Green Field Eunuch

Chapter 85 A Sharp, Across Ball

After defeating Juventus, Roma still have two matches to play in January: a Coppa Italia quarter-final against Catania and a Serie A match at home against Siena in the 22nd round.

In the match against Catania, Roma fielded their strongest lineup and easily defeated their opponents 3-1 at home.

Shan Yongzhuo scored two goals, a commendable performance.

In the next match against Siena, Shan Yongzhuo scored another goal, and the team defeated Siena 2-1, continuing their winning streak in the league.

Moreover, in this round of matches, Inter Milan were held to a draw by Parma away from home, which allowed Roma to pull ahead by 6 points.

Italian media outlets are also giving Shan Yongzhuo a lot of coverage, as his goal against Siena brings his total to 34. Just one more goal will allow him to equal Nordahl's Serie A record of 35 goals.

What's even more alarming is that it's only the beginning of February, and the league is only a little over halfway through.

Fiorentina, their next opponent, must be feeling quite disheartened, and they are also very wary of Shan Yongzhuo.

Shan Yongzhuo's goal-scoring efficiency is too high; his Serie A goal tally has reached 34.

Nordahl's league goal record is only 35, a record that has stood for almost 60 years. Given the defensive intensity of Serie A, it will be very difficult to break this record.

However, Shan Yongzhuo is very likely to break that record now. If he scores two goals in the match against Fiorentina, he will set a new record, and the Stadio Artemio Franchi will become the place where the other team wins the honor.

Fiorentina fans do not want their team to be recorded in history in this way; it is not an honor, but a disgrace.

They could even imagine what the subsequent reports would be like.

"Shan Yongzhuo broke a 60-year-old Serie A record at Fiorentina's home stadium, the Stadio Artemio Franchi, and Fiorentina had absolutely no way to stop him."

This is not okay.

As a result, the Fiorentina fans' morale was also lowered.

"We absolutely cannot let him score two goals!"

"It would be best if they didn't score a single goal, and let Palermo keep the record."

Fiorentina fans hope that Shan Yongzhuo will not score in this match and will save his goal for their next opponent, Palermo.

Palermo fans think the same way, hoping that Shan Yongzhuo can break the record against Fiorentina, so that he will have the same motivation for the match against Palermo.

However, before the match between Roma and Fiorentina, there is an Italian Cup match to play, the first leg of the semi-final against Udinese at home.

Shan Yongzhuo did not play in this match, but the team still easily defeated Udinese 2-0 at home.

Next up is the league match against Fiorentina, and Shan Yongzhuo has successfully made it into the starting lineup.

On the day of the match, the Stadio Artemio Franchi was packed early in the morning, mostly with fans who came to support Fiorentina, and many others who traveled to the away game to support Roma and support Shan Yongzhuo's record-breaking performance.

But after most of the fans had taken their seats, both teams were already entering the stadium.

On one side is Florence, and on the other side is Rome.

The Stadio Artemio Franchi is Fiorentina's home ground, but Roma is currently receiving more attention than them.

The media clearly don't care about Fiorentina's situation. Although they made it to the Champions League round of 16, their league performance this season has been terrible, dropping them to the lower half of the table.

The media's focus is on Shan Yongzhuo, as this match is crucial for breaking records. In their view, it's perfectly normal for Shan Yongzhuo to score two goals.

Fiorentina's defense wasn't that tenacious.

With the referee's whistle, the match officially began, and the cheers from the stands immediately rose to a new level. Roma, taking advantage of the first kickoff, launched an attack towards Fiorentina's half. Toni passed the ball to Shan Yongzhuo, who then passed it to Pizarro behind him before charging headlong into the attacking third.

Gamberini immediately followed, ready for anything.

The last encounter left Gamberini with very bad memories. This time, facing Shan Yongzhuo again, Gamberini felt he was well prepared, but he was still unsure whether he could defend against his opponent.

"This guy is really strange. His strength and speed are average. Although he can sometimes make some amazing dribbles, most of the time his technique is just mediocre. Can good footwork really lead to scoring so many goals?"

This is Gamberini's opinion of Shan Yongzhuo.

When Roma's offensive was thwarted and Fiorentina began their own attack, Gamberini was marking Shan Yongzhuo in the backfield. When he saw Shan Yongzhuo close his eyes, he immediately became alert: "This guy is starting to cast a spell, we have to be careful!"

Fiorentina's squad was actually quite strong at the time. They were able to advance to the round of 4 in the Champions League with one game to spare, and even beat Liverpool and Lyon to become the group winners. They also advanced to the semi-finals of the Italian Cup, which shows that they have the ability.

However, the Champions League distracted them too much, and their squad was not strong enough to support two competitions, which made their performance in the league less than satisfactory.

However, Fiorentina was very well prepared for this match, which allowed them to dominate the game against Roma at home.

Most of the time, Shan Yongzhuo could only stand in the frontcourt, doing nothing.

Dan Yongzhuo made token runs on the field, but most of the time he didn't even bother to move. Gamberini found this a bit strange, but he didn't dare to let his guard down.

Whenever Fiorentina loses possession, he will immediately begin to mark them closely; this is the most important task that head coach Prandelli has entrusted to him.

In the 13th minute, Roma launched a normal attack.

Dan Yongzhuo was closely marked by Gamberini, so he simply dropped back a distance to receive the ball. Gamberini was unable to block the position and had no good way to deal with Dan Yongzhuo's dropping back to receive the ball.

However, he immediately stepped forward and passed the ball to Shan Yongzhuo, preventing him from having a chance to break through. He also kept a close eye on the ball, looking for an opportunity to intercept it.

Dan Yongzhuo immediately unleashed his Whirlwind Ground Kick, suddenly kicking the ball to the right and leaning slightly to the right as well.

Gamberini was fooled by the move, because the ball did indeed move to the right, and all he had to do was follow.

However, the next moment, Shan Yongzhuo suddenly changed direction and ran directly to the left.

This is somewhat similar to a sudden change of direction in basketball. The difference is that in basketball, you can use your hands to control the ball and change direction, but you can't do that in soccer because the ball has already been kicked to the left.

"What is he doing?"

Gamberini couldn't understand it at first, but the next moment he did.

The football only moved a short distance to the left, then suddenly spun and changed direction, bypassing Gamberini, spinning a large arc on the grass, and returning to Shan Yongzhuo's feet.

"How can this be?"

Gamberini was stunned.

A gasp of surprise rippled through the stands; the fans could clearly see that they were even more astonished than Gamberini.

"What kind of dribbling skill is this?"

"The football looked like it was kicked in a huge arc!"

"This is incredible!"

Fans began to worry because Shan Yongzhuo had already pulled away from Gamberini by a considerable distance and was rapidly advancing towards the penalty area.

(End of this chapter)