Chapter 189 Heroic

While Arsenal was besieging the Liverpool reserve team's goal with great enthusiasm, a pair of eyes in the darkness was always watching their backs.

After taking a two-goal lead, Arsenal's players became somewhat complacent, believing that with a little more effort, they could cause the Liverpool reserve team to collapse.

So they temporarily forgot the threats around them, failing to sense the murderous aura emanating from Chen Hero.

But danger often approaches at such times.

An Arsenal attack failed, and the ball was intercepted by a Liverpool reserve team player.

Then, with a long, direct kick, the ball was sent to the front field.

Everyone's eyes followed the ball, eventually landing on… Chen Hero.

Chen Hero used his chest to cushion the ball to the side, then chased after it, using this chest trap to easily shake off the Arsenal defender, Mertesacker. The German defender's strengths were his height and aerial ability, but his turning speed and overall speed were inferior to Chen Hero's. Being shaken off was only to be expected.

Having shaken off Mertesacker, Chen Hero charged forward with the ball.

But instead of dribbling all the way into the penalty area, he took a long shot from outside the box!

This caught the Arsenal players who were intending to block him off guard, and they could only watch as the ball flew past them.

Goalkeeper Szczęsny dove desperately towards the lower left corner.

Chen Hero's long shot wasn't high; it was a low, driving shot that flew almost along the surface of the grass.

But such a ball is the most difficult for a goalkeeper to save and the one they least want to face. Because the speed at which a goalkeeper can lower his center of gravity is slower than the speed at which the ball travels forward, and diving to make a save is inherently difficult.

Szczęsny ultimately failed to touch the ball. But the ball didn't fly into the goal either.

The ball shot by Chen Hero hit the goalpost, bounced downwards, and then rebounded.

Because Chen Hero was the only one in the forward line, lacking support, the opportunity for a second attack was wasted. The ball was cleared by an Arsenal player with a long kick.

Although it didn't result in a goal, it still startled many Arsenal fans and players, causing them to break out in a cold sweat.

Loud cheers erupted from the Liverpool fans in the stands.

They shouted Chen Hero's name with all their might.

Meanwhile, the Liverpool reserve team players in the backfield stared blankly at Chen Hero's back.

After hitting the ball against the goal frame, he didn't clutch his head in regret. Instead, he faced the stands, waving his arms upwards, urging the fans to shout even louder!

At this moment, Liverpool needed the support of their fans even more!

They remembered what Chen Hero had told them earlier.

A two-goal deficit might really not be anything to Chen Hero…

Thinking of this, the players gradually straightened their chests and backs, and confidence gathered in their hearts bit by bit.

That's right, we have Hero on our side, why should we be afraid of them?

So what if they have a two-goal lead?

As long as we have Hero, we can come back!

What should we do? Recalling the boss's teachings, we should defend our line and not give Arsenal any more chances to score, removing Hero's worries.

And then… just watch Hero perform!

No matter what, we must trust Hero.

Because we want to go to Wembley with him!

※※※

Although Chen Hero's shot didn't result in a goal, it was like a blow to the head for Arsenal, telling them—don't get carried away, Chen Hero hasn't gone wild yet!

The Arsenal players also woke up, realizing that their opponent wasn't just the Liverpool reserve team, but also Chen Hero. The Liverpool reserve team players couldn't pose a threat to them, but that didn't mean Chen Hero couldn't…

He hadn't stood out much in the first twenty minutes because Arsenal had firmly controlled the ball, leaving the Liverpool reserve team with few opportunities to attack. As a center forward who needed his teammates to feed him the ball, he naturally had fewer opportunities to appear on television.

But in the following game, this Northern Giant Bear seemed to have awakened.

He was about to show his power.

If they continued to besiege Liverpool's defense, Chen Hero would likely exploit the emptiness behind them.

Because Liverpool's attack didn't rely on building up from the back through the midfield step by step.

They simply abandoned the midfield, using a long ball from the backfield to attack the front.

And in the front were only Chen Hero and Carlton Cole. But Chen Hero alone was enough to give Arsenal's defense a hard time, plus Carlton Cole, who had the ability to train and play in the first team…

Liverpool's attack was still very sharp.

So if they continued to attack, their defensive vulnerabilities would likely be exploited by Chen Hero sooner or later. When that happened, they might not be so lucky this time…

Anyway, a two-goal lead was enough to win the game, and winning the game was revenge enough. Who cared whether two goals or three goals felt better…

What if, by wanting to score more goals, Liverpool equalized the score instead? That would be a huge loss.

On the sidelines, Wenger also realized this.

He quickly adjusted his strategy. Now wasn't the time to fuel the players' fire. The fire was already burning hot enough, reaching a dangerous tipping point.

Any further and they'd be playing with fire and get burned.

Now he had to cool everyone down.

Through a player, he told the team to tighten their lines and not leave the huge gap behind their defense for Chen Hero to exploit.

At this time, not conceding a goal was more important than scoring more goals.

