Chapter 214 A decisive blow meets a decisive blow again, but fortunately we have Lin!

"Manchester City once again made personnel adjustments. They replaced Jovetic and replaced him with No. 10 Lin Quan."

"Pellegrini's substitution came too late. Regular time is almost over. Do you expect Lin Quan to score in the last few minutes when he comes in?"

He Wei was unable to complain, should he be replaced earlier?

The game is almost over at this time, and there is simply not enough time for substitutions. Manchester City will definitely be dragged into overtime by the opponent.

"Looking at Pellegrini's plan, he probably wants the main players to get more adequate rest, right? But it seems a bit self-defeating."

"Well, although Manchester City played half of the substitutes, there were still half of the main players on the field. These people played the whole game and even played overtime. Their physical exertion will be huge."

"They will go away to challenge Sunderland in two days. After such attrition, Manchester City's record in the Premier League may be affected!"

Seeing that Lin Quan had no time to warm up and was directly replaced, the two attacked Pellegrini even more fiercely.

"Pellegrini is too greedy. He wants everything, but in the end he will probably get nothing!"

Xu Yang nodded and agreed:

"With multi-front operations, even wealthy teams with deep foundations still need to make choices, let alone an upstart in the Premier League like Manchester City?"

"The League Cup and even the FA Cup are objects that can be discarded. I think they should focus on the league and the Champions League!"

"Yes, for Manchester City, which aspires to become a giant, only by winning more championships in the league and reaching more knockout rounds in the Champions League can they gain recognition from the majority of fans and officially join the ranks of the Premier League giants!"

Lin Quan naturally couldn't hear this in the arena thousands of miles away.

Lin Quan actually supports Pellegrini's choice not to give up the League Cup.

The reason is also very simple, you can earn more points by winning more games.

In the previous game against Chelsea, it was with the skill of the upside-down golden hook that he exchanged for 30 points from the system mall that he completed that earth-shattering goal.

After spending 30 points, Lin Quan now only has 10 points left.

As Manchester City plays more and more games on all fronts, Lin Quan's physical fitness begins to be greatly tested.

If he doesn't want to be like Messi, who often walks in the frontcourt to save energy, he must upgrade his physical talent to the next level as soon as possible.

Currently, Lin Quan's physical talent is a third-level talent worth 30 points. It takes 70 points to reach the full level.

70 points is too much for him now. He may not be able to collect them all until the end of this season.

So he planned to save 20 points first and upgrade his physical talent to level 4.

In this case, the upper limit of physical fitness and the speed of passive recovery can be greatly improved, which should be able to meet the needs of the current game.

For the sake of points, we must win this game!

"Lin, you didn't warm up, does it matter?"

Aguero saw Lin Quan come up without warming up, and was worried that he might be injured due to his sudden strenuous exercise.

"It doesn't matter, time is running out. We must seize the time to resolve the battle and not let the opponent drag the game into overtime!"

"Yes, I know!"

Aguero nodded heavily. If he could get off work early, who would want to play for another 30 minutes?

"Attention, the opponent's No. 10 is here, keep an eye on him, others will let him ruin our good deeds!"

Seeing Lin Quan playing, the Wigan Athletic players immediately heightened their vigilance.

As the saying goes, a person's name is like the shadow of a tree.

As Lin Quan's performance in the Premier League and Champions League gets better and better, his popularity is also rising.

Even teams in the English Championship have heard of him for a long time.

Although Lin Quan was placed on the bench by Pellegrini in this game, Wigan Athletic still listed Lin Quan as the team's number one threat in the pre-game tactical arrangement.

With the previous experience of successfully freezing Aguero, Wigan Athletic followed suit and planned to use the same method to restrict Lin Quan.

However, they soon discovered that this trick didn't seem to work?

Because his position on the field is not fixed, it is difficult to completely restrict him whether it is dedicated man-marking or regional assistance.

And Lin Quan is different from Aguero. He can organize, break through, and score goals.

Once you get him close to your own goal, defenders face a difficult choice.

Is it to prevent him from passing the ball, or to prevent him from breaking through and shooting?

For the first time, the defensive players carefully chose their blocking positions to prevent Lin Quan from breaking through and shooting.

Seeing that the opponent did not choose to get too close, Lin Quan decisively sent a through ball.

This pass penetrated Wigan Athletic's defense. Unfortunately, Aguero started a little early. When he received the ball, the linesman had already raised the flag to indicate that he was offside.

Wigan Athletic's defenders were so frightened that they broke into a cold sweat!

They immediately realized how scary this guy was!

