Tang Long was able to discern the reason for Gerrard disguising his left foot injury, mainly thanks to the strong analytical ability of his AI system and its keen attention to detail.
Although Gerrard’s left ankle was only slightly sprained, such an injury was enough to affect his movents and performance in a fierce match.
Specifically, after a player sprains his ankle, to alleviate pain and protect the injured area, his movents will undergo a series of changes.
For example, while running, he may reduce the pressure on the left foot upon landing and avoid using the left foot for intense confrontations or directional changes;
When passing and shooting, he might also prefer to use his right foot.
These subtle changes, though possibly unnoticed by the naked eye, could easily be captured and analyzed by Tang Long’s AI system.
During the first 40 minutes of the match, Tang Long was closely observing Gerrard’s movents.
His AI system collected and analyzed a large amount of data on Gerrard’s movents in real ti, including his running routes, step frequency, and landing pressure.
By comparing this against the data from healthy players, the AI system gradually discovered the unusual nature of Gerrard’s left foot movents.
Finally, the system delivered a crucial analysis result: Gerrard’s left foot was detected to have slight movent sluggishness during action, possibly indicating that the injury had not fully healed!
Based on this analysis, Tang Long was able to accurately determine that Gerrard’s left foot was injured, and crafted a targeted offensive strategy accordingly.
If it could be said that in Tang Long’s first dribble, Gerrard should have intercepted with his left foot but used the right, it was a spontaneous reaction from a top midfielder.
However, when Tang Long pulled the ball back and attacked his left foot a second ti, Gerrard couldn’t handle it!
Because this ti, Tang Long didn’t deliberately conserve strength, his dribbling speed was extrely fast!
More than twice as fast as before!
The first attempt was just a probe, and since it confird that Gerrard’s left foot was indeed hurt, and the system’s judgnt was perfectly correct.
Then the second attack was a fierce assault!
Strike at the enemy’s weak side, slip right past him!
Tang Long felt that this ti, Gerrard certainly would not dare to stick out his foot to block him.
"Boom—"
But to his surprise, the Liverpool captain hesitated not a bit; he took a stride and stuck his foot across the ball!
He intercepted the football, and Tang Long’s dribbling foot also happened to firmly stay on the ball!
The two feet had a face-off with the ball in between!
"Ah!!!"
Gerrard let out a miserable cry, collapsing to the ground.
The fierce pain from his twisted ankle instantly surged to his head!
His face turned pale, and large beads of sweat ran down.
The main referee’s eyes were determined, raising both arms to signal the ga to continue, no foul at all!
Poor Gerrard, his left foot was now sprained much more seriously.
Tang Long was greatly shocked!
"He could completely let go earlier, but as Liverpool’s captain, probably due to a heightened sense of responsibility, he couldn’t help but use his left foot to complete this defensive interception. In the end, even tight bandages couldn’t save his ankle, what a pity."
Tang Long continued dribbling swiftly, but in his heart erged a deep respect for Gerrard’s fighting spirit.
Gerrard is the captain; he cannot just watch Tang Long riding past him with a thunderbolt!
Such is the cruelty of football matches!
After breaking through Gerrard’s steel midfield fortress, Liverpool’s other two young midfielders imdiately panicked.
Henderson and Lux’s minds went blank, they botched their cooperation, both taking off running, yelling to each other as they ran:
"Mine, you fall back!"
Faced with such a gift, how could Tang Long resist accepting it gladly?
There was no need to make a high difficulty through ball.
Not even needing any hints from the AI system, Tang Long just had to gently pass the ball to the flanking Shaqiri moving centrally to respond, effortlessly tearing open the opponent’s gap!
Pop!
Shaqiri played this ball very cleverly.
Seeing the ball slowly rolling towards him, the Swiss youngster deliberately stomped the ball heavily forward, and instantly the football picked up speed, storming toward Liverpool’s penalty area!
Tang Long slowed his speed.
He kept a steady pace, watching Henderson and Lux, overwheld by their failed coordination, rushing back hurriedly as if like lost children, he knew there was surely a golden opportunity here.
All three of Liverpool’s midfielders were out of position!
Even immortals couldn’t save the Red Army now.
Sure enough, in the center of the penalty area, Shaqiri feinted a shot and then accelerated after shaking off center-back Skrtel, suddenly entering Liverpool’s penalty area!
Shaqiri is only 169 cm tall, a centiter shorter than Yuto Nagatomo, but his step frequency and pace surpass the Japanese player by a notch!
Once inside the opponent’s penalty area, faced with such a quick, agile player, neither center-back Lovren nor the inward-covering left-back Johnson dared to make a hasty move, fearing they might trip him and concede a penalty.
"The middle is open!"
"Shaqiri will definitely see the gap!"
"Pass it across!"
"Icardi and Podolski, two targets, haha!"
"The ball’s in!!!"
"The scorer should be Podolski!"
