Chapter 158: The Vanishing Xia Qi
"Goal!"
"Robin van Persie!!!!"
"Sky-and-floor strike!!!!"
(stock-market term: from the daily upper limit straight to a limit-down.)
"A stunning turnaround!"
"Xia Qi and Mario Balotelli both had shots saved, and instead Robin van Persie completes a sky-and-floor style finish! Manchester United's comeback genes have worked their magic!"
The instant the ball hit the net,
Old Trafford exploded!
One moment they were biting their nails in fear, the next they were delirious with joy.
The huge emotional swing sent their adrenaline soaring; everyone seemed possessed, faces twisted, expending every ounce of strength to let out a beast-like roar…
Old Trafford was in a frenzy.
Manchester United's goal was so surreal and dramatic that it greatly boosted United's morale and hit Arsenal's fighting spirit hard.
For Arsenal's players it was a double blow!
After play resumed, Arsenal's players clearly hadn't recovered from the shock and couldn't organize their attacks.
By contrast, Manchester United rode the momentum and quickly seized control.
In the 8th minute, United won a free kick in midfield.
The ball was delivered into Arsenal's box — another Van Persie volleyed toward the top-left corner.
Emiliano Martínez was on the right post; seeing the situation he basically gave up the catch, but the shot skimmed the crossbar and went out for a goal kick.
"Van Persie! He missed a chance to finish off his old club."
Three minutes later Wayne Rooney unleashed a thunderbolt from outside the box; this time Martínez pulled off a stunning save to tip the ball out for a corner.
From the following corner Van Persie contested at the near post and the ball again brushed the crossbar.
United's barrage had left Arsenal dazed; Arsenal fans watched with anxiety and nervous dread.
Van Persie, repeatedly creating danger, became the focus of their venting.
More than two thousand Arsenal fans used the harshest language to express their fury at the "Judas."
United fans weren't going to take that lying down: you insult my man, I insult your core.
Tit for tat!
They shaded their eyes and looked around: "Hey! Xia Qi, where are you?"
In those waves of attack and defense, Xia Qi hadn't appeared in the crucial positions as he normally would; he was almost invisible on the pitch.
That was because in this match Xia Qi had matched the attribute [Assassin Nie Yinniang].
Which assassin shows himself in the sun?
So tonight Xia Qi wouldn't ride in and single-handedly hold a fort.
But the fans didn't know that!
They assumed Xia Qi was off his game and mocked him without restraint.
On the sideline Pat Rice suggested to Arsène Wenger: "We should rest Xia Qi."
"Hmm, let him rest for the next match…"
Football is a team sport. Although Xia Qi is very important to Arsenal, the team doesn't fight with him alone.
While Xia Qi "hid" on the pitch, Kevin De Bruyne and Mikel Arteta led Arsenal in stout resistance.
United bombarded them for over twenty minutes but couldn't add to the score, and Arsenal slowly recovered from the blow.
In the 30th minute Arsenal earned a chance to push their attack into the final thirty meters before United's goal.
But unfortunately, De Bruyne's cross was blocked by Patrice Evra with his foot for a goal kick.
"Ah! De Bruyne's intent was too obvious and Evra read it early."
"Xia Qi's not in form tonight. If De Bruyne can't produce a superb performance, Arsenal are in danger."
"United are in great form — both Van Persie and Evra are impressive. Evra blocked Balotelli's near-certain goal earlier and then destroyed De Bruyne's cross…"
Arsenal then won a corner.
This was the second corner of the match, and Arsenal's first.
De Bruyne went to take the corner, his ears filled with ugly abuse from United fans.
They were seated under the South Stand — the most die-hard, fanatical United supporters.
Their thinking was simple: Xia Qi's useless tonight; if we shred Arsenal's other core player too, beating Arsenal becomes easy.
So they hurled the worst insults they could think of…
Spouting filth for victory!
The tactic actually works. De Bruyne really wanted to turn and argue back at them,
but he knew he couldn't; doing so would be falling into their trap.
