Lin Zhiyuan and his agent Qiu Xinrong were sitting on the sofa in front of the TV, watching the home game between Alvara and Ruerrhein.
The reason why they pay so much attention to this game is, of course, that they want to cheer for Xia Xiaoyu, a teammate of both the Olympic team and the national team.
On the other hand, it’s because Ruerrhein is Westin Athletic’s opponent in the next German Cup.
After transferring from China to Westin Athletic during the winter break, Lin Zhiyuan quickly adapted to everything here.
After all, he has actually lived here for many years before, and he still has teammates from his youth team in the Westin Athletic first team.
No matter whether it is language or living habits, he has no difficulty adapting.
With good off-court adaptability and good talent, Lin Zhiyuan has only been playing at Westin Athletic for two months and has already started playing games for the team.
At present, he has not directly replaced the main goalkeeper Pierre Groche in the league, but he has surpassed the other two substitute goalkeepers and successfully played in the German Cup.
In late January, in the third round of the German Cup, he played his first game for the Westin Athletic first team.
Although he conceded a goal in that game, he still made five effective saves in the game, helping the team advance to the quarter-finals of the German Cup.
The opponent is none other than Ruhr Rhein.
The two teams will face off in the German Cup at the end of February.
By then, Lin Zhiyuan will directly face Janus Edman in the game.
By watching this Champions League game, Lin Zhiyuan can also understand Edman's recent status and performance, and prepare for him to face Edman in the German Cup.
Edman used his body to knock away the opponent's center back Bruno Pinto in the Alvara penalty area and got a chance to shoot.
But his shot was blocked by Alvara goalkeeper Ze Ferreira.
"Edelman's body is really strong..." agent Qiu Xinrong said with emotion next to Lin Zhiyuan, although Edman did not score. "I feel stronger than Zhou Zijing."
Lin Zhiyuan smiled: "Isn't that certain? If Zhou Zijing is better than Edman, he only scored five goals in the Premier League?"
"That's good. He only scored four goals after playing all last season. This season is only halfway through and he has already scored more goals than last season's league." Qiu Xinrong reminded Lin Zhiyuan not to be too ambitious. "Anyway, Zhou Zijing is now
You have finally established a foothold in the Premier League, and you have only just begun!"
"I know, I know..." Lin Zhiyuan quickly changed the topic, "But I didn't expect Alvara to be quite tenacious. He didn't even let Ruhrlein score a goal now..."
"The main reason is that Set was restricted," Qiu Xinrong said. "Alvara's tactics are quite right. He did not fight with Edman, but restricted Ruhrlein's offensive organization from the midfield. I am
I really didn’t expect Xia Xiaoyu to be so tough in defense..."
"Hey, Uncle Qiu, don't think Xiaoyu has a soft and weak personality, but he actually has a lot of ruthlessness in his heart." Lin Zhiyuan said, "After Brother Lin came to coach the South China Tigers, he once told us that he felt that Xiaoyu
He is a man who truly has the demeanor of a general.”
A close-up shot of Xia Xiaoyu happened to appear on the TV broadcast.
The German commentator said: "Xia was responsible for defense more often in this game and did not perform well offensively. But because of this, Alvara has not allowed Ruhrlein to score yet..."
※※※
The German commentator spoke relatively objectively, while the CCTV commentator was much more emotional.
In the same scene, the CCTV commentator said this:
"Xia Xiaoyu performed very well today! The task assigned to him by the head coach was to assist in defense, so he ran tirelessly in the midfield and backcourt, limiting the performance of John Sett. Ruhrlein has not scored a goal so far.
It is inseparable from Xia Xiaoyu’s performance in the midfield!”
That's a bit exaggerated.
But it’s actually quite different.
Xia Xiaoyu worked very hard on the defensive end in this game, especially his defense against Seter, who focused on sticking close to the press and stalking him.
Sometimes, he even plays "dirty"...
Seth's performance so far has been unsatisfactory. It cannot be said that it is entirely due to Xia Xiaoyu, but it cannot be justified at all if it has nothing to do with Xia Xiaoyu.
※※※
Although Edman got a chance to kick in the penalty area, due to the interference of Alvara center back Matthew Keffier, Edman's kick did not even reach the goal frame.
Edelman looked very angry after missing the opportunity. He slapped his hands on the turf hard, then straightened up and roared to the sky to vent his anger.
Seeing Edman's angry look, Xia Xiaoyu knew that this balance of power could not be maintained for long.
The game has reached the 70th minute, and the score is still 0:0. Alvara, who is playing at home, failed to score.
Of course, the main reason is that they put almost all their energy into preventing Ruhrlein from scoring.
It was obviously a home game, but it felt like we were on the road, starting a defensive counterattack.
