Chapter 1248 A Race Against Time

Today's St. James' Park… no, it should be called "Sports Direct Arena" now. Today's Sports Direct Arena seemed a bit special. A portion of the spectators in the stands were clearly not fans of either Liverpool or Newcastle. They wore blue, white, and red jerseys—all sorts of colors.

They were the fans who had answered the call and traveled from all over the country.

They were all here to cheer for Newcastle United and, at the same time, to watch Chen Hero make a fool of himself.

When Newcastle United fans issued their open letter, they hoped to gain the support of fans nationwide.

Now they had that support. But the Newcastle United fans regretted it.

Because after these people arrived, they were beyond their control. They were supposed to use uniform chants and boos to disrupt Chen Hero.

But because the fan traditions of each team were different, the songs were naturally different as well. Their ways of cheering and their methods of disrupting the enemy were all different.

So many differences added up to chaos.

Of course, the booing was still relatively uniform. Because booing didn't require much skill; you just needed to know how to boo.

But could this level of booing really disrupt Chen Hero?

Many people doubted it.

As Chen Hero had spent these past few years in the English Premier League, through the media and their own personal experiences, they had all discovered that ordinary booing had no effect on Chen Hero at all.

This wasn't just some wild guess on their part.

It was based on scientific evidence—Liverpool's team doctor, Brookner, had once installed a heart rate monitor on Chen Hero during his pre-match warm-up at an away game. Faced with the opposing fans' overwhelming boos, the monitor showed that Chen Hero's heart rate was within the normal range, with no abnormalities. That is to say, when faced with those boos, he wasn't pretending to be calm and unaffected; he was genuinely calm, with a still mind.

This matter was reported by the media, and everyone learned about it.

Chen Hero's explanation at the time was: "I think anyone who plays an entire season of football amidst overwhelming boos in their own stadium should be able to develop this skill."

So booing alone wasn't enough. Newcastle United fans sang loudly in the stands, and fans from other teams also sang loudly, but because they weren't singing the same song, the scene sounded somewhat chaotic.

The match hadn't even started yet, and the Newcastle United fans already felt that they had lost the momentum.

And although they were fewer in number, less than two thousand people, the Liverpool fans were very united. Led by the Red Giant Bear, they emitted uniform songs and applause. They were very synchronized with when to sing and when to wave their arms.

So despite their small numbers, Liverpool fans still had a place in the stands of this stadium.

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After the match started, the chaotic situation in the stands didn't improve, so in reality, it had very little impact on Chen Hero.

Chen Hero didn't think there was anything wrong with playing in such an environment.

He felt that it might not even be as harsh as the treatment he received at the Etihad Stadium or Old Trafford.

He received the ball, he dribbled the ball, he passed the ball, he shot.

From his movements, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

The commentators admired Chen Hero's composure.

"He doesn't seem to be affected by the home team's fans at all…"

"Hero has a big body and a big heart! He has proven this to us more than once!"

But the focus of everyone's attention wasn't on whether he had a big heart, but on whether he could score goals, tie the record, or even… break the record.

Everyone was waiting to see if Chen Hero could score.

If Chen Hero wanted to tie the record in this match, he had to score three goals. If he wanted to break the record, he had to score four goals.

Under these conditions, it was an almost impossible task. But Chen Hero had spoken so confidently before the match, as if he had already accomplished it, so everyone wanted to see how he would deliver on his promise.

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Liverpool's attitude in this match was also very clear: to help Chen Hero achieve his goal at all costs.

Martin O'Neill originally didn't have this intention. But when the entire English media was questioning Chen Hero and criticizing him, when Newcastle United fans were humiliating him in their open letter, Martin O'Neill changed his mind. He wanted the team to support Chen Hero. At this time, he had to stand with Chen Hero, otherwise his relationship with Chen Hero would definitely be ruined.

Therefore, Liverpool fielded most of their first-team starters, plus a few reserve team players.

In the attacking lineup, they were all first-team starters, just to help Chen Hero score.

Gareth Bale, Sanchez, Gotze, and Gerrard were all good at attacking.

Under the tactical guidance of helping Chen Hero achieve his goal, as long as Liverpool attacked, the ball would definitely be sent to Chen Hero's feet in the end, and Chen Hero would complete the shot. They didn't care whether Chen Hero's position was good at the time.

