Chapter 2 Zenit Advances

A 2-0 victory over Villarreal at home sent St. Petersburg's media into a frenzy. They were even beginning to consider Zenit's opponents in the round of 16.

According to the earlier draw, after winning in the round of 32, St. Petersburg Zenit would advance to the round of 16, where their opponent would be the winner of the match between Marseille and Moscow Spartak.

If they were to play Moscow Spartak, St. Petersburg would have no pressure at all, because they were too familiar with them. Everyone knew the strength of this team and their recent form inside and out.

Who they had, which players were the most threatening, and which could be ignored. They knew all of this!

Moreover, they had just achieved a "double kill" against them last season in the league title race and the race for the league's top scorer. What was there to fear from their defeated opponent?

What worried the St. Petersburg media was the French team Marseille.

Although Lyon was the current dominant force in Ligue 1, Marseille, as a former powerhouse, should not be underestimated.

One point might prove this—in the match between Marseille and Moscow Spartak, which ended later, Marseille easily defeated the top Russian Premier League powerhouse and last season's league runner-up with a score of 3:0.

Moscow Spartak, which could dominate in Russia, had no fight in them against Marseille and lost without a doubt.

The current Marseille team has former famous French international Sylvain Wiltord, famous French young talent Hatem Ben Arfa, Dutch veteran Boudewijn Zenden, young Nigerian full-back Taye Taiwo, the renowned "Marseille killing machine" Lorik Cana, and strong goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, as well as promising midfielder Samir Nasri, and Djibril Cisse, the striker whose leg Zheng Zhi once broke…

Some of these players had been famous for a long time, and some could be considered dominant figures in Ligue 1.

The Marseille team composed of these individuals seemed determined to revive their former glory.

Playing against this team required extreme caution, as one slip-up could spell disaster. The St. Petersburg media certainly didn't want their team to become a stepping stone for the revival of the French giants—whoever wanted to do that could, but Zenit certainly wouldn't.

※※※

Chen Hero's beautiful and representative header in the match against Villarreal made everyone happy, but not with the same ecstatic joy as before. Especially the Chinese reporters—they were now accustomed to Chen Hero scoring one goal after another.

Initially, after Chen Hero scored in the domestic league, everyone was particularly excited, feeling that it "boosted morale too much!" "It's a matter of pride for the Chinese!" "It promotes our national prestige!" "Chinese football has hope!"

Such enthusiastic words often appeared in the reports of the reporters, and the readers naturally enjoyed reading them, feeling that Chinese football really had hope! Chen Hero was awesome!

But when Chen Hero scored one goal after another, scoring in several consecutive rounds, their initial ecstasy turned into a calm kind of happiness—ah, he scored again, that's great!

That was all, there were no more silly thoughts like "God has finally sent an arrogant guy to save Chinese football."

Just as the St. Petersburg media said: Chen Hero scoring wasn't news, him not scoring was news.

The Chinese media also felt the same way, and the blind worship of Chen Hero in the country was gradually cooling down. In the past, everyone had a particularly good impression of this striker who could score, but as media reports delved deeper, and as multiple sides of Chen Hero became known to everyone, many people also changed their views. In China, there were many people who couldn't accept Chen Hero's rules of conduct and maverick style. They gradually went from liking Chen Hero to disliking and hating him.

For example, they hated Chen Hero's frequent visits to nightclubs, hated Chen Hero's arrogant words and deeds, and some even felt disgusted by Chen Hero's smug front and back tattoos, because it made them think of street gangsters… although tattoos had been popular in China since ancient times, and even became a popular fashion in the Song Dynasty…

Someone even put such a big label on Chen Hero—"...He almost embodies all the bad habits we know and hate of Chinese football players: going to bars, flaunting wealth, scandals, tattoos, arrogance, low quality, lack of education, poor education, alcoholism, prostitution... I don't know if he smokes, does drugs, or gambles on football now... I think it's about the same, there's no difference without these three points. Such a person can actually be praised by some media as the hope of Chinese football? If the hope of Chinese football is pinned on such social scum, I think we should seriously consider canceling the suggestion of carrying out football in China... Let such a person become the hope of the national team? I can only be more desperate."

Of course, this article was written by Xie Liang… his clear opposition to Chen Hero strengthened the confidence of many people who also opposed Chen Hero—such a famous person opposes Chen Hero, that means we aren't in the minority, our ideas still have a market!

The extremes of Chen Hero's personality were also reflected in his supporters and detractors.

Those who liked him liked him very much, they liked and tolerated everything he did, and thought it was all good. And those who hated him also hated him very much, no matter what he did, they could find something to criticize. Everyone could find a topic from Chen Hero, whether to scold him or praise him, no one would be speechless.

However, Chen Hero himself didn't care about these things. He was in Russia, not mixing in China. To be honest, he really didn't care about the attitude towards him in China. He also rarely went online to see what fans thought of him now. Unlike when he had just become famous, he hoped to satisfy his vanity from the fans' reactions to him. Now he didn't even buy newspapers—at first, he bought every issue of the newspaper, just to see how the media praised and touted him. He could read even the most nauseating flattery articles with relish, and be complacent.

Now he didn't do this, because he didn't care what the media thought of him. His status and glory didn't need to be obtained through the media's touting. As long as he continued to score goals, he would be able to obtain everything.

