Chen Hero's goal had a significant impact, instantly calming the Liverpool players.

Although Manchester City played tenaciously and scored another goal in the second half, Liverpool quickly equalized again with a goal from Bellamy just five minutes later.

Liverpool still led Manchester City by two goals on aggregate.

In the end, Liverpool drew 2-2 with Manchester City at their home stadium. Liverpool advanced to the League Cup final with a 4-2 aggregate victory, thanks to two away goals!

As the referee blew the whistle to end the match, Anfield erupted in huge cheers—wasn't this scene a bit familiar?

Yes, just three days earlier, Liverpool had eliminated another arch-rival, Manchester United, at this very stadium.

Now that both Manchester teams had been eliminated by Liverpool, it was no wonder the Liverpool fans were in high spirits.

They sang songs insulting the Mancunians, "seeing off" the Manchester City players. The disgruntled Manchester City fans, no matter how angry, dared not make any extreme moves, as they were faced with two rows of fully armed riot police.

However, many Manchester City fans had made up their minds—what goes around comes around. One day, you'll come to our territory! By then, the ban will be long gone, and we'll show you the passion of the Mancunians!

Anyway, starting from the thirteenth round of the league at the end of November, when they drew 1-1 at home with Manchester City, so many things had happened between the two teams in the past few months, and the feud had grown bigger and bigger. In fact, the conflict between Liverpool and Manchester City was not as intense as that with Manchester United before. Because their strengths and reputations were similar, Manchester United was Liverpool's number one rival.

Liverpool didn't even bother to look at Manchester City, this poor team, squarely.

But now it was different. This pauper that they had always looked down upon had suddenly inherited a large fortune one day and had become a nouveau riche even wealthier than themselves. Liverpool's mentality was somewhat unbalanced...

So the hostile relationship with Manchester City had become even more profound.

In fact, Liverpool fans had long disliked Manchester City, especially their former owners, those stingy Americans who refused to invest more money in the transfer market. Meanwhile, Manchester City was being bought by a Middle Eastern consortium and spending money lavishly. Many people would even think sourly—why didn't the Middle Eastern consortium choose us, Liverpool, in the first place? How are we worse than Manchester City?

Back then, when they got rid of the two Americans, many Liverpool fans dreamed that the new owner would bring a large amount of funds to the team to help this century-old powerhouse regain its vitality.

However, after Chen Xing took over, he only bought Suarez and sold Torres, which made many Liverpool fans very dissatisfied with him. Fortunately, he quickly secured Chen Hero, which calmed the fans' anger.

From this point of view, Liverpool fans are not like Manchester United fans, who are inherently resistant to foreign capital. When Murdoch acquired Manchester United, Manchester United fans protested en masse, but it ended without result. After Glazer successfully acquired Manchester United, a team called "F.C. United of Manchester" was formed in Manchester on the same day, consisting entirely of Manchester United die-hards, competing head-to-head with Manchester United. It is said that even Giggs' brother played for them.

And what about Liverpool fans? Whether it was the previous two Americans or the current Chen Xing, the acquisition of Liverpool did not encounter much protest or resistance.

This may be related to the situation of the two teams. Manchester United's development in the past ten years or so can be described as like cooking oil over a raging fire, in its most prosperous period. It is the most well-known team in the world and also the most profitable. They have won the Premier League title countless times, and also won the treble. They also produced Beckham, a heartthrob. Manchester United fans are proud and proud of their team. They feel that Manchester United has achieved great success without those foreign capitals, so foreign capital is an insult and blasphemy to Manchester United's glory.

Liverpool is different. In the twenty years of the Premier League, Liverpool has not won a single league title. At most, they win some cup titles to make do. They did win a Champions League, but compared to Manchester United's two, it is still less. Most of the time, Liverpool is just drifting with the tide, constantly rising and falling. It is far from the great Red Army dynasty in the hearts of fans. Liverpool fans are eager to restore the team's glory. For this reason, accepting future capital is insignificant in their eyes. All means that can revive Liverpool are good means. As for whose Liverpool it is, this question is too stupid—just look at the red crowd in the Kop stand, listen to the song "You'll Never Walk Alone" echoing over Anfield, and see Shankly's statue, Paisley Gates...and you'll know that this will always be Liverpool, belonging to Liverpool fans.

