Chapter 244: Old Iron, Steady
Raheem Sterling's right-footed shot deceived Wang, and then a soft lob shot from his left heel flew into the back of the net from Wang, who fell on the goal line.
“goooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!”
The England fans in the stands went completely crazy, roaring along with the England fans around them, vowing to break through the clouds that blocked the sky from the sun.
“3:1!3:1!” The commentators of the England team were celebrating like crazy, as if they had won the Hercules Cup!
"Now we are leading by two goals again with China, and now we have almost killed the Chinese team, and all that awaits them is elimination! Final Four, here we come! ”
The TV director kept replaying the whole process of Sterling coming out of the ball, then chasing the ball frantically, to breaking into the Chinese team's penalty area and shaking the goalkeeper's easy shot.
The fans of the England team in front of the TV were fascinated, but for Chinese fans, I don't know how many people's dreams were awakened by Sterling's goal, and how many people were scolded!
Listening to the incomprehensible English songs sung by the fans of the England team, Wang Dare, standing in front of the goal line, frowned and looked at the players of the England team who were celebrating wildly, and viciously kicked the football behind the goal line, "I'll go!" ”
"Cheer up! Brace oneself! Dai Zhiwei shouted to his teammates, "You know, who is watching us today!" ”
He hopes to use the authority of the leader to encourage or force the players on the field of the Chinese team to continue to work hard!
He's not ready to go home!
While calling, Dai Zhiwei ran over to pick up the football and put it on the center line, urging the referee to call the players of the England team to hurry up and prepare to welcome the kick-off of the Chinese team.
Harry Kane slowly ran back to the halfway line from the England penalty area, as if the goal had been scored by him, which caused the Chinese fans in the stands to shout furiously!
The fans of the England team were naturally unwilling to be scolded by the fans of the opposing team by the players of their own team, and immediately let out a tsunami-like boo, suppressing the voices of the fans of the Chinese team.
Lippi didn't look very calm on the sidelines, one goal behind, the Chinese team still had hope, two goals behind plus less than 30 minutes of game time, the Silver Fox was also ready to lose and go home.
However, even if he had expectations in his heart, the old Italian man did not give up, and began to transfer troops to punish generals, Li Xuepeng, "Lucky Star" Yu Dabao, and Wu Lei also mentioned the front.
The formation of the Chinese team also changed to 3-4-3, and it is clear that Lippi decided to fight hard!
Southgate, on the other hand, also played his own cards, and replaced two people at a time, with youngster Ali being replaced and midfielder Delph coming on to strengthen the team's midfield control.
The World Cup semi-finals are also very unfamiliar to the England team, every World Cup, the England team is always a favored team, but the Three Lions often fail to achieve ideal results for various reasons, since the 1998 World Cup, entering the semi-finals has become the luxury of all England fans, these 20 years, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Germany have sent England home.
Clearly, Southgate was ready to hold on for the last half-hour.
The referee had to step forward to call the England players back to the pitch, and their celebration was a little too long, and the arrival of the Huaxia No. 1 leader more or less made him make a wise choice when he was able to take care of the Chinese team.
1:3, two goals behind, even with injury time, there are less than 30 minutes left in the game, and the Chinese team has already fallen half of the cliff!
However, the Chinese team did not give up, because for many of their players, it is highly likely that it will be their last twenty minutes of the World Cup, such as 31-year-old Yu Hanchao and Hao Junmin, 33-year-old Feng Xiaoting, and 38-year-old Zheng Zhi......
Even if the Chinese team can still get a place in the finals of the next Qatar World Cup, most of these veterans in their thirties will not last for 4 years.
So, in order not to leave regrets, they all fight!
Less than five minutes after kick-off again, the Chinese team's counterattack paid off.
Zheng Zhi forced a tackle to cut off Lingard's pass, and then quickly played the ball to the new Yu Dabao, who flashed past Henderson and sent the ball into the England penalty area with a through stopper.
Wu Lei grabbed Maguire and stretched out his foot and poked it, and the ball rolled in front of Yu Dabao, who had just come on the field, Yu Dabao didn't raise his head, and lifted his right foot was a violent pump.
