Chapter 96: Shoulder to Shoulder

Cheng Hai's two goals not only gave Dortmund a four-goal lead over Braga at 6-2, but also two away goals to occupy the advantage of away goals.

In the rest of the game, Braga would have been useless even if they had scored four goals to level the aggregate at 6-6, and they would still be eliminated from the competition due to the disadvantage of fewer away goals.

To qualify for the final, Braga will have to score five goals in the next five goals to beat Borussia Dortmund on aggregate to qualify for the final.

How is it possible to score five goals against Dortmund, who have Cheng Hai, and to stop Cheng Hai from scoring?

Even if Real Madrid and Barcelona come, I am afraid they will not be able to do it, let alone an unknown team in the Portuguese Super League?

Therefore, in fact, after Cheng Hai scored twice to help Dortmund take a 2-1 lead away, the suspense of this UEFA Cup semi-final was killed.

Braga's players also lost the courage to continue playing, and their spirits stepped forward, and they lost the courage to attack in the opening stages.

On the contrary, it was Dortmund's side, which was mainly anti-guest and strengthened the attack.

It's not that there is any grudge against Braga, but because his teammates want to help Cheng Hai score goals and help Cheng Hai break Gerd Muller's various records.

As a result, in the 44th minute before the end of the first half, Dortmund played a wave of exquisite crosses in front, and finally Shinji Kagawa passed a ball in the air from the side.

Although Cheng Hai was dragged by Braga's defenders and ran over, it couldn't bother him.

I saw Cheng Hai turn around and fall backwards under the pull of the opponent, soar into the air, and kick the ball towards Braga's goal with a perfectly stretched volley hook shot.

Cheng Hai's inverted hook shot surprised the goalkeeper, and he was also blocked by the defender who pulled Cheng Hai, resulting in a failure to react in time.

By the time he saw the ball, he had no time to react.

Under Cheng Hai's full value of the inverted hook shot, the ball flew into Braga's goal without suspense.

Cheng Hai scored a hat-trick to give Borussia Dortmund a 3-1 lead away.

One minute after stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half.

After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

Perhaps after a blow from the head coach at half-time, Braga's players launched a wave of onslaught at the start of the second half and did score a goal in the 49th minute to make it 2-3.

However, before they could be happy, in the 54th minute, Dortmund's Cheng Hai ran to take away two or three defenders from the opposing side, and then Shahin assisted Lewandowski to score Dortmund's fourth goal to extend the score to 4-2.

4-1 in the first leg, 4-2 in the second leg, 8-3 on aggregate, Dortmund lead by five goals, but also occupy the advantage of more away goals, the game time plus stoppage time is less than 40 minutes, Braga need to score six goals in the remaining time to advance to the final, Dortmund has no reason to be reversed by the opponent.

Therefore, seeing this, Klopp did not wait for Cheng Hai to really run out of energy, and replaced Cheng Hai in the 60th minute.

But even so, Braga, who had fallen too far behind, did not pick themselves up for the rest of the game to try to turn the game around, and neither side scored again for the rest of the game, and the game time was used up in an uneventful manner.

After three minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the match, and Dortmund progressed to the 2010/2011 UEFA Cup final with a 4-1 win over the first leg, a 4-5 in the second leg and an 8-3 aggregate score over the two legs.

Their opponents in the final were again from the Portuguese Super League: Porto.

Porto also scored a lot of goals, beating La Liga side Villarreal 7-4 in the two-legged semi-final to meet Borussia Dortmund in the final.

The two semi-finals were played by big scores, and what is even more amazing is that Cheng Hai's total goals in the League Cup this season reached 23 after the semi-finals, which is naturally admirable.

But Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, nicknamed "The Tiger" in Porto, was no slouch either, scoring a total of 16 goals after the semi-finals.

In other words, if there is no Cheng Haizhuyu in front, in fact, after playing in the semi-finals, Falcao is the one who broke Klinsmann's record of 15 goals in a single season in the UEFA Cup with 16 goals.