Arsenal's players didn't question Wenger's decision and quickly followed his instructions, switching to defensive counterattacks.

Now it was Liverpool's turn to launch an offensive.

But the Liverpool reserve team had never practiced this in previous training sessions. Because they had always challenged stronger teams as underdogs, they were always the ones tightening their defense while their opponents bombarded them.

All they needed was defensive counterattacks.

Who would have thought that Arsenal would retreat so thoroughly, forcing them to attack if they wanted to break the deadlock?

For a time, the unprepared Liverpool reserve team players seemed at a loss, unsure of what to do.

Martin O'Neill, watching this scene from the sidelines, also seemed helpless.

He never expected Arsenal's tactics to be so effective and to change so quickly. When they recognized the danger, they could quickly make adjustments, and the players on the field were so disciplined. They didn't give his Liverpool team even a sliver of a chance.

Of course, he wouldn't have imagined that all of this was what Wenger had gained in exchange for a loss in a match.

Now he couldn't do anything. These were the only cards he had, the ones on the field were the strongest in the reserve team, and the ones on the bench were worse than the ones on the field. He couldn't make adjustments through substitutions either.

Other than watching from the sidelines, he couldn't do anything.

※※※

Just as the Liverpool reserve team players were anxiously grasping at straws, Chen Hero stood up once again.

Whenever the reserve team players had the ball in the backfield and didn't know what to do in the face of Arsenal's solid defense, Chen Hero in the front would raise his arms high, signaling his teammates to pass him the ball.

No matter where he was, no matter where the teammates with the ball were, he would do this.

Even if he was facing away from the direction of attack, pushed to an area thirty meters out. Or if he was deep inside the penalty area, surrounded by Arsenal players, he would raise his arms without hesitation.

He didn't mind letting the Arsenal players see that the target of Liverpool's passes was him.

In fact, even if he didn't do this, the Arsenal players would know to keep a close watch on him.

In that case, it was better to reveal it openly, taking on the role of a lighthouse in the dark night, illuminating the path forward for teammates who couldn't find direction, letting them know where to pass the ball.

Now Chen Hero was truly leading the Liverpool reserve team in their game.

This was perhaps the most dangerous situation he had encountered since participating in the League Cup and FA Cup.

But precisely because it was dangerous, it was challenging, which excited every cell in Chen Hero's body.

Challenges were his favorite!

※※※

To onlookers, what was happening was less a contest between Liverpool and Arsenal and more a contest between Chen Hero alone and Arsenal.

The commentators were constantly mentioning Chen Hero's name, almost without pause.

The other Liverpool reserve team players were hardly mentioned.

"This is Hero… Hero dribbling past players!"

"Hero receiving the ball with his back to the goal… Beautiful! He shakes off the defense, a shot—oh, too high!"

"Hero's header! He heads it slightly too high!"

"Beautiful, beautiful! Hero's long shot, Szczęsny almost didn't catch it!"

……

As long as Liverpool was attacking, the commentators only needed to shout Chen Hero's name, and they wouldn't be wrong.

And Chen Hero really did have the ability to press the entire Arsenal team within thirty meters of their goal all by himself, preventing them from coming out.

Everyone could see that Chen Hero was more active, more hardworking, and more… crazy and angry than ever before!

He absolutely couldn't allow his team to lose at this time. Losing the League Cup would mean the failure of this season.

※※※

In the thirty-seventh minute, Carlton Cole passed the ball to Chen Hero's feet.

At the time, Chen Hero was facing away from the direction of attack. He used his body to protect the ball and then began to squeeze into the penalty area.

There wasn't much skill involved; it was purely relying on his physical advantage, suppressing the Arsenal defenders, and slowly squeezing into the penalty area. At the same time, he completed his turn in the process.

The Arsenal defenders knew how dangerous it would be to let Chen Hero receive the ball in the penalty area and turn around, so they rushed towards Chen Hero at all costs.

At least four Arsenal players surrounded Chen Hero, rushing forward to intercept the ball.

But the ball seemed to be glued to Chen Hero's feet. He used one hand to push away an Arsenal player, while using his broad body to block the attacks of two other Arsenal players. Facing the Arsenal player in front of him, he didn't give the opponent a chance to intercept the ball, didn't swing his leg, but slightly raised his lower leg, using a very subtle motion to take a shot!

His toe, like a whip, struck the ball, and in full view of everyone, the ball disappeared!

Actually, it didn't disappear, but the ball was so fast that it flew past in an instant, so everyone thought the ball had disappeared.

But the next second, the ball appeared in front of the goal.

Another ground ball that the goalkeeper hated the most, and not only that, but it was also a bouncing ball.

In front of Szczęsny, the ball fell to the ground and bounced once.

Szczęsny fell to the ground to make a save, but because of this bounce, he couldn't block the ball. He watched helplessly as the ball jumped over his hand and into the goal…

Although football is a team sport.

But sometimes, football needs individual heroes!