You can't give him any space to pass the ball, you have to stick to it!

However, when they did, Lin Quan made a beautiful fried ball and easily passed the defensive player who rushed too far forward and entered the penalty area.

The Wigan Athletic players were all numb. They rushed towards Lin Quan in a swarm, trying to stop him from shooting.

Lin Quan easily passed the ball to the open Aguero, who pushed the ball and helped the team change the score.

1:0!

Manchester City finally broke the deadlock in the 89th minute of the second half.

Wigan Athletic players are disappointed!

He persisted for almost the whole game, but was completely ruined by one mistake.

They are so unwilling!

In the end, with Aguero's goal, Manchester City defeated their opponents at home with difficulty and advanced to the next round of the League Cup.

Although Manchester City won this game, the victory was really ugly.

After the game, Manchester City's players were not in the mood to celebrate, especially some of the main players who played the entire game, and ran directly back to the locker room in despair.

After the Wigan Athletic players were frustrated for a while, they quickly adjusted.

For them, an early exit from the League Cup may still be a good thing.

In this case, they can concentrate on playing in the league and strive to accumulate enough points to return to the Premier League.

"Lin, can I exchange jerseys with you?"

After the game, when leaving the field, Wigan Athletic midfielder Jodi Gomez ran over and asked a little embarrassedly.

Hodi, like Lin Quan, is also a player from the La Masia youth training camp.

The difference is that he is the kind of person who is not famous.

In the 2007-2008 season, due to his mediocre talent, Hodi was not renewed by Barcelona after his contract expired and was forced to leave the Barcelona youth team.

After that, in order to play football, he had to move to many teams in several major leagues.

However, due to his lack of strength, he has never been able to secure his position as the main force.

This made him feel a little inferior. He was obviously nearly ten years older than Lin Quan, but in front of Lin Quan, he was as humble as a junior.

"No problem at all!"

Lin Quan was a little surprised at first when he heard the other party talking to him in Spanish.

But if you think about it carefully, it's not surprising. Spanish midfielders have become very popular around the world in recent years.

It doesn't seem surprising that a team in the English Championship would hire a Spanish midfielder.

After taking off his jersey and handing it to the other party, Lin Quan also took the initiative to reach out and shake Hody's hand:

"Come on, I hope to see you in the Premier League next year!"

"Thank you for your blessings, and I hope you can lead the team to the World Cup next year!"

After receiving encouragement from Lin Quan, Hodi relaxed a little and mustered up the courage to send his blessings.

Lin Quan nodded and made a gesture of clenching his fists to cheer. Without saying anything else, he quickly returned to the locker room with the opponent's jersey.

…

There are too many underdogs in the League Cup, so the Premier League teams have basically passed smoothly.

However, Liverpool and Manchester United were unlucky and drew each other in the third round.

But this time, Manchester United, playing at home, had the last laugh.

After ninety minutes of fierce fighting, they defeated Liverpool 1:0, which was considered revenge for Anfield.

The League Cup is not very popular. The outside world does not pay much attention to this kind of competition, and even the media reports are relatively small.

But Manchester City has its own popularity, so after the game, there were still some voices criticizing Manchester City.

There is nothing new in the criticism of these newspapers. They still repeat the same old tune, believing that Manchester City relies too much on Lin Quan.

They believe that without Lin Quan's divine performance to help the team beat the opponent after coming on the field, Manchester City may not have won this game.

"This Manchester City always gives people a feeling similar to Barcelona!"

"People often ask, is Messi a system player? Can he survive after leaving Barcelona?"

"I think this game should give the answer!"

Although it is a tabloid, the analysis of one of the newspapers actually makes sense.

"One thing to say, it's true. When Messi couldn't play, Barcelona played ugly. The whole team seemed to have no backbone and didn't know how to complete the offense. The previous Champions League away game against Celtic That was the case in that game, it was exactly the same as Manchester City's performance in this game!"

Some fans who are paying attention to Barcelona and Manchester City at the same time quite agree with this view.

"So, I think the debate about whether Messi is a system player is settled:

Yes, Messi is a system player, but he is the one who brings his own system. Once he is gone, Barcelona's entire system will collapse! "

"And Manchester City is gradually turning into Barcelona!"

…

"Becoming Barcelona? Is this such a good thing?"

After hearing the outside discussions, Manchester City fans not only did not feel worried, but their eyes lit up.

Barcelona can be said to be the most successful club in football in the past few years. In the past five years, they have not only won the Champions League twice, but also reached the Champions League semi-finals many times.

