Chapter 247: One hand has already been placed on the trophy
The live broadcast room's barrage exploded:
[The first few steps seemed normal, but how come it accelerated like flying at the end? ]
[What speed is this? My body has grown again just after I turned 18? ]
[Dongbei Yin said, Xiaoliang is really Quicksilver]
[Cesco: Liangzi, slow down. We can’t catch up.]
…
Although the fans meant it as a joke, Chen Xiaoliang on the field also realized the same problem.
He himself hadn't adjusted to his new speed, let alone Cesco.
If he had slowed down a bit after leaving Pedersen behind and waited for Cesco to pass the ball, the effect would definitely have been better.
However, although the ball did not go in, the sudden burst of gunfire also resulted in two results.
When Feyenoord's defenders saw Chen Xiaoliang get the ball, they couldn't help but retreat, while Roma became more confident in using a quick counterattack to defeat their opponent.
In the 24th minute, Roma launched another counterattack from defense to offense.
Chen Xiaoliang followed closely the Englishman Nelson who wanted to cut in from the right. The striker who was on loan from Arsenal had won one FA Cup and two Community Shield titles with the team. It was natural for him to improve his skills when he came to the Eredivisie.
Nelson is also very proud of his speed. At Feyenoord, he is one of the two or three fastest players.
It's true, he suddenly cut inside with the ball and in the first two steps he slightly shook off Chen Xiaoliang who had returned to the defensive midfielder position to help defend.
But after taking two more steps, Nelson, who was about to kick the ball, found that Chen Xiaoliang had completely caught up with him, with his right leg stretched out, and was about to tackle the ball he was dribbling.
Nelson kicked the ball with his left foot, bypassing Chen Xiaoliang's right foot. Just as he was about to move the ball to his right foot, Chen Xiaoliang's left foot instantly scooped the ball out.
The Englishman cursed in his mind: Farke! There are two stages of tackles, if you miss the first one, try again? !
He was knocked to the ground and raised his hands to look at the referee Istvan Kovac, but the Romanian referee did not say anything and turned to run to the other side of the court following the ball.
Zhan Jun, who saw this scene, immediately introduced: "Roma players must be familiar with today's referee. In the previous European Cup match against Celtic, it was Istvan Kovac who whistled. His law enforcement style has always been known for its strictness, especially when the game is more intense and both sides are making big moves, he will be more strict to prevent the game from getting out of control."
As Zhan Jun was speaking, the rolling ball was controlled by Matic, who made a diagonal pass to Pellegrini who had already made a forward run.
Pellegrini, who played as a shadow striker today, knew that he did not have the unreasonable speed of Chen Xiaoliang. After receiving the ball, he took a few steps to adjust himself, and at the moment when Cesco suddenly started, he directly made a lob pass to the front of Cesco!
The ball was passed with great force, Cesco jumped lightly and took the ball off with the instep, and the opponent's central defender Trauner had already rushed in front of him.
Cesco pushed the ball between the legs of Trauner who was blocking in front of him with his right foot, hoping to pass the ball alone.
Unlike Chen Xiaoliang, Cesco, who will be 19 in 5 days, is restricted by his height of 195cm. Although his maximum speed can only be considered slightly above average, according to Chen Xiaoliang's inner estimation, it is probably between 14-15. However, his two powerful long legs, which can take one step at a time, make his first few steps as fast as Abraham, which is definitely a top-notch level among center forwards.
When Trauner realized that he had been penetrated, he knew that things were going to get bad, and it was too late for him to turn around and chase.
The 30-year-old Austrian central defender glanced at the defense line in his field of vision at the fastest speed and found that another central defender, Senesi, was lagging behind a little further away.
So he stretched out his right hand and decisively pulled Sesco, and Sesco immediately lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Seeing that his upcoming counterattack was maliciously disrupted by the opponent, Mourinho immediately spread his hands forward.
“Beep!”
