Chapter 26: Battle of Asia! Scottish National Derby!
Gerrard's words made Chen Xiaoliang, who was already full of fighting spirit, even more clear about his goals.
For nearly a month, he seemed to be deliberately hidden away, training alone under the guidance of a physical trainer.
The team has been winning one after another during this period.
They won all three qualifying rounds of the Europa League group stage, and in the last round they defeated the Turkish .
In the league, they first defeated Motherwell 1-5 away, and then won Ross County 2-0 at home.
For five games, Chen Xiaoliang was absent from the squad due to injury by Gerrard.
It was not until October 16, the day before the Scottish national derby, that Chen Xiaoliang returned to the club and trained with the team for a day, while Barisic had been back for a week.
The two were extremely happy to see each other, hugging and patting each other.
The other teammates were also very surprised to see that Chen Xiaoliang was revived to full health in such a short time.
During this month, under the arrangement of McAllister, the physical trainer conducted comprehensive physical function , especially speed training.
Adding the remaining 3 hours, not only did I accumulate a total of 93 hours of training, but I also increased my weight by 4 kilograms to 66 kilograms, and the weight gain task was also completed.
With 93 hours of training, Chen Xiaoliang's original plan was to continue to make up for his terrible technical attributes, but Gerrard did not officially give him the task of marking Kento Furuhashi until last week when he analyzed the game that was related to winning the championship with him.
Gerrard specifically asked the technical team to edit the highlights of all of Furuhashi's threatening attacks so far this season, and ultimately came to the conclusion that although his shooting skills are not top-notch, the Japanese striker has the fastest speed and the most flexible off-ball running in the Scottish Premier League.
According to Rangers' current defensive lineup, Balogun and Goldson are strong enough, but their speed is definitely not as fast as Kento Fukushima's. Although Davis is experienced, he is 35 years old after all, and his physical fitness is no longer at its peak. He can only position himself in advance to disrupt passing routes and help with defense, but he certainly cannot do it alone.
Therefore, if Chen Xiaoliang wants to defend against him, he must work on his speed.
Because the speed is 10 points, the system needs 20 hours of training value to add 1 point.
So Chen Xiaoliang simply added all his 80 hours of training points to speed, increasing it from 10 to 14. The speed of 14 also became the second highest attribute after the steal of 20.
Use another 10 points to increase the passing skill from 5 to 7, slightly improving the passing ability after stealing the ball.
The remaining 3 points are still saved for later use.
Although Chen Xiaoliang participated in the joint training, until the press conference that afternoon, Gerrard still claimed that Chen Xiaoliang was unable to play and had only done simple rehabilitation training.
The media also expressed regret that the showdown between the two Asian supernovas could not take place.
At the same time, due to Chen Xiaoliang's continuous absence, the ratings of Penguin Sports Live Room dropped sharply, from nearly one million people online at the same time to only ten or twenty thousand people watching.
As a result, starting from the last two games, in order to save appearance fees, Penguin Sports no longer invited Zhan Jun and Zhang Lu to commentate, and instead used Dong Dazui, who is good at stand-up commentary.
Even though Dong Dazui worked extremely hard in the live broadcast room, spitting everywhere, criticizing this and scolding that, without Chen Xiaoliang, no matter how many jokes he had, they would be useless.
At 19:30 on October 17, 2020, at Celtic Park, the two most influential teams in the Scottish Premier League finally met.
Before the game, many media predicted that although it was a matchup between the two cities, Rangers, playing away from home, would still be at a clear disadvantage.
Although Rangers is the team with the fewest goals conceded and the most shutouts so far this season, the absence of Chen Xiaoliang and Barisic has undoubtedly greatly reduced their defensive strength.
Although the Celtics are 4 points behind with two games less, they have scored the most goals in the league, especially the hot striker combination of Kento Furuhashi and Norwegian international Elyounoussi, who have scored 9 goals together.
The war was about to break out, and the atmosphere in Glasgow was already filled with tension.
The number of security and police inside and outside the stadium was twice that of previous games. Even so, scenes of fans from both sides fighting and scuffling over disagreements were still common.
Who would argue if you can just take action?
Celtic Park, which has a capacity of 60,832, was packed, but the visiting Rangers fans were only allocated 7,000 tickets.
The host in the stadium first shouted out the starting lineup of the home team Celtics. Every time a name was read out, the home team fans would respond with enthusiastic cheers.
When the last name, Gu Qiaohengwu, was called out, the whole audience erupted in deafening cheers.
Then the starting lineup of the visiting team Rangers was introduced. Every time a name was read out, it was met with boos from the home team's fans.
Although the 7,000 visiting fans seemed outnumbered in the stadium, their unison cheers still expressed their determination to dethrone the nine-time champion.
The name corresponding to Kento Furuhashi is the last name of Rangers. Although the media received the starting list shortly before the game, the spectators in the stadium did not know it.
When Chen Xiaoliang's name was called out by the live anchor, the stadium was silent for a moment. It seemed that fans of both teams did not expect that this person who would definitely not play would actually start.
It was not until they saw Chen Xiaoliang walking out of the player tunnel with their own eyes that they woke up from their dream.
Rangers fans held hands and stood shoulder to shoulder, excitedly shouting Chen Xiaoliang's name in the stands, while Celtic fans, like resentful women who had been cheated, wildly gave the middle finger and booed.
But this is not unfamiliar to Chen Xiaoliang.
Compared with the time when Hedong Luneng fans shouted deafening and resounding "XX" to a certain player No. 7 before the game, all of this is nothing.
When it comes to the level of men's football, no one can beat the Red Country.
When it comes to the shocking power of the national curse in the stadium, no one can match the Red Country.
The news that Chen Xiaoliang was starting spread among the Red Country fans at the speed of light. When Dong Dazui, who was originally drowsy, saw the starting list, he knew that today was destined to be the highlight moment of his football commentary career.
The number of people in the Penguin Sports live broadcast room increased rapidly from 10,000, 20,000, 100,000, 500,000, to 1 million in an exciting way. No one could believe why Chen Xiaoliang, who had a broken leg, could recover in just one month and even start the game without any training.
After the two teams dispersed, Chen Xiaoliang stood next to Guqiao Hengwu.
"So you are the Red Countryman."
Gu Qiaohengwu's contemptuous tone did not make Chen Xiaoliang angry. He glanced at the Japanese man who was half a head shorter than him.
None of the goals scored by the Japanese striker this season were headers, all were scored with his feet, so if you want to defend him in this game, you have to compete in the three directions.
In Asia, even when the Red Country men's football team entered the World Cup before, it was suppressed by the easy life. After nearly 20 years, it can't even get the tail gas now.
Forget about dominating the Scottish Premier League, even if it’s just to save face, we have to make sure Xiao Zi can’t shoot for the whole night!
