Chapter 258: This is Anfield, but it's despair for Liverpool! (Please vote for this chapter!)
"The draw makes me feel like Bayern will make it to the final again!"
"Three consecutive years in the final, who else can do that?"
"Are they underestimating Atletico Madrid?"
"I have a feeling Bayern might stumble!"
"Heh, well, I think Real Madrid might lose to Manchester City!"
Upon seeing the draw result, fans were in lively discussion.
The mainstream view is that this draw favors Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, giving them a strong chance to reach the final.
Of course, there are differing opinions; some believe Atletico Madrid and Manchester City could cause trouble for Bayern and Real Madrid.
Marca, the voice of Real Madrid, believes Real Madrid must take Manchester City seriously, especially the first leg away match.
"This season, Manchester City's home record is outstanding. They have only lost one game at home so far. It won't be easy to conquer the Etihad Stadium."
AS also acknowledges that with superstars like Sterling at Manchester City, Real Madrid must go all out; any complacency could result in heavy consequences.
However, whether it's AS or Marca, they both believe Real Madrid has a greater chance of winning if they give their all!
"As Real Madrid marches towards their 10th Champions League trophy, they will overcome all difficulties. Whoever stands in their way will be crushed by Real Madrid!"
"Never underestimate the heart of a champion!"
The UEFA Champions League semifinals will kick off on April 24th, with Manchester City hosting Real Madrid in the first leg.
This match is crucial; if they can't win at home against Real Madrid, their chances in the away leg will be bleak.
However, defeating a team with players like Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo is no small task for Manchester City.
Manchester City's club seems aware of the difficulty of reaching the final, so Al Mubarak personally stepped forward to relieve the pressure on the players and coaching staff, urging them to focus on league matches.
"This season, our established goal has already been achieved. Now, every step is about creating history. Regardless of success or failure, you are all heroes of the team."
Of course, words are just words, but dreams must still be cherished. What if they succeed?
Al Mubarak then mentioned that if Manchester City can eliminate Real Madrid and reach the final, the club will award a one-time £10 million bonus.
Upon hearing this amount, the players couldn't help but feel their breath quicken.
£10 million, more than the annual salary of most players in the team!
Forget about honor and all that; even for the money alone, they want to overturn Real Madrid!
Seeing the players' morale suddenly soar, Pellegrini couldn't help but laugh wryly.
Indeed, money moves the heart!
Not just the players, even this coach is tempted.
...
On April 12th, three days after the UEFA Champions League match, the entire Manchester City team boarded a bus and traveled dozens of kilometers to Liverpool, preparing to challenge the fallen giants - Liverpool, at Anfield!
As one of the four giants of the Premier League, Liverpool has not won the Premier League title for over 20 years.
Liverpool's last top-tier English league title was in 1989-1990, before the Premier League was restructured.
Since the restructuring of the Premier League, Liverpool has not won the title again.
Coincidentally, the period when the legendary manager Ferguson arrived at Old Trafford coincided with Liverpool's decline.
Before Ferguson came to Manchester United, Manchester United had only won 7 league titles, while Liverpool had 19.
By the time Ferguson left, Manchester United's league title count had soared to 20, surpassing Liverpool, becoming the most successful team in the history of the English top league, without question.
Ferguson fulfilled his promise, not only winning 13 Premier League titles for Manchester United but also personally kicking Liverpool off their throne.
Now, after finally forcing this old guy to retire, the Reds are showing signs of revival.
This season, their performance has been outstanding. After 33 rounds of the league, they have accumulated 74 points, 13 points higher than their final total last season!
With these points, after a four-year absence from the Champions League stage, Liverpool will finally return to the European Champions League competition next season.
Not only that, there are still 5 rounds left in the Premier League. Theoretically, Liverpool still holds hope of winning the title, although it's not very high.
But for the Reds who once created the miracle of Istanbul, how can they give up easily before the last moment?
Currently, Liverpool is 7 points behind the league leaders Manchester City. If they can win against them at home, this gap will narrow to 4 points.
After this match, with 4 rounds left to play, whether they can win the title depends on whether Manchester City continues to make mistakes or not.
Under any circumstances, they must win against Manchester City at home to keep their hopes of winning alive. Otherwise, if Manchester City wins the next match at their home ground, they will secure the title three rounds early.
Even the theoretical hope is enough to drive Liverpool fans crazy, who have been waiting for over 20 years for a league title.
Besides, even if they ultimately can't win the title, they must defeat Manchester City. After all, watching others make money is more painful than losing money oneself.
Liverpool fans are extremely "passionate". Manchester City's team bus was intercepted by them on the way to the stadium.
"Go die, Manchester people!"
"Get out of Liverpool!"
"We will make you cry at Anfield!"
