Chapter 132: One Goal Decides the Number One
Arsenal's goal crisis had been averted,
but Per Mertesacker lay on the ground unable to get up.
Everyone hurried forward, asking him with concern what was wrong.
Mertesacker lay on the ground, teeth clenched in pain, unable to speak for a while.
As men watching the scene, everyone felt some empathy.
They quickly signaled the team doctor to come onto the pitch for a check.
Fortunately,
after examination the ball hadn't hit the target area.
Aside from the pain, there were no other sequelae, but he needed treatment at the sideline.
However, Mertesacker refused — the team was already down a man; if he went off for treatment too, they'd be effectively down two men in the short term.
Who knew whether Borussia Dortmund might take advantage of that "short time" to score.
So despite the pain, Mertesacker gritted his teeth and stayed on.
"You'd better go treat it! We've got you here."
His teammates urged him.
Mertesacker jumped twice through the pain: "See, I'm fine."
But his pained expression betrayed him.
Seeing his teammates' "yeah right" faces, Mertesacker forced himself to hop a few more times.
"Huh, it really doesn't hurt as much now?"
If the area hadn't been directly injured, a couple of forceful hops that let the testicles settle back down can indeed relieve pain.
This isn't a hallucination but a small trick.
When attacked, the testicles reflexively retract for protection; a shake to let them drop back can ease discomfort.
Note: there's one prerequisite — that area must not be injured. (A bit of medical common sense to remember.)
After two hops Mertesacker genuinely felt the pain subside somewhat, though his movement was still affected; fortunately, as a defender he wouldn't have to cover as much ground.
Play resumed,
Kevin De Bruyne threw the ball back in to Borussia Dortmund's Ilkay Gündoğan.
Thunderous applause rolled around Wembley.
At this moment Al-Xia Qi dropped back into midfield; it was obvious Al thought Arsenal's defense had a gap and came back to help.
Gündoğan received the ball and lofted a long pass to Ivan Perišić.
At this point Perišić was still a young prospect, not yet known as the "Peri-Piece," but his talent was beginning to show.
His run down the right gave Arsenal a nasty surprise.
Santi Cazorla was easily beaten.
Luckily, Luke Shaw's recovery speed was swift and pushed Perišić toward Mertesacker.
Perišić saw he was about to be surrounded and did not hesitate: he laid the ball across to Mario Götze, who had moved to support.
Klopp's tactics favored fast, direct play — rapid team transitions, quick attack and quick defense.
So Perišić didn't try to take on the whole team like he later would at Wolfsburg or Inter; he quickly passed the ball on.
Keep the team's attacking rhythm!
Götze stretched to control the ball.
Suddenly a long leg came in from behind and beat him to it, cushioning the ball on the instep.
"Perišić passed. He saw the gap on Arsenal's left; Götze had already started... Xia Qi?!"
"Marcelo controls it!"
"Xia Qi anticipated Perišić's pass in advance and intercepted it next to Götze."
On the pitch Götze immediately turned to win the ball back, but Xia Qi flicked it and Marcel (Marouane?) spun away from Götze's tackle.
"Arsenal on the counter!"
Götze failed to reclaim it, and Dortmund recovered with dazzling speed.
Their recovery speed gave the spectators a visual shock — "tide" wouldn't even cover it...
"Dortmund are playing better and better, showing their characteristics."
"The confidence has returned to the Dortmund players."
"Arsenal's quick counters are being stopped..."
"Now I understand why Bayern lost the double last season — this young guard is hard to deal with. Plopped into the Premier League or La Liga, they'd be title contenders."
Xia Qi didn't match Dortmund in pure speed; he calmly dribbled forward.
Gündoğan and Nuri Şahin moved up in a coordinated triangle and closed in from both sides.
Xia Qi's finishing rate is incredibly high; Dortmund dare not leave the ball at his feet.
Şahin lunged in hard while still finding his footing to cut out the ball.
Such a tackle would not trouble Xia Qi.
He casually nudged the ball aside and easily evaded.
But he hadn't completely shaken the danger — there was still Gündoğan.
With a quick toe poke Xia Qi slipped past Gündoğan and fed the ball forward, then sped on.
The ball reached Mario Balotelli, who had come to support.
Balotelli had his back to goal, with Marcel Schmelzer pressing closely and preventing any turn. Balotelli stopped the ball and, instead of trying to turn, used his heel to flick it diagonally back, playing a wall pass with Xia Qi.
Şahin, seeing Xia Qi escape the double, spun to chase. He knew that if Balotelli couldn't turn, the ball would likely come back to Xia Qi.
Sure enough,
Balotelli passed the ball back as expected.
As Xia Qi prepared to receive, Şahin burst in from the side and, with one lunge, tried to muscle past Xia Qi as if squeezing onto a crowded bus.
No one expected Xia Qi to have eyes on the back of his head. As Şahin pushed, Xia Qi stopped on a dime and turned.
The turn itself was unremarkable, but at the same time Xia Qi hooked the ball under his foot and carried it through the turn.
