Chapter 285: Captain Gunner Who Makes Another Mistake

Borussia Dortmund have come across as attacking and strong football over the years, both away and at home, against Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich or Galaxy Real Madrid.

Weidenfeller's shot was stopped by Sven Bender with his chest, and Bender handed the ball straight to Reuss. Originally, he wanted to hand it over to Gundogan and let Gundogan organize it, but he saw Gundogan shaking his head at him with his teeth bared. Bender just knew it was a recurrence of Gundogan's old injury.

After receiving the ball, Reus made a gesture to the frontcourt, which was when he told his teammates to prepare for the attack.

Shaheen and Gundogan plugged in directly, and Bender hesitated directly, but chose to hold on to the back in case Arsenal played another counterattack.

Shaheen ran to the wing to meet Royce and made a combination with Royce to get past Cazorla's interference. Then Reus unexpectedly handed the ball to Piszczek, who stepped in from behind, and cut straight inside without the ball to the middle.

Piszczek took the ball and continued to cooperate with Shahin, and then went down to the bottom. Then I looked inside the penalty area and decisively kicked a high ball cross.

Lewandowski jumped to the top of the ball, pressed Vermaelen to receive the ball, and headed straight at the goal.

Szczesny was very focused, and he jumped and punched the ball out. Gundogan, just outside the box, took the ball in possession and wanted to wait for Reus to withdraw from inside the box to respond. Arteta didn't give him a chance, however, and the Gunners' deputy went straight to the ball with a pair of scissor legs.

Although Gundogan made a move to pass the ball out in advance, he was a step slower, and he was put down by the opponent with the ball.

Originally, the referee wanted to blow for an Arsenal foul, because Arteta brought it to the ball first, but when he saw that the ball finally fell to Shahin's feet, he didn't blow the whistle, just raised his hands flat.

"The referee signaled that the attack was strong, and the game continued!"

Klopp, who was on the sidelines, saw that Gundogan on the ground had a bad face, and slowly got up from the ground, hesitated in his heart, and quickly called Mkhitaryan on the bench to warm up.

After Shaheen received the ball, he suddenly released a cold arrow. He fired a direct long-range shot from outside the box, Szczesny's reflex jumped, and then lifted the ball off the line with one palm.

The fans at the "WOW" scene exclaimed, of course, the Arsenal fans were frightened, and the Dortmund fans were regretful.

"Shaheen!! The Turkish midfielder's long-range shot is really beautiful, the quality is quite high, if it weren't for the excellent performance of Poland's international Szczesny, maybe this goal would have gone straight in. Arsenal's defence was problematic again, they did keep a good eye on Lewandowski and Reus in the box, but there was no one around the box at all, so the Turkish midfielder had a great chance to shoot from distance. However, it was a corner and Dortmund still had a chance. ”

Shaheen shook his head, there was no time to regret himself, he immediately ran to his position to receive the corner.

Reuss made a quick run and then drove a corner kick straight into the box.

"Before!! Koscielny headed the ball out and didn't give Hummels and Lewandowski a chance. But Gundogan, who was at the edge of the penalty area, took the ball down, and Arsenal's crisis is still not resolved! ”

Gundogan took the ball and distributed it directly to Reus, who came from the corner area, and Reuss knocked the ball and immediately passed it back to Gundogan, who suddenly entered the penalty area after passing the ball. Gundogan crossed his arms and stuck Sania as she came over.

There was no time for him to hesitate, he just got up and was about to hit the door. But suddenly, he felt a pain in his ankle, and he fell to the ground with an 'ah' sound.

"Penalty !!!" More than 3,000 Dortmund fans from afar shouted loudly into the stadium.

"Fake !!" Not to be outdone, Arsenal fans are not to be outdone.

"Vermaelen!! When he grabbed the ball in the penalty area, he brought down the opposing midfielder Gundogan, and to see if the referee blew it, the referee blew the whistle and signaled that Arsenal had fouled. Without hesitation, I pointed to the penalty spot, penalty!! Vermaelen made a mistake and he gave them a penalty. ”

Vermaelen spread his hands, the expression on his face a little incredulous. He first wanted to pull Gundogan up on the ground, but Lewandowski didn't appreciate it at all and pushed Vermaelen away.

Vermaelen was also not angry and ran to the referee to argue, even though he had already seen the yellow card in the referee's hand.

"I didn't mean to, I didn't touch him at all, I was the first to touch the football, he fell on his own!"

The referee did not listen to Vermaelen's explanation and did not hesitate to show him the yellow card in his hand.

The camera gives Vermaelen a close-up of his face, and judging by the shape of his mouth and expression, he is saying, "WHY? ”

Gundogan collapsed in the penalty area and did not get up, Reus came to take a look, and then went to the referee to communicate, and the referee immediately called Dortmund's team doctor to play.

"Let's take a look at the slow-motion replay, where Gundogan receives the ball from Reuss and gets up in the middle of the box to hit the goal. At this time, Vermaelen came to poke the ball, but he kicked Gundogan's supporting foot, and Gundogan fell directly to the ground, which looked not easy from his facial expression. ”

Dortmund's team doctor checked and made a substitution gesture to Klopp.

