Chapter 185 He Acted Very Well

After the second half of the match began, Liverpool's performance remained unchanged, still listless, especially Chen Hero’s.

There was no change compared to the first half; he still seemed like he hadn't woken up. Even in physical confrontations, he lacked his usual absolute dominance.

"Perhaps his heart has already flown to the Allianz Arena."

The commentator joked.

After the match with West Bromwich Albion, Liverpool would set off for Munich to challenge Bayern Munich, making a final push to enter the Champions League final.

So everyone felt that Chen Hero's poor form was because his mind wasn't on the league but on the upcoming Champions League match.

This was understandable and normal.

They just felt sorry for Liverpool.

They were already so close to the league title… their first Premier League title in history, but they were giving it up to compete for the Champions League.

Who knew when they would have such a good opportunity again…

※※※

Everyone was preoccupied with observing and pondering Chen Hero’s abnormal performance.

But no one noticed one thing: although Liverpool's attack hadn't broken the deadlock for a long time, and although their defense seemed truly embarrassed, full of dangers, they hadn't conceded a goal!

Yes, so far, the match had been going on for sixty-eight minutes, with twenty-two minutes remaining until the end, and the score was still 0:0.

Playing at home, West Bromwich Albion had gained endless strength and confidence from the half-time break, and they pressed higher and higher in the second half.

"Score! Must score! Must win the game!" This thought was like a curse, buzzing in their minds, growing louder and louder, almost occupying their entire minds, leaving them unable to think of anything other than accepting this instruction.

In their eyes, the weak Liverpool was already crumbling under their offensive, as if one more push would send them crashing to the ground.

Just a little bit, just a little bit, press up a little more, press up a little more…

Every West Bromwich Albion player thought so.

The West Bromwich Albion fans in the stands were also in a frenzy, singing loudly, shouting cheers, encouraging the West Bromwich Albion players to fight more bravely, strive for the lead, and rush higher and higher.

But Liverpool wasted several counter-attack opportunities.

They didn't use the counter-attacks to score a crucial goal.

But the stalemate would eventually be broken, otherwise, Liverpool would really be playing with fire…

In the seventy-seventh minute, Liverpool won a corner kick.

Chen Hero stood in the center, his fixed position. In this position, he could both compete for a header in the middle and retreat to grab the back post, and at the same time, he could rush forward to grab the front post.

The West Bromwich Albion players surrounded him, although Chen Hero hadn't had a good performance in this match, set pieces were different. His header was simply an unsolvable Bug. If they let him go, West Bromwich Albion didn't know if they would die a miserable death…

Two tall center-backs pinned Chen Hero down, ensuring that he wouldn't easily head the ball.

※※※

Chen Hero indeed didn't easily head the ball. After all, with two people in front of him, no one could easily head it.

He just barely managed to head the ball…

But even just barely managing to head the ball was enough!

"Liverpool's corner kick is in! Hero… header! Eh! Eh! Goal! Goal! This shouldn't have been a great opportunity! But the football headed out by Hero seemed to have a small arc, bypassing the West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Foster's hand… and falling into the goal! This is truly an unexpected goal!!"

The commentator was surprised, but for Chen Hero, accurately controlling his header was something he had done before, so it was nothing new.

What was heading out an arc? As long as he wanted to, he might even be able to head out a knuckleball!

After scoring, Chen Hero fell from the air, pushed away the West Bromwich Albion players in front of him, and then ran out wildly, directly performing a diving landing—just like he had scored with his head before, he was still so excited and wild.

He wasn't afraid of others saying he was overdoing it. In fact, doing this was normal; being too abnormal would arouse suspicion.

Since he was acting, he had to get into the role. He was now a Chen Hero who had the will but not the strength. Finally, he scored a goal, helping the team take the lead, so naturally, he had to celebrate hysterically. He didn't believe anyone could find fault with this.

This was the professional ethics of an actor; whatever you act, you must be like it!

※※※

Not only was Chen Hero excited, but the other Liverpool players were also excited. They rushed over and directly pressed Chen Hero under them, stacking into a human pyramid.

"Liverpool's players seem very excited after the goal! Yes, this goal was hard-earned. If Liverpool can ultimately win the game, then this goal may be decisive! Because judging from Liverpool's overall performance in this game, it's really lucky that they were able to score this goal!"

