Legend of Fengshen

Chapter 122 Historic Quarterfinals

But all of this is floating in the water, and there is no sign of it, but the quality of the team's training is of course not very good, at least Slomka thinks so, he is not a person who loves to get angry, on the contrary he is a gentle person, But in this case, he also frequently lost his temper.

The team flew to Porto on March 3th, and Zhang Yuan definitely couldn’t go. He sent text messages to every teammate, saying “Come on! Guys!”

Neuer replied, "Don't worry! You will definitely be able to advance, and we will wait for you to come back in the top eight!" quite confident.

Rakitic joked: "If you can treat me to dinner, you will definitely advance!"

"No problem, I'll celebrate you when you come back!" Zhang Yuan replied.

Zhang Yuan watched the game at home. Slomka considered playing away and had the advantage of two goals, so he formed a 442 formation. Altintop Jr. and Kuranyi partnered as strikers. In this game, he Asamoah was not used, mainly because he wanted to use the height of the striker. Asamoah is not as tall as Altintop Jr., and his header is not very outstanding.

In the midfield, Rakitic was replaced by Gross Muller. This is mainly because away defense is the mainstream, and Rakitic's defensive ability is very average. Today's main offensive style is long pass. Rakitic effect is relatively small.Kobyashvili and Jones partnered in the middle, Grossmuller was on the right and Ernst was on the left.

There is no change in the defense line, and it is still the main lineup in the past.

Porto still has a 433 formation, and there is no change in personnel. After the game started, Porto launched a mad attack on Schalke 04. After all, they were two goals behind. Porto had no other choice but to attack, and they had to score as soon as possible. The better, if Schalke 04 is really out of state, it will be really troublesome at that time.

In the first 10 minutes, Schalke 04 defended frighteningly. Porto got a few good opportunities, but unfortunately the striker failed to grasp them. At the Schalke Stadium, Porto's short pass penetrated and used two sides This style of play against Schalke 04 was not successful, but today at the Dragon Stadium, Porto has been able to succeed many times. One is that the players of Schalke 04 are in poor form today, and the other is that Ferreira has increased at home. The strength of the full-back's insertion made Schalke 04 very difficult to defend on the side.

No. In 204 minutes, Lisandro Lopez broke the goal of Schalke 04. Quares immediately made a pass from the bottom. Neuer was unable to stop the attack, and Porto successfully pulled back a goal.

After this goal, the state of Schalke 04's players still did not improve. Porto has always firmly controlled the situation on the field, but they failed to change the score in the first half.

In the second half, Schalke 04 still had no improvement after changing sides. Lacking Rakitic's scheduling, Schalke 04's frontcourt offense was very messy, and their counterattack speed also decreased without Zhang Yuan.

Slomka still has the idea of ​​defensive counterattack, after all, Schalke 04 is still leading by one goal.

Porto still has the advantage on the field, but they have been unable to score for a long time. Ferreira is also very anxious, but he has no cards to play, and now he can only see the individual performance of the players on the field. If the frontcourt players If they can shine, maybe they can solve the game.

But the game has been going on for a long time, and I still haven’t seen a flash of light from the Porto players. Schalke 04 is indeed defending more and more methodically now. Slomka has not replaced Rakitic for a long time because Schalke Gram 04 defended pretty well!
In the 80th minute, Slomka finally replaced Rakitic and Grossmuller. With 10 minutes left, he tried to use Rakitic's organizational ability to delay the pressure on the defense To be honest, the Schalke 04 players are indeed tired after playing for such a long time. They just played against Bayern Munich last weekend. Physical fatigue can easily be reflected in the lack of concentration in the last few minutes.

In the 81st minute, Fuqilai uprooted Kobia Schwilli and was sent off with a red card. Porto made things worse and could only fight with ten men. Slomka was relieved in his heart, and Zhang Yuan in front of the TV was also relieved. With one less player and 10 minutes left, Porto is hopeless no matter how you look at it.

But Porto surprised everyone. They still had the advantage, and after 5 minutes, that is, in the 86th minute, Quaresma dribbled the ball laterally and shot a long shot from the front of the penalty area. The ball hit West. Mann's body refracted into the gate of Schalke 04, and Porto magically equalized the score.

The morale of the Schalke 04 players inevitably declined. Neuer angrily kicked the ball fiercely into the air. He was powerless and depressed.

Slomka covered his face in pain on the sidelines. This result is too sad. Although it is not the last moment, it is only one step away from advancing to the regular season. The rest of the overtime or penalty shootout will be full of dissatisfaction. determining factor.

