Chapter 63 Penalty Shootout

After the fourth round of the league, the German Cup match came as scheduled.

Werder Bremen ushered in its first opponent in the German Cup, a team from the German Bundesliga 3-Mustada.

Because two days later is the fifth round of the Bundesliga, and the team will go to an away game to challenge Freiburg.

In order to save energy and avoid injuries.

In the game against Mustafa, Schaaf used substitutes and young players on a large scale.

The team's main players like De Bruyne, Lin Quan, and Fritz are all sitting on the bench, and some main players have not even made the roster.

I thought the opponent was just a C-League team and would not pose any threat to them.

After the game started, Elia's goal in the 45th minute of the first half, after returning from injury, seemed to confirm this.

However, after the second half, the situation on the court suddenly changed.

Mustard's forward Taylor scored two goals in the 54th and 81st minutes.

Not only did it reverse the game, it also pushed Werder Bremen to the edge of the cliff.

Fortunately, Werder Bremen's young center Phil Kruger stepped up and scored a goal in the 85th minute to help the team tie the score.

At this time, Schaff was a little hesitant. There was not much time left in the game. Should he replace Lin Quan, De Bruyne and other main players and seize the last moment to attack and see if he could kill his opponent?

After thinking about it, he finally chose to wait and see. The performance of these young players on the field in the final stage still satisfied him.

And according to the competition system, overtime will be played if the game is tied.

There are 30 minutes of overtime, enough time for him to make substitutions and adjustments.

In the end, the 90 minutes of regular time ended, neither side could change the score, and the game entered overtime.

After the overtime started, Mustafa's players suddenly started a fast break and changed the score again in the 96th minute of the game. Werder Bremen fell behind again!

Schaff couldn't stand it anymore, so he called Lin Quan, De Bruyne and others to warm up and prepare to appear.

But at this moment, an accident happened on the field.

Werder Bremen's players were anxious to equalize the score, but were accidentally hit by a counterattack while attacking.

Seeing the opponent's forward Taylor receiving the ball, he rushed into his own half at high speed.

Papastathopoulos, who was at the back, had no choice but to knock down the opponent. Although he ruined the opponent's attack, he also paid a heavy price - the referee directly showed him a red card and sent him off.

Now, Werder Bremen is not only one goal behind, but also has one less player on the field.

Schaaf was speechless. He vaguely felt that the team was going to lose.

So Lin Quan, De Bruyne and others were replaced in one go.

Seeing that the opponent replaced three main players in one breath, Musta knew that the opponent was going to fight him desperately.

As a result, they immediately began to shrink their defense line and continued to implement their ultimate defensive counterattack tactics.

Anyway, that's how they played in the first half, and they scored two goals using this style of play.

Now that they are in the lead, the opponent's offense will only become more anxious, and they will be better at defensive counterattacks.

Seeing his opponent setting up a bus, Lin Quan had a strange feeling in his heart:

In the past, they used to use the tactic of setting up a bus when facing strong Bundesliga teams. Unexpectedly, one day someone would use the tactic of setting up a bus to deal with them.

It is indeed not easy to break the dense defense. After Werder Bremen made substitutions, the players actively cooperated in passing and cutting in the midfield and frontcourt.

But there are too many people inside and outside the opponent's penalty area, and their passes are easily intercepted.

Even if the ball is passed out, it is difficult to catch the ball under the close marking of the opponent. Once caught, there is no room for dribbling and hitting the goal.

So Lin Quan changed his strategy and began to force breakthroughs and create fouls, winning free kick opportunities for the team.

However, this trick didn't seem to work very well. Several free kicks from De Bruyne and himself were either blocked by the wall or saved by the goalkeeper.

Seeing the time passing by and the score on the field still lagging behind, Werder Bremen's players became impatient.

The home fans of Mustafa were even ready to celebrate, just waiting for the referee's whistle.

In the 118th minute of the game, Lin Quan received the ball outside the penalty area, dribbled the ball horizontally to attract defensive players and then passed the ball to De Bruyne.

The latter passed the ball to the space on the left without stopping. Werder Bremen's player received the ball and then hoisted it into the penalty area.

The penalty area immediately fell into chaos, with players from both sides pushing and shoving for the top spot.

But the game has been played for two hours, and the players on both sides have no strength. Although they are struggling to take off, they have not touched the ball.

