Chapter 1 The Start

After the second half of the match restarted, Liverpool continued to bombard Real Madrid's half, wanting to take a two-goal lead as soon as possible. This would be equivalent to sentencing Real Madrid to death in advance. If Real Madrid wanted to eliminate Liverpool at home, they had to score at least three goals and not allow Liverpool to score. Equalizing the score was useless; a draw meant failure.

They had to win.

After taking a two-goal lead, Liverpool could relax and fall back to their preferred defensive counterattack style.

This was what O'Neill had told the players during halftime. O'Neill's tactic was to score first, and any subsequent actions were based on this foundation.

The concept of "score first" was not limited to the beginning of the entire match; it also applied to the beginning of the second half.

Therefore, after the second half started, Liverpool used all their skills to launch a fierce attack on Real Madrid's goal, hoping to break through quickly.

Liverpool had swept through England with this set of tactics, currently ranking first in the league. In many matches, they scored early, completely disrupting the opponent's pre-match plans, and then dragging the distraught and panicked opponents into the water, forcing them to play according to Liverpool's rhythm, being led by the nose.

Playing like this would definitely result in more losses than wins… This was also why Liverpool was at the top of the Premier League this season.

However, there was never an invincible tactic in this world.

Liverpool's opening blitz tactic was actually a double-edged sword, and Martin O'Neill was well aware of this. If used well, it could help them establish an early lead and drag the opponent into their rhythm. But at the same time, it could also lead to a weak defense, giving the opponent opportunities for counterattacks. If the opponent could score before they did, the outcome would be completely different…

Liverpool was currently focused on besieging Real Madrid's goal, enjoying the attack, with only Real Madrid's poor performance in the first half in their minds—they were booed by their own fans! How bad must their performance have been!

While the Liverpool players were besieging Real Madrid's penalty area with contempt for Real Madrid, they didn't notice that their own rear was wide open!

Eleven minutes into the second half, Liverpool didn't score first; Real Madrid did!

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"Cristiano Ronaldo!!!"

Accompanying the commentator's shout, Ronaldo suddenly took a long shot outside the penalty area, the football flying along the turf directly towards the lower left corner of the goal.

Goalkeeper Reina made a desperate save, knocking the football down. However, he didn't directly push the football out of the baseline but blocked it back…

Benzema, who had been sprinting into the penalty area with Ronaldo on the counterattack, caught a break, gently tapping the incoming football with the instep of his foot…

The football flew into Real Madrid's goal!

"Benzema! Benzema!! Real Madrid equalized the score!!"

"Benzema saved Real Madrid! In this way, both sides' away goals have lost their meaning…"

"No, you can't say that. Real Madrid has no chance to refresh their away goals, but Liverpool still does!"

"Okay, if this score can be maintained until the end, the two sides will enter extra time!"

"Real Madrid equalized the score eleven minutes into the second half! This is great news for them! The two sides are back to the same starting line!"

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"Damn it!" Martin O'Neill couldn't help but jump up from his seat when he saw Benzema score, and then waved his arms in frustration.

He didn't expect Real Madrid not to collapse, but instead to regroup and score in the second half…

This was the worst-case scenario.

After equalizing the score, Real Madrid's momentum would be greatly enhanced, and they would definitely attack again, striving to score more goals. Could his team withstand it?

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After Benzema scored the equalizer for the team, the entire Bernabéu stadium erupted in huge cheers, almost drowning out everything. The momentum of the Liverpool fans was completely suppressed.

It was hard to imagine that the same stadium, the same group of fans, had booed their own team at the end of the first half, but now they were unreservedly offering all their cheers!

The Real Madrid club commentator was particularly excited, shouting into the microphone: "This is Real Madrid! This is the Bernabéu! Listen to that cheer! Real Madrid equalized the score! Well done, Benzema! Let those Liverpool people know how powerful we are! Tell them why we haven't lost here for two years!"

If the defending Champions League champions were eliminated in the quarter-finals, it would be too embarrassing…

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After losing the goal, Chen Hero encouraged everyone: "It's nothing! We just need to score another goal! It's about who scores more goals, isn't it?"

The Real Madrid players obviously had the same idea.

After the match restarted, Real Madrid, who had been defending all the time, suddenly changed their tactics and launched a fierce attack on Liverpool's goal. From this offensive alone, you couldn't imagine that the same team had been suppressed by Liverpool for half the match at home…

Forced by Real Madrid's fierce offensive, Liverpool had to temporarily give up the idea of continuing to attack and switch to defense.

