No one knew Stramaccioni's little thoughts and calculations.

They wouldn't care about Inter Milan's life or death either. As far as they were concerned, it was a good thing that a team as strong as Inter Milan had unexpectedly lost to Liverpool. Because there was one less strong enemy on their road to the championship.

As for Chen Hero's hat-trick in this game, so what?

That was his personal glory and achievement, and had nothing to do with Liverpool. Because he wanted to win the Champions League Golden Boot.

And he didn't seem to be sure if Liverpool could reach the finals, so he had to score as many goals as possible in the first few games.

Liverpool was still Chen Hero's team, and the others were not worth mentioning. Carlton Cole was also old, and he wasn't Chen Hero, who could play until he was forty.

If Chen Hero was not in good shape, Liverpool's performance would be greatly reduced.

And Chen Hero was already forty years old. How long could he maintain such a fierce state?

His condition in the first game was indeed very good, completing a hat-trick. This must be because he had accumulated too much anger before, and vented it all in this game.

After this game, he would soon be unable to continue.

After all, he was old. With the increasingly dense schedule, it was doubtful whether he could have any decent performance when he ran out of energy.

These people also noticed a detail. That was that in Liverpool's game, Chen Hero was substituted off the field in the seventieth minute.

This was a very pleasant surprise.

Chen Hero had only played one league game before. Being substituted midway through this game showed that his physical strength was not good enough.

So, the schedule would be even denser in the future. Could Chen Hero's physical strength hold up then?

The answer was almost no doubt. Everyone knew it.

So they were not afraid at all.

※※※

Before the next round of Champions League matches, there were still two league games.

Gerrard's Liverpool continued to rotate players, but Chen Hero still started.

However, he was substituted after playing only half the game.

Before he was substituted, Liverpool were already three goals ahead of their opponent in the first half.

Chen Hero scored twice in the game.

But everyone could see what Gerrard's substitution meant. It was to reduce Chen Hero's consumption of physical strength as much as possible.

This made those who thought that physical strength would affect Chen Hero's state more firm in their ideas.

In the twenty-eighth round of the league, Liverpool won another game, and Chen Hero scored a goal in the game.

Since Chen Hero's comeback, he had scored sixteen goals.

And Liverpool had also achieved a winning streak.

Their points difference with Arsenal, who were first in the league, had gradually narrowed to six points, and their league ranking had risen to fourth place. They had already entered the Champions League qualification zone.

Seeing Liverpool today, it was really hard to believe that this team had once hovered on the edge of the relegation zone.

But everyone also noticed a phenomenon, that was that Chen Hero's goals were starting to decrease.

When he first came back, he scored ten goals in three games.

But in the recent rounds of the league, his goal tally had not been high.

In the last five rounds of the league, he scored twice in two games, and only scored one goal in the other three games. Scoring only one goal in a game could be considered a poor performance for Chen Hero.

You know, he used to score two, three, or four goals.

In the race for the league's top scorer, Manchester United's Nacho had now scored twenty-seven goals.

Leading Chen Hero by eleven goals.

This was Nacho's highest-scoring season of his career. Under Chen Hero's pursuit, he had also had a small universe explosion.

Chen Hero's scoring speed had slowed down, and his opponent had also had a small universe explosion. Maybe the top scorer in the league this season would not necessarily be Chen Hero.

The opponents had finally found a life-saving straw, and they all declared that Chen Hero's comeback had relied on that breath to support him until now. Now that the breath had been vented, his performance would naturally become worse and worse.

It was like this in the league, and it would definitely be even more so in the Champions League.

But within the Liverpool fans, the minority faction could no longer make a comeback.

They were the people who knew Chen Hero best. After a series of twists and turns, they were now the people who trusted Chen Hero the most.

Fewer goals in five games?

Two braces and one goal in each of the other three games, that's seven goals. An average of more than one goal per game, is that still considered a bad state?

The media was completely talking nonsense with their eyes open! They were jealous! They simply ignored Hero's age. A forty-year-old guy can still score seven goals in five games. No matter where you go, it shouldn't be considered a problem with his state.

Therefore, the Liverpool fan camp was united against those media outlets that were talking nonsense.

※※※

Chen Hero did not respond to the voices in the media.

He was not worried at all about the fact that he was still eleven goals behind Nacho.

There were still ten rounds left in the league, and he was very confident that he could surpass Nacho based on his scoring rate.

The reason why he scored fewer goals was not because his state had declined, but because his playing time had decreased. Although he had started in the last two league games, he had only played for fifty-something minutes in each of them.

