It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 302: Fateful Reincarnation? Unraveling the Legend

After the national competition, Charles immediately returned to Chelsea.

Ancelotti is thinking about the roster for the next round of games.

In a few days they will be away to challenge Aston Villa. In the last 11 league away games against Aston Villa, Chelsea have only lost once.

The most important thing is that Aston Villa has committed 118 fouls before the halfway point of this season, making it one of the most terrifying teams so far this season.

What’s more crucial is that although they received 14 yellow cards, the players were very skillful and did not receive a single red card.

Chelsea is currently 2 points ahead of the second place in the league, but Aston Villa is not in good form now. The only three games they won were against relegation teams.

Thinking of this, Ancelotti decided to use half of the substitute lineup.

10 month 17 day.

The league starts again.

But this time, Charles did not play.

Charles took out a handful of melon seeds from his pocket and gave them to Drogba and Neymar, "Come and try them, I just stole them from the coach's lounge."

Neymar secretly glanced at Ancelotti and found that Ancelotti was chatting with the assistant coach. He grabbed a handful of melon seeds from Charles without hesitation.

“What flavor is this?”

Ciel took out a handful of melon seeds from his pocket and shared them with other teammates. "Sea salt green tea, I think it might be a specialty he bought from there."

Drogba took a bite and thought it was pretty good. "Oh, how come no one has ever brought us melon seeds before? This is really good."

"It's really good. Where should I throw the melon seed shells?"

Neymar asked as he ate.

Ciel pulled out two more pieces of paper from his treasure chest-like pocket, "Throw them on top."

Drogba took the paper and asked, "Will this make me gain weight easily?"

"That shouldn't be the case, right?" Charles took out another handful of melon seeds. "When I was on the bench, everyone was cracking melon seeds."

Hearing this, Neymar, who had been listening with his ears pricked up, felt relieved.

"Are there any other flavors in the coach's lounge?"

"What flavor do you want?"

"For example, peaches, lychees, and the like."

"Then don't leave after the game. Come with me to the office."

Neymar turned around suddenly.

Seeing Ancelotti smiling at him with a kind face, he was so scared that he almost dropped melon seeds: "Boss...Boss...I didn't mean it."

Charles and Drogba were laughing on the sidelines.

Ancelotti raised his eyebrows and looked at Neymar. "It's true that we don't have peach and lychee flavors, but I have some milk tea flavors here. I'll give them to you later."

After saying that, Ancelotti turned around with a smile, and Neymar finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I was so scared, why didn't you remind me?"

The two did not speak, but looked at the field with a smile.

Not long into the game, Downing dribbled the ball at high speed on the right and passed it across to the middle in front of the penalty area. Ireland followed up with a right-footed shot, and the ball hit the far post and went out of the bottom line.

Three minutes later, Aston Villa's midfielder intercepted the ball again. Carew received a pass from his teammate in the penalty area and shot with his right foot. Cech performed bravely and saved the ball.

Aston Villa is in full form today, and Chelsea has not had a single shot on goal yet.

Not long after, Ashley Young made a pass into the penalty area from the left, Carew dribbled past Ferreira in the penalty area and shot, but Cech flew to the side and blocked the ball again.

"It looks like Cech will be busy again today for his clean sheet bonus."

Drogba commented.

Then, Ashley Young passed the ball into the penalty area from the left, Ireland passed the ball back in the penalty area, and Petrov made a powerful long shot near the edge of the penalty area. The ball hit the defender and went out of the baseline.

Villa took a corner kick and Carew's header in the penalty area was caught by Cech.

Chelsea quickly counterattacked, Cech kicked the ball to Malouda, who made a cross but Collins headed the ball away in the penalty area.

Kakuta followed up with a right-foot volley from the outside, the ball hit the crossbar, and Collins quickly cleared the ball out of the sideline.

Ferreira threw the ball into the penalty area from the right sideline, Warnock headed the ball away, and Essien's long shot from the outside went wide.

Chelsea once again missed a good chance to score.

In the 40th minute, Downing made a low cross from the left side of the penalty area. Ireland's follow-up shot was blocked by Ivanovic. Then Villa passed the ball to the front of the goal again, and Carew headed the ball over the bar in the penalty area.

After that, neither side had a shot until the second half, when Chelsea came back to life after the break and once again threatened Aston Villa's goal.

Cech launched a counterattack from the backcourt. Anelka got the ball in the penalty area and made a low shot from a small angle. The ball was blocked by Friedel. Mikel grabbed the ball and passed it directly to the frontcourt.

Malouda cooperated with his teammates and cut inside the penalty area and shot from 24 meters away from the goal, but the ball was once again blocked by Friedel.

As time passed, the situation on the field became more intense and Aston Villa continued to commit fouls.

