The team meeting after lunch was mainly about watching the footage of Aston Villa's game, reiterating the tactical style and discipline to ensure that the evening game was foolproof. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In fact, Liverpool has been studying how to deal with Aston Villa for a long time, and the training has been training for a long time, and the players are a little aesthetically fatigued.

However, Benitez did not get angry on the spot, although he has not won the opening game for three consecutive years after joining Liverpool, but the opponent is still a weak team after all, and he has not won against Liverpool for six years, and it is difficult to make the players pay attention to it, even Benitez

Not excited, although he would love to win the fight.

At the end of the meeting, Benitez also took the team to briefly review the video clips of the first few Premier League games brought by the scouts, analyze the characteristics of the middle and lower reaches of the new season, and stimulate the disciples who are not excited enough.

There have been six games before Liverpool and Aston Villa, with Sunderland beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at home, Newcastle beating Bolton Wanderers 3-1, Portsmouth drawing 2-2 at Derby, Everton winning 2-1 at Wigan Athletic, Middlesbrough losing 2-1 at home to Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City beating West Ham 2-0 away.

In the games that have already been played, Liverpool are still paying the most attention to Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as Manchester City and West Ham United.

Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City are teams that have the quality to cause trouble for the title contenders, and their performances in the opening game will also reflect the quality and competitive form of the teams in the middle and lower reaches of the new season.

Judging from the process and results of the game, this season's Premier League is not optimistic, and the strength and fighting spirit of the middle and lower teams are very strong.

Manchester City have transferred eight players in one go under Thaksin's sponsorship, half of the team was on the bench last season, and Chinese star Sun Hai did not make the squad. The Manchester City team, which has added a lot of new blood, has indeed improved a lot, and West Ham United did not fight back at all in the first round of games, they are no longer the team that fights for relegation every year, and it is very likely to get a place in the UEFA Cup or even the Champions League next year, which is an opponent that Liverpool must pay attention to.

West Ham United is Liverpool's next opponent, this is a nerve knife, in terms of strength and experience, it should not be so embarrassed by Manchester City at its own home, but the result is like this, which makes Liverpool both happy and worried, happy that West Ham United is in such a poor state, worried that this nerve knife will break out in the next game.

Tottenham Hotspur are also a mid-to-upper tier team that has the ability to compete for a Champions League place and cause problems for the title contenders, but in the first round they were beaten away by Keane's promoted Sunderland, which made Liverpool's players a little more alert, and they started the game with an upset, which will stimulate the middle and lower teams and improve their self-confidence.

In addition to the gap in strength, the weak team lacks confidence, and would rather save its strength to fight with opponents at the same level, which is also one of the keys to the easy win of the giants.

The afternoon training was undisturbed and step-by-step, Aston Villa did not create any trouble for Liverpool, provided enough convenience for Liverpool, but it was a little too convenient, the fans could enter and leave the stadium freely, and the Aston Villa fans who had conflicts with Liverpool on the way kept provoking Liverpool's players and fans in the stands, and the fans on both sides had verbal conflicts in the stands, so that Liverpool's players could not concentrate all their energy during training, and the training ended hastily after only an hour, There was little to no warm-up effect.

At the pre-match press conference, Aston Villa coach O'Neill and Benitez were present together, and Benitez directly criticized Aston Villa's practice of making fans troublesome and undignified, so that even if they took advantage of the game, it would not be honorable.

O'Neill was unfazed by Benitez's unsympathetic criticism, smiling and explaining that it was the stadium manager's problem, that he had no idea about it, and that if he knew, he would never let that happen. He is more of a believer in fair play, both for himself and for others.

O'Neill is a bit of a trick, of course, he may really not know, as a hostile party, he can't think so much about Liverpool in everything, and Benitez can't blame him blindly, otherwise he will not have the grace and measure, not O'Neal.

The two managers tore apart at the beginning, and the result was certainly not pleasant, although the reporters liked this scene very much, but the two managers were not interested, and their minds were on the subsequent game, and the pre-game press conference was hastily ended.

The matches of the four giants of the Premier League are all scheduled a little later, and the match between Liverpool and Aston Villa is scheduled to be played at 17:45 on the evening of the 11th, which is the earliest game in the semi-finals, and the games of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are all played on the 12th.

Aston Villa previously faced Liverpool 12 games without a win, 9 games at home without a win, even if the American big boss came in, the resourceful O'Neill took office, Aston Villa was not able to reverse the decline, which made Aston Villa's fans and players have a strong desire for revenge, driven by this desire, the number of people who came to Villa Park to watch the game skyrocketed, and the stands that could accommodate 42,584 people were full for the first time in three years, and there were still many fans outside the stadium who could not buy tickets waiting for a refund.

The on-site commentator at Villa Park also seemed very excited today, when the players on both sides had not yet entered, he continued to use all kinds of sensational language to mobilize the emotions of the fans, and when the players on both sides entered the stadium, this emotion immediately converged into a storm of palms and shouts, of course, this was for the Villa players, and Liverpool was greeted with huge boos.

Pennant was also one of the most talked-about ones, receiving scolding when Liverpool's players were booed, and a group of fans targeted him and even made up songs to mock and abuse Pennant.

