68. Liverpool parachuted into Marseille
The whole Liverpool squad flew to Marseille two days ahead of schedule and they had to prepare for the game.
Marseille, the second largest city in France, is the largest seaport in France. Surrounded on three sides by limestone hills, the city offers beautiful scenery and a pleasant climate. Marseille is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea in the southeast, with deep water and wide ports, no rapids and dangerous shoals, and 10,000-ton ships can be unimpeded, making it the largest gateway for France's foreign trade.
It's a bustling place with people coming and going. And there are so many tourist attractions here that it attracts narrators all year round. However, this time the Liverpudlians are not here to tourist, they are here to fight.
This is not the first time that the Liverpudlians have played away from Marseille, the last time Liverpool played at Marseille was in 2004, when they were knocked out of the UEFA Cup by the hosts, and now Chelsea-playing Didier Drogba scored in both legs.
Gerrard is reluctant to reminisce about that experience and would prefer to see Liverpool repeat the same scene in 2005, when they were faced with a must-win situation, resulting in a 3-1 home win over Rivaldo's Olympiacos.
In this game, Gerrard scored with a volley from 25 meters out before the final game, allowing Liverpool to escape the fate of elimination, and then Liverpool successfully reached the final, and staged another magical scene in the final, the opponent AC Milan quickly led 3-0, Liverpool launched a counterattack in the second half, and finally the score was fixed at 3-3, and the two sides went to a penalty shoot-out, relying on strong nerves to win their fifth Champions League trophy.
On the way to Marseille, Liverpool's captain Steven Gerrard told the Liverpool players about this experience, especially to the Liverpool players who did not play in the Champions League, he was giving the Liverpool players confidence that they can work miracles.
Qiu Zeke is very clear about the miracle created by Liverpool in Istanbul in 2005, whether it is in his past life or now, he is very tenacious Liverpool, that Liverpool shocked the whole Shijie, and everyone was shocked by the tenacious spirit of the Liverpool people.
Now in Qiu Ze's view, it is not the end of Shijie, and it is not to the extent of 2005, Qiu Ze thinks that they will be very easy to appear, even if it is an away game, they can smoothly take away the three points and advance to the next round of the Champions League.
After arriving in Marseille, the club did not make any arrangements that night, but the Liverpool players were strictly forbidden to go out. It was 8pm when Liverpool arrived at the hotel, and when they arrived, the Liverpool players simply rested and had dinner.
After dinner, the Liverpool players will rest in their rooms, and the Liverpool club strictly prohibits the players from going out without permission. The Liverpool players had to go back to their rooms to rest, and of course there were guys in the entertainment hall of the hotel.
The Liverpool club's rule is that the players must go back to the room at ten o'clock at night to turn off the lights and sleep, which is very strict, and the players of Liverpool dare not touch it, and Qiu Ze is also honest and does not want to be the first bird.
While the Liverpool players were resting, Liverpool's coaching staff was not so good, and Liverpool's coaching staff was watching the video of the Marseille team in the makeshift conference room at this time, discussing the tactics against the Marseille team, and they were busy until after 2 a.m. on this day.
The Liverpool coaching staff got up early the next morning and some guys went to prepare nutritious meals for the players, although these were already arranged, but they still had to check them out for safety. Others are preparing for Liverpool's training day today.
Today's training for Liverpool is two sessions, one from 10am to 12pm, and then from 3pm to 5pm. This seems very tiring, but in fact, the intensity of Liverpool's training on this day is not very large, and the only thing that is a little intense is to adapt to the tactical training in the field training.
Around eight o'clock in the morning, the Liverpool players get up to wash, use up early, then take a simple break, and then start training in the morning.
This training intensity is really not much, it is a simple warm-up and training with the ball, this morning, the team's head coach Benitez did not appear, this guy is still watching the recent video of the Marseille team, he is doing Zuihou research.
After lunch, the Liverpool players were driven back to their rooms for a lunch break before heading to Marseille's home stadium in the afternoon to train on acclimatisation.
By the time Liverpool arrived at Marseille's home stadium, there were already a lot of reporters and fans waiting here. Of course, it's more journalists, who report on Liverpool's pre-match training. Of course, there are a lot of journalists from Marseille who want to find out what Liverpool are doing.
Of course, it is not excluded that there are spies sent by the Marseille team to spy on the military situation, in the previous training, Liverpool were some simple warm-up and ball training, their training was open to the public for half an hour, and then Liverpool closed the training for almost an hour, and then they left and returned to the hotel.
Today is the same as yesterday, Liverpool's players are strictly forbidden to go out, and it is mandatory to turn off the lights and go to bed at 10 o'clock. Perhaps the Liverpool players also knew that they could not afford to lose this game, so the Liverpool players were very compliant and fell asleep early.
