Chapter 189: One Punch Sends Yossi Home
1:4!
The Camp Nou fell into silence for the fourth time.
But this silence now carried an extra weight that left the home fans nearly breathless.
That bloody 1:4 on the LED scoreboard meant everything — everyone in the stadium knew exactly what it meant.
If Arsenal could hold this score, the second leg would start like hell.
If Arsenal extended the lead, the second leg would be a day trip to London.
Of course, if the reverse happened and Barça narrowed the margin, an epic comeback would enter the history books.
Luis Enrique, slumped on the bench, turned over the same thoughts a thousand times before finally coming to a conclusion:
either his team would be slaughtered — one leg in a two-leg tie lost completely — or they would fight back. Even if they couldn't overturn it, at least they had to reduce the deficit and shift from "hell mode" to "difficult mode."
Fight!
Fight!
Shaken out of the suffocating stupor by that resolve, Enrique ran to the touchline. While Arsenal's players celebrated, he summoned his men in a burst of animated gestures.
The broadcast camera gave them a tight shot. Under the lens, Enrique waved his arms, his expression and exaggerated body language infecting the Barça supporters.
They were resurrected — they drew on every lungful they had and shouted the name they believed could change the adverse situation:
Leo Yossi!!!
The director responded to the fans and locked the camera on Yossi.
On screen, Yossi listened to Enrique with knitted brows, occasionally tilting his head to talk with Neymar…
Soon Arsenal's players finished celebrating.
Play resumed.
On the sideline Arsène Wenger saw Barça had not lost spirit despite the score and nodded approvingly.
Sometimes the scoreboard doesn't tell the whole story; at least Arsenal were not a team that would concede three goals without fight.
That was the fact, so people still harbored some hope that Barça could pull a few goals back.
However, after play restarted the crowd was stunned.
Faced with Barça's fierce attacks, Arsenal did not look overly panicked.
They realized Arsenal's defense had grit; Barça's wide breaks could not tear Arsenal apart. The reason was Xia Qi dropping back to the defensive midfield role to form a midfield trio with Gustavo and Santi Cazorla.
Xia Qi's dual-speed often allowed him to latch onto attackers first — the likes of Yossi and Neymar.
That gave his deeper-lying teammates opportunities to double-team or pounce with a surprise tackle.
When Yossi's and Neymar's trademark dribbling failed to work, Barça's momentum stalled.
And when Arsenal attacked, Xia Qi, Cazorla and Kevin De Bruyne played passing triangles — tiki-taka met tiki-taka.
The genuine article met an imitation and found no solution: the home fans suddenly realized Barça could play tidy possession, but they didn't know how to break Arsenal's pattern.
It was incredible but true — at least for this Barça on this night.
On the pitch, when the ball came to Xia Qi again, Yossi lunged at him.
Facing Yossi's aggressive press, Xia Qi did not move away.
Yossi was indeed a once-in-a-century talent, but his defense had weaknesses.
His lunge looked fierce but, to Xia Qi, was full of openings.
Maybe Yossi only wanted to scare him — force Xia Qi to pass rather than actually steal it.
But Xia Qi wasn't someone to be bullied.
Against the pouncing Yossi, Xia Qi's right foot gently drew the ball to the left — Yossi's rush missed.
A move as simple as that made Yossi's press fail.
Without pausing, Xia Qi used his left foot to nudge the ball further left-forward, and with a big spin of his body he avoided Yossi's momentum.
Xia Qi's leaving-the-man move and his 360 spin were like a Marseillaise spin without the ball at his feet.
Recovering his stance, Xia Qi accelerated to the ball and drove forward.
Barça players immediately swarmed from all directions, keen to close Xia Qi down.
This was why Enrique's Barça didn't know how to break tiki-taka — they couldn't stop the slick combination play.
Xia Qi, of course, would not let himself be swallowed by the crowd tactic; before Barça completed their surround, he released the ball.
He passed to Kevin De Bruyne a short distance away. After the pass, Xia Qi didn't stop or even speed up; he ran on as if strolling through his own backyard.
