Van Persie was the captain, a veteran, very mature. The missed opportunity wasn't a major blow to him. He quickly adjusted his emotions to face the upcoming match.
But Arsenal wasn't made up of eleven Van Persies. He was a veteran, experienced, and had seen it all.
But Arsenal also had many young lads!
They were obviously affected by the captain's missed goal, and the impact wasn't small!
Some were even thinking—"Damn! Even the captain couldn't score, what can we do? Is luck not on our side this time?!"
With these thoughts, the Arsenal players' mentality was completely different from the first half. They started to doubt themselves. And that's the most fatal mistake on the field...
Van Persie's calm performance was useless, because his teammates' performance wasn't up to par...
Eight minutes after he missed his chance, Chen Hero also got one.
Or rather, it wasn't really a chance, because in terms of "goal success rate," Chen Hero's shot was definitely not a good opportunity...
At that time, Liverpool's Gareth Bale crossed from the flank at a forty-five-degree angle. The ball was still outside the penalty area when it passed over Koscielny's head.
So far away, it couldn't form a good shooting opportunity, not to mention that Chen Hero hadn't even run into position yet—he was behind the ball, and not close enough to form a header.
It really wasn't a decent opportunity.
Although Szczesny was ready to make a save, he didn't believe Chen Hero could hit the target...
Mertesacker saw the ball flying over and didn't meet it, but waited in place to clear it. He even had the posture ready...
At this moment, Chen Hero flew out! Head back, feet forward, like an arrow shooting himself out!
Then the toe of his right foot swept the ball!
The ball changed direction and flew towards the goal!
Goalkeeper Szczesny saw the ball flying over and realized that it was actually... coming towards the goal! He quickly made a save... but it was too late...
In addition, although Chen Hero's posture was awkward, the angle of the shot was still tricky.
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Liverpool fans all jumped up from their seats, because they watched the ball fly past Szczesny's hand and into the goal...
"Oooooooh! Liverpool! Liverpool Liverpool!!" The fans cheered loudly.
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Chen Hero lay on the ground, watching the ball fly into the goal. He quickly flipped over and got up, punching the air hard, then opened his arms and walked towards his teammates who were running towards him.
His face was full of happy smiles, and his teammates' faces were full of excited smiles.
From being two goals behind to a tie, Chen Hero resurrected Liverpool, and now they were on the same starting line as Arsenal.
This was wonderful!
Teammates rushed up one after another, crashing into his body. Even someone as strong as Chen Hero had to take two steps back to maintain his balance and not fall.
Suarez and Sanchez simply hung on Chen Hero's body and wouldn't come down, while others, like a tide, kept hitting him.
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"Goal——Liverpool tied the score! Hero scores twice!"
"This is a match between Hero and Van Persie! Van Persie scored twice in the first half! Chen Hero then returned the favor with two goals!"
"Two great shooters! This game is already a classic!"
"Hero's twenty-fourth goal of the season! A terrible giant!"
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When Liverpool attacked, Wenger leaned forward slightly, focusing on the field. But when Chen Hero put the ball into the goal, he leaned back sharply in his chair, like a deflated ball, slumped on the coach's bench, motionless.
This was a contest between Van Persie and Liverpool's defense, and Chen Hero and Arsenal's defense.
The two of them had drawn...
But from the trend of the game, Arsenal was already at a disadvantage.
Chasing two goals in a row boosted Liverpool's morale, while Arsenal began to doubt themselves... Their confidence was shaken, especially when facing Chen Hero.
Chen Hero could find an opportunity to score even with such tight defense, so what else couldn't he do?
As soon as they thought of this, the Arsenal players would automatically lose their fighting spirit. What was the point of struggling in a game destined to fail? This blow was too cruel...
He also thought of the big discussion initiated by an Arsenal fan on Twitter before the game, "How the hell am I going to deal with that damn big guy!"...
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Van Persie shook his head as he watched Chen Hero and his teammates celebrate. The ominous premonition in his heart had finally come true.
He missed an opportunity, so the other side seized one.
The sentence that had once appeared in his mind was indeed correct—wasting opportunities will be punished...
But it doesn't matter!
He clenched his fist again, his mentality already adjusted.
Even if you tie the score, it's just that both sides are on the same starting line. Now, as long as I score a goal, we are still leading, and you can only chase after us.
So the initiative is still in our hands!
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Van Persie himself was fine, but he ignored the teammates around him. He only focused his attention on Chen Hero, and didn't even look at his teammates after the goal was lost, look at their eyes. Their eyes were already full of fear and distrust...
