Chapter 263
On the court, although the Olympic team had a tendency to suppress Serbia, this was not a true comparison of strength after all.
Except Jiang Xiaolin, Serbia's players in other positions were generally stronger than the Chinese team.
Whether in terms of physical fitness or technical sophistication.
In the 21st minute, the attacking midfielder Smijanic staged a wonderful scene.
In the face of Zheng Zhi's grab in a quick counterattack, he suddenly made a wonderful Marseille turn and broke through Zheng Zhi, causing a burst of exclamations from the Chinese fans in the stands.
This breakthrough was so wonderful and so enjoyable to watch, which is rare in Chinese football.
Many fans felt that it was worthwhile to come to the scene to watch this game today.
Although it was nominally a friendly match, it was very valuable.
Jiang Xiaolin's long-distance rush + light lob shot in the front, and Smijanic's Marseille turn in the back, these two wonderful scenes alone were enough to make the fans feel that today's trip was worthwhile.
Of course, Smijanic was always the opponent's player. Although everyone cheered, they still hoped that Smijanic would be intercepted and could not pose a threat to the Chinese team's goal.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Smijanic's offensive performance was simply superb.
After using the Marseille turn to pass Zheng Zhi, Smijanic faced the defense of Chinese team defender Wan Houliang who was retreating and blocking. He did not entangle and directly passed the ball to Tosic who was not far away. Then he changed direction and accelerated and rushed past Wan Houliang.
Tosic did not stop the ball. He pushed the ball to the back of Wan Houliang and was received by Smijanic who bypassed Wan Houliang.
This was a two-pass-one wall match in the frontcourt, which was quite smooth and accurate.
After passing Wan Houliang, Smijanic had already stepped on the penalty area line, and only Li Weifeng, the last defender of the Chinese team, was left in front of him.
Li Weifeng also retreated and defended, trying to slow down Smjanic's attack speed, so that Wan Houliang and Zheng Zhi, who were chasing behind Smjanic, could catch up and intercept the ball under his feet, ending the opponent's attack.
But Smjanic did not give Li Weifeng time to achieve his goal.
After receiving the ball from his teammate Tosic, Smjanic suddenly tilted his body to the left while the ball was rolling forward, pretending to break through to the left.
The nervous Li Weifeng had no time to think about anything, and his body subconsciously moved to the side where Smjanic's body was tilted.
As a result, Smjanic's body returned to normal the next second, and he pushed the ball to the right and broke through Li Weifeng's right.
Matthews fake move.
A seemingly simple but very classic fake move, invented by Stanley Matthews, who won the first European Golden Ball Award in 1956 and was nicknamed the ball magician.
After practicing this fake move to be able to send and receive freely, even the top defensive players may be fooled by this fake move, not to mention that Li Weifeng is not a top player yet.
Li Weifeng was fooled and moved one step in the opposite direction. It was too late for him to stop Smijanic's breakthrough.
Li Weifeng instinctively reached out and grabbed Smijanic's raised left hand, trying to pull Smijanic down.
His mind was blank at this time, and he had no time to think deeply about the consequences of this action. He just subconsciously made the final interception after being broken through by the opponent.
Then, everyone saw that Smijanic, who was about to break through Li Weifeng, was grabbed by Li Weifeng's raised left hand and fell to the ground.
The ball was naturally confiscated by Qiu Shengjiong who was guarding in front of the goal.
However, the referee's sharp whistle also sounded: Li Weifeng maliciously pulled someone in the penalty area and was sent off with a red card, and Serbia was awarded a penalty kick.
The game had just started for 21 minutes, and the Chinese team was punished with a red card + penalty kick, which was a rare scene in a friendly match.
Li Weifeng was stunned, and quickly got up and rushed to the referee to appeal, wanting the referee to take back his decision.
But how could the referee who had already made a penalty slap himself in the face?
Therefore, Li Weifeng's red card could not be changed, and some excited fans even cursed in the stands, complaining that Li Weifeng's foul not only gave the opponent a penalty kick, but also made their own team one less player.
However, most fans were relatively calm, thinking that Li Weifeng was defending after all, and this spirit was worthy of recognition, so they did not boo him.
The penalty could not be changed, and Li Weifeng could only leave the field in frustration. Serbia got a valuable penalty kick, which was taken by Smijanic, who created the penalty kick.
