Chapter 132: Burst Goal
After being shortlisted for the 23-man Ballon d'Or without suspense, at 21:45 on the evening of November 2, 2011, in the fourth round of the Champions League group stage, Dortmund sat at home and faced Olympiacos.
In the last round of the group stage, Dortmund was forced to draw 3-3 away by Olympiacos, and Cheng Hai and his teammates were very unconvinced.
But on the flip side, for Olympiacos, that match gave them a lot of confidence that even if Cheng Hai could score a hat-trick, they still couldn't beat them.
If they can score one more goal in that game, they will be able to beat Borussia Dortmund.
They created a lot of opportunities, but their grasp of the opportunity was wasted because their archery skills were not as high as Cheng Haigao.
Now they are away from home, at Westphalen Stadium, and they haven't backed down.
They still want to play Dortmund to the end as they did at home in the last game and try to beat Dortmund and take all three points.
Of course, even if you don't want to attack, you can't help it.
They only have one point now, they are at the bottom of the group, let alone qualifying from the group, and it is difficult to even go to the Europa League in third place in the group.
Therefore, they have to fight hard in every group stage, even against Dortmund, led by Cheng Hai, a goal maniac.
Knowing that it was easy to be counterattacked by Cheng Hai when they fought against each other, they had no way out.
As a result, at the beginning of the game, the two sides began a fast-paced offensive battle, and the pace of offensive and defensive switching was extremely fast.
In the 4th minute, Olympiacos' first shot of the game, striker Dejebr's long-range shot from outside the penalty area actually hit the foot of Hummels, who was flying and blocking the gun's eye, and produced a line change, but this line change did not block the ball from the bottom line.
As a result, Weidenfeller, who had already judged the way to make a save, could only watch as the ball hit the Hummels corner and flew into the Dortmund goal from the opposite direction of his save.
Olympiacos actually broke through the Dortmund defence on the road to take a 1-0 lead.
This stunned countless fans at the scene and in front of the TV, and of course, the Olympiacos fans reacted and naturally celebrated with ecstaty.
The same was true of the Olympiacos players on the pitch, who rushed up to the goal and surrounded De Jebr to celebrate his opening goal and the lead of his team.
The goal gave Olympiacos a boost of confidence and a strong determination to fight Borussia Dortmund on the road.
"What about Westfaren Stadium? What about Cheng Hai? We're not going to be the first to score ahead of you! ”
With this in mind, Olympiacos except for leaving two or three people to defend Cheng Hai strictly, everyone else was involved in the attack.
In fact, in this way, the "defensive position" skill that Cheng Hai just added has no place to use.
No one is in the backcourt, and Cheng Hai, a striker, naturally has no place to defend.
Fortunately, he has other skills. In particular, the new skill "Volley" has not yet been tasted by the opponent, and it will be caught off guard compared to hitting the opponent.
What Cheng Hai didn't expect was that the opportunity came so quickly, and within a few minutes of Dejbour's goal, the opportunity fell in front of Cheng Hai in the 8th minute.
Actually, this is also very understandable.
Because Olympiacos confidently played against Dortmund at the Westfalen Stadium, the two sides fought fiercely in the midfield, and the pace of attack and defense was extremely fast.
Although some balls can't be passed at Cheng Hai's feet, in terms of probability, there are still a lot of opportunities.
That's how this opportunity came in the eighth minute.
The ball fell at the feet of Gundogan when the two sides grabbed the ball in the middle of the field, and after Gundogan smashed the ball to dodge the opponent player who grabbed it, he glanced at the front court, and then made a long pass on the halfway line and hoisted the ball to the front of the penalty area.
When Gundogan passed, Cheng Hai used his off-ball movement and speed to start rushing forward.
Olympiacos's back line has naturally been guarding against Cheng Hai's anti-offside, but this time the positions of both sides and Cheng Hai's running played better, smoothly crossed the opponent's back line, and rushed to the front to the ball landing point.
However, the landing point of the ball did not fully match Cheng Hai's speed, resulting in Cheng Hai having to reduce his speed after successfully reversing offside to meet the fall of the ball, which gave the opposing defender the opportunity to stick to him.
Melberg, the fastest defender in defense, took advantage of Cheng Hai's slowdown to successfully stick to him, and even wanted to overtake Cheng Hai and grab the ball to land.
But although Cheng Hai's speed slowed down, he still used his full-value physique to block his position, and did not let Melberry overtake, let alone be pushed.
Cheng Hai, who has reached a height of 180cm and a weight of 80kg, with the blessing of his full physique, faced Melberry, who is 187cm tall and weighs 81kg, and the confrontation even prevailed.
