Chapter 353

As the game time passed, the Tottenham players became more and more anxious.

If they were two goals behind, it would be fine, but now they were only one goal behind, which gave them unlimited hope.

As long as they scored one goal, they could equalize the score, which would not only increase their points, but also reduce the three points of their rival Alkmaar in this game to one, which would undoubtedly be very beneficial to Tottenham, which was in the lead.

Therefore, even though they knew that Jiang Xiaolin and Alkmaar's counterattacks were a huge threat, Tottenham continued to launch attacks in the last ten minutes, trying to break through Alkmaar's goal to equalize the score.

In the 78th minute, midfielder Didier Zokora and forward Darren Bent made a wonderful two-on-one wall cooperation in the narrow space in front of Alkmaar's penalty area, passing Alkmaar's midfielder David Mendes.

Then Zokora dribbled into the penalty area, causing tension among the players and defenders in Alkmaar's penalty area.

Fortunately, Alkmaar, which mainly plays defensive counterattacks, had a lot of people in the penalty area, which blocked Didier Zokora's possible shooting route.

Although he entered the penalty area, Zokora was unable to shoot. After rushing left and right in the penalty area twice, he still couldn't get out of the gap to shoot, so he suddenly passed the ball to the left side of the penalty area.

Left forward Gareth Bale broke in from the wing, received Zokora's pass and flicked it horizontally, passed by Alkmaar central defender Ragnar Klavan who rushed over from the middle to block, got out of a gap, and then kicked the ball.

Gareth Bale's shot was an arc, heading for the far right corner, and the quality was pretty good.

When Didier Zokora passed the ball to the left, goalkeeper Romero rushed to the left.

But unexpectedly, Gareth Bale shot the ball into the far corner, so Romero could only turn around and jump to save the ball, but he was out of reach and couldn't reach the ball in the air at all.

Just as Tottenham's players and fans watched Bale's shot bypass the goalkeeper's fingers and shoot to the far corner of the goal, and everyone was about to celebrate the goal, the ball hit the post with a "bang" and bounced back into the penalty area.

Tottenham fans sighed and felt very disappointed.

Bale's shot was of high quality in terms of timing and angle, but it was a little bit wrong and hit the post and bounced back into the penalty area, and failed to score.

However, there were too many players in the penalty area on both sides. The ball that bounced back into the penalty area caused a chaos. At the most dangerous moment, Tottenham striker Pavlyuchenko, with the advantage of his height and long legs, almost poked the ball into the goal.

Fortunately, Alkmaar winger Stein Schars, who returned to defense, stretched his legs on the goal line to block the ball.

Then, the ball was finally cleared by the full-back Pocognoli with a long kick out of the penalty area.

Two minutes later, in the 80th minute, Tottenham came back again.

This time, Tottenham broke through the wing and crossed the ball to Pavlyuchenko.

Unfortunately, Aaron Lennon's cross was slightly off. Although it was passed into the penalty area, it was too close to the goal and was taken away by goalkeeper Sergio Romero. Pavlyuchenko failed to head the ball.

Although Tottenham tried desperately to score, Alkmaar's defense and goalkeeper performed very well, preventing Tottenham's attack from eventually turning into a goal.

Moreover, the consequence of Tottenham's eagerness to score and the aggressive attack also left a large gap in their backcourt, giving Alkmaar the opportunity to counterattack.

However, there were not many counterattacks and they did not pose much threat.

In the 82nd minute, Alkmaar took advantage of a counterattack opportunity after a backcourt interception. Simon Poulsen made a cross from the bottom, and Jiang Xiaolin headed the ball in the penalty area.

Unfortunately, this shot was slightly off the target due to the interference of the opponent's central defender Jonathan Woodgate, and hit the goal post and bounced out of the bottom line.

The two sides went back and forth, and as time passed, the game time soon came to the 85th minute, and suddenly a shocking scene appeared on the field.

This was a corner kick opportunity formed by Tottenham striker Darren Bent's long shot outside the penalty area, which was saved by goalkeeper Romero and went out of the bottom line.

