Chapter 118 An Excellent Opportunity

The television was replaying Zhou Yi's goal just now, from Napoli's attack in the Dortmund half being thwarted, to the final loss of possession. The whole process was actually very short, maybe less than ten seconds in total.

Dortmund had brought their quick counterattack into full play.

After Zhou Yi passed the ball to Yan Min, he surged forward from behind Yan Min without hesitation, as if he knew that he would definitely have an opportunity there.

Even though at this time the development of the attack seemed to have nothing to do with him, Yan Min dribbled the ball towards the center, and then passed it to Reus on the other side.

When Reus was dribbling the ball, everyone's attention was on him. When he was about to dribble to the front of the penalty area, everyone paid extra attention to Mark, who was running diagonally.

Until Reus was close to the edge of the penalty area, Zhou Yi appeared on the edge of the screen, but he did not directly accelerate into the penalty area, but chose to slow down, prowling outside.

It wasn't until Reus also saw this opening, and then passed the ball over, that he accelerated forward to shoot.

At this time, he once again became the focus of everyone's attention.

"Zhou Yi's quality of this non-stop direct shot is very high, he seems very confident, because shooting like this, it is actually easy to shoot high... But skill breeds courage, nothing is impossible with Zhou Yi!" He Ping praised Zhou Yi incessantly.

After scoring the goal, Zhou Yi ran to the corner flag area to celebrate the goal, which was not the South Stand, but it was still filled with cheers.

Reus, who assisted him, Mark, who made a diversionary run, and Yan Min also ran over from behind and embraced to celebrate at the corner flag area.

The second half had just begun, and Dortmund was already two goals ahead. A four-goal lead didn't seem like an impossible task!

※※※

Benitez noticed the reaction of his players after conceding the goal, and their morale seemed to be declining...

So he rushed to the sideline and shouted into the field: "Don't panic! The initiative is still on our side!"

He also grabbed Maggio and gave him instructions, telling the team to launch counterattacks actively, to be more aggressive, and not to shrink back in the second half, allowing the opponent to press up and attack.

"...The most important thing is to show our attitude, to let them know that their defense is not safe, and they can't just keep attacking like this..." Benitez said, and Maggio nodded repeatedly.

Then he ran back onto the field and relayed the coach's words to his teammates.

After his reminder, everyone also reacted—yes, we are only two goals behind. Even if we lose to Dortmund like this, we still have the advantage in the comparison of head-to-head records, because the score between us is 3:2, Napoli wins.

So there's really nothing to worry about.

As long as we don't panic, there won't be any problems!

Thinking of this, the Napoli players gradually calmed down, and their mentality was much more peaceful than before.

And the Dortmund players also ended their celebration and returned to their own half of the field.

When the eyes of the two teams met in the air, they both felt that there was still a long time left in this game, long enough for many things to happen...

※※※

Napoli kicked off, and the game restarted.

Napoli, whose mentality had returned to normal, was no longer desperate. They kept in mind the coach's instructions to them—use our offense to let Dortmund see our attitude, let them know that we are not soft persimmons that can be easily squeezed!

So Napoli launched a very successful attack.

From the backfield to Pandev's feet in the frontcourt, Pandev, who was facing away from the direction of the attack, did not try to turn around after getting the ball, but directly passed the ball back to Callejón.

Callejón didn't even stop the ball. Facing the returned ball, he directly swung his foot and lofted the ball, which flew over the heads of the Dortmund defenders and directly into the space behind!

At the same time, Higuaín suddenly accelerated, striding forward, shaking off the Dortmund defenders, and appeared at the landing point of the ball!

"Not offside! This is a great opportunity for Napoli!!" The Italian commentator shouted excitedly.

At this moment, Weidenfeller abandoned his goal and rushed towards Higuaín!

When Higuaín raised his foot to stop the ball that Callejón had lofted over, Weidenfeller had already rushed in front of him, the two of them were close at hand!

After Higuaín stopped the ball, he directly swung his foot to shoot!

"Opportunity! Shot!!"

In He Ping's exclamation, Weidenfeller's right hand, which was dragging below, blocked the ball shot by Higuaín!

The ball changed direction slightly and flew towards the baseline!

Then it was kicked out of bounds by the Dortmund defender who had returned to defend...

"What a close call! What a close call! Weidenfeller made a wonderful world-class save!" Marcel Reif breathed a sigh of relief. When Higuaín suddenly cut forward to receive the pass just now, he felt his heart was about to stop...

"Weidenfeller! He saved Dortmund's goal and also saved Dortmund's hopes of advancing!"

"Higuaín ah—" The Italian commentator was very regretful. "What a great opportunity! It was just wasted like that..."

Higuaín, who had collided with Weidenfeller after shooting and fell to the ground, got up and was also very annoyed and disappointed when he saw that the ball had not flown into the goal.