Smijanic did not waste this opportunity and kicked the ball into the lower left corner. Goalkeeper Qiu ShengjiongThey all made the wrong judgment, so naturally they failed to stop Smjanic's goal.
Serbia used this penalty kick opportunity to equalize the score, and the score between the two sides was 1-1, but the Chinese team would play with 10 players in the next 70 minutes.
The game restarted, and the Chinese team, which played with 10 players, did not make any substitutions, because the defensive midfielder Zheng Zhi was originally an all-round talent and could play as a central defender.
So Zheng Zhi retreated to the back line and started playing as a central defender, and then the two wingers also retreated slightly to strengthen the defensive strength.
The Chinese team's formation became a 441 diamond formation.
However, no matter what formation it played, it was an indisputable fact that the Chinese team had one less player.
Serbia's overall strength was stronger than that of the Chinese team. Under the offensive pressure of Serbia, the Chinese team had to shrink its defense and no longer pressed Serbia before. Instead, it was pressed by Serbia in its own half and attacked fiercely.
Fortunately, the attack of the Serbian Olympic team looked fierce, but they still lacked a striker like Jiang Xiaolin who could make the final move.
In the 27th minute, Serbian midfielder Fejasa made a wonderful pass, and No. 9 striker Rakic ββreceived Fejasa's pass in the penalty area and shot.
The Serbian coach and substitutes on the sidelines had already stood up to celebrate the goal, but Rakic ββkicked the ball into the stands, winning applause from the Chinese fans in the stands.
Serbia almost wasted a chance to score a goal.
On the Chinese side, with one less player, the pressure on the back line increased sharply, and even midfielder Wang Yongbai was forced to retreat to the penalty area to participate in the defense, making it almost difficult to provide support for Jiang Xiaolin.
Jiang Xiaolin could only return to his own half and occasionally counterattack after receiving the ball cleared by his teammates.
But his means of breakthrough were always lacking. When the opponent was already wary of him, it was difficult for him to break through two or three people and shoot a single shot.
For example, in the 35th minute, Jiang Xiaolin broke through two people's blockade in a counterattack, but was pulled by the second Serbian player, which delayed him for a while. As a result, the ball he dribbled out was kicked away by the third defender of the opponent.
In general, since the National Olympic Team was punished with a red card + penalty kick and one less player, the situation on the field has been reversed. Basically, Serbia has formed a situation of suppressing the National Olympic Team. The Chinese team can only rely on Jiang Xiaolin's occasional counterattack to threaten the opponent's penalty area, but has never been able to score.
Even though he got a free kick in the 41st minute, Jiang Xiaolin's direct free kick shot failed to score. He was unlucky and hit the top of the crossbar and bounced out of the bottom line.
After 1 minute of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 1-1.
Because they were one less player and passively defended, the physical energy of the Chinese team's defenders was very high. During the halftime break, Yin Tiesheng made substitutions and sent new players to the field.
Serbia also changed two players.
After the start of the second half, Serbia still used the advantage of one more player to continue to put pressure on the Chinese team's half.
But the Chinese team, which had changed players, did not fall behind at the beginning of the second half. After all, Jiang Xiaolin's presence involved most of the Serbian defense, making them afraid to press too hard to participate in the attack.
Both sides began to fight fiercely in the midfield, wanting to grab the ball and launch an attack to threaten the opponent's goal.
But neither team was a top technical team like Brazil and Spain. Many times, even if they grabbed the ball, they would make mistakes in the subsequent dribbling breakthrough or team cooperation, making it difficult to smoothly send the ball to where they wanted.
In the 55th minute, Jiang Xiaolin could have countered the offside and got a single shot, but unfortunately Chen Tao, who was holding the ball, hesitated a little and passed the ball 1 second late, which put Jiang Xiaolin in an offside position.
The Chinese players were still a little worse in grasping the gaps and timing.
Of course, Serbia was not much better.
In the 67th minute, Serbia attacked from the left with the ball. Tadic on the right ran into an unguarded gap. As long as the player holding the ball passed the ball, Tadic could dribble into the penalty area and shoot alone.
As a result, the player holding the ball did not notice Tadic's running position and passed the ball to other teammates, making Tadic's exquisite running position useless.
The two sides were entangled in the midfield for a long time and could not threaten the goal, which made the goalkeepers of both teams gradually relax. Qiu Shengjiong and Stojakovic both left the small penalty area and stood in the large penalty area.
