Chapter 426: Just after being called the best player, he made the best shot
After walking a few steps, Benzema was caught by a reporter, who asked:
"Karim, congratulations on scoring a great goal and helping the team win the game."
"Everyone knows that you were teammates with Ronaldo in Real Madrid and played against Messi many times. Can you evaluate the gap between Chen and them?"
As an old hand, Benzema would not stir up unnecessary waves in front of the media. His answer was very clever:
"As a 35-year-old who won the Ballon d'Or, I am not qualified to judge the three of them. Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or at the age of 23, Messi at the age of 22, and Chen is even more exaggerated, having achieved this at the age of 19."
"C Ronaldo has the most goals, Messi has the most Golden Balls, and Chen may have another 15-20 years in his career."
After saying that, Benzema shrugged and walked away.
As a former Real Madrid player, he certainly has to take into account the social etiquette of the past when speaking, but at the press conference, whether it was Guardiola who lost or Ten Hag who won, they really turned on the "Chen blowing" mode.
The first thing to be held was the home team's press conference.
Reporter: "In just three days, the only championship the team can compete for this season is the league. Do you regret not sending all the main players to the FA Cup?"
Guardiola: "No one could have predicted what has happened in France and in other parts of Europe recently, and of course it was impossible to predict that the schedule would be compressed."
"Manchester United are a great team, Liverpool are of course, too, and we had to make some decisions. Of course, looking back, we might wonder if we would have been better off with another choice. Of course, I take responsibility for that and my players did their best."
Reporter: "Chen's two goals in injury time completely changed the outcome, and you had already replaced De Bruyne and B Silva before that. Some fans questioned this. What do you think?"
Guardiola: "Because we failed to qualify, no matter how the fans question it, it is reasonable, and I have to accept it, but they are indeed tired, and we also made targeted defense against Chen, but he is a super player, but it still changed the result of the game."
Reporter: "You mentioned before that Messi is the best player you have ever seen. Do you still think so now?"
Guardiola: "Of course he is, without a doubt."
"I know what you want to ask. Chen just lacks time. He is also very young. We have been paying attention to him for a long time. In fact, we also sent him a transfer invitation a long time ago, but he chose to go to Rome."
"You know, there is no way the Roma coach would sell his players to me."
"His progress in the past few seasons has been obvious. Last season he won the treble with 36 goals and 36 assists. I remember when Messi won his first Ballon d'Or in 2009, he scored 41 goals and had 15 assists in 64 games that season. He also won the treble that season. The other three championships, the Super Cup and the Club World Cup were all won after the start of the following season."
"And this season he has already scored 48 goals and provided 35 assists. His progress is explosive."
"If he can maintain this pace, statistics and honors in the next 5-10 years, he may really make history in football."
"But at this moment, my answer is still Messi."
As the head coach of the opponent, it is quite "blatant" to say this.
In the subsequent press conference of the visiting team, Ten Hag was full of praise:
"Today's game reminded me of May 9, 2019, when I was at Ajax and we played against Tottenham in the second leg of the Champions League when Mauricio Pochettino was still their manager.
"We won the first leg at Tottenham Hotspur by one goal, and we are full of confidence in the second leg at home."
"We scored two goals first, De Ligt and Ziyech, then Lucas Moura scored two goals in the second half. The game was 2-2 in 90 minutes, with five minutes of injury time. Everyone thought we were going to the final."
"I will never forget that Lucas Moura scored the winning goal at 95 minutes and 1 second and they eliminated us on away goals."
"I will never forget the scene where De Ligt, De Jong, Ziyech and Mazraoui lay on the grass in despair because of this last-minute goal before the game was over ."
"In fact, at the end of the game, the time was 97 minutes and 58 seconds. His young kids had collapsed. It was not their fault. We were called the Ajax Youth Army at the time because they were really too young."
"But today was different. Even when we were 4-0 down, you didn't see anyone wanting to give up, because we had a great team leader. Under his motivation, you didn't even see any players falling to the ground because of cramps. Each of them was afraid of wasting the team's time to overtake because of their own reasons."
"I remember that when Brozovic represented Croatia in the last World Cup, he played 120 minutes against Japan and set a single-game record of 16.64 kilometers in running distance. If my data is correct, our captain set a new record today. What is the specific record?"
Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol: "17.71km."
As soon as these words were spoken, there was an immediate cry of “Oh my god!” in the locker room.
"It is a great honor for a head coach to be able to coach such a player. He is the perfect representative of the combination of individual heroism and team spirit."
"Before him, a player who could score 50 goals in a season could not have 40 assists, and a player who could provide 30 assists could not have scored 50 goals."
"But he's on the verge of doing that this season, and because of him, everyone on the team fought to the end."
"Of course I also want to thank Benzema. He was still running and looking for opportunities in the last minute. I believe that we spent a lot of effort to sign him and achieved our goal. He showed the young players what professionalism and dedication are."
However, the high praise from the two head coaches was just the beginning. That evening, media and fans from all over the world had already begun praising Chen Xiaoliang with almost no limit on the Internet and on television.
At the same time, FIFA also recognized the new record of single-game running distance set by Chen Xiaoliang in club and national team first-level competitions.
When the media interviewed Haaland, Manchester City's ace striker also generously praised Chen Xiaoliang's performance and wished them good luck in the Champions League final.
But he and Guardiola also said that with only one league title left to compete for, Manchester City will do whatever it takes to successfully defend the title and will never let Manchester United get involved in the league again.
There was a lot of commotion outside. After Chen Xiaoliang celebrated with his teammates in the locker room, he went home and fell asleep.
He didn't even dare to open his phone, as there were about 60 emails, more than 120 voice messages, 1,200 text messages, and 300,000 comments on his personal social accounts waiting for him.
This is simply not something that can be handled by one person alone.
So he simply chose not to deal with it...
The price of 17.71 kilometers was that he couldn't get up the next morning...
Of course, Ten Hag also gave all the players on the field a day off.
The next morning, Kva and Cesco "tacitly" did not come for breakfast and went running together. They were both very tired. Chen Xiaoliang slept until 9 o'clock and fiddled with the system again after waking up.
4 goals, 1 assist, plus a perfect 10-point MVP award, gave him a total of 18 skill points.
After completing a hat trick, [Reward: Reward for this game × (number of goals + number of assists)] is triggered.
The 18-point skill value reward instantly became 90 skill points (29→119). He unlocked [Good at long-distance free kicks], and his skill value was 119→19
[ Big Club Mission] drew the [Balotelli Fireworks Card].
[Effect: Set off a firework in your bathtub at home one day before the game. Two random skills in the game will have +2 attributes.]
…
Chen Xiaoliang immediately opened the online shopping page on his phone and placed an order for a bundle of fireworks...
Switch back to the system and you will find progress rewards for [King of Football].
[The King of Football Mission: Win the personal duel with lifelong enemy Haaland]
[Task requirements: Win the two-round knockout match and be more than 1 point ahead of the opponent in the post-match score]
[Mission Reward: Get the same breakthrough points as the total score of the two rounds added together]
[Task Reward: The progress of the Football King Competition increases by 3%]
In the first game, the score was 2-0. Chen Xiaoliang scored 8.2 points with 1 goal and 1 assist, while Haaland only scored 7.0 points.
In this game, Haaland scored 3 goals and scored 9.0 points, while Chen Xiaoliang scored 4 goals and 1 assist and scored a full 10 points.
The total score of the two rounds was 18.2 to 16, perfectly triggering the mission reward.
Plus [Season Reward: Double your breakthrough points when facing BIG7 and top opponents], you get 36 breakthrough points (22→58)
The progress of the King of Football system has increased a little bit, and it is estimated that one third has been completed.
Finally, there is the gleaming achievement.
[The achievement of coming back from a three-goal deficit in a major match has been achieved]
[Achievement Reward: Passive skill Big Heart +1]
The skill of [Big Heart] has also changed from "When trailing by 2 goals, increase two random attributes by 2 points" to:
[Passive skill MAX: Big Heart, when the team is 2 goals behind, increase the designated two attributes by 2 points]
Oh my God, seeing these achievements and rewards, Chen Xiaoliang's sore muscles seemed to be filled with strength again, and he wished he could jump up and fight Manchester City for another 300 rounds.
However, when he got up and walked down the stairs from the second floor, the muscles in his calves, feet, waist and hips ached with each step he took, which brought him back to reality...
