Chapter 424: Free Kick in Overtime
After five minutes of rest and preparation, every Manchester United player felt the "thumping" sound of his own violent heartbeat as if it was rushing into his skull, as well as the uniform shouts of Manchester United fans in the away stands that seemed to be about to drown out the home fans.
The prop manager distributed towels and sports drinks to the players as quickly as possible, and Chen Xiaoliang took sip after sip.
His physical recovery had been activated in the 78th minute of the second half. Judging from his current feeling, his current physical strength should be around 80%.
Although it is not much, it is a cliff-like advantage compared to other players.
Aguero's 9320 lore card also expired with the end of regular time, but the bonus of [Big Heart] was still there, and after scoring two goals in a row, he also activated [Passive Skill: God Descends to Earth]. After scoring 2 goals in a single game, all technical attributes will be +1 until the end of the game.
Chen Xiaoliang now is as fierce as the Night Devil, the Barbarian King in the late stage, and the Cheng Yaojin with low health.
In the game, when it comes to overtime, there will be one more opportunity and quota for substitution, so the team still has two substitution opportunities and two substitution quotas.
Ten Hag has already let Lindelof, Luke Thomas and McTominay warm up. All three of them played the full 120 minutes against Brighton the day before yesterday, but they are also the team's last three non-goalkeeper players who have participated in this year's Champions League and can be sent up in this game.
Of course, Livakovic also needs to warm up. If there is a penalty shootout, the team will have to rely on him as a master at saving penalties.
Although Brayden Williams is also on the roster, it is precisely because his ability does not meet Ten Hag's standards that Luke Thomas, a member of the Youth World Cup (U21) champion team, was introduced. Williams has been notified that he will be sold at the end of the season.
Chen Xiaoliang did not choose to say much, and neither did Ten Hag. The game had reached this point, and everyone had fought back from the edge of the cliff with faith and willpower.
For a group of people who are "facing death in order to survive", no amount of words will be necessary. At this moment, every minute of rest and recovery counts.
There were not enough team doctors and physiotherapists, so the substitutes, including the two injured players, Bruno Fernandes and Rashford, were stretching and massaging the calves of the players sitting on the ground.
Joe Hart was also stretching and relaxing De Gea, his former rival.
Cesco was serving Benzema, while Kva was applying ice to Luke Shaw's knees.
Casemiro was actually very unwilling to be substituted. He was extremely eager to fight with his teammates until the last moment.
But the 32-year-old age has quietly taken away some of his physical needs, and he knows that replacing his teammates will help the team more than himself.
He walked to Chen Xiaoliang and motioned for him to lie down so that he could lift his feet and help him stretch his calf muscles to avoid cramps.
Chen Xiaoliang declined gratefully.
Casemiro knew that the young man in front of him seemed to have infinite energy in his body. When he was in Rome, he was nicknamed "nuclear-powered midfielder".
To be honest, he was a little envious.
Youth is such a good thing.
He said to Chen Xiaoliang: "Do you remember that question?"
Chen Xiaoliang was stunned. His mind was on the subsequent game. "What's the problem?"
Casemiro: "Karim (Benzema) asked when he arrived."
Chen Xiaoliang laughed: "What? Do you have the answer?"
Casemiro put his left hand on Chen Xiaoliang's right shoulder: "There are still 30 minutes left. Go on the court, lead us to the final and win the championship. The answer will be self-evident!"
" You know, even when that person was there, we never went undefeated in a season or won the treble!"
Chen Xiaoliang also stretched out his left hand and hugged Casemiro: "Okay!"
Maguire was also tired today, but it was his header from the backcourt that beat Haaland in the final moments and won the team a corner kick.
From the disappointment of being stripped of the captain's armband at the beginning of the season, to the torment of trying to integrate into the new system and new core, to now adapting to his new identity as a rotation starter, the former Manchester United captain is very much enjoying this moment.
The feeling of being needed and needing others.
Maguire: "Chen! If there is a chance, you can pass it to me. I feel pretty good today."
On Chen Xiaoliang's side, Casemiro had just left to bring an ice pack to Milinkovic-Savic and was drinking water alone. When he heard Maguire calling him, he gave him a thumbs .
Maguire: "Of course, if I have the chance, I will head the ball to you!"
Chen Xiaoliang: “Okay!”
The fourth official came to announce that there was only one minute left for the break, and the players stood up one after another to avoid sitting or squatting for too long, which would cause blood stagnation.