Immediately, countless people felt sorry for Falcao.

If it weren't for Cheng Hai, this season would have been Falco's infinite scenery.

Unexpectedly, Cheng Hai's emergence made Falcao's 16 goals, breaking Klinsmann's record, a single-season goal in the League Cup, into a meaningless second place.

Speaking of which, Cheng Hai has not yet staged a big four in the League Cup, while Falcao has played a big four in the first leg of the semifinals.

In this sense, even Cheng Hai's highest single-game goal efficiency is not as good as Falcao's.

Although Cheng Hai's physical fitness restricts him from playing the whole game, the facts are the facts, and it is indisputable, anyway, Falcao has had a big four and a hat trick in this season's League Cup, while Cheng Hai only has a hat trick and no big four.

Therefore, although Cheng Hai has scored more goals in the UEFA Cup, it remains to be seen whether he will be able to lead Borussia Dortmund to beat Porto in the final.

With Cheng Hai, Dortmund also scored a total of 8 goals in the semi-finals, and Porto also had 7, and the offensive ability can be said to be comparable.

In terms of individual offensive ceilings, Cheng Hai can't play the whole game, but Falcao can. And Falcao can stage the senior happiness, but Cheng Hai has never done it.

It really looks like each has its own advantages.

Even if Cheng Hai scores another brace or a hat-trick in the final, it may not help Dortmund win Porto.

What if Falcao has another big four?

No one can say for sure.

Therefore, although Dortmund is the Bundesliga champion of one of the five major leagues, and Porto is only a team in the Portuguese Super League, the real game, who loses and who wins, no one dares to make up their minds before the game.

However, for Cheng Hai, the final of the League Cup can be put aside first, and he has to prepare for the last two rounds of the league first.

The final of the UEFA Cup will be played only after the last two rounds of the Bundesliga.

Cheng Hai will try to score more goals in the last two rounds of the Bundesliga, on the one hand, to break Gerd Muller's record of 40 Bundesliga goals in a single season, and on the other hand, to maintain the European Golden Boot advantage against Cristiano Ronaldo.

Although Cheng Hai was already close to ten goals ahead of Ronaldo at this time, Ronaldo's outburst was the same as Falcao, something that could not be said at all.

Hat-tricks, big fours, five goals in a single game, in case of a few such performances in the last few league games, Cheng Hai's European Golden Boot Award may not be stable!

Therefore, in the last two rounds of the league, Cheng Hai must go all out.

Before the penultimate round of the league, Cheng Hai, who had been gaining weight with the help of a nutritionist, gained another 1kg to 77kg.

In fact, at this time, Cheng Hai has reached the level of European professional footballers regardless of height or weight.

Taking Mario Gotze as an example, as a famous young talent in Germany and the darling of the Westfalen Stadium, Gotze is only 176cm tall and weighs only 75kg.

And now Cheng Hai, who is 180cm tall and weighs 77kg, can have an advantage over Gice just from his size.

What's more, Cheng Hai's physique is as high as 20 full value, which represents muscle density, bone hardness, muscle fiber toughness, etc., all of which are better than Ge Ce.

If the two of them confronted each other, Gotze would be absolutely defeated, and he would hardly have any ability to resist.

To confront Cheng Hai, who is 180cm tall, weighs 77kg, and has a full physique, you must at least reach a height of 185cm, weigh more than 80kg, and be a world-class defender with rich defensive experience, so that you can barely have a chance, but there is no guarantee that you will be able to defend against Cheng Hai.

And once the height and weight do not reach this level, then basically there is no chance in the face of Cheng Hai, who is full of physique, whether it is pulling and pushing or body collision, the other party will not be able to fight Cheng Hai.

If you add Cheng Hai's off-ball running, point-grabbing ability, and bouncing header ability, then players who are generally 190cm tall and weigh less than 85kg will basically only be crushed by Cheng Hai if they defend one-on-one.

