Reverse.

Chapter 77 Aren’t You Afraid of Me?

The Al Thani Stadium, which can accommodate 60,000 people, was crowded and almost full.

The loudspeakers at the scene kept playing sounds that sounded like chanting, and the Qatari fans in the stands sang along.

Although it sounds like some kind of religious ceremony, it actually has nothing to do with religion. It is just a way of cheering with local characteristics of the Middle East. It sounds like chanting, perhaps because their scriptures are originally sung...

The specific content has nothing to do with religion. If the meaning must be translated, it is probably similar to "We are the champions" or "Come on, come on."

Led by the loudspeakers, the Qatari fans at the scene sang karaoke with great enthusiasm.

This is because at this moment in the game, China's top star Wang Lie is not on the court!

The person they thought was the most threatening was not here!
Isn’t this worth being happy about, worth being excited about?

So guys, sing! Dance! Raise your voice!

Compared to the excited Qatari fans, the Chinese fans were much quieter...

In this away game, there are about 2,000 Chinese fans traveling with the team. Among them are cheering groups officially organized by the Football Association, as well as ordinary fans who spontaneously come to Qatar to watch the game.

In addition, there are many Chinese working in Qatar and the Middle East.

The total number may be more than three thousand.

But amid the "chanting" of the remaining 57,000 Qatari fans, the Chinese fans were completely silent.

On the one hand, of course, it was overwhelmed by the momentum created by the Qatari fans.

On the other hand, they themselves are also very depressed.

"Damn it! The game has only just started for ten minutes and those Qataris are already as happy as if they were ahead!"

"Who told us not to send Wang Lie to the stage? This decision is really... the loved ones hate it, and the enemies are happy!"

"What is He Zhenyong thinking? Wang Lie has been in such good form recently, but he is not allowed to start and is kept on the bench!"

"That's right! If Wang Lie started, would Qatar fans dare to be so rampant?"

"It's understandable, after all, Wang Lie is already 38 years old, and he played almost every game for the club before, so maybe his physical fitness is still a little lacking..."

"That's even more wrong! Wang Lie can play almost every game in the club, but he can only be a substitute in the national team?"

"No wonder people on the Internet say that He Zhenyong is Chi Zhen's godfather..."

Ankang listened to the Chinese fans around him talking more and more outrageously, so he had to interrupt them: "Okay, brothers, it's our turn!!"

He put the roll-up megaphone to his lips, turned around and faced the Chinese fans in the stands behind him who were all wearing red jerseys and shouted, "Who are we?!"

"Long Yin! Long Yin!" Hundreds of Chinese fans in the stands answered him in unison.

"Then let them hear the dragon's roar--!!!" Ankang leaned back, clenched one hand into a fist and raised it high, stretching out his voice and shouting:

"The Chinese team—"

Hundreds of Chinese fans shouted in unison:
"come on!!!"

"The Chinese team—"

"come on!!!"

※※※

In the intervals between the Qatari fans' chanting, head coach Jose Rezende vaguely heard the voices of Chinese fans cheering.

He turned his eyes to the stands behind the Chinese team's goal.

Those Chinese fans were indeed waving their arms and cheering for the team.

But it's meaningless.

Their voices will soon be drowned out by the singing of Qatari fans.

Just as the Chinese team on the field is now being suppressed by its own team.

Assistant coach Amado said: "I think we should continue to strengthen our offensive and press the Chinese players with the ball in the frontcourt, and try to score goals early, which will be beneficial for our subsequent games..."

Rezende agreed with the suggestion, so he turned to the translator Nasser Kassem and said, "Let the players press in the front court."

Qasim took the order and ran to the sidelines, shouting and gesturing to the Qatari players on the field: "Press! Press them!"

※※※

The game was still going on, but the TV broadcast gave a close-up shot of Wang Lie on the bench.

In the camera, Wang Lie was sitting on a chair, leaning forward slightly, with one hand on his thigh, his palm supporting his chin, staring intently in the direction of the court.

Commentator Luo Jin said: "... Qatar was well prepared for today's game. They used their home advantage to suppress the Chinese team on the field. The game has only started for ten minutes, but Qatar has already had two shots, while the Chinese team has not had any shots so far..."