Ting Beier and Lima also came to find Chen Xiaoliang: "Captain, if we have to press forward later, how about we two stay behind?"
These two defenders are relatively short, Lima is 175cm tall and Timber is 179cm tall. Among the players who play as central defenders, their heights are definitely outliers among the mainstream players in modern football. Therefore, they are not often allowed to press forward during corner kick attacks.
Chen Xiaoliang nodded to them: "Okay!"
Luke Shaw also came over and said: "Captain, your footwork is average today. Let Diogo (Dalot) take the corner kick on the left side later."
Chen Xiaoliang still said: "Okay!"
The players began to gather on the sidelines one after another. Unlike the quiet Manchester United side, Guardiola gathered the players in a circle and gave a loud speech on the Manchester City side.
But no one on the Manchester United side could hear what was said because the stadium was too noisy.
Chen Xiaoliang came over and Benzema patted his butt: "Damn, playing football with you is too tiring."
Chen Xiaoliang smiled at him and pushed him gently, which was a joke among acquaintances, meaning "Don't try this on me".
Benzema pointed at Chen Xiaoliang and said, "Boy, remember I haven't won the treble either. It's up to you."
Chen Xiaoliang: “Okay!”
Finally, De Gea said: "Chen, to be honest, I was not in good shape at the beginning of the game today. I shouldn't have conceded two goals. But from the second half on, I feel I am in good shape. You lead them in attacking from the front. I will do my best to defend the goal!"
Chen Xiaoliang stretched out his left hand, put his arm around De Gea's back and patted him hard: "Good!"
He turned around and waved to all the players. Everyone gathered around, with the players on the field inside and the substitutes and coaches outside, forming two circles. Everyone lowered their heads and put their hands on each other's backs. Chen Xiaoliang was also in the inner circle, with De Gea on the left and Benzema on the right.
This is the leader's final motivational moment.
Chen Xiaoliang: "The day before yesterday, we played one more game than their main players, which gave them three more days to rest."
"They would rather give up the FA Cup in order to beat us."
"So today, it wasn't that they scored four goals against us, but that we voluntarily conceded four goals to them."
“But they still can’t beat us.”
"Guys, do you think you're awesome?"
"I'm sure you think you're pretty awesome."
"But it's no use saying it yourself. You have to let others say it."
"Listen to me, win today's game, then go out and tell those reporters: 'I gave them four points today, but they still couldn't win'."
"After saying this, you are the most awesome guy in England!"
"Together, let's win the game and go to Wembley!"
Now it was everyone else's turn to say that word to him:
"good!!!!!!"
After saying that, eleven warriors who were exhausted just now but now full of passion walked onto the court.
Chen Xiaoliang has never really understood the role of hidden attributes, because they seem to be useful and yet useless.
But just now, at the most difficult moment of the season and in the most exhausted state, his full leadership of 20 brought his ability to inspire, incite, motivate and inspire his teammates to the peak.
Whether it is Benzema who won the Golden Ball, De Gea who has been in the team for 13 years, Casemiro who has won five Champions League titles, or Lima who has won the World Cup, they all believe from the bottom of their hearts that the captain wearing the No. 7 shirt and who is only 19 years old will definitely lead them to the final victory.
On the other hand, for Manchester City, the team's leader is Guardiola.
Under his very strong management and pursuit of perfection in football philosophy, all the players have to do is obey and execute.
Originally, the team had Aguero and Kompany as locker room bosses to motivate the younger generations, and later there was Gundogan. But after Gundogan transferred to Barcelona on a free transfer, neither Haaland, De Bruyne, Rodri, or Ruben Dias could take on the ability to lead the entire team.
Haaland is a bit simple off the field and relatively uninterested in things other than football;
Although De Bruyne is the captain of the national team, if you look at the dressing room of the Belgian team, you will know that his leadership is not that high.
Like Rodri and B. Silva, although they have a high status in the team, they are not the kind of people who like to stand out;
Ruben Dias, on the other hand, has some "big brother" demeanor, but he joined the team later than De Bruyne and others, and his statistics are not as explosive as Haaland. Coupled with Guardiola's dominance, he can only be regarded as a big boss in the locker room at most, and is far from being the team's co-owner.
It is of course good for the head coach to be the team leader. Sir Alex Ferguson was one of them in his time, and Mourinho was also one to some extent in some of his most successful teams.
But these two strong coaches have ruthless captains under them, whether it is Keane, Terry, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand or Zanetti, these people are born ruthless no matter which head coach they work with.
Manchester City lacks such a person.
