"Eat shit! You bunch of red clowns!!"

Everton fans, clad in blue jerseys, stood in the stands, leaning over and flipping off the Liverpool players on the field while shouting insults.

Their jeers echoed through the air, becoming the only sound in Goodison Park.

The backdrop to their cries was the stadium's electronic scoreboard, displaying the score: 2-0. By international convention, the home team was listed first, the away team second.

"This is the Merseyside Derby!" the commentator roared excitedly. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Merseyside Derby! Liverpool, who everyone thought would easily win the game, are currently trailing the home team, Everton, with a score of 0-2! Distin just headed in the second goal for his team from a corner kick!"

Everton's center-back, Distin, was surrounded by his teammates, celebrating the goal.

The Liverpool players, heads hanging low, formed the backdrop for their celebration.

Forty minutes into the first half, Liverpool hadn't scored a single goal, while Everton, whom they had looked down upon before the game, had scored two.

This made everyone at Liverpool feel extremely frustrated.

Martin O'Neill even angrily kicked a water bottle on the sidelines. He had every reason to be angry, because he had repeatedly warned them before the game not to underestimate their opponents... and what was the result!

If this wasn't underestimation, then nothing was!

"Liverpool's players have performed terribly in the first half of this game, especially their defense, which allowed their opponents to score two goals so easily!"

"Liverpool's attack was impotent in the first half. Neither Hero nor Suarez was able to score. Chen Hero, who had been in excellent form previously, seems to have forgotten to put on his scoring boots for this game."

The television broadcast even gave Chen Hero a close-up shot.

In the shot, Chen Hero frowned as he watched the celebrating Everton players.

"Since the start of the new season, Liverpool has been performing very well, but it has been too smooth for them... Now they are paying the price for their underestimation!"

※※※

Liverpool failed to score until the end of the first half.

Everyone walked back to the locker room with their heads down, knowing that instead of smiles and praise, they would be met with a storm during the halftime break!

They were right.

Martin O'Neill gave the Liverpool players a tongue-lashing during halftime.

Including captains like Chen Hero and Gerrard, although he softened his tone slightly when scolding Gerrard and Chen Hero.

But the severity was still palpable to everyone.

"I won't make any adjustments in the second half!" Martin O'Neill finally said. "There's nothing wrong with my tactics. If we lose the game, it's because you underestimated your opponents! As long as you can correct your attitude, it's not a problem to equalize the score, and it's not impossible to even win the game! But if you still don't change this attitude of underestimation, then you can just wait to lose this game! Lose to your Merseyside Derby rivals!"

After finishing his scolding, O'Neill turned and left the locker room. At this time, only five minutes of the halftime break had passed, and there were still ten minutes until the start of the second half. Normally, O'Neill would definitely talk about the team's performance in the first half, and then talk about what the team should do in the second half...

This time, O'Neill left so decisively, which showed that he was really angry.

In fact, after just arriving at the team, O'Neill gave the players the impression of being a serious but refined head coach, rarely losing his temper, and wearing glasses also made him look very cultured.

The fact that Martin O'Neill could be provoked to such anger showed that Liverpool's performance in the first half was indeed very bad...

The head coach had left, but the halftime break wasn't over yet, so what should they do next?

A group of people looked at each other.

At this moment, Gerrard stood up.

"I apologize to everyone!" Gerrard's first words were like this, and he raised his arm. "We did underestimate our opponents in this game, and that includes me. We didn't take our opponents seriously... This is a very serious mistake, and now we are being punished. I don't want to lose to our opponents on their home turf. The Merseyside Derby has a special meaning for me. Every season, Liverpool has two opponents that we absolutely cannot lose to, one is Everton, and the other is Manchester United! So in the second half of the game, I hope everyone can cheer up with me. There are still forty-five minutes left in the game, there is still plenty of time, although we are behind by two goals, I believe this is not a problem at all!"

"Yes, what's so great about being behind by two goals!" Chen Hero also stood up and waved his fist, saying. "Everton isn't some very powerful team, forty-five minutes is enough for us to take them down!"

"Now let's discuss how to play in the second half..." Gerrard continued.

※※※

As the second half was about to begin, the Everton players returned to the field from the locker room, each with a clear look of joy on their faces.

During the halftime break, they received praise from their head coach, Moyes.