Istvan Kovac knew something had happened and immediately ran over and showed Trauner a yellow card.
Trauner gave Senesi a thumbs up, thanking him for following behind so that he was not the last defender besides the goalkeeper, otherwise the price of the foul would be a red card.
After a while, in the 29th minute, Feyenoord finally launched its first attack of the game that hit the goal frame.
After passing the ball for a long time in the midfield, there was still no gap. Seeing that Roma's defensive area was getting tighter and tighter, striker Desels could only choose to take a long shot outside the penalty area. The ball was blocked by Mkhitaryan, flew high, slowly fell into the penalty area, and was easily picked up by Patricio two steps outside the goal line.
The attack was not threatening at all, but Mkhitaryan sat on the ground and shook his head at Chen Xiaoliang who was walking over. Chen Xiaoliang knew that this was a bad omen, so he quickly turned around and gestured to the bench, signaling team doctor Manara to come in.
Manara took a look and made the initial diagnosis that the thigh was pulled too much when blocking the ball, and he was suspected of straining a muscle, so he supported Mkhitaryan and limped off the field.
Inter Milan has already offered a contract to the Armenian veteran whose contract is about to expire. Although Roma has already offered a new contract of 3 million euros, it is indeed a certain distance from Inter Milan's annual salary of 4.5 million euros.
This is also the requirement of the Roma board, hoping that the team can make the lineup appropriately younger.
In addition, Mkhitaryan's current annual salary is 5.5 million euros, so it is very likely that this will be his last game in Rome.
Mkhitaryan himself knows that his three years in Rome are coming to an end.
However, this veteran, whose career has taken him to Armenia, Ukraine, Germany, England and Italy and who has played for big teams such as Manchester United and Arsenal, did not have too many waves in his heart. When he was about to walk to the sidelines, he just applauded and bowed slightly to the fans in front and behind him, then gave Mourinho a routine hug and walked quietly to the locker room for further examination.
But his departure is not the end, but the beginning of another unknown.
As his contract renewal has been pending, this transfer rumor has long been no secret, and well-known transfer reporters such as Romano have reported that he will be leaving the team.
Zhan Jun also introduced the news to the fans in the broadcast room, and quoted a poem at the end:
"Poor Thunderbolt, he landed without a sound."
Indeed, it is a pity that in Roma's most glorious season in the past 20 years, this general who once dominated the Bundesliga and the Premier League bid farewell in such a silent way.
However, Mourinho seemed to want to let the player who was about to leave the team have a good experience, so he let Veretout, who was also leaving, take his place.
The game continued after a 3-minute injury time.
The game finally changed.
Trauner's yellow card made him the focus of Roma's frontcourt breakthrough. Whether it was Cesco or Pellegrini, they would take the initiative to challenge his defense area whenever they had the chance.
In the 32nd minute, Patricio kicked the ball to Mancini in front of him from the backcourt. Facing Feyenoord who had already returned to their position, Roma rarely chose to advance slowly.
The ball passed from Mancini in the middle, through Veretout and Matic, to Zalewski on the left.
When Zalewski received the ball, he was already near the center line. He dribbled forward, cut inside slightly, and passed the ball back to Matic in the middle. The ball was then transferred to Chen Xiaoliang on the right side through the retreating Pellegrini.
Two consecutive intensive horizontal short passes forced Feyenoord's overall formation to go through a process of moving from the strong side to the weak side and then from the weak side to the strong side.
After Chen Xiaoliang received the ball, Feyenoord immediately put up a double defense. The captain of the defensive midfielder Kokku marked him closely, while the left back Pedersen was 5 meters behind Kokku on the wing, ready to fill in at any time and prevent Chen Xiaoliang from forcing his speed to break through to the wing.
Chen Xiaoliang took an unconventional approach. He pushed the ball with his left foot and made a reverse cross pass to the left.
