Chapter 133 Fighting Spirit

Chen Hero particularly liked sparring with experts, because constantly racking up stats against weaker opponents would, over time, lead to a lack of a sense of accomplishment, and that would breed apathy.

But sparring with experts was different. Because it was so difficult to defeat them, he had a special kind of fighting spirit.

Just like his challenge to Messi. He didn't just challenge Messi; he also placed extremely harsh conditions on himself, which was to only play in the knockout stages. To others, this was an insane and incomprehensible level of difficulty, but Chen Hero liked it. Because only in this way could he achieve a sense of accomplishment. A challenge of average difficulty was something anyone could do, so what was so special about it? I, Chen Hero, of course, had to be able to do what others couldn't! Only that could be called "Hero"! That was why Chen Hero especially liked to challenge those tasks that seemed impossible to others.

Competing with Messi in a rapid-fire goal-scoring contest gave him an unprecedented sense of pleasure, especially the hat-trick against Inter Milan and in the final. That kind of pleasure was even more exhilarating than having sex with a woman!

When he first started competing with Van Persie for the league's top scorer, Chen Hero felt that neither the difficulty nor the excitement could compare to competing with Messi for the Champions League's top scorer.

But up until this game, Van Persie's performance had changed his mind.

Van Persie was a very formidable opponent. As soon as he scored a goal, Van Persie immediately followed up with a goal of his own! It was really hard to find someone so cooperative!

The opponent's excellent performance made Chen Hero's fighting spirit even stronger.

You're so awesome, I can't back down either!

※※※

After Liverpool conceded a goal, the TV broadcast showed close-ups of several key players. Everyone's expressions were unsightly, except for Chen Hero, who had a strange smile on his face. Well, to the commentators who didn't know the inside story, the smile on Chen Hero's face was indeed very strange...

The commentators didn't understand why, and many viewers didn't quite understand why Hero could still smile after falling behind.

Only a few people who were particularly familiar with Chen Hero knew that he must have found something interesting again...

Something interesting meant constantly challenging the limits.

※※※

Liverpool's offense in the first half was really fierce. They had many opportunities, and Arsenal's fans were constantly in a state of anxiety.

It was as if they could concede a goal at any moment. Van Persie's goal only made them happy for a few minutes before it stopped working.

Especially every time the soccer ball flew from the flanks into their penalty area, everyone's hearts would be raised. Only after this attack ended could they relax.

Chen Hero was really set on tormenting Koscielny today, jumping and competing for the header again and again. Koscielny was in a disheveled state from his torment, and he had to do his best to barely ensure that he hadn't conceded a goal yet.

He wasn't complacent about his performance at all. On the contrary, he was filled with deep anxiety...

He was always worried that the next time the opponent attacked, they would concede a goal... He knew that if Chen Hero scored another goal, the responsibility would fall entirely on him!

Of course, Arsenal wasn't letting him fight alone. Wenger had strengthened the control of crosses from the flanks, and although he didn't add more manpower in the center to contain Chen Hero, he was still strictly defending the flanks.

But Chen Hero wasn't just good at headers...

He also mastered many weapons that could score goals, such as... holding the ball with his back to the goal!

※※※

Even if Liverpool's tactics were mainly crosses from the flanks and headers in the center, it wasn't like Chen Hero could only wait in the penalty area and constantly jump up and abuse Koscielny.

If he didn't have some other attacking methods, how could he score so many goals?

Koscielny didn't know that Chen Hero had received the "King's Back View" task reward. Of course, he knew that Chen Hero's ability to fight with his back to the goal was also very strong, but that was all based on his strong physique.

He had ways to deal with a strong physique. Before the game, Wenger had warned him to pay attention to Chen Hero's back-to-goal play, and he had also made a special compilation of Chen Hero's back-to-goal goals for Koscielny to watch, telling him how to defend Chen Hero's back-to-goal play.

When Chen Hero received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and had his back to the defending player, he usually stepped on the ball with his foot, leaned back, and pressed tightly against the defending player. In this way, all of the defending player's strength had to be used to physically fight against Chen Hero, and there was no way to intercept the ball. Chen Hero could use this advantage to complete his turn. As long as he maintained this pressure, the opponent would have no way to deal with him.

Of course, he didn't always use his body to squeeze against his opponents every time he received the ball with his back to the goal, because those smart defenders wouldn't give him a chance to get close. Once they maintained a suitable distance from Chen Hero, it would be much more difficult for Chen Hero to comfortably complete his turn and then shoot.

Because everyone had discovered that Chen Hero's back-to-goal play relied on his body, not his skills. Once his body had no room to perform, and his skills were not enough to support him in completing his turn and getting rid of the defender, then he would have no chance...

So Koscielny was warned by Wenger that when Chen Hero ran out of the penalty area to receive the ball with his back to the goal, he shouldn't immediately stick to him to defend, but should maintain a suitable distance, neither too far nor too close. This way, no matter what action he wanted to take, he could react quickly and wouldn't let him get away.

