Chapter 118 Head-Shrinking Turtle

It was five o'clock in the afternoon, less than three hours away from the evening's game. Players were gradually coming down from their rooms, waiting in the lobby to board the bus. During the break, groups of two or three were either chatting or scrolling through Twitter. Marchisio's shout attracted everyone's attention, and all eyes turned to him.

An enthusiastic teammate quickly asked, "What's wrong, Claudio?"

Marchisio pointed to his phone screen and angrily told his teammates, "That bastard Chen Hero actually called us cowards!"

After hearing Marchisio's words, everyone was stunned for a moment before collectively erupting.

"Fuck him! How dare he say that about us!"

"You're right, Claudio, that guy is a real bastard!"

"Isn't this trash talk a bit too much?"

"Damn it, I'm going to show him what's what in the game!"

"I can't wait for the game to start, damn it!"

"I knew there was a reason I didn't like him. He doesn't respect his opponents at all! Someone like that doesn't deserve to be a professional player!"

Everyone was indignant, denouncing Chen Hero.

Conte had just come out of the elevator when he heard the commotion in the lobby. He was puzzled and asked his assistant coach, Angelo Alessio, "What's going on?"

Alessio walked out of the elevator with Conte, also unsure. "I'll go ask them."

He walked over, grabbed a player who seemed relatively normal, inquired about the situation, and then returned with a frown.

"They saw online that Chen Hero is attacking Juventus again, so they're a bit emotional..."

"Chen Hero? What did he say this time?"

Conte felt a headache coming on at the mention of that name. A guy who never let you relax, on or off the field…

"He said, uh, he said we're a bunch of cowards..."

Conte's heart tightened.

He suddenly understood the players' reaction. He felt annoyed himself when he heard that, let alone the young, hot-blooded players.

But while he could understand the players' feelings, he couldn't allow them to act on them.

In fact, the first time Chen Hero provoked Juventus, Conte worried that the team would be angered by it. He specifically spoke with the captain, Chiellini, asking him to calm the players and not let them be affected by Chen Hero's provocations. It was a clear psychological warfare tactic, aimed at angering Juventus, causing them to lose their composure and basic judgment, allowing anger to cloud their minds during the game, leading to poor performance…

In fact, when he spoke with Chiellini, Conte had already noticed signs of anger in the team captain.

Fortunately, Chiellini was the captain and could control his emotions. He suppressed his anger and agreed to Conte's request, then stepped forward on behalf of Juventus to make that statement to the reporters.

Conte originally thought that was the end of it.

Who would have thought that Chen Hero was such a bastard! Seeing that Juventus hadn't taken the bait, he immediately launched an even more aggressive provocation.

Calling Juventus cowards!

This blatant personal attack had crossed the line of psychological warfare, hadn't it?

"Should I call Gio over?" Assistant coach Alessio asked Conte. Gio was the captain, Chiellini. His full name was Giorgio Chiellini, nicknamed Gio.

Conte looked at the situation before him and shook his head. "Forget it, Angelo."

Calling the captain wouldn't help in this situation. Even if the captain was the most composed person on the team, he couldn't change the minds of all the players, not to mention that Chiellini was also very annoyed right now…

Conte was now thinking about how to properly channel the players' anger, directing it towards the enemy instead of destroying themselves.

He didn't have much time left. The team was about to board the bus, and after arriving at the stadium for warm-ups, it would be game time.

He only had time to address the players before the game.

※※※

Martin O'Neill had also seen Chen Hero's second wave of attacks online. He didn't think it was too excessive; on the contrary, he was quite happy. Because he felt that this would make it difficult for Juventus not to be furious.

Their mentality would fluctuate, which would be Liverpool's opportunity.

After being happy, Martin O'Neill realized that he was starting to rely on psychological warfare himself. He hadn't been a big fan of this approach before, believing that football should be a fair and square contest on the field.

Who would have thought…

He had gone from initially being firmly opposed to Chen Hero's involvement in the clubs' war of words, to later turning a blind eye, and now, deep down, supporting Chen Hero's actions…

He didn't have much time to dwell on his own changes. He needed to quickly devise a strategy: what to do if Juventus really lost their composure, and what to do if Juventus remained calm.

He needed to consider all of these things.

※※※

Chen Hero had finished his interview long ago and returned to the team. He didn't dwell on what impact his words would have on the game or himself. As long as he scored goals in the game and helped the team win, that was all that mattered.

He wasn't scrolling through Twitter at the moment; he was playing games on his phone.

So he had no idea what kind of uproar his words had caused online.

Even if he knew, he probably wouldn't care…

Juventus fans had already started contacting and organizing each other online. It was a temporary action, so there was no way to plan too meticulously. However, calling on everyone to boo him, curse him, and give him the middle finger whenever Chen Hero touched the ball was still doable.

