The path to becoming a football legend began with being ousted from Carrington by Manchester United.

Lin temporarily handed over the task of marking Gerrard to Aguero, ran to the sidelines to stop the bleeding, quickly changed into a clean jersey, and tried to return to the field as fast as possible.

Although his own defensive abilities might be worse, Lin Yi firmly believed that entrusting such a heavy responsibility to A-Kun was unreliable.

Even so, by the time Lin Yi rushed back to the court, more than eighty minutes of the game had already passed.

Liverpool were completely enraged. At this point, losing by one goal or two made no difference. Even the 191cm tall center-back Skrtel had charged into Manchester City's penalty area to act as a target man.

Pellegrini, who had three cards in his hand that he hadn't played yet, finally began to make substitutions.

On the one hand, it was to buy time and disrupt Liverpool's attacking rhythm; on the other hand, several of Manchester City's forwards were indeed exhausted.

In the 83rd minute, a menacing De Jong replaced the exhausted David Silva.

Two minutes later, Balotelli, who had been out of action for a long time, replaced Aguero, who opened the scoring for Manchester City.

Nasri was ready to go on the field, standing on the sidelines with the fourth official, waiting for the ball to go out of play.

"What's the use of being fast? A real man is one who lasts."

Gerrard rarely trash-talks his opponents on the pitch, but today he simply couldn't hold back.

He hadn't expected Lin Yi, who was constantly criticized by the media for not liking to participate in defense, to be so troublesome. This annoying guy, relying on his speed advantage, kept harassing him around tirelessly.

Gerrard had never watched Slam Dunk, and he didn't realize that his current situation was similar to that of Jin Soichiro of the Hainan team.

Similar to Sakuragi Hanamichi, no matter how good your skills are, you can at most dribble past me, but you can never get rid of me. You can get past me 99 times, and I will appear in front of you for the 100th time.

Even though Lin Yi was already panting heavily, his legs felt like they were made of lead, and he trembled incessantly whenever he stopped, with large beads of sweat constantly sliding down his face.

He still didn't let Gerrard off the hook, and even took Gerrard's taunts seriously.

"Stop telling me dirty jokes. With your level of humor, you'd only be fit to sit at a table with kids. You can't even compete with the women, believe it or not!"

Gerrard pointed to the sidelines: "Don't be so arrogant. Look at the sidelines, guess who's that coward who's about to be substituted?"

"Stop pretending, you think I can't tell you're getting tired of it too?"

"Haha, I'm now in great shape enough to run all the way from Manchester back to Liverpool."

"Then I could fucking run all the way back to China in one go!"

"I could run around the Earth!"

"I'll do three laps!"

It's unclear how much fuel Lin Yi and Gerrard have left in their tanks, but De Jong, who just came on, is certainly energetic.

In the 87th minute of regular time, during a 50/50 coinciding contest in the midfield, he outmaneuvered his national team teammate Kuyt, who had already run more than 12.5 kilometers.

De Jong won possession and launched a long ball forward, sending it across the midfield and landing on the left flank of Liverpool's half.

There was no one there; Carragher, who was left behind, was marking Balotelli on the right flank, but he was too far away to reach him.

Ultimately, it was Lin Yi and Gerrard, who had been entangled for quite some time, who went after the ball.

Judging from the footage of the two running and chasing each other, it's clear that their previous conversation was 200% just bragging; these two guys simply couldn't keep up.

Even so, neither Lin Yi nor Gerald gave up. They pushed and shoved each other as they staggered forward.

Given Lin Yi's speed, catching up with the ball would normally only take the blink of an eye, but at this moment he felt as if the distance between them was impossibly vast.

Gerrard's physical exertion was much greater than Lin Yi's, because Gerrard spent most of the game on the defensive side.

Anyone who has played football knows that the defending side expends far more energy than the attacking side.

In addition, Gerrard played the role of initiator of the transition from defense to attack many times in the game. If he were not a perpetual motion machine of the Premier League's history, he would have been down by now.

In the end, Lin Yi prevailed, gradually taking the lead in the race.

Seeing that he couldn't get the ball before Lin Yi, Gerrard simply closed his eyes and rammed into Lin Yi from behind, intending to use the same method Lin Yi had used to deal with him to take him down.

The impact caused Lin Yi to lose his balance. His weak legs were already struggling to support him, let alone with Gerald's weight on top of that. Lin Yi fell straight down onto the grass.

Just as his body was about to touch the ground, Lin Yi suddenly felt a lightness in his body. He quickly scrambled forward a couple of times with his hands, bit his lip hard, and forced himself to crawl forward two steps. He barely managed to stand up, and relying on his senses, Lin Yi used the last bit of strength in his body to kick the ball in the direction where Balotelli was.

How could Carragher, already 33 years old, possibly outmaneuver Balotelli, who had been holding back for so long?

Despite Lin Yi's wildly inaccurate pass, Balotelli still managed to regain possession of the ball before Carragher could, thanks to his all-around physical advantages in stamina, strength, and speed.

Having a one-on-one opportunity, Balotelli easily dribbled past Liverpool goalkeeper Reina. With no one marking him, he focused on figuring out how to put the ball into the opponent's goal. As he was thinking, he suddenly heard the cheers of the home fans.

Balotelli then realized that he had unknowingly dribbled the ball into Liverpool's goal, changing the score to 3-1 and completely ending any suspense about the outcome.

As if waking from a dream, Balotelli picked up the football, pushed aside Reina and Carragher who came to protest, and grinned as he ran towards his good brother Lin Yi, who had assisted him.

Lin Yi didn't see Balotelli score the goal. After passing the ball, he immediately turned around to look at Gerrard, wondering why the other player hadn't pressed down on him and instead given him a chance to get up again.

Gerald's desperate charge had completely exhausted his strength; his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground even before Lin Yi.

This famous tough guy didn't even have the strength to pull Lin Yi with his hands, and thus helplessly let go of his opponent.

Gerrard, who was already cramping up, buried his head in the grass like an ostrich, refusing to accept reality, even though he had already guessed what had happened from the cheers at the Etihad Stadium.

"Hahaha, you're still pretending, you bastard! What a load of bull! And you even went back to Liverpool." Lin Yi limped over to Gerrard. "Hey! Move a muscle! Don't die here, our stadium is expensive!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a "thump" was heard.

Lin Yi, who had just been showing off, also suddenly lost his balance and fell heavily next to Gerrard.

He also got a cramp.

"Serves you right! You idiot!" Gerald felt much better. He struggled to turn over and lay quietly next to Lin Yi.

Balotelli, clutching the football, sprinted over and, looking at Lin Yi lying on the ground, fell into deep thought once more.

Given Lin Yi's current posture, how should he celebrate the brilliant goal after the connection with Ba Yi?

"Have you seen enough? Help me stretch your legs!" Lin Yi said irritably.

After about five seconds of silence, Balotelli asked a very philosophical question.

"Whom should we help?"