Chapter 253: Penalty Missed
The Dragons anticipated the difficulty of this game and were fully prepared for it, but they did not expect that the first goal conceded would come in such a way at this point in time.
However, with the experience of being led by Uruguay for most of the half in the last game, the Dragons did not panic too much about conceding the first goal and falling behind the score.
Shen Feng, Zheng Zhi and others all took the initiative to comfort Hao Junmin, who caused the loss of the ball due to their own mistakes, and then regrouped and continued to fight.
After conceding the goal, the Dragon Country team behaved more cautiously on the field, and the tactical formation almost subconsciously returned to the way it was in the first two games, but Shen Feng and Wu Lei did not retreat, but Zhang Xizhe and Hao Junmin focused more on defense.
In this way, the counterattack of the Dragon Country team has also changed back to Shen Feng or Wu Lei who is basically looking for Shen Feng or Wu Lei in the front court with a long pass from the backfield.
This kind of offensive routine is more common in the Premier League, and the Premier League team West Bromwich Albion plays for Gabr and Hegazi, and is more experienced in defending such long passes, which makes the counterattack of the Dragon team not very effective.
However, Shen Feng and Wu Lei still relied on their personal ability to create some shooting opportunities, but under the strict defense of the Egyptian team, they were not able to convert them into goals.
After the Egyptian team scored, the pace of further strengthening the attack was further strengthened, and the goal of the Dragon team was created in succession, but except for Salah, the ability of other attacking players of the Egyptian team was relatively limited, and many shots failed to hit the goal frame.
In the thirty-seventh minute of the game, the Dragon Country team played a smooth counterattack, Shen Feng received a pass from his teammates in the backfield, slipped the ball to the bottom, and then suddenly turned, stabbed obliquely into the Egyptian team's big penalty area, and then knocked back to the middle.
Wu Lei followed, and at a distance of sixteen meters from the goal of the Egyptian team, he shot angrily, and the goalkeeper of the Egyptian team, Essam, who was originally guarding against Shen Feng's direct shot? Hadari, unable to turn around, basically had nothing to do about this shot, but the Egyptian team's defender No. 6 Hegazi, who has more experience in the game, came to the goal line in advance to make up for the defense, just waiting for Wu Lei's shot, Hegazi made a horizontal kick at the moment when the ball was about to cross the goal line, and blocked the ball.
The Dragons missed their best shot on goal so far in the first half.
Two minutes later, the Dragon Country team made a comeback, this time after Shen Feng won the ball, he went straight to the middle hinterland of the Egyptian team, and then volleyed vigorously from a position 30 meters away from the Egyptian team's goal, and the ball roared straight towards the Egyptian team's goal.
Although Shen Feng's shot was a little far away, it was powerful and heavy, the timing was very exquisite, and the angle was quite in place.
But this time, luck was still not on the side of the Dragon Country, and the ball kicked by Shen Feng accidentally hit the arm of the Egyptian team's defender No. 7 Fati subconsciously after flying into the Egyptian team's big penalty area.
But fortunately, although the ball was stopped, because Fati blocked Shen Feng's shot with his arm, it was in the Egyptian team's big penalty area, so the referee on duty, Colombian Roldán, decisively awarded a penalty to the Dragon team.
There was no doubt about the penalty because Fati's foul was very obvious, although it was an unintentional foul - it was because it was unintentional, so Fati did not receive a yellow card - but in the face of this decision, the Egyptian team had nothing to argue about, and they did not even need to apply for the assistance of the video assistant referee.
This is the second penalty scored by the Dragons in this World Cup, and it is also the seventeenth penalty in this World Cup, which is close to tying the record of a single penalty in the World Cup - which is directly related to the use of the latest video assistant referee technology in this World Cup.
The current No. 1 penalty taker in the Dragon Country team is Shen Feng.
The first penalty won by the Dragon Country team in this World Cup was hit by Zheng Zhi, and it was because of Shen Feng's initiative and humility that Zheng Zhi was given that opportunity.
This time, Shen Feng did not push again, held the ball, and came to the penalty spot in front of the Egyptian team.
When he placed the ball firmly on the penalty spot, took a few steps back, and prepared to take the penalty, all the fans who were following the game held their breath and stared intently at the TV or the screen of their mobile phones.
Of the nearly 40,000 Dragon Country fans in the Volgograd Arena, many of them closed their eyes nervously, or turned their backs, not daring to watch Shen Feng's penalty kick.
However, more Dragon Country fans are still full of confidence in Shen Feng and are waiting for him to make further contributions to the Dragon Country team.
The referee on duty, Roldan determined Shen Feng and Essam? Hadari was ready, and the other players on both sides were outside the Egyptian team's big penalty area, and there was no other situation that the rules of the game did not allow, before the whistle sounded to signal that Shen Feng could take the penalty.
Shen Feng got the instruction, first took a deep breath, then looked up at the goal of the Egyptian team, determined the direction of his free throw, stepped forward, and shot decisively, and the ball hit the left side of the Egyptian team's goal.
The penalty kick is more of a psychological game between the penalty kicker and the opposing goalkeeper, except for those balls that are kicked away due to their own problems, other goals are basically scored by the penalty taker in the process of kicking, deceiving the opponent's goalkeeper and making the opponent's goalkeeper misjudge in the direction of the save.
And once the opposing goalkeeper is not deceived and judges the direction of the penalty kick, there is a high probability that the save will be successful!
Although Shen Feng is the current No. 1 penalty taker of the Dragon Country team, he has not really taken penalty kicks in the game many times, because he has not been in the Dragon Country team for a long time.
This penalty is the third penalty taken by Shen Feng in the Dragon Country team, and the first two were successfully scored, because Shen Feng was in charge of the penalty, he had no distractions, and he didn't care about the opponent's goalkeeper, but he riveted himself and volleyed vigorously, kicked out the ball, while taking into account the angle, won with speed, even if the opponent's goalkeeper judged the right direction, it was too late to make a save.
But when kicking this penalty, Shen Feng did not choose the same way as the previous two times, but sacrificed some speed and chose a more precise angle.
Egypt's 45-year-old goalkeeper Essam? Hadari, not only a seasoned veteran, but also a master of penalty shooting, has saved opponents' penalties many times in the game.
In this penalty taken by Shen Feng, Essam? Hadari's prediction of the direction of the incoming ball is also accurate, showing his good psychological quality, and because of the penalty kick kicked by Shen Feng, the speed is not very fast, although the angle is more tricky, but Essam? Hadari's body reaction was also quite agile, and at the moment when the ball was about to cross the goal line, he struggled to reach out his fingertips and touch the ball, successfully changing the trajectory of the ball, and finally causing the ball to graze the post of the Egyptian goal and roll off the field.