The home fans were also very cooperative and created a huge momentum to help Alvara.
There was no booing just because the home team looked ugly at their home stadium.
Thanks to the joint efforts of twelve people on and off the field, Alvara currently maintains a tie at home.
But just drawing with the opponent will not help Alvara eliminate Ruerrhein and advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
After all, Alvara played away in the second round.
The home game is just a draw, can we still win in the away game?
Xia Xiaoyu turned his attention to the frontcourt.
After the 70 minutes of the game, he kept observing and found that Ruerlein's defense was getting higher and higher as they played.
There were some concerns in the first half.
In the second half, Alvara's counterattack was basically ignored.
Xia Xiaoyu doesn't think it's because Ruhrlein looks down on Alvara, but that their mentality has changed and they are becoming more and more anxious to score goals as soon as possible.
Especially their two full-backs, after several times pressing forward to participate in the attack, when Ruhrlein lost the ball, their first choice was not to quickly return to defense, but to participate in the press on the spot.
Doing so may create opportunities for a second attack.
But if Alvara counterattacks, Ruhrlein's defense will face huge pressure.
Thinking of this, Xia Xiaoyu suddenly missed Brother Hu.
If Alvara had Hu Ge... he might be two goals ahead of Ruerrhein now.
It's not that Alvara didn't create counterattack opportunities, but it was a pity that no one took advantage of them.
When he was in middle school, Xia Xiaoyu knew the greatness of Brother Hu. And as he played in Europe for longer and longer, he became more and more aware of the greatness of Brother Hu.
Perhaps because of the development of European football tactical thinking in the past decade or so, forwards who can truly score stably and efficiently have become extremely scarce.
There is no shortage of football geniuses like Melli. There is no shortage before Melli and there is no shortage after Melli.
For example, the current right winger Lesinho in the Alvara team is this type of player. He has the speed to break through, but his ability to shoot and score is slightly poor.
Of the two scoring opportunities that were wasted before, one of them was squandered by Lessinho.
However, Xia Xiaoyu also knew that he was in Alvara and was not qualified to be picky and critical of his teammates.
All he can do is help the team as much as possible within the existing lineup framework and tactical system.
※※※
John Sett played very frustrated in this game.
He was tightly defended by the Alvara players in the midfield.
In addition to the restrictions placed on him by Brazilian defensive midfielder Eli, the Chinese defensive midfielder Xia Xiaoyu also made him very unhappy.
While he was dealing with Eli, he also had to beware of Xia Xiaoyu's sneak attacks.
Just like this time.
As he was catching the ball, Eli bumped into him.
Under the impact, Seter stopped the ball slightly larger.
Xia Xiaoyu stepped in from the side and stretched out his feet to steal the ball!
Set tried to regain control of the football, but kicked Xia Xiaoyu in the calf, knocking the latter to the ground.
The referee's whistle sounded, calling Set a foul.
Seth was also speechless.
He did commit a foul. Although he didn't want to do it subjectively, Xia Xiaoyu moved faster than him. He could only kick the opponent's leg...
But he still wanted to have a word with the referee. He believed that Eli's bump into him before was a foul.
So he turned around and complained to the referee about Eli.
Next to him, Xia Xiaoyu, who had fallen to the ground, was getting up from the ground. He glanced at Seth and the referee, and then quickly lowered his head, as if he was afraid that the other party would notice him.
Set did look at him, and he even said to the referee: "Look, he's fine. My kick was really not intentional. But their No. 6 collided with me on purpose..."
Number six is Eli.
Set was giving Eli eye drops, hoping to make the referee pay more attention to Alvara's midfielder.
In this way, I may not have so much pressure in future games...
At this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Xia Xiaoyu who had just taken a step back and kicked the football!
He reflexively wanted to stop it, but it was too late!
The football was kicked forward by Xia Xiaoyu!
"Xia! Quick free kick!"
Amid the cheers of Alvara fans, the football flew dozens of meters and landed in the frontcourt.
Brazilian winger Lesinho stopped the football in front with the outside of his right foot and accelerated towards the Ruhrlein goal!
"Beautiful!! Alvara's counterattack! Lessinho is not offside!"
The cheers in the Lisbon Arena suddenly increased, like rolling thunder.
Lessinho, who had wasted an opportunity, did not waste Xia Xiaoyu's ball this time. After bringing the football into the penalty area, he faced the attacking Ruerrhein goalkeeper Simon Koenigs and calmly pushed the ball into the far corner!
The football jumped over the fallen Koenigs and jumped into the goal!
In the 75th minute of the game, Alvara, who was playing at home, used a quick free kick in the backcourt to break the deadlock. They led Ruhrlein 1:0!
