In midweek, Liverpool welcomed the first round of Group D of the Champions League group stage, away to Marseille in Ligue 1.

After sending away Nasri, the core of last season's most eye-catching midfield, Marseille's overall strength has not declined, but has improved faintly, as they soon brought in talented midfielder Ben Afa from Lyon, as well as Ivory Coast winger Koné, both of whom spent a total of 20 million euros on Marseille's transfer fee.

When the strength increases, the ambition will naturally be more sufficient.

In last season's Champions League group stage, Marseille lost 0-4 to Liverpool in the final round of the group stage, and was finally forced to play in the League Cup, which made Marseille feel very depressed.

With a comeback this season and a strengthened strength, the Ligue 1 powerhouse naturally want to make a difference at home.

Especially considering that, in addition to Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven all have the quality and qualification to reach the last 16, which makes Ligue 1 teams more worried and must fight every game, especially at home.

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Unlike Marseille, who are strong, Liverpool have been too much in recent times.

The international players are all returning to China after a long journey, and after coming back, they beat Manchester United non-stop, and everyone is physically and mentally exhausted.

So Benitez made a proper rotation for this game.

At the back, with Carragher's return, Daniel Ag was back on the bench, with Carragher partnering Skrtel in central defence and Arbeloa and Aurelio on the wings.

In midfield, Mascherano and Lucas Rewa were sidelined in midfield, Xavi Alonso and Gareth Barry were both brought back to the bench and Steven Gerrard started up front.

The front trident is still a combination of Yang Yang, Crouch and Kuyt.

Although Crouch, Gerrard and Carragher and others made a quick comeback, Benitez still did not dare to arrange Yang Yang's rotation, after all, this is the first round of the Champions League, or away, and the team's attacking power is crucial.

Without Yang Yang's heavy weapon, Liverpool's away game against Marseille is really reassuring.

And the trend of the game confirms this.

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After the opening, Liverpool quickly relied on the midfield advantage to control the situation on the field and launched attacks one after another.

Yang Yang was not too committed, this is the arrangement that Benitez gave him before the game, because the team needs him to maintain a stable performance for a long time, not to use him to death, so his pressing in the front court is far less positive than Crouch, Kuyt and Gerrard, but everyone in the team is convinced.

With and without Yang Yang, Liverpool face two very different playing environments.

It's like playing Marseille, Yang Yang is standing there, even if he just walks slowly, he can make Marseille's defenders feel like a big enemy, for fear that he won't know when to rush up.

It's a deterrent to the opposing players.

If Yang Yang is asked to do his best to fight every game, then he will definitely have to take turns to rest.

Therefore, the Liverpool dressing room also agrees with this, and even Gerrard, Kuyt and others have told Yang Yang to let him run less, and they will run for him and save energy to participate in the attack.

Although Yang Yang didn't work particularly hard, he still did it in the fifteenth minute, after retreating to the midfield to receive the ball, he turned and passed diagonally behind the right side, Kuyt quickly inserted it, grabbed the ball before the opponent's central defender Zuball and crossed, but Crouch hit the ball high.

This is Liverpool's most threatening attack since the opening, and it is also a reminder to Marseille, don't look at Yang Yang as if he is paddling and playing soy sauce, but if you are not careful, give him a chance, and you can kill you in every minute!

However, Yang Yang is not the kind of person who ignores the overall situation.

Liverpool attacked in the opening round, but it didn't work, but instead the opponent hit a counterattack.

Ben Afa crossed through the middle and Cherou set up a goal for Kana to open the scoring for Marseille.

This goal boosted Marseille's morale very much, and dealt a blow to Liverpool, because after more than 20 minutes, not only did not attack, but gave the opponent a sneak attack, which really shouldn't be.

But just two minutes later, Yang Yang successfully helped Liverpool equalize the score.

After Carragher broke the ball in the backfield, he made a long pass directly to the left side of the front field, Yang Yang quickly caught up, and after getting the ball, he connected the opponent's two central defenders Hilton and Zubbar, and when he broke into the penalty area to get up, he was knocked to the ground by the opponent's goalkeeper Mandanda, and the referee did not hesitate to award a penalty.

Yang Yang smiled and gave up the penalty opportunity to Gerrard, and the Liverpool captain calmly hit the penalty, 1 to 1!

And only four minutes later, it was Yang Yang who took the initiative to retreat, after the ball was successfully broken, a person turned around with the ball and pushed forward, and suddenly passed diagonally to the right side, Kuyt knocked back to the middle after getting the ball, Gerrard followed up and shot directly out of his legs, and hit a long shot 25 meters away, once again penetrating Marseille's goal, two to one!

After the reversal, Liverpool was extremely excited, especially Gerrard, the hero of the brace, who was the first to run to Yang Yang and celebrate his goal with him.

