Chapter 31 Finally Relieved

In the end, relying on Chen Hero’s hat-trick, Liverpool defeated Manchester City 3:0 at home.

The entire Anfield stadium was filled with huge cheers, and Liverpool fans chanted the hero's name countless times.

Everyone applauded Chen Hero’s excellent form.

Only Martin O’Neill frowned.

The better Chen Hero played, the more worried he became.

In this game, there was no sign of Chen Hero’s physical exhaustion. Nevertheless, as a precaution, he still substituted Chen Hero in the seventy-fifth minute. Of course, the reason he gave was to allow the goal-scoring hero Chen Hero to once again receive the cheers of the entire audience.

He always felt that Chen Hero’s sudden recovery of physical strength was a bit strange. He was worried that his worst fears would be confirmed—that Chen Hero had taken stimulants.

So from the moment he substituted Chen Hero until the end of the game, Martin O’Neill was restless and had no mind for the game.

He was now worried about problems during the post-match drug test. This tense emotion grew stronger as the end of the game approached, until Chen Hero was unsurprisingly drawn by the anti-doping committee for a urine test.

Martin O’Neill was not surprised at all that Chen Hero was selected. This was not the first time Chen Hero had scored a hat-trick, nor was it the first time he had been selected by the anti-doping committee after scoring a hat-trick.

Chen Hero’s excellent form would naturally lead to speculation about doping. So he had always been a key target of the anti-doping committee.

Watching Chen Hero leave, Martin O’Neill wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say. He just opened his mouth and watched Chen Hero leave the locker room, led by two members of the anti-doping committee.

Martin O’Neill carried this worry into the press conference, and he seemed a little absent-minded when answering reporters’ questions.

As a result, this fell into the eyes of the reporters and became speculation such as "O'Neill doesn't care about Manchester City at all," "When defeating Manchester City has become a habit, O'Neill will also feel bored," "O'Neill's mind may already be on the next league game"...

Unfortunately, none of them guessed correctly.

After the press conference, O’Neill couldn’t wait to return to the locker room. He pushed the door open and saw Chen Hero at a glance.

He strode forward, grabbed Chen Hero’s arm, dragged him to a corner where there were fewer people, and asked him in a low voice, "How is it, Hero? What was the result of the doping test?"

Chen Hero gave him a thumbs up.

“It couldn’t be better.”

Martin O’Neill breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing the head coach like this, Chen Hero realized what was going on, and asked in surprise, "No way? Boss, have you been worried that I took stimulants?"

It was a little embarrassing to have his thoughts exposed by the player, but it wasn’t a big deal. O’Neill nodded: "Your physical strength recovered overnight, it’s too strange. I was afraid you would do something stupid in order to play more games..."

Chen Hero laughed: "The quick recovery of my physical strength shows that I am in good shape, boss. No matter how tired I am, I will be fine after a good night’s sleep! After you talked to me about my physical strength, I started paying attention to my body. After training those few days, I went straight to bed after dinner. With enough rest, I naturally wasn’t tired."

This explanation made sense. The best way to restore physical strength is to get enough rest, and sleep is indeed the best way. So after Chen Hero explained it this way, Martin O’Neill immediately believed it.

Seeing Martin O’Neill’s expression of sudden realization, Chen Hero didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

One lie needs more lies to cover it up...

He absolutely couldn’t tell O’Neill that his physical strength was exhausted because he kept running dungeons and training, and playing the Master League, nor could he tell O’Neill that his physical strength recovered so quickly because he drank some kind of Bull drink.

In fact, he was also a little worried before the doping test. Although Dekula had told him that there was no problem and that the effect of the Bull drink could not be brought into reality, he was still afraid of accidents. What if there was a problem with the system?

It wasn’t until the test results came out and he saw that it was a negative reaction that Chen Hero breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the system was foolproof.

Martin O’Neill was in a good mood when he saw that Chen Hero had not taken stimulants and that there were no problems with his physical strength. Although he had worried for nothing, it didn’t matter. The best result was that Chen Hero was fine.

Seeing that O’Neill was in a good mood, Chen Hero jokingly said, "Don’t even think about taking me off the League Cup roster, boss!"

When O’Neill heard this, he asked him, "Are you really planning to win all the championships this season?"

Chen Hero nodded: "Of course, I’m not kidding. I really want to win those championships."

Seeing his determined look, O’Neill didn’t say anything. It was not an easy thing to win all the championships this season, so he would just watch for now...

※※※

The media after the game all reported on the match between Liverpool and Manchester City.

Almost all media outlets had the same view—the match between Liverpool and Manchester City was one-sided. Apart from the score, everything else indicated that the game should have been a massacre.

But it was obvious that Martin O’Neill had held back, because he substituted Chen Hero when the game had only reached the seventy-fifth minute. If the in-form Chen Hero had continued to stay on the field, everyone could imagine how many more goals Chen Hero could have scored with his form? Even just fifteen minutes would have been enough.

So Martin O’Neill’s substitution of Chen Hero was a signal—Liverpool was going to slow down the pace. After all, the season was still very long, and it was not a smart thing for a coach to try so hard in a game that was already guaranteed to be won.