The ball rolled against the turf and was fast towards the gate guarded by England's Jordan Pickford.
Pickford couldn't make a save, with a dense crowd of legs blocking his view, and by the time he saw the ball, it was already in the six-yard box.
"Bang!"
Unfortunately, the ball was shoveled out by John Stones just before it reached the goal line.
"Ahhhh The Chinese fans in the stands frantically shouted Yu Dabao's name, although he failed to score this goal, but he did play a role as a surprise soldier this time.
"Come again! Again! ”
"Brother Artemisia, hurry up!" Dai Zhiwei pushed Hao Junmin and asked him to hurry up and send a corner kick, they must now race against time!
However, Dai Zhiwei's urging did not work, because Lippi on the sidelines played the second card in his hand, replacing Yu Hanchao, who did not have a strong presence in the half of the game, with Gao Lin, who had excellent header ability.
In the 69th minute, the 32-year-old Gao Lin finally stepped onto the stage of the World Cup, and the time left for him to run in the World Cup may only be about 25 minutes.
Hao Junmin took a corner kick, but unfortunately even if Gao Lin was replaced, the Chinese team's ability to take set-pieces was far inferior to that of England, and Maguire pushed the ball out of the danger zone.
Subsequently, the competition between the two sides fell into white heat, and the Chinese team, which was already two goals behind, launched a fearless attack, like a matador who bravely rushed to the mad bull, putting everything out of the way!
Seeing that there was not much time left, Lippi couldn't sit still, and replaced the last striker in the team, Zhang Yuning, with Chang and Wu Lei - originally Zhang Yuning was just to let him feel the atmosphere of the World Cup at the age of 21, but at this time, he could only be a dead horse and a live horse doctor.
Just as the clock was about to enter injury time, Ashley Young fell when he broke through Zhang Linpeng on the edge of the penalty area, but the referee signaled for the game to continue amid the fear of the Chinese fans and the anticipation of the England fans.
In the midst of the boos of the England fans, Zhang Linpeng sent the football to the front court with a long pass directly from the backfield.
His long pass was 50 meters long, and most of the players on the field did not react immediately to the offensive and defensive transition at this moment, which gave Wu Xi, who received Zhang Linpeng's pass, a chance.
Wu Xi took advantage of the fact that the England midfielder had not had time to grab the ball, and directly stuffed the ball to Dai Zhiwei at the front of the penalty area with a precise through ball.
In fact, Zhang Linpeng's long pass Dai Zhiwei did not react, and he did not react until the football was picked up by Wu Xi and began to cut forward, which was only less than half a second earlier than the start of Stones, who was close to him.
But this short moment was enough, and Dai Zhiwei's run allowed him to get Wu Xi's through ball steadily.
Maguire, who was the last line of defense before the goalkeeper, stood firmly at the top of the arc of the penalty area, watching Dai Zhiwei keep approaching, and also gritted his teeth and rushed up.
"Bang!"
The first contact between Dai Zhiwei and Maguire began with a heavy impact, Dai Zhiwei did not bump into Maguire, and Maguire did not help Dai Zhiwei.
Immediately, Dai Zhiwei took the ball at his feet, started directly, and took advantage of the short moment when Maguire adjusted his pace to break through to the left side of the penalty area as the opponent hoped.
Although this is what Maguire wants, Dai Zhiwei has the confidence to be able to lift the ball into the goal from any angle, even if the angle is small, as long as he is given a space near the penalty area, he has absolute confidence to send the ball into the door of Manchester United!
Originally, Dai Zhiwei thought that this was a one-on-one heads-up between him and Maguire, but he ignored Stones, who was chasing closely behind him, and at the moment when he took a step outside the penalty area to dodge Maguire and was about to shoot with his feet, Stones arrived in time.
Maybe it was a mistake in the busy, and he didn't have time to think about it, Stones saw that the football was 20 centimeters away from Dai Zhiwei, and subconsciously it was a sliding tackle, but he didn't expect Dai Zhiwei to be extremely fast, and Stones didn't shovel the football, but kicked Dai Zhiwei's heel.
"Bang!"
Dai Zhiwei was caught off guard and fell down.