The Arsenal captain didn't realize this until fifteen minutes later, when it was already the eighty-third minute of the game.
In these fifteen minutes, Arsenal got some chances, but neither Van Persie, Miyachi Ryo, nor Walcott seized them.
In the eighty-third minute, Liverpool scored.
This time, the scorer was no longer Chen Hero, but Gerrard.
Liverpool's spiritual leader scored with a signature, and very beautiful, long shot to give Liverpool the lead.
At this time, Van Persie noticed his teammates, they no longer believed that they could win this game...
He was shocked—unbeknownst to him, his teammates had gone from full of confidence to completely lacking confidence, such a big change had occurred, and he hadn't known it all along!
He deeply felt his dereliction of duty as a captain.
But could it be made up for at this time?
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Until the end of the game, Arsenal was unable to score another goal to tie the score, and Liverpool did not score either. After taking the lead, they immediately changed their tactics, shrank back, and defended until the end of the game.
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, Liverpool fans in the stands cheered, while Arsenal fans began to leave silently.
This night was really too cruel for them. First, they took an early 2-0 lead, giving everyone hope, making them feel that Arsenal would definitely win this game. Who would have thought that the situation would suddenly change, with Liverpool chasing three goals in a row, and finally reversing the victory with a score of 3-2.
The mood of the Arsenal fans was like riding a roller coaster, from the bottom to the peak, and then quickly falling into the valley from the peak...
Fate played a cruel joke on them.
If they had known this was the result, they would rather have lost 0-3 without even touching the ball, than lose the game in this way...
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When the Arsenal fans began to leave, the Liverpool players were cheering on the field, celebrating this hard-won victory.
But Chen Hero didn't celebrate the goal with his teammates.
Suarez still wanted to find Chen Hero to celebrate the victory, but suddenly found that there was no one around him. After searching around but couldn't find him, he searched again and saw Chen Hero walking over naked with an Arsenal jersey in red and white in his hand.
"Where did you go...咦? Went to exchange jerseys?"
Chen Hero nodded.
"Yes, I went to exchange jerseys."
Suarez smiled: "It's rare, I remember you rarely take the initiative to exchange jerseys with anyone."
"Of course, there are not many opponents who are worthy of exchanging jerseys with me!" Chen Hero said very proudly.
"Then, let me see, who is qualified to exchange jerseys with you..." Suarez snatched the jersey from Chen Hero's hand, opened it and took a look, then let out a sudden realization: "Oh, it's him!"
The jersey he was holding was printed with the player's name—r. Van Persie.
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When Chen Hero walked back to celebrate the victory with his teammates, Van Persie was looking down at the black Liverpool away jersey in his hand.
It was the one he had just exchanged for his own jersey from Chen Hero.
He was in a bad mood after losing the game, and planned to leave as soon as the game was over. But he was stopped by Chen Hero.
"Exchange jerseys?" He was quite surprised by Chen Hero's request.
It wasn't that he was surprised to exchange jerseys, he had done it ninety or a hundred times in his career.
He was surprised by the person who made the request to exchange jerseys. He knew Chen Hero's temper and character very well. Everyone said he was arrogant, and he thought it was very right. This person had a kind of arrogance in his bones, as if there was no one in the world more powerful than him. Even when facing Messi and Ronaldo, the two most outstanding players in today's football world, he still had this expression.
Only others asked to exchange jerseys with him, he rarely heard of him taking the initiative to ask people to exchange jerseys. He probably felt that there were not many people in this world who were worth him taking the initiative to exchange jerseys with, right?
He didn't expect that he would be actively asked to exchange jerseys...
What was this supposed to be?
During the process of exchanging jerseys, the two of them didn't talk as enthusiastically and kindly as friends. Chen Hero just came up, took off his jersey, and handed it to Van Persie.
"Come, let's exchange jerseys, Van Persie," he said.
He didn't say lines like "I admire you" or "You're great."
Van Persie didn't say anything either. He lowered his head, took off his jersey, took Chen Hero's jersey from his hand, and then put his jersey into Chen Hero's hand.
Then Chen Hero raised the jersey in his hand and turned and walked away.
The two of them completed the jersey exchange ceremony like this...
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"Yo, it's him." Suarez handed the jersey back to Chen Hero. "Didn't you say anything particularly mushy but very boring, like 'You're so amazing, I admire you so much'?"
Chen Hero rolled his eyes: "He's not a nymphomaniac. We are heroes cherishing each other! We don't need so much nonsense!"
Suarez made a face, making a "vomiting" expression.