Chapter 32: African Eagle! Part
After the second half, when Li Qi returned to the court, he clearly found that his Italian teammates looked more relaxed, while the Nigerian players looked more solemn, with some decisiveness and fierceness.
Sure enough, as soon as the second half of the game resumed, Nigeria launched a massive counterattack!
The Nigerian team's reckless fighting and fearless attack caused a lot of trouble for Italy.
In the 48th and 51st minutes of the game, there were two relatively threatening attacks, and they were getting closer and closer to the goal.
And finally in the 53rd minute, Nigeria equalized the score!
Nigerian defender Taiwo intercepted the ball from Rossi, launched a counterattack and passed the ball directly to Mikel in the middle.
Mikel also learned from his experience and lessons. He no longer held the ball for too long and had already observed the safe passing route before receiving the ball... When Nocerino got close to him, he immediately made a diagonal pass to the right side of the frontcourt.
This time Adefemi successfully received the pass from the side, but Li Qi did not choose to rush forward, but instead returned to the middle to protect it.
After receiving the ball, Adefemi dribbled a few steps and kicked a cross before Criscito could steal the ball, but the ball did not go through. It was a mid-waist ball at an angle of nearly 45 degrees, but the speed of the ball was still acceptable.
Li Qi had actually already taken position and jumped slightly, preparing to intercept the ball with his left foot...
But just when Li Qi was in the air, he suddenly felt a force leaning over and shoveling towards him from behind!
It was Obasi who retreated slightly and then went straight to face the ball, flying, diving, advancing, grabbing the ball, and heading the ball!
Li Qi hesitated for a moment, then retracted his foot: "Not that bad, right? At this angle? At this height? Moving forward and diving for the header?"
"You're not afraid of being shot in the head by me... I'm scared, I'll put my feet back and let you push me. I don't believe you can still work a miracle..."
"…Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"
“…What the hell?! Did it really go in?!”
"Smart beast at the door, what have you been doing?!"
Viviano: "...Boss, why did you pull back your foot? He hit the ball in the far corner... There were two people between us, and I couldn't see it clearly at first, and I couldn't reach it if I jumped again..."
This header was amazing. Obasi threw his body completely out and risked being shot in the head to dive at Li Qi's feet to grab the ball!
Because he needs to turn around slightly to head the ball, Obasi needs to not only shake his head like a lion, but also twist his waist strongly in the air...
Just heading the ball towards the goal is already extremely difficult, so Li Qicai let him head the ball because the probability of scoring this goal is too low.
But Obasi not only hit the ball with good force, but also hit the dead corner of the ball...
It can be considered a world-class header!
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, Nigeria equalized the score, and the two teams returned to the same starting line, 1-1.
The Nigerian team quickly equalized the score, and their morale was boosted. They pressed and attacked even more frantically...
However, I don't know if it was because of the mistake made by captain Li Qi that led to the goal, the Italian team was not affected too much and still maintained its formation steadily. In addition to the goal just now, the Nigerian team was also attacking vigorously from the outside.
It seems that the Italian team has been suffering from Li Qi for a long time. They all want to see Li Qi make a fool of himself. When they see Li Qi make a real mistake, everyone is happy to see it and feels relaxed.
In the 58th minute, Abuwo took a long shot with his right foot from 8 meters outside the penalty area on the right side, and the ball hit the side net.
In the 61st minute, Isaac's low shot from the top of the penalty area went wide of the left post despite the defense of the central defender.
In the 66th minute, Taiwo just passed the midfield and suddenly shot with his left foot, but the ball went wide of the right post...
The two teams were in a stalemate for a while... But soon, the Nigerian team began to run slower again. The advantage they had just gained was entirely due to the excitement after tying the score and at the expense of their physical strength. So once the Nigerian team's excitement wore off, they were taken over by the Italian team in all aspects of the game.
Moreover, the Italian team soon took the lead again...
In the 74th minute, Montolivo teamed up with Nocerino to intercept the dribbling of Nigeria's left midfielder No. 19 Saniketa. After Montolivo took a few steps forward with the ball, he passed the ball to Li Qi in the middle in time when Mikel came to defend.
Li Qi received the ball and connected with Cruyff, then easily got rid of Abouwo who pounced on him, and then pushed forward with the ball, pressing the Nigerian defense line...
When Nigeria's defense was pressed to the penalty area, Li Qi made a straight pass and put it right at Rossi's feet...
Rossi stopped the ball and went straight into the penalty area. At this time, Adeleye, who was tall and long but slightly lacked flexibility, was afraid to kick the ball, fearing that he would give Italy another penalty kick...
But, in life, what you fear often comes true. This is the famous Murphy's Law!
Seeing that Adeleye didn't dare to stretch his legs, Rossi turned around and faced Adeleye, gradually moving the ball deep into the penalty area...
First he pretended to go inside and then shot the ball into the far corner with his left foot...
However, it was fake! He faked the shot and then dribbled it back with his right foot, trying to continue to move towards the baseline.
