Chapter 346: Chapter 345: Go Solo
"This is a very meaningful goal, as Lisbon Athletic takes the lead at Barcelona’s home ground, which has a tremendous encouraging effect on the young players’ confidence!"
"At the same time, this is also Deng Kai’s first goal at Camp Nou."
"It seems that this stadium is fated with Deng Kai. The first time he appeared at this stadium was the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final, where he was invited by Sir Alex Ferguson to watch Manchester United take on Bayern Munich."
"In the final moments of the game, Deng Kai loudly called for Schmeichel from the backfield to move up for the aerial challenge, which helped Manchester United equalize against Munich. Then, a minute later, he allowed Solskjaer to enter the penalty area and passed on the chance to take a corner to Beckham."
"Beckham then delivered the corner, and Solskjaer, with a divine touch inside the six-yard box, struck the football into the net, snatching the victory from Munich."
"That was a highlight for Manchester United, the most crucial moment in their treble-winning season. To this day, United fans believe that the championship trophy is missing the name of one player... Deng Kai!"
"And now, Deng Kai, once a youth player of Lisbon Athletic, is fighting for his qualification in the Europa League Final. He might have the chance to have his name engraved on the Europa League championship trophy in advance!"
"A name that belongs solely to him, not one bequeathed by Manchester United!"
"Interestingly, in this year’s Champions League semi-finals, Bayern Munich are still present, making it their third consecutive year in the top four. They also have the potential to make it to the finals for the second time in three years."
"The one thing Bayern fans are afraid of now is Deng Kai not favoring them. Hence, they are very supportive of Deng Kai leading Lisbon Athletic to defeat Barcelona. That way, Deng Kai’s attention would be on the Europa League, and he wouldn’t curse Munich."
The commentator obviously knew a lot about Deng Kai and recounted his past experiences at length after his goal.
Despite Deng Kai’s fans being well-versed with these stories and no longer finding them fresh,
for many fans watching Deng Kai play for the first time, these details were quite interesting.
This is the process in which significant matches in big tournaments boost a player’s popularity.
If you perform well in these events, you can draw the crowd’s attention to yourself from the tournament’s pool of popularity.
Viana is a prime example of this.
Quaresma in the last match did the same.
And in this match, Deng Kai’s goal had a similar effect.
But one goal can’t possibly make Barcelona give up without a fight, especially when it’s at Camp Nou.
At the twentieth minute, Barcelona’s defensive midfielder Guardiola suddenly advanced with the ball.
Deschamps advanced to defend, Guardiola played a one-two with Rivaldo, and continued moving forward.
Pepe was drawn out.
Guardiola’s vision and passing were quite impressive, a direct pass behind Pepe, completely breaking through Lisbon Athletic’s defense.
But Pepe was quick to turn around and chase back.
Overmars, who had made an off-ball cut and shook off Barzagli, took his first touch slightly too heavy, and couldn’t keep up with the football on his next step,
because Pepe was already back, pushing Overmars aside, took control of the ball, and passed it to the supporting Terry.
Again, if it had been Feng Te instead, Overmars would have had an absolute one-on-one opportunity. His ability to turn, chase back, and handle the football under pressure was nowhere near Pepe’s.
On the sidelines, Trigella and Maxa exchanged glances, both thinking, Rivaldo shot well!
If it hadn’t been for Rivaldo’s head injury to Feng Te, they would have found it quite embarrassing to defeat Deng Kai’s absolute supporter.
On the substitute bench, Feng Te cracked a slight smile. If it had been him, he wouldn’t have rushed towards Guardiola at all; he would have waited in the penalty box for Guardiola to deliver the football right to him.
Guardiola: "You really think I can’t shoot from distance, don’t you?"
In the twenty-ninth minute, Barcelona had their best chance since the start of the match to score a goal.
The young Xavi feigned a pass back to Guardiola, turned past Viana, and then made a long pass, precisely targeting Cruyff.
Cruyff pulled back to shake off Pepe’s defense, then soared high into the air and headed the ball directly to Simon, who was cutting in from the right.
Simon controlled the ball and passed it in one move,, and since he had the benefit of half a body’s lead, he managed to power past Terry relying on his speed, earning himself a half-breakaway opportunity.
Bang!
Simon blasted a shot from a tight angle inside the penalty area.
The entire maneuver was smooth as flowing water, truly the mark of a superstar.
But Schmeichel seemed inspired by the familiar surroundings of Camp Nou, as if he were revisiting his peak two years before.
With a bold sideways dive en route to the ball, he miraculously kept Simon’s blast out of the net.
Simon exploded with disbelief, holding his head in his hands.
The Barcelona forwards found it incredible.
Such a high-quality shot,, this was a sure goal.
Had Schmeichel cheated?!
"Beautiful! Schmeichel is absolutely godlike today!"
"His stop against Cruyff’s high-quality long shot was surprising enough. Now he’s stopped a sure goal,, is he really thirty-eight? He looks like he’s twenty-eight!"
The commentator spared no praise.
A good goalkeeper’s effect on the game can sometimes be greater than the rest of the team combined.
This save had deflated Barcelona’s morale.
Their attacks became hasty, and they started losing the ball more frequently.
Sporting Lisbon began to control possession of the ball.
In the thirty-sixth minute, Deng Kai faced Xavi’s marking in the middle of the field.
The others tacitly opened up space for them.
On the Sporting Lisbon side, they saw Deng Kai’s Kobe-like gesture: spread out,, go one-on-one!
On the Barcelona side, they thought with Deng Kai holding the ball in the middle, there wasn’t much threat, the others just needed to hold their positions.
"Wow, this is getting interesting. Lisbon’s midfield linchpin Deng Kai going head-to-head with Barcelona’s future midfield successor Xavi,, what will he do?"
"Xavi is twenty-one this year, but he has just become an important rotational player at Barcelona and hasn’t fully cemented his place as a starter."
"Meanwhile, almost sixteen-year-old Deng Kai has already achieved initial success at Lisbon. With the youngest age in the team, he has become the on-field leader of the squad."
"Logically, the player dueling with Deng Kai from Barcelona’s side should be B team’s Iniesta, who is even two and a half years older than Deng Kai. They used to boast that with Iniesta, who needs Deng Kai."
"But now the matchup is Deng Kai versus Xavi. Just like Deng Kai and Ronaldo, they keep facing off against older players, but they win more than they lose, which is undoubtedly a kind of talent."
Bang!
Facing Xavi, Deng Kai didn’t use any fancy moves,, just directly lofted the ball over from Xavi’s right side.
Then he himself ran to Xavi’s left side.
He got past the man and the ball!
When performing a one-two in front, his speed increased!
