Chapter 1 Liverpool's Champions League Journey Begins

After the match against Manchester City, Liverpool welcomed the first leg of the Champions League knockout stage.

Their opponent was Juventus from Italy.

The order of the Champions League knockout stage's home and away games isn't determined by a draw, at least not in the Round of 16.

The group winner plays the first leg away and the second leg at home, which is a more favorable schedule.

This is why so many teams fight tooth and nail to win their group.

With a favorable schedule and a not-so-strong opponent, they can go further in the Champions League knockout stage. Teams with the strength to win the championship go for the trophy, and those without the strength also want to win a few more games and get a bigger share of the prize money.

Liverpool was the group winner, and Juventus was the runner-up, so Liverpool played the first leg away and the second leg at home this time.

Even if they slipped up in the away game, they could find a way to recover at home. If they played the first leg at home, they would be putting themselves in a do-or-die situation. They had to try to win the first game, and not only win, but also try to win by a large margin and get more goal difference advantage, so that their opponents wouldn't be able to turn the tables when they returned to their home field.

And the team that plays the first leg away is much more relaxed. Even if they accidentally lost the away game, as long as they didn't lose by too much, they would still have a chance when they returned to their home field.

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After the match against Manchester City, with the honor of setting a new record, Chen Hero followed the team on a plane to Turin.

Beginning his Champions League knockout stage journey.

Before this game, the Italian media paid close attention to and evaluated Chen Hero.

The Italian media was well aware of how powerful Chen Hero was. When he was playing for Napoli, he had already made the media know this with his actions.

So no one dared to underestimate Chen Hero, even though he had been away from the highest stage of European football for two years.

In addition, he had just broken Gerd Muller's consecutive goalscoring record in the previous league game, and he was in the limelight. Anyone who underestimated him at this time really couldn't be explained by "intelligence problems."

So during this period, the Italian media had been repeatedly saying that Chen Hero would be the Liverpool player Juventus needed to pay the most attention to. Even if they didn't care about anyone else, they had to freeze Chen Hero. Because Chen Hero's role was no longer just scoring goals. Relying on his continuous goals, he had now become a kind of spiritual totem for Liverpool. As long as he scored, Liverpool's players felt that everything was normal and they would be full of confidence in winning the game, no matter how strong the opponent was.

Chen Hero had reached the point where his performance was a barometer of Liverpool's performance.

If he performed well, the spiritual totem would be normal, and the whole team would be normal. If he didn't perform well, the spiritual totem would be in danger of collapsing, then Liverpool would naturally be in a state of panic, how could they be in the mood to play well?

Juventus coach Conte felt that the media's favorite and best thing to do was to talk nonsense, which was similar to politicians.

I also know that Chen Hero is very dangerous and is Liverpool's most terrible player. But the problem is how to deal with him!

You should give me some advice!

On this world-class problem, no one gave a valuable answer.

Conte had to explore it himself.

Now Conte felt how excited he was when Chen Hero was still in Serie A. At that time, Chen Hero was strong, but he had many weaknesses that could be exploited.

But now Chen Hero is increasingly developing into a super invincible all-around center forward.

Wanting to find his weaknesses and exploit them… it's difficult!

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When Liverpool landed at the airport in Turin, in addition to the Liverpool fans who had arrived in Turin to pick up the team, there were also some "mystery guests."

They were wearing sky blue jerseys and looked very conspicuous among the Liverpool fans wearing red jerseys.

In England, the Red-Blue rivalry is an eternal theme. Basically, the relationship between the Red team and the Blue team is not very good. Just like Liverpool and Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton, Manchester United and Manchester City…

However, these Liverpool fans and the fans wearing sky blue jerseys were at peace with each other, and some of them even chatted happily.

These people were not Everton or Manchester City fans, they were local Italian fans.

They came from the southern Italian city of Naples.

That's right, they were all Napoli fans.

They came here specifically to cheer for Chen Hero.

Naples and Juventus are sworn enemies. Liverpool was playing Juventus, Chen Hero was helping Naples get revenge—Naples failed to qualify for the Champions League this season because they were squeezed out by Juventus in the final moments of last season. This made the Napoli fans' hatred for Juventus even deeper.

