Generally speaking, in a penalty shoot-out, the first and fifth players are very important.

The first player should give the next teammates who are in charge of the penalty a good start, if he can kick the football in, it can also release the psychological pressure of everyone behind, if the first person does not shoot the ball, then the teammates behind will naturally be nervous instantly, carrying a heavy burden of thought.

Equally important is the fifth man to take the last penalty, as he is likely to decide the difference between himself and his opponent with one goal.

As in the current situation, the opponent's fifth man has already scored, and if the fifth player of the opposing team can't score, the game is over. But if he can score, he can continue the penalty shoot-out and go into a single-round elimination system.

Therefore, the head coach generally arranges players with excellent psychological quality and outstanding penalty skills to press the fifth lineup, which can be regarded as a "finale" in a sense.

Those who can take on this great task are not ordinary people.

So when they saw Gao Zheng walking to the penalty spot, many people were a little surprised - it was rare to see Gao Zheng take a penalty......

Many people are even wondering, has Gao Zheng ever kicked a penalty kick, and has he ever scored a penalty?

They don't remember it at all.

Arrange such a person who rarely or even has never taken a penalty for the fifth crucial penalty?

Has Simone's doting on Gao Zheng reached this point?

Although Gao Zheng has scored a lot of goals, it does not mean that he can score a goal in ordinary games to take such a crucial penalty.

A lot of strikers who score goals have a very high chance of missing a penalty.

At least Manuel Blanco frowned when he saw this scene.

He didn't understand Simeone's reasoning at all.

However, at this time, he has no choice but to continue to support Atletico Madrid.

So at this moment, he turned into Gao Zheng's fan again, and wanted to reflexively pray to God for Gao Zheng.

But he suddenly remembered that Gao Zheng was a Chinese, and the Chinese were notoriously unbelieving in God, not only did they not believe in God, they might even blaspheme God. He feared that praying to God for a Chinese would provoke God's wrath and instead let Atletico Madrid be eliminated from the tournament, affecting his plans.

He couldn't pray to his Lord anymore, but at the same time he didn't know what to do, so he had to look at the TV screen helplessly.

His eyes were fixed on Gao Zheng.

You kid...... Don't let me down! For my sake, you're going to kick this ball in too!

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Under the gaze of countless people, Gao Zheng walked to the penalty spot, and he used his foot to reach the football directly and stepped on it in front of the penalty spot.

Unlike his former teammates and opponents, who placed the football very solemnly, some people also had to aim the valve core of the football at themselves, so as to ensure that the football was kicked to the hardest part of the body and increase the speed of the football.

But Gao Zheng didn't do that.

He's casual, casual, like doing a penalty in training.

Then he stepped away and turned to look at the referee.

This surprised the referee - he thought that Gao Zheng would play with the football well, but he thought that it only took two seconds for him to finish the preparations.

PSV Eindhoven goalkeeper Zott, who was also on the goal-line, was also a surprise as he performed well over both legs, including being voted Man of the Match in the previous leg.

But in the four previous Atletico Madrid penalty kicks, he has not saved any of them.

He wanted to save Gao Zheng's ball on the fifth penalty and kill the game directly.

How could he have thought that Gao Zheng's casual performance after coming up made him hesitate a little.

Is this psychological warfare?

Is Gao Zheng fearless, or is it because he has no experience in taking penalty kicks?

Before this game, PSV Eindhoven manager Kocu specially made the team practice on penalties and made very good preparations. As a goalkeeper, he naturally studied all the main penalty takers on Atletico Madrid's side and knew their direction and habits.

So don't look at him didn't save a penalty, but the direction was all right, just a little bit worse.

But when facing Gao Zheng, his mind was blank. Because there was no penalty information about Gao Zheng before, is he good at kicking the penalty to the left or right? Is it above or below? Is he good at kicking with his right or left foot? Does he volley hard or does he prefer to shoot with a spoon? Does he prefer to pursue angles or to be steady?

None of these leftists know ......

As a result, he had to guess when he saved a penalty for a while.

He was a little uncertain.

There was no time for him to think again, the referee had already blown the whistle.

The audience fell silent suddenly.

Gao Zheng began to run...... No, or it would be more accurate to say "help walking", because Gao Zheng didn't run at all, he stepped forward and took another step, a total of two steps, more like he was striding in stride.

Then he threw his right foot towards the ball.

Everything happened very suddenly and quickly.