“Beep!”
After both sides stood still, the referee Slavko Vinci blew the whistle and the overtime began!
At the beginning, both sides played cautiously. After all, the previous 90 minutes were too full of ups and downs. After only five minutes of rest, everyone had not yet fully adapted.
But after six or seven minutes, the two teams began to fight desperately with obviously exhausted bodies.
On Manchester City's side, it was naturally Haaland, and the team began to frequently try to pass the ball to him.
But without De Bruyne and B Silva, although Guardiola replaced Bellingham with Grealish, he and Kovacic alone were not enough to deliver the fatal pass to Haaland under Manchester United's united defense.
In the end, it all turned into a forced cross.
But even so, Haaland is still Haaland.
He has scored 60 goals this season. Although he does not have the endurance of Chen Xiaoliang's "two-barrel physical strength", his physical fitness and innate conditions are obvious to the blind.
Even though Timber kept retreating to help, Maguire, whose physical strength was obviously declining, still had a hard time defending.
Ten Hag decisively replaced Maguire with Lindelof.
When Maguire saw his number on the electronic board held up by the fourth official, he was somewhat disappointed, but this emotion was fleeting. He knew that the team still needed to score goals, so he used his last bit of strength to quickly walk to the sidelines and slapped Lindelof's hands hard.
"I leave it to you."
Then he greeted Ten Hag who came up to hug him, and immediately sat back on the bench.
The moment he sat down, a feeling of fatigue suddenly came over him, making him feel a little dizzy. He then realized that if he relaxed, it would be difficult for him to even lift his legs.
On the Manchester City side, Rico Lewis, Dias and Stones surrounded Chen Xiaoliang, and on the Manchester United side, Lima, Lindelof and Timber were also keeping an eye on Haaland.
Although the two players play different positions and have completely different playing styles, everyone knows that they are the core trump cards that can decide the outcome of the game between these two top teams.
Just now, Chen Xiaoliang had proved with his two goals in injury time and the equalizer in the last seconds that superstars are not so easy to defend.
In the 103rd minute, with 2 minutes left in the first half of extra time, Luke Shaw advanced on the left to receive the ball and tried to advance to the left corner of the penalty area. He had physical contact with Alvarez who was defending him and was tripped by the latter. The referee Slavko Vinci awarded a free kick on the left side of the frontcourt.
It was another set piece, which made Manchester City, who had just lost two goals in a row, feel like they were facing a formidable enemy. Although Manchester United had fewer players pressing forward, except for Alvarez, all the other players on Manchester City's side came back to participate in the defense.
Luke Shaw rubbed the ball towards the back post with his left foot, but the ball failed to get moving and was headed out by Grealish as soon as it entered the penalty area.
Manchester City wanted to catch up with the ball and counterattack, but Wan-Bissaka pushed the ball back, and Timberl received the ball and passed it back to De Gea. A potential counterattack was thus resolved.
Manchester City spread out their formation, while Manchester United passed the ball from the backcourt and organized forward again.
The ball came to the right, and Wan-Bissaka returned to his position and passed the ball to Dalot in front of him. Under the defense of Grealish, Dalot directly kicked the ball at a 45-degree angle into the penalty area.
Benzema wanted to head the ball to Chen Xiaoliang, but maybe because of severe physical exhaustion, both Luke Shaw and Dalot's long-distance passes were a bit short and landed a bit forward.
The ball was headed out by Rodri who retreated to defend Benzema.
The ball flew to the right side of the penalty area. Milinkovic rushed up to get the ball, collided with Kovacic and fell to the ground.
“Beep!”
Referee Slavko Vinci blew the whistle and awarded Manchester United a free kick in the frontcourt.
"Wang Defa!" Guardiola on the sidelines cursed, "Why did you call us for a foul?"
The Manchester City fans in the stadium also responded to the coach's anger and immediately burst into boos that covered the entire stadium.
The referee Slavko Vinci was very restrained and gestured to Guardiola to calm down, but the commentators and broadcasters in the broadcast rooms of various countries clearly saw that it was Kovacic who saw that he was not tall enough and secretly pushed Milinkovic when they were fighting for the ball.
Zhang Lu: "This referee is quite good. He maintains his concentration very well. You know, the referee, like the players, has been running for more than a hundred minutes. It is normal for him to lose strength and lose concentration."
Zhan Jun: "Slavko Vinci was promoted to international referee in 2010 and UEFA elite referee in 2020. He officiated two matches in the Qatar World Cup, including the group match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia."