This time, Adeleye was actually a little shaky, but his position and center of gravity were not completely lost, fortunately...
However, in the next step, Rossi made a slight mistake in controlling the ball with his left foot. The touch of the ball towards the baseline was a little too big, and the ball bounced a little further away from his body...
This time Adeleye was really fooled, but actually it wasn't really fooled, after all, Rossi's touch of the ball was indeed a little bit bigger... There is no doubt that Adeleye felt it was an opportunity and he could use a tackle to clear the ball!
Although Rossi made a real mistake, he was more agile. In addition, Adeleye was a little shaky just now, and his center of gravity was not so stable. In addition, his physical strength declined. Although this shovel shot started first... but arrived later...
Rossi poked the ball away again, and Adeleye tackled Rossi's foot...
Beep! Penalty!
Rossi covered his ankle in pain...
Adeleye looks innocent...
The entire Nigerian team gathered around, thinking that this was Rossi's fake fall and the referee's deliberate targeting...
But the referee still firmly awarded a penalty kick, and the audience in front of the TV saw the entire process of the attack and foul through the slow-motion replay. Indeed, it was undoubtedly a penalty kick!
Pelle humbly gave the penalty to Montolivo, giving Montolivo the opportunity to score in this World Youth Championship!
Li Qi had no objection, on the contrary, he was happy to see it happen, as long as it wasn't Li Qi who missed the penalty...
This time, Montolivo fooled the goalkeeper by pausing during his run-up and using fake moves of his upper body, and accurately kicked the ball into the lower left corner of the goal!
2-1, Italy took the lead again.
Before kicking off again, Nigeria and Italy made substitutions at the same time.
The Nigerian team has few options to change players, or almost no choice, unless they want to change the goalkeeper...
No. 11 forward Okoronkwo came on to replace No. 14 midfielder Abuwo, who had a yellow card and was obviously unable to keep up with the rhythm.
Isaac retreated to midfield to organize the attack, while new player Okoronkwo and Obasi continued to attack the Italian team's defense.
Italy used No. 19 Acquafresca to replace Rossi, who had just sprained his ankle while winning a penalty, and continued to put pressure on Nigeria's defense.
……
And just 5 minutes after the substitution, Li Qi scored a goal in a counterattack!
Listen to the wonderful comments from ESPN's professional commentators:
"Li Qi intercepted the ball from Okoronkwo's feet! It was not a foul, the Nigerian carried too much..."
"Montolivo passes... to Nocerino..."
"The ball returns to Montolivo's feet, Montolivo passes it straight!"
"Li Qi made a high-speed run forward, making a brilliant stop-and-go move!"
"Pelle! Pulled out of the penalty area and made a wall pass..."
"Li Qi passes again, this time with Aquafresca! Another wall combination..."
"Li Qi entered the penalty area! He hit the wall twice in a row and broke through Nigeria's defense!"
"Li Qi shot... No! Assuming it was a real pass, it went horizontally to Pelle... Great opportunity!"
"Oops! Pelle was slow in handling the ball, and the opponent's defenders are surrounding him..."
"Oh my god! The ball is divided!"
"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"
"Li Qi grabbed the ball again near the penalty spot and calmly shot the ball into the near corner with no one defending him. The goalkeeper was unable to save it..."
"3 to 1, Li Qi completely killed the game!"
"The Italians are going to win the World Youth Championship! They are celebrating like crazy in front of the gathering area for Italian fans!"
"The Nigerian players are almost in despair..."
Through the slow-motion replay of the TV broadcast, it was seen that Li Qi stole the ball, passed it and made a high-speed run, and after half-court he received the pass from Montolivo again, and then he made consecutive wall-type 2-on-1 passes with Pelle and Acquafresca, directly breaking through Nigeria's defense!
Li Qi broke into the penalty area, faked a shot and passed the ball to the opponent's defender, then passed the ball to Pelle who followed...
Pelle, who had won a golden opportunity, suddenly stumbled, handled the ball too slowly, and was surrounded by three Nigerian players returning to defense!
In the melee, Pelle relied on his height and long legs to protect the ball, but accidentally knocked the ball out with his heel. The ball hit the long legs of Adeleye who was returning to defense and bounced to the unguarded penalty spot...
Li Qi, who was watching Pellet's performance, happened to be near the penalty spot. He took two steps without stopping the ball and directly pushed the ball into the near corner with the arch of his right foot! The goalkeeper did a split but couldn't block such a close-range low shot...
With Li Qi's success, the score became 3 to 1, completely killing the game!
……
In the 81st minute, shortly after the score was changed again, Casiraghi replaced Pelle with No. 15 De Sena, who had played less before, and put Li Qi in the attacking midfielder position to cooperate with Acquafresca to stay in the frontcourt for counterattack, while other Italian players retreated to the half-court to defend.
