Chapter 11: Final Shot? Final Draw!
Li Qi, who was punishing the free kick on the wing, was focused and completely ignored the noisy shouts from the scene. In his resolute eyes, there was only the football quietly placed not far away and the goal 40 yards away...
Well, there are several target towers in the restricted area...
Li Qi started slowly at first, then began to accelerate, and only had a few steps to go. Finally, when his left foot stepped firmly on the grass next to the ball, Li Qi's "explosion point moment" came!
Li Qi leaned back slightly in a flash, drew his bow and arrow, and shot the ball slightly below the center of the ball with his right foot...
The ball flew out at high speed like a cannonball, whizzed past the symbolic human wall of only one person, drew a beautiful arc in the air, and flew diagonally towards the middle of the penalty area...
"Middle road! Missed it...back point..." All I could hear was the commentator on the TV broadcast shouting!
"Gooooaaal! Gooooaaal! Goal!"
"The ball went in!"
"It seemed that no one had touched the ball. Pelle jumped high in the middle and missed the ball by a hair's breadth. But this swaying movement caused Canini and Andreoli, who followed up from the back, to also miss the ball by half a beat..."
"Oh, the slow-motion replay clearly shows that no one touched the ball... The ball bounced in front of the goal and spun strongly before it flew into the upper corner of the goal along the goal post..."
"The Colombian goalkeeper was also disturbed several times by the players in front of him and could not react in time..."
"Li Qi's penalty was so good and so accurate! It was very fast and had a strong rotation arc. He had the chance to touch the ball in the middle and at the back point. Finally, it fell rapidly in front of the goal and changed direction after bouncing off the ground! The goalkeeper had no way to deal with it..."
As the commentator gave his passionate commentary, Li Qi and his teammates hugged each other and ran to a stand with the most Italian fans to celebrate!
Head coach Casiraghi on the sidelines also clenched his fists and breathed a sigh of relief. The deadlock was finally broken and it was stable!
On the other side, Colombia's head coach Lara frowned and turned around to arrange for the guys on the bench to warm up quickly...
……
The game was restarted by the Colombian U20 team in the center circle… Colombia was unwilling to fall behind and intensified their running and fighting, but for a while it was just a lot of noise with little results. Only Rodallega's long shot barely hit the goal, but the angle and strength were not threatening and was easily confiscated by Viviano.
In the 62nd minute of the game, Colombia made a substitution, substituting two players at once. Lala was going to give it a try! No. 2 D. Moreno replaced the promising star No. 15 Rodalega who had little performance throughout the game, and No. 10 Guarin replaced Otarvalo who had a yellow card... Moreno and Rodalega were positional substitutions, and Guarin's appearance was obviously arranged and intended by the coach...
Guarin ran straight to Li Qi's side after entering the court, staring at him intently, as if he wanted to eat him alive. Wherever Li Qi moved, Guarin followed closely. When he saw that the ball might be coming, Guarin would either immediately get close to him to prevent Li Qi from catching the ball easily, or go around to defend and block the passing line to Li Qi...
Li Qi looked at the future SH team star next to him, Guarin, who now had curly hair and a green face, and felt a little funny and helpless... So serious? He was still a fresh force, not afraid of expending more energy to play against Li Qi... It was a bit difficult!
After about 10 minutes, neither Li Qi nor Guarin touched the ball much. Li Qi had three transition passes with one foot, and was fouled by Guarin directly on the body...
Guarin was concentrating on freezing Li Qi, not even thinking about how to play football. But this trick worked well. As Italy retreated after taking the lead, Colombia gained more offensive momentum and gradually got closer to Italy's goal...
After several good offensive attempts, Colombia finally got a chance!
When the game reached the 76th minute, Moreno received a long pass from Zuniga and decisively broke through the bottom line, creating a corner kick... Before the Italian defenders had fully taken their defensive positions, Toha quickly took the corner kick, and the ball drew a beautiful arc and went straight to the back point to find Renteria!
Renteria volleyed the ball with his right foot without stopping it! The ball shot into the Italian goal like lightning, and Colombia tied the score!
Colombia became more motivated after equalizing the score, while the Italian U20 team was somewhat depressed. Li Qi, who knew that the performance of young people was unstable, thought that he had to change the situation quickly... otherwise, this fierce Colombian team might be able to overtake the score and even win the game.
Just when Li Qi was still thinking about how to get rid of Guarin's entanglement, Moreno created another dangerous situation... First, Zuniga stole the ball from Nocerino who was hesitant and had too much ball under his feet, and then Toha turned around and passed the ball directly behind Canini...