Of course, Benitez on the sidelines was also quite disappointed at first, but he soon applauded Napoli's attack. Although this attack did not score a goal, it also completed his other goal, which was to show Napoli's attitude to Dortmund, let them know that Napoli was not easy to mess with. If they didn't restrain themselves, in the remaining time, Napoli could concentrate on defense and counterattack, and they could definitely score!

Then it would depend on whether Dortmund scored four goals first, or Napoli hammered in an away goal first!

※※※

Because the ball was kicked out of bounds by a Dortmund player, the Napoli players went to throw in the sideline ball.

The sideline ball was thrown to Callejón.

Callejón was facing the defense of two Dortmund players. In front of him was Kehl, and behind him, Yan Min was interfering with him, but he still planned to break through forcibly...

So, of course, his ball was jointly intercepted by the two Dortmund players.

Yan Min preemptively stabbed the ball away from behind. The ball hit Kehl's feet and bounced back, while Callejón lunged forward and missed.

Kehl stepped forward and passed the ball to Yan Min in front.

After Yan Min intercepted the ball, he ran forward sideways. After receiving the ball, he paused for a moment, there was a change in rhythm, which made Behrami, a Napoli player who was intercepting him in front, think that he was going to pass the ball to Zhou Yi, who was receiving him in the middle, so he couldn't help but shift his center of gravity to the middle—if Yan Min wanted to pass the ball to Zhou Yi, he could take the opportunity to intercept Zhou Yi.

As a result, Yan Min just paused, but did not pass the ball. On the contrary, he used the outside of his left foot to push the ball forward and accelerated to chase it, actually trying to force a breakthrough!

Behrami quickly turned back and chased after him, while leaning his body towards Yan Min, wanting to squeeze Yan Min away—he could see that Yan Min's body was not very strong, and his physical confrontation ability was definitely not enough. He didn't even need to foul, just a reasonable collision, and he might be able to make Yan Min lose control of the ball...

His close leaning did bring some trouble to Yan Min. Yan Min's body tilted a bit, and it seemed that he couldn't even maintain his balance.

Then, a second Napoli player, Dzemaili, rushed up, intending to stretch his foot to steal the ball while Yan Min was off balance. Even if he couldn't steal it, creating a foul could end Napoli's counterattack.

But just as Dzemaili stretched his foot out, Yan Min, who was off balance and leaning forward badly, used the tip of his left foot to poke the ball diagonally forward!

He poked the ball to Aubameyang, who was receiving on the sideline!

As the ball was passed away, the pressure on Yan Min's body suddenly lightened. He staggered, his body leaning forward even more badly. In the end, he propped up his body with his hand to avoid falling down.

The reason why Yan Min didn't just let himself fall to the ground after passing the ball was because he still wanted to continue to participate in the attack.

After maintaining his balance, he accelerated forward.

Aubameyang, who was taking the ball on the sideline, was immediately faced with the pressing of two Napoli players, one was Dzemaili, who had followed him, and the other was Maggio, the fullback who was originally defending him.

Aubameyang was also on the sideline, and the space for activity was very narrow. As long as he was surrounded, it would be difficult to get rid of it. Unless... he passed the ball!

Aubameyang turned around and sent the ball forward almost without any hesitation!

The ball passed by Maggio's side. He was pressing forward and had no way to make any movements on this pass. He could only watch the ball slip away from his side and pass to Yan Min, who was inserting from behind!

※※※

"Look at this ball! Dortmund's counterattack is coming again!!" Marcel Reif called out.

He Ping shouted excitedly: "Yan Min! This is a great opportunity! It's wide open in front of him!"

Yan Min did not stop the ball, but directly pushed the ball out again, and then accelerated to chase the ball. This acceleration immediately widened the distance between him and the pursuers who were originally behind him.

After catching up with the ball, Albiol, the Napoli center-back, gave up the defense in the center and made up for the side. Yan Min had already scored a goal in the match against Arsenal, so the Napoli players would definitely not treat him as an unknown person.

Even if he knew that the center was empty after he left, he had to make up for it now.

Facing Albiol's cover, Yan Min took another hard push after catching up with the ball, pushing the ball five or six meters away! Afterwards, he still accelerated to chase the ball, repeating the same trick, and surpassed Albiol by half a body length!

"The center is empty—!!" In Marcel Reif's drawn-out roar, Yan Min caught up with the ball for the third time. This time he did not push the ball again, but directly swept the ball towards the center!

Although Albiol tried his best to tackle the ball, he was still half a step late.

The ball passed in front of him and rolled towards the center of the penalty area.

There, Mark Wagner came rushing in!

At the same time, Napoli goalkeeper Reina also abandoned his goal and came out to block the shooting angle. He was now Napoli's last line of defense, and there was no room for error!

Mark, who received Yan Min's pass on the edge of the penalty area, made an adjustment in rhythm. His right foot swung up, but he didn't kick the ball immediately, but paused. This pause allowed Reina to fall to the ground and make a save. Afterwards, Mark shot according to Reina's movement. The ball swept past the opposite direction in which Reina fell and bounced into the lower right corner of the goal on the grass...