This was to save more energy for the Champions League.

His physical fitness was indeed not good now, but it had little to do with his age. As mentioned before, the decline in physical fitness of the forty-year-old Chen Hero was compared to his previous self. Compared to others, his physical fitness was still good.

The reason why his physical fitness was not good this season was because he had not played for nine months before. Due to the lack of regular games to train and accumulate, his physical reserve had a problem.

The key was that he hadn't found the rhythm.

He believed that if he could have started playing from the first game of the league, he wouldn't have to rest so much now.

In the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16, Chen Hero played the entire game.

At the Meazza Stadium, Chen Hero led Liverpool to a 2-2 draw with Inter Milan.

The reason for the draw was that Gerrard had rotated half of the main players in this game.

Chen Hero scored all two goals for the team in the game, bringing his goal tally in the Champions League to five, and his ranking in the Champions League scorer list jumped from outside the top ten to fifth.

Although they did not defeat Inter Milan away from home, Liverpool still eliminated their opponents with a score of 6-2 and advanced to the quarter-finals.

Stramaccioni was very satisfied with the team's performance. Although they were not able to stage a miracle comeback, the things the team showed in the second leg made him very happy. He saw the hope for this team to make a comeback next season.

Of course, out of his dark little thoughts, he said insincerely at the post-match press conference that he was very regretful that he had not been able to complete the reversal. He believed that his team was stronger and should have been able to advance. But the team's proud and careless performance in the first leg planted the seeds of bitterness… He brought up the old things again, hoping that others would think that Liverpool's strength was not as strong as Inter Milan's, and that they were able to advance because they were careless in the first leg. If you weren't careless, you could still defeat them.

But what was the reality?

Stramaccioni was even more certain of one thing through this second leg match, that was that those wealthy clubs would lose to Liverpool even if they weren't careless!

Liverpool, who had rotated half of their main players, were still able to force a draw with Inter Milan, who had all their main players, which could show that Liverpool was not just relying on one Chen Hero. You should know that the morale of this Inter Milan was actually very high. Because he told the players before the game that even if they lost the Champions League this season, they would still create a bright future for the future. Therefore, Inter Milan, who knew their shame and then became brave, played very seriously and desperately.

Unexpectedly, Liverpool was able to force a draw with them even like this. Their overall strength could be seen.

Stramaccioni was now even more looking forward to the ghostly expressions of those wealthy clubs after encountering Liverpool.

※※※

Advancing to the quarter-finals was not worth celebrating for Liverpool.

Because even in the six seasons when Liverpool did not win the championship, they only failed to advance to the quarter-finals twice.

With their strength, they were regulars in the quarter-finals, which was very normal.

So after the game in Italy, Liverpool returned to England in a low-key manner and continued to train.

No one publicized their achievements.

The Liverpool players were very clear about their mission this season. They had to win championships on both fronts. But no one else knew this, which gave them a sense of pride. When they thought about the surprised looks on the faces of the people all over the world when they did it, they were particularly motivated.

This was a kind of pride that said, "You all look down on us, then wait to be slapped in the face by us."

After all eight quarter-final teams were released, UEFA conducted a group draw.

Liverpool was drawn together with Manchester United, and the English national derby would be staged in the Champions League.

This was also a direct dialogue between Chen Hero and Nacho, the number one shooters of their respective teams.

Although Nacho was eleven goals ahead of Chen Hero in the Premier League, he couldn't be so far ahead in the Champions League. He had only scored six goals in the Champions League this season, only one goal ahead of Chen Hero.

Above Chen Hero was the object that Chen Hero was about to *ahem*.

In the Premier League, Nacho was the ultimate goal Chen Hero had to defeat. In the Champions League, he became Chen Hero's short-term goal.

Liverpool and Manchester United did not often meet in the Champions League. After Chen Hero transferred here, not counting this time, the two teams had only met twice in the Champions League, once in the quarter-finals like this time, and once in the semi-finals.

But for Manchester United, both of these encounters were tragedies. Because that was exactly when Liverpool was at its peak. They not only suppressed Manchester United in the domestic league, but also cruelly suppressed Manchester United's rebellion in these two encounters in the Champions League.

Manchester United had no power to fight back, and were eliminated by Liverpool cleanly twice.

In the six seasons when Liverpool no longer monopolized the Champions League title, Manchester United had also won a Champions League title once, fully demonstrating their heritage as a wealthy club.

This meeting of the two teams was full of expectations.

The contest between Chen Hero and Nacho, these two excellent shooters, one old and one young, also made people feel very interesting.