The Premier League's "Four Blinds" Leader, Clattenburg!

Henderson originally intended to use Maradona- style step-back feint to shake off Tang Long and get past him.

Unexpectedly, Tang Long was completely unfazed!

He seized the momentary opening when Henderson clumsily made his move and quickly poked the ball with his toe!

Not only did he knock the ball away, but he also knocked Henderson to the ground, sending him sprawling face-first into the dirt.

"Beautiful!" Seeing Tang Long's successful defense, the Ranocchia behind him also clapped and cheered.

In the Sky Sport studio, Gary Neville and Carragher both looked utterly exasperated.

Although these two men disliked Manchester City's midfield maestro Tang Long, they had to admit that he was a truly excellent passer.

Looking across the entire Premier League, only De Bruyne can compare to him.

However, defense is not Tang Long's absolute strength, so both players were quite surprised by Tang Long's precise poking and interception!

Neville, who played as a defender his entire career, couldn't help but sigh to himself, "Such accurate anticipation; it's likely that Don anticipated Henderson's next move long before Henderson even made his feint. Truly impressive."

Carragher, also a top-class defender, was equally surprised by Tang Long's prediction, saying:

"The worst thing you can do in defense is to make a rash move, or you'll easily get past them. But Tang Long's move this time showed great determination, and Henderson's attempt to dribble past him failed miserably."

"JU--"

The referee blew his whistle, indicating a foul by Manchester City!

"???"

Manchester City's players were stunned!

They were greatly dissatisfied and gathered around.

The most emotional of them Ranocchia, rushed up to the referee, hands behind his back, and shouted, "Tang Long touched the ball first! It was a good ball, referee!"

However, the referee stuck to his opinion, believing that Tang Long kicked the player before kicking the ball, and awarded Liverpool a free kick from about 25 meters away from the goal, in a good position.

Tang Long waved his hand dismissively, thinking to himself: See? The home-field advantage is here.

(Clattenburg: I saw it clearly, Don fouled!)

Live stream room.

-[Holy crap, they can even brag about this?]

"That was absolutely a great shot! I saw it clearly; Tang Long poked the ball first!"

-[It's Clattenburg again, I'm speechless!]

- [What? The referee is Clattenburg? That's not surprising, he's the worst of the Four Blinds referees in the Premier League, incredibly arrogant.]

[It's rare to see Tang Long make such a beautiful steal; the referee's bias towards his own team is so obvious!]

- [No way! Dude, this is your first time watching the Premier League. Clattenburg is just blind; it has nothing to do with home advantage.]

Even Henderson, who slowly got up, looked completely bewildered.

Why did the referee give us a free kick after I lost possession of the ball? I don't understand, I really don't understand.

Neville, Carragher, and Gerrard all clearly recognized that this was a misjudgment.

However, Neville said against his will, "Henderson won a set piece with his skillful dribbling, and Tang Long paid the price for his reckless tackle."

Carragher, at least having some self-respect, wasn't that thick-skinned. He vaguely said that the call was debatable, but if it was, there wasn't much to say.

Gerrard, however, maintained that Tang Long had not fouled and that Henderson had lost the ball himself.

In short, regardless of the circumstances, due to the referee's blindness, what should have been a chance for Tang Long to intercept the ball and launch a counter-attack turned into a set piece for Liverpool.

Just as Manchester City began to set up their defensive wall, Coutinho and Milner both stood in front of the ball.

When Gerrard was playing, he and Coutinho would discuss how to take set pieces.

After Gerrard left, Coutinho became the undisputed choice for set-piece takers.

This time, however, Milner had a ulterior motive—he wanted to steal the spotlight!

After being let go by his former club, he harbored resentment and had been looking forward to this home game against Manchester City.

Milner wanted to use this set piece to prove to Manchester City's management. "You'll regret firing me!"

Milner does have a good set-piece ability, but when he was at Manchester City, the team had many set-piece specialists, such as Silva, Kolarov, and Yaya Toure, all of whom were excellent players. Milner didn't have to take set pieces.

So, after successfully taking possession of the ball from Coutinho, Milner excitedly rubbed his hands together, looking left and right, thinking about how to unleash a world-class goal.

Sagna, Iheanacho, Yaya Toure, Fernando, Tang Long.

