Chapter 1 Chen Yingxiong's Goal

Chen Yingxiong excitedly described his goal against Inter Milan to the three intelligent players, Juninho, Inzaghi, and Maldini.

"I wanted the football to bypass the crowd in the penalty area and then fly into the goal... This should be a falling leaf ball, right?"

Juninho nodded. "From your description, yes. There is no doubt that it is a falling leaf ball. Can you kick such a ball again?"

Chen Yingxiong ran to the training ground with great enthusiasm to try, but no matter how he recalled the feeling, the football he kicked was not up to standard. He finally managed to get one ball to drop, but it was after flying over the crossbar, and Juninho called this a "normal parabola," which made Chen Yingxiong depressed to death.

"The conclusion is that you got it by luck, so it doesn't count. You still have to practice the basics." Juninho said with a straight face.

Chen Yingxiong rolled his eyes. He thought of the goal against Lazio again. Oh well, practice is practice. At least it let me score a goal like that…

But he sighed unwillingly, "How awesome would it be if every long shot was a falling leaf ball!"

He didn't expect to get any answer. He was just making a big sigh here.

"It's impossible for every long shot to be a falling leaf ball, but it's possible to achieve most long shots as falling leaf balls..." Juninho suddenly replied, startling Chen Yingxiong.

He turned his head to look at the other party in confusion.

"Do you know Rivaldo, Yingxiong?" Juninho asked.

"Of course, I know. He was a famous Brazilian star. In the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, he, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho formed a powerful 3R combination. Brazil won the World Cup with this. How could I not know?"

Juninho nodded after hearing Chen Yingxiong's answer. "It's easy to handle if you know. He is very good at scoring from outside the penalty area with long shots. The football doesn't fly high, mostly at half-height. In theory, this kind of ball is the easiest for the goalkeeper to save. But that's not the case in reality. Do you know why?"

"I don't know." Chen Yingxiong shook his head and shrugged.

"His long shots have one characteristic—most of the long shots will suddenly drop before the goalkeeper catches the ball, hit the ground and bounce up again, forming a rebound ball that catches the goalkeeper off guard. For goalkeepers, what they hate most is this kind of rebound ball that suddenly drops and hits the ground in front of them."

"This…" Chen Yingxiong thought of something.

"That's right, this is actually an application of the falling leaf ball in long shots. Of course, it is impossible to achieve a 100% success rate, but Rivaldo has greatly increased the success rate, so it has become one of his unique weapons."

Hearing this, Chen Yingxiong's eyes lit up. He saw hope!

Juninho immediately poured cold water on him: "It's difficult for you to reach that level now. Your accuracy in hitting the ball in a static state is still far from enough, let alone when the football is moving. Let's practice slowly."

But this basin of cold water didn't work on Chen Yingxiong. He stared at Juninho, his eyes radiating a fiery light.

"Is it possible to master Rivaldo's unique skill if I persevere in hard training?" he asked eagerly.

"Uh…" Juninho was frightened by Chen Yingxiong's sudden enthusiasm: "In theory, it is possible… but I myself don't know how, so you can't learn it from you and me…"

Chen Yingxiong didn't care about this. As long as it is possible to succeed if he keeps going down this path, that's enough. Then he will work hard on his own.

As for the choice of teacher, that's not a problem either. Isn't it said that this is Rivaldo's unique skill? Then I'll take him as my teacher!

"Okay! Start practicing!" Chen Yingxiong shouted heroically and ran onto the training ground already filled with footballs.

Juninho was a little strange and asked his other teammates: "What's wrong with him?" Before, although Chen Yingxiong also insisted on practicing, the boring training content still made him a little resentful. How could he be so active today? So Juninho didn't understand.

Inzaghi and Maldini both smiled: "He has found a new goal worth working hard for and challenging."

Juninho had just arrived and didn't have as much time to contact Chen Yingxiong as Inzaghi and Maldini, so he didn't know enough about his student.

※※※

Not long after the Champions League game against Inter Milan, it was the thirty-second round of the Serie A league.

In order to send the strongest lineup to the Meazza Stadium, Mazzarri sent almost the entire second team to face league opponent Bologna away.

Since he didn't get the ideal result in the first leg, he didn't care about the results in the league at this time. Even if AC Milan surpassed them, he would accept it. The Champions League is the most important thing now!

At this time, he had to be thankful that he had made the wise decision to buy Cavani during the winter break…

In the away game against Bologna, Napoli relied on Cavani's opening goal and Dossena's penalty, and finally took three points from the away game with a score of 2:0.

This was completely unexpected three points, which made Mazzarri very happy. At the same time, Cavani, who opened the door to victory for the team, became more and more important in Mazzarri's heart. As Cavani performed well, Mazzarri felt that even if Chen Yingxiong left after the end of this season, there was nothing to miss.

