April 10th.
The fire of the Champions League reignited.
The first match was a blockbuster: Tottenham VS Manchester City.
This Premier League season was too strong, with all four participating teams making it to the quarterfinals.
Coupled with Real Madrid's poor form and Bayern being eliminated by the new king of Liverpool, many fans felt that this season's Champions League would most likely be a Premier League affair. The only teams with a chance of breaking this monopoly were Barcelona and Juventus.
The Liverpool VS Porto match was held at the same time.
But in this match, everyone believed that Liverpool would easily defeat Porto.
Porto's performance this season was still stable. Although they were third in the league, they were only two points behind the top team, Benfica.
This match was held at Anfield.
Klopp gave his players a break before the match, allowing them to get enough rest.
Liverpool had only one expectation for this match: to settle the tie in the first leg.
Klopp did not want to waste too much time on Porto.
After all, with the league having reached this point, they could not, under any circumstances, give up the Premier League title.
By taking care of Porto quickly, they could focus on the league match against Manchester City.
"We have been preparing seriously for a long time. My teammates are also full of confidence. This match will be difficult, but we have faith," Porto's defender, Militão, expressed his confidence in an interview.
This season's Porto had a relatively good performance.
Especially on the Champions League stage, they had advanced as the runner-up of their group.
In the round of 16, they had defeated the Italian Red Wolves, Roma, on penalties in two legs.
"Liverpool is very strong. They have a glorious history, but we are not bad either."
Porto's head coach, Sérgio Conceição, spoke nonchalantly about the outside world's pessimism.
He even brought up Porto's history of winning championships.
Although they were not a team from the top five leagues, Porto also had a glorious history. They had won the Champions League twice in their history.
The first time was in 1987, when they defeated the German giants Bayern in the final to win the cup for the first time in their history.
The second time was in 2004, the "Special One's" famous battle, where he led Porto to an unexpected victory and defeated Monaco in the final, thus starting his career as a famous coach.
Conceição used these two examples to prove that Porto was not afraid of Liverpool.
In contrast, Klopp's words were much simpler and more official.
He praised Porto, affirmed Conceição's coaching ability, and then said that they would go all out and that Liverpool would not underestimate them.
At 7 PM, the bus carrying the entire Liverpool team drove into the inner tunnel of Anfield.
"TJ!"
"You are Liverpool's TJ!"
"TJ!"
"You are the incredible magician!"
"TJ!"
"Your magic is named Victory!"
Surprisingly, when the bus appeared, the die-hard Liverpool fans started to sing a song.
It wasn't the team anthem, but a song dedicated to Tendou.
"Damn it, you have a song already?"
Arnold's eyes were filled with jealousy when he heard the lyrics.
The Liverpool fans' favoritism towards him was just too much.
How long had he even been here?
In such a short time, these picky fans had written a song for him?
"Your magic is named Victory. They really dare to sing it."
"Hahaha, are you jealous?"
"Of course I'm jealous! I'm clearly more handsome than him, but they prefer a monster like him."
Salah said in a half-joking tone.
A recent incident had made him very annoyed. His daughter, who was born in 2014, told him not long ago that her idol was not her dad, but Tendou.
The reason was that TJ was more handsome.
It was unbelievable!
Everyone heard this and burst into laughter.
...
"Hello everyone, and welcome to the 18-19 Champions League quarter-finals!"
"Liverpool VS Porto at home!"
"The players from both sides are already in their respective halves!"
TWEEET!
"With the referee's whistle, the match has begun!"
"First up are the starting lineups for both sides."
"Liverpool's Klopp is still using a 4-3-3 formation."
"Goalkeeper: Alisson."
"Defenders: Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Fabinho."
"Midfielders: Henderson, TJ, Keïta."
"Forwards: Salah, Firmino, Mané."
"Porto's Conceição has adopted a 3-4-3 formation."
"Goalkeeper: Casillas."
"Defenders: Militão, Felipe, Pereira."
"Midfielders: Telles, Torres, Pereira, Corona."
"Forwards: Marega, Soares, Otávio."
A team that can make it to the Champions League quarterfinals is never a pushover.
Porto's lineup also had some familiar faces.
The defender, Militão, was one of the most expensive defenders Real Madrid would later sign.
To get him, Real Madrid spent a transfer fee of 50 million, making him the second-most expensive defender in the team's history.
Of course, times are different, and a player's transfer fee cannot be generalized.
Take the Galácticos 1.0, for example. At that time, to get Zidane, Real Madrid had to spend a whopping 77.5 million Euros.
That was 77.5 million at the turn of the millennium.
In today's money, that transfer fee would probably exceed 200 million.
Back to the match.
Liverpool kicked off.
The fans at Anfield immediately gave the players the warmest cheers.
As Firmino passed the ball back to Tendou, he met the oncoming press and decisively feinted past them with a single touch, then passed the ball to Keïta on the left.
It was worth noting that this Soares was not that Soares.
Tiquinho Soares, his full name was very long: Francisco das Chagas Soares dos Santos.
Sometimes, Tendou would complain in his heart.
Can these damn foreigners really pronounce these names correctly?
He had recently been reading a book called One Hundred Years of Solitude and was constantly getting confused by the names. Who the hell is this guy?
In just a few days, Klopp had not arranged too many complex attacking routines against Porto.
He had only practiced defensive positioning based on Porto's characteristics.
Attack?
Liverpool did not lack firepower. Tendou's creativity was more surprising than any tactic.
To settle the tie in one leg, the first thing they had to do was defend well and not let the opponent score at their home ground.
So at the start of the match, Liverpool did not show a strong intention to attack.
But fans all over the world knew that this was only temporary.
In the 8th minute of the match, Porto launched their first attack.
The midfielder, Torres, advanced with the ball. Keïta naturally moved forward quickly.
But for some reason, whether it was due to being out of form or something else, he was beaten by Torres's 360-degree spin move in one go.
Keïta, a midfielder that Klopp had booked a year in advance, couldn't find his place at Liverpool this season.
There was nothing he could do.
No one knew that Tendou would appear out of nowhere and secure the position of the midfield core.
The current Liverpool's midfield, Tendou's core starting position was unshakable. The others were all on the same level.
Coupled with Klopp's preference for a 4-3-3 formation, there was only one midfield position left.
And in Liverpool's midfield, besides Keïta, there were also good players like Milner, Wijnaldum, and Fabinho.
Keïta had come to Liverpool with great ambitions, only to find that he had to wait on the bench most of the time. This was incredibly demoralizing.
...
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