Chapter 612 - 314: King of the Skies

With a thwack, the ball was brought down onto the Camp Nou turf by Tendou's head.

And then, he instantly picked up speed and, in one breath, caught up to the ball he had stopped 2 meters in front of him.

"Whoa!"

The Camp Nou was in an uproar.

Tendou's high-speed start had taken them by surprise.

When they had watched him on TV before, they had felt that this Liverpool genius was very fast.

But only by truly coming to the scene and watching could one really experience how freakish his explosive power was.

The Barça players instantly thought of a certain player from their mortal enemies, Real Madrid.

The Great Sage, Bale!

Tendou advanced at speed. Rakitić turned and gave chase.

But he found that even without the ball, he couldn't catch up to the other.

This was simply too ridiculous.

One had to know, Tendou's speed and strength, including his physique, were somewhere between Haaland's and Loki's.

He had a physique and strength second only to the former, and an explosive power second only to the latter.

When such a person charged at full speed, that explosive power was enough to destroy everything.

Klopp's task for Tendou in this match was to focus solely on the attack. His teammates would handle the defense.

Therefore, he did not need to allocate his stamina as he usually did.

"GO, GO, GO!"

"Charge!"

Klopp roared on the sidelines. As Tendou sprinted, his entire face was flushed.

The Barça players were on high alert.

With the two core players, Salah and Firmino, absent, Liverpool's main attacking threat now was Mané.

Barça had prepared a specific defensive plan for him.

Tendou saw it clearly from his fifth-dimensional vision.

He did not pass, but continued to charge forward with his head down.

Raw speed!

Raw strength!

Occasionally, he would make a horizontal pass to a teammate for a one-two.

The Barça fans were stunned by this man-eating kid.

Finally, at a position 25 meters from the goal, Tendou suddenly pulled back his right foot.

BANG!

With a deafening bang, the ball, struck by Tendou's right leg, deformed.

And then, it roared and shot towards the Barça goal.

But Barça was well-prepared. Ter Stegen leaped up and blocked the shot with both fists.

Of course, Valverde had prepared for Liverpool.

Trailing by 3 goals away from home, it was a given that Liverpool would attack fiercely.

With the team's two main attackers injured, that 18-year-old kid's position moving forward was also within his expectations.

After all, to break through a dense defense, a big center forward is the ultimate weapon.

So far, the battle of wits between the two head coaches on the sidelines was a draw.

Klopp had not gained an advantage, but he had not suffered a loss either.

Therefore, for Liverpool to win this match, it would depend heavily on the players' performance. So far, it seemed that Klopp had not gotten the better of Valverde.

A corner kick opportunity for Liverpool.

Keïta quickly went to the corner and gave a hand signal to the sky.

Piqué.

He immediately found Tendou.

As the team's tall defender, he was the only one in terms of physique who could match up with Tendou.

Tendou was 1.93 meters tall. Piqué was one centimeter taller than him.

However, this Spanish international was already 38 years old, and his athletic ability had declined severely.

Now, he was almost purely playing on experience.

So his pre-match statement that he had seen through Tendou was by no means an empty boast.

BANG!

Keïta took the corner.

The ball left the ground and flew rapidly towards the Barça penalty area.

"The referee blows the whistle!"

"Let's see this Liverpool corner!"

"Keïta gives a tactical signal!"

"He's played it into the center of the box, between the goalkeeper and the players!"

Zhan Jun's voice couldn't help but rise a few notches.

That familiar "Liverpool" accent easily exposed his "home team bias."

Keïta's corner was kicked between the goalkeeper and the team.

This was to give Tendou some space for a run-up.

This was the corner kick tactic that Klopp had set up before the match, to fully utilize Tendou's athletic advantage.

Rustle~

In an instant, the players from both sides who had made a judgment, including the goalkeeper, all moved at the first moment.

More than a dozen people, as if by prior agreement, all ran towards the ball.

The moment Keïta kicked the ball, Tendou forcefully broke free from the entanglement of two Barça defenders and shot out from the crowd.

And Piqué, he was worthy of being the man who had seen through Tendou. He had guessed that Liverpool would definitely look for Tendou, so he had been locked onto him from the very beginning.

The moment Tendou rushed out, he also followed closely, getting between Tendou and the ball.

As long as the ball dropped to a certain height, he could jump up and clear the ball before this Liverpool kid.

At the same time, ter Stegen had already come out, anticipating this position.

However, the ball had not yet landed, but Piqué felt a figure behind him leap into the air as if from a standing start.

Piqué's mind went blank.

Can you jump from this position?

You really can!

Under the watchful eyes of nearly 100,000 fans at the scene, the airborne Tendou seemed to be "fixed" in mid-air.

His monster-like hang time allowed him to wait for the ball kicked by Keïta amidst the encirclement of Piqué and ter Stegen.

In the penalty area, Mané, Van Dijk, and all the Barça defenders.

Outside the penalty area, Messi, Arnold, and so on, were all looking up with their mouths agape.

One had to know, Piqué's height was 1.94 meters.

The maximum height Tendou had reached on this jump was probably over 2.9 meters.

Of course, this was not the first time Tendou had done such a thing. What truly shocked people was his hang time.

Even without accurate data, they felt as if Tendou had been frozen in mid-air for a second.

Piqué only felt a huge shadow envelop him.

Looking back, that Liverpool kid was using his unparalleled core strength to swing his body. As his head shook, the ball's trajectory instantly changed and smashed heavily into the Barça goal!

5th minute of the match!

Liverpool took a corner kick directly into the box.

Tendou broke free from two defenders in the crowd and, like a god descending, scored with a header!

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!"

The ball went in.

The first to react was still the official Liverpool commentator.

The 20,000 Liverpool fans who had traveled with the team turned the tables and celebrated wildly at the Camp Nou.

"GOAL!"

"TJ!"

"IT'S HIM AGAIN! AN ABSOLUTELY VIOLENT HEADER!"

"HE HELPS LIVERPOOL BREAK THROUGH BARÇA'S GOAL IN THE FIFTH MINUTE OF THE GAME!"

"AN UNBELIEVABLE KING OF THE SKIES!"

"PIQUÉ MAY HAVE SEEN THROUGH TJ'S MOVEMENTS, BUT IN THE FACE OF ABSOLUTE TALENT, MORTALS CAN ONLY LOOK UP!"

"1:0! THE AGGREGATE SCORE IS 1:3!"

"THE TENACIOUS MEN OF LIVERPOOL HAVE NOT GIVEN UP!"

"..."

The commentator was incredibly excited. He clearly had not forgotten Piqué's words that had belittled their genius.

The host next to him also held his head in his hands and cried out, "My God! It's like TJ was flying! How long was he in the air just now?!"

"..."