Chapter 444 Acting Skills

Right up until bedtime, Chen Hero, Cassano, and Arshavin were in the room practicing their celebration. Chen Hero had high standards for everyone; it wasn't like other celebrations where just going through the motions was enough. He wanted the celebration to be convincing in both form and spirit, because only then would it have meaning and impact. Otherwise, it would be too fake and pointless.

Chen Hero demanded, "Even if we're acting, we have to out-act them! Let them see what real acting is!"

In fact, Chen Hero did have a Talent for this – "Diving Prince (2)": Increases the success rate of dives by 36%, but failure carries a high chance of a yellow card.

If he really wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine, this Talent would be a good choice. He could just fall in Barcelona's penalty area, and if he timed it right and acted convincingly, winning a couple of penalty kicks wouldn't be a problem.

But Chen Hero had chosen all Talents in that line, even "Born on the Offside Line," which increased the chances of beating the offside trap and offside goals being ruled valid. He just hadn't chosen the "Diving Prince" Talent.

Before, he had simply disdained diving. After playing Barcelona twice, he felt genuinely disgusted by it. He believed that if you had the ability, you should fight him fair and square. If he lost, it meant he wasn't skilled enough, and he would go back and practice harder. Then they could compete again.

But if you used diving, acting, and deception to defeat him, did you really feel good about that victory? Could you really celebrate so wildly?

He couldn't understand it, so he just wouldn't choose that Talent.

He felt that if he dived, what difference would there be between him and the people he despised?

Even if the whole world dived and wasn't ashamed of it, but proud, he would never dive!

Football was a sport for real men. Even if his leg was broken, he would never lie on the ground clutching his face, rolling around and acting like a spoiled brat.

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On the twenty-seventh, Napoli arrived in London. After spending one night in the hotel, the next day was the match day.

There were no plans to train at Wembley Stadium that day; they had adapted to the venue yesterday. Today, the whole team mainly worked out in the hotel gym, focusing on strength training. Then, they rested to prepare for the Champions League final that evening.

Actually, the media's analysis was quite accurate. For Napoli, many players were inexperienced. It was their first time participating in a Champions League final, so it was normal, expected, and natural for them to feel nervous.

Therefore, everyone had to relieve their stress and anxiety. Some chose to sweat in the gym, using high-intensity workouts to distract themselves from the tension. Some chose to listen to music, while others simply slept.

What about Chen Hero?

He didn't need to do these boring things, because he wasn't nervous at all.

It wasn't that he didn't know what nervousness was before such a major match as the Champions League final, but rather that he simply didn't have time to be nervous. His mind was filled with thoughts of revenge against Barcelona. He replayed in his mind how to get revenge, simulating the match.

The thought of slapping them in the face made him unable to think about nervousness. His body trembled slightly, but that was because of excitement.

※※※

After a simple dinner in the evening, the whole team rested briefly before boarding the bus and heading towards Wembley Stadium.

Along the way from their hotel to Wembley Stadium, Napoli fans were everywhere, wearing Napoli jerseys and holding various slogans and posters of the players.

Of course, there were also many Barcelona fans.

The atmosphere of the Champions League final was getting stronger and stronger.

When the team got off the bus, they were surrounded by reporters. Reporters on both sides were filming them.

Most of the Napoli players hurried past the cameras and went straight into the tunnel.

Chen Hero, however, gave the cameras a bright smile and a thumbs-up, looking confident.

He was one of the few Napoli players who could still do this. This seemed to make the media think that Napoli was so nervous that they didn't know what to do, and could only hurry past with a straight face. It seemed that Barcelona had a big advantage in this final…

But… did Hero's expression mean he was in good shape and not afraid of Barcelona?

If Hero was in good shape, then Barcelona's advantage had to be reconsidered…

While a group of media people were speculating, Chen Hero had already walked inside with his teammates.

"It looks like Hero is really in good shape… Barcelona is going to be in trouble this time…"

"What's going on? So many fans are causing trouble, but it hasn't affected him? Or is he just pretending to be calm?"

※※※

"This is the live footage just transmitted back. We can see that Napoli has arrived at the stadium…" In Catalonia, those who couldn't go to the match in person were watching the live broadcast.

The Catalan TV host was introducing the situation at the scene, and the camera showed Chen Hero's smiling face.

The Barcelona fans in front of the TV booed with disdain and anger. Unfortunately, Chen Hero couldn't hear them.

