Chapter 1 The Equilibrium

The match between Inter Milan and Napoli suddenly entered a state of equilibrium. After a fierce attack, Inter Milan slowed down the pace due to their own declining physical strength and the constant harassment from Chen Hero and others in the frontcourt, retreating to defend the thirty-meter area in front of the penalty area.

As for Napoli? They wanted to attack, but Inter Milan's defense was solid, and they couldn't find an opportunity for a while.

So the two teams were entangled like this, unable to determine a winner.

"I think perhaps… a draw is a reasonable result for both teams. Of course, if Inter Milan still had eleven players, Mourinho would definitely not accept this result. But now it seems that it's already very good for them to be able to hold on to this one point…"

"Napoli is working very hard, but the gap in strength between the two sides is not so easy to bridge. Currently, Napoli's main offensive means—the wings—are being restricted by Inter Milan. Their center is a bit weak, Chivu is not Lucio… but attacking the center still has to be launched through the wings—Chen Hero is not the kind of forward who can complete a series of actions like turning around, breaking through, and scoring after receiving the ball with his back to the goal. To put it bluntly… he's not Ronaldo, I mean the Ronaldo who used to play for Inter Milan…"

The commentators were making a lot of sense. Anyone who wasn't blind or an idiot could see the equilibrium on the field.

The two coaches stood on the sidelines, watching the field with solemn expressions.

They were also very clear about the current situation of the game. However, unlike what the commentators thought, neither of them was willing to accept a draw—Mourinho was arrogant, and Mazzarri was not someone to be trifled with. During the war of words between the two teams last year, Mourinho and Napoli had a feud. Mourinho looked down on Mazzarri when attacking the Napoli club. With Mazzarri's temper, how could he swallow this insult?

To be forced to a draw at home by a team he looked down on? Mourinho would not accept such a thing.

What about Mazzarri? If both sides had eleven players, he might have accepted a draw, after all, getting a point at the Meazza was already a victory. What's more, Mourinho hadn't lost a league game at home in 119 games since he took over—for some teams, they are proud to have a "devil's home," but for Mourinho as a coach, the teams he coaches all have devil's homes!

If the number of players on both sides was equal, Inter Milan was stronger than Napoli, and it would be good to be able to grab a point in the end.

But now, watching Inter Milan lose a man early on, his mind became active.

He had already thought about it clearly during the half-time break. If Inter Milan, with one less player, still wanted to maintain their strength on the field, they would have to invest more energy. But what to do with one less person? Require the other nine players on the field besides the goalkeeper to run desperately, run very actively and without any regard for their strength, and use this kind of running to make up for their disadvantage in numbers, and maintain their strong performance against Napoli at their home stadium.

But doing so would cause the players' stamina to be consumed very quickly. Not everyone on every team is an iron man… their stamina consumption would definitely be much greater than usual.

In the end, they would definitely have many problems because their physical strength couldn't keep up. That would be his chance. So the task he gave the team in the second half was to defend patiently and wait for the opponent to make mistakes due to declining physical strength. Who would have thought that they would concede a goal just after the second half started, which made him very angry for a while.

Fortunately, Chen Hero and others performed very actively afterward, both wanting to pursue goals and not wanting to concede goals, forcing Inter Milan to put more energy into both offense and defense. In this way, their physical strength would be like a faucet turned on to the maximum, flowing away with a whoosh.

All he had to do now was to stick to this and continue to accelerate the consumption of Inter Milan players' physical strength.

He turned his head and glanced at Mourinho standing next to him.

Judging from the situation on the field, Inter Milan didn't intend to slow down the pace either, obviously… they were not willing to accept a draw either. This was easy to understand, after all, it was their home stadium, and they were stronger than us…

However, since you are unwilling to slow down the pace and insist on fighting us head-on, thinking that with your strength, you can defeat us even with one less person…

I'll let you see!

A surge of pride suddenly rose in Mazzarri's heart. Even when facing the powerful Inter Milan, he was not afraid.