The next day, the Liverpool players also got up at eight o'clock for breakfast or something, and then they had a simple warm-up training session and a lunch break at noon, but their dinner was early, and they had to be early for this evening's game.
After dinner at the hotel and a break, Qiu Zecai and the Liverpool players stepped on the Liverpool bus, which was heading to the Velodrom Stadium, the home of the Marseille team.
When the Liverpool bus arrived at the Vilodrome Stadium, the Marseille bus had just driven in, and the fans of the Marseille team gave a cheer that soared into the sky, they welcomed the arrival of the Marseille team, they chanted the names of every player of the Marseille team, and cheered for the Marseille team.
At this time, the security personnel of the stadium immediately separated the excited media reporters and separated them from the aisle, so that the players and coaches of the Marseille team got off the car, and in the face of the reporters' inquiries, they did not have any response, and rushed directly into the players' tunnel and disappeared from people's sight.
Because the Marseille bus had just entered, the Liverpool bus had to stop outside and wait for the Marseille bus to leave before driving in.
When the Liverpool bus arrived, the driver of the Marseille bus in front of him saw the arrival of the Liverpool bus. He should have driven away as soon as all the Marseille team members got out of the car, but this guy stopped somewhere and occupied the pit and didn't pull to death.
This made the Liverpudlians behind very angry, and the Liverpool fans were even more furious, throwing hard objects at the Marseille team's bus, clanging, which scared the driver of the Marseille team, and even angry Liverpool fans climbed the car and wanted to pull this guy down, which scared this guy stupid.
If it weren't for the help and reminders of the stadium security staff, this guy would have had to take off two layers of skin. Under the reminder of the stadium security staff, this guy drove the bus away in a panic, and the Liverpool bus had a chance to drive in.
Seeing the arrival of the Liverpool bus, the Liverpool fans at the scene suddenly became excited and cheered wildly: "Liverpool! Liverpool! Liverpool! ”
"Chris~~Gerrard~~Torres......" The Liverpool fans at the scene shouted the names of the Liverpool players, and they looked very excited, as if they had taken doping, blushing and tearing their throats, shouting triumphantly.
"Get out, Liverpool! Fuck off, trash, or we'll kick your ass! Marseille fans were frantically cursing at Liverpool, and some guys even threw coins at Liverpool's buses to give Liverpudders a dismount.
Even though it looked a little chaotic, the reporters who were waiting here rushed forward without hesitation, surrounded the Liverpool bus, and stretched out their long guns and short guns to the door of the Liverpool bus, and the first to come down was Liverpool manager Benitez.
"Mr. Benitez, if you lose this game, will you take the blame and resign?" Suddenly, the reporters began to ask questions, and Benitez did not stop and walked into the players' tunnel under the escort of security personnel.
Then Qiu Ze came down, and these reporters immediately opened their throats and asked loudly, as if they were afraid that Qiu Ze would not hear.
"Chris! If Liverpool loses this game, which club will you move to? Is it Real Madrid or Inter Milan? ”
"Chris, how much do you think you have to win this game? If you can't win this game, will you choose to leave? Will Mr. Benitez go straight to class? ”
Qiu Ze didn't pay attention to these guys at all, as soon as he got out of the car, Qiu Ze rushed to the players' tunnel, and then slipped away, followed by Real Torres and Gerrard and others, they did not stop to be interviewed by these reporters, and rushed into the players' tunnel and rushed into the locker room.
At this time, Liverpool fans walked into the stadium in droves and began to set up their bases, ready for a tough battle. The Liverpool fans sang Liverpool's anthem "You'll Never Go Alone" on the sidelines, and the Liverpool players were uninhibited, as if this was their home stadium, Anfield, and they completely regarded it as their home stadium.
The fans of the Marseille team were very uncomfortable when they saw Liverpool's arrogance, and they immediately counterattacked, singing their team's anthem, and they used their voices to tell the Liverpool guys that this is their Marseille team's turf, this is Rivero Drome!
Liverpool fans are very disdainful of this, they don't pay attention to the Marseille garbage at all, they sing their own team anthem, cheering for their team, as if they don't see the Marseille team, completely treating the Marseille team people as air.
"Get out, garbage England, see if Marseille doesn't beat your out, you guys get on board! Damn Liverpool garbage! The Marseille fans roared angrily at the Liverpool fans, and their vicious expressions seemed to tear the Liverpool fans apart.
At this point, the players from both sides had gone into the dressing room, and in the dressing room, the Liverpool players found their positions, put their stuff in and started to sort out their gear, because in a moment they were going out to warm up.