So he wasn't afraid of Chen Hero playing with his back to him.

Just as he was thinking about it, Chen Hero suddenly turned around and ran out of the penalty area. Liverpool was attacking, and since he wasn't staying in the penalty area waiting for a cross, he naturally wanted to play with his back to the goal...

He followed him out, but didn't stick too close, instead maintaining a suitable distance, following him closely but not too closely.

※※※

Koscielny guessed right, Chen Hero did intend to use his back-to-goal play. He wanted to test the power of this ability in actual combat.

Before, he had only dueled with Maldini in instances, lacking a real combat atmosphere. You had to know that many abilities could be easily performed by many people in training, but they might not be able to do so on the field, because there were many situations in actual combat that could not be simulated in training, and that was the best stage to test abilities.

He intended to use Koscielny as a guinea pig.

He often did this. When he was at Zenit Saint Petersburg and Napoli, he had done this kind of thing in order to test his abilities.

At the time, everyone was confused, not understanding why Chen Hero, who was usually in such good shape, suddenly performed abnormally...

Charlie Adam, who was currently holding the ball, saw Chen Hero running out of the penalty area and raising his hand to ask him for the ball, so he passed the ball over.

Chen Hero lifted his foot and unloaded the ball.

Seeing this scene, Koscielny quickly slammed on the brakes and didn't rush up. He remembered Wenger's teachings – to maintain a suitable distance...

He felt that this distance was already suitable.

The only regret was... he couldn't see the ball and didn't know how Chen Hero was controlling the ball.

Was he stepping on the ball?

Just as he was feeling suspicious, he saw Chen Hero in front of him suddenly move!

His upper body moved to the right, and his lower body also made a movement to push the ball to the right...

He was going to break through from this side!

As soon as Koscielny saw him moving in that direction, he quickly turned to follow him.

But just as he had turned halfway, he saw Chen Hero's body appearing behind him instead...

Chen Hero didn't actually turn around, it was just a feint!

Because Koscielny couldn't see the ball at all, he didn't know that Chen Hero was faking it.

Chen Hero just made a movement to turn around in that direction, but his legs wrapped around the ball like threading a needle, but the ball didn't move.

Immediately afterward, he blocked with his body, blocking Koscielny behind him, and then hooked the ball with his right foot, and the ball went in the completely opposite direction from where Koscielny had gone...

"Beautiful dribbling! Koscielny was completely fooled!"

The commentator praised Chen Hero's dribbling. A big guy with a height of 1.95 meters and a weight of 95 kilograms actually made this movement so skillfully, it was really visually shocking!

When Chen Hero broke through him, Koscielny was still standing there, stunned. The after-effects of his drastic adjustment of his center of gravity were a period of stiffness in his body. You would have experience with this when you suddenly changed your mind and wanted to turn to the left while quickly moving to the right...

This period of stiffness could be long or short, depending on the individual's physical agility.

Obviously, Koscielny wasn't the agile type. As a center back with a height of 1.86 meters, his turning speed wasn't too fast...

After Chen Hero shook off Koscielny, he didn't hesitate and took a step directly into the penalty area.

"He's in!"

The commentator exclaimed.

Everyone knew what it meant if Chen Hero entered the penalty area like this...

All of Arsenal's players rushed up, wanting to stop Chen Hero from shooting.

Chen Hero would be a fool to give them such a chance. Before Arsenal's players could complete their encirclement, he took the lead and shot with his right foot in a sideways volley!

The volley was an upgraded version of the toe poke, combining the advantages of concealment and suddenness of the toe poke, while avoiding the weakness of the toe poke's lack of power. The volley had great power and a certain degree of accuracy, so Chen Hero chose the volley!

Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny made a save, but it was too late...

Moreover, Chen Hero's toe poke was quite tricky!

The soccer ball rolled into the goal, grazing the post!

Szczesny only pounced over at this time, and besides touching the air, he didn't touch anything...

※※※

"Hero! Hero! Hero!!!" The old Liverpool commentator on the scene opened his arms and shouted. "He is Liverpool's hero!!"

"In the forty-third minute, Liverpool took the lead again! The one who scored this goal is still Hero! He scored twice in the game! This is his twenty-first league goal of the season! He is still closely chasing Van Persie, and the gap between the two is only three goals!"

"Beautiful turn and dribble, and a clever toe poke! We have seen a more well-rounded center forward! It's really a pleasing and shocking beauty to see a center forward with a height of over 1.9 meters make such a dribbling move! Koscielny was completely destroyed today! He actually allowed a big guy of 1.95 meters to make such a turn and dribble in front of him..."

The excitement of the other commentators was no less intense.

After scoring the goal, Chen Hero ran to Suarez, who was warming up on the sidelines, and hugged him to celebrate the goal. He encouraged his friend in this way.

More Liverpool teammates rushed up, surrounding them, celebrating their second lead before the end of the first half.

"Hero scored again, and he has launched a challenge to Van Persie! The competition between these two is really fierce!"