If it were just verbal abuse, it wouldn't be a big deal; Manchester City has faced similar situations when playing away games elsewhere.
There are quite a few football hooligans in England; some crazy fans not only surround the visiting team's bus but also create disturbances outside their training grounds and hotels.
If it's just verbal abuse without physical confrontation, it's still manageable, but if they resort to both, it could become troublesome!
With a loud bang, someone threw something at the bus.
A half-empty bottle of mineral water hit the bus window, startling Harvey García sitting by the window.
It seems their worst fears have come true!
Seeing the faces of the Liverpool fans outside matching the color of their shirts, the Manchester City players inside the bus became serious.
These guys must have had too much fake alcohol. When these drunk fans get hot-headed, they tend to behave irrationally.
To ensure the players' safety, Manchester City's team leader immediately called the police, waiting for them to disperse these passionate fans.
Upon receiving the news, mounted police patrolling outside the stadium quickly arrived at the scene.
In every round of the Premier League matches, a large number of police officers are stationed outside the venue to maintain order.
They are very experienced in dealing with such passionate fans. With the help of mounted police, Manchester City's bus slowly moved forward and finally arrived at Anfield an hour later than scheduled.
Due to the delay, Pelligrini had no time to explain tactics. He instructed all players to warm up and get used to the pitch.
Time was tight; the players had to warm up their bodies before the match started.
As soon as Manchester City's players stepped onto the field, they were greeted with loud boos from Liverpool fans.
"To be honest, I feel irritated hearing their boos. I feel an impulse to teach them a lesson!"
The Manchester City players were overwhelmed by the Liverpool fans and were starting to get angry.
This could be both a good thing and a bad thing.
When playing away, the last thing you want is to be intimidated by the opponent's home atmosphere, leading to nervousness and poor performance.
Judging by the state of the Manchester City players, these concerns seemed unnecessary.
Of course, anger also has its downsides; it can easily cause players to lose their composure and make rash decisions.
For instance, committing unnecessary fouls in the wrong place and time, resulting in yellow or even red cards.
On the pitch, some players specialize in such tactics, using small actions in defense and trash talk to provoke opponents, making them angry and prone to mistakes.
The most serious example is Zinedine Zidane's shocking headbutt during the 2006 World Cup final, costing the French team the championship!
Provoked by Materazzi's trash talk, Zidane's irrational behavior on the field ended his career prematurely!
At Anfield, Manchester City seemed to show signs of this.
As the players completed their warm-up and returned to the locker room.
There were only about ten minutes left before the match, and Pelligrini didn't talk about tactics or anything like that.
He asked the players, "Did you see the sign on the wall facing the player's tunnel?"
The players didn't know what the head coach was going to say, but they nodded obediently.
"Good, can anyone tell me what's written on it?"
"This is Anfield!"
Someone reminded quietly, as if they really treated their coach as an old man who was tired and easily forgetful.
This sign at Anfield was left by the legendary coach Shankly and has been here for fifty years!
In the entire Premier League, and even across Europe, no player who has visited Anfield has been unaware of the existence of this sign.
"Say what, I didn't hear you!"
"This is Anfield!"
The player asked repeated loudly the previous words.
"Yes, this is Anfield!"
Pellegrini waited until the opponent repeated his words loudly and then spoke in a narrative tone:
"This is Anfield, a great stadium and the toughest fortress in the Premier League!
The owners of this stadium—Liverpool, hold 19 league titles and 5 Champions League trophies. Compared to them, we are nothing!"
Pellegrini's words left the Manchester City players feeling frustrated. Why was their coach singing praises for the opponents before the match even began?
Wasn't this undermining their own morale?
Glancing at Pellegrini, Lin Quan knew the Chilean coach wasn't trying to dampen the players' spirits with his pre-match speech.
Sure enough, seeing the players' bewildered and puzzled expressions,
the Chilean engineer smiled faintly and continued:
"But, so what? Liverpool's glory belongs to the past, while we are on the path to creating our own legend.
One day, Manchester City will also be as glorious as Liverpool, or even more!"
"Now, go out there, step onto the pitch from here, snatch victory and the championship from Liverpool. Tell them, you old guys, continue to wallow in your pride while we, Manchester City, dominate this new era!"
Pellegrini's speech greatly excited the players.
What Manchester City fans and players were most concerned about was others discussing history and heritage in front of them.
Because Manchester City lacks these things.
They are nouveau riche, or rather newly risen nouveau riche.
And what they face at Anfield is the team with the deepest history and most honors in Premier League history!
Such a huge gap would normally easily make the Manchester City players feel inferior.
But now, there's no sense of inferiority; all there is, is a strong desire to defeat Liverpool, a desire to trample this football powerhouse underfoot!