※※※

Taking advantage of a dead ball opportunity, Hamsik was called to the sidelines by Mazzarri, who quickly gave him instructions. Then he patted Hamsik on the shoulder and sent him back to the field.

After running onto the field, Hamsik called several attacking players together again to explain the coach's latest adjustments.

"We need to speed up the pace, we need to attack quickly, use the two wings, we need more direct passes and fewer horizontal and backward passes—this is Mazzarri's intention."

"Doing this is for…" Cassano frowned, not understanding. Doing this is very exhausting.

"To wear down Inter Milan!" Chen Hero punched his palm. "Damn it! I love hearing instructions like this, haha!"

He was very happy because it meant he would have more opportunities, opportunities to score goals—he still remembered Julio Cesar's disdain for him.

Chen Hero was by no means a gentleman who would turn the other cheek after being spat on. He was a true villain who held grudges. If anyone provoked him and made him unhappy, he would make the other person unhappy as well. For him, other people's pain was his own happiness.

Hearing that the coach also supported him, he was of course happy.

Hamsik also nodded to indicate that Chen Hero was right: "Mazzarri said they have one less person than us. If we can put more pressure on them in attack, we can make Inter Milan exhausted to cope with it. In this way, their physical strength consumption will definitely be faster than ours. They already have one less person, and with this… Mazzarri said that maybe by the seventy-fifth minute, the opponent won't be able to run anymore."

Arshavin didn't understand such a long passage of Italian, but Chen Hero didn't translate it for him either, because he thought it was all nonsense. He just patted Arshavin on the shoulder: "Pass the ball to me desperately, Shava!"

The dead ball time was very short. The few people got together to confirm this matter and then dispersed.

Chen Hero turned around and ran to the edge of the penalty area, saw Julio Cesar, and then smiled at the Brazilian goalkeeper.

You're not far from death, kid!

※※※

Napoli strengthened their crosses from the wings, but they didn't cross to the bottom line—Inter Milan defended this very strictly. Napoli's current crosses are all forty-five-degree angle lobs. Such crosses are not as threatening as crosses from the bottom line, but the advantage is that Inter Milan's defense is not strict, and there is room to display.

After lobbing the ball into the penalty area, it depends on Chen Hero's performance.

Napoli plays a 433 formation. Although they have three forwards, Arshavin and Cassano are strictly wingers. Chen Hero is still the preferred choice for scoring goals in the penalty area.

Chen Hero jumped up to compete with Samuel for a header. The two people are incomparable in height. Chen Hero is a full ten centimeters taller than Samuel. However, Chen Hero is a bit weaker in terms of heading experience and technique, especially experience. Samuel, born in 1978, is already thirty-one years old, and can be described as experienced compared to Chen Hero, who is only twenty-one years old.

In addition, with Chivu's help, Napoli's wing crosses, which allowed Chen Hero to directly head the ball, were not very effective.

Chen Hero also discovered this problem. So he decided to change his strategy—instead of waiting in the penalty area for his teammates to send the ball to the right position, and then jumping up to compete for the header.

Instead, he pulled out to get rid of the defender's marking.

Arshavin, who had a telepathic connection with him, also had this plan. He found that in the penalty area, Chen Hero often fell into the opponent's encirclement. Although Chen Hero could rely on his strong body to break a bloody path, this would always be disturbed, and… there was also the risk of fouling.

So he thought he should pull out to create space.

His thoughts coincided with Chen Hero's.

So when he didn't choose to cross directly from the wing at a forty-five-degree angle, but instead lobbed the ball to the arc of the penalty area, he saw Chen Hero also pull out, and he clenched his fist.

※※※

Chen Hero and Arshavin decided to do this almost at the same time. Arshavin lobbed the ball, and he turned around and ran back.