"In his final stride, he suddenly sped up, sliding it in to send the ball into Liverpool’s goal!"
"3 to 0!"
"Inter Milan has achieved a three-goal lead in the first half!"
"An unbelievable first half!"
"Is this truly a showdown between Liverpool and Inter?"
"This scoreline is just too exaggerated!!!"
After scoring, Podolski enthusiastically hugged Shaqiri.
The German wrapped his arms around the shorter Swiss and charged towards Tang Long!
Three people, three different nationalities!
At this mont, united in a tight embrace, because of a single goal!
The Argentine Icardi seed a bit unhappy.
"What were you trying for? You almost kicked the ball away, didn’t you know? Arrogant German..."
Liverpool’s team doctor took to the field.
The team doctor sprayed half a bottle of ice-cold spray on Gerrard’s ankle, and the color finally returned to Gerrard’s face.
Phew—
It hurts! It really hurts!
Gerrard grimaced in pain.
Just now, he really gave it his all.
Gerrard was unwilling!
Getting injured is nothing; he’s already 35 years old and this is his last season at Liverpool.
He’s already signed a two-year contract with Major League Soccer’s LA Galaxy in advance.
Next season, he will forever bid farewell to the Premier League and go across the Atlantic to retire.
However, just watching Inter score while he sat helplessly on the ground, as the captain wearing number 8, Captain Jie’s heart was breaking.
"Steven, I’m sorry, I had to do this." Tang Long ca over, squatted down, and said.
Tang Long’s intention wasn’t to deliberately harm Gerrard, he just wanted to attack the opponent’s weak side and open up a breakthrough point.
But that’s how it is on the football field; no one can predict what will happen next.
The field is like a battlefield; showing sympathy to opponents often leads to ruthless backlash!
Gerrard nodded, squeezed out an awkward smile, and said nothing.
He really wasn’t in the mood to talk to any Inter players now.
With the support of team doctors, Gerrard limped off the field; he could no longer continue the match.
The 35-year-old veteran had torn a ligant in his ankle.
It’s already April now.
If nothing unexpected happens, he has prematurely ended this season—even prematurely ended his 17-year career with Liverpool!
Thinking of this, Gerrard’s eyes suddenly reddened.
A full 17 years, from youth to middle age.
Is it just ending like this?
The azza stadium filled with 80,000 fans resounded with applause!
Inter fans generously gave applause to this legendary Liverpool captain.
Gerrard to Liverpool is like Sane to Inter!
To serve one team for over a decade, in today’s money-driven football, such steadfast spirit is increasingly rare.
At this mont, Gerrard couldn’t hold back any longer, and tears rushed out of his eyes!
Despite walking unsteadily, he still raised both hands above his head, applauding the stands.
At this mont, Gerrard thought of many things.
He thought of the second leg of the 2008 Champions League round of 16.
In the sa stadium, Gerrard led Liverpool to a 1-0 victory over Inter, winning the two legs with an aggregate score of 3-0, advancing to the quarter-finals.
In that match, Gerrard assisted Torres to score the only goal of the ga, a goal that killed the match.
Gerrard was 28 years old then, in his pri.
In a blink, he’s 35 years old now, how quickly ti flies...
Countless mories ca rushing in like a tide.
Sigh!
If only my useless ankle hadn’t twisted slightly during training a few days before the match, I could’ve co to azza healthy and played.
"Wait!"
Gerrard suddenly paused!
Steven, I’m sorry I had to do this, apologies—Gerrard rembered what Tang Long had said to him.
Had to do this?
Could it be that he saw my ankle was injured?
No way!
Liverpool surely kept this information locked down, no dia reported it before the match.
Moreover, I disguised it well on the field, absolutely no one could tell!
But from the start, during one on one, twice in a row, he led the ball towards my left foot direction.
Especially the second ti, the speed was intense!
Clearly, this was forcing to intercept with my left foot!
"He, he definitely saw it..."
He looked back at Tang Long, feeling a chill down his spine.
How did he see it?
This guy hit right where it hurts!
At the start of the second half.
Rodgers went full throttle, substituting both Balotelli and Sturridge.
Used all three substitution slots at halfti, it was a desperate fight!
But this ti, azza stadium had no miracles!
Mancini learned from the lesson of the last round against Napoli, made no substitutions, especially Tang Long, Icardi, Podolski, the key players stayed on the field until after 70 minutes, then gradually changed them.
Icardi scored a goal, once leading the score to 4-0!
Fortunately, Markovic, who replaced Balotelli, scored a consolation goal in the 84th minute, so the second leg of the match between the two teams wasn’t entirely devoid of suspense.
In the end, Inter won at ho with a 4-1 victory over their opponents.
Tonight, azza stadium had no miracles, nor champagne!
Inter Milan had taken the absolute lead in the ho and away legs battle of the UEFA Europa League semi-final!
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