Chapter 313: Revelation from the Human World
"Bang!"
A crisp sound was collected by the microphone above the goal and then played on the screens of thousands of households. Chen Xiaoliang and Bellingham headed the ball at the same time in opposite directions.
The ball bounced straight up under the two huge forces.
The two jumped again!
However, this time he jumped from a stationary position. Chen Xiaoliang, who had better jumping ability and explosive power, was visibly more than half a head higher than Bellingham and headed the ball out first.
Bellingham was furious after losing the head-on confrontation. Seeing Chen Xiaoliang about to chase the ball, he reached out and grabbed the hem of Chen Xiaoliang's clothes, which earned him a yellow card from the referee Mark.
Seeing this, Dortmund coach Terzic on the sidelines immediately shouted at Bellingham and kept pointing at his temple with his right finger.
Obviously giving him something to think about.
During the halftime, Terzic spoke to Bellingham, urging him to get rid of his obsession and not try to defeat Chen Xiaoliang in Chen Xiaoliang's way, but to use Bellingham's way to help the team win the game.
This foul not only earned him a yellow card, but also caused the team to lose an opportunity to organize a double-team, handing the midfield to Roma who was preparing to take a free kick.
At this point in the game, compared to Chen Xiaoliang, who hit the crossbar, made wonderful passes, and contributed several tackles and headers in the midfield and backcourt, Bellingham seemed too quiet.
Even the veteran Dortmund fans began to waver:
Is there really such a big gap between these two people?
Roma took a long free kick, and Sesco retreated outside the penalty area and played the role of a high-altitude fulcrum in the frontcourt again. He gently unloaded the ball with his chest and passed it to Dybala on the right with the instep of his foot.
Seeing that no one was pressing him, Dybala tried a volley, but the ball was saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Kerber and went out of bounds.
This was Roma's first corner kick in the second half. Dybala took the kick from the right side. Cristante headed the ball in front of the goal and attracted two defenders. Guevadiol, who was not far behind him, jumped high and hit the ball hard, but missed the target and the ball flew quickly to the back post!
The ball was so fast that Wijnaldum, who was lurking near the back post, almost caught the ball with his face. He endured the pain and tried his best to push the ball into the goal, but it went back to the front point!
Gvardiol, who had just landed, had no time to jump again. Schlotterbeck shook his head on the spot and headed the ball out of the penalty area.
Bellingham was standing right where the ball landed . He turned around to face his own goal, ready to catch the ball with his back before doing anything else.
Chen Xiaoliang, who was responsible for the secondary attack and blocking in the penalty area, rushed over immediately.
This means that the two will face off again in just a few minutes!
In an instant, many thoughts flashed through Bellingham's mind:
"If it was Chen Xiaoliang, what would he do?"
"He would pass the ball to his teammates, then turn around and use his speed to get rid of me, then receive the ball from his teammates and launch a counterattack."
The reason why he knew so well about this red countryman who was playing against him on the same field was that for many days and nights, he could not forget that a young man who was younger than him, had less football experience, and played the same position, actually won the Copa Award that he had longed for in front of him, and gradually overshadowed his name in European football, becoming the most anticipated superstar of tomorrow in people's eyes!
These honors and halos should have belonged to him.
"This is Chen Xiaoliang's way, what about me? What is my way?"
In the five major European leagues that gather all the best players in the world, and in the Champions League where the competition has reached a brutal level, being praised as a genius and being valued at 100 million euros means that this player is definitely special and has been kissed by God.
He felt that Chen Xiaoliang was about to get close to him and knew that he had no chance to turn around, and he did not have the explosive power and speed of Chen Xiaoliang.
But that wasn't all he noticed.
Bellingham jumped up in the penalty area and kicked the ball behind him with his right foot as if he was doing a back hook!
Just when everyone thought that Bellingham had made a beautiful clearance in a hurry, a figure who had already rushed out ran behind the ball and caught up with the ball in just a few steps, crossed the center line, and headed towards the flat and unguarded Roma half!
Malaysia, who stayed in the backcourt, quickly chased diagonally, but the yellow figure wearing the No. 27 jersey was much faster than he imagined!
This is the 21-year-old Adeyemi, who Dortmund spent 30 million to buy from Salzburg Red Bull and who represents the new hope of the European black shop!
By the time Malaysia desperately approached him, the two had already met on the penalty area line.
Malaysia tried to force Adeyemi to the left outside line to compress his shooting angle, but Adeyemi moved too fast. Although Malaysia caught up with him, he did not have the chance to get close to his body, and he did not dare to get too close blindly. Once he was shaken, it would mean that the entire goal would become a target.
Seeing that Malaysia was unable to delay Adeyemi in one-on-one defense, Patricio simply chose to take the initiative.
But he still underestimated the speed and agility of the German striker.