Unexpectedly, it was this corner kick that made the score between the two sides 2-2.

But the goal was not scored by a Tottenham Hotspur player.

Tottenham's right back Kluka was responsible for the corner kick. The penalty kick he kicked was not high, and with a strong arc, it landed in the area between the small penalty area line and the penalty spot.

The players from both teams were in a mess in the penalty area, pushing and shoving each other to get the first point.

As a result, Alkmaar's central defender Hector·Moreno got the first point.

At that time, when he jumped up and was about to head the ball, his body in the air was pulled by the Tottenham players around him and lost his center of gravity. The ball that fell on his head was not in the right place, which was completely opposite to the direction he wanted to head.

He originally wanted to head the ball out of the penalty area to clear the siege.

As a result, unexpectedly, Moreno headed the ball to Alkmaar's own goal under the pull of the opponent's players.

What's more ridiculous is that Moreno also headed the ball at a tricky angle and went straight to the upper left corner.

At such a close distance, it was his teammate who got the first point. Even as strong as Sergio Romero was caught off guard and had no time to react. He didn't even have time to make a save. He could only watch the ball rub the bottom edge of the crossbar and fly into the goal.

The players and fans of Alkmaar were stunned. Only the ecstatic Tottenham players were left running wildly on the court to celebrate, and the very few Tottenham fans in the stands laughed and screamed wildly and cheered to celebrate.

In the 85th minute, Spurs caused an own goal by Alkmaar center back Hector Moreno in a corner attack, tying the score to 2-2.

After seeing the ball he headed into the goal, Hector Moreno, who scored the own goal, collapsed. He knelt down in the penalty area with his hands on his head, buried his head in the grass, and fell into deep self-blame.

Seeing this, although his teammates were very uncomfortable, they all went up to pull Moreno up to comfort him.

No one wants to encounter an own goal, and Moreno did not do it on purpose, so no one can blame him.

His original intention was to fight hard for the header to clear the ball, but who knew it would cause an own goal?

Jiang Xiaolin also went up to comfort Moreno, and then said to his teammates: "There is still time, don't worry, let's strengthen the attack, try to score another goal, and finally strive to defeat Tottenham and win."

Everyone nodded, regrouped and prepared to join the game.

Seeing that the Tottenham players had celebrated for more than 20 seconds and had not stopped, and suspected of deliberately delaying time, Alkmaar players such as Jariens and Martens protested to the referee.

So the referee intervened and asked Tottenham to end the celebration and prepare to start the game.

After the game resumed, Tottenham decisively adjusted the game strategy, resumed the defensive counterattack, and waited for Alkmaar to attack.

Moreover, this defensive counterattack was even more determined.

Because there was little time left in the game, Tottenham was satisfied with a draw away from home.

If the score of 2-2 remained until the end of the game, they would get a point, plus the previous win, Tottenham's points would reach 4 points, and they would have a good advantage in qualifying in the group stage with 3 qualifying places.

At least the situation is much better than Alkmaar, which only has 1 point.

For Alkmaar, getting only one point is very dangerous.

There are four games in total. After this one, there are only two games left.

If this game ends in a draw, Alkmaar must win the next two games. If there is an accident in any of them, Alkmaar will be in danger of being eliminated.

In the next two games, one is against the top Serie A Udinese, and the other is against Spartak Moscow in Russia. Alkmaar dare not say that it will win any game.

Therefore, even if there are only a few minutes left, Alkmaar must go all out to win.

In the last few minutes, the entire Alkmaar team pressed forward and launched a fierce attack on Tottenham Hotspur's penalty area and goal.

Not to mention the midfielders, even the midfielder and two full-backs crossed the center line and joined the attack.

However, although Alkmaar's attack looked powerful, Tottenham's defense was too resolute.

Not only did the players in the midfield and backcourt resolutely shrink within the 30-meter area of ​​their own goal to defend, but even forward Darren Bent returned to the penalty area, leaving only forward Roman Pavlyuchenko in the front, keeping the counterattack suppression on the two central defenders of Alkmaar, preventing them from pressing too much to assist.

