Genius - Chapter 522: I Know You Tried, but Sometimes Hard Work Alone Isn’t Enough (Patreon)

“Penalty!”

“Leo wins a penalty for Liverpool!”

“This penalty could change the entire FA Cup semifinal. If Leo scores, Liverpool will be back in front against Manchester United!”

Whenever De Gea practiced penalties with the Spanish national team, Leo had been the one helping him train.

So when Leo stepped up to the penalty spot, the situation actually felt very familiar to De Gea.

“It’s been a long time since we practiced penalties like this, Captain.”

De Gea walked over to Leo.

“It really has. If I remember correctly, you hardly ever saved my penalties back then. Think this time will be any different?”

De Gea could practically hear his heart crack.

“Captain, you still don’t hold back at all when you talk to me, do you?”

De Gea laughed and backed toward his goal, readying himself for the penalty.

“Come on, De Gea. I’m going right this time.”

Leo placed the ball on the spot.

De Gea believed him.

If Leo said he was going right, then there was a very good chance he really would.

The referee confirmed that both Leo and De Gea were ready, then blew the whistle.

“Beep!”

“Leo can take the penalty!”

Gullit was a little nervous.

Not for Leo.

For De Gea.

De Gea immediately committed to his left, which was Leo’s right.

Leo looked down at the ball, glanced toward the right side of the goal, and whipped his shot with full force.

Exactly where De Gea was diving.

The ball rose.

And kept rising.

De Gea’s reach had a limit.

The ball did not.

“Bang!”

“Top corner!”

“Right into the very top corner!”

“De Gea guessed the right way, but he still couldn’t get near it!”

“That’s how confident Lin is. Most players wouldn’t dare take a penalty like that. If they wasted the chance, their teammates would give them hell.”

Scholes found Gullit’s comment amusing.

“Forget the fact that he scored. Even if he’d missed, who at Liverpool would dare blame Lin?”

“Hahahaha! Scholes has a point,” Rivaldo agreed.

“But the quality of that penalty was ridiculous. De Gea genuinely had no chance.”

Leo smiled at the Liverpool supporters.

They smiled back at him.

“Don’t worry. We’re definitely going to the final.”

“And we’re going there to win the trophy!”

Leo chatted with the Liverpool fans, and everyone nearby listened intently.

No one interrupted him.

They simply looked at Leo with warm, satisfied smiles.

Manchester United were now trailing 2-1 in the FA Cup semifinal, but Bruno Fernandes was still working hard to create chances for his team.

The match moved into the second half.

49th minute.

Bruno Fernandes ran toward Lingard.

“Give it to me, quick!”

Lingard immediately played a short pass.

Bruno received the ball without turning and instantly curled a pass forward.

Rashford accelerated.

Van Dijk and Konaté converged on him at the same time.

“Rashford goes down! Excellent defending from Van Dijk!”

Rashford was still on the ground when Bruno immediately pulled him back to his feet.

“Come on, we don’t have time!”

“I’ll keep curling passes into the space ahead of you. You need to find a way to lose Konaté!”

Bruno was telling Rashford to target Konaté, while Lingard also began making runs to help Rashford find ways to shake him off.

57th minute!

“Rashford keeps trying to make those runs, but he just can’t get away from Van Dijk.”

Lingard saw Bruno receive the ball and immediately sprinted toward Van Dijk.

Bruno had already read the entire play.

As soon as Matić passed him the ball, Bruno would find Lingard, and Rashford would be left one-on-one with Konaté.

Sure enough, Matić played the pass.

Bruno immediately clipped the ball forward.

Lingard moved across Van Dijk, Rodri dropped back, and Rashford finally slipped away from Konaté.

A burst of acceleration took Rashford clear.

He controlled the ball and accelerated again, already picturing how he would finish.

Alisson would definitely come off his line.

All Rashford had to do was chip him, and the ball would go in.

He looked up at Alisson.

The Brazilian goalkeeper had not moved.

Rashford froze for a moment.

A mistake?

Even better.

If Alisson was staying back, Rashford could finish the one-on-one himself.

He carried the ball forward.

The chance was there.

Ready.

One final adjustment.

“Bang!”

Rashford went flying.

His feet left the ground as though gravity had suddenly stopped applying to him.

Leo had not only tracked back in time, he had come across from the side, gotten his body between Rashford and the ball first, then sent Rashford flying with the contact.

“Referee! If that isn’t a foul, how are we supposed to play football?!”

“What kind of challenge is that? Is that supposed to be football tactics?!”

Rangnick stared at the airborne Rashford, momentarily at a loss for words.

All he could do was appeal to the referee.

“If that’s a foul, then we might as well get rid of physical contact altogether, Rangnick. This is the Premier League.”

Klopp calmly defended Leo, who had already passed the ball back to Alisson.

“Did Rashford never wonder why Alisson didn’t come off his line?”

Gullit had watched Leo catch Rashford, but even he had not expected the way Leo chose to defend him.

And this was only the beginning.

Every time Leo defended, he used his body.

One moment Bruno was getting knocked away.

The next, Matić was.

Leo was exceptionally good at using physical contact. None of the challenges were fouls, yet Manchester United kept losing possession because of them.

63rd minute!

“Bruno gets that pass away quickly. Of course he does. If he takes even a little longer, Lin will be there.”

“Lingard carries the ball forward, and Wan-Bissaka is actually pushing up for once.”

Wan-Bissaka wanted to offer Lingard support.

But Lingard looked toward him for just one second too long.

That one second was enough for Leo to arrive.

The familiar collision.

The familiar flight through the air.

Before Lingard even realized what had happened, Leo had knocked him aside.

“That’s Premier League physicality! Lin alone could raise the intensity of physical play in English football by another level!”

Gullit was loving it.

Who did not enjoy this kind of physical battle?

Rangnick made a substitution.

“Sancho is coming on, and Elanga is going off. Strange. Lin has been involved in all these physical battles, but he hardly seems to have gone near Elanga.”

Rivaldo did not find that strange at all.

“That’s because Elanga hasn’t touched the ball in ages.”

Gullit fought hard not to laugh.

“Rivaldo, this is a live FA Cup broadcast. Do you really have to antagonize the Manchester United supporters?”

Rivaldo did not care.

He was only telling the truth.

“I know the Manchester United players have worked hard. They’re working hard to beat Liverpool, and they’re working hard to compete with Lin.”

“But sometimes, hard work alone isn’t enough.”

“You also need talent.”

“A lot, a lot, a lot of talent.”

Rivaldo understood that better than most.

Especially growing up playing football in Brazil, where every young Brazilian thought he was a football genius.

Then, with every year you grew older and every new group of players you encountered, you started to realize that Brazil also produced players like Ronaldinho.

Players like Neymar.

Players like Ronaldo.

And countless others with that kind of talent who had not even been discovered yet.

“So sometimes, hard work really isn’t enough.”

“To beat a player like Leo, you need an enormous amount of talent too.”