If Melberg pushes Cheng Hai with all his might, Cheng Hai may still fall, but then he will definitely get a yellow card and give the opponent a good free kick opportunity.
It was only a few minutes into the game, and Melberry didn't dare do that.
He could only try his best to push gently, and then tried to overtake Cheng Hai to grab the first landing point, but Cheng Hai was stuck in the position and couldn't overtake him.
But his close defense still has some effect, this kind of air ball from the backfield, with Cheng Hai's previous way of kicking, can only unload the ball and then catch up with the ball to shoot.
On the one hand, it is this kind of air ball that falls from behind, it is difficult to make an accurate volley, and it is easy to kick or kick.
On the other hand, according to Cheng Hai's previous kicking record, he is not very good at volleying, just like he can't arc shots, volleys are Cheng Hai's weakness.
Therefore, Melberry is sure that Cheng Hai will first use his lightweight stopping technique to unload the ball to the ground before shooting.
Melberry pinned his hopes on the moment Cheng Hai unloaded the ball.
He was ready to push Cheng Hai at that time, let him unload the ball too much, lose control of the ball, and give goalkeeper Miguieri who hit the penalty area to provide a chance to save the ball.
However, just when Melberry, like Cheng Hai, was rushing forward and observing the flying point of the ball in the air, Cheng Hai did not prepare to unload the ball, but made preparations for volleying directly to the goal.
As Melberry thought, Cheng Hai rarely volleyed in the past because he had not yet opened this skill, and he was not proficient in the skill, and he was easy to kick or kick away, so he could only use the full value of the ball stopping technique to unload the ball to the ground before shooting.
But in this way, there will be one more formality, which naturally increases the possibility of the opponent defending him, and many of Cheng Hai's shots flying outside the penalty area are flying after being interfered with by the opponent in such a situation.
And now, Cheng Hai has opened the "volley drawing" and increased this skill to a perfect state of 20 full value, and the opponent has only one person sticking to him, and his physique can fully withstand it, so what is there to hesitate about?
Naturally, it was necessary to volley directly, without giving the opponent's defenders and goalkeepers a chance to destroy.
With the fall of the ball in the air, Cheng Hai, who had rushed to the line of the big penalty area only seven or eight meters, was ready to volley, and Melberry was also ready to push people.
Of course, he didn't dare to push too hard, for fear of pushing Cheng Hai down directly and getting a yellow card, just hoping to affect Cheng Hai's unloading effect.
However, as the ball fell, Melberry found that Cheng Hai's running right foot seemed to be a little bigger.
Is this an unloading action?
No, it's a direct shot!
Melberry was suddenly overjoyed, and felt that Cheng Hai was going to waste this opportunity to counterattack.
It is very difficult to hit an accurate volley of a ball that rushes from the back.
And Melberry wasn't going to watch dryly.
When the ball was about to land and Cheng Hai's right foot was about to hit the ball, Melberry pushed Cheng Hai forward with a force.
This blow is not enough to make Cheng Hai, who has never faked falls, fall, but it can definitely affect his balance.
Cheng Hai was indeed pushed to lose his center of gravity, if ordinary people may really be affected by this blow and lose the quality of his shots.
However, Cheng Hai still has a full value of "balance" skills!
Although he lost his center of gravity a little, Cheng Hai, who was about to finish shooting, gritted his teeth, and when his upper body leaned forward a little, he forcibly stabilized his supporting foot, and his right foot was fiercely pumped on the falling ball.
After all, Cheng Hai completed the volley with his back to the ball and lost his center of gravity, and the quality was very good.
Whether it's archery, shooting power, or volleying, Cheng Hai is a perfect skill.
Although the center of gravity of the upper body was lost, Cheng Hai's strong balance ability allowed him to forcibly stabilize his feet at that moment and complete this high-quality volley.
Then, he completely lost his center of gravity, staggered forward a few steps, rushed into the big forbidden area, and only then did he stand firm.
But the volley he kicked out had already flown like a cannonball over the right side of goalkeeper Miguieri's head and into the net against the underside of the crossbar.
Miguieri made a save, but Miguieri, who attacked into the big penalty area, was very close to Cheng Hai who shot, and Cheng Hai's shot was too powerful, too fast, and too awkward, causing his save to be a step late.
The ball had already flown past the side of his head, and his save was too late, but it was too late, and he could only watch as the ball flew into the goal.
Cheng Hai sent a volley from Gundogan's midfielder into the Olympiacos goal with a volley rarely seen by fans and spectators, and the score became 1-1.