Chen Yingxiong took off his jersey to celebrate, and the referee gave him a yellow card.

But at this point, what warning significance could a yellow card possibly have? The game was almost over. Even if the referee directly sent Chen Yingxiong off the field, it wouldn't change the fact that Liverpool was about to win the Champions League.

It was the eighty-seventh minute, with only three minutes left in regular time. Even with three minutes of stoppage time, would those six minutes be enough for Barcelona to score two goals?

Unless Liverpool completely abandoned their defense, but was that possible?

So at this point, two goals were practically an insurmountable chasm.

Therefore, everyone said that Chen Yingxiong's goal had essentially sealed the victory.

The rest of the match became pure garbage time.

Barcelona suddenly lost the motivation to continue attacking. Only Messi ran back and forth frantically in the attacking third, trying to steal the ball from Liverpool's players. But he was just one man, and his efforts were proving futile.

Besides... where was this effort earlier? Trying to do this now was too late.

From the restart of the game, the stands were filled only with the cheers of Liverpool and Zenit fans.

Barcelona fans were completely silent. Those who had stood and watched almost the entire game slumped into their seats, their eyes devoid of any light as they looked at the pitch.

That was how people were after all their hopes had been shattered.

※※※

When the fourth official held up the board to show how much stoppage time there would be, the cheers in the stands paused, replaced by boos.

Because the stoppage time for this match was... five minutes!

A second half with no injuries or major fouls, and no conflicts, had a full five minutes of stoppage time. No wonder Liverpool fans were so unhappy.

Wasn't this blatantly giving Barcelona more time?

But Barcelona was letting the opportunity go to waste.

Faced with these five minutes, Barcelona's fans showed no reaction, and Barcelona's players didn't appear eager to attack.

Their attack lacked any structure; they just kicked the ball wherever they felt like it. Seeing this happen to Barcelona was truly rare.

So the spectators at this match were quite lucky; they got to see many things that they would never normally see from Barcelona all at once.

During these last five minutes, O'Neill didn't waste any time, using his last two substitutions, both to waste time and to let more players get a chance to play in the final, so they could feel the atmosphere of the Champions League final – O'Neill was treating these minutes as a reward for the players.

As stoppage time entered the fourth minute, not a single person was still sitting on the Liverpool bench. Everyone stood at the edge of the field, anxiously and excitedly waiting for the final whistle to blow.

Martin O'Neill was also among the crowd. He had an assistant coach on either side of him, each of them holding one of his hands tightly. He felt a tremor, unsure if it was his own or that of the two assistant coaches.

※※※

When Chen Yingxiong won a header in the attacking third and then turned to face the goal, the referee finally blew the final whistle. Before that, when the ball was consistently in Liverpool's half, he hadn't made a sound.

"The match is over—!!!" Harry Levi roared with all his strength, and he also stood up from his seat. "We are the champions! The match is over! We defeated the invincible Barcelona! We are the champions!! We are the Kings of Europe!!!"

Harry Levi was in his fifties, no longer young, but at this moment, the passion he displayed was like that of a young man in his twenties.

Not just him, the Liverpool fans in the stands were even more excited than he was.

Not to mention the Liverpool fans in front of their TVs.

Everyone was going crazy, screaming and shouting.

"Champions! Champions! We are the champions!!"

※※※

As the referee blew his whistle three times, the Liverpool players who had been waiting on the sidelines swarmed onto the field, embracing their eleven teammates in celebration.

Even Martin O'Neill rushed in excitedly, forgetting to shake Guardiola's hand.

But Guardiola didn't wait for him. Instead, he walked onto the pitch to comfort the players who had collapsed on the ground in despair.

But how could he comfort them?

"We tried our best, so there's nothing to blame ourselves for"?

"We were just unlucky"?

Or... "The champion should belong to the team that played better, Liverpool doesn't deserve to win this championship"?

He could only put his hand on the shoulders of those heartbroken players, squeeze them hard, and then get up and look for the next person in silence.

Not far from him were the jubilant Liverpool players.

He had experienced this scene twice before... once last season, and once in the 2010-2011 season. Before that, as long as he led Barcelona into the final, they would definitely win the Champions League.

But he had stumbled twice because of Chen Yingxiong. People said that you couldn't step into the same river twice, or be tripped by the same stone twice, but he had done both.

He had stepped into the Chen Yingxiong river twice, and had been tripped by Chen Yingxiong twice.

