Chapter 646: Chapter 645: Ade Becomes Enlightened
In the next fifteen minutes,
Manchester City furiously unleashed eleven shots on goal, their offensive power terrifying.
The defenders of Portsmouth were numbed.
Of their eleven players, ten had barely crossed the halfway line.
They were completely suppressed by Manchester City.
"Incredible! Manchester City’s possession rate is as high as eighty-two percent!"
"This Manchester City is absolutely a different team from the last game!"
"With Deng Kai’s return, Manchester City has dominated the possession."
"If the increased possession rate is not exaggerated, then the forward passes, threatening passes, and number of shots are unbelievable."
"With such a Manchester City, nobody would doubt that they would score."
"Even, once they score, it could be more than just one goal."
"Now it’s just a question of how long Portsmouth can hold on."
In the twenty-fourth minute, the attacking pace of Manchester City noticeably quickened.
Deng Kai even made consecutive outside-of-the-boot flick passes without stopping the ball, helping Adriano get a shooting chance and Ribery to make a cut-in shot.
Unfortunately, the former’s shot hit the goalkeeper.
The latter’s cut-in once again went wide.
In the thirty-second minute, Adriano, who had squandered chances, made a back pass and began creating opportunities.
Following up from the back, Tu Lei took a long shot that hit the post.
That was the closest Manchester City had come to scoring so far.
As the match approached the forty-minute mark, Manchester City’s shot count had already soared to twenty-five.
But today, they seemed to lack a bit of luck.
On the other hand, the players of Portsmouth were in a very correct mindset today.
They weren’t thinking about scoring or anything; they just hunkered down in front of their goal, adamant not to let Manchester City score.
A point was their most important goal for this trip.
In the forty-fourth minute, Ribery’s cut-in earned a free-kick from a distant position.
Deng Kai took the kick.
Bang!
As Deng Kai crossed the ball, it floated into the opponent’s penalty area.
Back post.
Adriano pushed aside a defender, leapt up high, and with his bald head forcefully made contact with the ball.
"GOAL!"
"Adriano! He’s scored! He’s scored much earlier than last season!"
"One to zero, Manchester City has finally cracked Portsmouth’s defense!"
"Portsmouth has held on for so long, it couldn’t have been easy, but I reckon they’re in trouble now."
Deng Kai went over to celebrate with Adriano, "That’s the way, just let loose and play, and you’ll score lots and lots of goals."
Adriano nodded firmly.
It’s been a year, and Mr. Kai has trusted him for a year.
This season, he must repay that trust with goal after goal.
Afterward, the match went into halftime.
Returning from halftime, Portsmouth made no substitutions, but their formation had slightly altered.
After all, they still wanted to score.
They hoped to equalize and then continue their stalwart defense.
As long as they scored one, they were confident they could withstand Manchester City’s storming attack.
They almost made it through the first half, right?
In the forty-ninth minute, Deng Kai received the ball, turned, and held off the opponent, finding Chiellini with a back pass amidst a double team.
Chiellini fired a long shot that sent the ball flying into the stands.
Chiellini scratched his nearly bald head, somewhat embarrassed.
But Deng Kai gave him a thumbs up.
The intent was right, that’s what mattered.
People only saw Chiellini’s shot fly over the bar, but they didn’t think about Chiellini’s position.
Center back!
When the opponent’s center back can take a long shot from the top of the arc, it shows just how aggressive the attack is!
Chiellini’s move perfectly met the tactical requirements of Manchester City.
About whether players can hold the ball, perform tricks, or should pass it as soon as possible, Manchester City has a complex set of rules.
Every player is entitled to dribble, pass, and shoot for a long time.
But every player also can’t be flashy.
It all depends on the player’s position, the teammates’ positions, and the opponents’ positions.
Just now, Chiellini had to shoot from distance at the first opportunity, and even if he missed, he couldn’t let the opponent catch, block, or intercept it, thus giving them the chance to counter-attack.
In the fiftieth minute, Chiellini, who had just sent the football flying, made a direct interception.
Chiellini found Deng Kai.
Deng Kai backheeled the ball to Lahm on the flank.
Baggio decisively cut inside, drawing away the opponent’s right back.
Lahm played a through ball up the left side.
Adriano drifted wide to receive it, and took a shot in one smooth motion.
He released a stunning long-range shot from the left side of the large penalty area.
Swish!
The football pierced through the goal and into the net, decisively clean.
The opposing goalkeeper had barely started to come out and didn’t have time to make a save.
"GOAL! It’s Adriano again!"
"If I remember correctly, this is a very rare occasion of Adriano scoring twice!"
"Decisive! This shot was very decisive, not at all like the Adriano of the past!"
"The position, the speed of the kick-off, the determination to shoot, these are things usually only a top striker has the courage to do!"
"Adriano’s shot was of a very high standard. The key thing is that it showed his confidence in his shooting, which is particularly important."
"Because all along, the inability to score has been the biggest criticism of Adriano."
"The whole world thinks he’s not good at scoring, but he firmly believes in himself, which is very tough and admirable!"
It’s no wonder everyone thinks Adri isn’t up to the mark.
The fact is, Adriano’s data from last season really wasn’t pretty.
He was considered one of the main players on the team.
He had as many appearances as Rob Fowler.
Yet Robbie Fowler scored more than twenty goals last year and provided nearly ten assists.
He was a superstar forward comparable to Van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Meanwhile, Adriano, in the same or even more appearances, didn’t reach double figures in either goals or assists!
Not in the league.
Both goals and assists weren’t in double digits even when all three competitions were added up.
Such a center-forward naturally wouldn’t be trusted by the public.
But in fact, Adriano’s performance as a pivot last season was very good.
Unfortunately, since Adriano was hailed as "the next Ronaldo" from the start, people naturally expected him to meet Ronaldo’s standards.
Scoring inevitably became the only criterion by which Adriano was judged.
In the sixty-eighth minute, Deng Kai made a sideways lob from outside the big penalty area.
Tu Lei rushed over and bravely attempted a volley.
Unfortunately, the football went off-target once again.
Overall, Manchester City’s players are now all potential soldiers.
But most of them still lack a little in key abilities.
This is a troublesome issue for other teams.
Midfielders and defenders constantly trying shots can affect the scoring rate too much, and it’s also easy to expose weaknesses defensively.
But Manchester City does not have this problem.
Manchester City spent an entire season just to solve the issue of when midfield and defense players get scoring opportunities, the defense tends to have problems.
[PS: It’s outrageous, I’ve been feeling groggy since the day before yesterday, yesterday I returned to Chengdu with a low fever. Today, after getting home and doing a test, I tested positive again... In this life, I probably won’t want to go to Sanya again, wuwuwu!]