Just as Patricio approached and was about to fall to the ground to grab the ball, Adeyemi flicked his right foot, dribbled past Patricio at high speed, then went around his body and pushed with his left foot into the empty goal!
1 to 0!
The Westfalen Stadium, which was like a volcano that could erupt at any time, exploded completely!
Yellow fireworks, waving flags, raised beers, strong men taking off their clothes to celebrate, crazy men and women hugging each other. From afar, the stands looked like yellow waves that were constantly surging and rolling, as if they would burst the dam at any time and rush down to swallow up the 11 red Roma players on the field.
Adeyemi celebrated wildly and Bellingham was also excited about completing a beautiful counterattack assist.
Xu Yang: "I really didn't expect that Dortmund, who had dominated the ball until the second half, would use a counterattack to break the balance of the game."
Yan Qiang: "Roma had two chances to score in the two consecutive aerial relays from the corner kick, but the ball somehow went out of the goal range."
Xu Yang: "I have to say that the atmosphere of the stadium still has a great impact on the players."
While Chen Xiaoliang was calling on his teammates to return to their own half to continue the game, he kept shouting and making gestures to excite them and tell them that the game was not over yet.
In the following 30 minutes, Roma did launch wave after wave of attacks under his leadership.
In the 67th minute, Chen Xiaoliang received the ball on the right. Dybala ran towards the middle in front, attracting the defense's attention. Chen Xiaoliang directly dribbled the ball along the right.
30 meters away from the baseline, he first pretended to cut inside and then pushed the ball forward with his left foot to dribble past Ozcan. Then, under the block of Adeyemi, he pushed the ball to the left with his left foot again, made a sudden change of direction, and took the inside route behind Adeyemi. When Emre Can came over to double-team, he used his right foot to push the ball forward again and rushed to the baseline!
These three consecutive dribbles triggered three exclamations of "Oh!" in increasing volume from tens of thousands of people in the stands.
The defensive midfielder Emre Can in front was attracted by Chen Xiaoliang. He went around the right bottom line of the penalty area and then made a triangle pass to the penalty spot!
There was no one around Wijnaldum. Cesco, Dybala and Kva took away all the defensive strength!
Yan Qiang: "Wijnaldum!"
“Ouch… Ouch!!!”
Xu Yang: "This ball didn't even go in... Kerber did a great job today!"
Yan Qiang: "It's rare to see Xiaoliang dribble past opponents like this in a game! He has the ability to do so, and his dribble is very similar to that of his teammate Kvaratskhelia!"
Xu Yang: "What a pity! They opened up a gap on the right. Wijnaldum, for the sake of safety, he didn't hit the dead corner, but he pushed the ball too straight!"
Once again, the team missed the chance to score, prompting both head coaches to make substitutions.
Terzic replaced Moukoko, who was invisible today, with Ivorian striker Halley, and replaced Brandt, who was blocking the defense, with veteran Reus. Considering that Reus's defensive ability is average, he replaced right-back Wolf with Norwegian full-back Lersen.
Mourinho replaced Wijnaldum with Matic. Today the Dutchman covered a large area and ran a long distance, but unfortunately he was not wearing shooting boots and missed two good chances to score.
He also replaced Cristante and Celik with Pellegrini and Spinazzola.
In the 75th minute, Roma took a free kick on the left side of the frontcourt.
The ball kicked by Pellegrini was of excellent speed and angle, passing over the wall and going straight to the left side of the goal, but today Kerber, who seemed to be more excited the more he was ravaged, once again used an incredible side dive to block this almost perfect free kick.
Immediately after the corner kick, Pellegrini opened the ball from the left, Hummels headed it out at the first point, Matic's volley from outside the penalty area was blocked by Strobeck, and Dybala volleyed from the side to the right side of the goal, but was saved by Kerber again!
Yan Qiang and Xu Yang in the live broadcast room could only keep saying "Oh my God!" to express their indescribable shock.
At this point in the game, the situation between the two sides completely changed. Roma became the one controlling the ball and besieging, while the home team Dortmund became the one defending intensively and focusing on counterattacks.
After using up the stamina recovery card (2→1), Chen Xiaoliang ran more recklessly on the field, trying to break up the opponent's defensive formation by running more.
However, Bellingham, who retreated to defend with the cooperation of Emre Can, always adhered to the principle of blocking but not stealing the ball, thus blocking a large number of Chen Xiaoliang's routes to pass the ball and shoot into the penalty area.
Until the last moment before the end of the game, Chen Xiaoliang was still working hard.
In the 94th minute, Kva cut in from the left and passed the ball to Chen Xiaoliang at the top of the arc.
Still blocked by Emre Can and Bellingham, Chen Xiaoliang, seeing that time was running out, forced a right cut, and using the huge difference in physical strength between them, he forcibly created half a body length of space, and used an unbalanced shot to send a curved ball straight to the right side of the goal!