Pennant was specifically instructed by his team-mates and coach before the game to be angry at the humiliation of the opposing fans, but he tried his best to restrain his emotions and was ready to slap them in the face with his performance and goals during the game.

The game was about to get underway, and as Liverpool and Aston Villa shook hands, the on-site commentators began to brief fans on the starting XI for both sides, as well as the formation and style of play.

Aston Villa are a solid 4-4-2 formation with goalkeeper 13-Taylor; Back four: 5-Laursen, 3-Bouma, 4-Melberg, 26-Gardner; Four midfielders: 20-Leao. Kork, 19-Petrov, 6-Barry, 11-Abonlahoe; Double striker 7 - Ashley. Jan, 10-Karui

Liverpool's starting formation is also 4-4-2: goalkeeper 25-Reina; Back four: 3 - Finnan, 23 - Carragher, 5 - Ager, 6 - Reese; Four midfielders: 17-Arbeloa, 14-Alonso, 8-Gerrard, 16-Pennant; 18-Kuyt, 9-Chen Yu

Villa's commentator is very pragmatic, he did not judge the style of play taken by the two sides in the game purely according to the formation of the two sides, he analyzed: "Although Villa and Liverpool have discharged a 442 formation, but with O'Neal's character, he will definitely play defensive counterattack, and it must be a steady counterattack, in O'Neill's place, victory and stability are not contradictory, especially in the face of last season's champion Liverpool, he will not be a little lax, he will definitely tie the fence firmly, as for the goal, It is estimated that it will still let Carew stand on the pile and let Ashley. Jan, Abonlaho and Petrov use speed to strike. However, whether he can score or not depends on luck and the tactics adopted by Benitez, Benitez is also an expert in counterattacking, the coach who can make Mourinho and Ferguson helpless is definitely a great coach, but in the face of Aston Villa, his counterattack may not be used, a team that has not defeated Liverpool in six years, as the defending champion, if Benitez defends the counterattack again, even if he wins, he will be drowned by the saliva of fans and the media. Fame and position dictate that Benitez could only play the tactics he was most familiar with on the counter-attack, and once he did, O'Neal's team had a chance to ......"

Villa's on-site commentator was smart and his words spoke to the heart of Villa boss O'Neal.

O'Neill studied under England coach Clough, who reached the pinnacle of his playing career with Nottingham Forest by winning the European Champions League twice, and he has learned the essence of traditional English football. At the same time, he is also very fond of the classic defensive counter-attack of Italian football.

In order to create an airtight defensive system, O'Neal particularly reuses the "big man" with excellent high-altitude ball ability and excellent physical fitness in the backline, in order to adhere to fast and efficient counterattack tactics, O'Neal sacrificed the possession of the midfield, the midfield is all physical, offensive and defensive balance of tough guys, the front line is a high and fast traditional British combination, O'Neal believes that his set of tactics may not be enough to sweep the middle and lower reaches of the team like the giants, but the strong team will not easily beat him.

For Liverpool's personnel combination and tactical play, O'Neill has studied very deeply, he understands that normal play, Villa will lose at least 9 times or more if he plays ten times, but Villa has the advantage of Villa, this advantage is that Liverpool's winning rate against Villa is too high, and the players facing Villa Liverpool must not pay attention to it, if Liverpool is careless, then Villa has the hope of using a counterattack to get a victory.

Defensive counterattack is Villa's only chance to win, so although the formation is a 442 formation, in fact, Villa's defense must be a national defense, and the counterattack will certainly not be a Mourinho-style full-line counterattack, Villa does not have Chelsea's control ability, Aston Villa's counterattack actually relies on three batches of fast horses plus Norwegian high school striker Kalou, don't look at the number of people invested, if Liverpool attack, these four people's attack is enough to kill.

Benitez had just shaken hands with O'Neill, and now he looked at O'Neill, who was standing not far away wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and was secretly weighing his weight.

The man who led the little-known Leicester City to two League Cup titles and qualify for the UEFA Cup; He won the treble in the league, League Cup and Scottish FA Cup in his first season in charge of Celtic; In order to take care of his seriously ill wife, he resolutely put down the whip at the peak of his career.

In terms of coaching experience, O'Neill is not much inferior to him Benitez, but in terms of player achievements, he is much bigger than him.

In the first meeting between the two last season, O'Neill just took over Aston Villa, and Liverpool won easily 3:1 in the first leg, but it was very difficult for Liverpool to win with the god-like Chen Yu in the second leg, and now O'Neill has taken over Aston Villa for a season, and there is a summer of integration and polishing, which may be even more difficult to deal with.

However, looking at the players on both sides of the field, Benitez reduced his fear of O'Neal by a few points, the gap between coaches may not be big, but the gap between the players is too big, which of his players is not a grade higher than O'Neal's players, Chen Yu, Gerrard and other superstars are worth one person to his team, even if O'Neill really has good skills, in the face of his own strength, he will lose today.

Thinking of this, a faint smile appeared on the corner of Benitez's mouth, he believed that O'Neill would definitely not admit defeat, but in the face of strength, it would be him and Liverpool who would win in the end, although history was sent in the past, but it has a striking similarity.