Open SMS:
Text message from Kvaratskhelia: "Boss, I'm taking a day off for running today. It's hard to get out of bed..."
Chen Xiaoliang replied: "Remember to stretch, otherwise you will be useless in the next game."
Text message from Cesco: "Brother Liangzi, I feel like I'm going to be disabled. See you tomorrow..."
Chen Xiaoliang copied and pasted the reply just now...
What remains are unread text messages and voice messages from Gerrard, Erica, Shen Mengyu, Dybala, Wu Lei, Sun Jihai, Patricio, Enzo and many other people.
Chen Xiaoliang was dealing with these things while eating breakfast. As soon as he finished and wiped his mouth, he turned around and saw Helena holding silver needles for acupuncture and glass jars for cupping:
"Just lie down~"
The next day, April 20, the team assembled, but most of the players only carried out recovery training.
There is good news and bad news for the team.
The good news is that after the physical examination, B Fee was allowed by the team doctor to participate in official games for up to 45 minutes, which means the return of a strong teammate at the end of the season.
The bad news is that Casemiro has a slight inflammation of the iliotibial band, Maguire has blisters on the soles of his feet, Varane and Lima have sprained their ankles, and they all need to rest for a week.
Conditions like muscle soreness exist in almost everyone.
After checking the physical health of the team, it was no surprise that Chen Xiaoliang was overwhelmingly ahead of other teammates. Looking at the bruises on Chen Xiaoliang's back caused by cupping, Ten Hag decided to add traditional Chinese medicine personnel to the team's physical therapy team after communicating with sports coach Richard Hawkins and rehabilitation director Paul Giordano, and to add acupuncture and cupping, which have been widely used in Olympic events, especially swimming, to the physical therapy program.
The next day, the players seemed to be still asleep and took a bus to Wolverhampton early in the morning to participate in the 34th round of the league, an away game against Wolves.
The match will be held at 15:00 local time and 23:00 Hong Kong time.
But what gave Ten Hag a headache was that he couldn't arrange a central defender combination before the game.
Maguire, Varane and Lima were unable to play, but Ten Hag did not dare to force him to play because his physical test results were average.
Luke Shaw, who was a full-back who could play as a central defender, was substituted during the game. Wan-Bissaka was extremely tired after playing the whole game, and Luke Thomas could not play as a central defender.
After looking around, it seems that Victor Lindelof is the only available central defender, excluding the young player Mengi.
In the defensive midfielder position, McTominay is in relatively better physical condition, and Milinkovic-Savic can also make do, so Ten Hag has to consider using one of the two to play as a central defender.
After all, although Manchester City was eliminated from the Champions League, they are still 4 points ahead in the league with two more games played, and one of the two league games to be made up is against Liverpool at Anfield. No one can guarantee that they can get 6 points in two games.
Therefore, we must find a way to win today's game.
Chen Xiaoliang saw the coaching staff's dilemma and took the initiative to say to Ten Hag: "Coach, I can play as a central defender, so I should be able to handle the Wolves' forwards."
Although in terms of position, his central defender position attribute is only the second tier out of five tiers, but the wrong position only reduces his technical attributes. With his superb physical fitness and high technical attributes, even with a discount, it is still enough to fight against a mid-to-lower-level team like Wolves.
In the current team, whether it is the admiration for Chen Xiaoliang that has surpassed that for the boss of Class 92, Jasim, or the coaching staff who are dumbfounded by his superb performance on the sidelines time and time again, basically, as long as Chen Xiaoliang speaks in the field of football, they will "respond to every request."
External media have also reported extensively that Jassim will make a substantial increase on Chen Xiaoliang's current annual salary of 25 million pounds, offering a new contract that will make Riyadh Premier League cry and Miami International silent, in order to lock in Chen Xiaoliang's future and completely revive this old giant.
Ten Hag had no doubt about Chen Xiaoliang's ability and immediately let him and Lindelof form a starting double central defender, with him playing as the left central defender.
When the starting lineup was announced, the media and fans were shocked!
goalkeeper Livakovic;
The back four consists of Dalot, Lindelof, Chen Xiaoliang and Luke Thomas;
The double defensive midfielders are Milinkovic-Savic and McTominay, and the attacking midfielder is Kwa;
Left winger Ganaccio, right winger Anthony, center forward Cesco.