De Bruyne fed Mario Balotelli; Xia Qi slyly made a diagonal run in front of Balotelli and signaled for the ball.
Now Xia Qi faced Balotelli with his back to goal; he paused the ball at his feet, waited for De Bruyne to run past him, and then used a back-heel to flick the ball.
The ball rolled into De Bruyne's path.
De Bruyne saw Barça players converging on the three-man tiki-taka group and played it to the right. Theo Walcott, outside that three-man group, received it on the right.
He played it back to De Bruyne, rejoining the tiki-taka.
Don't assume the ball going back and forth between De Bruyne and Walcott was time-wasting — the passing dragged Barça's defensive line out of shape. Xia Qi vacated space further forward; that's the beauty of tiki-taka.
Xia Qi left a pocket, the ball switched to him, and he became the target for Barça's recovery.
Seeing the ball roll over to him, Xia Qi swung and clipped it into the middle.
That pass went behind Sergio Busquets, who had come to close him down.
There was now a gap.
Through a few quick passes Arsenal were already at the edge of Barça's penalty area.
The passing looked oddly familiar; Barça fans gaped — many older supporters suddenly remembered: their opponent was also once a control-and-passing powerhouse.
It was with flowing passes and mercurial attacks that the former Arsenal had gained a legion of followers.
Arsenal had the attackers at Barça's gate; alarms rang around the Camp Nou and Barça fans hissed loudly to show their displeasure and to warn their players.
Balotelli surged and collected the ball but did not try to dribble.
The moment he had it, without a second glance he swept it sideways to the left.
Left was originally the zone of left-wing Xia Qi, but now Xia Qi was between Balotelli and Walcott — to Balotelli's right.
The left flank was momentarily empty,
and a yellow figure sprinted up the left!
"Luke Shaw arriving at the near post."
"Brilliant coordination — Barça's defensive line must expand outward. This is an open tactic."
"Cross it!"
Balotelli passed and then made a run into the box.
Xia Qi, De Bruyne and Balotelli surged into the penalty area and formed a triangle of options behind Balotelli.
For a moment the attacking Arsenal had formed an iron triangle inside Barça's penalty area.
This is the most favorable situation for the attackers.
Luke Shaw, having received the ball, didn't hesitate — he lofted it into the box.
The ball flew toward Barça's goal,
and the iron triangle inside the area all charged as one, making a chaotic scene in front of the Barça goal…
Xia Qi sprinted forward. In his peripheral vision he noticed Luke Shaw's cross had been underhit; it wasn't aimed at the designated tactical spot.
He slammed on the brakes!
He caught Busquets, who was tracking him, off balance.
Stopping sharply, Xia Qi immediately pulled back.
Busquets' braking was half a beat late — one delayed step, and the gap was there for Xia Qi.
That half-beat was lethal.
Although it was only a fraction, for Xia Qi it was enough.
Taking a step back to steady himself, he met the flight of the ball and unleashed a driven strike.
"Xia Qi!!!!" Zhan Jun dragged the syllables out and roared.
At that instant the boos inside the Camp Nou reached a peak; other than the hissing you could hear nothing.
On the pitch Xia Qi seemed to block out everything: the deafening noise, Busquets trying to chase back — none of it mattered. The only thing in the world that could grab his attention was the flying ball.
Once he read it,
Xia Qi tuned his angle so his tilted body would meet the incoming ball at a 45-degree angle; this allowed his left foot to swing and draw a curved trajectory.
"Boom!"
A crushing strike!
The blow landed straight into the heart of everyone present.
Although the live mic couldn't pierce the roar, strangely the fans felt they heard the hit clearly — the sound came from within their own chests.
Xia Qi struck with the outside of his foot,
and the ball described a strange arc through the air toward goal.
Amid the scramble in front of goal, Marc-André ter Stegen did not see Xia Qi's check and retreat.
When the ball rose out of the melee toward goal, ter Stegen leapt and swatted at it with one hand.
He only touched the ball's afterimage.
Then came another huge "Boom!" — ter Stegen turned in hope only to see the ball hit the underside of the crossbar and drop into the net.
The little flame of hope in ter Stegen's eyes was extinguished.