But… Didn't Juventus fans understand? Such actions had almost zero impact on Chen Hero's offensive power…

※※※

When the Juventus players started boarding the bus, their resentment towards Chen Hero hadn't dissipated. Many were still constantly refreshing Twitter, wanting to see the latest developments regarding Chen Hero's words.

Some even directly used their own accounts to publish rebuttals targeting Chen Hero on Twitter.

"He'll soon see whether Juventus are cowards or not!"

"I'll show him on the field who the real coward is!!"

Seeing this, Conte felt even more strongly that now wasn't the time to suppress the players' emotions, but rather to guide them to vent their anger, otherwise bottling it up would cause problems.

※※※

During the warm-up, the Juventus players were very energetic. Several of them kept staring at Chen Hero, their gazes intense enough to kill him ten thousand times over… Even skinning him alive wouldn't be enough to quell the Juventus players' hatred.

Actually, even if Chen Hero hadn't said those words this time, the Juventus players wouldn't have given him a friendly look anyway. Because Chen Hero had a bad relationship with Juventus during his time at Napoli. Back then, every time the two teams clashed, it was like a war.

Speaking of which, Chen Hero really seemed like a natural Napoli player. His first Serie A goal for Napoli was scored against Juventus. You should know that his form wasn't very good at the time. Hampered by coach Reja's tactics and his own form, he hadn't been able to score for a long time. He was the subject of much controversy and criticism, but in the match against Juventus, he suddenly scored a goal, infuriating Juventus to the point of vomiting blood.

In Chen Hero's last Serie A match before leaving Napoli, his opponent happened to be Juventus.

Chen Hero scored twice in that game, setting the record for the most goals scored in a single Serie A season. Juventus tragically served as the backdrop.

So the two sides had always been enemies. And this kind of hatred didn't need to be publicized; everyone knew it, as normal as eating and breathing.

If Juventus and Napoli weren't enemies, that would be something to publicize, because that would be big news!

In the stands, there were new banners targeting Chen Hero that Juventus fans had hastily made—the previous ones were all the usual anti-Chen Hero banners.

The new ones were up-to-date, incorporating the current hot keyword "coward."

Some Juventus fans held up cardboard signs with a turtle drawn on them, but the turtle's head had been replaced with Chen Hero's head. Even without writing anything, everyone knew what it meant.

Other fans held up signs cursing Chen Hero: "You're the coward, your whole family are cowards!"

"If you're not a coward, you're a dickhead!"

Still other Juventus fans near the Liverpool warm-up area kept shouting, "Hero! Hero! You're a big turtle! A big turtle!"

"You have the nerve to call others names with that big dickhead of yours?!"

"Crawl back into your shell and lick your own balls!!"

Chen Hero ignored them, as if he didn't hear the fans' shouts at all.

But in reality, he heard everything loud and clear…

During the shooting warm-up practice, Chen Hero took an angry shot, and the ball whistled towards the goal… but went wide…

And slammed hard into the advertising board behind the end line.

The loud bang made the noise from that section of the stands much quieter.

Those Juventus fans were startled, but they quickly recovered and continued to mock and insult Chen Hero.

Chen Hero's second shot went directly over the crossbar, hitting the Juventus fans in the stands…

For the third shot, Chen Hero still missed, again hitting the advertising board with a loud bang. The stands quieted down briefly, then erupted in even louder boos and curses.

"You think you can win against us with that kind of form? Keep dreaming!! Haha!"

The Juventus fans triumphantly mocked Chen Hero.

Three shots in a row, none of them on target. It was clear that he didn't have a feel for shooting at all!

If Chen Hero was like this in the game, they could breathe a sigh of relief.

It wasn't just the fans who noticed this.

So did the professionals.

Whether it was reporters or the two coaches, they all noticed that Chen Hero's three shots were all misses.

"Looks like Hero isn't in shooting form today?"

"He's trying too hard, and as a result, he's lost his accuracy…"

The reporters discussed in the press box.

Martin O'Neill frowned slightly—he wasn't worried that Chen Hero was out of form, he just didn't know what Chen Hero was trying to do…

Juventus coach Conte maintained a poker face on the surface, but inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. If Chen Hero was really out of form, the game would be much easier.

The Juventus players also noticed Chen Hero's situation, and their faces broke into mocking smiles.

He talked a big game before the match, but in the end, he's just a paper tiger!

Liverpool goalkeeper Reina was in charge of guarding the goal. Chen Hero had taken three shots in a row, and he hadn't made a single save, the ball either high or wide. In his memory, such a situation rarely occurred.

He looked at Chen Hero with some confusion.

But Chen Hero turned and ran away, no longer practicing shooting.