"Chen Hero's expression… seems relaxed, right?" The host himself wasn't sure. When it was rumored that Chen Hero and Napoli's fans had turned against each other, he was secretly delighted for a while, thinking that no one could threaten Barcelona now.

Who would have thought that Chen Hero would score four goals in the remaining two league games, helping the team win the league title and breaking Nordahl's single-season Serie A goal record with thirty-eight goals? It was truly astonishing.

The Barcelona fans, dissatisfied with Chen Hero, retorted when they heard the host say this, "Bullshit! He's faking it! Yes, he must be faking it!"

"You won't be smiling for long, bastard!"

"You'll be crying soon, Chinese idiot!"

In stark contrast to the cautious attitude of the media, the Barcelona fans were surprisingly confident in their team, believing that even if Chen Hero scored thirty-eight goals in Serie A, he was not to be feared. After all, they, the fans, knew Barcelona's strength best.

In recent years, Barcelona had swept across the land, defeating all rivals. They had always believed that the problem with being eliminated by Inter Milan in the Champions League semi-finals last season was the referee's fault—in the final moments of the home game, Barcelona had scored a goal, but the referee had ruled it invalid. If that goal had counted, Barcelona would have squeezed out Inter Milan and advanced to the final with the advantage of away goals. Barcelona fans were convinced that if the team could reach the final, they would definitely defeat Bayern Munich and celebrate their victory at the Bernabéu stadium, the home of their arch-rivals Real Madrid…

Being eliminated by Inter Milan was considered an accident by Barcelona fans.

This season, Barcelona had given them confidence on all fronts. Except for the unexpected loss to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final, Barcelona's performance had been top-notch at all other times.

Even Real Madrid, led by Mourinho, could not compete with them—Barcelona fans believed that Real Madrid's victory over Barcelona to win the Copa del Rey was also an accident.

In their opinion, no matter how powerful Chen Hero was, could he fight against the entire team on his own?

Yes, Chen Hero performed very well in the matches against Barcelona last season, but everyone thought it was because Chen Hero was playing against Barcelona for the first time, and Barcelona didn't know enough about Chen Hero. And Barcelona was a world-class giant, with countless people studying how to defeat Barcelona all day long. With preparation against unpreparedness, it was no big deal for Chen Hero to perform well.

The key was to look at the second encounter. Many people performed well in their first season, but became impotent in their second season. Otherwise, why would there be such a thing as a "sophomore slump" in the sports world?

Anyway… to sum it up, the Barcelona fans just felt that Chen Hero was doomed this time when he ran into Barcelona!

※※※

While the Barcelona fans were cursing Chen Hero, he was already warming up in Wembley Stadium—the TV broadcast was a bit later.

Wembley Stadium, this was his first time here. The stadium was magnificent and indeed a bit more imposing than the Stadio San Paolo.

The quality of the turf was also very good.

But Chen Hero didn't care about these things. He was focused on warming up, especially shooting practice, to find his shooting feel as quickly as possible.

Whether the stadium was beautiful or imposing had nothing to do with him.

He did pay attention to the quality of the turf.

The quality of the turf was very good, but that wasn't his main concern. He was thinking… if the quality of the turf was good, Barcelona's ground passing game would be easier to execute… This match probably wouldn't be easy.

But it didn't matter. Revenge, if he could easily avenge his deep hatred, how boring would that be…

※※※

Chen Xing and Niang were sitting in a VIP box at Wembley Stadium, there to cheer for Chen Hero.

Now the whole world knew that Chen Hero would be joining Liverpool next season. If Chen Hero could perform well in the Champions League final, it would give Liverpool fans more confidence.

In fact, Liverpool fans were very happy about Chen Hero joining the team. Chen Xing's position in the hearts of Liverpool fans had become unprecedentedly stable because of this transfer—before, because he was unwilling to spend money to buy Carroll, and with Dalglish's complaints, his relationship with Liverpool fans was a bit unsatisfactory.

Now there was no dissatisfaction. Liverpool fans had even written a song for Chen Xing, praising him for bringing Chen Hero to Liverpool.

Looking at Chen Hero's figure warming up below, Chen Xing was very pleased.

It was very appropriate to hold this Champions League final in England. The whole of England had the opportunity to see Chen Hero's performance up close.

Hero, play your best, let England feel the power of your giant bear in advance!

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