Chapter 294

The Chinese team's celebration lasted for more than half a minute before the referee intervened under the protest of the Italian team. They ended the celebration and returned to their own half, waiting for the Italians to kick the ball in the middle circle.

The Italians naturally had reason to protest that the Chinese team's celebration was too long, because they were now behind.

After the game resumed, the anxious Italians could no longer sit back and shrink their formation to play defensive counterattacks.

They launched an offensive as soon as the ball kicked off. Not only the midfielders, but also the back waist and full-backs pressed forward, trying to use the overall offensive to score a goal.

After all, it was already 85 minutes when Jiang Xiaolin scored the penalty.

In addition, the Chinese team players celebrated for a long time.

When the Italians kicked the ball in the middle circle, the time was actually 86 minutes.

Including the extra time, it would definitely not exceed 10 minutes.

If they could not score a goal to tie the score within the 90 minutes of regular game time, the favorite to win the championship, Italy, would be stunned by an Asian team in the first round of the Olympic knockout match.

This is a result that all Italians cannot accept.

Therefore, they must press forward and attack vigorously, and try to score and equalize the score before the end of the regular game time.

But in fact, how can it be so easy to score in a football match?

Even with Jiang Xiaolin's strength of system plug-in, he can't do this.

There is a reason why football matches often end in a 0-0 draw, that is, it is too difficult to score.

Specifically, the current situation on the field is that the Chinese team, which scored a goal, immediately retreated and resolutely played a contraction defense.

Not only the two forwards, but also the striker Han Peng retreated to the front of the penalty area to help defend the aerial ball, leaving only Jiang Xiaolin, who had the greatest counterattack threat, to stay in the front court to deter the opponent's defense line.

In fact, Jiang Xiaolin and Han Peng exchanged positions again, and Jiang Xiaolin became a single striker again.

Of course, Han Peng is not a full-time defensive player, and it is not very useful to let him return to the backcourt to help defend, and sometimes it will interfere with the cooperation and movement of his own players.

Therefore, within two minutes after the game resumed, when the ball went out of the sideline and became a dead ball, the head coach of the Chinese Olympic team, Yin Tieshen, made a substitution adjustment, and replaced Han Peng, who had just come on the field, with the defensive midfielder Zhao Xuri.

If it was a normal league, Han Peng would have been a substitute, but was replaced before the game was over. It is entirely possible that he would have turned against the coach on the spot.

But now the situation is different.

This is a game related to the future of Chinese football, and the last few minutes are the most critical.

Therefore, Han Peng, who had just been substituted and was about to be replaced again, was not angry, but used his experience to delay time.

The three over-age players of the Olympic team are Han Peng, Zheng Zhi, and Li Weifeng.

The experienced Han Peng naturally knew what to do at this time.

He walked slowly to the sidelines while constantly waving to the surroundings and greeting the fans.

The fans also understood his intentions, constantly applauded, shouted his name, interacted with him, and delayed time together.

The Italians naturally didn't want to see this scene. Montolivo, who was closest to Han Peng, shouted to Han Peng in Italian: "Can you get down quickly?"

Han Peng naturally didn't understand, but it didn't stop him from taking advantage of the situation. He immediately stopped and turned to look at Montolivo, and asked with an innocent expression as if he didn't understand what the other person was saying: "What did you say?"

Montolivo was almost angry to death, and immediately pointed at Han Peng and complained to the referee: "He deliberately delayed time!"

The referee naturally saw Han Peng's intention to delay time, but he didn't need to be the villain when the Italians didn't bring it up.

After all, this Olympic Games was hosted by the Chinese, and this face could still be given to the host.

But now that Montolivo has brought it up, the referee can no longer pretend not to know.

He said to Han Peng with a serious face: "Please leave the court quickly and complete the substitution. Do not delay the time intentionally, otherwise I will send you off with a red card."

Han Peng, who had been delaying for a while, naturally did not talk back to the referee. If he was really sent off with a red card by the referee, causing Zhao Xuri to be unable to play, he would become the sinner of the Chinese team.

Therefore, Han Peng spread his hands, turned around and walked off the court, and slightly quickened his pace to pretend.

