Chapter 1 The Change

When the German commentator saw Chen Yingxiong grabbing his teammates' jerseys and roaring at them, he laughed gloatingly: "It looks like there's infighting in Zenit! Chen Yingxiong and his teammates have some conflicts! This is great news for Bayern Munich. Leading by one goal, and the opponent is experiencing internal strife. If they just play as they did before, they can firmly control the initiative!"

The Bayern Munich fans in the stands also burst into laughter.

They were happy to see that annoying, arrogant guy angry, upset, and panicked.

This is what happens when you provoke Bayern Munich!

But no one knew what Chen Yingxiong had actually said to his teammates.

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"Are you afraid of them? So what if they're Bayern Munich? If they were so great, they would be playing in the Champions League semi-finals, not the UEFA Cup semi-finals! What's with being so polite? No need to be polite! Beat them hard!"

As the players of Saint Petersburg Zenit stood back in their positions, they could still hear Chen Yingxiong's roar echoing in their ears.

One sentence in particular stood out.

"Are you afraid of them?"

It was a complete curse, foul language, but it had the power to reach into people's hearts, making everyone clench their fists.

That's right, it's just Bayern Munich. They're just like us, they can only field eleven players, they're made of humans just like us, they can't fly, they're not made of steel, they can get hurt, they can concede goals, and they can lose games...

In that case, why are we holding back?

That's right! Are you afraid of them!

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After the game restarted, Bayern Munich's players quickly noticed the change in their opponents.

When they were cheering and celebrating their goal, they thought that the game's trajectory should be like this. They score, the opponent falls behind, they score again, the opponent falls even further behind. In the end, the game ends, and they have a lead of at least two goals, going into the second leg. When they scored the first goal, the game was already on track.

They just had to keep playing like this, and there would be no suspense in this game.

But at this moment, they realized that Zenit's performance was different from before...

How exactly was it different?

At first, the Bayern Munich players couldn't put their finger on it, they just felt that it was different.

Until... Denisov knocked Ze Roberto to the ground, and instead of offering a hand to help him up, he got up and ran away. Then some people suddenly realized.

The opponent's attitude was tougher, not as... polite as it had been before the goal!

Yes, before they conceded the goal, Zenit gave the Bayern Munich players the feeling of a warm-up opponent, or a friendly match opponent. They were too polite, and didn't show the determination of a UEFA Cup semi-final to compete with Bayern Munich. On many balls, the Russians were at a clear disadvantage in physical confrontation.

Bayern Munich didn't understand what was going on at first. Were they intimidated by Bayern Munich's reputation?

The fact was that the players of Saint Petersburg Zenit were initially intimidated by Bayern Munich's name. Almost everyone standing in front of them was a top star, and perhaps only Arshavin on their side could compare to them.

They were all intimidated by Bayern Munich's reputation, so their performance on the field seemed timid and hesitant.

How could they发挥出真实的实力 (fāhuī chū zhēnshí de shílì – unleash their true strength) like that? When the Bayern Munich players had the ball, they didn't dare to challenge them, allowing Bayern Munich to pass the ball calmly in their thirty-meter area, eventually finding a loophole and completing a fatal blow.

If they had shown the momentum they had when they fought Marseille at home, it was hard to say whether they could have won the game, but they certainly wouldn't have conceded that goal.

They're not being polite with us anymore?

Then we won't be polite either!

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Some Bayern Munich players were saying such pretentious lines in their hearts, but they found that if the other side really wasn't being polite with them, they... really couldn't worry about whether they were being polite themselves...

Arshavin passed the ball horizontally to the other side of the field. Radko Šír chested the ball down, and at the same time Anyukov quickly inserted from behind him, seemingly to cooperate with Šír.

Right back Lahm, who was originally in front of Šír, saw Anyukov speeding up, quickly turned around and retreated, while handing over the responsibility of containing Šír to Schweinsteiger. Just as the two were handing over, Šír crossed the ball!

The ball went through the gap between the two of them, and then flew high into Bayern Munich's penalty area!

Chen Yingxiong jumped almost touching Demichelis's body, but even so, he still suppressed the Argentinian "Marshal."

When Demichelis wanted to jump, he realized he couldn't jump anymore—Chen Yingxiong was pressing down on him!

Chen Yingxiong jumped, pressing down on Demichelis, and then extended his body forward, heading the ball!

He got his head to the ball, and the ball flew straight towards the far corner of the goal.

