Chapter 109 Gods Descend to Earth
October 3, the second leg of the first knockout round of the UEFA Cup.
Sporting Lisbon will challenge Partizan Belgrade away.
This was Su Dong's first appearance in the UEFA Cup in his career, which made him very excited.
At the beginning of the game, he retreated to the center line to receive the ball, turned around to get rid of it, dribbled the ball to the front of the opponent's penalty area, and shot with a kick, threatening the opponent's goal and taking the lead for Sporting Lisbon.
This kind of individual long-distance dribbling and single-handed attack is very morale-boosting.
Afterwards, Sporting Lisbon took the initiative and launched a fierce attack on Belgrade Guerrilla.
Rooney, Sudon and Quaresma formed a trident in the frontcourt, taking turns attacking the Belgrade Guerrilla's defense line.
In the midfield, Tonito played as the attacking midfielder, responsible for delivering ammunition to his teammates in the frontcourt. Barbosa and Rodrigo Tello were on both sides, with Albertini falling back to form a small diamond midfield.
343, Bologna showed its determination to attack to the end away from home.
After a 2-2 draw at home and conceding two away goals to their opponents, Sporting Lisbon had no choice but to fight to the death.
Su Dong was particularly active.
In addition to the powerful shot at the beginning of the game, he began to create opportunities for the team constantly, connecting Ronaldo and Quaresma on the two wings, supporting Tonito behind him, and connecting the attack in the frontcourt.
This allowed Sporting Lisbon to launch a wave of attacks after the opening.
In the twelfth minute, Su Dong suddenly pulled to the left side, received Ronnie's pass, turned around and rushed forward with the ball along the left side. After penetrating two opposing defensive players in one breath, he dribbled the ball inside and headed diagonally towards the penalty area.
Central defender Milan Stojanovic had no way to retreat when facing Su Dong, who was approaching with the ball at a very fast speed.
When he tried to step forward to block Su Dong, he was kicked in the crotch by Su Dong.
The ball passed between Stojanovic's legs, and Su Dong quickly passed by him.
Seeing that Su Dong was about to disappear in a cloud of dust, Stojanovic took decisive action and grabbed the jersey on Su Dong's chest with force.
…
“Beep!!!!”
"The referee, Fritz Sturlick from Austria, blew the whistle."
"Milan Stojanovic pulled an opponent and was shown a yellow card by Sturikovic."
"From the slow-motion replay, this was an undisputed penalty."
"At that time, Sudon had already broken through Stojanovic's defense, but the central defender of Belgrade Red Star pulled him and committed a foul."
"Stojanovic should thank his partner Savic. If Savic hadn't returned to the deepest position in time, he would have been the last defender, which would have been more than just a yellow card."
"The 18-year-old young player from China, the little god of war Su Dong, performed very well tonight."
"In this attack on the wing, his speed was fully demonstrated."
"Look at the set-piece coordination of Sporting Lisbon this time."
…
When Tonito walked to the penalty spot and prepared to take the free kick, Albertini and Barbosa also came over.
The three of them huddled together, whispering for a while, until the other side set up their human wall, and then Barbosa left.
Albertini and Tonito stood side by side, making it difficult to tell who would take the penalty kick.
In the crowd in front, Su Dong, who was 1.95 meters tall, stood out from the crowd. He was much taller than the other people around him, which made him the focus of the guerrillas' defense.
Although Su Dong has never scored a header, his height is there and his deterrent effect is self-evident.
Ronnie, Pepe and Andre Cruz were also among the crowd.
Before the game started, Ronnie walked to Su Dong's side and whispered, "I just told Pepe and Andre, you treat us to a meal at Romario, and we will help you create opportunities."
Su Dong raised his eyes and said, "You kid... can you even use this to negotiate a deal?"
"Of course." Ronnie laughed confidently, "You said that brothers should settle accounts clearly. Besides, we are not relatives."
Su Dong was speechless.
"Hurry up, it's about to start."
"Okay, if you succeed, I'll treat you, but you'd better remember it." Su Dong threatened.
Ronnie grinned from ear to ear, he didn't care about the threat from Su Dong.
Soon, Ronnie winked at Pepe and Andre Cruz, and they understood each other tacitly.
…
The human wall was set up, and Tonito and Albertini were preparing for a run-up.
The atmosphere inside and outside the stadium became tense, as if even the air had frozen.
As the two Sporting Lisbon penalty takers started running, the attacking players also started running.
The one responsible for marking Su Dong was the guerrillas' tallest central defender, Savage. He originally held Su Dong's jersey tightly, and when Su Dong started running, he also wanted to catch up. However, he was blocked by a thug with curly hair and a fat face, and the jersey in his hand slipped.
Oops! It's a block!