Sure enough, a commentator immediately took the bait.

There were quite a few people who held this view.

Other commentators also said that Chen Hero being able to head the football in despite being blocked by two people, on the one hand, showed that his heading ability was really strong, but it also showed that his luck was good enough. If he wasn't lucky, how could the football have created an arc and bypassed Foster's fingers?

"In any case, Liverpool has now taken the lead! It looks like they're going to avoid losing to West Bromwich Albion away from home! They're really lucky… I wonder if Sir Ferguson is disappointed right now?"

Ferguson was indeed a little disappointed. If West Bromwich Albion could defeat Liverpool, as long as Manchester United won the game the next day, the two teams would be tied. Even if Liverpool could temporarily rank first with a goal difference advantage, as long as his team could defeat Liverpool at home, they would truly sit on the throne of the league, without having to rely on Liverpool continuing to lose!

Too bad…

West Bromwich Albion was still a bit short.

※※※

Not only were Chen Hero and the Liverpool players excited, but the coach Martin O'Neill was also very excited. He was even rarely so excited—he opened his arms and ran wildly all the way from the coach's bench to the place where the Liverpool players were playing human pyramids, and then pulled all the players up one by one, finally "digging" out Chen Hero, who was buried at the bottom.

He hugged Chen Hero, seemingly very excited, but actually whispered in his ear: "You acted very well, Hero! I was almost fooled by you!"

Chen Hero began to educate his boss: "Why are you here, boss?" Martin O'Neill wasn't Mourinho; he wouldn't have such passionate celebrations. After the team scored a goal, he usually just waved his fist and hugged his colleagues, that's all.

"I also have to show how much I value this game, and the excitement after barely escaping death…"

"You're overdoing it… boss. You're never like this. If you do this, be careful of being seen through!" Chen Hero was speechless.

"Ah?" Martin O'Neill really hadn't thought of this. "Then I'll go back now?"

"Don't… it'll be even faker if you go back now. Just keep acting like this, maybe you can fool them… Come on, raise your hand and pat my back hard, use some force!"

Under Chen Hero's direction, Martin O'Neill hugged Chen Hero and then patted him hard on the back. After doing this, he let go and trotted back to his coach's bench.

Fortunately, no one saw through anything.

The commentators also felt that Martin O'Neill was so excited because he had overreacted to his team's ability to escape death, but it was still within the normal range.

But if O'Neill did it again, someone would definitely suspect that he was acting…

※※※

After Martin O'Neill returned to the coach's bench, he immediately began to prepare for substitutions. Now, a one-goal lead was still a lead, and a two-goal lead was still a lead, so it was better to let the players rest more.

After the substitutions, Liverpool also adjusted their strategy, completely entering defense, leaving only one Chen Hero in the frontcourt. The main purpose was not to score goals, but to scare the West Bromwich Albion players and prevent them from pressing up with all their strength.

Liverpool's tradition was defense, so no one would think that Liverpool was playing too猥琐(wěisuǒ, crude/underhanded) or too conservatively. On the contrary, they felt that this scene appearing on Liverpool was normal.

In the end, Liverpool successfully defended this 1:0 result. After all, even if West Bromwich Albion wanted to stay in the league, their strength was still far behind Liverpool. If Liverpool all retreated to defend, even Real Madrid couldn't find a way, let alone West Bromwich Albion.

When the game ended, Liverpool's players seemed very excited, as if they had already won the league title.

But in the eyes of many people, Liverpool's elation was the joy of escaping death, which further illustrated their inner weakness, indicating that the victory of this game was a fluke.

The logic of these people was very simple—if they won easily, would they celebrate so ecstatically? They celebrated ecstatically, which must be because they didn't win easily at all. Why wasn't it easy to win? Wasn't it because after the team's form began to decline, they couldn't even handle a team like West Bromwich Albion?

This scene further confirmed the rumors and speculations that Liverpool had reached the end of the road.

"Liverpool is really about to collapse. They're so happy to win against a team like West Bromwich Albion by a narrow margin of one goal… If you just turned on the TV and saw this scene, would you have such a question—did Liverpool win the league title in advance? In fact, they're getting further and further away from the league title!"