midfielder Carrick fouled from the side, through slow motion replay, the foul should be within the penalty line, this should be a penalty.

But referee Herbert Fadel gave a yellow card and a free kick.

There was another time in the second half, Yang Yang formed a single goal, but the linesman raised the flag to signal offside and blew away the goal, but through the slow-motion replay, it was a very beautiful anti-offside.

Twice escaped, United managed to hold the score 0-0 until 120 minutes later.

The two sides played a total of 210 minutes in the two-legged game, and did not score a single goal.

The game was dragged into a penalty shootout.

……

Compared to the brutality of Liverpool and Manchester United, the other semi-final clash was equally tragic.

Arsenal drew 1-1 at home to Chelsea but lost 3-2 to the Blues in extra-time in the second leg and missed out on the semi-finals and Champions League final.

Grant's Chelsea team was really lucky, making it all the way to the semi-finals with a near-guaranteed draw, and the opponent was Arsenal, and the luck was good, and the Premier League civil war knew each other's roots.

But even so, in the three knockout rounds, Chelsea have drawn two and lost one, and you must know that in addition to Arsenal, the other two opponents are Olympiacos and Fenerbahce.

Although Grant led Liverpool to a breakthrough in the Champions League, judging from his line-up along the way, it is impossible for him to stay in the team this summer, because his coaching ability is really bad and he has repeatedly made serious mistakes.

It can even be said that if it weren't for the weak opponent, Grant would not have led the team to the final four.

But on the football field, sometimes luck is more important than anything else.

It's like Liverpool this season.

The group stage is relatively better, starting from the knockout round, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United......

stumbled all the way to the top European teams and stumbled to the semi-finals, but was dragged into a penalty shootout by Manchester United.

……

The penalty shootout is the most suspenseful, the most brutal, and the most dramatic part of the football field.

According to the official data given by FIFA, the penalty kick rate is 79%.

But in reality, the shooting percentage is useless, and anyone who stands at the penalty spot and faces the goal is always worried about the 21 percent, because that's the key to winning.

Former England national team manager Childwell Hoddle once said that even if he played a thousand or 10,000 times, he still couldn't practice his penalty skills in key battles, because the pressure in reality could not be restored.

Some research institutions have shown that the key to the penalty kick is not the penalty skills, 80 to 90 percent of the penalty is based on psychological factors, and 10 to 20 percent is based on physiological factors, which has nothing to do with penalty skills.

It has been said that penalties are the perfect test of resilience.

In a real penalty shootout, many players are very resistant to the first penalty, and the pressure is too great.

The first and fifth, which the vast majority of players try to avoid.

But sometimes there are people who just have to stand up for it.

Yang Yang took the initiative to ask for help and chose the first penalty and the captain Gerrard last.

Manchester United's first player to take the penalty was the Argentine beast Tevez, whose psychological quality has always been quite strong, so he was entrusted with the task by Ferguson and was the first to stand up and take a penalty.

And Tevez did not live up to Ferguson's trust and calmly converted the penalty.

This time, all the pressure is on Liverpool's side.

Yang Yang was the first player in the Liverpool team to take a penalty and took all the pressure.

When he stood at the penalty spot, facing Van der Sar, he was silently thinking in his heart.

In the past few penalties, he has been straight down the middle, but this time......

"The ball is in!!"

"Yang Yang was very clean and neat, directly advancing the lower right corner of the goal, the speed was very fast, Van der Sar thought that Yang Yang would push the middle again, but I didn't expect Yang Yang to change his strategy this time."

"Liverpool chose Yang Yang as the first penalty taker, obviously because of his strong ability to resist pressure, and Yang Yang did not live up to the expectations of the outside world and calmly took the penalty."

"His performance in this game is also quite good, if it wasn't for the referee Fandel's two misjudgments, I believe the game would not have been dragged into a penalty shootout."

"Regardless of the final result, after scoring this penalty, Yang Yang can leave Old Trafford with pride."

……

After Yang Yang, Manchester United and Liverpool took penalties in the second round, and Carrick and Aurelio also calmly took the spot.

In the third round, Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty, but Xavi Alonso hit it calmly.

This suddenly made Liverpool seem to see hope.

Hargreaves then converted in the fourth round as well, but Crouch made a mistake in the penalty.

Nani and Gerrard, Anderson and Kuyt also hit back-to-back.

It wasn't until the seventh round that Ryan Giggs hit the penalty and Carragher made a mistake.

…………

…………

By the time Carragher kicked the ball out, Liverpool's vice-captain knew it was over.

He fell to his knees on the penalty spot, hugged his head and cried.

It's too much pressure!

At such a critical juncture, no one would blame Carragher.

On the contrary, Yang Yang and Gerrard both walked to Carragher's side one after another, hugged the vice-captain hard, and other Liverpool players also surrounded him one after another.

Many people's eyes were filled with tears, and their hearts were full of unwillingness.

Liverpool performed well, but were confronted by a heavily defended Manchester United, which, combined with the referee's misjudgment, was dragged into a brutal penalty shoot-out and lost the chance to reach the Champions League final again.

It doesn't matter if it's Liverpool or Manchester United, whoever reaches the final will be the champion.

But alas, Liverpool have no chance to defend the Champions League.

The Liverpool players on the bench also ran into the pitch, and everyone gathered around Carragher, and no one tried to persuade him, because it might be more comfortable for him to cry bitterly.

In terms of results, Liverpool is proud to lose in the Champions League semi-finals in this way, but who doesn't want to win?

Including players such as Benayoun and Lucas Rewa, many people were unwilling to cry.

They both arrived at Liverpool last summer, so who knows when the next time they see a Champions League final will be?

Maybe they won't even have a chance again in this life.

……

Manchester United players are in full swing.

Knocking out Liverpool, they reached the final and have basically won the Champions League.

They have such confidence and confidence.

Of course, that doesn't mean they can be careless.

Cristiano Ronaldo was frustrated because he missed a penalty.

As the team's third penalty taker, he did not independently pick up the burden of the team like Yang Yang and stepped forward, which in itself made him weaker.

What he didn't expect was that he was also punished.

This made the Portuguese feel ashamed.

Manchester United won, but he lost!

But even so, he finally calmed down his emotions quickly and walked towards Yang Yang.

Many Manchester United players admire Yang Yang, such as Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Carrick and others, who have come over to shake hands with Yang Yang and Gerrard.

When Xiao Xiaoluo walked in front of Yang Yang, the Portuguese suddenly didn't know what to say.

On the contrary, it was Yang Yang, who looked very calm, "Congratulations, you have entered the finals, you must win this championship." ”

Yang Yang congratulated him with a smile.

Xiao Xiaoluo's heart was stable, he squeezed out a smile, and nodded: "Don't worry, I will do my best." ”

The two shook hands vigorously.

"The Champions League is yours, I want the rest!" Yang Yang said confidently.