With such an excellent center, Napoli would not fall into the quagmire of collapsing instantly without Chen Yingxiong.

He had nothing to worry about. The remaining thing for him this season was simple, which was to desperately lead the team to achieve better results and write a strong mark in his coaching resume.

※※※

On April 12, the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals officially began. Barcelona challenged Shakhtar Donetsk away, while Manchester United faced Chelsea at home. The two teams advancing to the semi-finals will be decided first.

As a result, Barcelona narrowly defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 1:0 away and successfully advanced to the semi-finals. They will face the winner between Real Madrid and Tottenham in the semi-finals.

Manchester United defeated Chelsea 2:1 at home and advanced to the semi-finals with a total score of 3:1. Their opponent will be the winner between Inter Milan and Napoli.

It is worth mentioning that Messi scored the only goal in the match between Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk.

He increased his goal count in the Champions League this season to nine, widening the gap with Chen Yingxiong again. The two are now three goals apart.

Messi scored in the semi-finals of the Champions League last season, just one game away from the final, and only scored eight goals. And this season, there are three games left in the Champions League, and he has already scored nine goals. His state this season is very good, and if this momentum continues, he will definitely score more goals.

The single-season goal record in Champions League history was created by AC Milan striker Altafini in the 1962-1963 season, with fourteen goals. This record has not been broken so far.

The single-season goal record after the Champions League reform was created by Van Nistelrooy in the 2002-2003 season. Forty years later, the gap was only reduced to two goals, which is already remarkable.

It is not easy for Messi to surpass Altafini, but it is possible to catch up with Van Nistelrooy.

Until now, not many people think that Chen Yingxiong can defend the title of top scorer. After all, Messi is too strong and in too good a state. However, now there is another voice, which is to admit Chen Yingxiong's excellent state this season, and assume that if he participated in six group stage matches, even according to his goal efficiency of six goals in six group stage matches last season, he would now have twelve goals, tying Van Nistelrooy's record.

As long as he scores three more goals, he can break Altafini's goal record.

It can be said to be a remarkable achievement.

Therefore, fortunately, Chen Yingxiong was banned by UEFA for eight games and missed six group stage matches, otherwise, no one knows how many goals he could have scored in this Champions League. Messi is not his opponent at all.

Of course, the Catalan media are very dismissive of this argument. They admit that Chen Yingxiong has scored six goals now, which is remarkable, but it is also because he missed six group stage matches. If he could normally participate in six group stage matches, maybe he could score goals in the group stage, but there is absolutely no way he could have such a crazy state.

You are letting a starving person compare food intake with a well-fed person. Obviously, the starving person has the advantage…

※※※

"Inter Milan's goal? Of course, it is to advance to the top four. I believe in our players. They have the ability to do it." At the pre-match press conference, Inter Milan coach Leonardo seemed full of ambition.

The score and the team's performance in the first leg gave him full confidence in the second leg.

In addition, they are playing at home. Since Napoli is invincible at the Stadio San Paolo, can Inter Milan be slaughtered at the Meazza?

"Napoli is a very strong opponent. I respect them. We will deal with them carefully. But to be honest, the fans definitely can't imagine if we are eliminated at home, right? So we have such confidence."

An hour later, Napoli coach Mazzarri appeared in front of the same group of reporters and sat in the position Leonardo had once sat.

"I don't think the score in the first leg is disadvantageous to us. You know, we are the ones who are currently leading on aggregate, not them. Why should the leading side be more pessimistic?" Mazzarri's mouth was also very hard.

"The Meazza Stadium is different. Inter Milan will certainly have more advantages when playing at home. But it's not like we haven't defeated them at this stadium. We are very familiar with them, so familiar that we can't be more familiar. When we meet in the league, no one thinks this is a big deal, right? Yes, this is actually just a very ordinary game."

Then he was asked about the competition between Messi and Chen Yingxiong.

"Messi scored again? That's great. He is a very good player. He is the number one player in the world football today. It is normal for him to have such a performance. But our Yingxiong is also very good. He should also get a status that matches his performance. In my opinion, he is the most powerful center in the world football today. I still say that in terms of scoring ability alone, Messi is not as good as Yingxiong."

A reporter from Argentina was not convinced and shouted below: "Messi, who is not as good as Yingxiong, is now leading by three goals!"

Mazzarri glanced at the unconvinced Argentine reporter and said very calmly: "How many goals was Messi leading Yingxiong by three games ago? Six."

We can catch up with six goals, so are we still afraid of your mere three-goal difference!

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ps, these three chapters were too difficult to upload. When uploading, I fought with the computer's browser and the starting point server for an hour before succeeding…

For the sake of being so difficult, everyone give me some monthly tickets!