Chapter 0 The Destiny of Barcelona and Guardiola Has Nothing to Do with Chen Hero

After that Champions League semi-final, Liverpool threw themselves into the league.

They still had one last goal in the league: to win the championship with an undefeated season.

Therefore, Martin O'Neill did not use a full reserve team lineup; he only used half.

Half reserve team players and half first team players.

Many of the first team players were also substitutes.

The lack of suspense in the Champions League semi-final reduced Martin O'Neill's pressure in the Champions League, and he could confidently rotate players and let the main players rest.

This was good news for Carlton Cole.

Because he had the opportunity to play in two consecutive league games.

He came on as a substitute in the previous league game, and this time he started.

Through playing in the League Cup and FA Cup with the reserve team, Carlton Cole had become well known.

He also became the focus of the English media.

Hats like "genius," "supernova," and "hope of English football" had already been placed on his head.

Many Liverpool fans also liked this pure Liverpool player.

Although there were many world-renowned stars in Liverpool's first team, such as Chen Hero, Suarez, Gotze, Inler, Bale, and Sanchez...

They all had one thing in common: they were not players from Liverpool's youth training system; they were not pure Liverpool players, not true Kopites.

Liverpool fans valued this very much.

Since Gerrard, Liverpool had not cultivated a player who could truly gain a foothold in the first team and possess world-class prestige.

After winning enough championships, Liverpool fans were not satisfied with just winning championships; they also wanted to see a pure Kopite appear in the Liverpool reserve team. They did not want Liverpool's bloodline to be diluted.

Carlton Cole's sudden emergence gave people hope.

They naturally poured all their emotions into Carlton Cole.

Some people worried that Martin O'Neill, a coach who did not understand Liverpool's traditions, would abandon reserve team players.

Others worried that Carlton Cole would receive a better contract than Liverpool's and then leave the team.

Although the club was preparing a new contract for Cole.

But before it was finalized, who could be sure of anything? The world of football was full of broken promises. Previously, it was said that the player was already renewing his contract with the club, but a month later everyone found out that the player had transferred.

Carlton Cole being able to start in this game gave the fans some psychological comfort—it seemed that O'Neill was also optimistic about Cole. In this way, as long as the two sides did not argue too much over personal treatment, they might be able to sign the contract.

With such feelings, Liverpool fans gave Carlton Cole the second highest cheer of the team when he appeared, second only to captain Chen Hero—Gerrard was rotating and resting in this game, so the captain's armband was worn on Chen Hero's arm. If Gerrard had played, the cheers Carlton Cole would have received would have been the third highest—Liverpool's momentum was so strong that even the fans were like this. It was clearly an away game, but the cheers that rang out were all from Liverpool fans. There were only three thousand of them, but they made shouts at the level of thirty thousand people.

The fans hoped to use this method to tell Cole how much they loved him, hoping that he could finally choose to stay at Liverpool instead of going to other wealthy clubs.

Several European top clubs had already expressed their interest in Cole.

Listening to the deafening cheers, Carlton Cole felt surging emotions.

In fact, his contract renewal negotiations with the club were going very smoothly and were nearing completion. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be able to sign the new five-year contract next week.

Just thinking about being able to enjoy such cheers every week in the future, he was so excited that he could not control himself.

※※※

Even though Liverpool used a lineup of half reserve team and half first team substitutes, the game was still very easy.

Liverpool's opponent, Portsmouth, was not strong. Faced with Liverpool, who were stronger than them, they had no intention of fighting—even if Liverpool fielded such a lineup, it was not something they could deal with.

In the end, Liverpool defeated the home team Portsmouth 4-1 in the away game.

Carlton Cole completed two assists.

Both were for Chen Hero, directly helping Chen Hero score twice.

Because he had trained with the reserve team and cooperated many times in the League Cup and FA Cup, Carlton Cole was most familiar with Chen Hero in the first team.

Assisting Chen Hero was like playing football in the reserve team, which was easy for him.

He came on as a substitute in the previous game, but he didn't have any outstanding performance. There were no goals or assists, and his performance was mediocre.

In this second game, he started and completed two assists.

Everyone saw Carlton Cole's performance, which was better game by game.

Many people were starting to look forward to when Cole would score his first goal for Liverpool's first team in his professional career. Some bookmakers even opened odds specifically for this. From the odds, everyone could see that the bookmakers were also quite optimistic that he could score his first first-team goal before the end of the season.