Kokku was worried that he would cut inside and shoot from distance, especially the long-range shot video of Chen Xiaoliang. The players in the team had watched it many times. Even without the coach's reminder, they knew that this kid was very good at long-range shooting, so Kokku immediately blocked him.
Pedersen behind him was frightened by Chen Xiaoliang's overtaking on the outside just now, and he kept staring at Chen Xiaoliang behind Kokku.
It was embarrassing enough to go through it once. If he was treated like a dog again, he felt that he would most likely become Bale's eternal background board like Maicon and Bartra, and be whipped again and again in the endless years to come.
He even forgot that he was still a left-back, completely leaving the left side exposed and involuntarily retreating into the penalty area.
At the moment when Kokku and Pedersen moved their center of gravity, Chen Xiaoliang dribbled the ball back with his left foot and pushed the ball to the front right with the outside of his right foot!
Spinazzola, who had worked with him for a short time but got along quite well with him, had been lying in ambush on the right side. As soon as the ball came over, he took a few big steps forward and stopped the ball easily.
Only then did Pedersen realize that he had neglected his job, and he quickly turned around to try to make up for it.
But as one of Italy's best players in the European Cup last summer, why would Spinazzola give him a chance?
The full-back, who had been aiming for a while, rubbed the bottom of the ball with his right foot, and a cross with a long arc flew up immediately!
The ball flew towards the goal and then turned to the left side of the small penalty area.
Trauner, who was returning to defense, jumped hard, but it was not known whether he was a little weak from the continuous kicks or Spinazzola was lucky, anyway, Trauner's header was just a hair's breadth away and ended up hitting the target.
Three meters behind him, Cesco was already in position. While he was secretly happy about Trauner's header, he stopped the ball with his chest.
Maybe he was too excited, and the speed of the cross was too fast, so Cesco's chest stopped a little too hard and the ball bounced towards the goal!
Feyenoord goalkeeper Bigelo reacted immediately and left the goal to attack, while Cesco also kicked his left foot and moved towards the ball at full speed!
The two of them only took two steps to decide the winner!
Bigelo realized that he was still a beat too slow, so he tried to get as close to the ball as possible, knelt down on his legs to prevent the ball from going through the wicket, and raised his hands to try to expand the coverage area.
Cesco kicked the ball with his right foot, and the ball went right between Bigelo's hands and into the goal!
Zhan Jun: "This ball goes in! In the 33rd minute, Roma scored the first goal!"
"Trauna, Trauna. It's his fault that he got a yellow card early today and became the key breakthrough point for Roma. This time he headed the ball into the net again, which was a great gift for Cesco."
Zhang Lu: "In fact, it is obvious from this ball that there is indeed a gap in strength between the two sides. In addition, Roma has gradually adapted to this style of play under Mourinho's coaching over the past season and has played more and more smoothly. Xiaoliang's increasing threat has caused the opponent to focus a lot of defensive attention on him, creating space for his teammates. It is not surprising that Roma took the lead."
"On the other hand, Feyenoord has not been able to get the crosses right so far, and all their shots have been long range, but they have not been threatening at all."
Zhan Jun: "Feyenoord's head coach Arni Sloter is 15 years younger than Mourinho and is now 44 years old. His career was relatively short, mainly in Breda and Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie."
"My coaching experience is not too long, only nine years in total, but in the Eredivisie, I am currently considered one of the main representatives of the middle-aged coach generation."
Zhang Lu: "Compared with Mourinho, he is still a little immature."
Zhan Jun: "After the goal, we saw Roma's players happily celebrating with each other, but the director's shot was also very interesting. The fans in the stands seemed to be even more excited than them, especially the local Albanian fans, who sang and danced as if their own national team had scored a goal."
"The local broadcast media said that they were singing rap songs in Albanian, and they also introduced it before the game. The reason why this game is popular is not only because of the arrival of Roma, but also because this stadium has hosted a major UEFA club event for the first time since it was built on November 17, 2019."
