Chapter 808: Killing Manchester City
"Unbelievable! It's unbelievable!"
"Manchester City scored a goal and took the lead even though they were playing with only ten men!"
"After Su Dong intercepted the ball in the frontcourt, he launched a counterattack on the spot and drove straight in, like an arrow piercing the clouds, instantly shooting through Arsenal's defense and helping Manchester City surpass the score again."
"It was an absolutely incredible goal, I couldn't believe my eyes."
"Only Su Dong could accomplish such a feat. Only he never gave up even in the most difficult times."
"We have to admit that with ten men, the possibility of winning the game is quite slim, but Su Dong's goal gave Manchester City hope, especially it re-inspired the team's morale and fighting spirit, which is more important than anything else."
"We saw that Su Dong couldn't stop his momentum and fell out of the court and hit the advertising board. All the Manchester City players rushed towards him and celebrated the goal on the sidelines."
"For Manchester City, who are playing at home, this goal is more important than anything else, even more important than three points!"
"As we have always emphasized in the past, any team must have a tenacious fighting spirit and a strong temperament. Even in the most difficult circumstances, they must have the confidence to dare to fight the enemy."
"Looking at Manchester City, head coach Guardiola's coaching style is rational. His tactics are very delicate and his passing and ball control ability is extremely strong, but on-the-spot command and shaping the team's willpower are not Guardiola's strong points. Therefore, Manchester City performed very poorly in the strong dialogue last season, and even lost the advantage in many games where they should have scored points."
"But this season, with Su Dong joining us, Manchester City has taken on a whole new look, especially the goal just now."
"I hope everyone will not just remember the moment of the goal just now, but also see that after Micah Richards got the red card and Arsenal equalized the score, Manchester City was in a long slump, passively taking the beating, the team's morale was low, everyone lost their fighting spirit, only Su Dong was still running at all costs."
"As a 1.95-meter-tall center forward, we saw that Su Dong ran a full kilometer more than the second-placed Alexander Song. This is simply unbelievable."
"And this goal is a reward for Su Dong's running and pressing without sparing any physical effort in the past period of time."
…
Su Dong was lying on the sidelines.
He did fall off the court, but he didn't actually hit the billboard.
The Etihad Stadium was converted from a former comprehensive sports stadium, and the goal line is some distance away from the billboards.
But it was indeed a pretty bad fall.
He just lay there and didn't want to move, but his overall mood was very good.
He heard cheers from all over the place, and countless fans were shouting his name crazily.
Teammates ran over one after another, and Pepe hugged his head and kissed his forehead hard.
Everyone kept praising his goal.
This is a morale-boosting goal!
Su Dong got up from the ground and looked at his teammates around him.
Everyone naturally stood in front of him and looked at him as well.
At this time, they all needed someone to command them and tell them what to do.
"See? Arsenal is not scary at all!" Su Dong said with certainty.
"Even if there are only ten of us left, we can still knock them down and make them leave the Etihad Stadium on their knees!"
Manchester City players nodded one after another. If they had doubted Su Dong's words before the goal, they would have doubted what he said, but now, they would not.
Su Dong's words rekindled their fighting spirit and gave them hope.
"Next, we have to keep this pace. There are only ten of us, so we have to run a little more, grab a little more, and fill the vacancy left by the missing person. I believe we have the strength to do so!"
"Come!"
Su Dong stretched out his right hand again.
The players around him also stretched out their hands one after another and overlapped Su Dong's hands.
"Come on, Manchester City!"
…
"He is truly a natural king and an outstanding leader!" Soriano couldn't help but praise when he saw this scene on the sidelines.
Su Dong's goal was crucial and saved Manchester City's confidence.
At this point in the game, with one man down so early on, it would be extremely difficult to beat Arsenal.
But no matter what the result is, as long as it is not a major defeat, Su Dong's goal will maintain Manchester City's morale.
This is more valuable than three points or a victory.
As long as morale remains, Manchester City still has hope this season.
"I really regret it now." Mansour kept shaking his head. "I regret why I didn't buy Su Dong earlier. If we had bought him earlier, we wouldn't have played so badly last season, or even the season before last."
Soriano and Begiristain both nodded continuously.
Su Dong is indeed crucial to Manchester City at the moment, and it can even be said that he has been reborn.
With or without Su Dong, they would be two completely different Manchester City teams.
Especially at this critical moment, Su Dong's value was fully demonstrated.
