Chapter 562: Chapter 561: Heard Someone is Afraid to Shoot?
Many of them were wearing Ronaldo’s number nine jersey from this season.
CD fans generally are shared among Manchester United, Manchester City, and Sporting Lisbon.
But CD fans are quite substantial in Manchester City, qualifying as mainstream.
In Manchester United, their presence is much smaller, only non-mainstream.
In this game, Manchester City made a slight tweak to the team formation:
Baggio, Adriano, Ribery
Tu Lei, Essien, Deng Kai
Lahm, Chiellini, Hierro, Maicon
Cech
The young brother-in-law, who strongly requested to return in the last match, sat on the substitute bench.
His injury had fully healed, but the devastating loss in the last round made him dare not raise any objections to Chiellini’s starting spot.
"You go on ahead."
"When you get knocked down, then it will be my turn."
Soon, as the clock hit six in the evening, the game kicked off.
The fifth minute.
Ribery received a pass from Deng Kai and completed a cross from the bottom.
He’s currently the only dynamo on the team; his individual performance is outstanding, but the team play is terrible.
Bang!
Li Weifeng fought for the first touch and cleared the football out.
Outside the big penalty area, Tu Lei took the ball and sent a direct through ball.
In the midst of chaos, Baggio finished his shot.
But unfortunately, with too many people in the penalty area, the only shooting lane Baggio could find still veered off the goal.
Many commentators now understood why Manchester City’s attendance wasn’t bad.
On one hand, they indeed had star power.
On the other, there were gimmicks like the China Derby, kings of the home ground, and so on.
But at its core, it was because this team played courageously.
This is a typical attacking team.
They might concede many goals, but their games are definitely good-looking and exciting.
The experience of watching a game live is far superior to merely checking scores after the match.
The eleventh minute.
Deng Kai and Li Gang came face-to-face on a narrow path.
Li Gang went for the tackle.
Deng Kai pulled off a deep-fried dough ball, easily bypassing Li Gang and delivering a lofted through pass.
Adriano took the lead, finally handled the ball perfectly, and then completed the goal with a powerful shot.
"GOAL!"
"Manchester City has actually taken the lead!"
"Adriano! This young forward from Inter Milan, after a long goal drought, has finally scored!"
"The camera is on Adriano, and he’s actually crying! So emotional! This is just too hard for him!"
"When players leave a familiar environment, they always experience some adjustment difficulties."
"But once they can score the first goal, things usually get easier. After Adriano gets his mojo back, who knows, he might go on a Wild Gale run!"
"Wait... what... disallowed?"
"Oh! Adriano’s goal was offside, this..."
"It’s really disallowed, the score is still 0–0!"
"The referee has shown Adriano a yellow card, because he celebrated by taking off his shirt earlier. Adriano is still trying to reason with the referee, but Deng Kai forcefully dragged him away!"
"So heartbreaking, Adriano’s sorrow is visible."
Cried.
Adriano really cried.
He wants to go home!
The Premier League, this is just too tough!
Obviously, the blow affected Adriano’s enthusiasm.
The seventeenth minute.
Ribery, lacking support from Adriano, forcibly attempted a long shot, resulting in the football absurdly flying to the stands.
The live fans could no longer tolerate such a poor performance by the players and actually booed.
The boos were for Ribery, as well as for Adriano.
Adriano’s weak!
Ribery’s airplane!
The closer to the goal and the more ball possession a player has, the more likely they are to be attacked in such situations.
In fact, it’s not like other players performed much better.
But the advantage is that they appear less in the camera’s view.
Even Feng Te, furiously throwing his water bottle on the substitute bench to express his emotions, received applause and support from the home fans.
The person contributing the least became the hero.
These boos recurred a couple of times later when Ribery and Adriano received the ball.
The young Manchester City players suddenly became unconfident.
You have to understand, these are the home crowd.
That’s the denial of seventy thousand people!
Twenty-eighth minute.
The adverse effects of the booing manifested.
Maicon went down the line and looked for Ribery with a cut-back to the ribs.
Ribery could have shot from distance after receiving the ball.
His left foot was reliable when given space.
But Ribery didn’t choose to shoot.
He was afraid.
Ribery opted to dribble instead.
Li Weifeng anticipated that Ribery would shoot and moved to block early, only to be dribbled past by Ribery.
Ribery took the ball into the right side of the penalty area.
This time, it’s an even better chance to shoot.
But...
Bang!
Ribery made a lateral pass to Adriano.
If it had been Adriano’s previous temper or his first instinct during training, he definitely would have shot forcefully.
But Adriano was also afraid!
He not only didn’t shoot immediately, but after feinting, passed the football back to Ribery.
The football became a hot potato.
The Manchester City fans were beyond frustrated at this moment.
"Shoot!"
"Shoot quickly!"
"Hit it!"
"Cowards! Just shoot the ball!"
"I’m really fed up with these supposedly rising stars!"
"This is so infuriating!"
"Get off the pitch!"
"Trash!"
As Ribery received the ball, the football was poked away by the pressing central defender.
The Manchester City fans were nearly driven insane.
They were holding back a bellyful of anger.
The atmosphere at the home stadium suddenly dropped to freezing point.
Countless curses were lingering in the fans’ throats.
The next moment, they...
Bang!
The very next moment!
A Manchester blue streak appeared.
The Manchester City number ten player charged into the penalty area, amidst the gaze of three Everton defenders and three of his teammates, and took a thunderous shot!
Whoosh!
The football created a white spray!
This type of powerfully aesthetic shot reminded people of Batistuta from Serie A!
After a brief silence, Maine Road Stadium instantly trembled.
"GOAL!"
"Deng Kai!"
"Deng Kai has stepped up!"
"A thunderous shot! With that kick, Deng Kai vented all the anger in the hearts of Manchester City fans!"
"That shot was top-class!"
"Make way, make way, what are you doing? Adriano and Ribery really should learn from Deng Kai!"
"Roar!" Deng Kai roared at the Everton defenders after scoring.
He then clenched his fist with one hand and vigorously celebrated the goal.
Manchester City’s morale surged.
Adriano and Ribery quickly approached Deng Kai, joining in the celebration.
"Play with confidence! If you’re not sure what to do, just give me the football! This is our turf! This is Manchester!" Deng Kai shouted to his teammates.
His teammates committed his words to memory.
Baggio nodded to himself internally.
It had to be said, Deng Kai’s leadership was indeed strong.
He usually didn’t boast, but in critical moments... he bloody well delivered!
The impact of such a crucial goal might not be matched by some players scoring ten or more goals!
"Oh! Deng Kai is still interacting with the entire stadium, climbing on Ribery and Adriano, signaling for fans to cheer!"
"He’s really too good to his teammates!"