Under the direction of goalkeeper Caballero, the five players lined up in a row to form a human wall.

From left to right, their heights are 176, 185, 190, 183, and 182 cm respectively.

After observing, Milner discovered that Tang Long, who was standing on the far right and was slightly shorter, was an excellent point of attack.

After taking four steps, he used the inside of his foot to draw an arc, attempting to go over Tang Long's head before bouncing into the net.

Facing the football flying over his head, Tang Long leaped high without fear, facing the ball with his face, trying to block it!

Unexpectedly, although the football hit Tang Long's face, it was not blocked, but instead underwent a strange arc and grazed towards the goal.

Milner's curling shot wasn't of high quality to begin with, and it didn't completely clear the wall, but after deflecting off Tang Long's face, it unexpectedly changed course, catching Caballero off guard. Caballero stumbled and watched the ball fall into the net.

Tang Long felt a burning sensation on his face, and when he inhaled, a bloody smell began to spread in his nasal cavity.

When I touched it, my hand was covered in blood.

At this moment, Milner's roar began to echo in Tang Long's ears:

"You can't stop me, kid! You can't stop my shot!"

Milner, who had just struck gold, was extremely excited. He went crazy, first rushing up to Tang Long and yelling, then rushing up to the Liverpool supporters' stand and doing a sliding knee slide!

Amid the cheers of more than 60,000 fans at Anfield, Milner closed his eyes with a dreamy expression.

Milner had initially thought that even if the ball went in, he shouldn't celebrate wildly, as a sign of respect for his former team.

However, the moment he truly saw the ball fall into the net, a sense of vengeful pleasure surged through his body like lightning. He could no longer suppress his inner joy and celebrated wildly!

"Tang, is your nose alright?"

Ranocchia was the first to run over and check on his injuries.

Yaya Toure and Sterling also came over with concern.

Demichelis urgently signaled to the Manchester City team doctor on the sidelines to come onto the field and stop the bleeding.

Led by the team doctor, Tang Long went to the sidelines to stop the bleeding.

As he was being stopped from bleeding, the Liverpool fans behind him kept booing and mocking him.

Several extremists even made a discriminatory gesture towards Tang Long, pulling at the corners of his eyes.

"Hey kid, does your nose hurt? Want to go home and cry to your mom?"

"Haha, great jump! If you hadn't jumped, the ball wouldn't have gone in!"

"Tang, thank you for the assist to Liverpool, thank you!"

"Tang, you scored an own goal! An own goal!"

Actually, Tang Long's goal wasn't an own goal at all, because even if he hadn't touched it, the ball would still have been heading towards the goal, so it couldn't be considered an own goal.

Liverpool fans were chanting like that to deliberately upset Tang Long.

Amidst the deafening noise around him, Tang Long calmly communicated his injury to the team doctor. After the bleeding was stopped, he received permission from the referee to immediately return to the field.

Manchester City conceded a goal just 15 minutes into the game, a truly disastrous start.

Former captain Gerrard, though deeply resentful that the home team benefited from the refereeing error, still maintained his unwavering confidence in winning the match, thanks to the home advantage against Manchester City.

He thought that as long as Liverpool could hold onto this score in the first half and prevent Manchester City from scoring, then handing them a second consecutive defeat would be a natural outcome.

Manchester City's players are now engulfed in flames of rage!

They once again witnessed the prowess of Clattenburg, the leader of the Premier League's "Four Blinds".

They were really unlucky.

Hart might be able to save that kind of zigzag shot, but Caballero's height, wingspan, and reaction time are all inferior to Hart's, so he was really unlucky.

However, Manchester City's players did not lose heart; instead, they channeled their anger into strength and became even more committed to the game.

In the 25th minute of the first half, Manchester City had an excellent counter-attack opportunity.

After a one-two pass with Yaya Toure in midfield, Tang Long, without stopping the ball, flicked a pass with the outside of his foot to Sagna, who was making a run down the right flank.

Sagna brought the ball down steadily, feigned a cut inside, but then made a lightning-fast run down the wing, beating left- Moreno, and delivered a high cross!

Manchester City would have equalized if Iheanacho's diving header hadn't lacked power.

Just five minutes later, Blue Moon came back with a vengeance!

This time, as Tang Long advanced with the ball, Milner kept a tight grip on him.