Malouda forced his way out of the defense and passed the ball directly to Anelka. Anelka changed direction and broke past Wallnock before being knocked down and passed the ball to Kakuta. Kakuta made a powerful shot in the middle of the penalty area, but this time, the ball slipped past the goal.

"I think it won't be a question of melon seeds or not in a moment," Neymar whispered.

On the other side, the Aston Villa coach was so anxious that he replaced Carew with Del Funeso.

Ancelotti also made his substitutions.

Bosingwa replaces Ferreira and McEachran replaces Ramirez.

Just as the two of them came to the bench, they also received concerned messages from Charles.

Ramirez wiped the sweat off his forehead, looked at Bosingwa's back on the field and shook his head.

"Honestly, I almost forgot that he was still in our team. He hasn't played for a year. Sometimes I even thought he had transferred."

Charles skillfully handed Ramirez another bottle of water. "If he is the third goalkeeper, it would be a job that everyone would envy."

You can watch the game in a VIP position, get a high salary, have customized meals, get free fitness, and basically have no risk of going to work. If you are in a good situation, you can even win various trophies.

Drogba shook his head in disagreement, and pointed to Cech on the field: "It's not that good... I still remember the tragedy that happened to our family."

The corner of Ramirez's mouth twitched. "You'd better stop talking. It makes me feel uneasy."

In the eighth round of the Premier League four years ago, Chelsea visited the Madejski Stadium to challenge Reading. As the defending champions, Chelsea remained unbeaten in the first seven rounds.

Just 20 seconds into the game, Cech was kicked in the head, his skull fractured and his life was in danger. He was rushed to the hospital for treatment. After Cech left the field, Chelsea's second goalkeeper Cudicini took over.

Cech thought that after he woke up he would see the whole team coming to the hospital to see him, but what he didn't expect was that when he woke up, the second goalkeeper Cudicini was lying on the bed next to him.

Well, towards the end of the game, Kudinic was also knocked unconscious and rushed to the hospital to accompany Cech.

The good news was that Chelsea had a third goalkeeper at the time, but the bad news was that Chelsea had no more substitutions available and could only let Terry put on the third goalkeeper's clothes to guard the goal.

Fortunately, Terry was not a regular goalkeeper and was not knocked down and rushed to the hospital in the last six minutes.

The game continues on the court.

Ivanovic headed the ball in front of the goal after receiving Malouda's corner kick from the left. The ball hit the post and bounced back into the field. Ashley Cole made a diagonal pass in front of the goal from outside the penalty area. Anelka leaned forward from the small penalty area to head the ball. The ball bounced off the ground and hit the crossbar and bounced out. Chelsea missed the chance to score the winning goal.

The referee blew the whistle to end the game and Chelsea was tied 0:0 by Aston Villa away from home.

Three days later, the entire Chelsea team arrived in Moscow to prepare for the Champions League group stage.

Temperatures in Moscow have dropped to 5 degrees Celsius during the day and below freezing at night.

Ancelotti, wrapped in a down jacket, anxiously urged the players to get on the bus.

Drogba has caught a cold and now he doesn't want other players to catch it too.

After Charles got in the car, he picked up the hotel room key on the seat and started looking out the window.

It is still snowing heavily in Moscow.

Malouda sat down next to Charles and also looked out the window.

"How about it? Have you ever seen such heavy snow?"

"I saw something similar in Kazan."

Charles said.

Malouda smiled and took out a few newspapers from his bag, "I just bought them at the airport, take a look."

"Thank you," Charles took the newspaper.

Metro: "Without a win at Villa Park, Chelsea headed to Moscow for their next tough battle."

"Because both teams beat their opponents in the first two rounds and got all 6 points, whether Spartak Moscow or Chelsea wins at the Luzhny Stadium, they can secure their place in the knockout round in advance."

"Spartak Moscow can definitely be called the bitter enemy of English teams at home. In history, the team has played against English teams at home six times, with a record of five wins and one draw."

"Whether it's Arsenal or Leeds United, or Liverpool or Blackburn, these English teams that visited the Luzhny Stadium in the past were destined to have only one result, that is, to swallow the bitter fruit of not being able to win. The only exception was Aston Villa, who drew with Spartak Moscow away in 1983, but it was only a draw."

"At the same time, the Luzhniy Stadium is not a good place for Chelsea."

"The 2008/09 Champions League final was held at the Luzhny Stadium. Chelsea finally made it to the final, but they hit the post, got a red card, and missed a penalty. In the end, Terry shed tears in Moscow, and Chelsea lost the Champions League title."

Malouda looked at Charles seriously and said, "I always have a feeling that as long as we beat them here, we can win the Champions League this year."