But in fact, he was still walking, not running off the court, just walking a little faster than usual.

The Italian players wanted to rush up and kick Han Peng* and kick him off. The Italian fans and neutral fans in the stands also booed, scolding and despising his deliberate delay.But it was all to no avail.

Han Peng continued to stick to his own rhythm, slowly walked to the sidelines, and finally even waved to the stands, said hello to the fans, and then hugged and high-fived Zhao Xuri who was standing next to the fourth official waiting to play, and finally completed the substitution.

After Zhao Xuri came on the court, the Chinese team's formation actually became a 4321 Christmas tree formation, that is, four defenders, three defensive midfielders, two forwards, and one forward.

Except for Jiang Xiaolin who stayed near the center circle waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, the other defenders, defensive midfielders, and forwards all returned to their own penalty areas, guarding the area within 30 meters of the goal tightly.

Seeing that the Chinese team had completed the substitution, the Italians hurriedly sent the ball out of bounds and prepared to continue the attack.

A mere substitution almost made the Italians go crazy, which shows how anxious they were.

They had to be anxious!

As time passed, there was not much time left for the Italians.

However, although Italy is good at defense. But as a world-class team that just won the 2006 World Cup, the Italians' offensive strength is also very strong.

Otherwise, it is impossible to win the World Cup by relying on defense and not scoring goals.

Therefore, the Italian team, which is pressing all the way, can still create some good offensive opportunities.

However, when the Chinese team's defense is fully contracted and the overall on-the-spot state is 100%, even if Italy attacks vigorously, it can't score a goal.

In the 89th minute, Italy finally passed the ball into the area within 30 meters of the front of the penalty area. The front midfielder Rossi made a wonderful pass and passed the ball to the feet of the striker Acquafresca who was facing the goal on the penalty area line.

Acquafresca's personal skills are still good. Under the close defense of the Chinese team's central defender Feng Xiaoting, he actually turned around and got rid of it by changing the rhythm of the dunk back and forth, dodged a gap, and completed the shot on the penalty area line.

Unfortunately, when the overall on-the-spot state of the Chinese team was 100%, the other players' defense was very timely.

When Acquafresca kept dribbling the ball to try to get rid of Feng Xiaoting and turn around, another central defender Li Weifeng had a premonition that he might turn around and shoot, so he immediately came to defend from the side.

At the moment Acquafresca kicked the ball, Li Weifeng, who rushed over from the side, made a flying tackle and blocked the opponent's shooting path.

The ball kicked out by Acquafresca hit Li Weifeng's shoes, bounced high, flew out of the penalty area, and then Zheng Zhi grabbed the first point in the header competition between the players of both sides and headed it to the midfield to clear the siege.

Italy's good offensive opportunity this time was unsuccessful again.

Of course, the ball cleared to the midfield was not caught by Jiang Xiaolin, and it was impossible to form a counterattack.

Jiang Xiaolin was still a little too weak alone.

The Italians who regained the ball continued to organize the attack.

Soon, the game time came to the 90th minute, the regular game time ended, and the fourth official raised the sign for 4 minutes of extra time.

This extra time immediately caused the fans of both sides in the stands to boo.

Of course, the Chinese fans booed because the extra time was too long, and the Italian fans booed because the extra time was too short.

In fact, the referee did not favor either side, and the extra time was still within a reasonable range.

As the fourth official raised the extra time card, everyone in Italy knew that they had less and less time left.

If they could not equalize the score before the end of the game and drag it into extra time, they, as the favorites to win the championship, would really be eliminated by an Asian team in the quarter-finals.

This was absolutely unacceptable to the Italian players.

The increasingly impatient Italian team's offensive rhythm was getting faster and faster, but under the overall full-value defense of the Chinese team, the threat was getting smaller and smaller.

In the 91st minute, seeing that his teammates had been unable to enter the Chinese team's penalty area, Italian midfielder Giovinco lost his patience to continue passing the ball after receiving Montolivo's pass, and directly kicked a long shot about 20 meters away from the goal outside the penalty area.

This long shot really hit the goal frame, but unfortunately there was no power at all, and the angle was not sharp, so goalkeeper Qiu Shengjiong easily caught it in his arms, without even giving the opponent a chance to make a follow-up shot.