In addition to Carlton Cole's wonderful performance, Chen Hero's two goals were also very important.

These two goals brought his league goal tally for the season to sixty-three, surpassing last season's sixty-two goals, and he broke his own record.

Breaking other people's records, creating a record of his own, and then constantly breaking that record, had become commonplace for Chen Hero.

His total number of goals in all competitions this season also reached one hundred and thirty-one, greatly improving his record of one hundred and five goals last season.

The media exclaimed or lamented: "Hero's every step is creating new history. His opponent is not Messi, nor Cristiano Ronaldo, but... himself! On the road to the peak of world football, he is alone..."

※※※

After the league game, there was a Champions League semi-final in the middle of the week.

However, this game had made everyone lose interest.

The most direct manifestation was the declining coverage of the game by the media.

This showed that fans, viewers, and readers were not interested in the game, so the media was unwilling to waste a lot of resources to report on it.

Therefore, the media was calm before the game.

Even the Catalan media did not say stupid things like "This game will determine whether Guardiola can keep his job."

Everyone knew that Guardiola could not turn the tables in this game.

Back in the 2009-2010 season, Barcelona faced Mourinho's Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-finals.

In that game, Barcelona also played the first leg away, which should have been a good schedule for them.

As a result, Barcelona lost 1-3 in the first game.

This score was enough to push Barcelona to the brink of despair.

When they returned to Barcelona, the Catalan media put up a passionate slogan: "Take action, defend Barcelona!"

Calling on fans to go to the stadium and use various means to put pressure on Inter Milan and support Barcelona. Let Barcelona complete this great reversal.

Although they were eventually eliminated.

But at least a score of 1-3 still made everyone feel that there was a possibility of a reversal, and they could still have the fighting spirit to call on everyone to participate.

Now this score of 0-6 was too demoralizing. Not a single Catalan media said anything about defending the Camp Nou or completing a great reversal.

This was simply impossible.

Don't even think about it, it's best not to struggle, just accept your fate.

The whole of Barcelona had accepted their fate.

Before the game, no one jumped out and said they would beat Liverpool and reach the final. Whether it was players or coaches, they were all silent this time.

The past week had been really dark for them.

Not only were they惨敗 (canbai - defeated miserably) by Liverpool with a score of 0-6 in the Champions League semi-final in the middle of the week, and directly eliminated.

In the weekend's league game, they also lost 1-3 to Real Madrid at home.

From leading by two points to trailing by one point, they were overtaken by Real Madrid in the final sprint stage of the league!

Next, as long as Real Madrid doesn't make mistakes, they are sure to win this season's La Liga title!

And Real Madrid also has the hope of entering the Champions League final. They have the opportunity to become the double champions this season.

How could Barcelona feel good when their mortal enemy was living so well?

They were already so miserable, but Chen Hero still wanted to rub salt in their wounds.

When he arrived in Barcelona with the team, he was interviewed by reporters at the airport. He said: "I am a professional player, and I have sportsmanship. So even if this game is no longer suspenseful, I will still do my best. Many people talk about 'fair play', but I don't think they really understand the meaning of fair play. Fair play is definitely not showing mercy because you are unlucky. Fair play should be going all out and showing your best regardless of your opponent. This is the spirit of fairness! Any negative game is not fair play! We have advanced to the final in advance, that's right. But for the hundreds of millions of viewers watching this game on TV, for the tens of thousands of fans who paid for tickets to watch the game live at the Camp Nou, we have a need and a responsibility to dedicate a wonderful game to them! This is worthy of the sport of football and helps the development and promotion of football around the world!"

When he said this, his face was full of righteousness. If people who didn't know his background would definitely be moved by him.

But none of the reporters present were fools. Everyone knew what he meant by saying this—wasn't he just trying to find all kinds of excuses to continue to humiliate Barcelona?

Look at his excuses, what "for hundreds of millions of TV viewers," "for fans who paid for tickets," "worthy of the sport of football," "helps the development and promotion of football"...

All bullshit!

Ninety percent of the fans at the Camp Nou wish he would die and wish that Liverpool would kick the ball into their own goal as soon as the game started, kicking in ten or eight goals. How could they possibly want to see Liverpool go all out?

In addition, football is already the world's number one sport, and it does not need him and this game to promote and spread it around the world. Did he think football was a sport with weak influence like badminton?

Damn it, there's never been such a disgusting person!