The two ran side by side, their arms constantly intertwined.

Milner was wicked; he knew Tang Long's nose was injured, so he deliberately, almost as if, struck Tang Long's face with his outstretched hand, hoping for a double blow.

Tang Long saw through Milner's intentions and cursed inwardly, "You bastard, you're really pushing your luck?"

He dodged the attack, but his own hand slapped Milner across the face!

With a "smack," Milner was slapped across the face and fell to the ground, clutching his cheek.

Liverpool players raised their hands, indicating that Tang Long had fouled them!

However, Clattenburg stretched out his hands, indicating that the game should continue.

He really didn't mean to blow the home-court advantage, Clattenburg, he's just blind!

19-year-old Iheanacho's positioning is very intelligent. Although it is his first year playing in the Premier League, his agility in positioning far surpasses that of the useless Bony. He slipped past the two center-backs and into the box.

Tang Long's lobbed pass arrived as expected!

This time, Iheanacho's shot showed improvement; his instep shot had power, but the position was too central, and Miliole tipped it out of bounds with one hand.

Having missed two opportunities, Iheanacho quickly turned around and extended his hand to Tang Long to apologize.

"Iheanacho, oh Iheanacho, he has squandered another golden opportunity!"

"If Agüero were here, he would have scored at least one of those two goals!"

The director focused the camera on Bony on the bench—sigh, how dare they put him on camera? He's not even as good as Iheanacho!

"Manchester City's attacking line relies solely on Agüero, which is far from enough to support them in going further in the league."

"Perhaps they should consider bringing in another powerful striker during the winter transfer window!"

After facing two dangerous situations in a row, Liverpool quickly regained their composure.

Defensive midfielder Henderson pressed down with both hands, actively slowing down the pace of the game.

Subsequently, both sides entered a period of physical fatigue in the first half, making the game even more intense.

The score remained 1-0 until the end of the first half.

As soon as Clattenburg blew his whistle, Tang Long, Ranocchia, Yaya Toure, and several others rushed over to argue with him about the free kick that never actually happened;

Milner, who had been slapped by Tang Long, rushed towards Clattenburg, indicating that he had been ambushed and that Tang Long should at least have received a yellow card.

It seems that neither team's players were happy with Clattenburg in the first half!

In the Sky Sport studio, Gerrard gave a brief recap of the first half for both teams.

"Although Liverpool took the lead, it was partly due to controversial refereeing decisions and partly due to Caballero's slow reaction. If Joe Hart had started, I think he would have been 90% able to save that deflected shot."

"Manchester City regained their composure after conceding an unexpected goal, and their next two attacks were very threatening!"

"Unfortunately, neither Bony in the last round nor Iheanacho today could successfully link up with Tang Long. Only Agüero can carry the torch for Manchester City's attack."

"I recall a few years ago, Manchester City had the strongest attacking duo in the entire Premier League."

"Agüero, Dzeko, Balotelli, and Tevez are all very similar in ability. On the other hand, Manchester City currently only has Agüero can score goals, which is abnormal and a serious weakness in Manchester City's squad."

"What Liverpool needs to do in the second half is to solidify their defense and look for opportunities to extend their lead. If they score another goal, it will almost certainly seal Manchester City's fate in this match."

Inside the home team's locker room.

Coutinho, Lallana, Henderson, Mignolet, and others all came forward to give Milner a high-five and congratulate him on opening the scoring.

Inside the away team's locker room.

Pellegrini, on the other hand, looked worried.

If it weren't for this misjudgment, he was confident they could have held on for the first half. Thinking one step further, if Agüero had been on the field, perhaps Manchester City would have been leading, not Liverpool...

Pellegrini rubbed his temples, trying to pull himself out of this unrealistic fantasy.

He saw that Iheanacho, who had missed two excellent opportunities, was anxiously talking to Bony, seemingly wanting to learn from the veteran Premier League player.

Pellegrini couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

What can you two, these two brilliant minds, possibly come up with? Can you even score a goal?

The two of them combined couldn't even match half a leg of Agüero's.

Pellegrini is now filled with regret. If he had known it would turn out this way, he would never have sold Dzeko to Roma.

At this moment, Tang Long's suggestion to himself before the match echoed in his ears again.

"Coach, I can actually play forward!"