Chapter 1152 To Each Other

Chen Hero's goal greatly boosted the team's morale.

The previously somewhat depressed Liverpool players immediately reacted—what were they feeling down about? They had Hero! Shouldn't the opponents be the ones feeling down? No matter what they did, as long as they had Hero, the final victory would belong to them! It was Chelsea who should be depressed, because their lead had vanished! Continue to defend desperately? A draw would be enough for them to win the title in advance!

A draw, on the other hand, might see Chelsea overtaken by Manchester United, losing their second-place position in the league.

While both second and third place in the league could directly participate in the Champions League, at the end of the season, the distribution of television broadcast revenue was divided according to the teams' league rankings. The higher the ranking, the more money they received.

UEFA had already begun financial regulations, and even Chelsea, owned by Abramovich, now had to pay attention to balancing income and expenditure. As the most important part of financial income, television broadcast revenue was naturally what Chelsea cared about most.

Therefore, if possible, they still wanted to hold on to second place in the league.

How to fight for it? By defending desperately? That wouldn't work. Even if they could successfully defend against all of Liverpool's attacks, it would only be one point.

Manchester United could overtake them as long as they won their game.

So they had to attack, but attacking could mean conceding more goals…

For a time, Chelsea was in a dilemma. Defend or not defend, neither seemed right.

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While Chelsea struggled, Liverpool had no such trouble at all.

They just needed to attack!

After Chen Hero equalized, Liverpool's morale soared, and they launched a fierce attack on Chelsea's goal. Even though there were only ten minutes left in the first half, Liverpool's offensive showed no signs of slowing down.

They didn't seem to want to go back to the locker room with a draw.

The Liverpool team's desire to defend their title couldn't wait for another fifteen-minute half-time break. They wanted to take the lead in the first half!

One side wavered, while the other focused solely on attacking.

Which way the balance of victory would tilt was already obvious.

Just as the first half was about to end, Liverpool seized an opportunity and launched another high-quality attack.

Three passes and two touches, and the ball was at Chen Hero's feet.

Everyone focused their attention on Chen Hero, with a hint of expectation and tension.

Chen Hero had already scored fifty-one goals. To break Dixie Dean's record of sixty goals, he still needed nine more.

But he didn't shoot himself. Instead, taking advantage of Chelsea's defensive attention being drawn to him, he suddenly made a through pass. The ball was passed into the penalty area, and Sanchez, who had rushed in, received his pass and shot low!

The ball rolled into the goal from under Cech's feet!

"Sanchez!!! Liverpool finally took the lead!"

"Sanchez looked very happy after scoring. He ran towards Chen Hero, who assisted him… Yes, Hero could have chosen to shoot himself, but he gave up the opportunity and let Sanchez score! Who said Chen Hero was selfish?"

"It must be said that it was indeed better for Sanchez to take this shot than for Chen Hero to shoot himself, because Hero was surrounded at the time, and the shooting opportunity was not very good. But if it was Sanchez, there would be no such problem…"

"Hero assists, Sanchez scores! Liverpool is simply an invincible fleet! They are invincible!"

"Chelsea was led by Liverpool at the end of the first half! Liverpool is in the lead on the road to winning the title in advance!"

The atmosphere at Anfield Stadium was completely ignited.

All the Liverpool fans believed that they could defend their title, and no opponent could stop them.

Liverpool was like an invincible tank, destroying all obstacles and blockades that dared to stand in their way.

They were crushing straight towards the championship goal.

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Chen Hero hugged Sanchez and went to the sidelines with his other teammates. They kept waving their arms and raising their fists towards the stands.

The Liverpool fans in the stands erupted in huge cheers.

They began to shout, "Champions! Champions! Champions! We are the champions!! We are going to be champions again!!"

Even the commentators thought so.

"Liverpool is getting closer and closer to their second championship of the season…"

The entire Anfield Stadium was in a frenzy, and the Chelsea players who were trapped in it even raised their heads and looked at the crazy Liverpool fans in the stands.

The Liverpool fans' hunger for the Premier League title had not been alleviated by their historic win last season. On the contrary, they were even more hungry…

Hulk clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in the midst of the huge cheers.

Was he just going to admit defeat like this? Bow down and let Liverpool step on his back and ascend to the throne?

No!

I won't allow it!