The quality of this header was quite high!

The German commentator didn't dare to say anything at this time, he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, his heart would jump out of his throat...

Just when many Saint Petersburg Zenit fans thought the ball was about to go in, Kahn flew to save it.

He slapped the ball out with one hand!

"Beautiful!!" The German commentator, who had been apprehensive just now, roared. "Oliver! Wonderful save! With him, Bayern Munich's goal is guaranteed to be safe!" Then he changed his tone. "But in reality, Chen Yingxiong definitely fouled on this ball! He pressed down on Demichelis to jump for the header. That's a foul for pushing!"

But no matter how he shouted, the referee did not think Chen Yingxiong's header was a foul.

This was Chen Yingxiong's first header in this game, and he forced Kahn to make a wonderful save on his first attempt, which shows how strong his heading ability is...

Kahn got up from the ground. He was about to retire, but his demeanor was still as good as ever, especially... his ability to get up and roar at his teammates.

"Martin! Martin! Look at how you're defending! How can you let him get the ball over your head! Be tougher! Be tougher! You are Bayern Munich's main center back!"

Demichelis, who transferred from River Plate to Bayern Munich in the 2003-2004 season, has been playing for this team for six seasons, and he is very familiar with the style of captain Kahn. So he lowered his head and didn't say a word when he was scolded. It's best not to talk back at this time, because if you do, you will die even worse. Now Kahn is just roaring at you from afar. If you dare to talk back, he will immediately rush up, grab your collar, lift you up in front of him, and then forehead to forehead, nose to nose, open his big mouth and smear all the saliva on your face. You can even smell what he ate in his last meal...

In front of everyone, that would be really embarrassing.

So not many people dare to argue with Kahn.

In fact, even if Kahn didn't tell him to be tough, Demichelis himself would be tough. Because he was threatened by a bastard who was so arrogant before the game, this was simply an insult to him!

Don't think you're so great because you headed the ball over me with a foul that the referee didn't call, you bastard!

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Demichelis was waiting in front of the goal for the opportunity to continue to compete with Chen Yingxiong in the air, but Chen Yingxiong pulled away.

Since Kerzhakov was no longer there, if Chen Yingxiong was still at the front of the goal, he would be surrounded by Lucio and Demichelis, and his teammates would not be able to connect with him at all. So he had to pull out, get closer to his teammates, and seek cooperation with them.

His task in the team training this week was this. When the team played near the baseline on the wing, he could rush to the front of the goal and head the ball. But most of the time, he had to fall back to support.

And this time he fell back deep enough...

Since Domingues, who doesn't track back, didn't play, Advocaat sent two defensive midfielders for this game, captain Tymoshchuk and Chen Yingxiong's good roommate Denisov. The two were behind, but no one in the front midfield could transition and support. Arshavin sometimes returned to the midfield, but he also had to take care of the wing.

If they always looked for the wing directly from the backcourt, this kind of offensive routine would be too easy to see through.

So someone had to fall back to support, and Chen Yingxiong was the one responsible for this task.

So what about the scoring task in front after he fell back?

After he fell back and passed the ball to his teammates, he turned around and quickly moved forward. He was not slow. Besides, he was not the only one who could shoot and score. Arshavin and Radko Šír both had the ability to score. His falling back could pull out Bayern Munich's defenders, creating opportunities for Arshavin and Radko Šír to insert and score.

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Demichelis disdainfully cursed in his heart when he found that Chen Yingxiong didn't come in to compete with him: "Coward! Come in if you have the guts!"

Chen Yingxiong couldn't hear the Argentinian center back's grumbling. He didn't go in, but instead fell back even deeper...

Hey!

Demichelis was even more disdainful.

You little bastard, relying on a misjudgment by the referee, headed a ball over me, and now you want to run? Do you think you can hurt me and just laugh it off?!

Coward! Wimp!

He ran forward a few steps, but finally stopped at the edge of the penalty area. Any further forward would be Van Bommel's territory, and he would not only interfere with Van Bommel, but also leave a gap behind him. Demichelis was unhappy, but he still had that much sense.

He watched from afar as Chen Yingxiong ran almost to the attacking midfielder position, and Van Bommel marked him.

He suddenly felt a little regretful that he should have been the one to make this kid suffer...

But he quickly let it go—a game is ninety minutes long, and it's only been twenty minutes. There's still more than seventy minutes left. There's plenty of time, and I have plenty of chances for revenge.

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