Chapter 1 The Beginning

When Chen Hero used all his strength to blast the football into the goal, Kahn stood where he was, simply waving his arms in what passed for a save.

Then Chen Hero turned and rushed towards the corner flag, once again doing a diving, bomber-style celebration—ever since he started getting yellow cards for taking off his shirt, he had changed his goal celebration to this equally passionate dive. This action didn't risk a yellow card, but it did risk accidentally hitting his… jewels…

Watching his retreating figure, Kahn once again felt how old he was…

This young opponent, his whole body was full of muscles, and he didn't hide his explosiveness at all, like a bomb that could explode at any time. Just the way a young man should be…

But under his powerful shot, he had become just a backdrop.

He was a little unwilling…

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Lucio got up from the ground and saw Chen Hero's retreating figure, his teammates Demichelis and van Bommel were also getting up from the ground. They all looked at the figure running with his arms open, then diving headfirst.

The stands erupted with huge cheers.

They looked at each other. What they saw was… shock!

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Ribéry raised his arms high in the penalty area, signaling to the referee that Chen Hero had pushed someone during the header.

But the referee ignored him and pointed directly to the center circle—the goal stood!

He and his other teammates surrounded the referee.

"He definitely pushed someone!"

"That's right! How could both of us have fallen to the ground if he hadn't pushed someone?"

"He fouled first!! The goal shouldn't count!"

…

The German commentators were also shouting, "Foul! Foul! Pushing during the header!"

But the referee did not change his decision. He insisted that the goal was not a foul.

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"What's the point of arguing?" Khyrzhayevsky sneered. "Look at the slow-motion replay, 100% no foul! It's just that your bodies are too weak to stop the Northern Bear!"

The TV and the big screen in the stadium decisively showed a slow-motion replay of the goal just now.

Everyone looked up at the screen, wanting to see clearly how Chen Hero had scored the goal in a one-against-three situation.

The key was when the four people jumped at the same time, everyone stared intently. The Germans wanted to find evidence of Chen Hero's foul, while the Saint Petersburg fans were waiting to admire the giant bear's aerial heroism.

The slow motion disappointed the Germans, because everyone saw that when Chen Hero jumped in the air, his arms were tightly clamped by van Bommel and Demichelis, and they didn't leave his body at all—that is to say, he couldn't have pushed anyone.

So how did Demichelis and van Bommel lose their balance?

Everyone saw Chen Hero twist his waist while in the air, and this action knocked van Bommel behind him to the right, and also skewed Demichelis on his left.

The two lost their balance in the air and fell outwards…

They were indeed knocked over by Chen Hero, but Chen Hero didn't even use his hands! He just twisted his waist and used his shoulder to knock the two big men off balance. What terrifying power!

"Ah ha ha ha!" Khyrzhayevsky laughed when he saw the slow-motion replay. "This is the Giant Bear! This is the Giant Bear! Munich people, did you see that? This is a power that doesn't belong to humans! This is Zenit Saint Petersburg's Northern Giant Bear!!"

"Hurrah—!" After seeing the slow-motion replay of the goal, the cheers from the stands became even louder.

"That's right!" The fans were roaring, in addition to shouting "Long live!". "Crush all enemies who dare to stand in your way—!!"

"Wo wo wo wo! Hero! Hero! Great! Let them see the power of Zenit!! Tear them apart!!"

After Chen Hero got up from the ground, he pounded his chest hard amidst the huge cheers.

Now he felt great, really great, extremely great, unbelievably great!

One against three! 1v3! So what if three people come? I still pushed them all away! Competing with me in strength and physique? You are… courting—death—!!

Excited teammates rushed over and surrounded him.

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When Chen Hero scored, Arshavin and Kerzhakov in the box jumped up from their seats and cheered at the same time.

One was suspended and the other was injured, so they could only watch the game from the sidelines. However, they did not choose to watch TV at home. At such an important moment, they chose to be with the team and with their teammates, hoping to support the team and cheer them on in this way.

And if they still wanted to continue playing in this season's UEFA Cup and go to Manchester, they had to hope that Zenit could win against Bayern Munich in this game.

So you can completely understand their excitement at this time.

Khyrzhayevsky's excited shouts were coming from the TV in the box.

