Chapter 1 Liverpool Returns to Europe

After a year, Liverpool returned to the European war family. Their first European battle this season was at their home stadium, facing Sporting Lisbon from the Portuguese Super League.

Sporting Lisbon is a traditional powerhouse in Portugal, alongside Porto and Benfica. However, the Portuguese league is a smaller European league, with only two Champions League spots. So even if Sporting Lisbon can get third in the league, they still have to play in the Europa League. Not to mention that last season, Sporting Lisbon only finished fifth in the league? They almost didn't even qualify for the Europa League.

In this group, perhaps Sporting Lisbon is the stronger team, the one that can threaten Liverpool the most.

Anderlecht is slightly inferior, and Grika of Slovenia is purely there to make up the numbers.

Liverpool must defeat Sporting Lisbon at home in order to establish an advantage in their group stage qualification.

Liverpool values Sporting Lisbon very much, and Sporting Lisbon also values Liverpool. After all, Liverpool has superstars like Gerrard and Chen Hero, and Suarez and Sanchez cannot be ignored either.

In terms of strength, Liverpool is the strongest team in this group, followed by Sporting Lisbon, then Anderlecht, and finally Grika.

In addition, they are playing away from home, so Sporting Lisbon's strategy is to defend steadily and counterattack. If there is an opportunity, they will counterattack and score. If there is no opportunity, they will resolutely defend. Even if they don't score a goal, they can still get a draw. This is a very good result on the road.

But if Sporting Lisbon draws, where will Liverpool's interests be placed?

Liverpool certainly cannot tolerate being held to a draw at home by their opponents.

Therefore, in this game, Liverpool must attack, attack, and attack again!

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"Hero!!! Oh—oh—oh oh oh oh oh! Hero!"

Liverpool's on-site commentator roared excitedly.

As excited as he was, so were the tens of thousands of Liverpool fans at Anfield Stadium.

Everyone stood up from their seats and shouted, "Hero—!!"

What could make them so excited was definitely not Chen Hero having a beautiful dribble or something, but that he scored a goal!

The game had only started for six minutes, and Chen Hero had already scored the first goal for Liverpool!

"What a wonderful start! Liverpool are one goal ahead of Sporting Lisbon at home! Hero looks to be in great form today!"

"I always think it's a loss for Hero to participate in the Europa League. He should be participating in the Champions League. In the Europa League, he is completely using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. He is more than capable in the Europa League!"

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After scoring, Chen Hero opened his arms and ran to the sidelines, then pulled out the corner flag and waved it high in his hand.

His teammates quickly ran up and surrounded him, cheering and celebrating the goal together.

Martin O'Neill clapped with a smile. Chen Hero's good condition and strong fighting spirit filled him with confidence in the team's group stage qualification.

He didn't know that Chen Hero scored so quickly because he not only wanted to help the team win the final championship, but also wanted to test the waters in the Europa League. Messi scored eighteen goals in the Champions League. The opponents in the Europa League are not as strong as those in the Champions League, and there are two more games—after the Champions League group stage, it is the round of sixteen, while after the Europa League group stage, it is the round of thirty-two—in that case, how can my number of goals be less than his?

Therefore, Chen Hero planned to frantically score goals in the Europa League and surpass Messi's eighteen goals. He wanted to let the whole of Europe and the world see that what Messi can do, I can also do, and I can do it even better!

So he scored in the sixth minute of this game.

At that time, Sanchez crossed the ball. It wasn't a particularly good opportunity, but Chen Hero used his body to squeeze away the Sporting Lisbon defender who was guarding him, and then knocked the ball into the goal with the shin of his leg. An unconventional shooting action, but the effect was very good.

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Chen Hero's goal opened the door to victory for Liverpool.

In the fifty-ninth minute, Gerrard scored, extending the score to 2:0. Although in the seventy-first minute, Sporting Lisbon striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel pulled a goal back for Sporting Lisbon.

But this still could not change their defeat.

In the eighty-eighth minute, Chen Hero suddenly launched a cold arrow from outside the penalty area, and the ball窜 into the lower right corner of the goal, scoring twice!

After scoring, Chen Hero lifted up the leg of his right shorts, revealing his strong and sturdy thigh muscles, and then he made a cocking gesture. This was to show off his powerful right leg, as this long shot was made with his right foot.

In the end, relying on his two goals and Gerrard's one goal, Liverpool defeated Sporting Lisbon 3:1 at their home stadium. Giving themselves a good start to their Europa League campaign this season.