For Xia Qi's sake he forced himself to stay calm. He spat on the ground to rid himself of bitterness and grievance…
Blocking out outside noise, he raised his arm and signalled the corner routine.
It was a pre-arranged gesture telling his teammates: I'll float it to the near post — attack the near post.
The whistle blew.
De Bruyne swung the corner;
the ball followed a banana curve and landed precisely at the near post, but Van Persie — once an Arsenal man — read the signal, arrived ahead of everyone, and headed it away.
"Van Persie is livelier than ever tonight; he's back defending and clearing a header."
Fortunately, the headed clearance fell to Arsenal's Gustavo,
who controlled and then played it to the left where De Bruyne had come back for it.
De Bruyne reorganized and sent the ball toward the far post.
A few seconds earlier, after Van Persie headed the corner away, United's players had pushed up to force offside.
They did this to make Arsenal step out of the box.
The closer you are to the goal the greater the danger.
It was an overt ploy.
Arsenal were forced to retreat out of the box, but their reaction was slower than United's.
At De Bruyne's second cross, Balotelli and Per Mertesacker were still behind the United defenders — in an offside position.
Seeing Arsenal had fallen into the trap, almost all United players raised their arms and shouted: "Offside!"
But the officials with a godlike vantage point — the referee and the linesman — ignored them,
because the two offside players hadn't received the ball; at the far post Arsenal's German youngster Serge Gnabry had made a run to the far post…
He broke out from behind United's defense, so he was not offside.
Gnabry burst from the pack — only then did the United defenders realize and Nemanja Vidić and Phil Jones frantically chase toward the ball.
Gnabry was still young and lacked a bit of experience.
In the race for the ball he got to the landing point and laid it off.
That layoff gave Vidić and Jones a chance; they got to the ball before Gnabry's shot and, "the keeper drops the bar," used their bodies to block his shooting lane.
The ball struck Vidić and, fortunately, didn't bounce far. Gnabry's first reaction was quicker than Vidić's; he swept his leg and knocked the ball toward the middle.
In the middle, Balotelli — who had been offside — was now onside because Vidić's recovery positioned him closer to the goal line.
Evra's form was fiery tonight; he was the first United player to open his arms and try to block Balotelli.
As the ball looked set to roll past Evra and Balotelli — Arsenal's focal point — was held up behind him,
if nothing odd happened, United would have navigated the danger safely.
But as Evra used his back to resist Balotelli's charge, from his sight a white socked leg suddenly came out from behind.
It was a leg that didn't belong to United — United's kit is red.
Evra's first reaction was that Balotelli had looped round and was making a forward run; he tried to disrupt that leg's attempt to steal the ball, but soon found he couldn't move.
His supporting leg was hooked by another leg — the one he had intentionally used to impede Balotelli to stop him drifting away.
The pit he dug for Balotelli had become a trap that buried him.
His other leg was hooked in a tit-for-tat move from behind.
Balotelli!!!
Three legs?!?
Evra startled, then realized Balotelli had called for help,
despicable!
Under Evra's contempt, that leg at the ankle twisted, and with the outside of the foot it stroked the ball.
This man was completely hidden behind Balotelli; Evra didn't know who he was, but he also knew it couldn't be Mertesacker — the defender didn't have that technique.
This man, hiding behind Balotelli, not only won the loose ball but executed a textbook curled shot — a striker's instinct and striker's technique.
Could it be him?
Evra felt a chill. He feared it was that black‑haired young man.
This was no longer about whether a shot would go in; it was whether the tiger would awaken.
If possible, Evra would have preferred Balotelli to take the shot rather than rouse that tiger.
Evra's mind raced, but on the pitch it all happened in an instant.
The ball curved oddly toward goal; United keeper David de Gea was unprepared for the sudden strike.
By the time he saw the ball and tried to make a save, it was too late.
The ball streaked like a meteor and into the United net!
