It may be that Sterling did not pass the ball in time this time and was tackled by Willard. Liverpool launched a counterattack and almost broke through Manchester City's goal, which angered coach Pellegrini.
Within a few minutes, Pellegrini removed Sterling and replaced him with striker Bonno.
Not long after, Blue Moon made another substitution, removing Fernandinho and replacing him with forward Isinacho.
Manchester City changed their formation 4123, took on three forwards, and began to attack fiercely. After all, they were only two goals behind, so there was still hope.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Manchester City completed their second substitution, they suffered a fatal blow.
This was a positional attack by Liverpool. Because there was one missing midfielder, Velarde did not have to break through Fernando. He directly hit the wall with Firmino and broke through.
Seeing that Velard was about to break into the penalty area, whether he shot or continued to pass to his teammates, the threat was quite great. Jesus Navas, who was returning to the defense, was in a hurry and tried to tackle Velard from the side. When he had the ball at his feet, he failed to tackle it and ended up knocking Willard down.
Navas received a yellow card and Liverpool got a very good free kick.
The ball was about 24 meters away from the goal on the left side of the penalty area. The position and angle were quite good, which was perfect for Willard to shoot with his right foot without having to reverse his foot.
Although Joe Hart nervously sent out a wall of 5 people, he still couldn't stop Willard's shot.
After the referee signaled that free throws were allowed, Willard took a three-step run-up and then hit a perfect full-moon scimitar, bypassing the wall and sending the ball into the near-end dead corner.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Goal scored from a direct free kick from Alan Willard."
"In the 59th minute, Willard sent the ball directly into the upper left corner of Manchester City's goal with a full-moon scimitar kick."
"Liverpool leads 3-0 and seals the victory."
"Although there was more than half an hour left in the game, it was almost impossible to recover a three-goal deficit."
"This is Anfield."
Indeed, this is the home ground of the Red Army Liverpool. After Velarde scored, the fans, led by the on-site announcer, kept chanting Velarde's name and paid homage to him.
Then, the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" rang out, and Liverpool's players seemed to have gained a lot of strength out of thin air, appearing even more high-spirited and invincible.
Playing at home has these benefits. In addition to the familiar venue, there is also the cheering of fans.
Manchester City was indeed hit. After the game restarted, even though the ball was from the center circle of Manchester City, it didn't even penetrate the dangerous area. Liverpool intercepted the ball and almost made another dangerous attack.
It's a pity that Emre Can's attempt to pass the ball to Velarde was deflected and was intercepted by Manchester City. Otherwise, Velarde would have received the ball and Manchester City's penalty area would have been dangerous again.
After the score became 3-0, Liverpool's offense slowed down a bit. After all, everyone is not very energetic.
In this way, even if Velarde is full of energy and wants to continue to score goals, as long as many people in Manchester City defend him, Velarde will be difficult to outnumber.
After all, the skill of 93 is not 100. He cannot successfully break through every time or control the ball when being double-teamed by several people.
But even so, luck is on Liverpool's side today. Even if the Red Army wants to end the game with this score, God won't!
In the 74th minute, Firmino switched to the left wing, broke through and made an inverted triangle pass. However, he deceived Manchester City's defender and goalkeeper, and then pushed the ball towards the goal from a small angle.
In order to prevent Firmino's cross pass and inverted triangle pass, goalkeeper Joe Hart was positioned a little too far outside. If Firmino's ball directly hit the goal frame, it would basically be easy to score.
As a result, Firmino's push shot unfortunately hit the post and bounced out.
But Liverpool was lucky because the ball that bounced off the goalpost did not bounce off the baseline, but bounced impartially onto the back leg of Joe Hart who was standing in front of the near corner goal.
Joe Hart was caught off guard and had no time to react. He turned around and watched the ball hit his back leg and then bounce into the net.
"ah?"
"Own goals?"
"Ha ha……"
"Firmino's push from a small angle was blocked by the goal post, but the ball hit the back leg of goalkeeper Joe Hart in the small penalty area and bounced back into the goal."
"Joe Hart was caught off guard and could only watch the ball go into the net."
"Liverpool and Firmino are so lucky to score another goal like this."
"Liverpool has led Manchester City 4-0, completely killing the suspense of the game."
In the Liverpool people's celebration, the Manchester City people have completely lost confidence. Being behind by three goals is disappointing, let alone being behind by four goals?
Even head coach Pellegrini had given up. After the game restarted, Manchester City did not take advantage of the kick-off opportunity in the center circle to launch a counterattack. Instead, they kept passing the ball back until Velarde and others stepped forward to press. They attacked forward, but they didn't attack resolutely. When they encountered an interception, they started to pass back.
Manchester City no longer even had the desire to attack.
A League Cup final, a Premier League game, and two consecutive losses to Liverpool made everyone at Manchester City very frustrated.
Moreover, the last game was only a 1-3 defeat, but this game was a 0-4 defeat, even though everyone in Liverpool celebrated and consumed some energy to win the championship.
This situation is really hard to cheer up.
With Manchester City giving up attacking, Liverpool will naturally not be too aggressive. Although Willard wanted to continue scoring goals to gain experience, he was unable to exert much energy in this environment.
After all, football is a team sport, and he can't challenge the entire opponent's defense by himself.
The last ten minutes or so were consumed by the grinding work of both sides.
After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the game. Liverpool defeated Manchester City 4-0 at home and won the 28th round of the Premier League.
After the game, Liverpool took out the EFL Cup championship trophy they had just won and held another warm celebration with tens of thousands of Red Army fans at Anfield.
This 4-0 victory proved that the Red Army's 3-1 victory over Manchester City in the last game to win the championship was not a fluke.
It also gives fans more confidence in the remaining games of the season.
After winning this game, due to the loss of rival Tottenham, Liverpool has surpassed Tottenham in the standings, second only to Leicester City at the top.
Before Willard joined Liverpool, Liverpool, which had just changed coaches due to poor results, never expected that they would catch up to second place so quickly?
It seems that the league championship is not a dream!
Leicester City's super dark horse road faces a strong challenge from the Red Army Liverpool.
