Bloodbath at the Etihad, and the Red Card (vs Liverpool)
2017-18 Premier League — Matchday 4
Manchester, England — Etihad Stadium
September 9, 2017 · 12:30 PM
The Manchester sky hung low and gray, but the heat inside the Etihad Stadium had nothing to do with the weather. It was boiling over on its own.
Manchester City versus Liverpool.
A big match that could decide the entire title race. Jürgen Klopp’s heavy-metal football was about to smash head-on into Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka.
Ma Gang-cheol sat on the bench, loosening up as he stared out at the pitch.
Bravo · MA · Sané · Gündoğan · Mangala…
“Atmosphere’s brutal,” Leroy Sané muttered beside him, chewing gum.
He wasn’t wrong. From the opening whistle, Liverpool’s high press left no room to breathe. Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané tore down both flanks like men possessed.
Fifteenth minute.
Salah burned past Otamendi with pure pace and unleashed a shot.
Clang!
The ball smacked the post and bounced clear. The Etihad crowd clutched their chests as one.
“Wake up! Push the line higher!” Pep roared from the touchline.
Twenty-fourth minute. City’s answer.
Kevin De Bruyne collected the ball in midfield. A single killer pass sliced open Liverpool’s back line. Sergio Agüero burst through, rounded goalkeeper Mignolet, and rolled it into the empty net.
Man City 1 – 0 Liverpool
Scorer: Sergio Agüero
First blood. But Liverpool refused to wilt. If anything, they came back harder, Mané endlessly hunting the space behind City’s defense.
Then, in the thirty-seventh minute, the moment that would tilt not just the match but the entire season exploded.
A long ball arced into the space behind City’s back line. Sadio Mané sprinted. At the same instant, City goalkeeper Ederson charged out of his box, leaping to head it clear.
Two bodies colliding for the same ball. But Mané’s foot was far too high.
Thud—!
The sickening impact carried all the way to the bench. Mané’s studs slammed straight into Ederson’s face. The goalkeeper went limp mid-air and crashed to the turf, unconscious.
“Aaaagh!”
“Doctor! Get the doctor!”
Players waved frantically. Ederson didn’t move. Blood soaked the grass around his head.
The referee reached into his back pocket without hesitation.
Sent off: Sadio Mané (Liverpool)
Mané protested with open arms, but the decision stood. Ederson was carried off on a stretcher, neck brace locked in place. Claudio Bravo scrambled on as the emergency replacement.
The first half limped to a close in chaos. Score: 1–0. Liverpool down to ten men.
Halftime — Locker Room
“Ederson’s on his way to hospital. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious.”
Pep’s face was carved from stone, but the gambler’s fire still burned in his eyes. He erased one figure from the Liverpool shape drawn on the board.
“They’re down to ten. Second half they’ll sit deep and look for the counter.”
He turned and pointed straight at Gang-cheol in the corner.
“Gang-cheol.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Warm up. You’re on in the tenth minute of the second half.”
Gang-cheol tightened his laces. The moment had finally arrived.
“Matip and Klavan spent the entire first half wrestling with Agüero and Jesus. They’re cooked. And with a man short, their cover is stretched thin.”
Pep gripped Gang-cheol’s shoulder hard.
“That extra space—you go in and tear it apart. No mercy. Break them completely.”
“Understood. Liverpool’s defense is going to have nightmares tonight.”
Second Half — 10th Minute
The fourth official raised the board.
OUT: Gabriel Jesus
IN: Ma Gang-cheol (No. 77)
The moment Gang-cheol stepped onto the grass, the home crowd erupted.
“KANG! The Monster is coming!”
He scanned Liverpool’s back line as he walked. Joël Matip, Emre Can, Klavan. Their shoulders already looked heavy, overloaded from trying to hold off City’s waves with ten men.
Tired already? It’s about to get a lot worse.
Instead of drifting wide right, Gang-cheol planted himself centrally, almost like a second striker alongside Agüero.
Fifteenth minute of the second half.
De Bruyne carved open the right flank and whipped in a low, vicious cross. Klavan tried to clear, but his legs were lead. Gang-cheol exploded into the gap like a predator snatching prey.
“Move!”
He won the shoulder battle with Klavan in a complete mismatch. One touch, and the defender was left sprawling. One-on-one with Mignolet. Gang-cheol sold the shot, dropped the keeper to his knees, then casually rolled the ball into the empty net.
Man City 2 – 0 Liverpool
Scorer: Ma Gang-cheol (15' 2nd half)
Five minutes after coming on. Gang-cheol cupped a hand to his ear toward the stands. The Etihad answered with a roar that shook the foundations.
Klopp stood on the touchline shaking his head in pure disbelief. Trying to hold out with ten men against a freshly introduced fifteen-year-old monster whose legs still looked brand new was impossible.