Moreno made a successful diagonal run and beat the offside trap. He faced Viviano directly, and when he came to the edge of the penalty area, he faced Viviano and Andreoli who made a tackle to intercept him and shot directly into the far corner...
Fortunately, the ball hit the outside of the right goal post and bounced out of the bottom line, and the Italian team escaped!
But Colombia's momentum was even stronger! Even the back line almost pressed across half the field, as if they wanted to swallow the Italian team like a lion, eat it alive, digest it completely, and then excrete it all at once...
After this attack, the Italian team wanted to disrupt Colombia's momentum by substituting the new player Lazari for Nocerino who was already a little tired, in order to maintain the ability to run and intercept in the middle. After this substitution, Li Qi had some ideas. This trick had been used before, and Montolivo and Lazari should still remember it...
Around the 80th minute of the game, when the Italian team kicked off, Li Qi, who had been observing for a long time, suddenly retreated to the left back position to ask for the ball, and secretly gestured to let Criscito move in to occupy the left winger position... Viviano's short pass reached Li Qi's feet before Guarin, who was half a beat late, came up. Li Qi elegantly stopped the ball and passed it sideways to the right center back Canini on the other side, then turned and moved forward to the middle of the midfield...
Canini received the ball comfortably and passed it to right back Mazzolati before Renteria came up to press... Mazzolati looked up after receiving the ball and saw the approaching Colombian left winger Marugo in front of him, and near the center circle was Li Qi who had just arrived and waved for the ball...
The boss has to give the ball to him, even though he has a haunting No. 13 following him, and a No. 5 behind him who wants to steal the ball at any time... Never mind, the boss will handle it, give him some strength and don't let the other side steal the ball...
Guarin followed Li Qi around the field for half a circle, still wondering why Li Qi's movement was so erratic, and found that the Italian right back was about to pass a diagonal ball to Li Qi! This is good, I will wait for Zuniga and I to team up to grab the ball, and then we will immediately counterattack on the spot...
Go! Hmm? ...Where's the ball? Where's the person?
Li Qi, who was originally preparing to receive the ball with his back turned, looked at Mazzorati's diagonal pass and thought, "Good boy, they have such tacit understanding!"
He opened his pants and let the ball slip past him. He turned around and rushed forward, and passed by Zúñiga who was preparing to attack from behind... Zúñiga was startled, and wanted to stop and turn around, but he failed to brake, and he fell backwards and sat on his butt, and he also tackled Guarín who was coming over...
The ball that Li Qi let go of went straight to Montolivo's feet. Montolivo pushed against Toha and knocked the ball back to Lazari who had just come on the field next to him. Then Lazari knew what to do with his knees and used the arch of his foot to push the ball diagonally behind the Colombian right-back... There was too much space over there!
Colombia pressed too hard, and after Li Qi led Guarin to the middle, all attention was focused on the crowded center circle. Criscito, who was running in from the other side, could run wildly along the sideline, and finally stopped the ball before it went out of bounds, but continued to keep his head down and rush along the sideline...
Colombia's Casiera and the center back were almost running side by side in pursuit, while Italy's center forwards Pelle and Cozzolino were also running forward boldly... Criscito was running on the wing, but he was ahead of everyone else, not offside! Go!
Criscito rushed into the Colombian penalty area in one breath. He was hesitating whether to pass the ball or shoot with his unreliable footwork, when he heard the boss's heavenly call: Pass it here!
The boss ordered, and no one dared to disobey. When he looked up, hey, the boss immediately ran to the top of the gourd. Not far away, he passed the ball steadily to the boss, allowing the boss to shoot it with a bang! Criscito turned his left foot and passed the ball back to the middle in a slightly inverted triangle...
Colombia's defense was horrified. They were pushed into the penalty area by Italy's forwards like a bulldozer. Colombia's defensive midfielder had just gotten up from the ground or turned around to pass the center circle. The space in front of the penalty area was empty. Only Li Qi rushed in at high speed, drawing his bow and arrow, and was about to shoot with a lever...
Colombian defenders Zapata and Murares simultaneously threw their bodies out to block Li Qi's long shot! Unexpectedly, Li Qi's shot was a fake!
It was so damn realistic... Even the Colombian goalkeeper threw his body out and fell to the ground (MMP! Why didn't he shoot in such a good opportunity?)...