He and the ball met outside the penalty area. He had many choices, because it was a high ball. For example, he could directly flick the ball towards the goal with his head. Of course, the difficulty was very high, and the chances of scoring were not high, but it was still a choice. At the same time, he could also use his head to touch the ball to his teammates around him, or use his chest to bump the ball back to Hamsik, who had already inserted from behind.

But Chen Hero didn't choose to do this. As a center forward whose responsibility was to score goals, his first choice was always to shoot and score!

This time, Chen Hero didn't directly stop the ball to the side and then turn around and shoot.

He gently cushioned the ball with his chest, protecting it in front of him.

Samuel followed him out. Because Chen Hero's ball protection was as steady as an emperor, he had no chance to take advantage of it, so he could only stick behind him to prevent him from turning around easily—although Samuel, the goalkeeper Cesar, told him that this kid's turn-around shot wasn't a big deal, he still remembered the pressure that Chen Hero brought to him when he suddenly turned around and volleyed in front of him…

That thing wasn't faked.

Chen Hero opened his arms to maintain his balance, while sensing the situation behind him. He bumped into Samuel. He knew the other party was sticking to him… a really difficult central defender. He originally thought that if Lucio went down, his pressure would be lighter, but he didn't expect that Samuel was no worse than Lucio…

He raised one foot, and as the ball fell, he sank slightly, almost touching the skin of the ball to cushion it, unloading all the falling force of the ball, so that the ball did not bounce up, but stopped steadily on the instep of his foot!

After hard training in the dungeon, such skills were no longer difficult tasks for him.

Chen Hero suddenly had a thought. He remembered the movements he had accidentally made when he was practicing his skills in the dungeon…

He often practiced various movements of stopping high balls with his feet.

So after he unloaded the ball with the instep of his foot, he quickly tilted it up again, using the instep of his foot and the front of his shin to firmly clamp the ball in the middle and fix it, so that even if he made a big movement, the ball would not be easily thrown out and out of his control.

Therefore, he especially needed to open his arms to maintain his balance. He was now truly standing on one foot!

Just when others thought he would stop the ball with this foot, they only saw Chen Hero suddenly flicking his right foot that was clamping the ball!

※※※

Samuel bent over and stared at Chen Hero's feet, wanting to see when he would stop the ball on the ground. Once he let him stop the ball on the ground, his defense would immediately increase the pressure, but he didn't wait for this moment.

Because he didn't see the ball land at all!

At this moment, he heard a huge booing and shouting from the stands around him… His heart skipped a beat, and he raised his head!

The big guy wearing Napoli's number 9 jersey was turning around! What about the ball? In the air, in front of him as he turned around!

"An unexpected turn!!"

Chen Hero flicked his leg just now, gently flicking the ball out, and then he could turn around without any worries—he knew that his footwork was not strong enough to ignore the defense behind him and make movements at will, so he had a whim and used such a turn to get rid of the movement, temporarily kicking the ball out, but it would not be too far away from him, and he could still control it. He only needed to turn around, and he could also take advantage of the situation to take a volley!

In order to control the ball, he didn't use too much force, just gently flicked his leg. After the leg was flicked out, he slightly loosened it and sent the ball out smoothly.

He turned around at the same time!

When Samuel discovered it, what he saw was Chen Hero turning around. He was facing the Argentine central defender sideways, his left foot supporting his body, rotating on the axis. At the same time, he raised his right leg high, using the force of the turn… and directly whipped the ball like a whip!

"heroooooooooooooooooooooooooo——" the commentator screamed at the top of his lungs.

The toe of Chen Hero's right foot kicked the middle and lower part of the ball, and then there was an additional upward pulling action.

Immediately afterwards, the ball left his toes and flew out.

In the air, you could clearly see a vertical arc, which seemed to fly directly out of the crossbar at the beginning…

But when the ball flew to the high point, it suddenly began to fall rapidly!

Then, it brushed past a glove that flew over and flew into the goal past the post!

The past turn-around shots are all rubbish!!

※※※

ps, in the name of this wonderful turn-around shot, ask everyone for monthly tickets!

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