Before the game, Moyes had told them that the entire Liverpool team looked down on them, because Liverpool had performed so badly last season, but they were still able to defeat Everton twice. This season, they would definitely think that defeating them twice was a matter of course.

He successfully aroused the fighting spirit of the Everton players, and in the first half, he launched a fierce attack on Liverpool, catching Liverpool off guard!

They had already gained a two-goal lead in the first half, so what if there was still half a game left? They were sure to win!

That's why the Everton players were so happy.

When they came on the field, not a single Liverpool player had appeared yet. The Everton players thought that the Liverpool players must have been scolded by their head coach for ten minutes, and now they were seizing the time to arrange tactics and figure out how to win against them in the second half... How pitiful!

Huh?

The Everton players, who were feeling pleased with themselves, suddenly noticed that Liverpool's head coach, Martin O'Neill, and the other members of the coaching staff were sitting in the away team's coaching bench.

The head coach wasn't in the locker room? Then what were the Liverpool players doing?

Moyes followed the players to the sidelines, and he also saw Liverpool's head coach, Martin O'Neill, and he was a little surprised.

He thought that O'Neill would be nervously arranging tactics for the second half in the locker room, trying to launch a counterattack in the second half.

But judging from this posture, O'Neill didn't seem to care about the two-goal deficit?

But that's not right!

When Liverpool conceded a goal in the first half, he had personally seen O'Neill kick a water bottle. Did that look like he didn't care?

But if he cared, why wasn't he in the locker room during the halftime break, but on the coaching bench?

Moyes, like his players, couldn't figure out O'Neill's actions.

As time passed, this confusion grew even stronger.

Because the second half of the game was about to begin, but there was still no movement from Liverpool's side!

Not a single Liverpool player came out of the locker room, not even the substitutes.

※※※

As the second half of the game approached, the Everton fans were originally singing constantly in the stands, cheering for Everton, and at the same time trying to put pressure on the Liverpool fans and the players who were about to appear.

But as the halftime break became shorter and shorter, and the Liverpool players still hadn't come out, the singing of these fans became smaller and smaller.

In the end, it simply disappeared, because everyone felt strange.

What was going on with Liverpool?

Everyone turned their attention to the Liverpool coaching bench.

Maybe Martin O'Neill knew something?

But they were wrong. Martin O'Neill didn't know what was happening either. But he remained calm, he vaguely guessed something, anyway, whatever those bastards did had nothing to do with him. For the second half of this game, he was planning to not even lift his butt off the chair on the coaching bench.

So what exactly were the Liverpool players doing?

※※※

They were chatting in the locker room...

Gerrard proposed discussing how to play in the second half, and everyone started discussing it. But in reality, just like Martin O'Neill said, there was nothing wrong with the head coach's tactics, the problem was with the players' attitude.

Since the attitude was correct, there really wasn't much to discuss.

So everyone finished talking very quickly.

Next, they were about to prepare to go out, but at this time, everyone was stopped by Chen Hero.

"Don't rush, guys. Let me tell you a story..."

Then Chen Hero told everyone the story of "one drum of energy" (yī gǔ zuò qì).

"...So, Everton took a two-goal lead against us in the first half, and their morale is high. I think we will encounter very tenacious resistance from them in the second half. So we have to find a way to deplete their fighting spirit and morale. I think we can do what the people in the story did, and delay our appearance. Let them quickly deplete their morale while waiting, and by that time, their vigor will be greatly reduced, and they won't be able to pose a threat to us! And what about us? Then we can take them down in one go!"

After Gerrard heard Chen Hero's words, his eyes lit up.

"That's right! Hero is right, we'll delay our appearance and make them wait outside!"

Suarez also laughed and said, "Let them cool their heels outside, and then we'll chat here, Hero, you're so bad, haha!"

So just like that, some people listened to music, some people chatted, and some people even closed their eyes and pretended to sleep.

It wasn't until the game's referee came out and discovered that Liverpool hadn't appeared yet, and after waiting for a minute and still seeing no one, that he came to the door and reminded them that it was time to come out.

Only then did the Liverpool players slowly walk out of the locker room and reappear on the field in groups of three or five.

The second half of the game could finally begin!

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ps, today is four updates! There are still three updates, please vote for monthly tickets!!!