Chapter 13 Retaliation

Chen Hero originally planned to succeed the first time, but who would have thought that James would dodge.

Although it is necessary for the referee to avoid the football, Chen Hero now feels that James is doing it on purpose to make things difficult for him.

There was very little time left in the first half, and Everton's attacks were already few. It was even less likely that they would eventually form a shot, giving Stella a goal kick opportunity. Chen Hero was a little unhappy.

He was not unhappy because if James wasn't taken down soon, the team wouldn't win.

He was unhappy purely because he didn't want to see James on the field for even one more minute.

So he wanted to get this damn referee off the field in the first half.

Now it seemed that relying on him and Stella alone wouldn't work.

So he took advantage of another dead ball opportunity to pull a few teammates aside and tell them to pass the ball back.

Hand the football to goalkeeper Stella and the center backs as much as possible.

At the same time, he also told the center backs that if they had a chance, they should just kick the ball forward, aiming for referee James.

These teammates, like goalkeeper Stella, were completely confused by Chen Hero's words.

However, because of Chen Hero's huge prestige within the team, even if everyone didn't understand what he meant, no one objected or questioned it.

Everyone just went to execute.

Anyway, there was always a reason for what Chen Hero said.

Everyone just needed to follow his instructions.

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The commentators quickly noticed the change on the field because Liverpool's offensive was not as fierce as before.

"Liverpool's attack seems to have stalled... But this is normal, their fierce offensive was originally only for the first thirty minutes or so after the start of the game..."

"Liverpool has slowed down the pace, they are starting to pass the ball back more often. I think they realize that blindly attacking will only make Everton defend even tighter. Now they are starting to pass the ball back more, hoping to lure Everton out. But if I were Moyes, I would never fall for it. Because those who are familiar with Liverpool know what they like to do most!"

……

The camera focused on Liverpool coach Martin O'Neill sitting on the sidelines.

However, O'Neill sat there motionless, with no intention of getting up and directing the game from the sidelines.

This was not his order. He could see very clearly from the sidelines that Liverpool's performance had changed after Chen Hero had spoken to several players.

But he did agree with the team's self-adjustment.

Because the first half was coming to an end, he was worried that Liverpool would be too eager to score a goal and take the lead before the end of the first half. Instead, they would be pressed too far up the field and suffer a counterattack.

Now that he saw that the team was aware of this, he was relieved.

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The coach thought Liverpool's change was to avoid conceding a goal near the end of the first half, while the commentators thought it was to score a goal.

Neither of them guessed Liverpool's real purpose.

The football was being passed from the backfield to the front field more and more often, and all of them were high balls.

This was originally a characteristic of Liverpool's reserve team. After all, they didn't have an organizer like Gotze, so when they launched an attack, it was very simple: a long kick from the backfield directly to the front field, or down the flanks, relying on the speed and cooperation of one or two players to send the football to the front field.

Anyone who watched Liverpool's reserve team play in the FA Cup and League Cup should be familiar with this.

So it still didn't arouse any suspicion.

Only some people might find it strange—why did referee James happen to be standing near the landing point of Liverpool's long passes every time?

Liverpool fans gnashed their teeth and cursed James for deliberately interfering with Liverpool's attack.

Everton fans were happy to see it happen. Regardless of whether it could really interfere with Liverpool's attack, they welcomed and supported anything that could make their arch-rivals unhappy.

James himself felt strange. No matter how he ran, why did the football always kick towards where he was?

But he didn't think much about it.

Or rather, he didn't have time to think much about it.

The first half was coming to an end.

He was quite satisfied with his performance in the first half. Under the guise of lenient enforcement, he was actually benefiting Everton. As long as he didn't admit it or reveal it, who could say anything about him? Even if it was really reported to the refereeing committee, he would at most be criticized a few times and would definitely not be banned until the end of the season.

With his relationship with those people, they would definitely not let him suffer too much. The fact that he was allowed to referee the FA Cup final this time was a good proof.

Thinking of this, he was very unhappy with Liverpool. If it weren't for Liverpool, how could he have fallen to this point? A rising star in the refereeing world had suffered such a heavy punishment and blow because of a mistake in one game. Who could stand it?

