Chapter 169: The Hammer Gang

On the evening of September 19, Liverpool's away game against the Hammers came to West Ham United.

Before this game, the London police were on standby.

Liverpool and the Hammers had no big feud, but in the just concluded English League Cup, West Ham United defeated Millwall, also from London, 3-1 at home, but there was a lot of commotion in the game, which caused the game to be suspended for a while.

The FA is discussing the punishment of West Ham United and Millwall, but soon it will be West Ham United's home match with Liverpool, although there is no hatred between the two teams, but Liverpool is the Champions League champion, and it has always been a phenomenon to desperately play strong teams on the football field, especially in the Premier League, which is a tough league, and the London police have to be prepared to avoid a real emergency.

There are many teams in London, and there are naturally many derbies of all kinds, and the derby between West Ham United and Millwall is known as the East London derby, which is the bloodiest derby in the history of the English league.

Since West Ham United and Millwall are both on the banks of the Thames, the early fans of both teams were workers in factories on the banks of the Thames, and every derby would break out in off-field clashes.

West Ham's nickname Hammers is related to the Steelworkers, and is also a homonym (Ham and hammer, Ham is Ham, hammer is hammer), and the nickname sounds domineering, but in fact Millwall was more ferocious in the early conflicts, when Millwall football hooligans were England's most notorious football hooligans.

The East London derby is probably only as popular in the UK as the religiously charged Scottish derby, the Celtic and Glasgow Rangers derby.

There is a classic line in the famous movie "Green Street", which depicts the conflict between fans: "The hatred of the two teams (West Ham United and Millwall) is like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees?" No, more like Israel and Palestine. "Of the films that depict football hooligans, most of them talk about the early days of West Ham and Millwall.

But that was all in the early days, and now the situation has improved, plus West Ham United has been in the Premier League for a long time, Millwall has been in the Championship most of the time, and the number of times the two teams have met has been greatly reduced, so the fans of the two teams can't help but 'greet' each other when they finally have a chance to meet.

The Hammers fans are still in debt, and Liverpool's away game against West Ham United went on as normal and was unaffected.

Liverpool still fielded the same starting line-up for their last Champions League game.

The Hammers fans didn't give Liverpool a dismissal, but the Hammers players gave Liverpool a dismissal at the beginning.

In the 2nd minute of the opening game, West Ham United striker Henis stole Carragher to form a single knife, and the Liverpool vice-captain gave the opponent a big gift at the beginning, but fortunately, the opponent was also unprepared for this big gift, and this time the single shot hit the post and bounced back under Hart's interference and was cleared by Little Pony.

Carragher, as the team's vice-captain, made such a low-level mistake in the opening game made Heynckes very angry on the sidelines.

After the age of 30, Carragher's form has declined significantly, and his centre-back combination with Hyypia, which was ranked among the best in Europe, is now on the verge of becoming a colander.

In fact, since the second half of the first half of the season, Heynckes has often arranged for Skrtel and Agger to partner in the starting center-back combination, allowing Carragher to play as a substitute, but Ag has been injured for two days from time to time, and Carragher has a lot of opportunities to play, more like a three-man rotation of two center-back positions, Carragher can always seize the opportunity to show his low-level mistakes.

Although there were no goals, the opening was a morale boost for the West Ham players.

And Liverpool was not to be outdone and immediately launched a counterattack.

In the 7th minute, Gerrard and Torres passed the ball after hitting the wall in a row, Liu Ting received the ball in the penalty area and hit the goal, but the final strength was not enough to make the shot confiscated by the opponent's goalkeeper Green.

In the 10th minute, Liu Ting plugged the ball through, Torres got rid of the opposing defender Tomkins and Upson's shot and hit the opponent's Congolese full-back Ilunga, but the referee did not say anything.

In the 11th minute, Pony Jr. split the ball and Glen Johnson's powerful shot went wide of the post.

Soon the game returned to its normal rhythm, and Liverpool suppressed their opponents, but the Hammers fighting at home were not without a fight.

However, Liverpool were the stronger and soon scored.

In the 20th minute, Liu Ting broke through the opponent's fullback Fubert on the left side and passed, Torres received the ball past the opposing defender Tomkins and hit the ball into the near corner of the goal with a strong shot.

“Gooooooal!!! TNT!!! ”

"In front of TNT, the Hammers only lasted 20 minutes before they were breached, and this is a normal game." Alan Hansen was talking happily again.

This goal seems to have not only hit the opponent's morale, but also the opponent's body.

In the 25th and 28th minutes, West Ham defender Upson and midfielder Behrami went off injured in quick succession, and the Hammers used up two substitutions just over halfway through the first half.

Alan Hansen's mocking face was revealed again: "Haha! This time it was finally not Liverpool's players who were injured, now it is the opponent's turn to be injured, and two people in a row have been injured in three minutes, and then Liverpool will be much easier to play. ”

Alan Hansen was too corrupt and was immediately slapped in the face.