With such a depleted lineup, Manchester United started to fight with Wolves.
Wolves are currently ranked 12th with 35 points. They have basically no problem staying in the league and there is a high probability that they will not be able to enter the European war. They have no desire and did not want to get the upper hand over Manchester United. What's more, Manchester United just eliminated Manchester City in a thrilling battle and is now at the peak of its reputation.
What is the background of a wealthy family?
That is, our players are not afraid of any opponents when they go on the court, and when the opponents meet us again, they will naturally feel afraid of not being able to win.
Although Chen Xiaoliang does not have a strong sense of position as a center back, he can make up for it even if he is out of position thanks to his strong physical fitness.
Coincidentally, the Wolves' starting center forward today was South Korean international Hwang Hee-chan. Before the game, when the South Korean media saw the starting list, they clamored to let Chen Xiaoliang see what South Korean power is. As a result, during the game, Hwang Hee-chan was knocked over again and again when he jumped to compete for headers, and was tackled again and again when he was preparing to shoot the ball. Now, not only did Chen Xiaoliang appreciate what South Korean power is, but fans all over the world also appreciated the "thickness of the face" of the South Korean media.
In the 41st minute, Wolves attacked and Gabonese midfielder Lemina made a long diagonal pass to Huang Xican who was in an open position on the right side of the penalty area. Huang Xican had just received the ball and had no time to adjust and prepare for a shot when Chen Xiaoliang who rushed over like the wind tackled the ball away.
The impact of this blow caused his feet to lift off the ground and he fell heavily to the ground.
The team doctor then came on the field and Huang Xican felt obvious pain in his right knee. He was carried off the field on a stretcher and replaced by Mexican striker Jimenez.
The score at halftime was 0-0. Although both teams had made good offensive plays, the goal of both teams tonight was to ensure that they did not lose the ball, and they invested more defensive manpower, so they both missed the chance to score.
In the second half, the two sides continued to be evenly matched on the field. Ten Hag successively replaced B Fee, Menou and Luke Shaw to strengthen the attack, but due to fatigue, the frontcourt players were not in good shape all the time, and Cesco missed two excellent scoring opportunities in a row.
In the 87th minute, Manchester United took a corner kick from the right side. In order to win 3 points, except for Chen Xiaoliang and Luke Shaw, all other players pressed forward.
Perhaps because B Fee had not played for a long time and his feet were a little stiff, the corner kick he took was too low and was directly blocked by Wolves defender Todi Gomez, who kicked the ball towards the center circle.
Chen Xiaoliang received the ball one step in front of the center circle.
At that time, there was not a single opposing player within a radius of 20 meters around him. The nearest teammate Luke Shaw was 10 meters away. When he saw him receive the ball, he immediately ran to the left to reorganize the attack.
Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball forward three meters, and the ball was about 40 meters away from the goal.
【Good at long-distance shooting】
【Good at powerful shots】
Although others couldn't see it, Chen Xiaoliang saw the familiar yellow electric light flashing on his feet after the skill was activated!
What is a superstar?!
Just four words!
It's unreasonable!
He took three small steps forward and adjusted his pace, then chose to shoot directly into the upper right corner of the goal with his left foot!
In the stunned eyes of the 32,050 fans at Molineux Stadium and in the open-mouthed surprise of the other 21 players on the field, the ball flew over the heads of almost all the other players like a meteor across the night.
As they looked up and turned their necks to watch, the ball hit the Wolves' goal one second later!
The 31-year-old Wolves Portuguese goalkeeper Jose Sa subconsciously stretched out his hand, then turned back and saw the ball flying into the goal, turned his head again, and looked at Chen Xiaoliang with a blank mind.
All the Manchester United players wearing away jerseys in the penalty area rushed towards Chen Xiaoliang excitedly. Casemiro and Benzema on the bench were so surprised that they couldn't stop shaking their heads, while Ten Hag and his two assistant coaches were grinning from ear to ear.
In the end, the score of 0-1 brought not only a clean sheet but also all three points. Chen Xiaoliang's goal was finally measured at 41 meters from the goal and was selected as the best goal of this round of the Premier League.
