Chapter 71 Return

Having returned from Belgium, Liverpool received a warm welcome from many fans and the media.

To beat a not-so-weak opponent like Anderlecht with a score of 5:1 on their home ground very much illustrates Liverpool's strength, indicating that they have the ability to fight tough battles. You must know that this score was achieved after Anderlecht had stubbornly defended for half the game, which shows how strong Liverpool's offense is.

Chen Hero, who completed a hat trick, was an even more popular target for the media.

He also stated in an interview that his goal for this season in the Europa League is to win the league's top scorer award.

"If the UEFA Cup doesn't count as the Europa League, then this is my first time participating in this competition, so I hope to get the top scorer award in this competition—consider it a collection, I want to collect top scorer awards from various competitions, haha!"

The reporters who heard this couldn't help but curl their lips—how arrogant!

But after curling their lips, they had to put on a serious expression again, because he had the capital to be arrogant—you dare question Chen Hero? Then you can wait to be slapped in the face by Chen Hero with cruel and powerful facts!

Countless people have already been slapped in the face by Chen Hero like this.

And looking at Chen Hero's performance in the Europa League this season, let alone Liverpool making it to the finals, even if they can enter the top sixteen, Chen Hero has a very high chance of becoming the top scorer...

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Coming from Belgium, the media's coverage of this game was only at a regular level, without extensive reports and sensationalism about Liverpool's big win and Chen Hero's hat trick. It wasn't Chen Hero's first time scoring a hat trick in the Champions League, let alone the Europa League, which is not as prestigious as the Champions League.

So everyone felt that although Chen Hero scored a hat trick, and six goals in three games was very good, it was still within an acceptable range for everyone—of course, if other players had this result, the media would have already gone crazy, definitely hyping it up wildly, and wouldn't stop until they had hyped the player up as the reincarnation of the king of football.

This shows that there really is differential treatment. After Chen Hero raised the bar, the media also lost interest in his goals—isn't scoring goals a very simple thing for Chen Hero? When Chen Hero doesn't score in two consecutive games, that's news...

The English media quickly shifted their attention from the Europa League to the domestic league. After the Europa League game, the League Cup was coming up soon, and the time was very tight.

Because Liverpool Football Club appealed to the Football Association regarding Chen Hero's second yellow card, Chen Hero can start in the League Cup game against Cardiff City.

But the media believed that this appeal was completely meaningless, and they couldn't understand why O'Neill and the club would do this. Wouldn't that make the game against Arsenal dangerous?

The media who thought this way obviously didn't know what kind of person Chen Hero was, and how to get along with Chen Hero...

Martin O'Neill didn't explain, and just let the media question it!

The one I want to rely on isn't the media, but players like Hero...

Because of Chen Hero's starting appearance, Liverpool easily defeated Cardiff City at home.

Before the game, some media said that this was a revenge match, but it didn't cause any reaction at all. Even Cardiff City's coach didn't agree.

Of course, this may still be Cardiff City's strategy.

Just like the League Cup final last season.

So this time, the Liverpool people didn't care what Cardiff's people were thinking. They didn't intend to give Cardiff's people any chance from the start at their home stadium.

In the eleventh minute, Gerrard used a long shot to open the scoring for Liverpool, and in the twenty-ninth minute, Kuyt extended the lead for the team.

Five minutes after the start of the second half, Chen Hero's poke shot in the penalty area extended the score to 3:0 for the team, and Cardiff City had completely lost their chance.

The fact is that Cardiff City really didn't plan to take revenge this time... After the League Cup final last season, Cardiff City had a very clear personal experience of Liverpool's strength.

If Chen Hero was suspended for this game, Cardiff City might still have some thoughts of revenge.

But Liverpool would rather give up the league game against Arsenal than let Chen Hero play in the League Cup, so the result lost suspense.

Although Chen Hero only scored one goal in the game, with him there, the morale of the entire Liverpool team was different...

Cardiff City was beaten without any power to fight back. Near the end of the game, Sanchez, who came on as a substitute, scored his first goal for the team after joining, 4:0! Liverpool easily defeated Cardiff City at home and advanced to the semi-finals.

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After the League Cup was over, the final penalty decision of the FA Disciplinary Committee also came out.

The yellow card will not be cancelled, and the one-match suspension for the red card is still valid.

However, considering that this appeal was not a malicious appeal, and the purpose was to allow the player not to miss important matches, no additional penalties will be imposed on Chen Hero.