Zhang Yuan was also like a discouraged ball, because he had a bad premonition that Porto had already taken the lead, and their morale was much stronger than Schalke 04.

Porto, with one less player, was able to take advantage. After scoring a goal, they attacked Schalke 04's half, but they were not so lucky. At the end of 90 minutes, Porto and Schalke 04 scored 2: 2. Both teams enter the overtime period.

Entering extra time, Schalke 04 looked completely different. They were no longer suppressed by Porto, but occupied the top. This was not because of Slomka's tactical arrangement, but because the players of Schalke 04 played after 90 minutes of the game. A short meeting was held in a circle. Captain Bolton hoped that everyone could unite and create team history.

If Schalke 04 can advance to the top 8 this time, then this will be the furthest the team has gone in the Champions League.

Porto fell into a passive position, and Ferreira directed the players to quickly recover. Schalke 04 had no way out. Slomka had already used up all substitutions, and substitutions were impossible. In addition, everyone was physically fit. Almost overdrawn, it is really not easy to break through the gate of Porto.

Neither side scored a goal in the overtime period. The two teams entered a penalty shootout. Zhang Yuan was uneasy. This kind of penalty shootout is too uncertain. The two sides really have a 50% chance of advancing, no matter how good the goalkeeper is. Dare to guarantee that he can save the opponent's penalty kick.

Rafinha came on and shot in the middle of the goal. Elton made a misjudgment and jumped to the right.

Porto defender Alves came on the field, he volleyed vigorously from the right, but it was a little bit straight, Neuer guessed the direction accurately, and struggled to save the ball, Neuer shouted, Zhang Yuan stood up from the sofa , applaud Neuer.

"Sit down, sit down! You are fucking injured!" Mai Xuewen quickly pushed him down, and Zhang Yuan remembered that his foot was still injured, so he couldn't get too excited.

Schalke 04 occupied the top position, and then the two sides played in rotation. Rakitic, Altintop Jr., and Jones who played behind Schalke 04 successfully scored a penalty kick, and Lopez, who played third in Porto, shot again. Saved by Neuer, Schalke 04 defeated Porto 4:1 in the penalty shootout and entered the quarterfinals of the Champions League in a historic way.

The Schalke 04 players rushed towards Neuer together, and Slomka on the sidelines and the players on the bench also rushed into the field. It was a tough game, but the final winner was us!
Zhang Yuan was also very excited. In the quarter-finals of the Champions League, Zhang Yuan began to imagine whether Schalke 04 would go on like this step by step and become the champion!

On the second day, the players of Schalke 04 returned to Gelsenkirchen and were enthusiastically sought after by the fans. This is a historic entry into the top 8. The current players have made history, and they deserve it. Of course, there is one less figure here, that is Zhang Yuan, the key player in the first round, but the fans have not forgotten him. Many fans also held up a large poster of "Lightning Boy" when welcoming the triumphant division.

Zhang Yuan didn't go to the reception, it was really inconvenient for him to go out in his current situation, he didn't want to be squeezed to death by the fans.

Perhaps when Schalke 04 advanced to the top 8 of the UEFA Champions League, the team was injected with a booster. On March 3, they challenged the relegation team Bielefeld in an away game. Schalke 8 won the opponent cleanly with 04:2, ending the three consecutive league matches The decline of defeat.

After 23 rounds, Schalke 04 accumulated 38 points, surpassed Karlsruhe and returned to the fifth position, but they are 12 points away from Bayern Munich. There are 11 rounds left in the league, and it is almost impossible to win the championship.Only 2 points away from No.5 Werder Bremen, there is still hope of qualifying for the Champions League.

In the 24th round, Schalke 04 is at home. The visiting Duisburg currently only has 18 points and ranks 18th in the standings. The good news for Duisburg is that they are not very far from the front. Big, the bad news is they are now on the relegation list after all.

So this game is very important for Schalke 04 or Duisburg, but the last laugh is Schalke 04 at home, with the goals of Kuranyi and Ernst , Schalke 04 won the opponent 2:1, and the points rose to 41 points, still ranking fifth in the standings.

After the game, Zhang Yuan fulfilled his promise and invited Rakitic and Neuer to dinner. The main reason was that he had recuperated for more than two weeks. After Zhang Yuan went to the hospital for examination, he recovered well and could go out for a walk. Although he still has to use crutches and his heels, he really wants to go out after staying at home for so long. He used to live a fulfilling life, but now he is injured and spends time at home every day, but it hurts.

When he was injured at first, he had a lot of phone calls from his family and friends, and they were all concerned about his condition, so he had to answer one by one, "It's okay, just rest for a month or two and it will be fine!"

(End of this chapter)