[Football] Bad Boy Batty

The match against Liverpool will be a tough one.

After more than one season of transformation, Liverpool is now exactly the team Klopp wanted, with fast transitions between offense and defense. From Dortmund's "youth storm", we can see that Klopp's football philosophy is very simple, which is running.

The players on the field used their endless running to pressure the opponent, actively ran to tear the opponent's defense, dared to take risks, and immediately ran to get the ball back after a mistake, which made the team look full of vitality. The scene was very beautiful and shocking. The most fatal thing was that this style of play was very disadvantageous to Manchester City, whose defense was seriously aging.

Manchester City's data staff said that in the past half season, Liverpool's average running per game reached an astonishing 118 kilometers, the highest in the entire Premier League. It should be noted that under Guardiola's passing and controlling style of play, Manchester City's average running per game was only 109 kilometers.

Therefore, even if Liverpool's core midfielder Coutinho was injured in the match against Sunderland last month and will be absent, as long as the playing style remains the same, Manchester City will have to make targeted defenses.

Before the game, Klopp expressed his love for Batistuta in an interview and claimed that he would ask his players to focus on him. When asked if Batistuta was the strongest of the next generation after Messi and Ronaldo, Klopp answered yes without hesitation.

"Give me 11 Bartys and I'll win any match handily, I'm not kidding."

These are Klopp's original words.

Before the game, everyone was ready for the match, except Batistuta, of course.

"I called you so many times, Kun, but you didn't answer." Standing in the player tunnel at Anfield, Liverpool's home ground, Batistuta was raising his arms above his head to move his shoulders. He said to Aguero: "Next time don't complain to me why you were not invited to the party. It's your fault."

In fact, he only made one call, and after the call rang three times and no one answered, he decisively hung up.

"I'm sorry, I was with Leo all Christmas, and neither of us looked at our phones much." Aguero didn't doubt Batistuta at all. He touched his hair and said apologetically, "I wanted to give you a video call after the barbecue was ready, but Leo suddenly came up with a good idea and I forgot about it."

"Besides barbecuing, barbecuing, is there nothing else to do with Messi?

"Yes, we are very interesting. Anything at home can become our toy." Aguero said proudly, "Once we made origami boats to see who could put more things on them. I won because I put one more rubber duck on them than him!"

Barty blinked.

"Oh, that's a really nice game," he said. "Maybe I should try it next time, but I'd have to replace the paper boat with a yacht and the rubber duck with a person."

Aguero heard the sarcasm in Batistuta's words and gave the little bastard a slap on the head.

"We'll do other things, like - we wrote a song for Christmas!" he said. "Next time you come over I'll play it for you."

"No, I'm past the age of listening to lullabies." Batty continued to tease, "Next time come to my house, I'll take you to experience what a real party is like."

Although Aguero didn't spend much time online this Christmas, he still heard about Batistuta. Is playing games with a bunch of strangers called a party? The Argentine striker waved his hand and sneered at Batistuta's "real party".

No one could say that about Batistuta's party. Batistuta rushed over and asked Aguero to change his words and apologize, but Aguero refused to do so. The two continued to quarrel until the game officially started and the two teams walked out of the player tunnel.

In the Liverpool team next to them, defender Milner tugged at captain Henderson's arm.

"Look, that's the player I'll be facing off against, Batistuta. He still looks like a kid," he said. "I think this match is a sure win."

……

Could the truth really be what he said?

of course not.

Just 6 minutes into the game, Manchester City completed a very threatening shot from Aguero.

De Bruyne was blocked by Liverpool's iron-blooded captain Henderson in the midfield, and Manchester City won a free kick. Gundogan took the penalty and sent the ball to the front of the goal with a long kick. Batistuta took away two defensive players with his running position, which just created space for Aguero to shoot.

Unfortunately, the angle of his shot was too straight and was caught by the goalkeeper.

"What? Have you learned all of Messi's mistakes because you've been with him for too long?" Batistuta teased as he pulled up Aguero, who was sitting on the ground in frustration.

The basis for Batistuta's ridicule was that Messi missed an empty goal in a league match between Barcelona and Villarreal not long ago. The little flea was very depressed after the mistake and sat on the ground for a long time before being pulled up by the opponent's goalkeeper. He was exactly the same as Aguero now.

"If you say that again, I'm going to beat you up, you little bastard." Aguero quietly squeezed Batistuta's palm and stood up. "We still have more than 80 minutes. Just wait and see. I'll always find a chance."

Two minutes later, Manchester City players were fouled again and they got another free kick, this time a little further away, 2 yards from the goal. Kolarov tried to shoot with a heavy cannon, but it hit the wall directly and was blocked.

The ball returned to the midfield and was controlled by Manchester City again. Gundogan passed the ball to De Bruyne, who successfully passed the ball to Batistuta despite being surrounded and blocked. Batistuta quickly moved to the side, while Milner defended near the baseline and blocked Batistuta's position to prevent him from kicking. Batistuta decisively took advantage of the opponent and the ball hit Milner's calf and bounced out of the baseline.

Ten minutes into the game, Manchester City got a corner kick.

De Bruyne took the corner kick and he chose the front point. Batistuta got rid of Lovren and jumped high to head the ball. Unfortunately, he did not grasp the angle well and the ball flew over the crossbar and out of the court.

Manchester City's opening attack came to an end and the ball returned to Liverpool.

"I should have put more effort into it," Batty thought, wrinkling his nose. "There are no defenders to interfere with me now, so I should at least hit the ball within the goal range."