It was like the later Antony's "lovely magic spin," except Xia Qi spun 180 degrees rather than 720.
Antony's spin is a compass display; Xia Qi's was a spin dribble.
The superiority of their circle-drawing was now clear.
With Xia Qi's spin in place, Şahin slid past him rubbing shoulders and lost his footing badly, face-planting into the turf.
The stadium erupted!
Those who hadn't seen the compass spin before gasped at Xia Qi's hooking turn, then screamed at Şahin's miserable tumble...
Passion and heat rose up in their throats, shredding their voices.
Far away, a kid in São Paulo's youth academy named Antony sneered contemptuously:
"This move isn't perfect — the compass spin only did half the circle. Low score! I'll improve it!
One turn? No, one turn doesn't match my temperament. Two turns! Decision made!"
On the pitch, after dribbling past, Xia Qi didn't drive on; he carried the ball laterally.
Mario Balotelli at once understood!
He sprinted into the box.
At the same time Xia Qi struck the ball with his left foot.
"Boom!"
The ball rocketed up, soaring into the box.
Inside Dortmund's area, Schmelzer and Mats Hummels had Balotelli tightly boxed in from left and right, but the beast-bearing Balotelli barreled into Schmelzer and sent him flying.
Clearing the obstacle, he met Xia Qi's through ball and prodded it with a shot that struck the side netting.
"Dortmund just escaped a disaster."
"Although Dortmund have momentum on the pitch, in efficiency when finishing they are a tier below Arsenal. Xia Qi and Balotelli's combination almost decided the match."
"Oi! What's happening in the box?"
Inside Dortmund's penalty area,
Schmelzer, who had been knocked over by Balotelli, got up furious and charged toward Balotelli.
His eyes bulged with rage!
His face wore the look of a temple guardian statue.
Balotelli, no meek child, didn't back down. He, too, came forward with an equally fierce stare.
"Ding dong — the stadium's 'taboo-aid' has been activated..."
Seeing the two about to clash head-to-head, Al-Xia Qi rushed between them, hands clasped behind his back, and stared coldly at Schmelzer.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Xia Qi said nothing, only that deadly, cold look.
Schmelzer couldn't help but shiver, shrinking his neck, then immediately angered at his own cowardice,
he raised his voice: "You wanna die?"
The reply was the same look that could kill...
Schmelzer was genuinely intimidated. As the Hornets' left-back, he'd seen many hard men on the pitch,
but even the notoriously fierce Pepe didn't have Xia Qi's killing intent in his eyes.
The eyes are the windows to the soul,
Schmelzer believed that if he dared to throw a punch he would: try and be gone...
Fortunately, teammates swarmed in and both sides drew into two lines facing off.
With tensions about to boil over, the referee finally jogged over, belatedly, and blew his whistle.
"Back off!"
"Everyone back!"
On arrival the referee softened Xia Qi's expression.
He didn't issue any cards, just rebuked both sides.
"Don't try to provoke each other, or I'll start pulling cards."
He said the same to Schmelzer and Balotelli, but Xia Qi — hands behind his back — wasn't cautioned.
The referee couldn't see Xia Qi's killing look; he only saw the hands-behind-back posture — a "good kid" stance — so no criticism there.
"Schmelzer's still young. The whole team's momentum was up and this little incident drained it a bit."
"Young men are hot-headed. The proud body took a hit, and coupled with being behind on the scoreboard, he got a bit edgy."
The small skirmish passed quickly.
Roman Weidenfeller quickly restarted with a goal kick.
Both teams favored a rapid tempo; when they let loose in full pursuit the match became truly entertaining.
"The game has entered a white-hot phase. Both sides have stopped caring about each other's tactics and are just focusing on their own game."
"The mutual calculation of the first half is gone; they're now attacking each other. Coach Zhang, Arsenal are down a man — doesn't that put them at a disadvantage?"
"Xia Qi has returned to midfield and covers a huge area; he's doing the work of two men..."
On the pitch Marco Reus faced Mikel Arteta and again used a simple change of rhythm to brush past Arteta, feigned a cut into the box to lure Serge Aurier in, opening up a passing lane.
He fed the ball into the center where Lewandowski unleashed a world-class strike from the edge of the area, which Martínez pushed out for a corner.
Reus took the corner. Şahin attacked at the near post with a back-heeled looping header and the ball sped toward the goal.
Martínez stretched but couldn't reach it.
Just as Arsenal fans were closing their eyes in despair, heavenly music seemed to ring—
"Boom!"
For Arsenal fans, nothing sounded sweeter than that thud.
"A one-man-less Arsenal is a bit disadvantaged in an open exchange; if Dortmund had been a bit luckier they might have equalized by now."
Arsenal also had a chance to extend the lead in that run.
De Bruyne split Dortmund's back line with a surgeon-like through ball.
Xia Qi made a perfectly timed run, one-on-one with the keeper; the ball slipped under the diving Weidenfeller and into the net.
But the linesman hesitated and raised his flag.
At that moment Dortmund fans couldn't help but cheer, feeling as if they'd been saved from death — a chill down the spine, a sweat-soaked hand wiped across the brow.
