Had Manchester City shown their 100% state and mentality in the previous match, AC Milan would likely have lost all hope of advancing to the final. They couldn't even imagine that possibility now.
Only two days remained until the Champions League semi-final match against Bayern Munich. Cao Baming's return to the team meant he had just two days of training.
At this moment, Cao Baming slowly walked onto the field. Looking at the familiar grass, a surge of passion ignited within him. His usual lax attitude vanished instantly.
No one else would have received such treatment. Returning to the team for training just two days before such a crucial match would have disqualified them from playing. The team needed time to gel, and even setting that aside, individual form was paramount.
Who could guarantee that after more than a week of continuous leave, with only two days to adjust upon returning to the team, one could immediately return to peak performance? No one could.
Cao Baming was no exception. The team's top management had not considered his condition. They knew Cao Baming was human and that it took time to recover from leave to peak form, an experience they had noted in previous instances.
However, unlike others, even if he couldn't reach his best, he was still more than capable of dominating everyone on the field. Even operating at eighty percent of his peak, no one would dare claim to be his equal.
To celebrate Cao Baming's return, after a simple training session that afternoon, an intra-team match was organized.
This kind of match had been simulated countless times already, and the seriousness and formality of those simulations far surpassed this training ground scrimmage.
His teammates were indeed strong, Cao Baming had to admit. But after more than ten simulations, not a single one had resulted in an exception. All matches concluded with Cao Baming's side emerging victorious.
For the training match, all players donned training kits of different colors, representing their respective teams for a full-field game.
The coaching staff intended to use this training match primarily to assess how much Cao Baming's form had declined after his break.
However, as the match began, only a few minutes passed before everyone was astonished. The reason for their astonishment came, once again, from Cao Baming.
They hadn't expected that after such a long break and such a relaxed state, he wouldn't show any significant decline in ability on his first day back. Whether on offense or defense, he maintained almost the same level as before, and at times, it even appeared to have improved from an outsider's perspective.
This was simply too outrageous!
At this moment, Cao Baming monitored the game while also glancing with his peripheral vision at the coaching staff, several high-level executives, and support staff standing not far from the sideline. Their expressions told everything; Cao Baming knew what they were thinking.
They had hoped to see his form decline, but that was something they would never witness!
Meanwhile, as Cao Baming continued to sprint across the field, his attribute points were constantly being switched, almost without pause. At this point in time, he had completely mastered this talent, making the most correct decisions almost instantaneously.
When attacking, he switched 100 attribute points to offense. Even if his form had declined significantly, what did it matter? When he wanted to shoot, with 200 shooting attribute points, a casual shot would find the net!
Just seven minutes into the game, Cao Baming, from the midfield, directly showcased his 200 shooting attribute points to everyone. A volley, with an outside-of-the-foot curve, traveled a distance of 49 meters towards the goal and precisely entered the net.
The goal frame began to shake violently. This shot didn't even hit the posts; it directly found the corner of the net. The friction with the net seemed as if every contact would trigger an earthquake.
Everyone was greatly shocked. Even for Cao Baming, they had never witnessed such a powerful shot. This was more than a level above his previous form, or rather, its effect had improved significantly!
How had he achieved this? What kind of monster was he?
Everyone was repeatedly pondering these questions. If Cao Baming could be considered within the human category, then the meaning of the word "human" would likely need re-evaluation. Although this was a topic of constant external discussion, his teammates, who saw him every day, could generally accept it.
But they soon realized that things were not that simple. This guy continued to perform actions that were utterly incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Cao Baming consistently delivered shots of exceptional quality on the field. He could shoot from near the halfway line and make the goal shake directly. Furthermore, he possessed unbelievable speed. Even fast defenders chasing him seemed like a tortoise and a hare in comparison, unable to keep up.
His running speed was truly comparable to an airplane. Did airplanes really fly on the ground?
However, what was most astonishing was at the 20-minute mark, an integral time point, the score of this training match had already reached 5:0.
While this was merely an informal intra-team training match and the score was likely of little consequence to most, the fact that all five goals were scored by Cao Baming alone was rather absurd. After all, he wasn't facing a team of the same caliber as the previous friendly match. Even for Cao Baming, his opponents included superstars like Henry, Nelson, and Vieira!