※※※

"The Liverpool players are celebrating their victory and championship wildly... They're even a little out of control. But this is understandable. This is the first time since 2005 that Liverpool has once again stood at the top of Europe! They have become the Kings of Europe again!"

"This is Liverpool's sixth Champions League trophy in club history! They are still the most successful team in England, and even the United Kingdom, in European competitions!"

"Unbelievable! Incredible! Liverpool defeated the powerful Barcelona in the final to win their fourth title of the season! They have swept all the titles this season! A quadruple! A quadruple! They are the first quadruple winners in English football history! These are four genuine championships, with no Community Shield to make up the numbers..."

"Yingxiong is the best player in this match. His hat-trick helped Liverpool win this championship. At the same time, he has scored a record-breaking twenty-one goals in this season's Champions League! The TV cameras are fixed on him, everyone knows that he is Liverpool's greatest hero!"

"Four years ago, when Liverpool's new owner, Chris Chen, brought Yingxiong, who shared his surname, to Anfield, many people were still lamenting Chen Yingxiong's disastrous transfer choice, because he was going to a team that wasn't even qualified for the Europa League. Although it was a giant, it was a fallen giant. Such a choice was tantamount to self-exile. Everyone felt sorry for a young player who had been so promising, because his choice might lead his career down a path of no return... But four years have passed, and what we have witnessed is one miracle after another! In his first year at Liverpool, he won the Premier League's Golden Boot, helped the team win the League Cup, and thus qualified for the Europa League next season. In his second season at Liverpool, he led the team to win the Europa League championship, and also won the Golden Boot for both the League and the Europa League... In his third season at Liverpool, he helped Liverpool win the league championship that they had been waiting for twenty-one years, and he was crowned Premier League Golden Boot winner for the third time. One title a year had almost become his norm. Now, in his fourth season, he and Liverpool have both exploded, no longer limited to one title a year. This season... they have swept all the titles they could win! And Yingxiong has reached the peak of his career! He has once again lifted the European Champions Cup! It has been a full four years since he last won this honor... After four years, Yingxiong has returned!"

He Ping recounted Chen Yingxiong's trajectory over these four seasons at the end of the match, as if he were summarizing it. It filled people with emotion... Yes, it had been a full four years since Yingxiong last reached this pinnacle. Four years! How many four-year periods does a professional player have? When he chose to go to Liverpool, how many people cursed him for being out of his mind? How many people lamented for him, how many people thought that a player was just giving up on himself?

But who could have imagined that Chen Yingxiong was playing a very big game!

Four years later, he not only made his own triumphant return, but he also led Liverpool, a fallen giant that was about to be relegated, to complete their rebirth, making a triumphant return together!

It was easy for a player to make a triumphant return, but it was not so easy to lead a team to make a triumphant return at the same time.

With this kind of return, he proved that he was still the omnipotent Chen Yingxiong! No! He was an even more powerful Chen Yingxiong than before!

Was there a better triumphant return than this?

No!

On the TV screen, Chen Yingxiong took something from his teammate and unfolded it, revealing a bright five-star red flag!

The Chinese fans who stayed up all night to watch the game were immediately energized when they saw this five-star red flag!

As the national flag of China, it often appeared at the award ceremonies of various sports events, raised high as a symbol of the champion.

But in football, a sport with such a huge influence, it rarely, or almost never, appeared at the championship award ceremony. Including this time, it had only happened twice.

And both times were related to Chen Yingxiong.

The last time Chen Yingxiong won the Champions League, he was also draped in such a national flag.

Only he could make China's five-star red flag fly on the highest podium of a football event!

In the domestic media and on the internet, there had always been a voice saying – Yingxiong doesn't love his country, otherwise why wouldn't he play for the country? Even if he has conflicts with the General Administration of Sport and the Chinese Football Association, under the inspiration of patriotism, can't he put aside these conflicts and play for the country? After all, the Chinese Football Association has offended him, but China is innocent, and Chinese fans all hope that he will wear the national team jersey and appear on the World Cup stage...

But now, looking at this scene, if anyone dares to say that he doesn't love his country, Chen Yingxiong's fans can use this scene to slap them in the face.

Just as Chen Yingxiong himself said.

Loving the country doesn't mean joining the Chinese national team. There are many forms of patriotism. I love my country in my own way, and I love it more than all my critics!