Chapter 025: Opportunity
Lu Liang, who entered the penalty area during the high-speed run, was just right behind Tang Zheng's pass, and everyone thought that Lu Liang would choose to hit the goal directly or stop the ball and then shoot in the face of goalkeeper Ospina.
No matter what Lu Liang chooses in the end, Ospina is mentally prepared.
Except for Arias and the far left-back Almeiro, who approached Lu Liang at high speed from left to right, the other defenders basically subconsciously slowed down.
Because the distance is too far, there is nothing they can do.
Everyone's attention was on Lu Liang, who was close to football, and the Colombian fans in the stands instinctively erupted in exclamation: "Oh, oh, oh-"
In stark contrast to the Chinese fans in the stands, their passion was completely unleashed at the moment of Lu Liang's single sword, creating a deafening huge chant that resounded in the sky: "Whoa-"
However, Lu Liang, who stretched out his left foot, did not hit the goal directly or stop the ball, but directly used the arch of his left foot to end the ball to the right back.
The on-site director reacted quickly, and quickly pulled the camera back to the top of the arc of the Colombian penalty area.
At the bottom right of the screen, a Chinese player in a red jersey with a large Arabic numeral '10' on the back tells everyone who he is.
Tang Zheng!
"Whoa—"
At the same time, the elaborated Chinese fans became even more frantic, and the hysterical elongated voices seemed as if the Chinese team had scored.
He Wei, the central 5 commentator, even subconsciously stood up with both hands on the commentary platform and shouted: "Tang Zheng !!!"
Tang Zheng was unmarked on the run, and goalkeeper Ospina had to retreat into the goal halfway through the attack, but Tang Zheng didn't give him time.
Tang Zheng picked up his left foot and rubbed it towards the bottom of the football, although the strength was not very large, but the distance was close, Ospina's lack of height was particularly obvious at this time, he looked up and watched the football with an obvious parabola jump on the ground at the line of the small penalty area, stretched out his right arm, and tried to flick the football up with his fingertips.
However, his height was limited, which affected his arm span, and Ospina's extended right arm did not touch the football.
The attention of all the fans at the Stadio Pantanal then shifted to the slowly falling football until it crashed into the net.
“Gooooooooooooooooooal——”
British Sky Commentator Andy Gray subconsciously elongated his voice, so much so that Martin Taylor looked at him a little stunned.
He Wei, the commentator of the Central 5 Bulletin, shouted wildly: "The ball is in! The ball is in! Tang Zheng kept shooting the ball in front of the arc of the big penalty area and hoisted it into Ospina to guard the goal! Help the Chinese team make the score 1:2!! There is still one goal away from advancing to the round of 16 of this World Cup!!"
At this time, Lippi, who was standing in the command area of the coach of the home team, had a rare moment of emotional out-of-control, he raised his arms and shouted, looking up to the sky and howling.
It is not difficult to see that Tang Zheng's goal released a lot of pressure on him.
The Chinese players in front of the bench were not far behind, rushing from the bench to the sideline, jumping three feet high, venting the emotional release of Tang Zheng's goal.
The same is true for the players on the field, but Tang Zheng, who scored the goal, was quite calm at this time.
After making sure the ball was in the net, he bent down to 'dodge' Gao Lin's outstretched right arm, ran to the goal, and then bent down from the goal under Ospina's puzzled eyes, picked up the football, turned and ran back.
Where did the teammates who wanted to celebrate the goal with Tang Zheng not know what Tang Zheng meant?
This is...... One ball is not enough!
Although most of the Chinese players on the field did not know that the Greek team led the defeated Ivory Coast 4-0 in the other stadium, Tang Zheng knew, so he ...... Gotta score go one more!
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The Chinese players who wanted to celebrate their goals saw Tang Zheng running back with the football in his arms, so they gave up the year of celebrating and chose to follow Tang Zheng to run back and strive for an equalizer!
Greece had already led Ivory Coast 2-0 at half-time, and it was hard to say that they would not score again in the second half, so an equalizer was the safest chance to advance!
The broadcast screen gave Tang Zheng, who was holding the football and running to his own half, a close-up shot of him pushed to his face, and the passionate Yang 5 commentator He Wei was passionate, and his voice changed: "Narrowing the score is a good thing for the Chinese team, but now it is still one goal difference behind the Greek team, and the suspense of equalizing the group is the right way! Come on! Chinese team!!"
At the Castello Stadium, Greek coach Santos learned from his assistant that the Chinese team had narrowed the score for the first time, and he had already felt more and more pressure invisibly.
