The English media was split into two factions regarding the Italian media's comments.
One faction agreed with the Italian media, believing that Liverpool was still a strong Champions League team, but not capable of winning the title. They predicted a fierce battle against Inter Milan but doubted Liverpool's chances of advancing due to their youth and inexperience compared to Inter Milan's mature squad.
This Inter Milan team had eighteen players who had won the Champions League before, with a reasonable age structure and rich experience. After being coached by Stramaccioni for several years, their tactical and technical approaches had become more refined.
In comparison, the current Liverpool team really had no advantages to speak of.
The other faction of the English media disagreed, but this faction was small and mainly composed of pro-Liverpool outlets.
Naturally, they couldn't say they didn't have faith in the team they supported.
Their reasoning was rather far-fetched… They were putting all their hopes on Chen Hero, believing that as long as he was in good form, he could lead Liverpool to victory after victory.
But such a reason was a bit absurd.
And too idealistic.
They said Chen Hero had the ability to lead Liverpool to victory, but did that really mean he could lead Liverpool to victory?
Wouldn't that mean whatever they said would come true?
That was completely unbelievable.
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Amid the media's arguments, Chen Hero and Liverpool Football Club remained silent.
As if they couldn't hear anything at all. But how could they not hear? With the media so well-informed these days, there was nothing they couldn't hear if they wanted to.
So it was likely they heard but didn't want to respond.
Why didn't they want to respond?
Because the other side had hit the nail on the head, and they didn't know how to answer…
Yes, yes, that must be the truth!
Everyone guessed that in their hearts.
You had to know that Chen Hero was someone who loved to stir things up. His sudden silence was strange enough already.
He must be silent because he lacked confidence. He was afraid that if he spoke boldly now, he would be publicly humiliated if he couldn't deliver!
Aha, everyone knew that Chen Hero liked to make wild claims. The fact that he wasn't saying anything now meant he was finally afraid!
So the media and fans who supported Inter Milan followed their team to Liverpool in high spirits, ready to witness a resounding victory.
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Until two hours before the game, Chen Hero remained silent. Even though many reporters were frantically calling his name, wanting him to answer.
But he just turned a deaf ear, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and followed his teammates into the locker room.
Chen Hero wasn't really backing down, but felt that saying anything more wouldn't help. It was better to prove himself with actions first.
Once he had proven himself, he could deal with those sons of bitches however he wanted.
So the louder and more arrogant those people shouted now, the more miserable their deaths would be in the end.
Anyway, he wouldn't be the one losing face in the end. Chen Hero was particularly calm.
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Stramaccioni received Liverpool's starting lineup two hours before the game. As he expected, the lineup was full of Liverpool's key players, putting out their strongest possible team.
They really were rotating players for the Champions League!
Stramaccioni had to be thankful now that he had prepared thoroughly enough, otherwise he would have been caught off guard facing Liverpool's strongest lineup.
But now… Stramaccioni believed that Liverpool had lost the initiative, and naturally, they had no chance of winning.
He had prepared thoroughly, and there was no loophole for Liverpool to exploit.
He firmly believed that his team's overall strength was above Liverpool's—the reason why the views of those Italian media outlets were accepted by the vast majority of people was because it was the most common and deeply rooted opinion.
Stramaccioni was naturally no exception. He was also one of the vast majority.
But shortly after the game started, he realized that something was wrong.
Inter Milan didn't show a clear advantage over Liverpool. On the contrary, Liverpool was suppressing Inter Milan.
From the start of the game, Liverpool launched a fierce attack on Inter Milan's goal.
This fierce offensive was both familiar and foreign to many Liverpool fans in the stands.
Familiar because a fierce attack at the start of the game was the hallmark of the old Liverpool. Foreign because Liverpool hadn't used such tactics in a long time.
Since Martin O'Neill left Liverpool with a full trophy cabinet, Liverpool had changed their tactics and style of play. Although Liverpool had continued to succeed with other tactics and styles of play.
But the most impressive was still Martin O'Neill's Liverpool.
The imposing momentum of launching a furious bombardment of the opponent's goal at the start of the game was the best image advertisement for a dynasty. When people talked about Liverpool, they would always talk about Martin O'Neill's Liverpool.
Now people were seeing that suffocating offensive and pressure from this Liverpool team again.
