Chapter 63 Penalty Shootout

After the fourth round of the league, the German Cup match came as scheduled.

Werder Bremen welcomed its first opponent in the German Cup, a team from the German 3rd League - Mustang.

Because the fifth round of the Bundesliga will be held in two days, and the team will go away to challenge Freiburg.

To save energy and avoid injuries.

In the match against Mustafa, Schaff made extensive use of substitutes and young players.

Key players like De Bruyne, Lin Quan and Fritz were all sitting on the bench, and some main players were not even included in the roster.

They thought that the opponent was just a third-tier league team and would not pose any threat to them.

After the game started, Elia, who had returned from injury, scored a goal in the 45th minute of the first half, which seemed to confirm this.

However, in the second half, the situation on the field suddenly changed.

Mustafa striker Taylor scored two goals in the 54th and 81st minutes.

Not only did they reverse the game, but they also pushed Werder Bremen to the edge of the cliff.

Fortunately, Werder Bremen's young center forward Ferkrug stood up and scored a goal in the 85th minute to help the team tie the score.

At this time, Schaff was a little hesitant. There was not much time left in the game. Should he replace several main players such as Lin Quan and De Bruyne, seize the last time to attack and see if he could kill the opponent?

After thinking about it, he finally decided to wait and see. He was still satisfied with the performance of these young players on the field in the final stage.

And according to the competition system, overtime will be played even if the game is tied.

There are 30 minutes in overtime, which is enough for him to make substitutions and adjustments.

In the end, after 90 minutes of regular time, neither side was able to change the score and the game went into overtime.

After the overtime started, the players of Mustafa suddenly launched a fast break and changed the score again in the 96th minute. Werder Bremen fell behind again! Schaff couldn't stand it anymore, so he called Lin Quan, De Bruyne and others to warm up and prepare to go on the field.

But at this moment, an accident happened on the field.

The players of Werder Bremen were anxious to equalize the score, but they were accidentally counterattacked by the opponent while attacking.

I watched as the opponent's forward Taylor received the ball and rushed into his own half at high speed.

Papastathopoulos, who was at the back of the pack, had no choice but to knock down his opponent. Although he disrupted the opponent's attack, he also paid a heavy price - the referee directly showed him a red card and sent him off.

Now, Werder Bremen was not only one goal behind, but also had one player less on the field.

Schaaf was speechless. He vaguely felt that the team was going to lose.

So Lin Quan, De Bruyne and others were substituted in at once.

Seeing the opponent replace three main players at once, Mustafa knew that the opponent was going to fight him to the death.

So, they immediately began to shrink their defense line and continued to implement their extreme defensive counterattack tactics.

Anyway, that's how they played in the first half, and they scored two goals using this style of play.

Now that they are in the lead, the opponent's offense will only be more anxious, and their defensive counterattacks will be more effective.

Seeing his opponent setting up a bus, Lin Quan had a very strange feeling in his heart:

In the past, they always parked the bus when facing strong Bundesliga teams, but they never expected that one day someone would use the bus parking tactic against them.

It is indeed not easy to break through the dense defense. After Werder Bremen made substitutions, the players were very active in passing and cutting in the midfield and frontcourt.

But there were too many people inside and outside the opponent's penalty area, and their passes were easily intercepted.

Even if the ball is passed, it is difficult to receive the ball under the opponent's close defense, and even if it is received, there is no space for dribbling or shooting.

So Lin Quan changed his strategy and started to force breakthroughs to create fouls and win free kick opportunities for the team.

However, this trick didn't seem to work very well. De Bruyne and his own free kicks were either blocked by the wall or saved by the goalkeeper.

As time passed by and the score was still behind, the players of Werder Bremen became impatient.

The fans of the home team Mustafa were even ready to celebrate, just waiting for the referee's whistle.

In the 118th minute of the game, Lin Quan received the ball outside the penalty area, dribbled horizontally to attract the defensive player to steal the ball, and then passed the ball to De Bruyne.

The latter passed the ball to the empty space on the left without stopping, and the Bremen player received the ball and lifted it into the penalty area.

The penalty area immediately fell into chaos, with players from both sides pushing and shoving each other to compete for the header.

But the game had already lasted for two hours, and the players on both sides were exhausted. Although they jumped hard, they failed to touch the ball.