These media analyses were very insightful, making readers feel like it was true.

But who would know that Martin O’Neill’s real purpose for substituting Chen Hero was just because he was worried that Chen Hero might have taken stimulants?

So sometimes what we see as the truth may not be the truth...

※※※

With the Bull drink, Chen Hero could rest assured and boldly run dungeons and play in the league. At the same time, he did not put aside his individual training.

He had been doing personal training with Basten for more than two years, and the time had been extended for a while due to the problem with his left and right feet.

His right foot was now very good, and his left foot was also becoming more and more excellent under his hard training and Maradona’s training, making up for his biggest weakness before.

Now his left and right foot ball control skills could be considered first-class in the world of football. Perhaps it didn’t look as dazzling as Zidane, but it was definitely practical. Any pass, no matter what angle it came from, how much power, or how fast it was, he could stop the ball with a reasonable part of his body.

There was one thing that could explain his current ball control ability.

In Liverpool’s training, Chen Hero suddenly had a whim and wanted to show off to his teammates. So he made a bet with Suarez, saying that he could kick the ball high into the sky, and then when the ball fell, he could steadily stop the ball, succeed once, and the ball would not bounce on the ground at all.

Suarez naturally didn’t believe it. He had this level of skill, Sanchez had it, but he didn’t believe that Chen Hero had it too.

The two made a bet, which attracted the attention of other teammates. After everyone gathered around and inquired about it, they immediately divided into two distinct factions. One faction bet that Chen Hero would win, and the other faction bet that Suarez would win. And there were far more people betting on Suarez than on Chen Hero.

After everyone placed their bets, the game officially began.

“You only have one chance, Hero!” Suarez raised his index finger and said to Chen Hero. “Don’t even think about something like ‘best of three’ or ‘best of five’.”

“Nonsense!” Chen Hero rolled his eyes. Suarez was simply judging a gentleman’s heart with the mind of a villain!

Then he picked up the ball, bounced it once, and then kicked the ball high into the air.

Everyone’s eyes rose with the ball, watching the ball fly into the air, lose all its momentum, and then begin to fall.

Chen Hero also looked up at the ball. The ball was not completely straight up and down, but had some displacement, so Chen Hero was also moving his position below.

Making sure that the ball landed right next to his right foot.

After selecting the position, he stood still. At the same time, the ball also fell rapidly from the air.

Chen Hero stretched his right foot slightly outward, raised it a little, and when the ball came into contact with the instep of his right foot, he quickly retracted and retracted his foot!

The whole series of movements was completed in one go, and the range was very small.

The ball stayed obediently on the ground, motionless, and it really didn’t bounce!

“Wow—!”

Some of his teammates exclaimed, followed by applause.

Suarez looked at Chen Hero with a surprised expression. This kind of ball control was often only used for showing off skills and was not very useful in actual games, but whether you could do this kind of ball control meant whether your skills were delicate enough.

Chen Hero, this big guy, didn’t have very delicate foot skills. Although he occasionally had amazing moves, they were all because of his rich imagination and had little to do with his foot skills.

But this wasn’t over yet!

After Chen Hero firmly stopped the ball, he tapped it forward gently, then flicked a cow’s tail and sent the ball between the dumbfounded Suarez’s legs!

Then he leaned in front of Suarez and spread his hand: "Give me the money, don't deny it!"

Suarez then reacted: "When did you learn this trick?"

“I specially practiced hard to win your money!”

“Damn! Aren’t you bored!” This time it was Suarez’s turn to roll his eyes.

In the end, Suarez not only lost one hundred pounds to Chen Hero, but also treated everyone to a meal.

It can be seen from this incident that Chen Hero’s current ball control skills were strong.

This was his right foot, and his left foot ball control was now comparable to his right foot.

This was all thanks to Maradona, who was unhappy with him and passed him balls that were difficult to stop. Chen Hero was not willing to admit defeat and insisted on stopping Maradona’s balls well. Over time, Chen Hero’s left foot ball control skills were also honed.

After practicing ball control with both feet, it was time to shoot.

This part was personally guided by Van Basten, who instructed him to complete shooting actions in various situations, and to accurately hit the correct position. It wasn’t just as simple as kicking the ball out. Kicking the top and bottom, left and right sides of the ball was very different...

Shooting training was faster than ball control training, because Chen Hero had a foundation for accurate shooting—he had previously followed Juninho to learn free kicks, which required accurate shooting, because only by accurately hitting the middle point of the ball could he kick out a perfect knuckleball.

It’s just that when practicing free kicks, the ball was stationary, which was slightly less difficult. When practicing with Van Basten, the ball was constantly moving, which was much more difficult.

But even so, Chen Hero practiced it and benefited a lot. He was able to score more than 80 goals last season, and this practice contributed a lot.

Because when encountering some complicated and special situations, others couldn’t cope with it, but he could calmly kick the ball and shoot, and he could also kick the ball into the goal, which was very remarkable. Naturally, he scored many more goals than others.

Chen Hero felt the benefits of this practice. If he hadn’t been addicted to playing the Master League recently, he would have spent all his time on this practice.