Liverpool Were Finished!

Liverpool were finished!

Early the next morning, newspapers across Britain went wild reporting Liverpool's disastrous home defeat. Almost every media outlet drew the same conclusion from the loss: Liverpool's Champions League campaign would end in the quarterfinals.

Even newspapers close to Liverpool, such as The Times and The Telegraph, published commentaries expressing disappointment over the defeat. Quite a few of them also turned their criticism on Benitez.

Conceding three goals from corners in a single match was simply indefensible.

Although Benitez had taken the initiative to admit his mistakes in the dressing room after the match and had received the players' forgiveness, he still had to shoulder the blame for the defeat in front of the media and the fans.

The Guardian, always more serious and more neutral and objective in its stance, also published an article criticizing Benitez. It argued that the Liverpool head coach should take responsibility for the defeat, especially for some of his rather arrogant remarks before the match.

"Every time Benitez gets a little too arrogant, Liverpool pays the price. This match was no exception."

"Liverpool made an excellent start to the match. Yang Yang's goal in the sixth minute gave Liverpool the lead, but three failures to mark properly when defending corners allowed all of Yang Yang's hard work to go to waste."

However, The Guardian did not believe that all the responsibility for the defeat lay with Benitez.

"It cannot be said that Liverpool were arrogant, or that Benitez had grown conceited. After all, Liverpool have been fighting on multiple fronts throughout the season, running themselves ragged across four competitions. The pressure on both the head coach and the players has been enormous."

"After so many grueling matches in a row, maintaining tactical precision is difficult for anyone—not even Benitez can always manage