After the rematch in the second half, Marseille once played a rush attack, especially the side attacks began to increase, but they were mainly concentrated on the left side, and the right side was more defensive Yang Yang.

But in the 58th minute, Liverpool instigated a counterattack, Crow made a wonderful pass to the right, Kuyt drove straight into the ball with the ball, and finally crossed to the goal, and Yang Yang ran easily and calmly pushed and hit, three to one!

Benitez then quickly replaced Yang Yang with Gareth Bale, and the score remained 3-1 until the end of halftime.

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In his post-match press conference, Benitez said his pre-match idea was for players such as Yang Yang and Steven Gerrard to play only 60 minutes, and then the rest of the players held on to the win.

'I'm happy to see the score at the end, we achieved the goals we set before the game and everyone contributed.

Marseille manager Gretz was depressed that Liverpool's success lies in their two world-class stars.

'Yang Yang and Steven Gerrard are both world-class stars, especially Yang Yang, he didn't keep us from focusing on attacking, he didn't have many touches, but every time he created a threat, especially from that penalty, we couldn't imagine how we could stop him other than foul him, he changed the whole course of the game.

But in the end, it was Steven Gerrard who scored a brace that went to Steven Gerrard, who was clearly harder to beat the Liverpool captain.

UEFA ratings believe that Yang Yang only played seriously for less than ten minutes in this game, but he created two goals for Liverpool, and the goal in the second half was more like a casual stroll.

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At the weekend, in the fifth round of the Premier League, Liverpool hosted promoted Mastoke City.

It was a match of strength and weakness, and no one had any doubt that Liverpool could win on their home turf.

And after the start of the game, Liverpool did play a wave of attacks from the beginning, as expected by the outside world.

After a Champions League clash in midweek, Liverpool have once again rotated.

Glenn Johnson started on the right side of the backline, Gareth Bale on the left, Carragher and Skrtel in central defence, and Xavi Alonso and Gareth Barry in midfield, with Gerrard advancing forward.

The front trident is a combination of Yang Yang, Crouch and Benayoun.

Just two minutes into the game, after Benayoun played a tactical match with Glen Johnson on the right flank, Glen Johnson was fouled by the opposing defender when he took the ball, giving Liverpool a free kick opportunity in front.

This ball is far from the goal, a full 36 meters, on the right side, everyone basically concluded that this was an indirect free kick, because at such a long distance, it is really unlikely to hit the goal directly.

But just as Benayoun and Gerald were discussing how to cooperate, Yang Yang suddenly ran over from the left.

"I'll fight!" Yang Yang said eagerly.

"Straight hit?" Both Gerald and Benayoun had some suspicions that they had misheard.

It's 36 meters, and it's on the right side, so it's not easy to hit.

But Yang Yang didn't say much, standing at the penalty spot, glanced at the goal more than 30 meters away, and then looked at the goalkeeper of the Stoke City team, the 32-year-old Danish veteran Thomas Sorensen, who is 1.96 meters tall.

"I'll try." Yang Yang said with a smile.

Of course, Gerrard and Benayoun will not have an opinion, and the Liverpool captain even jokingly patted Yang Yang on the shoulder, "Remember, if you don't score this goal, you have to make up three when you go back." ”

Yang Yang didn't pay attention to it, but looked up at the sky, walked over again, picked up the ball, wiped it carefully, and then gently put it back on the grass, and after stepping on the turf behind the ball, he silently counted his steps and stepped back.

At this time, all the fans in the audience also noticed Yang Yang's actions, and everyone cheered.

"God, is Yang Yang going to hit the door directly?"

"It's too difficult, we just calculated that this position is 36 meters away from the goal, and the difficulty of hitting the goal directly is not ordinary, and his move has obviously given the Stoke City players a signal."

'Thomas Sorensen is definitely ready for it and it's really difficult to play a direct free-kick like this from a distance in this situation, it's definitely a challenge.'

But Liverpool's players didn't seem to have much feeling, and Crouch even shouted at Yang Yang from afar, "Hey, Yang, if you can't do it, upload it to your head, I'll wait for you!" ”

Yang Yang waved his hand at him, as if to say, don't make noise with me!

After practicing for more than a year, Yang Yang's free kick strength has indeed grown considerably, and he has scored a lot of goals, but there are few long-distance free kicks and no chances.

Playing Stoke City today, Liverpool is very sure from top to bottom, so Yang Yang wants to give it a try, just think of it as his own willfulness, try his feet, and stimulate himself by the way.

No matter how realistic the simulation of the super training ground is, the simulation is still a simulation, and it is always not as exciting and stressful as the live competition, and these are the best stimulation and the biggest motivation for Yang Yang.