Chapter 26 Two Great Strikers

Logically speaking, a two-goal lead should have been enough for Zlatan Ibrahimović to sit back and relax, not worrying about the possibility of someone else snatching the top scorer title from him this season.

But for some reason, he felt a very strong sense of crisis.

He was constantly worried that he would be overtaken if he wasn't careful, so he was still actively looking for opportunities to score in this final game.

At this time, Inter Milan, playing at home, was behind, while the visiting team Atalanta was leading Inter Milan 3:2 at the San Siro stadium.

Although Inter Milan had already secured the league title in advance, no one wanted to end the season with a home defeat.

Inter Milan now had a strong desire to attack, which was Ibrahimović's chance, because only in this way could he get more opportunities to shoot and score.

But the first person to score in the second half was Chen Hero.

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"This is a great opportunity for Napoli, a cross from the wing! Here it comes—Hero!!!"

The Napoli radio commentator roared.

When he saw Arshavin crossing the ball from the wing, the thought in his mind was particularly strong—it was time to cheer for a goal!

Sure enough, Chen Hero jumped in the air, overpowering the Chievo defenders with a domineering header, sending the ball into the goal. The Chievo defender who tried to block him was knocked to the ground.

"Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes!!! Hero!! 3:0! We've completely locked in the victory! Champions League next season, wait for Napoli!!" The Napoli radio commentator was particularly excited.

Equally excited were the other Napoli fans, who jumped up from their seats, raised their arms, and shouted, "Hero! Hero!!" These people were in the West Stand, they didn't belong to any fan organization, and they were currently the only fans supporting Chen Hero.

After scoring, Chen Hero didn't forget to respond to these fans' support. He ran to the bottom of the West Stand and waved to the fans in thanks.

After a season, Chen Hero, as Napoli's public enemy number one, had forcibly split the Napoli fan base, making them both love and hate him.

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Ibrahimović, playing on the field, didn't know that Chen Hero had scored again, but the commentators responsible for commentating on the game knew...

"Ah! Just now, the latest news of a goal has come from Napoli... Napoli scores again, they are leading Chievo 3:0. It looks like they have the last laugh in the contest with Genoa. Let's see who scored the goal... Ha! It's Hero! It's him again! Is this his second goal in this game?"

"Yes, and it's his twenty-fifth goal of the season! The gap between him and Ibrahimović is only one goal now! I really didn't expect the race for the league's top scorer this season to be so intense at the end, and even more unexpectedly, the person competing with Ibrahimović would be that Chen Hero..."

"This is going to be a good show!"

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After acknowledging the fans in the West Stand, Chen Hero ran to the coaching bench, where he was concerned about another issue.

"Did he score?" he asked his coaches.

"Not yet, you are still one goal behind!" Assistant coach Viviani said.

Chen Hero grinned.

"Good! Back to work!"

Chen Hero turned and ran back onto the field.

He had never said he wanted to win the top scorer title this season, but he had been working hard secretly.

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Inter Milan finally equalized, with Cambiasso scoring the goal.

This made Ibrahimović a little dissatisfied, as he would have preferred his own goal to have helped the team equalize, killing two birds with one stone.

So when Cambiasso plunged into the substitutes' bench to celebrate the goal with everyone, he was more concerned about another matter. He ran to find the coach and asked if Chen Hero had scored again.

The coach told him some bad news: "Yes, he scored again. He is now only one goal behind you, Zlatan."

Ibrahimović gritted his teeth—this kid is catching up fast!

He also turned and ran back to the field. Although his teammates were still celebrating, he was already standing in the center circle, waiting for the Atalanta players to kick off.

He wanted to score!

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"The competition between two excellent strikers has entered a white-hot stage. Chen Hero has completed his twenty-fifth goal of the season! As a rookie in Serie A, this is a remarkable achievement! But obviously, he is not satisfied with this!"

Even a fool could see this, because Chen Hero didn't let go of any opportunity to score.

Even if the ball passed by his teammate wasn't that good, he would try his best to grab it.

"Hamsik crosses! A low ball! Hero… a half-beat late! What a pity! The ball slipped past his feet. Although he had already made a sliding tackle, he was still too slow..."

"Chen Hero's head—ball! Aldegani made a very beautiful save!"

"Now the whole Napoli team is passing the ball to Chen Hero, helping him score. There is no suspense about the outcome of this game. It depends on whether Chen Hero can surpass Ibrahimović and win the league's top scorer!"

"Top scorer! Top scorer! Top scorer!! Alala! Olala! Top scorer!!" The Napoli radio commentator even started singing, using this way to cheer Chen Hero on.

This arrogant big guy had already conquered him with one goal after another. He also hoped that Chen Hero could defeat Ibrahimović and win the league's top scorer, which would undoubtedly be a powerful blow to the northern giants!

At the same time, it was the best response to Mourinho's arrogance.