Beep!
The referee pointed to the center circle to signal the goal was valid.
1:1!
At that moment, someone hoisted Balotelli onto his shoulders and ran toward the corner flag…
That head of black hair and handsome young face belonged to the long-dormant young tiger — Xia Qi!
This was what every United fan dreaded most!
"Goal!"
"It's Xia Qi!"
"In the 32nd minute, Xia Qi opened the scoring for Arsenal and leveled the match."
"You can always trust Xia Qi; he appears when you need him most and never lets you down."
"That's what a star does — he might disappear for much of the match, but when the team needs a killer blow he will appear."
At that moment the relatively small number of Arsenal fans were moved to tears. They'd thought their prince was tired and merely here to make up the numbers, but when it mattered most he turned up…
That's a real man,
a trustworthy man!
How can you not love him???!!!
Arsenal fans gave every last decibel of their voices in deafening cheers; though few in number, their sound pierced United's jeers.
Wenger and Pat Rice, who had earlier thought Xia Qi needed rest, leaped to their feet when they saw Xia Qi pressed up behind Balotelli as if springs were under their seats.
Then Xia Qi curled the shot into the net. The two old men leapt from the dugout waving fists and shouting like children —
this was not just a goal, it meant the tiger had awakened…
Across the way Sir Alex Ferguson sat chewing gum on the bench, expressionless as if the score had never changed.
"Ferguson's expression is calm — not surprising from a world-class manager, unruffled in the face of catastrophe."
"The cloud over Arsenal has cleared and their scoring machine has been reactivated."
"This goal had some fortune, but victory favors the prepared…"
At the corner flag Xia Qi put Balotelli down, cupped a hand to his ear toward the stands,
answering the earlier taunt of "Hey, Xia Qi, where are you?"
That move only increased the volume of boos over Old Trafford…
"Who's the most hated player among United fans? I guarantee the answer is Xia Qi, no contest."
"Football needs that kind of steel. I don't think Xia Qi's action was provocative."
Near the United goal Evra spread his hands toward De Gea in a bitter gesture, indicating he'd done his best.
Arsenal played without "football morality," not only two-on-one but a sneak attack…
De Gea could only smile helplessly; his focus had been on the ball and he'd had no idea there was another man behind Balotelli…
In short, United's players felt the goal a bit unjust and a little humiliating. If there'd been a "what if…" or "if only I'd known," they felt they wouldn't have conceded.
[Holy sh*t! They've equalized? Didn't we say Xia Qi's off tonight? How did he suddenly score?]
[United dominated for over ten minutes. I wonder if Van Persie regrets not heading that corner into touch.]
[Guys, maybe it's not that Xia Qi is out of form — we just can't read his runs. It's like how we'll never understand why Inzaghi scored so many goals.]
[Man, that run just now was ghostly — had a touch of the old master about it.]
[The last commenter is a fake fan. Xia Qi and Inzaghi are totally different players…]
[Don't you find it jarring to watch? Three men tightly clustered together with a white ball in between.]
[The comment section breeds talent — a perfectly normal match becomes an essay. You really know web-novels!]
At Old Trafford,
Xia Qi and his teammates returned from their celebration.
Play resumed.
Ryan Giggs played the ball into the channel; Wayne Rooney outmuscled Mikel Arteta and laid it off to Van Persie.
Van Persie laid it back immediately; Rooney made a sharp run.
They wall‑passed up front; Mertesacker surged at Rooney, who before Mertesacker could close him down shuffled the ball across to create a shooting angle and then struck from distance!
The ball thundered like a cannon toward Arsenal's goal.
Martínez saw its pace and power and dared not catch it with both hands; he raised his forearms to block.
The burning pain in both forearms told him how wise that decision was.
The ball ricocheted out; Luke Shaw first to the clearance smashed it upfield.
The ball flew toward United's half; a yellow streak and a red streak raced together toward the ball's landing point.
(END CHAPTER)
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