"This means that after two and a half years of waiting, the newly rebuilt stadium has finally become a sea of pure football joy, with fans singing team songs, dancing the famous Poznan dance to celebrate victory with their backs to the stadium."
On the field, Feyenoord, who were behind, were a little angry and humiliated, but to be honest, their emotions came more from the demands that professional players place on themselves, that is, the desire to win.
This game was so frustrating . Up to this point, the team had 65% ball possession but only 6 shots, and only 1 of those hit the goal frame without any threat.
A bus was shamelessly blocked in the restricted area and could not be moved no matter what we did. How infuriating!
Soon, the frustrated emotions triggered impatient behavior.
In the 37th minute, Feyenoord midfielder Gus Till made a lob pass from the middle, and striker Dessertz fell to the ground while competing for the header with Smalling. Neither of them touched the ball, and the ball was hugged by Patricio.
An argument ensued between the two, with players from both teams immediately rushing over to cheer and support their teammates.
Patricio was the first to step forward and separate the two men. Mancini, who was the closest among the others, also rushed forward and used his body to block Dessels. However, he was too fast and knocked Dessels away with his chest. The latter immediately fought back and pushed Mancini's chest with both hands.
Feyenoord players thought Mancini came up to provoke them and became even more annoyed. Sistra rushed over and pushed Mancini, and when Veretout stretched out his hand to stop Nils from moving forward, Nils hit his arm hard and it fell off.
Desels was pulled over there by his teammates, pointing at Smalling and muttering non-stop.
Seeing that Mancini and Sistra were clashing again and the conflict was about to escalate, Chen Xiaoliang ran over, pulling Mancini away and reaching out to push Sistra away.
"Beep, beep, beep!" The referee Istvan Kovac blew the whistle like the sound of swear words being muted in some movies. In the end, with his warnings and the pulling of most players from both sides, the conflict was calmed down.
Then Kovac's card-pulling operation put everyone in a confused situation again.
He showed yellow cards to Smalling, Desels, Mancini and Sistra who were directly involved in the pushing and shoving, but then he also showed yellow cards to the captains of the two teams, Chen Xiaoliang and Kokcu.
Both of them were confused. They were clearly there to stop the fight and pull the people apart, so why did they still get cards?
Kovac sternly refuted the suggestion, saying the two men also had obvious physical gestures with their hands while separating the players.
Seeing that the referee was serious, Kokku waved his hands and ran away in silence, while Chen Xiaoliang smiled helplessly, shook his head and returned to his seat.
For this reason, Feyenoord head coach Arni Sloter kept complaining to the fourth official on the sidelines, but Mourinho sat calmly in the coaching seat, holding his notebook in one hand and taking notes with the other.
It's obvious that the referee wanted to give both players a slap on the wrist to serve as a warning to the others. What's there to complain about? He just needed to give all the irrational players a slap on the wrist during the half-time break and that's it.
Just as Mourinho thought, Kovac's indiscriminate yellow card range attack was to shock the situation on the field. After the game continued, the players really became much more "behaved", especially those who received yellow cards, who were more cautious.
In the 41st minute, Kokcu received a pass from Nelson and then made a long shot, but it still posed no threat and was confiscated by Patricio.
As time passed, Feyenoord continued to control the ball and pass it back, so the director simply turned the camera to the stands.
In the VIP area, Totti appeared on the scene. He sat in his seat, leaning forward, watching very seriously.
Not far from him is another Roma star, Brazilian legendary defender Aldair, who played a total of 436 games for Roma for 13 years and won the Serie A, Italian Cup and Italian Super Cup once each.
The camera also captured Manchester United's incoming head coach Ten Hag. There were rumors that he came to see Malaysia and Cesco, but there were also claims that he came to see Chen Xiaoliang.