As a result, both sides failed to grab the first shot, and the second shot was controlled by Musta's players. He struggled to push the ball out in an attempt to make a clearance.

But the ball did not fly too far. Lin Quan immediately started to move after seeing the trajectory of the ball. After stopping the ball with his chest, he avoided the defensive player's attack and directly started to volley.

The goalkeeper reacted very quickly and subconsciously made a save when he saw Lin Quan hitting the goal.

But the force of the ball was too great. Although his hand touched the ball, he failed to catch it. The ball bounced out again and returned to the small penalty area.

Because the ball was too close to the goal, the penalty area was crowded with the legs of players from both sides.

Musta's players did not dare to make a big clearance and failed to kick the ball out immediately.

In the chaos, I don’t know whose foot kicked the ball and kicked it into the net!

Seeing the net shaking, De Bruyne spread his arms, made a low-flying gesture, and ran along the edge of the court in celebration.

He had just seen Lin Quan hit the goal and moved forward to see if he could find a chance to make a follow-up shot.

Unexpectedly, the ball actually bounced in front of him, so of course he was rude.

This goal boosted the morale of Werder Bremen, and all the players on Musta's side were full of annoyance:

Seeing that if they persisted for one more minute, they would win, but the cooked duck flew away...

After De Bruyne equalized the score, overtime ended with the final score 3:3 and the game entered the final penalty shootout.

This was Lin Quan's first time in a penalty shootout. While he felt novel, he was also a little nervous.

After discussing the order of appearance, the penalty shootout officially began.

The first one to appear was captain Fritz. He was the team's former top penalty taker. He was excellent both in his ability to take penalty kicks and his mental quality.

Let him appear first and score a goal steadily, which can effectively calm the morale of the army and make the players behind him less nervous.

Fritz lived up to the expectations of his teammates and head coach. After deceiving the goalkeeper, he steadily put the ball into the goal.

However, the opponent's subsequent player also scored a penalty kick.

In the second round, De Bruyne appeared.

He volleyed hard into the lower left corner of the goal. The goalkeeper judged the right direction, but the ball was too fast and he could do nothing.

When it was the player's turn in Musta, he saw Milits' determined eyes and felt a little fear subconsciously. In addition, he was equalized by the opponent in the last minute of overtime, which made him feel worried about gains and losses. He hadn't started the penalty yet. When you take a penalty kick, you worry about the consequences after conceding the ball.

Militz saw the other person's expression and immediately guessed the hesitation and fear in the other person's heart.

So he put on a posture of being determined to win, waving his arms and glaring at the opponent.

The referee reminded Mustafa's players to take free throws quickly, which further aggravated his nervousness.

He hurriedly took a shot, trying to hit the lower right corner, but his shot was saved by Militz who had judged the right direction in advance!

This goal boosted the morale of Werder Bremen, and the third and fourth players who subsequently appeared successfully scored the ball.

The players behind Mustafa also withstood the pressure and did not concede any more goals. The score of the penalty shootout between the two sides was 4:3.

The fifth player to appear is Lin Quan. If he scores this penalty goal, Werder Bremen will directly win the penalty shootout.

"come on!"

"take it easy!"

Teammates came to him one after another to give him hugs and comfort to ease his tension.

Lin Quan wasn't nervous at first, but being hugged by them made him a little nervous.

He nodded heavily, held the football and placed it on the penalty spot, then took a few steps back and looked at the goalkeeper.

After the referee signaled that a penalty kick could be awarded, he quickly took a run.

The goalkeeper stared at his footsteps nervously, trying to judge the direction of his shot through his movements.

Unexpectedly, when Lin Quan was about to get close to the ball, his speed suddenly slowed down.

The goalkeeper originally judged from his footwork that he was going to hit the ball with his right foot on the left side of the goal. As soon as he moved, the opponent's rhythm completely changed. Lin Quan stretched out his left foot, then gave a gentle push, and the ball came to an unexpected speed. Rolling towards the right side of the goal at a fast speed.

Although the goalkeeper made adjustments immediately, when he fell to the ground to save, the ball had already rolled into the goal.

This trick was used by Messi when he faced French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the penalty shootout of the 2022 World Cup final. Lin Quan learned from it and used it in advance. Unexpectedly, the effect was quite good!

In the end, Werder Bremen used a penalty shootout to win against a German third-division team in the away game.

They almost tipped over!