As long as there was a shot, there was a chance to score. They didn't believe that if they created thirty shooting opportunities for Chen Hero, he still wouldn't be able to score three goals.

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Liverpool's tactic was to attack, completely disregarding defense. Because defense was meaningless to them. The goal of this match was not to win, but to score goals.

On the Newcastle United side, it was completely the opposite.

Alan Pardew replaced a large group of attacking players with players who were good at defending, with the goal of stopping Liverpool and stopping Chen Hero from scoring. As long as they didn't concede a goal, it was a victory. Even a draw would be considered a win for Newcastle United.

So at the beginning of this match, Newcastle United shrank back near their penalty area and waited for Liverpool to come knocking.

They planned to use an absolute defensive wall to withstand Liverpool's attack.

The match footage of Arsenal drawing with Liverpool at home had been studied by Alan Pardew and his players many times, from which they gained inspiration.

It should be known that Arsenal didn't even field any attacking players at the time, like Newcastle United, but instead fielded all defensive players…

In that situation, since Arsenal could do it, then Newcastle United could also do it.

Therefore, under these circumstances, the situation that was presented in the match was Liverpool besieging Newcastle United's goal, while the home team, Newcastle United, was huddled in front of their goal.

Such a match was definitely not good to watch, but at this time, no one cared about that at all. They only cared about whether Chen Hero could score.

"Newcastle United has set up a defensive formation, which is definitely not good news for Liverpool and Chen Hero. Breaking through a dense defense is a worldwide problem… Even if Liverpool has a siege weapon like Chen Hero, who has the ability to break through a dense defense, the situation today is different from usual…"

"Today is a test for Liverpool. Faced with this kind of deliberate defense, there are not many teams in the world that dare to pat their chests and guarantee that they can definitely break through it. Not to mention, they have to score at least three goals. When the goal scorer is fixed on Chen Hero, Newcastle United's defense will become easier—they just need to keep an eye on Chen Hero. The other Liverpool players will not waste shooting opportunities casually, because their goals are meaningless. As long as Chen Hero doesn't score, even if the other players score ten goals combined, Chen Hero will still lose. So this match is beneficial to the defending side from all aspects, and extremely unfavorable to the attacking side…"

"Liverpool has the ability to break through a dense defense, which means that as long as they can score a goal in the midst of a barrage of attacks, they can disintegrate the opponent's defense, because the opponent must attack. Defending to the death will definitely lead to a loss, and attacking will still give them hope of winning. But the situation today is special. I believe that even if Newcastle United concedes a goal in the match, they will not change their tactics. They will definitely defend to the death in this match, from the first minute to the ninetieth minute. Even if Chen Hero scores two goals, it doesn't matter. As long as he doesn't score a third or fourth goal, that's a victory. So the intensity and determination of the defense that Liverpool faces is unprecedented. Such a Newcastle United is terrifying. Therefore, in the past, Liverpool was able to break through a dense defense, not because they broke it themselves, but because their goal prompted the opponent to make the decision to give up defending to the death. Today's match is different…"

Chen Hero certainly knew that those dense defenses in the past were actually because after Liverpool scored a goal, the opponent felt that continuing to defend was useless, so they might as well press forward, maybe they could fight for a good result.

But he didn't agree with the commentator's statement.

Breaking through a dense defense was originally meant to make the opponent voluntarily abandon this unpromising tactic. It's just that in ordinary matches, he only needed to score one goal, but today, he had to score three goals.

The difference was just the number of goals scored.

Putting all the problems in terms of the number of goals made it much simpler.

As long as he scored more goals, it would be fine.

And scoring goals was what Chen Hero was best at.

At the same time, he also knew that it wasn't easy to score against a dense defense. It would take some effort, and the most important thing was that it would take a lot of time. If he only had to score one or two goals in this match, then he could slowly grind them down. He would have plenty of time to grind his opponents to death, making them suffer.

Today was different. He had to score as soon as possible so that he would have time to score more goals.

Chen Hero set himself a goal: score the first goal within ten minutes!

If the Newcastle United players and fans knew about this goal, they would probably scold him again for being arrogant, for not taking his opponents seriously, for being impolite, and so on…

He didn't care so much.

I'm just arrogant! I just look down on you! I'm just impolite!

So what?!

Come and bite me if you have the guts! If you don't have the guts, then you can only be honestly abused by me!