Chapter 918: Next Stop Gatekeeper
The first half ended with a one-to-zero lead, and at the beginning of the second half, Manchester City launched a fast-paced offensive.
First, they intercepted the ball on the right and launched a counterattack. Zabaleta made a diagonal pass to the right side of the center circle. Toni Kroos passed the ball behind him without stopping. Sanchez moved forward at a very fast speed, advanced all the way to the right side of the penalty area and passed the ball into the penalty area.
The previous series of cooperation were all played very beautifully, but the last cross was too close to the goal, and goalkeeper Weidenfeller rushed out and snatched the ball away before Su Dong.
After missing a good scoring opportunity, Dortmund quickly launched a counterattack.
After a series of passes, Lewandowski retreated to the outside of the penalty area to receive the ball, got rid of Busquets, and made a straight pass. Grosskreutz inserted into the left side of the penalty area and shot from a small angle.
Goalkeeper Courtois fell to the ground and held the ball tightly in his arms, giving Dortmund players no chance at all.
The Belgian goalkeeper got up from the ground, still holding the ball tightly in both hands, and slowly walked to the outside of the penalty area.
At this time, Manchester City's formation was pressing forward quickly.
Courtois glanced ahead and naturally fell on Su Dong, and Su Dong was obviously ready.
The Belgian goalkeeper kicked the ball forward with a big kick near the penalty area line.
At the front of Dortmund's 30-meter area, Su Dong was judging the landing point of the ball, accurately blocking the position, taking a step ahead, jumping high, heading the ball to the first landing point, and knocking it back to Toni Kroos who was coming in from behind.
The German midfielder stopped the ball, moved it to the right, adjusted himself and passed it with his right foot.
It was still the same overhead pass as before.
Sanchez ran all the way and once again got ahead of everyone and caught up with Toni Kroos' pass.
But this time, Schmelzer returned to his defensive position in time.
Two players one on one, Sanchez made a clever feint, fooled the defender, and then went straight to the bottom to make a cross.
Subotic rushed to the front and headed the ball away, but it went out of the penalty area.
Just as Sven Bender was about to stop the ball, he was entangled by Toni Kroos and intercepted the ball.
The ball was still at Manchester City's feet and was passed back to Busquets for reorganization.
Busquets passed the ball forward to David Silva, the Spanish midfielder pushed the ball forward and suddenly passed it to the left.
Marcelo came up from the back row and when he received the ball, he shook off Gotze who was chasing him all the way, cut inside diagonally, attracted the attention of Shinji Kagawa, and suddenly dribbled the ball to the left sideline. After dribbling to the left side, he took advantage of the defensive loophole between Shinji Kagawa and Kyle, forced his way into the penalty area with the ball, and then made a lob pass to the back point.
Su Dong, who had been ready for a long time, rushed forward at high speed, overpowered Subotic and headed the ball into the goal.
The ball was blasted directly into Dortmund's goal by Su Dong, 2-0! "Second goal!!!"
"Su Dong scored twice!"
"Great play from City, Marcelo dribbled past three players beautifully."
"My God, the Brazilian left-back showed incredible footwork. Three Dortmund defenders couldn't stop him from breaking through. It was amazing."
"Every Manchester City player has excellent footwork and superb passing and receiving skills."
When everyone rushed to the sidelines to celebrate the goal with Su Dong, Su Dong did not forget to raise Marcelo's hand high, telling all the Manchester City fans in the stadium that the number one contributor to this goal was actually the Brazilian left-back.
Then all the players congratulated Marcelo again.
In fact, everyone in Manchester City has long known that Marcelo has footwork and superb techniques that are no less than any other player in the team, which is why Guardiola values him so much.
How many full-backs in the world have the skills comparable to those of wingers?
…………
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With Su Dong's another goal, Manchester City took the lead 2-0.
This was a big blow to Dortmund.
Afterwards, Manchester City continued to control the ball and launched waves of attacks against Dortmund.
In the 60th minute, there was another long pass from the backcourt. Su Dong once again grabbed the first point and headed the ball to David Silva. The Spaniard made a diagonal pass behind him. Sanchez made a diagonal cut to the right side of the penalty area and had a one-on-one opportunity when he received the pass from David Silva, but he wanted to pass Weidenfeller who was attacking, but failed and the ball was intercepted.
After missing a good scoring opportunity, Sanchez himself was very upset.
Klopp made substitutions quickly, replacing Grosskreutz with Perisic and replacing old captain Kyle with Gundogan. This was a very obvious signal to strengthen the team's offense.
After taking a two-goal lead, the opponent made two substitutions. Manchester City stabilized the tempo a little and focused on stability, which allowed Dortmund to launch a wave of attacks but failed to create any opportunities.