But Kerber, who seemed to be assisted by God, made the last save of the entire game, blocking Chen Xiaoliang's shot with both hands and going out of bounds, completely killing Roma's hope of equalizing the game as time passed.
Yan Qiang: "Kerber was completely forced out today! This was a world-class save!"
Xu Yang: "If Roma didn't seize the previous chances, then after falling behind 1-0, it was purely Kerber who stood alone and made Roma fall under the wall of sighs he built."
Yan Qiang: "It's hard to imagine that although only one goal was scored in the entire game today, the twists and turns of the game and the intense suspense really made people unable to calm down for a long time!"
Xu Yang: "The score of 1-0 leaves too much room for imagination in the second round. I hope Roma can make good adjustments after returning. After playing the league game at the weekend, the two sides will move to the Olympic Stadium in Rome on March 2nd next week for the second round!"
Afterwards, referee Markel blew the final whistle. With a ball possession rate of 54% to 46 and shots of 11 to 19, Dortmund defended their home court 1-0.
Chen Xiaoliang made a gesture to his teammates, asking them to finish the greetings as quickly as possible and then return to the locker room. This was the first time he used this gesture. It was originally reserved for away games where there might be riots or even attacks on players. Obviously, this was not the case today.
Although countless Germans in the stadium were celebrating wildly, no water bottles, fireworks, coins or other debris were thrown down.
After quickly greeting the 11 opposing players and coaching staff, Chen Xiaoliang ran quickly into the player tunnel, but he stood at the door of the locker room.
Soon, teammates came back one after another. They had just seen Chen Xiaoliang's gesture to call the team together, and now they saw him standing at the door with a serious expression. In addition, they had lost the game, so everyone entered the locker room and just sat there quietly, and no one spoke.
After a while, Mourinho came over and he also observed some abnormal behavior of the players.
"What's wrong?" he asked Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang glanced at the locker room where almost everyone had arrived, and said to Mourinho, "Give me ten minutes, coach, you can go and prepare for the post-match press conference first."
Mourinho probably guessed what Chen Xiaoliang wanted to do and asked, "Do you need Forti to stay?"
Chen Xiaoliang shook his head.
Forti, who was standing behind Mourinho, nodded knowingly and said quickly, "That's great. I'll go see if everything on the bench has been packed."
Lapetti next to him also said, "I'll go see if the bus has arrived."
The other members of the coaching staff all wisely dispersed.
Erica, who was standing far away, did not come over to make trouble. As an athlete and the granddaughter of a legendary football coach, she could understand the feeling after losing a game.
Seeing them walk away, Chen Xiaoliang walked into the locker room and closed the door.
Many people saw the scene of sending the coaching staff away at the door just now. When they saw him come in, they immediately looked over, knowing that the captain was about to speak.
"This is my first time participating in a Champions League knockout match, which is really special. I honestly think that we played well today. From the process and the data, it proves that we are the one who performed better in other people's territory."
"It's normal. Most of you here have had longer careers than me. With more games and more time, there will always be times when most people are not in good form, or are in good form but just can't score."
“I don’t know how the coaching staff will judge this game, but I do think we played well.”
Chen Xiaoliang paused for a moment, looked around at everyone, and then continued:
"But there's a problem. If it was a final tonight, then obviously we'd have missed out on the trophy."
"In the league, if we lose a game, we can win it back in the next one. We may make mistakes, and so may our opponents, because there are 38 rounds of games. In addition to strength, what we compete for is perseverance."
"But there's nothing like that in the cup competition. If you lose, you have to go home!"
"Yes, on the evening of March 2nd, if we don't win, we'll have no choice but to go home!"
"How many of you have a long enough career to reach the quarterfinals, semifinals or even the final of the Champions League knockout stage?"
"This is not a league. Some opportunities are like some people. They may only come once in a lifetime. If you miss it, you will never meet them again."
"Today, whether it was defense or offense, if there was a problem, it was me."
"But I want to say that despite the good performance, in the Champions League we were not enough, far from enough."
"We have to make adjustments in the next two rounds of the league, both mentally and physically. I don't want to see anyone get injured, and I don't want to see anyone not putting all their focus on the training ground!"
"This is our first loss since October last year, and we only have one last chance on the night of March 2!"
Chen Xiaoliang walked to the middle and waved his hand. His teammates immediately gathered around him, hugging each other's backs and forming a circle.
"Remember! The next battle will be on our territory, we must send them off!"
Everyone: “Oh!”
"We must use a victory to tell everyone that today's result cannot represent our strength!"
Everyone: “Oh!!”
"We may face Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City next, but until the end, our destination will only be Türkiye!"
Everyone: “Oh!!!”
Finally, there is the team’s customary slogan before each game.
Chen Xiaoliang: "Rome!"
