Chapter 353: Chapter 352: Hat-trick with Headers!!!
Quaresma rushed towards Gandour, wanting to explain further.
But Deboer cleverly blocked Quaresma, intent on playing off the handball.
In a moment of urgency, Quaresma pushed a bit too hard, and Deboer immediately began to overact, falling to the ground as if he had been shot.
Gandour, this time not turning a blind eye, came over and issued Quaresma a yellow card.
Quaresma, infuriated, beat his chest and stamped his feet, cursing Deboer as a shameless faker.
Deboer revealed a smug smile, immune to such "compliments" at his level, next time please make the praise even harsher.
The regular game time soon came to an end.
Five minutes of injury time were displayed on the sidelines.
Actually, the time was somewhat short, Barcelona’s focus was on overtime, so the length of the injury time didn’t matter.
Sporting Lisbon on the other hand felt that they should have at least eight minutes of injury time, if they didn’t seize the opportunity now when there was still not a big gap in stamina, the overtime would be a sure loss.
Third minute of injury time.
Ronaldo made a cross from the baseline.
Ibrahimovic, amid a double-team challenge, got his head to the ball but failed to turn it into a shot on goal.
Quaresma took a diving bicycle kick, unleashing the most spectacular shot of the game so far.
However, Reina was perfectly positioned, blocking the football out of the goal with a combination of a dive and collision.
The Barcelona fans broke out in cold sweat, narrowly avoiding a last-minute defeat by Sporting Lisbon.
"Hold on! Just one last minute to hold on! The championship is Barcelona’s!"
The Barcelona fans chanted an inspiring slogan.
Main referee Gandour also glanced at his watch frequently.
It seemed he didn’t even plan on giving a full five minutes.
Deng Kai immediately urged Quaresma to take the corner kick, then ran outside the penalty area to look for a chance at the second ball.
In corner kick defense, the defenders generally treat players outside the penalty area as irrelevant.
They need to focus more attention on the players nearby, avoiding distractions.
After moving out, Deng Kai began to shift laterally at a slow pace.
But as Quaresma fiercely took the corner kick,
Deng Kai suddenly dashed into the penalty area.
"I knew it!" Xavi followed Deng Kai immediately.
He had been outsmarted by Deng Kai once before and couldn’t afford to be outsmarted a second time!
A quick stop!
A change of direction!
An acceleration!
Another change of direction!
Another acceleration!
Deng Kai, slippery as an eel, didn’t give Xavi a chance to catch up.
In the end, Deng Kai shook off Xavi with a "why make it hard for a fellow woman" look, and surged into the six-yard box.
There, Ibrahimovic and Barzagli were completely shackled by the Barcelona players.
The latter didn’t even manage to jump.
Not far behind Barzagli, Deboer rose high, confident he would clear the ball.
But he quickly sensed something was off.
Because the sky to his right suddenly darkened.
He was supposed to do a countermovement with his head for power before heading the ball clear.
The result, while he moved his head back to gain momentum, another head got to the football first.
Deng Kai sprinted, took off, and leaped high, facing Deboer who was eight centimeters taller, he soared suddenly.
In the end, he actually jumped as high as Deboer.
Bang!
Deng Kai headed the ball towards goal.
No sooner had the football been flicked on than Deboer’s head knocked it back.
Their heads collided, and both men fell to the ground.
But Deng Kai, pressing his left eye, glanced at the ball bouncing within the net, and got up to rush toward the corner flag area.
He charged toward the area with the few Sporting Lisbon fans.
He leapt high into the air.
Twisting 180 degrees mid-air, he flaunted his jersey number and name.
With his arms hanging down, he landed thunderously, like a god descending!
To counter the gravitational pull his body created, his legs were slightly bent, which only made him look more domineering!
"Siuuuuuuu!"
The fans and Deng Kai together made the distinctive celebration sound.
Camp Nou was completely transformed into a Portuguese sea, and the Barcelona fans were all silenced, unable to utter even a single curse.
After all, there was no time left.
"The decider! My God! Deng Kai has clinched the game for Lisbon against Barcelona!"
"Another header! Deng Kai has actually completed a hat-trick of headers! He is the first player to accomplish this feat at Camp Nou! He is also the first to achieve a hat-trick of headers in the Europa League!"
"He’s also the first Portuguese player, as well as the first Chinese player, to complete a hat-trick in the semi-finals of the Europa League!"
"The entire stadium has lost its energy, Deng Kai has demolished this great arena!"
"In Barcelona’s first season after Figo left, they faced the bleak outcome of winning nothing! It proves that neither the homegrown crew, the Dutch contingent, nor the Brazilians can bring Barcelona the mix of joy and pain the Portuguese have!"
"The game ends four to three, with an aggregate score of seven to six! Sporting Lisbon has ousted Barcelona with the same score they defeated Inter Milan!"
"Only this time, the superstar players of both ties were Viana and now Deng Kai and Quaresma!"
"Yes! As Deng Kai secures his hat-trick of headers, Quaresma has also successfully completed a hat-trick of assists! He too is in scintillating form for these last two matches!"
"Could Sporting Lisbon, this dark horse, really go all the way to the end?"
Gandour urged Sporting Lisbon to stop celebrating and restart the game. Although the game had gone over the added time, he felt that Deng Kai’s celebration had "wasted" a lot of time and, for "fairness," he wanted to make up for it.
Now filled with confidence, the Sporting Lisbon players knew Barcelona had no chance to equalize unless Gandour gave them a penalty kick directly, and even then, with less than a minute to go.
No, wait!
Even if Barcelona scored another goal, it wouldn’t be a tie; Lisbon would still win.
Because Sporting Lisbon had four away goals, more than Barcelona’s three.
Just as Deng Kai was about to turn around, he heard insults like "Chinese monkey" from the stands, laced with intense racial contempt.
Deng Kai’s expression turned serious.
He ran to the sideline, kicked the pig’s head lying there into the advertising boards to vent his frustration, and shouted to the fans in the stands, "You can talk about me, but you have no right to denigrate my homeland. You will pay for your words!"
"Remember! You will pay!"
The Barcelona fans in the stands went mad, wishing they could run down and tear Deng Kai to pieces.
How dare this little guy talk back?
The referee blew his whistle frantically, running toward Deng Kai, and showed him a yellow card.
This, was Deng Kai’s second yellow card of the match.
Two yellows make a red.
Gandour’s wish had finally come true—he had wanted to send Deng Kai off the pitch for a while.
Too bad he acted a bit too late.
Or it might be said that Deng Kai was too smart, never giving Gandour the chance for foul play, until the very last minute when he finally showed some of the impulsiveness and foolishness of youth.
Who knows if there’s still time, if Barcelona can seize this opportunity!