That's why there are so many goals.

Because of one-on-one defense, there are not many defenders in this world who can defend against Cheng Hai.

However, the multi-person sandwich defense is a great test of the cooperation and tacit understanding between teammates, once the formation is not a joint force, it will be broken by Cheng Hai.

All in all, after gaining weight, Cheng Hai's confrontation ability will increase again, and his overall offensive strength will be stronger.

At 15:30 p.m. on May 8, 2011, the 33rd round of the 2010/2011 Bundesliga season in which Borussia Dortmund played away to Werder Bremen officially started at the Wesha Stadium, the home stadium of Werder Bremen.

As a team that has already won the championship in advance, there is still a League Cup final to play.

Therefore, Dortmund's preparation focus is on the UEFA Cup final, and Klopp sent a squad of half main and half substitutes in this away league, and even goalkeeper Weidenfeller was rested.

However, Werder Bremen, as a traditional powerhouse in the Bundesliga, played at a very high level in this game.

Just five minutes into the game, Werder Bremen unleashed a brilliant attack, and the final shot forced Langrak to not dare to hold the ball, only to save the ball off the line and give the opponent a corner.

As a result, it was this corner that Werder Bremen drove out and it was their centre-back Silvestre who took the lead in the box to grab the first point, flicked his head at the goal, and headed the ball into the Borussia Dortmund goal.

Werder Bremen took a 1-0 lead at home, and tens of thousands of Bremen fans erupted in applause and cheers.

Soon, however, in less than ten minutes, Dortmund was still in color.

The goal was the much-anticipated Cheng Hai.

In the 13th minute, Borussia Dortmund won a free kick on the edge of the field in a positional attack.

After Gotze hoisted the ball into the box, it caused chaos among players on both sides.

Although Cheng Hai failed to grab the first point, the other players also failed to clear the ball out of the penalty area, and the two sides formed a mess in the penalty area.

As a result, in the chaos, Cheng Hai suddenly squeezed away a Werder Bremen defender with his strong body, suddenly appeared in front of the ball, and kicked the ball into the goal with a burst shot with all his might.

Although Cheng Hai was pushed down by Bremen's players after completing the shot, it was to no avail, and the ball had flown into the opponent's goal.

Cheng Hai scored his first goal of the game in the 13th minute to equalise for Borussia Dortmund, and while his league goals this season have reached 39, just one goal short of Gerd Muller's record of 40 goals in a single season in the Bundesliga.

Werder Bremen naturally didn't want to be the backdrop for Cheng Hai to break records and become famous.

Therefore, in the next game, they attacked while cautiously guarding against Cheng Hai, trying to block Cheng Hai's goal.

Unexpectedly, perhaps stimulated by Falcao, or motivated by the record-breaking, Cheng Hai staged a crazy scene in this game.

Since entering professional football, Cheng Hai has staged four big wins in the Asian Games and Asian Cup, but he has never staged a big four in club games.

Although there have been many braces and hat-tricks, and even double braces and hat-tricks, there has really not been a single one.

This has to be said to be a pity, and it is also the reason why some fans think that there is still suspense in the League Cup final.

It's because Falcao staged a senior hi, but Cheng Hai didn't.

Unexpectedly, in this game, Cheng Hai did the same thing as Falcao.

Although Werder Bremen strictly guarded Cheng Hai, sometimes bad luck was also a matter of no choice.

For example, in the 22nd minute, it was supposed to be Werder Bremen's attack.

Unexpectedly, the player who passed the ball made a fatal passing error and sent the ball directly to the feet of Nuri Shahin.

Shaheen adjusted slightly after getting the ball, just looked up at the front of the field, and without hesitation, he just sent a long pass straight into the half of Werder Bremen.

In fact, Shaheen's pass was not very good.

At the moment of his pass, Cheng Hai did not complete the anti-offside.

If it is another striker, such as Gotze or Lewandowski, there is a high probability that the ball will be cleared by the opposing defender in time.