Everyone: "Victory! Victory!! Victory!!!"
Chen Xiaoliang: "Go to bed early tonight and see you at the training ground tomorrow."
In fact, Forti outside the door had not left at all. He had been listening to the movements in the house and only felt relieved at this moment.
When he returned to the hotel that night, he told Mourinho everything that had happened.
Mourinho, who had a war of words with reporters at the post-match press conference and criticized Roma for being only able to bully others at home, was originally in a bad mood, but after listening to Forti's words, his eyes obviously relaxed a little, but he didn't say a word.
The next morning, Chen Xiaoliang said goodbye to Erica over the phone, and the team flew back to Rome. After arriving at the airport, they took a bus back to the Trigoria base.
Usually the day after a game, unless Mourinho specifically asked them to stay for training, the main players would go home to rest directly. But today, without Mourinho notifying them, all the players who played, including those who played the whole game, appeared on the training ground.
Mourinho still didn't say a word and didn't mention anything about yesterday's game.
However, the calm inside the training base does not mean that it will be calm outside.
"Roma's defeat to Westfalenstadion may be a turning point in the season"
"A defeat reveals the essence of Rome's expertise in civil war and its amateurishness in foreign wars"
"Mourinho's team also plays happy football? Such an attack will make it difficult to compete in the Champions League"
"The duel of 100 million men, 0 assists and 0 goals under heavy pressure, it is clear who is the fake"
…
Although media such as Bild, Echo, Sky Sports and others objectively reported and commented on the course of the game, and pointed out that Dortmund's ability to retain the fruits of victory had a lot to do with the superb performance of goalkeeper Kerber, many media outlets also wrote many exaggerated and even offensive reports in order to cater to the preferences of different fan groups.
Turin Sports Daily got the news from nowhere and found out that Chen Xiaoliang did not allow the coach to enter the locker room after the game. They wrote a report that became the most popular article of the week - "Catching the Ghost: The Final Season"
The article vividly stated that Chen Xiaoliang refused to allow the coaching staff to enter the locker room, that Mourinho had been completely sidelined, and that Chen Xiaoliang would ask the board of directors to immediately fire the Portuguese and replace him with a head coach who understands offense to coach the team for the rest of the season.
It also describes the "details" of how Mourinho's confidants Matic and Patricio jumped out to oppose Chen Xiaoliang and fought with him.
Faced with such rubbish reports, no one from the Roma club responded.
But the phrase "don't know how to attack" really pissed everyone off.
However, these external things are not a big deal for Chen Xiaoliang, who has a strong ability to resist interference. As for losses, because of the defeat in this game, taking into account the double bonus brought by Dortmund's reputation, he only received a miserable reward of 6 skill points (42→48) and 6 training points (28→34), which can be said to be a loss.
Two days later, on February 20, in the home game against Verona, who were ranked third from the bottom in the league, except for Chen Xiaoliang, Kva and Patricio, everyone else was kept on the bench by Mourinho.
Abraham finally got the chance to start, but he was unable to continue the game after just 15 minutes because his left eye was poked by his opponent during a header and was replaced early by El Shaarawy.
Finally, in the 45th minute, Chen Xiaoliang wearing No. 33 and Kwa wearing No. 77, the combination known as "3377" by fans, showed their strength again.
Spinazzola made a diagonal pass to the top of the arc from the left, Chen Xiaoliang met the ball with his back and without pausing, he kicked the ball into the penalty area with his heel. Kva followed up and faced the close block of the opponent's defender, and before falling to the ground, he shot into the far corner to help the team get all 3 points in the end.
On February 26, the team traveled to the northern city of Cremona to challenge the second-to-last team in the league away.
In this game, Chen Xiaoliang led a group of substitutes and young players including Perrone, Volpato, Tacirovic, Bove, and Salah to fight back and forth with the second-to-last team leader.
Finally, in a corner kick melee at the beginning of the second half, Perrone took advantage of the opportunity and shot into the goal, scoring his first goal after joining Roma.
Two economical 1-0 wins, which gave the main players plenty of rest, helped Roma maintain its top position in the league.
As Inter Milan lost 1-0 to Bologna away, Roma has opened up an 18-point gap with the third-placed team in the standings.
Napoli continued their winning streak, keeping close to the 6-point gap.
During the team's training this week, Mourinho initially wanted to help the team relax from the mood of defeat and would take the initiative to joke with the players.
But after two days he gave up this practice.
As an experienced head coach, he could clearly feel that the players' emotions were not the loss and frustration after losing, but a strong desire for battle and revenge.
So he made a bold decision and told the whole team at the tactical meeting the day before the game that they would use the same starting lineup as in the first round to "welcome" Dortmund's arrival tomorrow night.
Get up where you fell.
Only by overcoming such obstacles can these players and this team face more difficult challenges.
