Rebirth Football Simulator

Chapter 123 Goal Shortage?
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With the Spanish referee Velasco's long whistle, the game officially began.

Chelsea kicked off first and played very threateningly on the first attack.

Hazard's movement involved, Fabregas sent a diagonal pass, and Ghana left-back Rahman Baba sent a cross.

The cross was extremely accurate, and the ball successfully passed Umtiti and was delivered accurately to the head of Diego Costa.

Fortunately, the Spanish center seemed unable to head the ball with a mask on. The undisturbed header in the small penalty area was so weak that Anthony Lopez raised his hand and shot it.

It is said that during the first two weeks of Chelsea training, Diego Costa was accidentally hit by the back of his teammate's head and broke the bridge of his nose, causing him to play games with a mask recently.

But the English tabloids don't think so, they claim that Costa's nose was broken.

Obviously, the infighting in the Blues continues.

"Almost broke Lyon's goal at the beginning, Chelsea showed a strong desire to win."

"Currently the Blues are in the lower reaches of the Premier League rankings, and it is basically impossible to qualify for the Champions League next season through the Premier League rankings. Then they must work hard to win the Champions League, so that they can qualify for the Champions League next season."

"You must know that Chelsea have reached the Champions League final twice in history, and both experienced half-way coaching changes at that time."

"Especially in the season when Chelsea successfully won the championship in 2012, they failed to enter the top four in the Premier League after a half-time coaching change, but advanced all the way in the Champions League and finally won the championship."

Because of a threatening attack from Chelsea, the England commentator instantly became excited.

The Champions League round of [-] met Lyon. The English media generally believed that this opponent was not bad. As long as the Blues dealt with it seriously, they could pass the test smoothly.

Play restarted, Chelsea took a corner.

Umtiti successfully pushed the corner kick, Zhang Chaoqiang got the football in front of his penalty area and immediately accelerated the start.

But Pedro successfully interrupted Lyon's counterattack with a simple pulling foul.

Chelsea, as counter-defense experts, are very familiar with this kind of routine, so they will naturally take precautions.

Now both teams can only attack with positional warfare, slowly looking for opportunities.

Relying on the home momentum bonus, Lyon did not lose Chelsea at all on the scene.

It can even be said that small has an advantage.

And after experiencing the impetuous loss at the weekend, the whole team of Lyon adjusted their mentality well without any panic.

In the 12th minute, Zhang Chaoqiang looked at the opportunity from outside the penalty area, and suddenly shot a long shot with a cold arrow. The power angle was well played, and the football went straight to the lower right corner of the goal.

But Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois was equally focused and bravely saved the ball.

After 5 minutes, Hazard passed Yale's diagonal pass in front of the goal, and Pedro couldn't follow up and let the football slide past the goal.

The head coaches of both sides on the sidelines are quite satisfied with the situation on the field, thinking that if they continue to play like this, they will definitely get a favorable result.

Hiddink believes that Chelsea's overall strength is stronger than Lyon, so there is no need to worry.

Fournier believes in Lyon's double guns, or in Zhang Chaoqiang.

This season, Zhang Chaoqiang has rapidly grown into Lyon's top star and also the top scorer.

Compared with the sudden rise of Lacazette last season, Zhang Chaoqiang's scoring efficiency this season is not inferior to the opponent, and he is not soft in key games, and has repeatedly performed miraculously. This is the most reassuring place.

Although he was stabbed by Lille on the weekend, Zhang Chaoqiang's consecutive goals were also interrupted.

But his state has been maintained, and there has been no decline in his state.

In the 28th minute, Lyon dribbled the ball to the frontcourt.

Zhang Chaoqiang took the ball in the middle of the penalty area, took advantage of Valbuena's cover, decisively accelerated to throw off the Nigerian midfielder Mikel, and kicked forward.

Lacazette received the ball with his back in the penalty area, but he couldn't turn around at all. With Ivanovic and Cahill's four legs messing around, the ball was sent back.

Zhang Chaoqiang quickly started from outside the penalty area and jumped up, surpassing Mikel who was half a step ahead of him in an instant, grabbed the ball in front of the opponent and slammed it, and decisively chose to hit the goal.

Lacazette also reacted very quickly. Seeing that the football that had just returned was immediately hit back, he immediately jumped up with his legs open to avoid Zhang Chaoqiang's shot.

Courtois in front of the door was not so lucky. His sight was blocked, resulting in a slow reaction.

So he fell to the ground and couldn't make a save, and the football rushed all the way to the bottom right corner of the goal.

"Goooooooooooal———"

"Super Zhang!! Beautiful goal!!"

"The two teams saw each other back and forth. Super Zhang found an opportunity in a chaotic battle and scored Chelsea's goal with a strong shot!"

"In Ligue [-] four days ago, Super Zhang had a goal drought, he failed to break Lille's goal, but only four days later, he scored against Chelsea and successfully declared a goal drought. Finish!"

"As early as the end of the group stage, we said that Lyon is the second strongest group this season, and now they want to prove their strength to everyone."

Among the second in the Champions League group this season, there are actually two strong teams, Juventus and Arsenal.

But in terms of points in the group stage, Lyon is indeed the strongest second in the group.

After the football hit the goal, Zhang Chaoqiang rushed to the sidelines to celebrate.

There was another fierce shout from the stands.

"Super Zhang, great job!"

"Kill the English and let them see how powerful the Lion King is."

"Don't let them go back alive."

"We're going to the quarterfinals!"

At the same time, the England commentator was madly criticizing Mikel.

"In the defense just now, Mikel was overtaken by the Chinese twice, which is simply too bad."

"On the court, defensive players can make up for the lack of speed and distance through defensive positioning, but the Nigerian's defensive selection is so bad that he was thrown away by the Chinese twice in a row."

"I think Mourinho might be right, it might be better to let Matic play as a midfielder."

When Mourinho was there before, Chelsea's midfielder choice has always been Cesc Fabregas' partner Matic.

However, after Hiddink took office, Matic quickly lost his main position, and Mikel got a chance to take the lead.

※※※

The game restarted, and the two sides still played patiently.

Chelsea is only one goal behind, and they should be mentally prepared for this situation.

After all, they have lost so many games in the Premier League, and they have already lost.

While the two teams were dawdling back and forth, Chelsea did quickly equalize the score.

In the 41st minute, Hazard's dribbling helped Chelsea create a corner kick. William took the corner kick. Diego Costa pressed Umtiti in the middle of the penalty area and took off. The football flew to the back point.

Mikel, who was slammed by the England commentator before, just appeared in the position, stopped the ball with his right foot and pushed with his left foot, helping Chelsea equalize the score very smoothly.

In an instant, Mikel evolved into a great hero for Chelsea and began to be praised in various ways.

"This is an away goal. Lyon's corner kick defense was too careless." The domestic commentator is also constantly regretting.

In the two knockout rounds, the importance of away goals is self-evident.

In the remaining minutes of the first half, neither team could find another chance.

So the first half ended with a score of 1:1.

(End of this chapter)