Live at Anfield, the stands on all four sides were dead silent.
Including the small section of Bayern fans in the corner, who were too nervous to make a sound.
In just ten short minutes, they had already seen that Kovač was no match for Klopp.
Bayern's tactics were being completely annihilated by Liverpool.
Now, all they could rely on was the performance of the players.
The referee blew the whistle.
The eyes of the entire world were focused on Tendou.
A few steps for a run-up, and his right leg smashed heavily into the ball.
"Release!"
A silver sword-light sliced through the screen. The speed of his shot was so fast that the Bayern wall almost couldn't react in time.
As his technical attributes improved and he integrated his skills into football, his shot speed had now reached 17.9 m/s, surpassing Lionel Messi.
The ball flew up at extreme speed, curving over the heads of the five-man Bayern wall as they jumped, and plummeted towards the top right corner of the goal.
The German national team's god-keeper, Neuer, reacted quickly, extending his arm in a dive.
But the ball was faster. Tendou's freakish shot speed had made the Bayern wall jump half a beat too slow, which in turn affected Neuer's reaction.
And finally!
Swish!
The ball smashed violently into the net.
Goal!
Less than ten minutes into the match, Tendou had created a perfectly positioned free-kick for himself with a breakthrough and converted it with ease, opening the scoring for Liverpool.
1:0!
The massive Anfield, which had been silent, erupted in an instant.
Deafening roars echoed through the heavens.
The Liverpool fans who couldn't get tickets and were watching in the square also raised their hands and cheered.
"GOOOOOOOAL!"
"IT'S IN!"
"TJ WITH A DIRECT FREE-KICK GOAL!"
"THE ABSOLUTE TOP CORNER! THE GERMAN GOD-KEEPER, NEUER, WAS POWERLESS!"
"..."
The moment the ball went in, Klopp's celebration was even faster than Tendou's. He turned and pumped his fists three times towards the stands.
"YEA!"
"YEA!"
"YEA!"
The fans roared along with him and then applauded.
In contrast, the Bayern fans held their heads in their hands in agony.
They felt that this match was most likely going to be a disaster.
What Bayern needed to do now was to hold on for the first half and then make adjustments in the second.
But the damned thing was, they didn't even think Kovač could bring them any useful adjustments.
"A very outstanding start!"
"Liverpool is in complete control of the situation!"
"Klopp was well-prepared for Bayern's dense defense, arranging in advance to use a set piece to break through."
"We could see clearly, TJ, Salah, and Mané were constantly attacking the Bayern penalty area from the start, precisely for this purpose."
"This put huge pressure on the Bayern defense, and finally, TJ scored from the free-kick to take the lead!"
"Liverpool's front line is too strong! They have the deadly trident, and also the Asian prodigy, TJ! Their explosive power is immense!"
The Sky Sports host had already started to mention Tendou in the same breath as established stars like Salah.
But surprisingly, no one felt that there was anything wrong with this.
Even though Tendou had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday not long ago.
After scoring, Tendou celebrated with a soul-stirring sliding kneel, his knees scraping across the grass for some distance.
The German fans who didn't know him quickly searched for his information.
A full-field free man?
The best professional debut ever? A goal and an assist in his first match, and single-handedly creating four goals away from home to help his team come from behind against Manchester City?
18 years old, with a new contract of 10.5 million Euros a year before tax?
A Transfermarkt value of 50 million Euros?
The more they read, the more shocked they became.
This was the blueprint of a superstar.
This was because since joining Liverpool, Tendou had created a goal in every single match.
Even if he didn't score himself, he could assist a teammate.
He had now played exactly 10 league matches, and had already registered an insane 12 goals and 10 assists.
This was too freakish!
If he were to play the entire season, would his goals and assists reach 30+30?
Single-handedly creating 60 goals?
This was on pace to directly challenge the duo of superstars!
In addition, he also contributed greatly on the defensive end. His help to the team surpassed that of the French prodigy, Julian Loki.
Many people had become fans of Tendou because of this.
This is the influence of the Champions League.
Especially the female fans, who liked him even more now.
The number of followers on Tendou's Instagram began to rise.
Having already had several million followers, he instantly broke the ten-million mark.
...
At the match, after finishing his celebration, Tendou returned to the center circle with his teammates to wait for Bayern to kick off.
Now it was up to Bayern to choose whether to attack or to continue to sit back and defend.
If the opponent still sat back, then he would take advantage of their unpreparedness and hit them again before they could react.
And Kovač, without a god's-eye view, did not see things as clearly as the hosts and commentators.
In his database, Liverpool was not good at scoring from set pieces.
Could it be that just because a little kid had joined, Klopp had changed his team's tactics?
He was very doubtful.
His assistant coach then came up and whispered in his ear.
With the internet so developed now, there are no secrets.
Kovač quickly reacted.
He looked at the field and gestured to his players to come over.
The Bayern players nodded and then kicked off.
They still maintained their defensive counter-attacking tactic of giving up possession.
But their positioning in the backfield had changed.
They were no longer all defending deep in the box, but their three lines had formed a large net, extending their defensive range to the midfield area.
This would give Liverpool more space to penetrate, but it would prevent the charges of Liverpool's three arrows.
You want to beat us with free-kicks?
No matter how great a free-kick specialist is in history, they can't score 100% of the time. By reducing Liverpool's set-piece opportunities, they would be safer.
Kovač's plan was well-calculated, and also quite effective.
Although he was often criticized by Bayern fans for not having much in his head, any head coach who can lead a giant club is rarely a fraud.
What's more, the management at Bayern all know football!
With Bayern sitting back, Liverpool had more space to hold the ball and organize.
However, Klopp instead had Tendou reduce his forward runs.
The world's number one, Noel, was no pushover.
And it turned out that Klopp was extremely wise.
Just 7 minutes after Liverpool's goal, Bayern won the ball from Salah in their own half and immediately launched a counter-attack into Liverpool's half.
Coman received the ball and made a frantic run down the wing. After getting past Arnold, he immediately made a horizontal pass to Noel in the center.
With Van Dijk absent, Liverpool had one less person to cover for him.
The world's number one striker held off both Robertson and Fabinho at the same time, tapped the ball with his right foot, and kicked with his left. With his heaven-defying two-footed ability, he managed to get off a quality shot while being defended.
Fortunately, Klopp had the foresight not to have Tendou push forward. He tracked back in time and blocked Noel's shot with his foot.
The Liverpool fans let out a long sigh of relief, then gave Tendou a round of applause.
Tendou wagged his finger at Noel, who remained indifferent.
That was the annoying thing about this poker-faced guy. It was hard to provoke him. He was like a robot.
...
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