novelraw Chapter 637 - 442: After a Headshot on Icardi, Tang Long Faces His First Penalty Shootout in His Career!
Chapter 637 - 442: After a Headshot on Icardi, Tang Long Faces His First Penalty Shootout in His Career!
"Someone’s shouting Tang inside!!!"
"Haha, I knew it would be him!"
"Hurry up and run inside, or we won’t even see the slow-motion replay!"
"Oh my gosh, wait for me! My seat is far away, I’m dying of anxiety!"
Guardiola revealed a satisfied smile.
Even though he didn’t see it clearly either, it was Tang Long who scored at last, and he realized it!
Confidently, he rubbed his bald head back and forth, looking smugly at Pellegrini in the Manchester United area, as if to say, "How about that, my use of Tang Long is a bit better than yours, isn’t it?"
Pellegrini looked utterly perplexed.
He’s getting older, his nearsightedness compounded by presbyopia, and can’t see clearly either close or far away!
Anyway, he couldn’t figure it out; evidently, Tang Long was surrounded by three people, so how did he suddenly seem to burrow through and emerge in front of De Gea?
The three Manchester United defenders, Valencia, Smolin, and Fellaini, were equally bewildered.
These three are top-tier Premier League professionals, battle-hardened.
They were very certain that at the last moment, the three of them had firmly boxed Tang Long in the center—how did he escape at the last second?
The key is how he ran; all the gaps were already locked down, if Tang Long had forced his way through, he would have collided with one of the Manchester United players.
But none of these three felt any physical contact with Tang Long;
The only contact was among their own heads bumping together, and it’s still painful with stars in their eyes!
Not just on the Manchester United side, even Tang Long’s Manchester City teammates hadn’t figured it out.
Agüero just barely saw Tang Long’s final lob shot against De Gea, which was very stylish, but the prior escape from a three-man encirclement was only a vague blur.
"Amazing, Tang," Agüero hurried over to Tang Long, both excited and curious, "Quick, tell me, how did you slip through their three-man encirclement?"
Tang Long smiled, pointing to the giant screen high above Wembley Stadium.
The replay had already started...
Everyone looked up, and after watching the replay, they felt as if petrified inside, completely incredulous!
"This, this, this is way too fast, how is it possible!"
"If it weren’t for seeing the slow-motion replay, I would never have imagined he could make such a move!"
"In such a narrow space, how can the ball be so obedient under his feet?"
"So strong... Alas!"
It turns out, just as Valencia, Smolin, and Fellaini rapidly closed in like hungry wolves, Tang Long had already calculated.
Seeing the space in front of him rapidly compressing, he first feigned a shift of his center of gravity to the right, dropped his shoulder, waved his hand, as though he was going to force through the tight gap between Smolin and Valencia.
This provoked the two to instinctively seal the left side even tighter, their body weight shifting leftward also.
A mere body feint wouldn’t be enough to fool opponents;
Tang Long used both hands and feet, while pushing the ball to the right at the same time!
At the same time, despite his outward push, his right foot secretly gathered strength, taking advantage of his opponent’s attention drawn by his fake move, he sharply pulled the ball back with the inside of his right foot!
This pull on the ball was tactically precise in both strength and angle, the ball brushed past Fellaini’s left inner foot, barely scratching through, nutmegging him!
Fellaini was just considering blocking Tang Long’s path to his left as his body was already lunging forward;
He himself predicted that he would soon sandwich Tang Long in the center, unable even to spare any peripheral nerve endings to feel the fleeting rush as Tang Long slipped through with the ball between his legs!
As the ball was pulled back, Tang Long swiftly pivoted, slipping through the gap in a flash, moving so fast that opponents barely had time to react, breaking through what seemed to be impenetrable "closing the door to catch the dog" tactic employed by three Manchester United players, directly confronting the advancing goalkeeper De Gea, ultimately completing the lob shot.
The Manchester United defense line missed the dog in "closing the door to catch the dog," while the three sticks meant for the dog ended up banging on their own heads, with Fellaini, Valencia, and Smolin all in agony~
Watching the big screen, Pellegrini could hardly hide his shock, feeling unspoken anguish.
"That play, Tang’s handling was absolutely perfect, pulling off a nutmeg with the tail flick, and amidst the three-man encirclement he made the most logical choice to break through! Yet given the urgency of the situation, how could he come up with and achieve it in a flash?"
Pellegrini gazed at Tang Long, looking serene as he bantered with Agüero, feeling an unexpected jolt inside.
Tang had grown stronger than when I coached Manchester City last season!
What exactly happened to him during summer training?
From start to finish, there was only one player on the field among both teams who saw it most clearly, and that was the Manchester United player Bony.
Benefiting from his position—near the sideline and facing Tang Long’s direction directly—and because Bony grew up poor without books to read, TV to watch, or a phone to play with, his eyesight is exceptionally good, reaching 5.2, having seen the entire process of Tang Long’s breakthrough.
He couldn’t help but take a sharp breath!
He knew Tang Long’s dribbling skills are top-notch, whether in stepping frequency, dribbling techniques, or assessing the situation, ranks first-rate in football.
Last season Bony often observed Tang Long’s dribbles, gaining a lot from it!
It was Tang Long just now, within three Manchester United players swiftly closing in from three directions, who escaped using the tail flick nutmeg move—a trick Bony hadn’t witnessed Tang Long use all last season.