"I-I really, really want to hold her up in Chelsea."

Charles put the newspaper away silently.

"I will try my best."

10 month 20 day.

The Champions League group stage begins again.

莫斯科斯巴达(4-2-3-1)：81-迪坎/19-帕雷亚、15-帕尔什夫柳克、16-马科耶夫、17-苏奇/5-切楚科夫、7-伊布森/9-达席尔瓦-费雷、64-麦克格雷迪、99-科姆巴洛夫/11-维利顿。

切尔西(4-3-3)：1-切赫/19-费雷拉、2-伊万诺维奇、26-特里、3-阿什利-科尔/5-埃辛、12-米克尔、18-日尔科夫/15-马卢达、7-夏尔、39-阿内尔卡。

Chelsea have the ball.

Just 55 seconds into the game, Chelsea began to threaten Spartak Moscow's goal.

Anelka cut inside and passed the ball to Charles, who made a pass in front of the penalty area. Anelka made a low shot from the penalty area line and the ball hit the post and went out of the bottom line.

The Spartak goalkeeper lifted the ball to the midfield, Parshevliuk broke through the right to the middle, dribbled past several players and passed the ball, Kombalov shot hard from the left side of the penalty area, but the ball went over the crossbar.

In the fifth minute, Chelsea organized another attack. Mikel made a long pass, and the Sparta defender headed the ball away. Charles followed up and volleyed the ball from 27 meters away from the goal. The ball drew a strange arc in the air. Dikan looked up and saw that the trajectory of the ball was like an anti-aircraft gun, but it suddenly fell in front of the goal, passed over his head, and rushed into the net.

Chelsea 1:0 Spartak Moscow.

Sparta got a free kick in the frontcourt.

Parea took a direct free kick, but the ball went over the crossbar.

In the 38th minute, the Sparta defender made a mistake in passing back, Charles intercepted the ball and passed it across Anelka, who then cut inside and successfully entered the penalty area, but after dribbling past the defender, he dribbled the ball too far and the ball slipped out of his hands after Dikan fell to the ground to save it.

Charles came in from behind and took a follow-up shot. Dikan didn't have time to get up and make a second save. He could only watch the ball cross the goal line.

Chelsea 2:0 Spartak Moscow.

It seems that after Charles scored a goal, other Chelsea players also had an appetite to score goals.

Essien broke through the opponent's defense in the frontcourt and made a straight pass. Anelka quickly adjusted the rhythm of dribbling in the penalty area, dribbled past the defender who returned to defense and shot into the far corner. The ball passed through the Sparta goalkeeper and went straight into the lower right corner of the goal.

Chelsea 3:0 Spartak Moscow.

In the second half, the two sides changed places and less than a minute after the start, Sparta made a quick pass in the frontcourt, but their determination to score a goal did not impress Cech or their goal.

Ali took a long shot from outside the penalty area, but the ball went over the crossbar.

Chelsea quickly counterattacked, Charles retreated to receive the ball and then rushed forward in the middle. Ibsen chased him frantically, but Charles was more volatile than the heavy snow in Moscow and was difficult to chase.

Just when Charles was 10 meters away from the penalty area, at the moment when Parshevliuk attacked, Charles passed the ball to Anelka with the outside of his left foot. Anelka broke through the right side of the penalty area and shot, but Dikan rushed out to block the ball.

Spartak Moscow quickly organized a counterattack. McGrady broke through on the right and shot, but the ball changed direction and was saved by Cech.

The two sides fought back and forth, and in the snow and ice, Chelsea players' physical strength was quickly depleted.

Just one minute later, Essien lost control of the ball, Spartak counterattacked, Kombarov got the ball, shook and passed it horizontally, Martinez's shot hit the Chelsea defender's leg and bounced out, McGrady shot from the right side of the penalty area to the far corner, Cech was in full swing and held the ball steadily.

Chelsea quickly counterattacked in the frontcourt. Markoyev made a mistake in passing the ball and was once again intercepted by Charles, who had a one-on-one chance. Under the siege of Suchi, Parshevliuk and Ibsen, Charles dodged and evaded in a small area. When Dikan couldn't see the situation, Charles exerted force with his calf, and the ball turned into a stray arrow, brushing the goalkeeper's calf and flying into the far post.

Chelsea 4:0 Spartak Moscow.

After the restart, Sparta made quick cooperation in the frontcourt. Ibsen made a powerful shot from outside the penalty area, but the ball was cleared by Cech with one hand.

Both sides had many chances afterwards, but neither scored a goal.

With the referee's whistle, the game ended. Chelsea defeated Spartak Moscow 4-0 away from home with Charles' hat-trick and Anelka's goal, achieving three consecutive wins in the group stage and qualifying in advance.

(End of this chapter)