This was actually the result of Gerrard and the coaching staff's efforts. After Chen Hero said he wanted to win the Champions League this season, they started researching how to excel on both fronts.
After researching, they decided to draw on Martin O'Neill's classic tactics.
However, they would make some adjustments based on the current situation of Liverpool and Chen Hero.
For example, not relying so much on Chen Hero's physical abilities as the previous set of tactics did.
Liverpool's offensive was more of a collective attack, while the old Liverpool relied more on Chen Hero alone. Now, Chen Hero's role had changed from an all-around forward to a pure poacher. So he relied more on the seven players in midfield and defense.
But that wasn't a problem. They could just adjust the tactics. Besides, the strength of Liverpool's players was not bad. Compared with Inter Milan, the only difference was experience.
But experience was something that was hard to define. In terms of richness of experience, the entire Inter Milan team combined was not as good as Chen Hero alone.
It didn't matter that Liverpool's young players had no experience. Chen Hero had it. He would impart his experience to these young players without reservation.
During this period, Liverpool's tactics class was basically taught by Chen Hero, who shared his experience with his teammates.
In this way, the gap between the two teams was narrowed.
What's more, this was still at Liverpool's home ground?
Why couldn't Liverpool suppress Inter Milan here?
In order to pass the ball to Chen Hero as much as possible, and to maximize Chen Hero's characteristics of accurate poaching, Liverpool's offensive routine was very simple. They always tried to get through the midfield as quickly as possible, and then passed the ball into the penalty area for Chen Hero to poach.
Facing this style of play that didn't entangle with them in midfield, Inter Milan seemed unprepared.
Because Stramaccioni was referring to Liverpool's tactics from the first half of the season. At that time, Liverpool's play was still relatively complicated. How could it be so simple and clear as it was now?
In fact, when Stramaccioni saw Liverpool's tactical style, he frowned. He smelled a dangerous scent from it. The only thing that could comfort him now was that he was sure Liverpool must have temporarily changed to this tactic and was definitely not proficient enough, so there would definitely be many problems in their coordination…
But he only watched a few minutes of the game before his frown deepened.
Because he didn't see any lack of tacit understanding between Liverpool's players. On the contrary, he felt that the players were very familiar with this tactic…
Could this thing really have become Liverpool's gene, and already been integrated into their history?
He didn't know how much effort Gerrard's coaching staff had put in to help the players familiarize themselves with this lineup as soon as possible. They created training plans, worked overtime to modify them, and made modifications and adjustments based on the characteristics of this Liverpool team today.
This made it easier for the players to get started.
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Under Liverpool's impact, Inter Milan's defense was quickly overwhelmed.
In the sixteenth minute, Carlton Cole received the ball in the frontcourt and crossed from the wing, trying to find Chen Hero.
But the ball was cleared by an Inter Milan defender.
The cleared ball fell back to Carlton Cole's feet.
He crossed directly again!
This time, the ball bypassed Inter Milan's defense, drew an arc in the air, and flew towards the goal.
Chen Hero in the penalty area shook off the Inter Milan center-back marking him with a very flexible and imaginative run, appearing in the right place at the right time. What followed was too simple for him…
He didn't even jump. He just headed the ball straight into the goal while running forward!
"Hero… Hero!!!"
The commentator on the scene was stunned for a moment before realizing that Chen Hero had really scored, and hadn't hit the side netting or anything.
This was Chen Hero's first goal in this season's Champions League!
"Hero! A beautiful diving header! His positioning was very accurate!"
"Hero is getting more and more refined, almost becoming a wily old fox! This goal is actually not good-looking in itself, and there's nothing special about it. But Chen Hero is able to turn such unremarkable opportunities into goals…"
"Thanks to Chen Hero's goal, Liverpool are leading Inter Milan 1-0 at home! They've had a good start, while Inter Milan are facing a very serious situation!"
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Watching Chen Hero appear in a blank area of Inter Milan's defense, Stramaccioni's heart jumped into his throat.
This was what he was most worried about.
He could only pray to God to let Chen Hero head the ball wide, or head it too straight, so that the Inter Milan goalkeeper could catch it directly.
But unfortunately, God was a Chen Hero fan.
None of the things he hoped for happened.
The ball flew directly into his team's goal.
For Inter Milan, this was a terrible start!