In the end, the first half ended with a corner kick by Roma. Veretout took a corner kick and Smalling overpowered the opponent's midfielder Authers to head the ball, but he didn't hit the right spot and it went directly into the stands.
In the locker room, Mourinho did mention the yellow card, but he did not use warnings, encouragement, exhortations, etc. Instead, he let the players rest and relax while he put his hands in his pockets and told everyone a story:
"I told this story to journalists before when I was at Real Madrid and I'll tell it to you again today."
"When I was at Inter, there was a Champions League group match against Russia's Rubin Kazan. The team suffered a lot of injuries. There was no Milito, no Eto'o, and the only genuine striker who could be used was Balotelli."
"So I sent him on as the lone striker in that game, but at the end of the first half, he received a yellow card."
"I was disappointed at the time, thinking that whether he was substituted or sent off, it would mean that I would have no striker to use."
"So now, I'm at halftime and I didn't talk to any other players. I spent 14 minutes of the 15-minute break talking to just him."
"I told him I had no striker and I couldn't take him off and that he just had to play and not worry about what was happening on the pitch."
"If someone touches him, don't respond. If the referee makes a wrong call, don't pay attention. In short, just play football. Don't touch or pay attention to anyone."
"I even said to him 'Please, Mario', hoping that he would remember and understand what I meant."
"As a result, two minutes into the second half, he received another yellow card and was sent off directly."
"An unnecessary charge on an opponent who had already kicked the ball."
"Fortunately, it was a group match, and the team managed to maintain the 1-1 score in the first half until the end despite having one less player."
"I'm telling you this now, I believe you all understand, I believe that what's in your head is different from what's in Balotelli's head."
"We are 1-0 now. In the second half, don't worry about what the opponent does or what the referee calls the whistle. We just need to keep defending and keep counterattacking quickly. They will soon be worn down by us."
"Don't let the game be ruined by any impulse or stupidity."
In the locker room, although some players, including Chen Xiaoliang, had seen the video online of Mourinho mentioning this incident during an interview that year, they were still very interested when they heard their head coach mention it again up close.
And it has to be said that this kind of mid-field training method not only allows the players to relax by listening to a joke, but also allows them to understand the key points of the head coach's reminder through a negative example.
After all, having said that, who would want to be the "second Balotelli"?
This story only took Mourinho five minutes. For the rest of the time, apart from letting a few players warm up, he did not say anything about tactics. Instead, he chatted with Patricio about going back to his hometown in Portugal for vacation at the end of the season.
Soon, the second half started and Roma still stuck to its defensive counterattack tactics.
In the 47th minute, Feyenoord right back Giltruida made a 45-degree cross from the right to the penalty area. Chen Xiaoliang headed the ball out in front of Sistra. Veretout on the penalty area line controlled the ball and gently pushed it forward about 5 meters. Then, with a "whoosh" beside him, Chen Xiaoliang, who had landed, rushed out.
Feyenoord captain Kokcu saw that Chen Xiaoliang was going to advance with the ball at speed again, so he turned around and retreated in advance, then blocked Chen Xiaoliang's route.
However, facing Kokcu who already had a yellow card, Chen Xiaoliang chose to force his way past him.
In the front, Spinazzola, Cesco and Pellegrini had already started as soon as Veretout took control of the ball.
Faced with Chen Xiaoliang who might suddenly pass the ball behind him at any time, Feyenoord's two central defenders had to keep retreating parallel to Cesco who was in the front.
Seeing that Kokku was blocking him with a diagonal run, Chen Xiaoliang used the same trick again and pushed the ball forward.
Once bitten, one will be afraid of ropes for ten years. Kokku immediately burst out with all his energy and chased the ball at full speed, and tried his best to raise his right arm to prevent Chen Xiaoliang from overtaking him from the right.
But after he ran a few steps, he found that Chen Xiaoliang cut in from the right to the middle.
When he looked at Spinazzola who stopped in front to meet the ball, he realized that this was not a dribble past the opponent, but a two-one pass.