AC Milan and Inter Milan have changed many owners in history, and many English teams have also changed countless owners. Does anyone say that they are not the same teams as before?

No.

It doesn't matter who it nominally belongs to, as long as they don't move out of the original community after changing owners, like Wimbledon, and then abandon their name and past history as well.

Such things are all exceptions in English football, and the possibility of it happening to Liverpool is zero.

That's why Liverpool fans are so eager for wealthy benefactors to acquire Liverpool.

Now Chen Xing has come, and he has also brought Chen Hero. Although Liverpool fans have not yet won a championship, they have already enjoyed the joy that Chen Hero has brought them.

Constant goals and arrogance towards the Mancunians have made Liverpool people stand firmly with him.

Although Chen Hero is not a player cultivated by Liverpool's own youth training camp, nor is he a local born and raised in Liverpool, his many performances in the half-season or so since he came to the team have made everyone feel that he is defending Liverpool's dignity and glory with practical actions. He is the representative of Liverpool!

Now that Gerrard is frequently injured and has become a glass man, they can only see the light that once excited them from Chen Hero.

※※※

Gerrard is out for the season, and Suarez has just started to resume training. Many Liverpool fans regard Chen Hero as a savior.

But the reality is cruel...

Just when they were advancing triumphantly in the cup competition, they were bloodied in the league again.

Liverpool lost 2-3 to Wolves away from home.

In this game, Chen Hero delivered a good performance with a goal and an assist. But he still couldn't save the team from defeat.

As the club's owner, Chen Xing said in an interview after the game: "Obviously, it is unrealistic to expect Hero to score at least four goals like Superman in every game, and then the team wins the game... We shouldn't put too much pressure on Hero."

Obviously, he was dissatisfied with Dalglish's practice of not letting Chen Hero rest, and at the same time he was reducing the pressure on Chen Hero—now there is such a voice in the media: if Chen Hero is in good condition, Liverpool should win; if Liverpool does not win, it must be because Chen Hero is not in good condition.

He didn't want this voice to become the truth. Everyone thinks that it is a matter of course for Chen Hero to have a hat-trick or a poker in every game. But the fact is that the performance of scoring four goals in the game against Manchester City is not very common for Chen Hero.

The two of them have a consensus on protecting Chen Hero. In the post-match press conference, Dalglish said that the loss was the responsibility of him, the head coach, and not the responsibility of anyone else, let alone Chen Hero.

"He scored a goal in the game and had an assist. His performance was good enough, and I have nothing to complain about. In fact, everyone knows that Liverpool's problem is not a problem of one hero..."

Losing to a team like Wolves away in the league has cost Liverpool the chance to catch up with teams like Arsenal and Newcastle. Dalglish is under a lot of pressure now.

He also knew that there would be a lot of criticism against him after the game, but now Dalglish had seen through it. Criticize if you want, anyway, I'm the one who's going to leave at the end of the season, so what am I afraid of your criticism?

It's better not to let Chen Hero be attacked by the media too much. In fact, Dalglish was a little unhappy that Chen Hero was always at odds with Manchester City fans. He believes that a player should put more energy on football games, rather than arguing with fans...

Chen Hero was not in a good mood after losing the game, and he was indifferent when accepting interviews with reporters, putting on a big-name attitude.

"I don't know why we lost the game. I think everyone worked hard. But that's football..." He shrugged.

A reporter asked him: "Do you think the loss is related to someone being in bad condition?"

This question was obviously to provoke discord and damage the relationship between Chen Hero and his teammates. Chen Hero naturally couldn't answer him along his lines. Although several players did perform very badly in the game, he insisted: "No, there is no relationship at all, and no one performed badly. Everyone did their best, and everyone was very sad when they didn't win the game. No one wants to lose the game..."

"Liverpool is getting farther and farther away from the top four in the league, and even the sixth place in the league seems out of reach..."

"There's still a third of the season left, let's wait and see!"

On this point, Chen Hero was still stubbornly refusing to admit defeat. He pointed to the camera lens and turned to leave.

The reporters shook their heads as they watched his back.

"What an excellent center forward, but he had to come to Liverpool!"

Someone sighed.

Obviously, no one thought that Chen Hero was the culprit for the team's loss. Everyone felt sorry for him.