The game in the other stadium was also without suspense. Anderlecht of Belgium, playing at home, defeated Grika 2:0. Now on the group standings, Liverpool is ahead of the Belgian team with one more goal than Anderlecht, ranking first in the group.

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After the game, Liverpool media praised Chen Hero's two goals for allowing Europe to hear the voice of Liverpool again.

"Hero's double is the strongest voice Liverpool has made in European competitions! He tells Europe that the Red Army is back!!"

Liverpool fans were also very excited. Although it was just the Europa League, it was better than not even being able to play in the Europa League, right?

Last season, Manchester United and Manchester City were both eliminated from the Champions League into the Europa League. As a result, they were both eliminated in the first round of the knockout stage. They were really a pair of unfortunate brothers. At that time, many fans of other English teams were mocking these two unpopular teams. Liverpool fans did not, because they didn't even have the qualifications to laugh at others.

No matter what others say, they have participated in the Champions League and the Europa League, while they can only hang around in the country.

Now, Liverpool fans also feel a little proud.

Most importantly, the outstanding performance in this first game gave Liverpool fans hope. Perhaps Liverpool really has a chance this time?

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After playing in the Europa League, Liverpool only rested for two days before welcoming the sixth round of the league.

Liverpool challenged Southampton away from home. Due to the close proximity of the two games, Martin O'Neill made rotations. He put many main players, including Chen Hero, on the bench. The result of this was that Liverpool were held to a 0:0 draw by Southampton away from home.

Although the five-game winning streak ended, O'Neill was not heartbroken. In a post-match interview, he said that rotation was necessary because Liverpool was facing a two-front battle this season. In order to rationally distribute physical fitness so as not to have insufficient physical fitness before Christmas, the team must rotate. He also said that there were no absolute main players in the team, and people like Chen Hero could sit on the bench.

O'Neill was not perfunctory to the media, he was telling the truth. If the team does not rotate highly, I am afraid that even if the Europa League group qualifies, the situation in the league will not be too good.

The top four in the league must be fought for this season. In order to get the top four in the league, the results in the first half of the league are very important. Even if we cannot get the top four in the first half, we cannot be too far behind the top four.

In order to have excellent performance on both fronts, we must rotate.

Some media also planned to provoke the relationship between Chen Hero and Martin O'Neill. These media were basically from Manchester.

They thought that Chen Hero had sat on the bench for the entire ninety minutes in this game, and he must be very upset with Martin O'Neill in his heart. So as long as they provoke him with words, maybe the relationship between the two people will collapse. If the general and the commander are at odds, Liverpool will not be able to threaten Manchester City or Manchester United.

Who would have thought that Chen Hero said that sitting on the bench didn't matter.

"Whether it's Kuyt or Klasnic, they are very good players. I don't think I have to be a starter. A draw? We were just a little unlucky, it doesn't mean that the rotation policy is bad."

This answer surprised the reporters - when did Chen Hero become so easy to talk to? You must know that his temper used to be very bad...

Where did they know that Chen Hero didn't want to give up on either the league or the Europa League front? He wanted the top four in the league, and he also wanted the Europa League championship. In that case, he would naturally agree with the coach's rotation policy. After all, he also knew that rotation was a strategy that the team must adopt when facing multiple fronts.

If you don't rotate, the team will definitely not go that far.

He absolutely did not want the team to lose motivation and be eliminated after entering the knockout stage of the Europa League.

To this end, he also planned to continuously instill in his teammates in the locker room that "the Europa League is very important, we need a worthy championship to arouse the enthusiasm and hope of the fans"... and so on.

Just to prevent his teammates from losing the motivation and fighting spirit in the knockout stage of the Europa League.

Failing to provoke dissension made the Manchester media very disappointed.

However, the rotation policy that allowed Liverpool to end their winning streak was also good news.

This was their first rotation of the season. It can be seen that Liverpool was not very adapted to the rotation. Otherwise, they could actually beat Fulham away from home.

Now these media can only hope that Liverpool continues to be so unaccustomed...

If they lose a few more games, maybe under pressure, Martin O'Neill will let the team return to the state before the rotation, desperately squeeze the main lineup, and then when it comes to the Christmas schedule, a complete collapse... Even if you, Chen Hero, have good physical fitness and a good body, and you will not be exhausted or injured, you can't control other people. The other players in the Liverpool team are not made of iron!