Arsenal fans immediately voiced their discontent with a chorus of boos, and the stadium LED replayed Arsenal's attack.
From the linesman's angle it was hard to judge whether Xia Qi was offside, but from the other side a deep and shallow stripe on the turf clearly showed: Xia Qi was onside.
"Phew..."
The boos grew louder.
Someone even shouted: "Corrupt ref!"
Play continued.
On the sideline Klopp waved his defenders up to press more decisively.
Although "manufacturing an offside" is a double-edged sword, the trailing Dortmund had no choice.
They had to push their defenders higher and more decisively; hesitation would be fatal.
Dortmund fans saw Klopp's gesture and clenched their fists until knuckles went white, nails digging into flesh.
Everyone understood: once the "Ding-Xia" connection succeeds once against the offside trap, it can be done twice, three times...
But Dortmund had no choice — a full-on attack was more important, because they were behind.
On the pitch, Götze and Lewandowski suddenly crossed runs — an unexpected variation.
Mertesacker followed Lewandowski out, leaving Cazorla to mark Götze, who was left untracked.
Götze was left free,
and Perišić, in a flash, delivered the ball.
Götze wound up his right leg like a drawn bow.
The ball thundered at goal like a shell.
Martínez, seeing the power, dared not gather it; he punched it clear with both fists.
Outside the box, Mertesacker cleverly kept Lewandowski behind him.
Cazorla, making amends for his earlier mistake, launched a 50-meter pass and the ball flew into the attack.
Up front for Arsenal, Balotelli, back to goal, leaped high against Schmelzer.
Schmelzer lost out to Balotelli again, but he wasn't flustered.
A back-to-goal header is rarely dangerous.
The future captain of Germany could not have anticipated that Arsenal didn't have only one "devil" in Xia Qi — there was another right before him.
People say Balotelli is world-class from the neck down; on the pitch, as long as he doesn't overthink, his football IQ is world-class too.
In the air Balotelli spotted Xia Qi in front of him and, in a flash, leaned back and flicked the ball past Schmelzer's head into the grassland behind him.
At that moment, heading forward would be mundane; Xia Qi stopping to collect the ball and then heading it backward toward goal — that's football intelligence.
How could Xia Qi miss the scoring chance Balotelli's flash of inspiration created?
Almost simultaneously, Xia Qi, who had been near Mats Hummels, accelerated and lightning-cut past Hummels.
Hummels' reaction couldn't match Xia Qi's "quick draw" attributes; whether in starting speed or turning, he could only watch Xia Qi streak away.
"Xia Qi!"
A few lightning-quick Arsenal fans screamed first, and that shout was like a spring thunderclap awakening Wembley,
"Xia Qi!"
"Xia Qi!"
The cries kept coming.
"The linesman didn't raise his flag — Xia Qi beat the offside trap."
"Dortmund's manufactured offside tactic backfired."
Weidenfeller, seeing Xia Qi's run, abandoned his goal and came out to challenge.
Because Dortmund had just been attacking in Arsenal's box, there was a big gap between Dortmund's defenders and keeper.
That is Klopp's tactical Achilles' heel.
Fans on both sides cheered on the two runners.
"Xia Qi, go!"
"Xia Qi, faster!"
"Hurry, hurry, hurry Weidenfeller!"
"Weidenfeller, you can do it."
...
The fans were even more anxious than the two players on the pitch.
Xia Qi was faster, but only by a hair — after all the ball had been slightly closer to Weidenfeller.
As Xia Qi closed in on the ball, he used the outside of his left foot to lightly brush the ball's outer skin.
Only someone like Al would dare to play with fire like that; most players would stab or drag the ball back.
The ball spun violently on the turf like a gyroscope and rolled out of Weidenfeller's reach.
Weidenfeller lunged, twisted his body, slid and stretched an arm,
but still couldn't reach!
Hearing Weidenfeller's despairing cry, Arsenal fans burst into cheers.
But the outcome wasn't decided yet — Dortmund's other center-back, Neven Subotić, sprinted back at high speed.
Having beaten the keeper, Xia Qi's shooting angle was already very tight and a defender was now blocking the goal.
If mishandled, Arsenal fans' joy would be for naught.
Wembley fell silent; both sets of supporters held their breath, eyes fixed on the pitch.
Racing onto the ball, Xia Qi didn't take a touch — he used the outside of his left foot again and spun the ball up.
This time he struck harder, slicing at least a third of the ball.
The ball climbed rapidly, drawing a big "C" in the air, looping around Subotić like an outside overtake and bending toward goal,
finally falling into the net between the far post and the crossbar.
Even Subotić is not a goalkeeper; stopping such a shot would have been difficult even for one.
"3–1!"
"While Dortmund fought desperately to close the gap and Arsenal's goal looked in peril, Xia Qi stepped up and saved the day — doing what a leading man should do..."
"One goal decides the number one; from now on Xia Qi's status at Arsenal cannot be shaken!"
(END CHAPTER)
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