...
Entering the player tunnel, Liverpool's players curiously sized up their opponents, seemingly expecting to see signs of fear and unease typical of rural bumpkins arriving at Anfield.
However, they did not see what they expected.
Manchester City's players showed no signs of fear or nervousness; each one looked eager and ready to go.
It seemed they couldn't wait to start the match!
Hmph, just putting on airs!
Wait until the match starts at Anfield, and then you'll see the true strength of Liverpool!
At exactly 7:00, with the referee's whistle, the match between Liverpool at home and Manchester City officially began.
Even before the match started, the Red Army fans in the stands had already started singing loudly.
They were singing the famous "You'll Never Walk Alone."
Fueled by tens of thousands of fans at the scene, Liverpool launched a fierce attack on Manchester City, trying to swiftly overwhelm their opponents with offense.
Coutinho, Sterling, Suarez, Skrtel, and other Liverpool players were extremely active in attack, drawing applause and cheers from the home fans.
However, their opponents did not seem intimidated by their onslaught.
Since the beginning of the game, Manchester City had shown a proactive approach.
Boldly, they engaged Liverpool in attack even at their home ground. Lin Quan, Aguero, David Silva, Navas, and others repeatedly threatened Liverpool's goal.
Both teams engaged in a back-and-forth battle at Anfield!
Seeing their opponents so bold, Liverpool fans were stunned.
Teams visiting Anfield rarely dare to attack Liverpool head-on.
Manchester City is indeed too arrogant!
They sang even louder, eager to lend all their strength to the players on the field, hoping to crush the opposing team mercilessly!
The pace of the game was very fast; in the first 15 minutes of the first half, both teams had already taken a total of 10 shots, averaging one shot every ninety seconds.
Such intense attacks meant that goals in this match were sure to come.
Sure enough, in the 16th minute of the first half, the first goal arrived.
Liverpool's forward Sterling received Suarez's pass, dribbled past Demichelis in the penalty area, and shot into the near corner, opening the scoring.
Liverpool 1-0 temporarily took the lead!
Sterling's goal ignited the atmosphere at Anfield; Liverpool fans began celebrating wildly, as if they had already won the match.
However, just a minute later, Manchester City equalized.
After a wall pass between David Silva and Lin Quan, the latter dribbled into the right side of the penalty area, crossed the ball in front of the onrushing goalkeeper, assisting Aguero's tap-in goal. Manchester City quickly leveled the score!
The score became 1-1!
"Damn it, these damn people from Manchester, why can't they just die quietly?"
Liverpool fans were very angry; they had just started celebrating, and many hadn't even finished when the opponent scored.
This made them feel as uncomfortable as if they had swallowed a fly!
However, what made them even more uncomfortable was yet to come.
In the 27th minute, Kroos took a corner kick. Yaya Touré at the near post headed the ball, hitting the post. In the ensuing scramble in front of the goal, Lin Quan alertly followed up and kicked the ball into Liverpool's net once again.
Manchester City completed a turnaround away from home, temporarily leading Liverpool 2-1.
Lin Quan's goal silenced the singing at Anfield temporarily; Liverpool fans seemed to forget to sing, each of them staring blankly at their own goal.
Are they behind?
Not only did they withstand Liverpool's attacks, but they also took the lead in the counterattack?
This instantly gave Liverpool's fans an uneasy feeling!
After finally wearing down Manchester United, Liverpool's performance this season had seen significant improvement. Many Reds fans felt this was a sign that their team was about to rise again.
However, these two goals by Manchester City within ten minutes were like buckets of cold water pouring over them, instantly waking them up!
Now they were facing the Premier League leaders, not some pushover!
After a brief silence, the Reds fans once again sang their anthem in unison:
"Through the wind! Through the rain! Let the world mock your dreams! Keep moving forward! You'll never walk alone!"
...
Under the singing of the fans at the scene, Liverpool's players were all fired up, launching attack after attack on Manchester City's goal like madmen.
Finally, in the 37th minute, Liverpool scored another goal.
Skrtel received Gerrard's cross and, at the near post, shook off Lescott to head the ball into the net.
2-2!
Liverpool stubbornly equalized!
The Reds' fans were excited once again, celebrating wildly.
It seemed that equalizing the score was also something worth celebrating!
However, Manchester City was like an indomitable cockroach, relentlessly chilling.
In the 43rd minute, De Bruyne delivered a deadly through pass. Lin Quan successfully beat the offside trap, faced the onrushing goalkeeper, easily dribbled past him, and shot into the empty net, completing his brace.
3-2, Manchester City once again took the lead.
Liverpool's fans were despairing!
Why was the opponent so tenacious!
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(End of this chapter)
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