But this ball is different on Cheng Hai.

Although he didn't play offside when Shaheen passed, his pace and movement off the ball were much faster than opposition defenders.

Even Bremen's central defenders Silvestre and Mertesacker were stuck in position while retreating quickly, trying to stop Cheng Hai and provide time for their teammates to clear the ball.

However, Cheng Hai without the ball is not something they can stop at all.

Even though Cheng Hai continuously changed direction to increase the running distance, his unparalleled speed still allowed him to rush between the two, forming an anti-offside position.

Although the two wanted to close the door and defend and stop Cheng Hai, Cheng Hai's explosiveness and physique made their plans miscalculated.

Cheng Hai forcibly squeezed between the two, and even Mertesacker didn't pull Cheng Hai with his hand.

Cheng Hai, who broke through the two-man closed defense, caught up with Shahin's through ball at the edge of the penalty area, and then dribbled into the penalty area, and a Matthews feint tricked goalkeeper Tim Weese into falling to the ground.

Cheng Hai, on the other hand, broke through from the other side of Wiese with the ball.

Cheng Hai broke through the goalkeeper and then chased the ball into the corner of the six-yard box and fired a light volley into the Werder Bremen goal.

Desperately trying to get back to the goal-line clearance, full-back Petri couldn't stop the goal and fell into the back of the net with the ball.

In the 22nd minute, Cheng Hai scored twice to help Dortmund take a 2-1 lead away.

At the same time, it was also Cheng Hai's 40th Bundesliga goal of the season, which tied Gerd Muller's record of 40 Bundesliga goals in a single season.

In fact, for Borussia Dortmund, who have already won the title ahead of schedule, there is not much value in reporting on the league.

But now Dortmund's coverage of every league game has not only not decreased, but has increased, and there are not enough seats in the commentary table for commentators.

The reason is because everyone is concerned about Cheng Hai's Bundesliga goal record, and they are waiting for Cheng Hai to break Gerd Muller's record, and everyone wants to witness it for the first time.

Whether it's the media or the fans.

Therefore, now Dortmund's game media and fans are not concerned about Dortmund's win or loss, but whether Cheng Hai can score goals, whether he can tie and break Gerd Muller's record.

Now, Cheng Hai's second goal has equaled Gerd Muller's single-season record of 40 Bundesliga goals.

Therefore, the moment the ball kicked by Cheng Hai flew into the Bremen goal, the commentators of the TV stations of various countries in the commentary seat were boiling.

Speaking in various Chinese, they excitedly explained to the domestic audience how rare Cheng Hai's feat of scoring 40 goals in a season was, explaining how great Gerd Müller is.

Cheng Hai can compete with the legendary goalscorer Gerd Muller, and is definitely worthy of the adoration and admiration of fans all over the world.

In particular, the commentator from CCTV-5 in China was the most excited, and he sang praises for Cheng Hai with all his might, describing Cheng Hai as a genius on the first day of world football.

If other Chinese football players were said by the commentator, everyone would definitely scoff and show shame.

But on Cheng Hai, no one was unconvinced.

Cheng Hai's various achievements and personal honors alone have crushed most of the world's famous stars.

That's it, it's just Cheng Hai's first season in professional football, and he is only 18 years old.

As long as Cheng Hai is given enough time to grow into a world superstar, there is no problem at all.

said that Cheng Hai was the first day, and Cheng Hai's compatriots and fans did not have any discomfort.

If you are not a genius, how can you match the Bundesliga record for the most goals in a single season in the Bundesliga at the age of 18 and in his first season in professional football, which he has held for nearly 40 years?

This record alone is enough to prove Cheng Hai's genius.

What's more, he is also in a leading position in the European Golden Boot competition with Cristiano Ronaldo, and has raised the League Cup single-season high goal to more than 20 mark.

Such an achievement, in the eyes of Chinese fans, is indeed the first genius in world football.