Didn't you say that our Chen Hero is not as good as your Ibrahimović? When asked how you think of Chen Hero, you talked about Ibrahimović, and said that Ibrahimović is the best big striker.

Now let you see who is the number one shooter in the Italian Serie A!

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"This is really... crazy!" In Russia, there is also a live broadcast of the Serie A league. As a star who came out of the Russian league, although Chen Hero is no longer playing for Zenit Saint Petersburg, the fans who care about him have not decreased.

This game was broadcast live nationwide in Russia. Yuri Petrov, the commentator of the national television station, was so surprised when he saw Chen Hero score his twenty-fifth goal of the season that his jaw dropped.

He originally thought it was crazy enough for Chen Hero to win the league's top scorer in eleven games, but he didn't expect Chen Hero to do something even crazier—he wanted to win two top scorer titles in one season!

At the end of last year, he won the Russian Premier League's top scorer award. At that time, the Serie A league was in full swing and had already been played for half a season. Now that the Serie A season is coming to an end, he still has hope of winning another top scorer award!

"Top scorer! Top scorer! Let them see how powerful our Zenit Saint Petersburg star is!" In front of the TV, many Zenit Saint Petersburg fans were shouting. They were as excited as Chen Hero.

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Italian commentators obviously also remembered this: "I suddenly remembered... Hero also won the top scorer in the 2008 Russian Premier League, and he only used eleven games! Since the 2008 Russian season and our league overlap for half a season, it can also be said that they are all in one season... If Hero wins the top scorer in this game, he will have won the top scorer in two leagues in one season at the same time! This kind of thing... doesn't seem to have been done before! I don't even know if the rules allow this situation to happen. Obviously, Chen Hero's crazy scoring has created a problem for all of us..."

"But this is really amazing! I mean, if he can really do it..."

While everyone was busy being surprised by Chen Hero's madness, Ibrahimović also scored his second goal of the game at Inter Milan's home stadium, increasing his goal tally to twenty-seven and widening the gap between him and Chen Hero again, which would give him a little more security.

This was a very happy thing, so Ibrahimović went crazy to celebrate the goal after scoring, and didn't even hear the referee's rapid and continuous whistle. He only realized that something was wrong from his teammates' reactions—he had scored a goal, but none of his teammates came up to celebrate, but ran towards the referee.

The Swedish Tower's first reaction was to look at the linesman—sure enough, the linesman's flag was raised high. That means... he was offside!

I'm offside?! Are you kidding me!

He turned and ran towards the linesman, roaring at him: "You must be blind! There's no way this goal is offside!"

"Ibrahimović looks very angry, but unfortunately, this goal is indeed offside..." The commentators could see the replay of the game in slow motion for the first time, so they were very clear.

Before Ibrahimović received the ball, he was already in a very obvious offside position, offside by about a body length.

"The linesman watched very carefully, there was no problem at all. Ibrahimović was too eager to score, he ran a little too early..."

Ibrahimović's protest did not win him a goal. On the contrary, he received a yellow card.

Because he was rude to the linesman. If his teammates hadn't pulled him away, he would have said even more dirty words. At that time, a yellow card wouldn't have been enough to solve the problem... If he was sent off, the initiative in the competition for the league's top scorer would fall entirely into Chen Hero's hands.

So he held back his anger.

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"The goal numbers of Chen Hero and Ibrahimović only changed briefly, and then returned to their original state—Ibrahimović's goal just now was ruled offside, the goal was invalid! Now the two are still only one goal apart!"

In China, people are also paying attention to the competition for the Serie A top scorer this season. The league title has long been decided, and Chinese fans and media don't care about relegation or anything like that. Napoli locked in the Champions League qualification in the first half, and now the only suspense is whether Chen Hero can win the top scorer!

And this is also the issue that Chinese fans care about most, no less than the Champions League qualification.

When Chen Hero won the Russian Premier League's top scorer award, some people said that the Russian Premier League's level was not high, so winning the Russian Premier League's top scorer was nothing to brag about and not a big deal. The Serie A top scorer award is completely different. Although the influence of Serie A has declined greatly in recent years, and it is even about to be squeezed out of the top three by the Bundesliga, the level of Serie A defense is still recognized by everyone. Being able to win the top scorer in such a league is enough to prove Chen Hero's ability.

"Win a Serie A top scorer award, Hero!" Chinese fans who were watching the game in front of the TV made such a request.

They placed all their hopes on Chen Hero.

The aura of tens of millions of fans brought Chen Hero not only pressure, but also great motivation.

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ps, Volume 2 will end tomorrow, and Volume 3 will begin the day after tomorrow, so there will be a small explosion tomorrow, and all three remaining chapters will be updated to allow everyone to read them all at once.

I hope everyone will continue to support Forbidden Zone's Lion with monthly tickets and subscriptions!

In addition to the three updates tomorrow... I will use a five-update burst the day after tomorrow to welcome the arrival of Volume 3!

Everyone, vote for monthly tickets! It's about to get exciting!