Twenty-fifth minute of the second half.
Liverpool collapsed. The defensive line simply disintegrated. For Gang-cheol it was a playground.
Mendy whipped in an early cross from the left—this time aerial. Matip, Liverpool’s tall centre-back, rose to meet it. But Gang-cheol’s hang time defied physics.
Aerial Dominance (A+)
He rose a full head higher than Matip and hammered the ball downward with his forehead. Matip’s shoulder was pinned under Gang-cheol’s knee; he never even got properly airborne.
Boom!
The ball bounced once and vanished into the far corner.
Man City 3 – 0 Liverpool
Scorer: Ma Gang-cheol (25' 2nd half)
A brace. Gang-cheol high-fived Agüero, grinning.
“Hyung, today’s a great day for padding the stats.”
“You greedy little bastard. Leave some for me.”
And in the thirty-second minute, Gang-cheol did exactly that.
Counter-attack. He collected the ball at the halfway line and exploded forward.
Runaway Train
Henderson and Wijnaldum tried to track him, but they never got close. To legs already emptied of fuel, Gang-cheol’s back was nothing more than a shrinking black dot.
Edge of the box. He didn’t force it. Across the pitch Leroy Sané had a hand raised. Gang-cheol slipped a perfect ground pass between a defender’s legs. Sané finished first-time.
Man City 4 – 0 Liverpool
Scorer: Leroy Sané · Assist: Ma Gang-cheol
“Nice pass, Kang!!”
Sané sprinted over and jumped onto Gang-cheol’s back. Gang-cheol carried him along the touchline in front of the stands, strolling with pure, overwhelming calm.
The match finished 5–0 after Sané added a late long-range strike. A historic thrashing of the Liverpool giant. And at the center of it all stood Ma Gang-cheol—thirty minutes off the bench, two goals and one assist.
Man City 5 – 0 Liverpool
Jürgen Klopp walked onto the pitch. He shook Pep’s hand, then approached Gang-cheol. The German master looked him up and down and gave a wry smile.
“Hey, Monster.”
“Thank you, Boss.”
“Reminds me of watching Lewandowski in my Dortmund days. No—faster and harder than that.”
“You’re too kind.”
“You speak any German? Forget Bayern—come to Dortmund someday and give me a call.”
Half-joke, half-serious scouting pitch. Gang-cheol just smiled and dipped his head.
Post-match interview. Man of the Match was never in doubt.
The reporter thrust the mic forward.
“Ma Gang-cheol, you dominated the game the second you came on. Did Pep give you specific instructions?”
“Yeah. Boss said, ‘They’re exhausted. You go in and finish them.’ So I did what I was told.”
“Any pressure facing Liverpool?”
Gang-cheol shrugged.
“They were down to ten. We would’ve won with eleven, but ten men? That’s basically a bonus stage.”
Another Gang-cheol soundbite for the ages.
Bonus Stage.
Tomorrow’s headlines were already written.
In the locker room the mood was pure carnival. Worry for Ederson lingered until word came that the bones were fine. Everything was perfect.
Gang-cheol finished his shower and powered on his phone. The system window flickered to life.
📜 Quest: Super Joker
📍 Condition: Record 2+ attacking contributions after coming off the bench.
✅ Result: 2 goals, 1 assist. (Perfect)
🎁 Rewards:
1. Trait acquired — Instinct of the Joker (A)
• Upon substitution, all stats +10% for 15 minutes.
2. Pep Guardiola’s tactical understanding — 100% achieved.
Instinct of the Joker…
Not bad. But Gang-cheol had no intention of settling for the role of joker. He was meant to be a starter—no, the team’s ace.
Just then Kompany dropped onto the seat beside him.
“Kang. You know next Wednesday’s schedule, right?”
“Yeah. Champions League.”
“Away in the Netherlands. Feyenoord.”
Kompany grinned.
“Basically home soil for you, isn’t it? You played for Ajax.”
Gang-cheol’s eyes lit up.
That’s right. The Dutch Eredivisie. The place where he had reigned as the God of Destruction for the past six months. And Feyenoord’s home ground—the hated rival of Ajax—De Kuip.
“This should be fun.”
He stood, toweling his hair dry.
“Their fans hate my guts. I dropped a hat-trick on them last season.”
“Haha! Then the boos are going to be deafening.”
“Doesn’t matter. Turning boos into cheers is my hobby.”
The Champions League. The war of the stars. At last he would step onto that stage.
First group-stage opponent: Dutch champions Feyenoord. The perfect warm-up before Real Madrid.
Gang-cheol stared at the Champions League logo hanging on the locker-room wall—the ball made of stars.
Time to go claim those stars.