"Mathew Ryan comes off his line!"
"Past him!"
"Shoot!"
"Yes!"
"Mané opens the scoring in the FA Cup final!"
"What a well-taken goal!"
"After Leo Lin won the ball, he spotted the space to break through. Gomez had absolutely no Brighton player tracking him. Stephens had no idea what he was doing!"
"Brighton's midfield today is made up of Propper, Stephens, and Bissouma, while Glenn Murray up front has always been the player responsible for finishing chances in Brighton's possession play."
"Jahanbakhsh on the left has the ability to break through, but he isn't especially good in physical duels. Montoya's weakness is still man-marking, and this time, he failed to stop Mané."
"Dunk can pass and he can head the ball. Just don't ask him to do anything involving speed. That's a common problem for a lot of English centre-backs."
"There's only one coach in the world who can keep raising the level of pressing again and again!"
"In the past, we always heard about certain managers loving attack or being better at defence, but when it comes to pressing as a tactic, the only person today who can truly be called a master of it is Klopp!"
"They're terrifyingly strong. Liverpool are so strong that Brighton simply have no way to defend against them!"
The first half of the FA Cup final continued. Brighton still wanted to use passing to make Liverpool more passive.
But from that point on, every time Liverpool pressed, whether it was Shaqiri's challenge or Mané's pressure, as long as one side won the ball, the other side would immediately be led into attack by Leo Lin.
Leo Lin was not attacking alone. He was bringing Gomez with him.
Gomez had been converted from a centre-back into a full-back, and now he had been reshaped into a free full-back. Although his overall ability still was not quite strong enough, there was always a different kind of threat about him.
In the 29th minute.
"Mané is now pressing in Liverpool's main pressure zone. Shaqiri is starting to attack Bernardo, and Dunk is on this side as well."
"Bernardo has good pace. He's partnered with Dunk precisely to make up for Dunk's lack of speed."
Mané rushed toward Bernardo, and Bernardo immediately passed into the middle. Stephens received the ball and began dropping deeper to control play. He was Brighton's deep-lying controlling midfielder.
"Brighton are starting to build now. As soon as Stephens drops deep to control the ball, their possession system begins immediately."
"Next, Stephens will play the ball out from the back, allowing Bissouma and Propper to supply passes to Jahanbakhsh and Knockaert, then combine that with Glenn Murray's final run into the box to finish the move."
Scholes had done his homework on Brighton very well. He had even predicted how Brighton would attack next.
Sure enough, Stephens dropped deep to organize the play, carrying the ball as far back as he could while still staying just out of reach of Liverpool's forwards.
That would give him plenty of time to pass, and it would also give Bissouma time to move into position.
Just as he was watching Bissouma's position, Stephens suddenly felt the space in front of him shrinking, because Leo Lin had arrived.
This was not just any player. Leo Lin's pressure instantly wiped away all the comfortable time Stephens had created for himself.
He could not find Bissouma. Stephens had no choice but to go directly to Knockaert.
The pass was decent enough, but Gomez headed it away, Henderson covered the second ball, then passed it out to the right.
Salah controlled it and slipped a through ball behind him.
Shaqiri caught up and began cutting inside. Two players who were both excellent at breaking through had thrown Brighton's left side into complete chaos.
"Shaqiri up against Dunk."
"The cross is blocked by Dunk, but Shaqiri gets the ball again."
"He lays it back to Salah. Now it's Salah's turn to break through!"
Shaqiri's first burst had already almost taken him past Bernardo. Then Salah sprinted forward at full strength, tearing straight through Bernardo's defensive line and leaving Dunk, who had just blocked the cross, unable to react in time.
"Salah carries it brilliantly!"
"He dribbles and shoots!"
"Of course that's going in!"
"They're 2-0 up against Brighton!"
"With Shaqiri and Salah both attacking at the same time, Dunk really couldn't hold them off!"
Salah ran toward Zubizarreta. He and Zubizarreta had discussed a celebration beforehand.
Zubizarreta first lowered his bald head, then Salah jumped onto Zubizarreta's back.
Mané and Leo Lin each put one of their hands in Salah's hands, letting him use them like mallets to gently tap Zubizarreta.
Krawietz laughed, showing off that mouthful of bright white teeth.
"Brighton shouldn't be playing possession football. Even Manchester City, who are extremely good at possession, couldn't make it work against Liverpool!"
"I think Liverpool are the best team in all of football for beating possession-based sides!"
"That's the kind of chance only Salah can finish. Right now, he's the best inverted right winger in football!"
The first half of the FA Cup final ended with Liverpool two goals ahead of Brighton.
In the second half, Brighton still continued to focus on passing under Potter's instructions, but the number of short passes they played gradually decreased.
Because Liverpool were not giving Brighton any chance to play short passes. They only allowed them to go long.
Whenever Brighton's wingers pulled wide, Liverpool's full-backs would not move out to defend them. Instead, they deliberately left them a large space to control the ball, which made Brighton play the ball forward immediately.
On the surface, it looked like they had found a good chance to switch the play, but after that, Brighton did not know how to continue, because they were not good at this kind of attack.
This was exactly what Liverpool were best at.
In the 62nd minute.
"Liverpool have all pressed over to the right, and Brighton switch it to Jahanbakhsh again!"
After controlling the ball, Jahanbakhsh immediately drove forward. Lovren did not close him down at first. Only when Jahanbakhsh began approaching the white line on the right side of the penalty area did Lovren step up and join Henderson in trying to win the ball.
Lovren's first outstretched leg was beaten, but Henderson successfully blocked the lane. After winning the ball, he quickly passed it to Leo Lin.
Only then did Brighton realize they had also left far too much space for Leo Lin in their own half.
Leo Lin carried the ball around Stephens, shifted it to Shaqiri, then played a one-two with him.
The ball returned to his feet. Leo Lin cleverly let it roll back a step, fooling Duffy, then powered a shot toward goal.
A mid-height strike.
Mathew Ryan dived sideways and blocked it, but Leo Lin followed up again.
"Leo Lin scores Liverpool's third goal in the FA Cup final!"
"Potter's FA Cup journey is about to end here!"
"I wonder whether he'll still be managing Brighton next season. Perhaps with a stronger squad, his tactics would become even stronger."
After scoring, Leo Lin stood where he was and straightened his back, then bumped his shoulder into Firmino, then into Shaqiri and Mané. Every player he bumped into pretended to clutch his shoulder, acting as if it hurt terribly.
"Leo Lin is definitely going to become a quadruple winner!"
"A quadruple winner's back must be seriously strong!"
"The Liverpool players are full of energy right now!"
...
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