Chen Hero only needs to be suspended for one game before he can return.

But he will still miss the opportunity to directly confront Van Persie because of this.

Currently, Van Persie is the second-ranked scorer in the Premier League, but the gap between him and Chen Hero is a bit large...

After ten rounds of the league, Hero has scored fourteen goals, while Van Persie only has nine goals. The two are five goals apart.

Such a huge gap makes the direct confrontation between the two shooters a little less of a gimmick.

Chen Hero didn't care either. Last season, he regarded Van Persie as an opponent because Van Persie was leading at the time, and he was a pursuer, and he only surpassed him at the end. So Van Persie can indeed be regarded as his opponent.

But now, he has been the frontrunner from the beginning, and although Van Persie is ranked second, he has five goals less than him. Chen Hero doesn't think Van Persie can threaten his position.

So naturally, Van Persie is not considered Chen Hero's opponent.

Now Chen Hero's only opponent is Messi, and he doesn't even care about Cristiano Ronaldo, who can also score a lot of goals.

Because Ronaldo's personal influence is not as good as Messi's, and the honors he has received are far worse, so he is not considered the world's number one.

And what Chen Hero wants to do is to be the world's number one, so his opponent is naturally the current world's number one.

Without Chen Hero, Liverpool welcomed Arsenal's challenge at their home stadium.

In this game, Chen Hero, who was suspended, sat in a box at Anfield Stadium and watched the game with two big shots, Chen Xing and Niang.

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Without Chen Hero, Martin O'Neill lined up Suarez as a single striker. Liverpool played a 4231 formation.

Before this game, Krashnic was injured, so this adjustment was made.

Arsenal, who were playing away, scored first.

The goal was scored by Van Persie.

After scoring, General Van waved his fist at the location of the VIP box.

"Hey, Hero, he's showing off to you." Niang next to him nudged Chen Hero's arm.

Chen Hero rolled his eyes.

"He must be annoyed that you would actually support our club's appeal." Niang continued to tease.

In fact, if Chen Hero didn't agree when Liverpool wanted to appeal, it would be impossible to really appeal. After all, it still depends on the player's wishes. But Chen Hero still made the decision to support the club's appeal, knowing that the appeal would cause him to miss the game against Arsenal. Because he wanted to express an attitude—I support the club, and the club also supports me, we are very good brothers now!

"That's right, Hero! You actually abandoned your good buddy and hid in this VIP box alone, drinking beverages and watching the game with your legs crossed!" Chen Xing next to him also joked.

"Damn!" Because he didn't know when the TV broadcast's camera would sweep into the box, Chen Hero didn't flip off Chen Xing. "What do you mean good buddy! I have nothing to do with him!"

It seems that the three of them didn't seem to care much about the fact that the team was currently behind.

Because they were already mentally prepared. Without Chen Hero, even playing at home, it's normal to concede a goal or something against an opponent of Arsenal's level.

In fact, the most important thing is that Liverpool's results have been very good this season, and the momentum is also very good, so everyone is relatively relaxed. It's not as nervous as last season, when their nerves were always tense. Last season, even if they were leading, as long as the opponent scored a goal, everyone's hearts would tighten, and many bad thoughts would start to emerge uncontrollably.

At that time, everyone's psychological endurance can really be said to be very strong, or it can be said to be very weak... always constantly rising and falling.

To put it bluntly, it's all because of bad results. With bad results and constant losses, whether it's the players or the fans, it's easier to lack confidence. Confidence comes quickly—you have confidence when you're leading, and it goes away quickly too—as long as the opponent scores a goal, it's gone immediately.

Constant losses made the Liverpool people fall into self-denial.

In this way, can the team's performance still be good? The people watching the game don't feel good either. So last season, Liverpool's performance really hurt the hearts of many fans.

Niang is really smart. He let Dalglish continue to lead the team for a full season, and then let everyone see what consequences Dalglish's coaching would bring to the team. By the end of the season, no one jumped out to say that Dalglish shouldn't leave.

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The final result of the game against Arsenal was that Liverpool were held to a 1:1 draw by Arsenal at their home stadium. After Van Persie scored a goal, Suarez equalized the score for the team in the second half.

Without Chen Hero, Liverpool didn't lose at their home stadium, which is actually a very good performance. Many Liverpool fans deepened their confidence in the team through this game.

This means that even if Chen Hero misses games for some reason, they don't have to be too pessimistic.

Because it's not just Chen Hero who has improved, but the entire Liverpool team!