He decided to give Liverpool a taste of their own medicine. Weren't they competing for the Seven Crowns? Fine, then I'll give you an irreparable regret—James wouldn't believe that Liverpool would have another chance to repeat this season's crazy performance.

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"The game has reached the forty-first minute, and the end of the first half is getting closer and closer. Liverpool's attack is slowing down. It looks like this first half will end with a score of 0:0... This is really not easy. It is rare for a Liverpool game to not have a goal in the first half..."

Just as the commentator was saying this, the football was passed to Stella's feet.

With the football at the feet of the Liverpool goalkeeper, the Everton players didn't dare to come up and press. It seemed that they really thought Liverpool was trying to lure them out.

But Liverpool's target was not them at all.

Stella looked up and saw referee James on the right side of the field. He was still avoiding his long passes...

At the same time, he also saw Chen Hero behind James.

He still didn't know what Chen Hero was going to do, but the captain's words... just do it!

Stella kicked the football out with a long pass.

But this time he didn't kick it well. The football didn't fly straight towards where referee James was. It started out that way, but because the football had spin, its direction changed. It spun and flew towards the center.

Coincidentally, James had seen the football flying towards him again and, feeling strange, he moved towards the center, intending to avoid the football.

But this time his direction of movement coincided with the flight path of the football.

When Chen Hero saw this scene, he smiled behind James.

Heaven is helping me!

He looked up and charged towards the football.

Adopting a posture to challenge for the header.

James ran sideways towards the center. He didn't look around him, especially behind him.

When he felt that he had run to a safe area, he looked up at the sky again.

Then he was surprised to find that the football was not far above him!

What the hell is this...

Before he could finish the swear word in his heart, he suddenly felt like he had been hit by a truck.

Immediately afterwards, his vision went black, and something came out of nowhere, followed by a sharp pain.

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"Oh my God..." The commentators in the commentary box who saw this scene exclaimed in surprise.

Not only them, but also the huge exclamations that rang out in the stands.

And the audience in front of the TV also widened their eyes.

In the picture, the football flew towards referee James, and behind him, Chen Hero was sprinting at high speed, approaching the center. He looked up, staring at the football, completely unaware of the situation around him.

At the same time, James was also retreating to avoid the football.

Then, everyone saw Chen Hero jump high in the sprint.

He jumped so high that it was astonishing—there was a best reference object, that was referee James in front of him.

James is 1.75 meters tall, which is not a very tall height.

But when Chen Hero jumped up and his curled knees could reach James's back of the head, you could see how high Chen Hero jumped...

But wait...

Many people suddenly reacted—according to the trajectories of Chen Hero and James, this knee was directly hitting James's head!

Sure enough, in less than a second, Chen Hero and James had a very violent collision. His knee directly hit the back of James's head!

James, who was retreating, flew up directly, and then fell face down on the turf.

He didn't even let out a scream.

Chen Hero continued to fly forward, his whole body flying over the top of James's head, and then successfully headed the football, passing it to a nearby teammate.

Except for the collision, this was a very normal header pass.

But now everyone's attention was not on this, but on referee James who had fallen to the ground!

He was lying on the turf, covering his head with his hands, and scarlet blood was seeping out from between his fingers!

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"What the hell!" Some FA officials in the chairman's box couldn't help but stand up from their seats when they saw this scene, and then cursed angrily.

But then they realized their gaffe. The others around them were looking at them in surprise. They quickly sat down awkwardly.

But each of their faces was extremely ugly.

A thought flashed through their minds at the same time—this bastard must have done it on purpose!

The reason why they had such a highly unified view was because there was a ghost in their hearts...

Arranging for James to be the referee for this game, was it really not targeting Liverpool? Bullshit! The ones who wanted Liverpool to reach the final the most were them!

As for why they wanted it, they knew it very well in their hearts.

※※※

Everyone opened their mouths wide and stared blankly at the scene in front of them.

Liverpool reserve team goalkeeper Tesla and his teammates were also among them. However, their thoughts were different from others.

When Chen Hero knocked James over, they instantly understood what Hero meant by asking them to pass the football towards the referee—so this is how you can take revenge!