The Brazilian Green Giant was determined to show Liverpool a thing or two in the second half!

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The first half ended soon after Liverpool's goal.

The players from both sides quickly returned to their locker rooms to make adjustments and rest for the final forty-five minutes.

Whether Liverpool could win the title in advance depended on these forty-five minutes.

But they were in a relaxed mood.

After Chen Hero scored a goal and then assisted another, Liverpool was now leading Chelsea by one goal. The momentum was good, and this was their home ground, so Chelsea couldn't compete with them at all. Liverpool wasn't worried at all.

Martin O'Neill was also very satisfied with the players' performance. Apart from asking everyone to continue their efforts in the second half, he had nothing else to say.

So he just said a few simple words and left the rest of the time to the players.

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In the Chelsea locker room, Advocaat didn't plan to give up—they were only one goal behind. It would be too weak to give up like this. It wasn't like they were behind by many goals…

"Our performance in the first half was very good. We only conceded two goals because we were unlucky," Advocaat said. "The Liverpool players must think they have already won. We will continue to create surprises for them in the second half!"

At this time, the most important thing was to cheer up the team.

They couldn't let Liverpool's amazing momentum at home overwhelm them.

If they were really suppressed by them, it would be over. Chelsea was likely to collapse directly.

"We won't defend desperately in the second half. We will attack. We will invest more troops in the attack. Perhaps Liverpool has become accustomed to teams defending desperately against them, then they will have the honor of seeing our other side!"

Advocaat's tactic for Chelsea in the second half was to attack.

Defending desperately at this time was meaningless. Even if they could guarantee that they wouldn't concede a goal in the second half, they couldn't change the score in the first half. They were still losers.

Attacking, on the other hand, still had a glimmer of hope. Although this hope was very slim, it was better than nothing.

Trading attacks with Liverpool was a very dangerous thing, but even if there was only a 0.001% chance, they had to put in 100% effort to fight for it.

Perhaps because Liverpool was not prepared, Chelsea's counterattack would make them flustered and confused? Then Chelsea could take advantage of the chaos to score a point and tie the score, wouldn't that be better?

Moreover, after Chelsea attacked, Liverpool would not be able to press forward across the board. Their defense line must also stay in the backcourt, so they could not support their attack, which would reduce a lot of pressure on Chelsea's defense.

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After the second half of the game restarted, everyone was surprised to find that Chelsea was not defending desperately, but instead bravely pressing forward to attack.

Liverpool really didn't expect Chelsea to attack like this, and they were really caught off guard at first.

It was a pity that Chelsea didn't seize the opportunity to score.

Hulk worked hard, but the defense line composed of Pepe and Skrtel was not easy to deal with either.

Especially Hulk's most proud physique, in front of two equally strong central defenders, had no room to play.

When Hulk intended to forcibly knock Skrtel away with his body, Skrtel did not give way.

He also lost a shooting opportunity because of this.

Looking at Hulk holding his head in frustration, Skrtel sneered in his heart.

Did you think we were so easy to bully? We have to train with Hero every day! You are too thin compared to Hero!

Yes, perhaps Skrtel's turning speed was still not fast, but his physical confrontation ability was definitely better than before, because they had the opportunity to have physical confrontation exercises with Chen Hero every day. By sparring with masters, they would also improve.

So Skrtel's physical confrontation ability was much better than before, but most of the time everyone couldn't see it.

The changes that Chen Hero brought to Liverpool were not just that he could score goals.

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Chelsea failed to take advantage of the chaos to score a goal.

Then it was their turn to be unlucky.

Because Liverpool reacted—Chelsea was going to trade attacks with them!

Exactly what they wanted!

Exactly what they wanted!

Now Liverpool was tired of the game where they bombarded the opponent's penalty area, they just wanted to open up the formation and have a lively back-and-forth attack.

But those opponents didn't give them such a chance.

Today, they finally met a Chelsea team that was willing to cooperate, how could they easily let go of this opportunity?

Liverpool stabilized their position and quickly launched a counterattack. Now it was Chelsea's goal that was in chaos.

The two sides exchanged attacks, playing lively. The audience naturally called it enjoyable—to be honest, they had long been tired of any team shrinking into a ball when facing Liverpool.

Now that they saw such an attacking battle, even if it was only for forty-five minutes, it was enough to excite them.