Chapter 36

The news about Chen Hero's transfer to Liverpool in the summer, and his speech to the fans in the Volturno training base parking lot, was all there was to say, nothing more than the fans' protests and the police increasing security for Chen Hero.

It was lively enough, but nothing new.

Just as the Barcelona media had just begun to hype the secret agreement between Napoli and Liverpool, a round of the Italian domestic league had already been played. At that time, Chen Hero's relationship with the fans was still quite harmonious, because everyone was still unaware of those things.

In the thirty-sixth round of the league, Mazzarri sent out a full reserve team to face the opponent. He originally thought that even if it was a reserve team, with the difference in strength between Napoli and Lecce, taking Lecce should not be a problem.

You should know that before this round of the league, Lecce ranked eighteenth, belonging to the relegation zone.

And Napoli? Ranked first, with a chance to win the championship.

With such a huge gap, Napoli lost to Lecce away from home, once again verifying the famous saying "teams fighting relegation are hard to beat".

In this match, Chen Hero came on in the last fifteen minutes, but failed to save the team from danger. At that time, the score was still tied 1:1, but in the eighty-eighth minute, Lecce's forward Chevanton helped the team score a goal, killing Napoli!

The Lecce fans at the scene went crazy, and the commentator's loud shouts were completely drowned out!

And the Napoli fans were as disappointed as could be. The TV broadcast even gave Chen Hero a close-up, and Chen Hero in the close-up looked helpless in the face of such a result.

Before this game, Napoli's biggest rival for the championship, AC Milan, was forced to a 0:0 draw by Roma away from home. AC Milan played one more game and was still one point behind. If Napoli could take Lecce away from home, they could lead AC Milan by four points. Even if there were any slip-ups in the last two rounds of the league, losing one game, or drawing two consecutive games, Napoli would still be able to win the championship.

Who would have thought that Napoli would be fiercely "spiced" by "little peppers" at Lecce's home.

They stumbled and lost to Lecce!

"Aha! With two rounds left in the league, Napoli is now only one point ahead of AC Milan. In the last two rounds, Napoli will first face Inter Milan at home, and then go to Juventus away. On the other hand, AC Milan? In the thirty-seventh round, they will face Cagliari at home, and in the thirty-eighth round, they will challenge Udinese away. Their opponents are not strong, and AC Milan, after chasing hard for a season, has finally ushered in a turning point!"

The neutral commentator was not necessarily happy about Napoli potentially losing the league title because he hated Napoli. He just hoped that the suspense of the league title could be extended a little longer, preferably until the last round and the last minute of the league, that's exciting enough!

For a standard spectator, no matter who wins the championship, it has nothing to do with them, but the process must be tortuous enough and interesting enough.

Mazzarri, who lost the game, looked helpless: "...This is football..." He kept shrugging his shoulders at the press conference, repeating this sentence over and over again.

Yes, what else could he say besides that?

After the game, the media's criticism of him suddenly increased. Everyone believed that Mazzarri lost this game entirely because he was arrogant and thought that he could beat Lecce away from home with a second-tier lineup. Yes, Lecce was indeed only ranked eighteenth, but the two teams above them were at most only two points away from them. If they could win, they would have a great chance of overtaking their opponents and escaping the relegation zone.

With three rounds left in the league, the relegation teams at this time are the most terrifying...

The media bombarded Mazzarri, and from his mistakes in this game, they also talked about his problems when he coached Sampdoria, truly going online and digging up old debts.

Judging from the media's posture, it seemed that Mazzarri would not be able to continue coaching in Napoli next season. Everyone ignored his achievement of leading Napoli to the Champions League final for the first time in history.

At this time, Chen Hero came out of nowhere and saved Mazzarri...

Of course, looking at it now, it is not known whether it saved Mazzarri, or pushed him further into the abyss...

First, the secret agreement between Napoli and Liverpool was exposed, and then Chen Hero's big drama of turning against the fans in the parking lot.

With two rounds left in the league, Napoli encountered such a situation, and their opponents in the last two rounds were Inter Milan and Juventus respectively. How could Mazzarri not worry about the team's state?