"…Four minutes into the game, Zenit Saint Petersburg took the lead! This is a wonderful start for Zenit Saint Petersburg, who desperately needed it!"

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Yes, this was a wonderful start. The wonderful thing was not that they scored a goal and took the lead.

But that the goal made all Zenit Saint Petersburg players realize—this Bayern Munich was not as strong as they thought, and they were not as weak as they thought they were without Arshavin.

What is there to fear?

We can! We can beat Bayern Munich at home and go to Manchester!

The Zenit players, after finishing their celebration, ran back to their own half with their heads held high.

They had never believed in themselves as much as they did now.

It was all because of Chen Hero's goal. Although he didn't shout at his teammates after scoring the goal, everyone could feel what he wanted to express.

One person facing Lucio, the captain of the Brazilian national team, Demichelis, an Argentine international, and van Bommel, the main defensive midfielder of the former Dutch national team, could actually knock away three people one after another without being at a disadvantage at all, and then blast the football into the goal of legendary goalkeeper Kahn!

One goal trampled so many great stars under his feet, even if it was only this once, it was enough to boost morale!

Tymoshchuk felt that he really had to thank this kid Chen Hero, because he helped him boost the morale of the whole team, which was a thousand times stronger than words. Now, Zenit had never felt so good. When they looked at Bayern Munich, they no longer looked up to them, but looked at them on an equal footing.

Even… slightly looking down.

You are the same as us, but this is our home, and today we are the home team!

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Hitzfeld had never seen a worse start. Playing away and conceding a goal first… He was worried about this before, and what he worried about came true. Zenit took the lead at home, their form would definitely pick up, and when the whole team went crazy, how could they defend?

It was really strange. This season, Bayern Munich's form in the domestic league had been extremely good, they had secured a Champions League spot early, and winning the league title in advance was only a recent thing. But their performance in the UEFA Cup had been fluctuating. Although there were games with five-goal victories, there were also games where they were tied by Getafe at home, tied by Getafe away, and could only advance to the semi-finals in extra time.

Hitzfeld frowned. He always felt that Bayern Munich's stars were too arrogant and never took the UEFA Cup seriously. Perhaps they felt that their strength was more than enough to play in the Champions League, so playing in the UEFA Cup was a piece of cake?

He would be leaving after this season. He had completed his task well, not only bringing the team back to the Champions League, but also winning the league title. But he was not satisfied, he hoped that he could help the team win the UEFA Cup before he left.

Now it seemed that the chances were slim…

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Zenit, who took the lead four minutes into the game, were now like they had been injected with chicken blood. In the following game, they transformed into desperate fighters, daring to slide tackle and fight for the ball, no matter if they could get it or not!

This really scared many of Bayern Munich's "superstars". Their bodies were much more precious than those of Zenit's country bumpkins. What if they got injured?

Against opponents like Zenit, we only need to use 60% of our strength to defeat them…

So there were many balls that they gave way, preferring to let the opponent have possession of the ball rather than putting themselves at risk.

This naturally only made Zenit's morale even higher…

Hitzfeld was so anxious when he saw this scene from the sidelines—if you guys continue to play like this, you will kill yourselves!

He shouted from the sidelines: "Press! Press! Press them for me!"

The 59-year-old coach's white hair was disheveled in the noisy Petrovsky Stadium.

But his voice did not reach the ears of the Bayern Munich players.

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At the same time, Advocaat also stood up from his seat and shouted from the sidelines: "Grab them! Grab them! They are afraid! They are afraid of us!!"

The Zenit fans were also roaring with him. Everyone could see that Bayern Munich had some concerns in the game, and were obviously frightened by Zenit's crazy momentum and desperate style of play.

For them, the UEFA Cup was a tasteless and regrettable thing. They had already secured a Champions League spot for next season. The Champions League was their battlefield, and the UEFA Cup was just a not-so-beautiful mistake.

But for Zenit Saint Petersburg, a team from the cold land of Russia, the UEFA Cup was their European Champions League! It was the honor they were desperately pursuing.

In order to be able to reach the final… we will fight you to the death!!

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ps, a high school classmate from Luoyang came to Chengdu for tourism tonight, went out to accompany him for dinner, and just came back, so I hurried to update!

Everyone continue to throw tickets!