Chapter 14 — The Horse Gallops Fast
"Eat Gerrard raw!"
"This way of taking someone on — so violent, so gory, but so satisfying."
Even the usually impassive Arsène Wenger couldn't stop grinning — that's Steven Gerrard, you know what that means!
Carrying the ball and chasing the wind, Xia Qi streaked forward like lightning.
At the same time Olivier Giroud was in the middle and Lukas Podolski out wide left; the three of them formed a trident charging toward Liverpool's box.
Defending Xia Qi was Uruguay defender Sebastián Coates, who was wagging a finger at his teammates while keeping every ounce of attention on Xia Qi's feet.
He didn't expect to stop Xia Qi completely — he only hoped to hold him until his teammates arrived.
In front of him, Xia Qi jinked his shoulders and performed two sudden slow-down feints in succession.
Coates' defending rhythm: slow down → speed up → slow down → speed up.
He looked embarrassingly turned inside out by Xia Qi's moves, but secretly he was pleased.
No matter what, he had held Xia Qi long enough, and his teammate Martin Škrtel was about to arrive — the counterattack would be his moment to settle the score.
Coates predicted Xia Qi wouldn't give up; the breakthrough would come the next second. But would it be a low touch outside or an inside cut?
Coates gambled on an inside cut — after all, Xia Qi had done so much already; if he didn't cut inside, how could he be satisfied?
Human nature, right?
Sure enough,
Xia Qi nudged the ball inward.
Inside cut!
No doubt about it!
Coates didn't dare relax and threw his body sideways, aiming to make Xia Qi his background wall.
But,
in an instant,
Xia Qi dragged the ball back, and Coates ended up blocking Škrtel's supporting run.
Deep-fried meatball!
A super-long deep-fried meatball — Ronaldinho's signature move.
At that moment,
also in that instant,
because of his mistake,
a lane opened between Xia Qi and the goal.
The angle wasn't great, and the window was brief — but for an AI it was already enough.
Xia Qi immediately pulled and struck full-bore!
"Boom!"
A thunderous crack!
The football roared like thunder, slamming into Pepe Reina's chest.
Reina hadn't noticed the lane and only reacted instinctively to the sound of the shot, preparing to dive.
Before he could leap, the ball was already nested in the net behind him.
Xia Qi had his second goal!
2–2!
Both teams were back to square one.
Liverpool fans watched Xia Qi with conflicted expressions.
They never imagined they'd be so petty one day as to want the opponent to celebrate after scoring at Anfield.
But Xia Qi's nonchalance at having broken into Anfield and scored was even harder to accept.
Better to let him celebrate at least — that would show beating Liverpool was something to be happy about.
Liverpool's players looked bewildered; they didn't see any clear mistake but had still dropped two points.
That youngster had fought like mad and seized an opportunity that wasn't really an opportunity… Brendan Rodgers furrowed his brow, thought for a moment, then made substitutions.
He brought on Jordan Henderson, Joe Cole, and Jamie Carragher in place of Fabio Borini, Lucas Leiva and Coates respectively.
Liverpool shifted to a more balanced 4–4–2; Rodgers hoped to add midfield thickness to curb the overactive Xia Qi.
Wenger also made changes: "Zhu Lu" replaced Carl Jenkinson, and Theo Walcott came on for Abou Diaby.
Although like-for-like on paper, it was obvious the Professor wanted to win and intended to use fresh legs to launch a new push.
Walcott and Xia Qi are both speed players; Wenger hoped the two could combine on the right to thoroughly blow apart Liverpool's left.
"The Professor has changed — no longer 'Arsenal can't beat, but can draw' Wenger. For Gooners this is good news."
Zhan Jun joked on seeing Wenger's substitutions.
"Friendship first, match second, goals third, Arsenal fourth — that kind of result is actually acceptable for a club that sells its captains every year."
"But this is Arsenal!"
Yes — this is Arsenal!
Play continued; Liverpool kicked off.
Steven Gerrard didn't attack immediately but let the new substitutes settle; Liverpool recycled the ball in their own half.
Two minutes later, with Henderson sitting at the base, Gerrard began to push forward with the ball.
Liverpool still attacked down Sterling's side, but this time Raheem Sterling's wing penetration met resistance.
Sterling and Walcott were similar in pace, and from the start the two tangled; Sterling's dribbling was finer, while tackling didn't seem to be Walcott's strength.
They pulled and shoved on the flank; eventually Sterling went down the line and cut into the box.
Xia Qi thought Sterling's cut-in could rival Arjen Robben's: Sterling is technically delicate, Robben is about rhythm and touch.
But their final shots were worlds apart.
Sterling cut into the box, shook off Vermaelen and unleashed a powerful strike!
It had great power and a tricky angle, but it hit the crossbar.
A shot like that — call it unlucky. His shots weren't finding the frame; you could only call it 'joyful effort'.
The ball rebounded off the crossbar into the box; Luis Suárez suddenly charged in. At that moment Vito Mannone was still down.
Suárez faced an almost empty net — to avoid the quickly rising Mannone he slotted the ball toward the far side.
Just as the ball was about to cross the line, Xia Qi flashed in like lightning and hooked the ball out with his heel.
But Arsenal's goal crisis wasn't fully relieved. Newly introduced Joe Cole reached the second rebound and shot again.
In a scramble, Xia Qi used the post to spring himself, launching his body and using his back to clear the ball.
Two saves in a row!
A double save that even keepers would struggle to do — a forward accomplished it — and surprisingly, after such brilliant defending his face showed not the slightest joy.
Zhan Jun marveled: "You can get a name wrong, but not the nickname. 'Ice Little Prince' really fits."
"This nickname is awkward to translate into Chinese — maybe 'Ice-Cream Prince' or 'Snow Prince' would be better."
Xia Qi's heroics came from the system's precise positioning.
Play resumed.
This time Arsenal won the second ball; Mikel Arteta took it and naturally didn't wait for Xia Qi — he immediately launched the counter.
The ball reached Podolski, who drove forward and, before Martin Kelly could intercept, played it to Giroud — intending a wall pass.
Unexpectedly, Giroud saw Liverpool's defense vacillating and chose to go solo.
He took the ball and barreled into the box, crashing and battering; Liverpool's defenders misread it, and Glen Johnson got his direction wrong.
Only Carragher and Škrtel remained in the box.
Giroud, carrying the ball at speed, seemed ready to batter the door down.
Škrtel and Carragher had no choice but to close ranks.
It became a contest of speed and strength!
But Giroud is not a bulldozing target man. As he neared the wall, he flicked the ball out with his heel.
Behind him, Arteta was running in.
But Jordan Henderson was quicker; he slid in and got a tackle.
The ball was deflected and struck Johnson's calf and bounced up.
Johnson was startled — in front of him stood Arteta. How could this be?
Both reached hesitantly, trying to poke the ball.
The ball flew up high toward the edge of the penalty area.
It was originally a vacant space.
But suddenly a flash bolted into it — Xia Qi, tracking back from his own half.
"It's Xia Qi! The horse gallops fast! He was at his own box a moment ago and now he's in the opponent's."
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Bankai10