Holy crap? Nobody's here!? Wasn't that Barcelona captain following me the whole time!?
This was Torres' first thought after receiving the pass and turning his body. He never expected that Puyol, who had been closely following him since the start of the game, would suddenly disappear.
At this moment, the closest person to Torres, who had already turned halfway around, was Motta behind him. After seeing that Torres had the ball, Motta rushed over, trying to keep the ball in midfield.
Puyol, who was supposed to be marking Torres, stopped after seeing Torres drop back to the halfway line. He is now standing outside the center circle with another center-back, Marcos, about two or three meters away from Torres.
Torres looked up and immediately spotted a gap in Barcelona's defense! There was a gap of about 1 meter between Marcos and Puyol! If he could find a spot, he might be able to squeeze through them!
So he tried dribbling the ball forward one step.
Seeing Torres's movement, the experienced Puyol knew he couldn't wait any longer, so he took a step toward Torres, preparing to tackle the ball head-on.
Torres seemed to have anticipated Puyol's intentions, and in the instant he pressed forward, he changed his tactics! He then slammed the ball with the outside of his right foot, sending it four or five meters behind Puyol and Marcos.
The next second, after passing the ball, Torres completely demonstrated what absolute speed is in front of the more than 90,000 fans at Camp Nou!
He exerted force with his legs, his cleats slamming heavily on the ground, sending the turf flying, and then, with full speed ahead, he instantly passed through the gap between Puyol and Marcos, who hadn't even had time to react!
After getting past the two center-backs, Thomas had a clear path ahead of him, with no Barcelona players except Valdes. When he brought the ball into the penalty area, Valdes was just arriving at the penalty spot.
The Barcelona goalkeeper was in an awkward position. He had actually come out after Torres beat Puyol, but Torres was just too fast. After catching up with the ball, he only took one touch before rushing into the penalty area.
Faced with this situation, Valdes was torn between continuing to charge forward to intercept the ball or going down to expand his defensive area.
After hesitating for half a second, Valdes made his choice.
He charged toward Torres, who had consciously slowed down slightly after receiving the ball again.
But the Torres of today is not the Torres who could miss an open goal for Chelsea a few years later. He didn't just dribble blindly. When he reached the edge of the penalty area, the Spanish golden boy was already observing Valdes' position. When he saw Valdes choose to rush towards him, he knew his chance had come!
So when Valdes was about two meters away from him, Torres decisively took a shot!
In fact, Valdes was already quite far from his own goal at this point. If Torres had chosen to lob the ball over the goalkeeper, he would have had a great chance to score. But the young man didn't; instead, he opted for a very cunning push shot!
The football flew close to the grass towards Barcelona's goal, and its trajectory was not far from Valdes!
But most goalkeepers have a very difficult time making saves from shots like that!
Most goalkeepers are probably most afraid of making a save when they are sprinting at high speed and the distance between the ball and their body is quite ambiguous.
Even though the Barcelona goalkeeper reacted quickly, when the ball darted past him, Valdes only had time to make a sideways fall motion, but his body didn't even touch the ball.
The next second, all that could be hoped for was that Valdes, whose aim was off, would turn around and look behind him after falling to the ground.
But all that awaited him was watching the football roll gently into the goal he had just set up!
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"Gooooooooooooooooooooooooool~~~~~~" Before Jon could react, Lineker jumped up from his seat, screaming, "24 seconds!!! Just 24 seconds into the game!!! Fernando Torres has given Leeds United the lead away from home!!!"
"Hahahaha, after the draw, who said Leeds United would be slaughtered by Barcelona tonight?! Who said Lee would be repeatedly humiliated by Rijkaard?! Who said Torres and Ibrahimovic are weaklings in the Champions League knockout stage?! I don't know if Zlatan is one, since he hasn't played today! But Torres, absolutely not!"
While Jon wasn't as excited as Lineker, he still smiled and picked up where Lineker left off: "Yes! Ever since Rivaldo passed the ball to Torres, Leeds United's €25 million Spanish star, brought in from Atletico Madrid, has displayed an incredibly heroic goal in front of the world! He single-handedly pierced the defending champions' defense! Just 24 seconds into the game, Barcelona are 0-1 down at home!"
"That's right!" Lineker hadn't stopped celebrating and was still gesturing wildly in the studio. "Lee has once again proven his eye for talent! Leeds United has once again proven to us that football is unpredictable, and anything is possible within 90 minutes! And I just received a reminder from the director that Torres' goal is enough to rank fourth on the list of the fastest goals in Champions League history!"
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The Camp Nou stadium, which was bustling with noise just a moment ago, fell into a brief silence after the ball rolled into their own goal. Now, more than 90,000 fans, including the commentators sitting at the top of the stadium, were stunned by Leeds United's lightning strike.
The Barcelona players on the field weren't much better off; after Torres scored, they all stood there looking completely bewildered.
This is so unsettling! The game has only just begun, and who knew that Leeds United, whom they initially considered weak, would score the first goal...
However, the Leeds United players didn't care about their stunned opponents.
After Torres scored, he had already run from Barcelona's penalty area to Leeds United's bench. His teammates rushed over, and Rivaldo immediately hugged Li Shiguang, shouting in his ear.
"Boss! Boss! We're in the lead! Although the game didn't go the way we planned beforehand, the result is the same! And I actually provided the assist for Fernando... Hahahaha..."
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