The team only got a measly one point in the previous two rounds of the group stage, while rivals China had four points, which means that their qualification must be based on the fact that China lost to Colombia and had to beat Ivory Coast by a big margin.
The 4:0 lead over Ivory Coast has been done, and it is also ahead of the Chinese team by a goal difference, but the Chinese team can secure the right to qualify from the group by a draw, and the Chinese team that has reduced the score now will definitely boost their morale.
Colombia had won two consecutive group games and had already qualified from the group ahead of schedule.
In addition, the top team in Group D is not the traditional powerhouse, Costa Rica, who represents North America in the World Cup, and is the group leader that any group runner-up hopes to meet.
From the perspective of the knockout round, Colombia is even eager to lose to the Chinese team.
It was only under pressure from public opinion that Colombia did not send a large number of substitutes to deal with the final round of the group.
The two-goal lead and almost the full-time dominance of the game show that Colombia are strong, and if the Chinese team has a delicate combination and then reverses the game in one fell swoop, the media will not have much to say.
So Santos is worried that Colombia will 'let go' in the rest of the game, which will lead to his own side's exit.
Of course, Colombia coach Pekerman is thinking about playing Costa Rica in the knockout round, but as a well-known manager, he can't joke with his reputation.
James Rodriguez watched Tang Zheng place the ball on the tee in the centre circle, his brow furrowed.
If it weren't for Tang Zheng's broken pass to counterattack, Guarin would not have lost his position, and his active defense did not play any role, so he would have felt a little frustrated.
The game restarted and Colombia, which had the advantage of the teeers, quickly intensified their attack under the organization of James Rodríguez.
The frenzied atmosphere at the Pantanal Stadium is still the same, and the fans of both sides and neutral fans are very tacit, and they are persevering in cheering and cheering for the players on the field.
Although Tang Zheng's position is the front midfielder, he has a very strong sense of responsibility, and he did not relax his defensive attitude towards the defense because of the change of position, but actively made up for the defense after the restart, making up for the lack of defense.
Especially left-back Jiang Zhipeng, this is a bit of a big problem.
Cuadrado is fast, physically strong, and has strong breakthrough ability, and Jiang Zhipeng is difficult to defend.
Cai Huikang is physically good enough, but the speed is on the slow side, coupled with the impact of James Rodriguez, it is difficult to ensure that the defense is safe enough.
At this time, Tang Zheng took the initiative to assist in the defense, which made up for the shortcomings of the defensive end and played a role in strengthening the defense.
Lippi was also ready to remind Tang Zheng to pay attention to the protection of the defensive end, but now it seems that Tang Zheng's ability to read the game is better than he thought, so he returned to the dugout to discuss the use of the last substitution with his assistant Maddaloni.
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In the blink of an eye, the game came to seventy minutes, which meant that there were still twenty minutes left in the game.
The match played at the Pantanal Stadium was still 1:2 behind Colombia by the Chinese team, and the match at the Castello Stadium was also unchanged, and the Greek team still led Ivory Coast 4:0.
It is worth mentioning that the Greek team, which wanted to score more goals, seemed to encounter stubborn resistance from Ivory Coast, especially with the veteran Didier Drogba coming off the bench, and the Ivory Coast's attack gradually played out, so that the Greek team had to go back to its old ways.
Defend and counterattack!
Although it was a defensive counter-attack, the Greek team did not have a single counterattack in the 10-minute game, and it was difficult to even dribble the ball to the 30-meter area of the Ivory Coast defensive half.
Therefore, the head coach of the Greek team, Santos, was very troubled, and the score in the other field was still Colombia leading the Chinese team 2:1.
As long as the score is not pulled to two goals, his heart will always hang in his throat and it will be difficult to fall.
If the Chinese team is an ordinary Asian team, it is easy to say, but the problem is that the Chinese team has the phenomenal superstar Tang Zheng in charge, and no one can say that Tang Zheng, as a superstar, will not score the equalizer in the rest of the game.
In the past 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 Champions League finals, Tang Zheng has fully proved his magic.
Santos was pacing back and forth from the command area, when suddenly a loud exclamation rang out over Castello Stadium: "Oh oh - "
Reflexively, Santos looked up at the pitch.
I don't look at it, I am shocked when I see it!
In the second half, the substitute Didier Drogba used his strong body to bring down central defender Papastathopoulos, but the referee on duty did not whistle for Drogba's foul, and another central defender, Manolas, had to step forward to fill in.