The same thing happened to several other guerrilla players. Only the short Milan Stojanovic reacted. He was responsible for filling in the position and rushed towards Su Dong at the first opportunity.
At the penalty spot, Tonito ran over quickly but did not touch the ball, while Albertini behind him followed and kicked the ball directly.
The ball rose rapidly and flew straight into the penalty area.
While Su Dong was watching the flying ball and judging its landing point, he also noticed Stojanovic who was defending him closely and smiled to himself.
This kid is so unlucky! When the ball flew into the penalty area, it suddenly fell down at a very fast speed, which made many people make misjudgments.
But Su Dong had already arrived at the position and jumped high.
Beside him, Stojanovic had just run to the position, and before he could jump, he saw Su Dong had already jumped up. It felt like a skyscraper suddenly rising from the ground, or like a towering mountain collapsing towards him, which made him feel a little awe in his heart.
Even if it were a god descending to earth, it would be no more than this!
Su Dong didn't care what the defensive player next to him was thinking. After he jumped high, he saw the ball flying towards him very clearly. He exerted strength from his waist and abdomen, pushed his head forward, and directly hit the flying football.
After the ball was subjected to force, it immediately changed its original flight trajectory and went directly into the goal not far away.
Goalkeeper Latisha Ilic flew sideways and stretched his arms as far as he could, but it was still out of reach.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the 13th minute, Sporting Lisbon's talented young player Su Dong scored with a header, opening the scoring for the team!"
As soon as Su Dong landed, he ignored Stojanovic who was stunned beside him, turned around and rushed out of the stadium, running all the way, shouting and celebrating his goal.
Behind him, his teammates rushed to catch up one after another.
"This is a set-piece from Sporting Lisbon."
"Albertini kicked a very high-level penalty kick, and Su Dong in the penalty area was like a god descending from heaven, heading the ball into the goal from close range. This is his second UEFA Cup goal this season."
"At the same time, it was his first header."
“It’s really surprising.”
"From the slow-motion replay, we can see that Sporting Lisbon's set-piece cooperation was very clever. Pepe and Ronaldo were both involved in the break, which created an opportunity for Su Dong."
"Su Dong's header was also very beautiful. He jumped very high. Stojanovic, who was standing beside him, was stunned and unable to stop him. He could only watch him head the ball into the goal."
"You are worthy of being called the Little God of War!"
"Su Dong like this is really unstoppable!"
…
After Su Dong scored the first goal, Sporting Lisbon's attack became more fierce.
The first half ended with Sporting Lisbon leading by one goal.
But not long after the change of sides in the second half, Su Dong created another opportunity in front of the penalty area. He turned his back to the ball and passed it back. Tonito made a diagonal pass to the right. After Quaresma got the ball, he shook off the defender and shot with the outside of his foot.
The ball went into the net!
2-0! Sporting Lisbon's talented winger finally hit his signature volley with the outside of his foot!
You know, what Quaresma practices most often is shooting with the outside of his foot.
We scored two goals in a row, took the lead, and reversed the downward trend in the first round. The overall situation was very good.
But Sporting Lisbon coach Boloni wanted to create some surprises.
In the 74th minute, he replaced two players at once.
Nikulai replaced Sudong and Rui Bento replaced Rooney.
The former is a positional substitution, and the latter is to strengthen the midfield defense.
As a result, just four minutes after the substitution, Belgrade Partizan scored a goal and the game was full of suspense again.
The home team then launched an almost crazy attack on Sporting Lisbon, especially in the 80th minute, with consecutive substitutions to strengthen the attack. Tubakovic was obviously determined to score another goal.
But in the 82nd minute, Quaresma returned the favor and took advantage of a quick counterattack opportunity to assist Tonito to score near the penalty spot in the penalty area, securing the victory for Sporting Lisbon.
This goal also completely sentenced Belgrade Guerrilla to death.
2-2 at home, 3-1 away. According to the away goals rule, even if Belgrade Guerrilla scored two goals in a row, Sporting Lisbon could still advance based on away goals.
Is it possible to score three goals in less than ten minutes?
Even the Belgrade guerrillas themselves found it unrealistic.
The game ended with a score of 3-1, with Sporting Lisbon defeating their opponent away from home and advancing to the second knockout round of the UEFA Cup with a total score of 5-3.
But for Boloni, this is obviously not a good result.
Nikulai's performance was still sluggish. More importantly, without this substitution, it would have been difficult for Guerrilla to create that goal. Wouldn't the game have been less exciting? More importantly, everyone in the locker room could clearly see that Boloni was still trying every means to create opportunities for Nikulai.
Every head coach has his own preferences for players, which is normal.
But does Bologna trust Nikulai so much, really just because he likes players like Nikulai?
(End of this chapter)
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