On the contrary, in the 71st minute, Manchester City launched another counterattack. Su Dong received the pass from his teammate and passed it diagonally to the left without stopping. Di Maria ran into the left side of the penalty area at the fastest speed, dribbled past Santana and had a one-on-one opportunity. His right foot shot was not strong enough and was directly saved by Weidenfeller.
After missing two one-on-one opportunities in a row, both Manchester City wingers regretted their decision very much.
It was not until the 77th minute that Manchester City made its first substitution.
In the 86th minute, seeing that the game was already decided, Guardiola replaced Su Dong with Dzeko.
At this moment, more than 40,000 Manchester City fans in the entire stadium stood up and gave Su Dong the warmest applause and cheers.
…
I don’t know if it was because of the loss of pressure from Su Dong, but Dortmund launched a wave of fierce attacks one after another in the final moments of the game.
First, in the 87th minute, with the corner kick opportunity created by Perisic on the left, a melee broke out in the Manchester City penalty area. In the crowd, Subotic seized the opportunity keenly and shot on the small penalty area line.
At this moment, everyone in Manchester City broke out in a cold sweat, even Su Dong and others sitting on the bench stood up in fear.
At the critical moment, Courtois reacted amazingly, falling to the ground to save the ball at almost divine speed, miraculously catching the shot that was close to him and breaking Dortmund's sure-fire goal.
The entire Etihad Stadium erupted in crazy cheers.
Entering the stoppage time, after Dortmund intercepted the ball in the backcourt, Subotic made a long pass.
Lewandowski in the frontcourt blocked Kompany and quickly inserted himself into the back, winning a valuable one-on-one opportunity.
But just when the Polish center dribbled the ball into the penalty area, Courtois had already left the goal and attacked. Near the penalty spot, just when Lewandowski wanted to shoot, Courtois relied on his height and long arms to fall to the ground and block the ball.
No one expected that this sure-shot scoring opportunity was once again resolved by Courtois.
Pepe, who returned to defense in time, kicked the ball out of bounds.
There was warm applause at the Etihad Stadium again.
…
Su Dong was on the bench and never sat back down after he stood up.
After seeing Courtois' outstanding performance, he applauded loudly like all the fans in the stadium.
In recent times, he has felt that Courtois is becoming more and more confident and has the demeanor of a general as he participates in more games and accumulates experience.
With Joe Hart's performance unsatisfactory, Courtois is gradually taking the team's main position.
If we say that before the start of the season, he was merely favored by Guardiola and was not convincing, then after this month's performance, Courtois has delivered a satisfactory and even amazing answer.
With this performance, it was convincing enough that he overtook Joe Hart and took the main position of Manchester City.
Especially in this battle tonight.
According to the original plan, Joe Hart should have started tonight, but the England goalkeeper performed too poorly in the previous European Super Cup, so Guardiola temporarily adjusted him to Courtois.
This is actually sending a signal that if Courtois performs well, he will get more opportunities to play and even directly occupy the team's main position.
If Courtois doesn't perform well tonight, Joe Hart will still have many chances. But judging from the current situation, Courtois can no longer be described as very good. He can be described as a stabilizing force in front of the goal, having saved several of Dortmund's sure-shot chances.
You know, although Dortmund's lineup is not as strong as Manchester City, after last season's outstanding performance, the level and value of the Hornets' players are quite good.
For example, the talented midfielder Gotze, this young player was seduced by Wenger this summer. He is known as the best assist maker and the most dangerous player in Germany. He almost assisted Lewandowski to score a goal at the beginning of the game, which shows his strength.
In order to get him, Wenger even offered a sky-high price of 40 million euros to poach this genius, but was rejected by Dortmund.
There is also Shinji Kagawa, who was the best player in the Bundesliga halfway last season and his market value has reached 20 million euros.
In addition, players like Grosskreutz and Lewandowski are both worth more than 10 million euros.
In other words, the value of Dortmund's attacking combination is as high as 80 million euros. Even looking at the European football scene, except for the top giants, such an attacking combination is actually quite luxurious.
Manchester City was able to withstand Dortmund's counterattack tonight. In addition to the good performance of the defense players led by Pepe and Kompany, Courtois' performance was also crucial.
Without him, it is still unknown whether Manchester City can get three points tonight.
Therefore, Su Dong can be very confident that after winning tonight's game, Courtois will have secured his position as a main player in Manchester City.
As long as he can maintain stable performance in the future, without making major mistakes or a sudden decline in form, it will be difficult for Joe Hart to shake his position.
At least in terms of pass success rate, Courtois is improving every game and now exceeds 80 percent.
This is much better than Joe Hart.
I believe that after tonight, everyone’s expectations for Courtois will be even higher, and he will truly be the next goalkeeper.
(End of this chapter)
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