Chapter 115 Goodison Park

Everton's home stadium, Goodison Park, has a very long history. Built in 1892, it is now one hundred and fifteen years old. It was the first stadium to have double-layered stands on all four sides, and the first in the league to use an underground heating system. In the past, it was considered a fairly "modern" stadium. But now, surrounded by a large group of "five-star" stadiums, it seems a bit lackluster.

This stadium can only accommodate 40,000 people. Due to architectural restrictions in the area, it cannot be expanded. If they want to get more attendance, they have to use a larger stadium. Liverpool City Council once persuaded Everton and Liverpool to share Stanley Park Stadium, like the Milanese clubs. But unsurprisingly, this proposal was rejected by the two bitter rivals.

Therefore, Everton is still at Goodison Park.

This stadium has long been integrated into every corner of Everton's history, and into the hearts of every "Toffees" fan. In their hearts, they do not envy Manchester United, who own the "Theatre of Dreams" Old Trafford. They do not envy Arsenal, who received huge investments to build a new stadium. They will certainly not envy their city rivals who are building Stanley Park Stadium. Not only that, they will laugh at the financial difficulties that this stadium, which can accommodate 70,000 people, is now facing.

This day, the evening of December 5th, Everton hosted Zenit Saint Petersburg. This was a match in the UEFA Cup group stage.

Fans filled the not-so-large Goodison Park Stadium, and the songs of the English fans resounded through the clouds, piercing the gloomy night sky.

Compared to the professional English fans, the Zenit fans who followed the team to Liverpool were much weaker. In the face of the English fans' unified, rhythmic songs and applause, they simply didn't know how to open their mouths and make their own voices.

In this game, from the team to the fans, Everton will dominate Zenit Saint Petersburg.

The fans shouldn't even think about making their own voices, let alone the team...

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Chen Hero and his teammates were in the simple away team locker room, listening to the coach's final instructions.

"What have we been training for all week? This moment! For us, this is a very crucial game. If we lose, I can't guarantee that we will definitely be eliminated, but it is a fact that the chances of elimination are very high. So we must win. If you still want to enter the knockout stage..."

He cast a meaningful glance at Chen Hero.

Chen Hero held his head high and clenched his fists as he listened to the coach speak.

"The opponents are very strong, and they are playing at home. But they are not without flaws. They need to fight on two fronts, and the domestic league schedule is also very tight, so they cannot be distracted to cope with two battlefronts at the same time. What's more, they still have a UEFA Cup group stage game. For them, this is not a life-and-death battle that determines their final fate. But for us, it is!"

"So as long as we play with two hundred percent of our strength, facing a half-hearted opponent, we are capable of winning this game!"

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Moyes was very seriously explaining the threatening Zenit players to his men.

"Arshavin is the team's number one star, and also the Russian Footballer of the Year. He is excellent, fast, good at dribbling, and his long shots and crosses are very threatening. So the defense against him must be comprehensive. Don't let him easily bring the ball up, don't give him space—his range of activity is relatively large, no matter where he appears, we must arrange the defense line as soon as possible!"

"Tymoshchuk and Domingues seem to be the central axis of Zenit. One defends and one attacks. We must cut off the connection between these two, so that Zenit's backcourt can only pass long balls forward, and cannot play up through ground passes. This will reduce our defensive pressure a lot!"

"As for Škrtel, he has excellent height and outstanding aerial ability, but his turning is slow. This is his fatal weakness. We must play on the ground more and take to the air less. The main offensive strategy is to play behind them, try more direct passes, even if they are intercepted, it doesn't matter, keep making direct passes! As long as we succeed once, we will win! And they will definitely want to win this game away, so they will push forward a lot during the game. There will be more gaps behind them for us to exploit. Lots of through balls!"

Unlike at the press conference, this time he mentioned Chen Hero.

"Their center forward is very tall and has a good header, so Lescott and Yabo, you two should pay a little attention."

Team captain Yabo nodded, and Lescott laughed: "Don't worry, boss! That kid won't score a goal over my head!"

Lescott, who has been selected for the England national team, is now full of confidence. His future is unanimously favored by many experts, who believe that he is very likely to become the mainstay of the England national team's defense in the future, taking over from Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.

Dealing with a striker from a Russian team? He didn't feel any pressure, even though the information showed that the center forward was 1.92 meters tall and weighed 93 kilograms.