In the 30th minute, Carragher was not tight, Hammers striker Henis received a pass from midfielder Noble and burst into the penalty area, Carragher couldn't keep up and had to foul, the referee directly gave the opponent a penalty, and Carragher also received a yellow card.

The opposition midfielder Diamanti came to take the penalty, he slipped and fell during the penalty, but accidentally smashed the ball into the top left corner of the goal.

Such a goal convinced the Hammers fans that God was still on their side, and the home fans celebrated wildly.

“Hammer…… Hammer!!! ”

Heynckes on the sidelines went crazy again, standing on the sidelines and directing the team to launch an offensive.

Liverpool's attack was launched, and West Ham United had to block it with fouls, and the opposing midfielder Parker and defender Faubert received yellow cards on Liu Ting and Gerrard respectively.

Even that didn't last long, and the goals came again.

In the 41st minute, Torres's shot helped Liverpool win a corner kick, Xavi Alonso drove the corner kick, Gerrard jumped up in front of the header, Liu Ting stopped the ball on his chest and volleyed directly into the net, and the opposing goalkeeper Green stood unresponsive.

“Goooooooal!!! Pretty! Liu, nice volley! Liverpool took the lead again. Alan Hansen roared again.

Liu Ting's goal was very beautiful, and he ran to the camera to show his 'strong King Kong leg' tattoo, and soon the whole Liverpool team came to celebrate together.

The team's players will be divided into offensive players and defensive players, because offense and defense are equally important, and a team that will keep scoring goals does not necessarily win the game, and the opponent must not score goals.

Liverpool had intended to keep the score 2-1 until half-time, but instead West Ham looked for an equaliser in the final minutes, so the Hammers went on the offensive and Liverpool also intended to hold on for the final minutes.

Soon after, in stoppage time, West Ham attacked again and were awarded a corner before the referee gave them one last chance.

West Ham midfielder Noble took a corner from the left, but Liverpool's Carragher and Skrtel made a mistake in the combination, which missed the opposing high striker Carlton Cole, who headed home the goal, and West Ham equalised again.

The equaliser sent the cheers from Earpton Park over the roof, and Heynckes on the sidelines simply calmly said to assistant coach Herman: "Peter, we need a new centre-back." ”

Carragher did slip in form, but he was especially bad in this game, and the Hammers fans shouldn't be thanking God, they should be thanking Carragher.

At halftime, the defenders were basically scolded, and only Xiao Ma was active in the first half and was not scolded.

At the beginning of the second half, Liverpool did not make substitutions, Heynckes wanted to replace Carragher, but after Agger's injury, Liverpool no longer had a good central defender, Zheng Zhi and Swiss defender Degen on the bench could play, but they would not necessarily perform better than Carragher.

The second half of the game turned into a tug-of-war, with the two sides attacking each other, Liverpool attacking more and the Hammers counter-attacking from time to time.

Fortunately, in the second half, Carragher's performance was not so bad and began to improve.

The defense no longer makes mistakes, and the position is tug-of-war, and Liverpool are not afraid of the opponent.

In the 75th minute, Kuyt crossed from the right, Torres beat Tomkins and Faubert in the penalty area to score with a header, Torres completed the brace of the game, and Liverpool once again overtook the score.

Two minutes after the goal, West Ham also created a threat, the opposition counter-attacked with a long pass in front of the back, Carlton Cole headed the ball on, and the Hammers substitute Czech midfielder Kovac headed the ball on the line of the six-yard box, but Joe Hart held the ball away with one hand.

Joe Hart's performance through these games is not too good, at least not as good as the previous Reina, but it also makes everyone realize that he is a capable goalkeeper and a goalkeeper worth developing.

Hart's flying save was West Ham's most dangerous shot of the second half, and although they then launched a counter-attack to try to equalise for the third time, Liverpool's two counter-attacks almost scared them and the score was deadlocked.

In the end, Liverpool defeated the Hammers 3:2 away with Torres' brace and Liu Ting's volley, and won two consecutive league wins.

Although Liverpool won, the media still felt that Liverpool won too hard and did not have a championship appearance.

Because Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 at home in this round, continuing to lead the opening six consecutive wins, and also giving rivals Tottenham Hotspur two consecutive defeats, this is the performance of the championship.

These are all media claims, and if Chelsea don't win the title at the end of the season, they will certainly have another story.

In other matches in this round, Arsenal beat Wigan Athletic 4-0 at home, which can be regarded as coming out of the shadow of two consecutive defeats in the league.

Manchester United continued to keep the pressure on Chelsea with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Manchester City in the Manchester derby at home, and Manchester City was immediately beaten by their rivals after the slogan of winning the title in the last round of high-spirited Arsenal was also enough to blow morale.

So far, the Premier League has played 6 rounds, Chelsea has won 6 consecutive games and occupies the top spot with 18 points, Manchester United is second with 15 points, Arsenal, Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City have 12 points, and then Liverpool with 10 points.

However, Liverpool have one less round.