Fatal Weakness

The evening of April 8, Anfield Stadium.

The moment the Danish international referee Claus Bo Larsen blew the final whistle, all of Anfield fell deathly silent. Countless Liverpool fans in the stands choked back tears.

The huge red scoreboard displayed the final result of the match: 1–3.

As was customary, the home team came first and the away team second.

There was no doubt about it—this was a desperate home result!

From the manager to the players, every member of Liverpool was stunned by the result. Many of them might still have been unable to figure out why they had lost, or how they had lost so badly, even after the final whistle.

The moment the whistle sounded, Yang Yang crouched in Chelsea's penalty area, thoroughly frustrated.

He had just finished a shot, only for Čech to dive and save it.

This absolutely wasn't Liverpool's night!

Even though Yang Yang had scored just six minutes into the match, opening the door to victory for Liverpool.

Pride goes before a fall!

That was the phrase that popped into Yang Yang's mind at that moment.

Liverpool's advantage over Chelsea in recent years, Chelsea's embarrassing inability to defeat strong opponents this season, and Liverpool's 6–1 thrashing of Manchester United followed by a 5–0 demolition of Aston Villa had all filled the team with excessive optimism, even blind arrogance.

The pitch was a battlefield. Arrogance meant a crushing defeat!

Manchester United had grown arrogant, and Ferguson had grown arrogant, so they had suffered an utterly humiliating defeat at home, losing 1–6.

Now it was Liverpool's turn.

The 1–3 home score had practically destroyed Liverpool's hopes of advancing, driving the Reds into a dead end.

So what had caused this result?

Of the three goals, two had come from Ivanovic, the substitute right-back in