But the difference is that Serbia does not have a striker like Jiang Xiaolin, so it is difficult to threaten Qiu Shengjiong who is standing in front.
And the Chinese teamOn this side, there is a super shooter like Jiang Xiaolin with superb shooting skills.
After discovering that Stojakovic often left the goal line and stood in the penalty area in the second half, Jiang Xiaolin has been consciously paying attention to the opponent.
Jiang Xiaolin wanted to seize the opportunity to lob the ball behind the opponent and make a super long-range shot.
But there is only one such opportunity. As long as Jiang Xiaolin uses it, the opponent will definitely be alert. It is almost impossible for Jiang Xiaolin to lob the opponent's goal again.
Therefore, Jiang Xiaolin must find a time when Stojakovic is standing more forward and has a better opportunity before he can make this lob shot.
If the opportunity is not good, Jiang Xiaolin would rather break through with the ball and be intercepted by the opponent, rather than rashly lob and arouse Stojakovic's vigilance.
Jiang Xiaolin's paralysis tactics worked.
Because no one on the Chinese team could shoot long-range lobs, Stojakovic gradually relaxed his vigilance. Sometimes when the players from both sides were fighting for the ball in the Chinese team's half, he had already stood on the penalty area line, and it seemed as if he wanted to rush out to join the fight.
It was under such circumstances that in the 78th minute, the defensive midfielder Zhou Haibing suddenly stole the ball from the opponent's front midfielder Smijanic and poked the ball in front of Jiang Xiaolin.
When Jiang Xiaolin received the ball, he was still in his own half. The Serbian defenders were not very tight on him. Jiang Xiaolin just easily passed a defensive midfielder who rushed over with a stop and a wipe, and then faced the direction of the Serbian goal.
At this time, the place where Jiang Xiaolin held the ball was about four or five meters away from the center line, and about 50 meters away from the Serbian goal.
Therefore, no one expected that Jiang Xiaolin might suddenly shoot from such a long distance, including the Serbian goalkeeper Stojakovic who was standing inside the penalty area line.
Then, the audience saw that after Jiang Xiaolin stopped and dribbled past the Serbian midfielder who was trying to steal the ball, he looked up at the Serbian goal, then suddenly swung his right leg and used all his strength to kick the ball in the lower middle part.
With a "bang", the ball flew up, passed by a Serbian defender who rushed up, and flew high towards the Serbian goal.
Jiang Xiaolin used all his strength to shoot the ball, and the shot he kicked was not a light parabola shot, but a low-altitude shot.
The ball was powerful and fast, and after drawing a not-so-large parabola in the air, it fell into the Serbian goal range.
And Serbia's goalkeeper Stojakovic suddenly woke up after Jiang Xiaolin kicked the ball, and immediately retreated while observing the ball path, trying to save Jiang Xiaolin's long-range lob.
Unfortunately, Jiang Xiaolin's shot was too accurate. It just passed the retreating Stojakovic before falling down, and finally flew into the Serbian goal almost along the bottom edge of the crossbar.
Stojakovic had to jump when he retreated to the small penalty area line, but his outstretched palm was still far away from the height of the ball, and he could only watch Jiang Xiaolin's long shot fly into the goal.
Then, Stojakovic himself fell to the ground and fell into the goal.
Of course, any shot has a component of luck, and Jiang Xiaolin's long-range lob shot from more than 50 meters away is even more so.
But it went in, and Jiang Xiaolin's super long-range lob shot, which combined shooting skills and luck, successfully broke through the goal of the Serbian Olympic team.
In the 78th minute, the Chinese Olympic team scored twice with Jiang Xiaolin's super long-range lob shot and led the Serbian Olympic team 2-1.
When Jiang Xiaolin kicked the ball, the commentator and the audience had already opened their eyes wide and stared at the flying ball in the air.
When the ball successfully passed Stojakovic's save and fell into the Serbian goal, the whole stadium was instantly boiling.
The commentator of the national TV sports channel also shouted excitedly:
"The ball is in! The ball is in!"
"Jiang Xiaolin scored another beautiful long-range lob!"
"Jiang Xiaolin's shot did not cross the center line, and this shot was at least 50 meters away!"
"Today's game is so exciting! Jiang Xiaolin's two goals, one long-distance attack, one long-range lob, each one is more exciting than the other!"