The thirty-seventh round of the league was Napoli's last home game of the season. Judging from the current relationship between Chen Hero and the Napoli fans, I am afraid that the Stadio San Paolo will reproduce the home scene of the 2008-2009 season...

In such a situation, can Mazzarri's team defeat Inter Milan, who are determined to seek revenge?

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Hype is hype, the game must continue.

Amidst everyone's arguments and angry roars, the thirty-seventh round of the league came as scheduled.

The first game of this round was Lazio against Genoa, and Lazio, playing at home, defeated Genoa 4:2.

The second to appear was AC Milan, whose opponent was Cagliari.

Relying on Robinho's two goals and Gattuso and Seedorf's goals, AC Milan finally defeated Cagliari 4:1 at home. With one more game played, they temporarily ranked first with a two-point advantage.

"...This is Milan's challenge to Napoli, this is the roar of the king!" *Milan Sports News* commented on this home victory after the game.

Winning such a brilliant victory at home is obviously very inspiring and morale-boosting.

AC Milan has already played its card, and now the eyes of the entire Italy have turned to Napoli to see how they respond.

The most conflicted people now must be the Inter Milan fans. Because they neither want to let go of Napoli and avenge their elimination in the Champions League, nor do they want to help AC Milan ascend to the Serie A championship throne because they defeated Napoli...

Some media also considered this point, and they asked the Inter Milan players and coaches about this issue.

"This game has nothing to do with the league title. We want to beat our opponent just like in any other game, it's that simple," said the team captain Zanetti.

Leonardo joked, "I'm not an AC Milan spy, really." Then he said with a serious face, "But Inter Milan must win this game. This is not to let AC Milan win the championship, this is just to be worthy of ourselves and the fans who support us!"

After summarizing everyone's speeches, the media teased: "...The only thing that can be confirmed is that no matter what the result of tomorrow's game is, Leonardo will not be able to take off this hat of 'AC Milan spy'..."

And the AC Milan fans are relatively relaxed.

Not only because they are now taking the initiative, but also because Napoli is now caught in huge internal and external troubles. Such a team cannot have any fighting power, let alone their opponent is Inter Milan, who is not weak at all. Since they can lose to Lecce away from home, why can't they lose to Inter Milan at home again?

The top scorer has turned against the fans, and the media is relentlessly pursuing the secret deal between Napoli and Liverpool. Everyone believes that the Napoli team may have no fighting spirit when facing Inter Milan, and everyone's mind is not on the game. The media believes that all the things that have happened in the past few days must have brought a huge impact to the Napoli players...

Yes, they thought so until a few hours before the start of the game.

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"...We are reporting from outside the Stadio San Paolo. I just counted. In the short period of fifteen minutes, at least five groups of Napoli fans who walked past me came to express their anger at Chen Hero and protest against the club... An average of one group every three minutes, they are holding up slogans and cartoons targeting Chen Hero..."

"Here they come! Here they come!"

The reporter who was doing a live broadcast suddenly heard a commotion from a distance, so he turned his attention to it first, and then his mouth widened in surprise in the camera.

"My God..."

Just when the host in the back studio and the TV audience were getting impatient, the camera finally turned over.

So everyone saw clearly what surprised the reporter at the scene.

That behemoth, a huge flag was being "floated" by hundreds of fans.

This blue flag was so familiar, because it was very, very famous two years ago.

In every Napoli home game, it would become the most eye-catching target, and it always had to be given several close-up shots in a game.

This flag symbolized the demonstration and ridicule against that guy whom the entire Naples hated, and witnessed the darkest years of Chen Hero's career.

The flag read: "You are not even worthy of shining Diego's shoes, you bastard!"

The fans waiting outside the stadium let out deafening cheers when they saw this huge flag. They cheered like they were cheering for their hero.

Amidst the cheers, the reporter's voice came again: "Poor Hero... I think this game will be very, very, very... difficult for him! Okay, that's all for my report here..."

The picture switched back to the studio behind, and the host also had a mocking expression.

"I think people in Milan must be very happy, whether they support AC Milan or Inter Milan..."