Li Qi received the ball and dunked it lightly. Just when he was about to shoot, Li Qi had another "explosion point moment", so he changed his mind instantly and changed the shot to a dunk. He really wanted to shoot. Li Qi could foresee how cool this explosive shot would be...
Three guys were really shaken off at once... no, four guys, even the commentator was shaken off... how could it not be realistic? It turns out that he really wanted to shoot!
"Good opportunity! Shoot...Oh no!" The commentator almost lost his tongue.
"Ah! Li Qi dribbled the ball past the two Colombian central defenders and entered the small penalty area..."
"The goalkeeper has fallen to the ground, and the Colombian left back comes over to tackle Li Qi..."
"Li Qi calmly passed the ball to Cozzolino, who shot into the empty goal!"
"Gooooaaal! Gooooaaal! Goal!"
"Italy is leading again, this goal almost killed the game!"
Colombia had no time to regret, and head coach Lara quickly used the last substitution, replacing the exhausted Toha with the famous Tiger Falcao, and playing with three forwards to strengthen the attack! Because as the famous saying goes: there is not much time left for the Colombian team!
……
Colombia kicked off quickly and changed the ground penetration to attack Italy's goal with long passes, but they did not gain any advantage under the Italian defense line...
On the other side, Italy created another scoring opportunity through counterattack!
Li Qi used the same trick again. When Italy intercepted the ball in the backcourt and counterattacked, he went around the middle and exchanged positions with Montolivo to receive the ball. He then passed the ball to Cigarini on the wing. After Cigarini stopped the ball comfortably, he played a one-two with Lazari who was close by and rushed along the wing. When the Colombian defender approached, he passed the ball to the middle with his right foot...
Similar to the previous goal, after Guarin was brought into the middle by Li Qi, Colombia's formation seriously tilted to the left; Li Qi, who was inserted in the middle, received the ball, stopped the ball slightly, and made a long pass to the left in the gap between Guarin and Falcao... Criscito on the wing also got in position to receive the ball...
After Criscito stopped the ball, Casiera approached and passed the ball directly to Pelle in the middle. Pelle leaned on Murales to receive the ball and turned to the penalty area. Zapata quickly abandoned Cozzolino and came up to block... Seeing this, Pelle shot directly on the penalty area line. The ball slipped over Zapata's toes... stuck to the post... and went wide of the goal... What a pity!
Pellet held his head in his hands and couldn't believe that he missed such a good opportunity!
Yes, Casiraghi didn't believe it either, so in the next dead ball, he replaced Pelle with De Sena, leaving only Li Qi and Cozzolino in the frontcourt to counterattack, while all other players retreated, intending to defend the victory!
Colombia also lost all patience and kept attacking Italy's penalty area from the backcourt. Zapata even pushed the ball up to the front line to compete for the header...
Time came to the last minute of stoppage time. In the third minute of injury time, Colombia's corner kick was headed out of the penalty area by Andreoli, but it was not far enough, and Murales headed the ball back to the Italian penalty area before Li Qi...
Falcao leaned on Criscito to get to the right side of the penalty area, and before the ball landed on his chest, he swept the ball into the small penalty area with his right foot! Caninica blocked the ball out of the small penalty area again in front of Renteria...
At this time, Guarin, who was lying in ambush at the edge of the penalty area, met the ball and shot it before Lazari and Montolivo flew to block it. This powerful shot with his right foot went directly into the top corner of the goal, and Viviano had no way to stop it!
The score was completely locked at 2-2, and Colombia equalized the score at the last minute!
Finally, the game ended. In this game, Li Qi won the best player of the first game with 1 goal and 1 assist...
After the game, Colombian coach Lara, who had managed to equalize the score twice, was a little excited: "When the players went on the field to warm up and saw the stands full of fans, we felt that this was actually a game at our home stadium. I immediately gave orders to my players to not disappoint the fans and to do their best to show our technical characteristics..."
Italy coach Casiraghi lamented: "We were a little passive in the first half, but we had a chance to win in the second half... Colombia spent a year preparing for the World Youth Championship, while we only prepared a few days after the end of the Serie A season..."
……
Li Qi, who finally decided to swap jerseys with Guarin after the game, couldn't help but sigh: "This U20 game is really different from the previous U19 and U17 games. It's not as easy to control the rhythm and the game as before..."
"We really can't be too complacent in this cup tournament..."
"I need to go back to the hotel and apply some ice. I was hit hard by that idiot Guarin. I must have bruises all over my waist and thighs...Ice application is really good for recovery after the game. I have to recommend it to the coaching staff and let everyone try it..."