"Didi!"
The moment Dai Zhiwei was put down by Stones, the referee's whistle also blew!
Although the referee immediately awarded it a penalty, he waited for the VAR referee to make sure it was correct.
Penalty + yellow card, this is the decision made by the referee after hearing the VAR referee's decision.
The penalty was naturally Dai Zhiwei, and it could only be Dai Zhiwei - although he was shoveled to the heel by Stones just now, his left foot still had some faint pain.
But at this time, he was reluctant to give up this penalty opportunity to anyone, because he firmly believed that he was the one who was most sure to score!
"Drop!"
When the referee's whistle blew and Dai Zhiwei rushed to the ball, Pickford subconsciously pounced on the bottom right corner of the goal, but Dai Zhiwei was a more obvious feint, and Pickford did not withstand the pressure.
3:2!
The Chinese team narrowed the gap and rekindled the hope of advancing to the semifinals!
After the goal, Dai Zhiwei did not celebrate, ran into the goal to pick up the ball and ran to the center circle, just high-fived his teammates along the way to celebrate, obviously to equalize the score with little time left.
And the time is only 3 minutes of stoppage time.
England naturally understood at this point that it was more important for them to consume the time of the game, and Southgate was no longer subtle, replacing Henderson with Dier and Sterling with Rashford in the following minute, clearly trying to consume as much time as possible.
England patiently fell at the back, although such a move caused serious dissatisfaction among the Chinese fans at the scene, but this did not have any impact on the England team at all, what they need now is to win the game more securely, and they will not make any waves in the game they almost won because of some battle of will.
Although the Chinese players launched the final frantic pressing at this time, the England team was still able to firmly control the ball at this time.
The singing of England fans at Samara Samara Stadium is getting louder and louder, and now all England fans can't wait for this match to end sooner and they all want to see the team enter the World Cup semi-finals again after 28 years!
"Drop! Drip...... Drip! ”
The long-awaited final whistle of England fans finally sounded, and the Samara Samara-Samara Stadium was completely boiling, although the number was definitely not dominant, but the cheers of the England fans at this time had completely covered up all the other sounds!
On the field, England's substitutes had rushed into the pitch, and the Chinese players on the pitch collapsed on the turf as if they had run out of gas at the moment they heard the whistle.
"Is this the end of it?"
Dai Zhiwei turned around and wiped his eyes with his arm, as if because he didn't know that his arms were sticky with sweat, after wiping them, his eyes became more and more red.
At this moment, he was not too sad, only a trace of confusion and melancholy, like the emptiness of arriving at the station after a long journey, but not knowing where to go.
It was only then that he felt a dull pain in his left heel that had been shoveled by Stones!
"Wear it, can I exchange jerseys?".
"Oh, of course." Dai Zhiwei came back to his senses and saw that it was Harry Kane walking over.
The jersey was wet and hard to take off, so he pulled it off with great effort, handed it to Kane, and then put the opponent's jersey over his shoulder.
"Thank you!" Kane and Dai Zhiwei hugged and separated, after all, they had just eliminated each other.
After Kane, Manchester United players, including Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Marcus Rashford, also came over to hug Tai Zhiwei one by one.
"You're doing fantastic!" Rashford reassured, "We're just a little bit luckier. ”
"You guy, don't hit me!" Dai Zhiwei reluctantly smiled and patted Rashford on the shoulder and said, "If you want to win the Hercules Cup, if you don't get eliminated by the third and fourth places, I will be very faceless!" ”
"That's for sure!" Rashford smiled and patted Dai Zhiwei on the back and said.
After bowing to the Chinese fans at the scene with his teammates to express his gratitude, Dai Zhiwei limped a little down and walked to the players' tunnel, but when he was about to enter the players' tunnel, he stopped, turned around and took one last look at the stadium.
"Farewell, World Cup Russia!"
In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Dai Zhiwei, who served as the captain of the national team for the first time, led the Chinese team to defeat the German team, the Swiss team and other giants, and magically entered the quarterfinals, and he also left the 8 goals with the most personal goals in this World Cup - also all the goals of the Chinese team in this World Cup.
(End of chapter)