Liverpool returned triumphant and the Red Army generals continued to party on the plane. Everyone sang in unison to express the joy of victory.
When they returned to Liverpool, there were still a lot of fans in the city who gathered from the bars outside the airport to welcome the return of the heroes.
Fleet Street gave a high evaluation of Liverpool's elimination of Barcelona, especially Qin Xiong, who scored four goals alone, became the focus of media coverage.
At Camp Nou, Qin Xiong got rid of Maxwell, Bouzquez, and Yaya Touré one after another. The goal he scored after breaking through Piqué was repeatedly broadcasted by the major European media and became the most popular football goal video.
Red Army legend Redknapp Jr. was a guest on BBC Sport and said, "It's hard to say about the future, but for this season, Qin Xiong defeated Ronaldo at Bernabéu and Messi at Camp Nou. He is now the best player in the world. No one can doubt that!"
Of course, the Red Army fans were already convinced of this. They were full of confidence in the team and believed that Liverpool with Qin Xiong, Gerard, Torres and Alonso was already the strongest team in Europe!
And this team was now going to start plundering the glory!
Comain gave the team a day off to let the players have a good rest and then held a team meeting on Thursday when the players returned to the team for training.
The meeting summarized and affirmed the players' recent performance and results in the two tournaments.
The most important content was that Comain revealed the team's game rotation plan during the Champions League semi-finals as designated by the coaching staff.
After two Premier League games, Liverpool would usher in the Champions League semi-finals. There was also a Premier League game between the two semi-finals.
In order to have the best performance in the semi-finals.
The main players naturally rested as much as possible before and during the Champions League game, so the substitute lineup would play in the league.
The problem in front of Liverpool was that the main players would play in the Premier League this weekend. Then the main players would rest for a week and then step on the Champions League semi-finals battlefield.
The Red Army generals said there was no problem and agreed with the coaching staff's arrangement.
Even if they felt a little tired after returning from the fierce battle at Camp Nou, the main players had the responsibility and obligation to take on the heavy responsibility of continuous fighting in order to ensure that there were no more unforeseen events on the battlefield of the league tournament.
On the weekend, the 34th round of the Premier League, the fifth last round of the league tournament, began.
In the championship group, Manchester United, who theoretically had the possibility of winning the title, was the first to appear.
Last weekend, Manchester United had lost their match against Chelsea at Sky King Hill due to a referee issue. The chances of them successfully defending their title had become slim. Following that, in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League 14 final, Manchester United had been eliminated by Bayern Munich. It could be said that they had suffered a double blow within a week, and their morale had hit rock bottom.
Under such circumstances, Manchester United did not put up a convincing performance against Blackburn Rovers.
In the end, he shook hands with Blackburn Rovers with a 0: 0 score.
Liverpool were the second team to make their debut. In Anfield, they welcomed the East London team, West Ham United.
Liverpool's performance in this game was somewhat restrained. Continuous fighting was a great test of fitness, especially at the end of the season.
West Ham United put up a tight defense to restrain Liverpool. Coupled with West Ham United's fourth-last position in the league, even one point could be a life-saving point to avoid relegation. Therefore, they united their will and used an iron bucket formation to stop Liverpool from crushing them.
In a slow-paced game, Liverpool strived for stability. This was the game strategy developed by Comain.
He did not want the overwhelming sense of rhythm in the Premier League to collapse the game's rhythm and expose Liverpool's fitness problems.
In the process of constantly creating opportunities and trying to break through the tight defense, Liverpool was in a predicament.
Until the 68th minute of the game, Gerard was fouled in the front field, and Liverpool was given a direct free kick.
Qin Xiong stood in front of the football for the fourth time to take the free kick.
This time, he used the iconic elevator ball to blast open West Ham United's goal!
The moment the football fell into West Ham United's goal, the Red Army fans in the stands of Anfield Stadium were ecstatic. They shouted Qin Xiong's name in unison. After Qin Xiong celebrated the goal, the stadium echoed with the sound of "Premier League champions."
Please forgive the Liverpool fans for their lack of restraint. This was not because they were so blindly arrogant that they thought they would reach the top of England before the dust had settled on the title race.
It was because they could not wait to dream back to the top after a full 20 years of waiting!
West Ham United immediately changed their formation after conceding the goal. They needed points to ensure that they could avoid relegation, which gave Liverpool more chances.
In the 74th minute of the game, Alonso and Qin Xiong made a series of wall collisions in the front field and then passed the ball to the penalty area to assist Torres to break the goal.
Eight minutes later, Gerard charged into the penalty area and suddenly knocked the ball back. Qin Xiong, who was lying in ambush in front of the penalty area, took the ball and dribbled horizontally for two steps before shooting successfully. The football bypassed the head of the defender and went straight to the far corner of the goal, and finally went straight to the dead corner!
3:0
Liverpool defeated West Ham United at home and took the fifth last round of the league tournament.
Comain hugged every player who played after the game. He was sure that the league title was in his hands and now he could fully devote his energy to the Champions League!
The Red Army generals were also well aware of this.
Everyone was excited, expectant, and even a little nervous.
It could be imagined that returning to the top after 20 years of absence from the league title, that kind of feeling, being pursued and supported by the fans, was simply unimaginable.
And the league title was guaranteed and the Champions League was unstoppable. Everyone was looking forward to being able to achieve something in the Champions League.
Then this season could be said to be close to perfect!
Another rival for the title, Chelsea, was the last to appear.
At Stamford Bridge, the Blues defeated Bolton Wanderers by 1: 0. Although they took all three points, Ancelotti personally admitted after the game that the league title already belonged to Liverpool.
With four rounds left in the league, Liverpool led Chelsea by nine points and Manchester United by 12 points.
Considering the goal difference between Manchester United and Liverpool, it could be officially declared that Manchester United's dream of defending the title was completely shattered!
And Chelsea of the Blues might only be one more victory away from Liverpool to declare their defeat in the title race.
However, that was all in theory.
In fact, Ancelotti's personal admission of defeat represented the voice of all Chelsea's people.
In four rounds of games, Liverpool only needed to get three or four points to guarantee the title. With the current Liverpool team, even if one or two main players were injured and absent, it was impossible to not win in four games!
The league title would belong to Liverpool. It was just a matter of when all the theoretical suspense would be completely eliminated.
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