This was a long shot that posed no threat.

Except for adding a "number of shots" and "number of shots on target" to the Italian offensive data after the game, it was useless.

Afterwards, the Italians tried to attack from the wing, relying on the stronger bodies of Europeans to compete for the header in the middle.

In the 93rd minute, full-back Motta made an assist and joined forces with midfielder Rossi.After completing a two-pass cooperation, he broke through the wing and crossed the ball from the bottom.

The ball drew a faint arc in the air and fell near the penalty spot in the penalty area.

In fact, this was a good quality cross from the wing. If it was headed by an Italian player, it might really form a threatening header.

Unfortunately, as the time left before the end of the game was getting shorter and shorter, Jiang Xiaolin completely gave up the idea of ​​counterattack and retreated to the penalty area to help defend.

This time, Italy's cross from the wing was cleared by Jiang Xiaolin.

His excellent off-ball running and point-grabbing ability allowed him to keenly judge the ball's landing point at the first time, and seized the first point at the fastest speed, and then firmly controlled the first landing point with full bounce and header, and headed the ball out of the penalty area to clear the siege, winning applause from the Chinese fans in the stands.

Italy's wing attack this time was unsuccessful again.

There were only 4 minutes of extra time. As time went by, the referee was looking at the watch frequently. Many Italian fans in the stands were already covering their eyes and started to cry.

They had realized that Italy's defeat was irreversible.

As the World Cup champion, Italy could not even get through the first round of the knockout rounds at the Olympics and was about to be eliminated by a Chinese team from the Asian football desert.

The Chinese fans in the stands all stood up, one by one, hugging each other's shoulders, jumping and shouting, waiting for the referee's whistle to end the game, so that they could immediately start a crazy celebration.

The Italian players on the field naturally saw the referee's frequent watch movements and knew that there was not much time left.

Perhaps, the referee would blow the whistle to end the game in the next second.

Therefore, the anxious Italian team did not patiently organize the attack, but played a long pass to rush away.

De Ceglie, who got the ball on the right wing of the front court, did not pass the ball slowly to organize the attack. Instead, he took a look at the Chinese team's penalty area and kicked the ball out with a long pass in the air.

He did not pass the ball well, and it did not fly into the penalty area, but fell to the top of the penalty area.

However, it was precisely because of this that the Italians had the last chance to shoot.

Because there were too many people in the Chinese team's penalty area, including Jiang Xiaolin, it was too difficult for the Italians to compete for a header in the penalty area.

It happened that De Ceglie's poorly passed the ball and it fell in front of the back midfielder Montolivo at the top of the penalty area.

However, Montolivo also had Chinese players closely guarding him, so Montolivo had no time to stop the ball and adjust.

He was also afraid that after stopping the ball, he would hear the referee blow the whistle to end the game.

Therefore, Montolivo, eager to seize the last chance, did not stop the ball, but directly resisted the collision of the Chinese players around him, raised his leg sideways and volleyed.

In fact, the quality of this volley was not bad, it did not hit the goal frame, and it did not hit the goal post.

But there were too many people in the penalty area.

Montolivo's volley was not smooth.

At the moment of his volley, Zhao Xuri in the penalty area in front turned around and jumped up to block the hole, just blocking Montolivo's powerful shot with his back.

The ball hit Zhao Xuri's back and bounced back to the gap outside the penalty area, landing about 27 or 28 meters away from the goal.

The closest Chinese player Cui Peng and Italian central defender Criscito rushed to the ball landing point at the same time, ready to grab the ball.

However, at this moment, the referee who had been standing not far away with the whistle in his mouth looked at his watch, raised his hands, and blew the whistle to end the game firmly.

In the quarter-final match against the Italian Olympic team in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Chinese Olympic team lost a goal first, but Jiang Xiaolin assisted Wang Yongbai's goal with a long pass in the 45th minute of the first half and created and scored a penalty in the 85th minute of the second half. The team defeated Italy 2-1 and advanced to the semi-finals of this Olympic men's football, which was the biggest upset of this Olympic men's football.