host must win

The techniques and tactics of a football game are complicated to say the least, but they are also very simple to say, nothing more than four words: make use of strengths and avoid weaknesses.

There is no perfect team or perfect tactics in this world, there will always be loopholes and weaknesses.The head coach's tactical arrangements and personnel deployment before the game, to put it bluntly, is to cover up his own shortcomings, give full play to his own advantages, and use his own strengths to attack the opponent's shortcomings.

It is not as good as their opponents at the technical level. No one needs to say this, and Liverpool themselves know it well.

Not to mention Liverpool, even in the entire Premier League, except for Arsenal, there is no team that can compete with Manchester United on a technical level.And the tactics that Wenger created at Arsenal are indeed a great alternative to the Premier League.

For this Manchester United team, it has been invincible in recent years, which has built a strong self-confidence for the players, allowing them to face any opponent with the confidence to fight head-on.Coupled with the innovations that Ferguson brought to the team's skills and tactics, they have also reached a certain level of technical height.

Ferguson is indeed a magical coach, he always breaks through himself in constant success, so as to reach new heights.

Therefore, in the face of the powerful Manchester United, Liverpool can only rely on hard work, robbing, containment and interception in this game.

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The Athens Olympic Stadium is not a professional football stadium, because there is a wide track and field track between the stadium and the stands, and there are two semi-elliptical areas behind the goal.This is obviously quite bad in the design of football stadiums, because it will seriously affect the atmosphere of the game in the stadium.

None of that matters, though, for the two teams that can walk into this stadium and play this game.

The capacity of the stadium is close to 3000, but only 63800 people are actually allowed to enter.According to the pre-UEFA ticket distribution mechanism, of the total 9000 tickets for this game, only 17000 are for sale to the public. The two participating teams each allocate 20800 tickets, and the remaining [-] tickets are reserved for UEFA and its member associations. The local organizing committee, sponsors and live broadcast organizations of the final in Athens.

Before the start of the game, judging from the size of the area occupied by the fans of both sides in the stands, the number of fans of the two teams entering the game is roughly the same.

In the previous draw, Manchester United won thousands of away teams, so they can only wear the away team's jersey to play in this game, while Liverpool can wear the red home jersey to face off.

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The referee is Van der from Germany, 43 years old. In the past three times, he has enforced Liverpool, with one draw and two losses.

However, this does not mean that this is a favorable arrangement for Manchester United, because Ferguson has a deep grievance with the German referee.

The Germans' initial feud with Manchester United dates back to the battle between Manchester United and Deportivo in October 2001. At this time, it was not long before the Germans began to officiate the top European matches. Although Manchester United finally won 10:3 in that game, Sir Alex Ferguson After the game, he criticized: "This referee is definitely at the level of League Two."

In a word, Ferguson and Manchester United will become van der's thorns in the eyes for many years to come.

In the first round of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2004, in the Red Devils away game against Porto, Van der sent off captain Keane.Although Manchester United finally relied on Yin Jun's one shot and one pass to beat Porto with a score of 3:2, Ferguson was very dissatisfied with the referee's penalty, complaining that the referee watched many players in the opponent's team repeatedly flopping. Turn a blind eye.

Going back to the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season, in the first round match between Manchester United and Roma, Van der was the referee again.After the game, Ferguson accused the referee of obviously favoring the home team of Roma. He said: "We are like playing against 12 Roma players."

These remarks were later studied by UEFA's Disciplinary Committee. Fortunately, the coach was not punished for this.

However, Ferguson did not restrain his words and deeds because of this. When he learned that he was about to meet the referee before the Champions League final, the old coach buried his head in his palm and lamented: "Do we have nitro-valium (which acts as a sedative and hypnotist)? "

Ferguson is of course one of the reasons why Van der has fought against Manchester United several times. In addition, some German media have analyzed that this referee is born with a strong savior mentality and does not like teams that are obviously superior in strength.

The best proof is the match between AC Milan and Club Brugge in 2003. As a result, Milan, which has been suppressing the opponent's onslaught, unexpectedly lost. The outside world agreed that it was the result of Van der secretly helping the weak.

So before the match against Liverpool, the "Guardian" joked that if Van der is to show mercy to Manchester United, it is best for them to show a passive attitude during the game.

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After warming up on the court, everyone is making final preparations.

The Manchester United coaching staff had already picked up Liverpool's starting XI on their way back to the dressing room.The goalkeeper is Reina, and the back four are Finnan, Carragher, Agger and Riise; in the midfield, the Spaniard Alonso gets the starting lineup and forms a double midfielder with Mascherano.Cenden and Pennant, who have recovered from ankle injuries, fly on both wings. Kewell, who started 2 years ago, can only sit on the bench.

Of course, what surprised Manchester United most was Benitez's arrangement for Liverpool's strikers: Gerrard partnered with Kevin Dirk!
Before the final, the British media speculated how Liverpool would arrange Gerrard's position, whether it was in the center or on the right wing, but Benitez gave people another surprise, Gerrard played the second striker!

In addition, Gao Lao Crouch, who played as the main force most of the season, also failed to start. Benitez did not fall into Ferguson's plan.Obviously, Benitez hopes to seek stability in this game.

Manchester United's staffing arrangements also exceeded the expectations of Benitez and his coaching staff.

Of course, the arrangement on the back line was expected by Benitez. The goalkeeper Van der Sar and the back four were O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra.O'Shea was essentially the first choice at right-back after Gary Neville was scrapped by Gary Speeder against Bolton in March for last season.Evra, who has recently returned to form, also suppressed Heinze to start.

What was unexpected was the staffing arrangement in Manchester United's midfield.Yin Jun did not appear in his most common attacking midfielder position, but appeared in the right midfielder, forming a midfield with Scholes, Carrick and Giggs.Ronaldo was originally the first choice for Manchester United's right midfielder, but he appeared in the striker position and partnered with Rooney.

Ferguson did not hide his clumsiness and hid the ace player in his hand, but the position arrangement was a bit surprising.