※※※

The second leg of the match against Villarreal was on February 21st a week later, and Zenit would challenge their opponent away.

For Pellegrini, this was the last chance. They had to turn the tables at home, winning by more than two goals to have a chance to advance to the round of 16.

After losing the last time, Pellegrini had many excuses—the weather was bad, the temperature was too low, the field was too slippery, everyone was out of shape, the pressure of playing away was too great, etc.…

What about this time? He had no excuses, but the pressure was even greater. Because the conditions were too good, he couldn't lose. His strength was stronger than Zenit, so he should win! He had to win!

At El Madrigal, in his familiar field, the weather was also very good. Although it was a bit cold, for the Yellow Submarine, which had experienced the cold of St. Petersburg, five or six degrees above zero was considered "warm". At their home stadium, the fans would definitely support them, and there was no such thing as a bad away atmosphere.

If they still couldn't win like this… then they could go die!

The murderous Villarreal welcomed St. Petersburg Zenit, who had once brought them humiliation, to their home stadium.

They made careful preparations before the game, and Pellegrini tried his best to boost morale, even playing the video of their 0:2 away loss to St. Petersburg Zenit to stimulate the players' sense of shame and competitiveness, hoping to allow them to complete a revenge that seemed somewhat difficult at home.

But the first goal was scored by the away team St. Petersburg Zenit…

"Andrei Arshavin!! His beautiful long shot shattered the hearts of Villarreal fans!"

"St. Petersburg Zenit is now leading 3:0 on aggregate! This game has basically lost its suspense, and only thirty minutes have passed…"

"Look at Pellegrini's expression, he looks like his father just died! Trailing by two goals can still be reversed, but what about trailing by three goals? Arshavin's goal gave the Zenit fans a reassurance. If Villarreal wants to qualify, unless they win this game 4:1, they have no chance!"

The hope of winning 4:1 was very slim. Even with the home advantage, the gap between the two sides' strengths wasn't that big…

After conceding the goal, Villarreal went all out and attacked across the board. And Zenit simply shrunk back to play defense and counterattack.

It wasn't until the seventy-fourth minute that Villarreal equalized the score through Mexican striker Guillermo Franco. After scoring, the Mexican didn't celebrate, and the Villarreal players didn't celebrate either. The cheers from the stands of El Madrigal briefly rang out, but quickly faded away.

Scoring in the seventy-fourth minute cooled many people's hearts—with only a dozen minutes left, even with four minutes of stoppage time, there were only twenty minutes. In twenty minutes, they had to score three goals in one go, and the other side couldn't score either… this difficulty wasn't ordinary.

Therefore, after Franco scored, Sergeyevski happily said: "I think there's no problem for Zenit to enter the round of 16!"

Announcing this after the opponent scored showed how excited Sergeyevski, the St. Petersburg commentator, was.

Villarreal scored a second goal in the eighty-ninth minute through Joan Tomas, but it was of no avail. They could never score two goals in the last five or six minutes.

Although the hope was slim, the last part of this game was full of gunpowder.

Chen Hero didn't score in this game because the opponent's defensive actions were too rough. Advocaat was worried about Chen Hero getting injured, so he simply replaced him in a situation where the overall situation was already set.

After the eightieth minute, the actions of both sides became increasingly rough, and red and yellow cards flew everywhere.

But what made Advocaat very dissatisfied was—these cards were all aimed at St. Petersburg Zenit!

In the end, Roman Shirokov received two yellow cards and was sent off, and Hill also received two yellow cards and was sent off with a red card. This made Advocaat furious on the sidelines—his team had advanced, but lost two players. No one knew what impact this would have on the next round of the knockout stage.

Zenit received eight yellow cards and two red cards in this game. The data was more exciting than watching the game.

But no matter what, Zenit finally successfully crossed the hurdle of the Spanish powerhouse Villarreal and entered the gate of the UEFA Cup round of 16.

Chen Hero scored one goal in the round of 32, and his total number of goals in the UEFA Cup has reached three. He ranks sixth in the UEFA Cup scorer list, which isn't high. His hat-trick vow hasn't been realized yet, and now he still has the opportunity to continue to pursue this goal.

Advocaat was very dissatisfied with the referee's penalty after the game, but he didn't dare to say too much, because he was afraid of being additionally punished—he wasn't someone like Mourinho.

He just euphemistically expressed his anger: "What else can I say? I can only say—fortunately we advanced! This is the only good result!"

※※※

ps, the style of this book about matches should be like this in the future—important matches will be written with more detail, focusing on describing the goals. Secondary matches will be written with shorter lengths, only writing about the goals. And those matches that are basically just cameos, or data-grinding matches, will be glossed over, even if Hero scores a hat-trick, there won't be much description.

This is to avoid writing too much about matches, becoming repetitive and monotonous. After all, Chen Hero is a striker, and it can be predicted that his career will inevitably be full of goals. If every goal is written in detail, this book will be prepared to aim for a million words… In addition, a professional player plays at least fifty games a season, and it is normal to play more than seventy or eighty games, so of course not every game can be written about.

I will write about the important ones in detail so everyone can see the climax, and I will write about the unimportant ones briefly so everyone can see Chen Hero grinding data.

Everyone can rest assured, I know what should be written in detail and what should be skimmed over, and I will definitely not let everyone feel that it is all filler…