At the touchline Enrique's face mirrored the same feeling.
He slid down from his seat and sat on the ground, looking utterly defeated.
It was over!
It was over!
It was over!
The bigger the hope, the greater the disappointment.
He never imagined the Barça that dominated La Liga would be unable even to claw back a few goals.
This score, this result — he just wanted to escape.
Maybe everything tonight was a dream.
Maybe he had dreamed it by day and night and when he woke, the match wouldn't have started.
But the reality around him insisted: this was no dream.
It was over.
His career — over.
This was Barça's worst defeat in the past decade; it was the shame of Camp Nou and the biggest humiliation of Enrique's managerial career…
Barça's players on the pitch were similarly stunned, as if in a dream:
how could this be?
Even if they weren't evenly matched, it shouldn't be 1:5!
The score was absurd!
Many rubbed their eyes and looked at the LED screen; the red 1:5 was bracing.
They rubbed their eyes again — was the scoreboard broken?
How could this be?
As they puzzled over how their weaker opponents had smashed them so completely,
not far away Balotelli provided the answer.
He leapt onto Xia Qi's back and shouted into his ear as they ran: "I knew you'd go crazy tonight. When they called you a yellow-skin monkey, I knew this would happen."
Now it made sense.
Barça's players blinked and, understanding, looked around…
…
…
The Camp Nou fans sank into stunned silence. Some stood and left early, some sobbed softly, some comforted one another.
Slowly the stands emptied; more and more seats went vacant.
It was the 82nd minute — a little over ten minutes to play.
But they couldn't bear to stay and suffer; leaving early was the best option. It wasn't just the fans in the stadium — fans watching on TV were doing the same.
After Xia Qi's goal many switched off their screens. Barça bars filled with people asking for their checks; minutes later only a handful of diehards remained.
On the Tencent live stream:
"Xia Qi has absolutely gone wild tonight — a haul of four! And this is at the Camp Nou!"
"Barça's Champions League this season is done."
Although the tie had another leg, viewers did not think Zhan Lu's commentary had been mistaken.
A four-goal deficit was simply too large.
Watching the camera follow Balotelli sprinting all over the pitch with Xia Qi on his back, Zhan Jun remarked: "Xia Qi's style is very tough — the tougher the match, the better he performs. Unlike some players who disappear in high-level games…"
After the celebrations Arsenal returned to their positions and the match continued.
Enrique seemed to recover from the shock and made tactical adjustments.
Faced with such a vast deficit he had no choice but to attack.
He needed the most intense offense he could muster to claw back goals.
It was the 82nd minute; with stoppage time there were still more than ten minutes.
In those minutes it was still possible to score one or two.
Five minutes later Enrique found another goal was indeed within reach.
But the scorer was not Barça — it was Arsenal.
In the 87th minute Arsenal pounced on a Barça mistake. Gustavo seized the ball from Yossi and slipped it to Xia Qi, who played a 20-meter through ball.
Balotelli, the forward leading the line, beat the offside in time, broke through one-on-one with the keeper, and in a race of speed to the ground produced a low strike past the keeper — another goal for Arsenal.
1:6!!!
Barça's nightmare was not over.
In the final tens of seconds Arsenal won a corner. Arsenal goalkeeper Martínez rushed up to the Barça box to contest the set piece.
Barça's players were all drawn to the crowd in the area,
but Cazorla delivered the planned corner; De Bruyne received it on the right side and swung it into the box. Gustavo timed his run perfectly, leapt among the mass and headed in to score his first goal since joining Arsenal.
The jubilant Gustavo dashed into the substitutes' bench to celebrate with coaches and players.
1:7!
That was the final score.
Those Barça fans who had left early were relieved when they heard it on the radio.
Calls for Enrique's dismissal began right after the match.
Barça had suffered defeats in their history, but never such a collapse that one leg of a two-legged tie was entirely thrown away.
Theoretically, of course, Barça could still advance.
At the post-match press conference Enrique put on a brave face and said: "Football is round. At the Emirates they will try to win back everything lost tonight…"
(END CHAPTER)
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