Sure enough, Spinazzola did not stop the ball, but directly sent a diagonal pass from the right to the front of the center, which went right in front of Chen Xiaoliang.
After getting rid of the defensive midfielder Kokku, the other defensive midfielder Arthurs didn't have time to retreat from the frontcourt. After the right back Gil Truida made a cross, he barely chased back across the half court, but he was still a long way from Chen Xiaoliang in the middle.
The two central defenders in front of him, one followed Cesco and the other followed Pellegrini, leaving only the right-back Pedersen who had already retreated into the penalty area.
The road ahead for Chen Xiaoliang is smooth!
When he pushed all the way to the top of the penalty area, Pedersen had already moved a little inside the penalty area line, making a final defensive attempt.
Suddenly, Chen Xiaoliang slowed down, moved the ball to the right, and prepared for a long shot!
At the same time, Pellegrini, who was running towards the left goal post in the penalty area, suddenly retreated to the middle of the small penalty area line, while Cesco, who was involved on the right side , also started and moved forward to the right goal post. Pedersen put his hands in front of him, ready to use his body to block Chen Xiaoliang's shot.
Chen Xiaoliang's right foot landed heavily, but the instep of his foot lightly rubbed the bottom of the ball, and the ball was immediately lifted up and flew towards Cesco.
The opponent's goalkeeper Bigelo was standing in the middle of the goal waiting to block Chen Xiaoliang's long shot. When he saw him pass the ball, he immediately blocked it towards his own left goal post.
The ball once again passed over the head of Trauner, who was destined to be the unlucky guy today, and was headed by Cesco who jumped up. However, he did not head towards the goal which had already been at a small angle, but lightly headed it back to the middle.
Pellegrini strode forward and kicked the ball with the arch of his foot. Bigelo had no time to dive back to the middle from the side of the goal post. He could only look up to the sky, sigh, and accept the fact that his goal had been breached again.
Zhan Jun: "In the 48th minute! Roma once again made a quick counterattack, with Cesco assisting Pellegrini to score into the empty goal!"
"Roma 2-0! They have touched the trophy!"
"Feyenoord players raised their hands to indicate that the ball might be offside!"
"The linesman did not raise the flag, and referee Kovac should be communicating with the video referee team."
Zhang Lu: "Regardless of whether it was offside or not, this ball had already penetrated Feyenoord's defense tactically. First, Xiaoliang and Spinazzola completed a two-on-one pass with a wall pass on the right side. Then Xiaoliang pushed the ball to the front of the penalty area and passed it to Cesco, who completed another wall pass and passed it to Pellegrini in the middle."
"Feyenoord's defense has no ability to withstand such high-speed counterattacks and is totally unable to handle it."
Zhan Jun: "Pellegrini was very calm. He walked back while talking to Cesco. Kovac seemed to be still there... Let's see! Kovac pointed to the center line! The goal was valid!"
"The offside line was marked on the scene. The moment Xiaoliang passed the ball, Senesi, who was defending Pellegrini, was dragged behind!"
"Just half a step away..."
"Feyenoord can only accept the bitter fruit of the score being changed to 2-0!"
"Many fans left comments in the comments expressing their pity for Xiaoliang, saying that Cesco was credited with the assist for this goal. But I believe everyone can see that Xiaoliang was the biggest contributor to the goal, as the defense turned the ball over and the offense advanced to the front court."
Zhang Lu: "Yes, that's right. This tactic of passing the ball from the middle to the side is the main way for many teams to score, including Barcelona, Real Madrid in the past, and Manchester City and Liverpool now. They all often use this tactic."
"Roma scored at the beginning of the second half, and Feyenoord was really difficult to play against. If they pressed forward and attacked wildly to try to equalize the score, there would definitely be more loopholes in the defense behind them. If they didn't attack, they would not be able to break Roma's iron defense."