"Can we keep this ball?" Mubarak suddenly asked.
Soriano and Begiristain looked at each other, obviously pessimistic.
Morale was restored, but it was difficult to make up for the disadvantage on the field.
The loss of one person will have a subversive impact on any team, and this is not just reflected in the tactical play.
In the Premier League, someone once did a very complicated statistical analysis and came up with a rough probability, which is that when a defender is sent off with a red card, the team will concede 0.024 more goals per minute in the remaining time, which is equivalent to conceding one more goal in half a game.
Remember, it’s about losing one more ball, not one more ball.
This is the conclusion drawn after analyzing the big data of the Premier League for many years. If we calculate according to this conclusion, Manchester City will lose at least two goals, which is basically difficult to change. Especially for a team like Manchester City that received a red card in the first four minutes of the game, the probability of conceding a goal is definitely far higher than the average.
In the Premier League statistics, there is another data, that is the winning rate caused by red cards.
After deducting some garbage time or those matches where red cards had no impact on the overall situation, the probability of a team receiving a red card winning is less than 10%.
But that alone is not enough.
This percentage does not take into account variables such as when a player receives a red card, which also have a crucial impact on the game.
For a team like Manchester City, it is estimated that they don't even have half the chance of success. Winning is an extremely low probability event, or even a miracle.
So, when Mubarak asked this question, both Soriano and Begiristain were speechless.
Because they all knew that there was basically no suspense about the team's loss.
The difference lies in how you lose.
…………
…………
The court seemed to confirm the views of Soriano and Begiristain, or the vast majority of people.
Although Arsenal lost a goal, they quickly regained control of the situation and continued to attack Manchester City.
The Gunners' performance in the semi-finals is indeed not the best, but in the first half of each season, Arsenal is a strong team that no team can underestimate.
Want to bully the Gunners? Sorry, come back in the second half! Manchester City tried very hard to seize the ball, but there was no way. One less player meant that the opponent would always have one more point of contact than Manchester City. As long as their players were not lazy and ran, Manchester City would never be able to seize the ball.
The two teams were able to close the gap in ball possession time thanks to Manchester City's excellent passing and ball control abilities.
Time passed by little by little, Arsenal took advantage and frequently created threats, but they were never able to break Manchester City's goal.
But just before the end of the first half, Arsenal launched another offensive.
After receiving the pass from his teammate, Fabregas suddenly cut in and rushed directly into Manchester City's penalty area with the ball.
Kompany was caught off guard and blocked Fabregas with his body and kicked the ball to steal the ball.
The ball was indeed snatched away, but Fabregas fell into the upper right corner of Manchester City's penalty area.
Referee Clattenburg blew the whistle immediately!
The entire Etihad Stadium was in an uproar again.
Su Dong was nearby and immediately ran towards Clattenburg and blocked him directly.
"This shouldn't be a penalty, Mark!" Su Dong protested.
There’s already a red card, and then a penalty kick, who can stand it?
This is simply the pace that is going to kill Manchester City!
Could it be that the Premier League masters are really that afraid of Manchester City's strong rise? Clattenburg was very sure that it was a foul in the penalty area, Kompany tripped Fabregas.
Su Dong was also anxious, "You've already given us a red card, and you want another penalty? You might as well just sentence us to lose!"
Clattenburg was also stunned.
Su Dong has always been known for his integrity, so much so that there is a saying circulating in European football that as long as Su Dong falls in the penalty area, it goes without saying that a penalty kick will be awarded directly, and it will definitely not be wrong.
Su Dong has always been very polite to the referee.
But no one expected that he would lose his composure like this and even say such hurtful words to their face.
Clattenburg was stunned for a moment, reached into his pocket and raised a yellow card towards Su Dong.
This move once again triggered crazy boos from Manchester City fans.
"He scored a goal in 45 seconds and got a red card in four minutes. Now we finally surpassed the scoreline, but he gave us a penalty. Clattenburg, are you blind?" The commentator was also angry.
The entire Etihad Stadium roared in anger.
But Clattenburg didn't care and still pointed to the penalty spot.
Pepe came over and comforted Su Dong.
"Damn it! They are trying every possible means to pull us down from the leading position!" Pepe said angrily.
As for who they are, who knows?
Su Dong took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and patted Pepe on the shoulder.
"They will regret this because it will not bring us down, but will make us stronger and more united."
"We still have the second half!" Su Dong said in a loud voice.
(End of this chapter)
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