If Manchester City can really copy Barcelona's successful path and become a top team like Barcelona, ​​then Blue Moon fans will laugh out of their dreams.

Therefore, they don’t care at all about outside criticism!

We have such a powerful superstar like Lin, why can't we rely on him?

There's nothing wrong with relying on him!

As a result, they showed disdain for outside criticism. Before the start of the eleventh round, they organized an expeditionary force of 5,000 people and marched towards Sunderland, preparing to cheer for the team.

Sunderland felt overwhelmed by the arrival of Manchester City, facing such an undefeated team.

They set up a bus at their home court and put only one forward in the frontcourt. Everyone else shrank back to their own half, not seeking to win, but just hoping to get a point from Manchester City.

Breaking dense defense is a worldwide problem. Facing Sunderland's bus, Manchester City was almost shattered and unable to shake the opponent's defense.

In the second half, the team's shortcomings in continuous battles began to show up, and many Manchester City players began to suffer from lack of physical strength.

Although Pellegrini made timely substitution adjustments, it still did not have a good effect.

When the game reached the 80th minute, the score on the field was still 0:0.

In the second half, Sunderland even replaced the front forward and replaced it with a defensive player to strengthen the defense.

Obviously, they intend to stick to this score.

Although the team was beaten at half-time by the opponent at their home court, the Black Cat fans who came to watch the game at the Stadium of Light did not feel frustrated at all.

On the contrary, they felt very proud and sang the team song loudly. Every time the team successfully defended, they would give warm applause.

If they were facing other ordinary teams, they might boo if they played so conservatively at home.

However, the opponent is Manchester City, the team with the strongest offensive firepower in the Premier League this season and the only team with an unbeaten record so far.

Facing such a team, it is appropriate to be conservative.

"How despicable!"

"It's so shameless, playing like this at home!"

"Shameless, so shameless!"

The Manchester City fans who were traveling with the team started to curse when they saw their opponent's appearance.

They suddenly felt very worried, not just worried about the result of this game, but worried about Manchester City's next game.

If Sunderland's plan succeeds this time and they really get a point from Manchester City.

Then, when other teams, especially those in the middle and lower reaches, face Manchester City, they will definitely follow their example and set up a bus with them.

If every team sets up a bus when they meet Manchester City, it will be very difficult for Manchester City to play in the next game.

Seeing that the two teams were about to draw a goalless draw, Lin Quan stepped forward.

In the last minute of regular time, Manchester City received a free kick in the frontcourt.

Lin Quan chose to take the penalty shot himself. He had two choices for this shot: the elevator ball or the falling leaf ball.

Elevator shots have a higher probability of scoring, but free throws are more difficult and may fail.

The falling leaf ball is more certain to be kicked, but the quality of his falling leaf ball is not top-notch, and it is better to defend than the elevator ball.

Therefore, after weighing it up, Lin Quan finally chose the elevator ball, which was riskier and more profitable.

After positioning the football, Lin Quan stepped back step by step.

Sunderland's goalkeeper saw Lin Quan retreat a dozen steps, and alarm bells rang in his heart.

He sensed danger!

However, sensing danger does not mean he can prevent the opponent from scoring.

After the referee blew the whistle, Lin Quan quickly accelerated towards the football.

One step, two steps, three steps. He had adjusted his steps while running and completed the final accumulation of energy.

boom!

There was a loud noise, and the football was kicked out of shape. It made a "woo-woo" sound similar to crying, and flew up into the sky with a roar.

The Sunderland players lined up against the wall and jumped up to intercept the ball.

However, the football was much higher than the height of their jump, and they did not touch the ball at all.

Isn't this ball suppressed?

Seeing the football flying so high, the Sunderland players couldn't help but think this.

According to common sense, the flight trajectory of this ball is so high that it will definitely fly into the stands.

However, just when they thought the ball was hit high, the football suddenly hit the ground and fell into the net before the goalkeeper could complete the save!

The scene was completely silent. Sunderland was stunned, and his singing voice was stuck in his throat and could not be uttered.

Relying on Lin Quan's goal in the last minute of regular time, Manchester City defeated their opponent in the away game!

If you include the assist he gave to Aguero when he came off the bench in the final stages of the League Cup, this is Lin Quan's last two consecutive games to help the team complete a buzzer beater.

On the coaching bench, after seeing Lin Quan score directly with a free kick, Pellegrini was excited and hugged the surrounding assistant coaches warmly.

The Manchester City players on the field also rushed toward Lin Quan like crazy, threw him to the ground, and celebrated crazily.

At this moment, they had exactly the same thought as Manchester City fans: Fortunately, we have Lin!