Chapter 1

The entire stadium was filled with shouts and cheers of "Hero, Hero!" The entire Tianhe Stadium seemed to have become Chen Hero's personal stage, with everyone else as supporting characters and background.

The commentator, feeling emotional, sighed, "Such an outstanding person, why can't he get into the national team..."

The guest commentator beside him coughed, "Ahem, in these joyous times, let's not mention the national team!"

"Oh, right, right! Sorry, everyone, I apologize to the audience, I disgusted you, I'm very sorry!"

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As the football flew over Yang Lin's head, he waved his hands and leaned back, failing to block the football, and instead landing on his backside. Now he stood up, spreading his hands, looking helpless.

Faced with such a lightning-fast and thunderous shot, there was really nothing he could do. He had already reacted—which was good, some goalkeepers might not even have time to wave their hands.

Chen Guofeng did not start this game. Two days ago, he had participated in Evergrande's league match against Nanchang Hengyuan, in which he was a substitute.

Because of this, Chen Guofeng, sitting on the bench, had a clear view of Chen Hero's performance. Chen Hero's shot just now was very beautiful. He could also make such a shot, but only occasionally. But looking at Chen Hero's effortless feeling, it was as if he had shot it casually...

If such a person entered the national team, he would definitely lose his position as the main center forward. If he wanted to play, he would have to accept the task of playing on the wing. Although he often pulled to the wing in matches to cross, he definitely wouldn't want to specialize in playing on the wing!

But Chen Hero was performing so well, and there were loud calls in the media for him to enter the national team. It looked like it was a done deal, right?

The thought of potentially losing his starting position in the national team made Chen Guofeng unwilling and frustrated.

But he had no way to stop it all, just like now, his team was behind, but he could only sit on the bench and watch.

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Chen Hero enjoyed the enthusiastic cheers from his compatriots, then turned around and hugged his teammates.

Everyone congratulated Chen Hero on his goal, which was indeed quite beautiful.

Liverpool's players, having no direct competition with Chen Hero, were happy to see such a strong center forward in their team. They were naturally sincerely happy for his achievements.

Chen Hero's goal opened the door to goals in this match, and in the following time, goals came one after another.

In the thirty-third minute, Poulsen extended Liverpool's lead.

However, before the end of the first half, Muriqui, who had been attacking Liverpool's defense, finally scored a goal, giving Evergrande a face-saving goal.

This goal also aroused cheers from the audience, and even those fans wearing Liverpool jerseys were applauding and cheering for Evergrande's tenacious and wonderful performance. This surprised Liverpool TV, which accompanied the team to China, and they couldn't understand why Liverpool fans were also cheering for their opponents. Foreigners, of course, couldn't understand the simple emotions of the Chinese people—no one wants to see their own country's team slaughtered by their opponents. Even for the Chinese national team, those who go to the stadium to watch the game may not want to see the Chinese team being crushed by a team that came to participate in a commercial match, leaving them no face at all.

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After the half-time break, both sides began to make substitutions. Dalglish began to replace some second-tier players and send in the main players. For this, he received applause from the Chinese fans in the stands.

Similarly, Li Zhangzhu on Evergrande's side was also making substitutions, and Chen Guofeng got a chance to play.

Conca was substituted, which was a bit of a pity. One of the selling points of this match was the contest between Chen Hero and Conca, but in reality, the two did not have a direct dialogue opportunity in the game, they were in different positions, how could they have a direct dialogue? Chen Hero performed very well, scoring a goal, and also jumped up to compete for headers many times in the game, with a very high success rate. And Conca? Still not quite adapted to Evergrande's football, his performance was slightly tired.

This may be considered a regret of this game.

Although Conca was off the field, the goals in the game did not end there.

This match was destined to be a successful commercial match. Not only were the fans filling all the seats, and both sides sent out their main players with serious attitudes, but there were also many goals!

Just two minutes into the second half, Liverpool extended their lead again, with Kuyt scoring from a pass from Charlie Adam.

Seeing that Liverpool were leading the home team 3:1, many fans simply shouted Chen Hero's name during Liverpool's attack, hoping that Liverpool players could pass the football to Chen Hero more often so that he could score another goal.

Chen Hero's long shot was very enjoyable to watch, but his most famous header goal had not yet been seen by everyone.

