Wanting to Win!

Caw... caw... caw...

In Liverpool's locker room, the Reds' players were all breathing heavily.

The first half had lasted forty-five minutes, plus two minutes of stoppage time, and the Reds had been heavily drained.

The main reason was that they had lost possession. The players had been forced to make more frequent and aggressive runs to suppress Barcelona's passing combinations, especially during the final ten-odd minutes of the first half, when Barcelona had suddenly increased the tempo and launched their attacks.

The most dangerous moment came in the thirty-ninth minute, when Liverpool made a mistake of their own under Barcelona's pressure.

When Skrtel was passing the ball out from the back, he hastily played it with too little power. Xavi intercepted it and quickly sent it to the right flank. Daniel Alves was like a sharp blade on the right, swiftly cutting through Liverpool's left-side defense before reaching the byline and cutting the ball back to the edge of the penalty area.

Messi followed up and struck the ball first-time, trying to place it into the far corner.

Fortunately, Reina produced an excellent save this time, throwing himself across to palm the ball away and giving Barcelona a corner, but keeping the ball out of the net.

Barcelona then took the opportunity to launch a series of attacks, pushing Liverpool to the verge of collapse.

Barcelona had enjoyed sixty-eight percent possession in the first half, while Liverpool had a pitiful thirty-two percent.

As for shots, the two teams were about even, with six each.

Of Liverpool's six shots, four had come from Yang Yang.

Liverpool's most dangerous attacks in the entire first half had been Yang Yang's direct free kick and the one-on-one chance after beating the offside trap that had been ruled out. Both had been extremely unfortunate