Zuote pounced before Gao Zheng's foot hit the football, he guessed the direction of the left side of his body, and guessed that Gao Zheng would hit the foot, so he pounced decisively.

But Gao Zheng's ball kicked to the right side of his body, and it was an upper corner!

The ball flew into the goal from the corner between the post and the crossbar!

Gao Zheng!! Pretty! Corner!! He Ping, who was so nervous that he couldn't speak before, could finally roar to his heart's content.

He was also worried that Gao Zheng, who had never taken a penalty, would kick the ball away...... Now, the worst result is nothing more than Atletico Madrid being eliminated, but at least it won't be Gao Zheng's responsibility.

"Very few penalty kicks are high on this goal, it looks very relaxed, like training, no pressure!" José Maria also gave high praise to Gao Zheng. 'It seems that Simeone was right to let him be the last to take the penalty, although we outsiders don't know what the high penalty ability is, but the manager who gets along with him day and night is obviously very aware and has a lot of confidence in him. This has been proven by the facts. In a tense atmosphere, Gao from walking out to scoring a penalty seemed as out of place in this tense atmosphere......"

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Manuel Blanco saw Gao Zheng's careless appearance of placing the football, and he kept cursing Gao Zheng in his heart, scolding him for being a fool - scolding in his heart because if he scolded loudly, he was afraid that his wife would be kicked out of the house again......

However, after seeing Gao Zheng's goal, he couldn't help jumping up and cheering.

This made his wife poke her head out curiously: "Aren't you a Barcelona fan?" What to add to Atletico Madrid? ”

Blanco didn't bother to explain his clever plan to his wife, so he could only wave his hand impatiently: "What do you know?" ”

"What did you say!" The wife's voice was an octave higher.

Blanco hurriedly laughed: "I hope they can advance to the quarterfinals, and then fall deeper and deeper in the two-line battle, and in the end, both the league and the Champions League are ......empty-handed."

He quickly explained his thoughts to his wife.

Then I turned to watch TV, PSV Eindhoven had already played the sixth round of penalties and scored again.

Kocu said before the game that they had prepared a penalty, which didn't seem to be nonsense, it was really prepared, and it was very accurate......

Blanco was a little anxious.

Cocu has played for Barcelona before...... Could it be that he is determined to eliminate Atletico Madrid from the Champions League in order to avenge Barcelona?

But what's the use of beating them in the Champions League, you have the ability to stop them in La Liga!

It's a big deal for me here!

Fortunately, Jimenez, the sixth player in Atletico Madrid, also scored the penalty, which relieved Blanco.

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"I really didn't expect that the penalty shoot-out would go all the way to the eighth round...... "José Maria sighed.

The shouts at the scene became less and less, the vast majority of the fans were so nervous that they couldn't make any sound, and some didn't even dare to look at it, they turned their backs to the stadium and only judged whether the goal had scored or not from the reactions of those around them.

After the results of the draw for the round of 16 came out, Atletico Madrid fans still felt that the draw against PSV Eindhoven was a top draw.

Who would have thought that PSV Eindhoven was so tenacious, drew with Atletico Madrid in two legs, and dragged the penalty shootout to the eighth round......

The eighth player to make his appearance for PSV Eindhoven was Luciano Narsinger, who was substituted in the 118th minute of the game, and just two minutes into the game, the game was over and it went to the penalty shoot-out.

It wasn't for Cocu to bring him on for the penalty shoot-out, otherwise he wouldn't have been in eighth place, and that order meant it was anyone's go, because it wasn't taken into account at all......

The manager arranges the penalty take-off list to focus on the top five, and the latter is basically looking at the ranking, and the further back you go, the worse the penalty ability.

Eighth-placed Narsinger has the level of penalties...... The penalty record is similar to Gao Zheng's, and he hasn't played much.

Sure enough, after he went up, he kicked the ball out of the bottom line!

Narsinger ——!! He shot wide!! He Ping raised his arms and shouted as if he was cheering for victory.

The stone that weighed on everyone's hearts came loose.

Atletico Madrid's eighth appearance was Juanfrán.

He, like his seven teammates before him, kicked the ball into the back of the net steadily!

Even if Zuote judged the right direction again, he still couldn't touch it!

"The game is over!! Atletico Madrid eliminated PSV Eindhoven 8-7 in a brutal penalty shootout to advance to the quarterfinals!! ”

On TV, all the Atletico Madrid players flocked to Juanfran to celebrate their hard-earned promotion.

In front of the TV, Blanco also raised his arms in silent celebration.

His plan can go ahead!