But this cannot explain anything. Lescott knows that what determines victory or defeat is not height and weight, but more complex things. In his opinion, that big fool doesn't have any of these things...

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When the live broadcast rang out, "Please welcome our great players—", the cheers suddenly increased, and the players from both sides in the player tunnel knew—it was time to play.

The home broadcaster, of course, only introduced the home team's players.

So the cheers rose and fell, but they were all dedicated to the home team players.

Zenit Saint Petersburg's players walked beside Everton's players, playing the role of foils and supporting characters.

Chen Hero raised his head and looked at the crowded stands of the stadium. Looking around, it was all blue.

He couldn't say that he was completely unfamiliar with Everton. When the two Chinese players, Li Tie and Li Weifeng, played for Everton, the advertising on the front of the team's jersey was still the Chinese characters "Kejian". At that time, because there were two Chinese players playing for Everton, the Chinese media paid a lot of attention to this team.

Now, with the successive departures of Li Tie and Li Weifeng, Everton has gradually faded from the vision of the Chinese media, and gradually degenerated into an ordinary Premier League team, no longer enjoying any special treatment.

Chen Hero's understanding of this team is very limited. He only knows that they once had two Chinese internationals playing for them, and the coach seems to be quite famous...

But he doesn't think it's important. Understanding his opponent... is the coach's job. He only cares about scoring goals. No matter who the opponent in front of him is, an unknown person or a traditional giant, he only needs to score goals.

This is a center forward, what a simple job...

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From the beginning in the player tunnel, Lescott focused his attention on the number 99 player.

This player is indeed very eye-catching. He can't help but pay attention to him. First of all, it's his arrogant number—99, which is the largest of the numbers a player can have... Secondly, it's his body, which looks really burly.

Lescott had an illusion—this person doesn't look like he only weighs 93 kilograms, does he?

Of course, he wouldn't know that when Chen Hero signed up, the club directly reported his information from last season to UEFA. UEFA did not verify it and directly adopted it. Small errors in personal information like this are very common. Even in major events like the World Cup, the official information often has mistakes and omissions, leaving reporters and fans at a loss, let alone the UEFA Cup. There are many unheard-of teams participating, and no one cares whether their players' information is true or not.

Chen Hero's current weight is close to 100 kilograms, and he looks very strong. His muscles are tense, supporting the outline of the muscles on his clothes.

After seeing these muscles, Lescott slightly put away a little contempt, and felt that this kid still had something to offer...

But when he walked out of the player tunnel and saw Chen Hero looking around with a "curious baby" expression, Lescott curled his lips in his heart.

After all, he's a player from Russia, he's really never seen the world!

I heard that he is only nineteen years old, and he was still playing in the youth league last season? This kind of person is really tender... Just like the boss said, he lacks experience, and this will be his fatal weakness.

Lescott saw Chen Hero looking around and felt that his attention to him was unreasonable. Such an inexperienced rookie is the easiest to deal with. The UEFA Cup is different from your Russian Premier League! Kid!

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Chen Hero followed his teammates onto the field.

The Chinese reporters in the press box were a little excited.

"After Li Tie, Li Weifeng and Sun Jihai, another Chinese player has finally set foot on the grass of Goodison Park!"

"Hero! Moyes doesn't know you, but you have to make him remember you firmly after this game!" Some reporters shouted excitedly below.

Unfortunately, in the noisy environment, Chen Hero couldn't hear what they were shouting. In fact, Chen Hero didn't even see them. He had already withdrawn his gaze from the surrounding stands, no longer looking around like a curious baby.

When the two players shook hands, he focused on looking at Lescott and Yabo.

Both of them are very tall, both are black, and black people's physical fitness is not bad. In fact, this is also the case. Lescott's body looks very strong, and Yabo is a little thinner, but he can be considered strong. The two of them are about the same height as him. Chen Hero knows that he will encounter strong resistance in the air, but he is not afraid.

Before the game, Advocaat showed everyone the Everton game video and told them who their opponents were. Yabo and Lescott were Chen Hero's opponents.

He has to remember these two faces well, because they will meet often in the game. He also hopes that these two central defenders will remember his face well, so don't recognize the wrong person when the time comes.

When Lescott's gaze swept across his face and then shook to Arshavin beside him, Chen Hero felt a little unhappy.

Hey, hey, your opponent is me, where are you looking!

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ps, everyone is really great!

Thank you all!

Still asking for monthly tickets!