Klopp scolded secretly, fortunately he was prepared, and waved his hand to let Mkhitaryan, who was warming up, play.

"Oh, Borussia Dortmund's stretcher is on the pitch and it looks like Gundogan's injury is not optimistic. At the end of last season, Gundogan was injured and spent the summer recuperating. He didn't play in the previous games of the season, and this was the first game of the season for the German midfielder, and it looks like he should have a recurrence of an old injury. ”

After Gundogan was substituted, the box was emptied, with only goalkeeper Szczesny and Robert Lewandowski taking the penalty.

Lewandowski stood on the pitch and looked at the goal. Szczesny was half-pressed and his attention was all on Lewandowski, who was not far away.

The referee blew the whistle and Lewandowski made a slow run before coming to the ball and smashing it out with a quick kick.

Szczesny made a judgment and he swooped to the left. But instead of going in the direction he judged, the ball flew straight into the middle of the net where Szczesny had just left.

"The ball went in!! It was a ball that hit the middle of the pitch and Szczesny misjudged the direction. He didn't expect Lewandowski to play directly in the middle, so now thanks to Lewandowski's one-time penalty hit, Dortmund equalised on the road. ”

Lewandowski jumped up and down excitedly and waved his hand vigorously, and Vermaelen behind him lowered his head, his emotions extremely low.

The elated Lewandowski and Vermaelen's lonely backs are in stark contrast.

"Vermaelen has really been in form this season and his form has really worried Arsenal fans, who didn't expect him to give a penalty to their opponents in such an important game. Now the starting line of both sides is back to the same starting point. ”

Li Zihan shook his hand, scolded 'Crab', and then consciously walked to the middle circle to prepare for kickoff.

Arsene Wenger brought Mikel Arteta over on the sidelines and gave him a face-to-face lecture.

Arteta nodded in understanding, and ran to his place.

After the restart, Li Zihan knocked the ball back to Arteta, and then cut forward himself and entered the opponent's half.

After Arteta received the ball, he motioned for his teammates to control the ball and pushed forward layer by layer.

In the end, Arsenal once again took possession firmly into their own hands, and although Arsenal's attack was rather sluggish later, they were unable to break Weidenfeller's ten fingers, and he had a good centre-back like Hummels in front of him, as well as Sven Bender and Shaheen who withdrew to disrupt the situation.

The score did not change until the end of the first half, and the players from both sides walked into the tunnel together.

In the home dressing room, Arsene Wenger summed up the merits of the first half of the game and then told his players how they played in the second half and the main points of attack. Defensively, there will be a focus on the duo of Robert Lewandowski and Reus, while also keeping an eye on Borussia Dortmund's new midfielder Mkhitaryan up front and Shaheen's long-range shot from outside the box.

At the same time, he told his players to be careful when defending, Vermaelen had already received a yellow card, and they paid extra attention in the second half, maybe Dortmund's attention in the second half was focused on Vermaelen.

On the offensive front, Arsene Wenger told his disciples: "How much ground we need to pass together, their midfield is their strength. So we can play mainly on the wings, Lee and Lucas can play aggressively in the half, Lee's dribbling and breaking speed can give us a lot of chances, and Lucas plays a high post in the box. Mesut (Mesut Ozil) also pulled up wide when necessary, and Jack [Wilshere] stepped forward to top the midfield. The full-backs should also be aggressive and come forward to help the wingers assist. Mikel (Arteta) in the middle needs to pay more attention to the defense, the two wings go up together, and Thomas in the middle has a yellow card, so there will definitely be gaps and weaknesses in our back, so we have to pay attention to the opponent's counter-attack. ”

Arsene Wenger said a lot about the tactical issues, but didn't say a word about the penalty that Vermaelen had given to the opposition in the first half, let alone scold. Instead, he comforted Vermaelen and told him not to be stressed. He is the captain of the field, and the first thing to ensure is his mentality.

This made Vermaelen feel even more uncomfortable, and he bowed his head silently.

At this time, if Wenger had scolded, he would have felt more relaxed.

In fact, Arsene Wenger rarely swears in front of his players, and even when he blames them, he doubles down on training and gives people reason.

For example, Li Zihan made a mistake before, and Wenger called him to the conference room. used the large projector in the conference room to play the picture of Li Zihan's mistakes over and over again, and then let him summarize it by himself. In the end, Wenger came forward to tell him what the best choice should be at this time, and what should be done.

Finally, I took him to the training ground and used it in actual combat with the coaches of the coaching staff.

This is one of the reasons why he has not won a title for eight years, but the players of Arsenal and the club's hierarchy, including the coaching staff, still support him.

Wilshere has publicly said that if Arsene Wenger is no longer at Arsenal, then he will consider a transfer.

This shows Wenger's place in the hearts of Arsenal players.

So at this time, Vermaelen felt even more guilty, and Arsene Wenger could replace the captain before. But despite his bad appearance, Wenger never mentioned it.