Although Jiang Xiaolin had a new understanding of the game, he handled the ball more decisively and faster, but with so many people in the Tottenham penalty area, Jiang Xiaolin could hardly get any shooting opportunities.

There were too many people.

In the 88th minute, Jiang Xiaolin had a reluctant shot on the penalty area line, but the ball was blocked by Tottenham central defender Ledley King in the penalty area.

Even Jiang Xiaolin couldn't shoot and score, let alone other teammates.

Compared with Jiang Xiaolin, the shooting skills of others wereIt was even worse.

Even if there was a shot, it would have almost no effect.

Breaking dense defense has always been a global problem in football, which is almost impossible to solve, and can only rely on luck.

Soon, the time came to the 90th minute, indicating that it had entered injury time. The referee gave 3 minutes of injury time, which caused a boo from the Alkmaar fans in the stands.

Obviously, the home fans thought that the injury time was too little.

But the fans' boos could not change anything, and the referee could not change the injury time because of the fans' boos.

What's more desperate is that the head coach of Tottenham began to change players to delay time. As long as he saw the ball out of bounds and formed a dead ball, Tottenham immediately started to change players.

What's more, he didn't make substitutions all at once, but made three substitutions one by one, until the game time was delayed to 92 minutes, and then he used up all three substitutions.

During the two minutes, although Alkmaar kept attacking, the rhythm of the attack was always interrupted, giving Spurs ample preparation time, and several throw-ins did not pose any threat.

As time went on, the referee began to look at the clock frequently, and the Spurs fans in the stands were already celebrating.

The Alkmaar fans at the scene and in front of the TV felt desperate, thinking that the score of 2-2 would not change.

There was too little time left for Alkmaar.

Only Jiang Xiaolin and his teammates on the field had not given up, and everyone continued to attack.

Of course, seeing the referee frequently looking at the clock, it was almost certain that this was the last attack.

At this time, everyone had already concentrated inside and outside the Spurs penalty area, and even Pavlyuchenko returned to the penalty area to participate in the high-altitude defense.

The same was true for Alkmaar, with both central defenders crossing the center line and participating in the outside assists.

At this time, it was Jiang Xiaolin who held the ball. He used his perfect dribbling ability to control the ball under his feet and slowly moved towards the penalty area.

However, as the most important target of Spurs' defense, Jiang Xiaolin was really having a hard time moving forward.

Not to mention that there were two Spurs players blocking his way in front of him, and even someone rushed over from the side, and was about to double-team Jiang Xiaolin.

If Jiang Xiaolin delayed any longer, he might be double-teamed by three or four opponents and lose the ball.

There was no choice but to look up and look to both sides, preparing to pass the ball.

There was no space in the middle, and the Spurs players defended all the areas in the middle inside and outside the penalty area, leaving no chance for the Alkmaar players.

Hamdaoyi, Maarten Martens, David Mendes and others in the middle were all defended by people around them, leaving no space for Jiang Xiaolin to pass the ball.

On the wing, because Jiang Xiaolin attracted the attention of three or four people, and the wing forward also attracted a certain amount of defense, Alkmaar's full-back Poconioli, who was inserted from the back row, was unguarded and had already reached the wing area flush with the penalty area line, and could immediately go to the bottom.

As long as Jiang Xiaolin passed the ball, he could form a cross from the bottom.

So, Jiang Xiaolin flicked the ball, dodged a gap, and made a gesture to pass the ball to Poconioli on the wing and let him cross from the bottom.

When flicking the ball to dodge the gap, Jiang Xiaolin did think so and wanted to do so.

However, when he flicked the ball and dodged the gap, he suddenly found out from the corner of his eyes that the central defender Ledley King who was blocking him moved to the side, and a huge gap appeared under his feet.

Moreover, this gap was connected with Jiang Xiaolin's ball, and the part aimed at was exactly the lower right corner of the goal, which was a very good shooting route.

However, the shooting route is in the opponent's defender's direction, and it is fleeting, so it requires very accurate shooting skills.

Otherwise, it will be useless if it hits the opponent's defender's leg and is blocked.