Didier Drogba, who has a lot of experience and a lot of vision, played the ball straight into the hole between Manolas and full-back Maniadis when he turned halfway through, and right winger Gervinho was like a wild horse, running at high speed to run the ball into the box and face goalkeeper Canezis.
Gervinho was very calm in the face of the half-shot goalkeeper Canezis, and launched a low shot with his right foot, which went around the outstretched right hand of the fallen Canezis and rolled into the net along the inside of the far post.
4:1!!
At the same time, Ivory Coast won one city, which also means that the goal difference of the Greek team has become '0' again, and it is on the same running line as the Chinese team, which is currently behind Colombia.
The Greek fans sitting in front of the TV were completely anxious, and now that Ivory Coast are coming from behind by a large score, they must be in a good position to score again in the coming game.
In addition, the Chinese team that narrowed the score will definitely get a great increase in confidence, and an equalizer is not out of the question!
Gervinho had just helped Ivory Coast close the lead when Lippi, who was standing on the left edge of the command area at the Pantanal Stadium, had already heard the result from his assistant Maddaloni, but he had no hope of another goal for Ivory Coast.
It's not that I don't believe in the strength of Côte d'Ivoire, but that the initiative is firmly in my own hands!
So he decided to make another substitution and try to score another goal in the rest of the game to equalize!
In the 78th minute, the Chinese team requested a substitution and made the last adjustment of the game.
No. 18 Gao Linxia, No. 22 Sun Jingbo.
Gao Lin, who had just seen the substitution electronic card, thought that he was wrong, so he looked at the coach's seat, but the head coach Lippi nodded his head very firmly.
Although Gao Lin was a little dissatisfied in his heart, he didn't say anything, after all, this game is about whether the national team can stand out in Group C and advance to the round of 16.
Yang 5 commentator He Wei has a lot of complaints about Lippi's substitution: "Sun Jingbo has the ability and has great potential, but he lacks game experience, and there are many players with more experience on the bench than him, Gao Lin is indeed easy to squander opportunities, but he has a balanced ability, rich experience in the game, and scored a key goal in the AFC Champions League final last year." ”
The commentator Xu Yang was more optimistic, he smiled: "Lippi is nicknamed the Silver Fox, replacing Gao Lin with Sun Jingbo must have his ideas, and Sun Jingbo's skills are more delicate, after all, he is from La Masia, and his speed is also fast, which may bring different changes to the attack." ”
As soon as the words fell, right-back Zhang Linpeng threw the ball to Sun Jingbo, who turned to respond, who took the initiative to receive the ball forward, and the Colombian defenders who had not had time to divide the division of labor chose to defend in the nearest principle, and Cuadrado hurriedly greeted him.
However, Sun Jingbo was an illusion forward, and stopped on the spot at the moment Cuadrado followed, let the ball go, and turned around on the spot to start.
Cuadrado is not a professional defensive player after all, and his defensive awareness is insufficient, and by the time he realizes that he should take down Sun Jingbo, it will be too late.
Sun Jingbo had just come out of the game, full of energy, and went forward with the ball directly.
In the face of Guarin's frontal defense, Sun Jingbo did not continue to choose to break through, but handed the ball to Tang Zheng who received it with his right foot.
James Rodriguez ran over without hesitation, but Tang Zheng had no intention of taking the ball, and pushed the ball directly with the arch of his right foot without stopping, and gave it to the feet of Lu Liang, who was attacking the left rib.
Guarin originally wanted to turn around and continue to follow Sun Jingbo, who was inserting forward, but Lu Liang inserted diagonally to defend the right rib and had to defend it.
However, Lu Liang also did not dribble, and kicked the ball to the position where Guarin was originally sitting.
Guarin hurriedly braked on the spot, turned to the right with the sole of his right foot as the axis, and faced his own goal.
Sun Jingbo didn't kick the ball again, because there was no connection point in the front court, so he directly used the arch of his right foot to move the ball forward and accelerate.
Guarin, who completed the turn, realized that Sun Jingbo was a very dangerous thing to face the double central defenders, so the center of gravity of his body sank, his left foot kicked the ground, and his right foot shoveled out.
Sun Jingbo's game experience cannot be compared with Tang Zheng, and he cannot be compared with Guarin, he was kicked to the ground.
The referee Kaushoi decisively blew the whistle and also gave a yellow card to the fouled Guarin.
British Sky commentator Andy Gray saw the place of the foul given by the broadcaster, and suddenly said: "The place of Freddy Guarin's foul is close to the middle, thirty-two meters in a straight line from the goal, maybe ...... It's an opportunity for Don!"