Just like that, the situation on the field changed.

After equalizing the score, Real Madrid's confidence greatly increased, and after a head-on blow from the highly prestigious coach Mourinho, their offensive was very fierce.

If Liverpool didn't retreat across the board, they probably wouldn't be able to defend…

Even Chen Hero retreated to the vicinity of the center circle to help the team defend.

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"Ronaldo!! Long shot—here it comes again! Dangerous, it flew out grazing the left post!"

"Ronaldo passed the football to Özil, Özil passed to Benzema, Benzema distributed the ball to the side, Di María! He received the ball, cut inside, beautiful! A feint! After shaking off the angle, he crossed! Škrtel took the lead and headed the football out!"

"Özil with a through pass… Benzema received the ball and forcibly broke through… Shot—! Reina! He firmly pressed the football under his feet…"

……

During this period, similar scenes were constantly being staged in front of Liverpool's goal.

Every attack by Real Madrid made Liverpool fans tremble with fear.

Afraid that their team's goal would be lost in this attack by the opponent…

This was the first time they had felt this way in this match. Because before, it was their team besieging Real Madrid.

Liverpool players were also surprised. At first, they thought that Real Madrid was just gaining momentum after equalizing the score, and after besieging for a while, seeing that they couldn't score, they would shrink back and continue to be cowards.

Who would have thought that Real Madrid was like a constantly excited machine, attacking all the way to now without any intention of calling it quits.

Gradually, Liverpool couldn't take it anymore…

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"We must counterattack!"

Chen Hero hadn't seen the football fly over for a long time, he was so bored that he ran back to participate in the defense and said to his teammates at the same time.

But what he said was nonsense. Everyone knew that Liverpool needed to counterattack. If they just defended like this, they would lose the ball sooner or later. In terms of defensive ability alone, Liverpool was not as good as Real Madrid.

But the question was how to counterattack?

"Kick the football forward with a big foot, no matter where it goes, just kick it forward, I'll fight them for the landing point!" Chen Hero patted his chest.

If they still wanted to pass the football out through the midfield, it was no longer possible.

Perhaps blindly kicking a big foot was not a good solution, but others couldn't come up with a better suggestion than what Chen Hero had suggested, and they could only do it for the time being.

In fact, the effect was really good. When they kicked the football out, at first, the Real Madrid players didn't take it to heart, thinking that the Liverpool defenders were blindly kicking a big foot.

But when Chen Hero received the football, carried away Varane, and turned to shoot, they began to think differently.

As long as that big guy was still in the frontcourt, even if Liverpool kicked the football into outer space, as long as it didn't go out of bounds when it fell, it would be a threatening offensive means!

They had to engage in a physical battle with Chen Hero in the middle and backcourt. Of course, Liverpool wouldn't sit idly by and let Chen Hero compete with the opponent alone. Suárez, Gareth Bale, and Sánchez would rush up to meet Chen Hero whenever they had the opportunity, creating trouble for Real Madrid's defense.

So, thanks to Chen Hero, Liverpool was no longer just able to be surrounded and bombarded in their own 30-meter area, but had the opportunity to push out and fight with the opponent in the midfield.

Although they had not scored a goal, there was a lot of physical contact between the two sides, the rhythm of the match was fast, and the confrontation was quite fierce.

There were frequent cases of people falling on their backs.

Chen Hero was the core of physical confrontation. If a diagram of physical confrontation was made for each player, using colors to indicate the number of physical contacts, with red indicating frequent contact and green indicating little contact, then Chen Hero would be red all over…

Now everyone knew that Chen Hero would not dive, so in the match, they could confidently and boldly make physical contact and confrontation with Chen Hero.

They didn't have to worry about Chen Hero falling down.

This had certainly earned Chen Hero some reputation, but it also allowed him to only choose to resist those malicious physical confrontations. Even if the opponent was fouling, he would not easily fall to the ground for the sake of his face, and had to wait until he really couldn't hold on before he would choose to fall.

In this way, with the football at his feet, he would attract a pack of wolves, surrounding him and biting him madly.

Chen Hero was like a giant bear surrounded by a pack of wolves.

On the field, a bear-wolf battle was now being staged!