Aguero ran over, patted him on the shoulder and told him not to worry too much, and that the most important thing was to get back into the game and focus on the next attack.

"Go back and support! Batistuta!" Liverpool launched a counterattack, Guardiola shouted from the sidelines, "Get involved in defense, just like we have practiced!"

After the Champions League match with Barcelona, ​​Batistuta began to focus on practicing retreating defense, which was a new thing for him. When he was in Santos, he didn't need to defend. To be precise, he didn't need the forward to retreat too much (over half court) to coordinate defense. If a team needs the forward to come back to get the ball, it will be considered incompetent.

Batistuta returned to the free half to limit Milner's pass. Anfield Stadium is a more traditional one in the Premier League. The audience seats are very close to the sidelines, so the fans' shouts are louder than in other stadiums.

This is especially true for Batty.

As soon as he gets the ball, Liverpool fans will boo wildly. These sounds have almost no damage, but it is still annoying to listen to. Batistuta can not care about some people cursing him with swear words, but he can not ignore those annoying boos.

"This is Anfield." Milner grinned at him. "How about it, kid, are you scared?"

Scared?
How could he be afraid?

Batty snorted, "Maybe you should be afraid." He choked back, "Wait for me to steal your ball, then you can hide and cry."

Soon, the two had their first confrontation. Liverpool successfully counterattacked in the frontcourt, and Henderson passed the ball to Milner who was running in. A second before Milner started, Batistuta blocked him and successfully blocked the ball in this one-on-one confrontation.

But the price was that Liverpool got the throw-in, and his arm was hit by Milner's shoulder during the physical confrontation, and his shoulder blade to wrist was numb for at least 7 or 8 seconds.

hiss--

Batistuta shook his arms. In fact, this situation had occurred in previous games. Those strong European players were like bulls, pushing him away regardless of the consequences. Sometimes there was no space for dribbling at all.

It's very tricky and troublesome.

Liverpool kicked the ball out of bounds, but there was no good chance and the ball returned to near midfield.

"Are you okay?" De Bruyne ran over and asked with concern.

He noticed Batistuta moving his shoulder when the ball was kicked out of bounds just now. Now the first half is not even halfway through, and if there is an injury, it would be a fatal blow to Manchester City.

"It's okay." Batty answered simply, "It's just a minor injury, it will heal soon."

Seeing that he insisted, De Bruyne didn't say anything else.

But something soon went wrong.

In the 35th minute, Liverpool successfully counterattacked again. Milner assisted and Batistuta followed closely. The two had another round of physical confrontation near the corner flagpole.

Not far behind the corner flagpole stood countless die-hard Liverpool fans. When the confrontation between Batistuta and Milner happened right in front of them, they went crazy.

"Fuck that little bitch! Don't let him stop you!"

The ball at Milner's feet was knocked to his side by Batistuta's heel. Batistuta took the ball with his back, tried to use his body to hold off the opponent and then send the ball back to the midfield.

Several football hooligans began spitting on the field, swearing and using obscene language, and they booed for Batistuta.

Milner was also annoyed by them. He felt very embarrassed to expose his own hooligan fans in front of the opponents, but the confrontation still had to go on, and he had already thought about how to deal with this kid.

At this time, something happened.

Suddenly a glass of beer was thrown out from the crowd, splashing all over Batty's face. He didn't expect this to happen, and subconsciously closed his eyes and used his hands to protect himself, but the next second, the plastic cup, which was half a beat slower, hit his shoulder.

This is not the kind of beer that costs £2 a cup and is served in cheap soft plastic outside the stadium. This is the beer brought by the fans, in a household plastic cup, which is so hard that it cannot be compared with disposable plastic cups.

And it was such a cup that hit Batty's shoulder.

He shrank back and tried to hide to the side, but ended up bumping into Milner again. In panic, Batistuta jumped out of the field, but he stepped on the beer on the ground and lost his balance. Manchester City's Brazilian Rose fell into the crowd of Liverpool fans.

"Fuck! Catch him! Don't let him get back on the court!"

"Oh, he feels so good to the touch!"

"Hair! I want his hair! Someone pull out a strand of his hair for me!"

Batty struggled hard, protecting his shoulders, but there were too many people. He tried to find a foothold to the side, but could only touch people's arms and bodies.

It felt terrible to be suspended in the air.

The fans on the sidelines were of extremely complex composition. Some hoped to delay the game, others were excited to get close to the players, and the worst were those who mixed in with the crowd and took advantage of the situation.

"Damn it!"

Someone pinched his butt!

"Go away!"

Then someone pinched his waist.

"For the love of Jesus fucking Christ! FUCK OFF!"

Oh my god! There's a hand inside his jersey... Hey! Someone's pulling his socks!

Just when Batty was about to go berserk and start indiscriminate attacks, a pair of hands pulled him out of the crowd.

His feet finally touched the ground, and Batistuta looked at the man, panting. It was the head coach of Liverpool.

The German had a very apologetic look on his face and he brushed the dust off Batty's body.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

After being stunned for two seconds, Batty exploded.

"I'm - so bad!" He bent down and took off his socks, then waved his hands in annoyance and shouted, "Someone touched my thigh! Am I in the stadium or the red light district?"

The Liverpool coach looked stern.

He bent down and put his hands on Batty's shoulders, his expression extremely serious.

"You just said, someone did something to you?"

……

The game was interrupted 39 minutes into the first half.

(End of this chapter)