"But his refereeing at the World Cup was still questioned by the outside world after the game, but so far in this game, his performance has been perfect."
Zhang Lu: "Indeed, the penalty standards and control tonight were very good."
Although Guardiola stopped talking, he was still shaking his head and complaining, muttering to himself on the sidelines, while the commentators in the live broadcast rooms of various countries were confirming that Kovacic had indeed committed a foul based on the replay. On the court, Chen Xiaoliang was discussing with his players how to take a free kick.
On the right flank, it is less than 4 meters away from the penalty area line and about 28 meters away from the goal.
Manchester United players pressed forward, including Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka and others, but only Lima and Timber were left behind.
This ball is different from the free kick from the left corner just now. Now the time has passed 104 minutes and 20 seconds. There is no extra time in overtime. After this free kick is taken, the first half of overtime will end immediately.
Benzema also came to join in the fun, even though he was ranked very low in the team's free-kick taker pecking order: "What do we do?"
According to common practice, for a free kick from the right side, a left-footed player will be the one to shoot directly, while a right-footed player will naturally be better at making a cross.
Luke Shaw and Dalot were unsure as they discussed the situation. Manchester City's human wall had been formed. Haaland, Grealish and Alvarez, three offensive players, formed the human wall. Ederson was directing the three players to move horizontally to ensure that the tallest Haaland could block the center line of the shot.
"I'll do it."
Chen Xiaoliang picked up the ball, rearranged it, and pointed the valve of the ball towards his side.
After hearing what the captain said, the others immediately nodded and walked away, some of them should go forward to the penalty area, and some of them should support on both sides.
After a round of positioning and adjustments, "Beep!" the referee whistled.
The clock now reads 104 minutes and 51 seconds.
Chen Xiaoliang stood at the penalty spot and took a deep breath!
His free kick attribute is 15, plus the 2 points from [Big Heart] in this game and the 1 point from [God Descending to Earth], it is now 18.
This is already a very strong free kick ability.
But in such a state and environment, it is far from enough.
He must do everything possible to maximize his chances, and the rest can only rely on the power of luck.
[Ronald Koeman's free kick lore attribute has been activated]
In an instant, his free kicks became 20, and at the same time, he gained two skills: [Good at powerful free kicks] and [Good at long-distance free kicks].
Chen Xiaoliang started to run.
This process was fleeting, but it felt like a very long time had passed for those waiting on and off the field, especially the coaches and players on the Manchester City side. They simply could not understand why this man whose main foot was right foot would choose to use his left foot to take a free kick.
Of course, there are similar cases. The most recent case among well-known players is that former Arsenal player Cazorla used his left foot to hit a perfect free kick from the right side of the penalty area in the AFC Champions League group match on April 18, 2021 .
The location is almost exactly the same as Chen Xiaoliang's.
As both sides were expecting completely different things, Chen Xiaoliang swung his left leg backward, then suddenly contracted his waist and abdomen, kicked his left leg forward, and the inner instep hit the valve that had just been placed facing him!
The ball flew out instantly!
According to Chen Xiaoliang's idea, the ball was aimed at the upper corner of goalkeeper Ederson, relying not on anything else but its flight trajectory heading straight to the blind spot and its powerful speed.
Strength can defeat skill!
But as fate would have it, when the ball passed by Grealish who was at the innermost side of the wall, the English winger, who is currently worth 75 million euros, saw the ball approaching him and subconsciously stretched out his right foot to block it.
The ball hit the bottom of his feet and everything changed!
The ball, which was about to fly over Ederson's head, changed direction slightly and flew to Ederson's right side.
The ball, which originally had no arc, was also hit like this, and not only did its speed not decrease at all, but it instead created a strong inward spin!
Ederson, who had already jumped slightly on the spot with his feet and was about to jump up to block the ball, suddenly noticed that the trajectory of the ball had changed, and immediately fell to the ground and dove to the right.
But Chen Xiaoliang's own strength and the full-value free kick and free kick skills attached to him at this time, how could he give Ederson a chance to save the situation!
Zhan Jun: “Lore!”
"Will this ball be the winning shot of this game!!!
"Xiao Liang completed a hat trick with a direct free kick!!!"
"It also changed the score of this game to 4 to 3! The total score became 4 to 5!"
"No reversal! No Red Devil!"
Zhang Lu: "This ball is worth a fortune!"
Guan Zeyuan: "If there is really controllable luck in this world, it must be for warriors who do not succumb to fate and do not shrink from challenges!"