The Nigerian team was indeed unable to run and could hardly form an effective offensive. Instead, they were counterattacked by Li Qi after stealing the ball, and they almost expanded their lead again. It was only because the Nigerian defender returned to defense in time and the goalkeeper Fan Zejin finally made a superb save...
In the 82nd minute, Li Qi intercepted the ball again and passed it straight. Acquafresca, who had just come on the field, successfully made an offside and passed the goalkeeper! Unfortunately, his small-angle shot was blocked by right back Taiwo in front of the goal line.
第85分钟，卡西拉吉用掉了最后一个换人名额，用6号马佐拉蒂换下7号蒙托利沃，意大利全线回收打5-3-2了。
Then Li Qi repeatedly launched attacks towards the corner flag, as if he wanted to control the ball and delay time until the end of the game... How despicable!
In the 86th minute, after receiving Li Qi's breakthrough pass to the corner flag, Nocerino made a powerful left-foot shot near the penalty spot, but unfortunately the angle was too straight and Fan Zejin caught the ball steadily.
In the 89th minute, Li Qi once again intercepted Nigeria's cross pass and broke through to the corner flag. After attracting two double-teams, he pretended to turn around and dribble back, then suddenly turned 360 degrees with the ball, broke through the double-team and lobbed the ball to the far end of the goal near the baseline...
But Bentivorio who was following up ran past... Then he turned around and stopped the ball with his right foot but failed to stop it well, and the ball was stopped too high... Bentivorio took a step inside the penalty area and made a left-foot overhead kick!
He doesn’t run well, he stops badly, but he shoots really well!
The ball drew a beautiful arc and headed straight for the blind corner of the goal...
At this moment, Fan Zejin dived sideways, stretched his body to the extreme, and blocked the ball out of the baseline with just his fingers!
In the end, Nigeria was completely unable to fight back, and the ball was under Li Qi's control until the final whistle!
The Azzurri Italian team won the game with a score of 3-1 and won the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands!
After the game, the whole Italian team wanted to play human pyramid again, mainly because of the bad boy Acquafresca! But this time, when they saw the boss Li Qi's power tremble, oh no, it was a tiger body tremble, and then they all changed their direction and pounced on Pelle who was grinning on the sidelines...
"Yes, that guy was the one who scored the first goal!"
"Yes, fold him!"
"Oh! What the hell! Ah..." Pellet exclaimed and screamed...
After the game, Li Qi was not only named the best player of the final, but also won the best scorer and best player of this tournament with 6 goals and 5 assists. He was also selected into the best 11-man lineup of this tournament together with Viviano, Montolivo and Pelle - China's Cheng Tao was also selected as a midfielder.
("Ah, I'm still one assist away from 6 goals and 6 assists, which almost matches my birthday... But never mind, a little regret makes perfection perfect..." Li Qi was still fantasizing in his mind after learning the statistics after the game...)
……
But Li Qi stopped laughing immediately... The celebration after the game was very chaotic, but Ricardo's mind was even more confused. He had the championship and honor, but how could he avoid celebrating with the three girls?
What should I do? Waiting online, it’s urgent...
Ricardo, who had just returned to the locker room to change clothes and was preparing for the subsequent award ceremony, received a congratulatory text message from his brother as soon as he turned on his mobile phone!
"Oh, yes! Not only the sisters are here, but also my parents and brother!" At this time, Ricardo remembered his family. What an unfilial son...
"Great, brother, thank you for your text! I have a plan!"
……
It was close to 10pm when the competition ended, and it was close to midnight when the awards ceremony ended...
Ricardo used the excuse that he was going to celebrate with his parents and brother at night, and successfully avoided Julian and Chiara's close celebration. Although Sarafina and her friends also participated, they also successfully avoided the three beauties from meeting each other...
In fact, although Ricardo could not clone himself, he secretly used old Li Qi's time management skills to meet Julian and Chiara separately during the celebrations on the court, accepted their warm hugs and celebrations, and then agreed to meet in Barcelona during the summer vacation and in Milan in two days...
……
In the middle of the night, there was only one decent-sized bar still open around the hotel. Ricardo and his family, as well as Sarafina and her friends, had no choice but to choose this bar to have a late-night snack to celebrate.
As soon as I walked in… wow, it turned out that almost the entire team and their family members who came to cheer were there! Okay, let’s go together, together!
It was very lively, with glasses clinking, a melee, and lots of eating and drinking!
Li Qi couldn't hold back after celebrating until the second half of the night, and seemed to have had a little bit of alcohol - I don't know if it was true or not, but Li Qi was helped by Sarafina back to the bed in the hotel room in a daze...
But unfortunately, dear readers, nothing special happened. Li Qi's sequelae played tricks, and when the rest time came, he felt dizzy and fell asleep directly...
So the next day, he had a good reason to rest in the hotel to sober up and recover his body. He did not go to the airport to send the three girls back to Italy. He just sent messages and called them to wish them safety and success, thanked them for their support, and said goodbye when he returned to Italy...
It turns out he had anticipated this and pretended to be drunk on purpose!
