After receiving Coutinho's through pass on the left side of the frontcourt, Gu Ran instantly got rid of the defense of two Ajax players. He dribbled the ball into the left side of the penalty area, made a simple step-down turn, shook off a defender, then pierced the crotch of another defender and knocked the ball into the middle of the penalty area.

Suarez followed and rushed to the penalty spot and shot directly without stopping the ball!

The Ajax goalkeeper was a little slow to react! The ball passed through the Ajax goalkeeper's fingers and shot into the net! The ball went in! Gu Ran assisted, Suarez scored! Suarez excitedly opened his teeth and rushed towards Gu Ran!

Gu Ran held Suarez's shoulders to prevent Suarez's teeth from getting close to his shoulders.

The score on the big screen of the arena was immediately changed to Liverpool 2:0 Ajax!

In the first half, Ajax played very hard and passed the ball beautifully, but they just couldn't score! Not only did they not score, but Liverpool seized two opportunities that were not really opportunities and scored two goals!

Now, all the pressure is on Ajax, who are playing at home.

For the rest of the first half, Ajax continued to attack, using high pressing throughout the court to make up for their defensive shortcomings.

At the end of the first half, the score continued to be Liverpool 2:0 Ajax.

During the 15-minute halftime break, Mourinho made subtle tactical adjustments and continued to emphasize the importance of defense.

After the half-time break, players from both teams returned to the court and continued the game.

Ajax continued to strengthen their attack, especially in the midfield and frontcourt, where the passes and back-passes increased in number and frequency.

Liverpool's intention is also very clear, which is to firmly play defensive counterattacks.

There is no need to press high or strangle the team in the midfield, just retreat quickly to defend the position.

This prevents Ajax from playing to their strengths.

Ajax's advantage lies in the fact that they can use their positioning and passing skills to break through the opponent's defense.

The problem now is that Liverpool does not spread out or form a three-dimensional formation. Instead, when defending, they simply leave the midfield and frontcourt to Ajax, and Ajax's passing and controlling style basically cannot be used.

When Ajax easily passed the ball through the midfield and came to Liverpool's backcourt, it was crowded again, even the center forward came back to play as a defender.

Mourinho can be said to have compressed the space of the last step of the passing and controlling flow to the extreme, and also concentrated all his forces on the most important step.

Ajax really has no strength to use.

The second half was a bit dull for both sides, with no exciting scenes for 30 minutes.

This made the Ajax fans, who were used to exciting scenes, very dissatisfied and they booed wildly.

But for Liverpool Red Army fans, it doesn’t matter whether the scene is beautiful or not, as long as they can win in the end.

In the super death group D, being able to ensure victory and qualify based on points is more beautiful than anything else.

In the 82nd minute of the game, after a long period of fierce attack, Ajax, with a ball possession rate of 80%, once again had a window of physical strength.

Sturridge's performance in today's game was not very good. Although he had several shots, they were either too straight or lacked power. There were also several times when he was disturbed by Ajax defenders and failed to catch up with Gu Ran's through balls in time, thus wasting several scoring opportunities.

Mourinho is like this. Once he feels that you are not in good shape, he will replace you without hesitation and mercilessly.

Chamberlain used to play as a left midfielder at Southampton, but when he arrived at Liverpool, under Mourinho, he was directly promoted to the right winger position, changing from the left to the right.

Although Chamberlain wanted to go to the middle, he was very happy to switch from the left to the right and move his position forward.

As soon as Chamberlain came on the pitch, Lampard and Henderson successfully intercepted the ball and passed it to Gu Ran who was in the center circle.

Gu Ran didn't even hesitate and made a precise long diagonal pass to Chamberlain who had just come on the court.

Chamberlain immediately ran with the ball with full power.

This is also his first appearance in the Champions League, and he must make a good impression for his beloved Red Army fans.

The Ajax players stepped forward to pull Chamberlain, but Chamberlain had trained and grown up with Gu Ran, so this little pulling and pushing was nothing to Chamberlain.

Seeing that a large number of Ajax defensive players were attracted over, Chamberlain immediately stopped and changed his rhythm.

What is different from the "instructions for use" of other forwards and wingers is that others have a thick instruction manual with various precautions, but Chamberlain's instructions are just a thin piece of paper with only one sentence on it: Let him play and tell him where the opponent's goal is.

As a winger, Chamberlain has a very fast breakthrough speed and strong physical confrontation.

He didn't have too many fancy defensive moves. He just stopped suddenly, took a step back with his left foot in a very stylish way, and staggered himself 45 degrees from the opponent's defender. It was that simple.

If the opponent saw through his dribbling move, Chamberlain would pass the ball to the middle. If the opponent was fooled by him, even if it was only half a second, Chamberlain would seize the opportunity to start with his right foot, shift his center of gravity to the right with the outside of his foot, rely on his body to force his way through, and move along the outside line to get to the bottom.

Because Chamberlain's hip muscles are extremely strong, his first move after pausing is extremely fast and most people cannot defend against it.

Moreover, Chamberlain is used to playing football with his head down and his center of gravity extremely low. Therefore, even if he encounters physical confrontation, Chamberlain can maintain his balance, especially when breaking through the wing, which is usually a 1v1 situation. In a 1v1 situation, Chamberlain is almost not afraid of any defensive player.

Chamberlain's breakthrough basically only has this one move, so as long as you can see through Chamberlain's pause and not be fooled by his fake moves, then Chamberlain will not be able to go to the bottom and can only pass the ball to the middle.

Most defensive players would be fooled by Chamberlain's honest appearance.

Of course, if Chamberlain came to China to play football, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to bring out his advantages at all.

Because when Chamberlain made a fake move, the Chinese defensive players could not react at all, and they still defended him in the same way Chamberlain went down to the bottom. This was equivalent to not understanding Chamberlain's fake moves. Not understanding Chamberlain's fake moves was equivalent to seeing through Chamberlain's fake moves.

Therefore, players like Chamberlain are not suitable to play in low-level leagues.

His fake move of stopping and stepping can only fool experts, not novices.

...(End of this chapter)