But Dalglish did not satisfy the fans' wishes. In the sixty-fifth minute of the game, he replaced Chen Hero, who had started the game, so that the team's lineup in the second half was completely different from the first half.

Although they did not see Chen Hero score another goal, the fans in the stands still stood up politely and applauded Chen Hero.

Chen Hero also waved his hands and walked to the side of the field, thanking the fans in the stands.

Many fans rushed to the front of the stands, giving him thumbs up and shouting loudly, "Hero, you played well!"

"Keep up the good work! Play well in Liverpool and win glory for the country!"

"We watch your games every weekend!"

"Everyone is cheering for you, don't let us down, Hero!"

Everyone pinned their encouragement and hope on Chen Hero.

Chen Hero did not feel a lot of pressure. He hammered his shoulder with his fist and gave a thumbs up to the stands, signaling everyone to rest assured.

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Back on the bench, Chen Hero plopped down next to his good friend Skrtel, who had started with him and was substituted at half-time.

Skrtel nudged his arm, "Hey, Hero. How does it feel to play in your own country's stadium?"

"Couldn't be better!" Chen Hero smiled.

Yes, today's feeling was really great. He received cheers from Chinese fans, even though he had never played even one minute of a game for a Chinese national team, his popularity here was still unmatched.

Although he had felt the enthusiasm of the fans when he returned to China several times to participate in commercial activities, that kind of enthusiasm was completely different from the enthusiasm on the football field. A player still prefers the football field to the commercial show.

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Chen Hero's substitution did not affect the excitement of the match.

In the seventieth minute, Bellamy extended Liverpool's lead to 4:1.

However, Evergrande still did not give up. They scored two goals in the last ten minutes, bringing the score to 3:4. Although they still lost the game in the end, they also won the applause and cheers of the fans. After all, facing a powerful team like Liverpool, being able to score three goals and ultimately lose by only one goal was still worthy of praise.

After the game, at the press conference, Evergrande's coach Li Zhangzhu expressed satisfaction and pride in his players' performance. He also mentioned Chen Hero, praising him as the best Chinese player currently. "...His achievements have already explained everything. Transferring to Liverpool may be a new challenge for him, but I don't think he needs to prove anything anymore..."

Dalglish also gave a high evaluation of Chen Hero's performance, saying that Chen Hero played very well today. At the same time, because this was considered Chen Hero's home field, he gave him as much as sixty-five minutes of game time, the most playing time for any player on the team today.

Of course, there were also some people who asked some inappropriate questions. For example, a reporter from Liverpool TV directly asked Dalglish what he thought of the poor performance of the defense, which conceded three goals.

Dalglish raised his eyebrows and answered very smoothly, "A total of seven goals were scored in the whole game, four for us and three for them. This is a win-win situation, everyone is very happy. Yes, the important thing is that everyone is happy."

His answer won laughter and applause from the reporters, and such an embarrassing question was glossed over.

However, in his heart, Dalglish was really worried about the team's defense.

To concede three goals against a team like Evergrande... he really needed to summarize it well!

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When the entire Liverpool team left Tianhe Stadium, there were still more than a thousand die-hard Liverpool fans at the exit singing Liverpool's anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone." In the singing, Liverpool's bus left Tianhe Stadium.

In this game, they exposed the problems with their defense, but at least the attack was still reassuring.

Chen Hero's biggest gain was feeling the enthusiasm of the fans in his home country for him.

After finishing the game in Guangzhou, the entire Liverpool team did not return to their hotel, but went directly by car to Baiyun Airport, where they would take a flight to Changsha, Hunan.

The game against Evergrande was a true commercial match.

The match in Changsha, Hunan, was not just a commercial match. For the Chinese national team, this was their last warm-up match before playing against Laos. Although this match still did not limit the number of substitutions, the Chinese side attached great importance to it.

As for Liverpool? It meant nothing to them, and the match against the Chinese team was still just a commercial match.

But for Chen Hero, it was not that simple.

He knew that the leaders of the Chinese Football Association would be there for this game, because they would accompany the new national team coach Camacho to the scene to inspect the players.

He had already found photos of the Helong Stadium in Changsha online, and also knew where the stadium's main stand was.

He was ready.