In their opinion, even if Chen Hero was no longer a Napoli player, as long as he was playing Juventus, they had to cheer for him.

What's more, after the draw results were announced, Chen Hero said, "I haven't forgotten the years I spent in Naples."

This sentence made many Napoli fans cheer.

Because they all knew that Chen Hero had not forgotten his roots, and he was very clear about the hatred between Naples and Juventus. Even if he was representing Liverpool, he would never show mercy when playing Juventus!

These people came to support Chen Hero because of this.

They even bought tickets, not only to support Chen Hero at the airport, but also to support him at the stadium.

As soon as Chen Hero came out, he saw the sky blue color from a large area of red.

He was not surprised at all. He knew the hatred between Naples and Juventus, so when he came to Italy to play against Juventus, the Napoli fans would definitely come to support him.

Because he had played for Napoli, Chen Hero also disliked Juventus.

Chen Hero didn't mind helping Naples get revenge.

Just a favor.

Anyway, he was going to win.

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Conte didn't allow the players to get into a war of words with Chen Hero. Now everyone knew that few people could get the upper hand or win in the end by arguing with Chen Hero. Not only on the verbal level, no one could get the upper hand, but even in the final game results, few people could win.

Rather than using a war of words to arouse the other party's anger, it's better to act in a low-key manner, maybe it can paralyze the other party?

If you have to say that Chen Hero has any weaknesses, maybe his personality is his biggest weakness.

When encountering a strong enemy, Chen Hero will explode with very powerful energy.

But if he encounters an opponent who is too weak, he may not be able to muster any energy.

This person is a bit emotional.

Conte felt that angering him would only deepen his hatred for Juventus, thereby making him more serious. If he had to defeat Juventus at that time, it would not be worth it.

If Conte's low-key approach was known, I'm afraid many Juventus fans would scold him for being spineless and shameful.

But now the situation is stronger than people. If you are not low-key, then do you have any other effective ways to stop Chen Hero?

Who made Chen Hero so powerful?

Letting a century-old giant like Juventus have to lower their heads and put their attitude down when facing him.

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Conte's approach made Chen Hero very bored. Playing against Juventus, he had a lot to say. When he was playing for Napoli, he had to fight Juventus at least twice every season. The story could be told for a long time.

He was waiting for a suitable opportunity, and he didn't mind reminding the Juventus fans of the past.

But Juventus didn't give him such an opportunity.

No one from Juventus spoke, neither coach Conte nor the players. Everyone kept silent, and even the local media in Turin didn't show any aggressive behavior—Chen Hero could understand Italian, so he could naturally know what the media was saying as soon as possible.

This made him very upset.

Very upset.

You are the giant Juventus, and this is your territory! You should at least show some of the momentum of a local tyrant!

Okay, if you don't say anything, I will!

After the training session to adapt to the field before the game, Chen Hero was surrounded by Italian reporters.

Because of his experience of playing for Napoli for three seasons, Chen Hero had many familiar faces in the Italian press, and everyone liked to interview him. Because he dared to say anything with his big mouth.

When interviewing him, a reporter asked him what he thought of this game.

Chen Hero was secretly pleased, it was like someone sending a pillow when he was sleepy.

What he needed was such a question, otherwise it would be too abrupt to speak rashly.

He smiled and said, "Obviously, Juventus is afraid of us!"

As soon as he said this, everyone was shocked.

Seeing the shocked reporters, Chen Hero further explained: "Why do I say that? Because I have been in Turin for almost a day, and I have not heard any Juventus players express their views on this game. Don't they know that the game is tomorrow? So I think they must be afraid of us, and they are so scared by us that they can't even speak! Hahaha!"

Chen Hero's words were too arrogant and too rampant. Some of the reporters who supported Juventus in the interview couldn't stand it anymore, and their faces immediately turned ugly.

We praised you and valued you, we regarded you as a worthy opponent, how can you humiliate us like this?!

What do you mean we are afraid of you?!

However, the anger of these people was only temporary, because many people had calmed down and then thought of Juventus' series of actions during this period.

It seems that there is really some truth to what he said about being afraid of him…

This timid appearance, what else could it be but being afraid of Chen Hero?

Alas, we can't blame others for looking down on us if our own people are not up to par!