As a result, neither side got the ball at the first point, and the second point was controlled by Mustafa's player, who tried his best to head the ball out in an attempt to clear the ball.

But the ball did not fly too far. After seeing the trajectory of the ball, Lin Quan started immediately. After stopping the ball with his chest, he dodged the defensive player's attempt to steal the ball and then shot with a powerful kick.

The goalkeeper reacted very quickly and subconsciously made a save when he saw Lin Quan shooting.

But the power of the ball was too great. Although his hand touched the ball, he was unable to catch it. The ball bounced out and returned to the small penalty area.

Because the ball was too close to the goal, the penalty area was filled with the legs of players from both sides.

Mustafa's players did not dare to kick the ball away and failed to kick it out immediately.

In the chaos, someone kicked the ball into the net!

Seeing the net shaking, De Bruyne opened his arms, made a low-flying motion, and ran along the edge of the court to celebrate.

He just moved forward when he saw Lin Quan shooting, to see if he could find an opportunity for a follow-up shot.

Unexpectedly, the ball actually bounced in front of him, so of course he didn't show any mercy.

This goal boosted the morale of Werder Bremen, while the players on the Musdaq side were all annoyed: if they had held on for another minute, they would have won, but in the end, the cooked duck flew away...

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After De Bruyne equalized the score, the overtime ended with the final score of 3:3, and the game entered the final penalty shootout.

This was Lin Quan's first time to play in a penalty shootout. He felt novel and a little nervous at the same time.

After the order of appearance was discussed, the penalty shootout officially began.

The first to appear was captain Fritz, who was the team's previous number one penalty taker. He was excellent both in penalty kick ability and psychological quality.

Letting him be the first to appear on the field and score a goal steadily can effectively calm the morale of the team and make the players behind him less nervous.

Fritz did not disappoint the expectations of his teammates and head coach. After deceiving the goalkeeper, he steadily kicked the ball into the goal.

However, the opponent's player who came on later also scored a penalty.

In the second round, De Bruyne came on the field.

He volleyed the ball hard into the bottom left corner of the goal. The goalkeeper got the direction right, but the ball was too fast and he could do nothing about it.

When it was the turn of Mustafa's player, he saw Milicz's determined eyes and subconsciously felt a little afraid. In addition, the opponent equalized the game in the last minute of overtime, which made him feel anxious and worried. Before the penalty kick started, he was worried about the consequences of losing the ball.

When Militz saw the other person's expression, he immediately guessed the hesitation and fear in the other person's heart.

So he assumed a determined posture, waving his arms and glaring at the other person.

The referee reminded Mustafa's players to take the free throws quickly, which further increased his nervousness.

He shot hastily, trying to hit the bottom right corner, but his shot was saved by Milic who had judged the direction correctly in advance!

This goal boosted Werder Bremen's morale, and the third and fourth players who came on afterwards both successfully scored the penalty kick.

The players after Mustafa also withstood the pressure and did not concede any more goals. The score of the penalty shootout between the two sides was 4:3. The fifth player to appear was Lin Quan. If he scored this goal, Werder Bremen would directly win the penalty shootout.

"come on!"

"take it easy!"

Teammates ran over one after another to give him hugs and comfort him to ease his tension.

Lin Quan was not nervous at first, but after being hugged by them, he became a little nervous.

He nodded heavily, put the football on the penalty spot, then took a few steps back and looked at the goalkeeper.

After the referee signaled that a penalty kick could be taken, he took a quick run-up.

The goalkeeper stared at his footsteps nervously, trying to judge the direction of his shot by his movements.

Unexpectedly, when Lin Quan was about to approach the ball, his speed suddenly slowed down.

The goalkeeper had judged from his steps that he was going to hit the ball to the left side of the goal with his right foot. However, as soon as he moved, the opponent's rhythm changed completely. Lin Quan stretched out his left foot and gave a light push, and the ball rolled to the right side of the goal at a leisurely pace.

Although the goalkeeper made adjustments immediately, the ball had already rolled into the goal when he fell to the ground to save the ball.

This move was the one Messi used against French goalkeeper Lori during the penalty shootout in the 2022 World Cup final. Lin Quan borrowed it and used it in advance. Unexpectedly, the effect was quite good!

In the end, Werder Bremen won a difficult victory over a German third division team in an away game through a penalty shootout.

They almost flipped over! (End of this chapter)