※※※

Chi Zhen found that Qatar was pressing again.

Their full-backs didn't even return to defense after pressing forward, but instead participated in the pressing in the front court, or waited for the opportunity to counterattack on the spot...

This is normal, but when Chi Zhen saw this scene, he got angry:

Do you look down on me so much?!
He could understand that the Qataris had long been afraid of Wang Ge. After all, in previous confrontations at the Asian level, the Chinese team and Qatar had often met, and Wang Ge always scored goals.

So the Qataris were impressed by Brother Wang.

But... who defeated you in the first round of the top 12?
it's me!

I scored the only goal of that game, helping the Chinese team beat Qatar 1:0 and get off to a good start in the top tournament.

So you are afraid of Brother Wang, but not me?

Of course he knew that the Qataris' fear of Brother Wang was the result of Brother Wang's accumulation of goals against them one by one.

Because of my age, I did score fewer goals against Qatar.

Then start from now on, accumulating one ball at a time!
Chi Zhen turned his head and glanced at the bench. He saw that special figure in the crowd.

Brother Wang was watching the game, watching him.

He didn't believe that Coach He didn't give Brother Wang a chance to play throughout the game.

And if I have neither scored any goals nor made any assists when Brother Wang comes on as a substitute, what will Brother Wang say?

Will he say:
Just a small country like Qatar, and you still want me to take action personally. You disappoint me so much!

I don't want to be stared at by Brother Wang as if he were looking at me like trash...

Chi Zhen decided to instill fear of himself into the hearts of Qataris from now on.

Anyway, Brother Wang is old, and you need a new big devil now!

※※※

Qatar's high pressing in the frontcourt did cause some trouble for the Chinese players.

During this period, the Chinese team could only rely on long passes if they wanted to get the ball to the front court.

However, the success rate of this attack method is too low.

Even if a Chinese player gets the ball in front, he will be surrounded by the opponent's defenders due to lack of support.

But Chi Zhen felt that this was his opportunity because Qatar's forward pressure left the backcourt full of empty spaces.

And his individual combat capability is very strong.

So when his teammates were compressed in their own half, Chi Zhen did not go back to participate in the defense, but stood at the front, cruising horizontally near the center line, looking for opportunities.

The opportunity came quickly.

The Qatari player's shot was saved by China's goalkeeper Yue Hang. When the latter got up from the ground, he found that most of the Qatari players had not retreated - they retreated, but only a little bit and did not really get into position.

He turned his gaze to the front court and saw Chi Zhen staring at him.

In fact, the distance was so far that he was not sure whether Chi Zhen was looking at him, but seeing Chi Zhen helped Yue Hang find the target for the pass.

So he held the football and rushed to the edge of the penalty area.

The Qatari players were really unscrupulous. Their forward didn't think about returning to defense at this time, but stood on the penalty area line, trying to use his body to interfere with and block Yue Hang's hand-thrown ball - he even wanted to block the ball directly into the Chinese team's goal!
Yue Hang ignored the Qatari striker and threw the football in his hand like an Olympic track and field athlete throwing a discus, using his body to drive his arms and adding rotational force to himself!
Throw it directly across half court!
"Yue Hang! Throw the ball to start the attack!"

Good shot, Yue Hang!
Chi Zhen looked back at the football in the air, gave Yue Hang a thumbs up in his heart, and then ran as fast as he could!

"Chi Zhen starts!"

The Qatari fans' chanting in the stands suddenly stopped and was replaced by boos.

The booing was not loud at first, just sporadic.

When Chi Zhen stopped the ball thrown from the backcourt steadily, the boos immediately became louder.

Because Qatari fans felt a huge danger from Chi Zhen's stop of the ball!
"Chi Zhen! Good stop!"

In fact, his stopping was not particularly good, because he did not stop the ball exactly a few meters in front of him, so he could not even slow down and drive the ball directly towards the Qatar goal.

However, considering that it is very difficult to stop such a high ball, and due to Qatar's pressure, there is only one defensive player in Qatar's backcourt besides the goalkeeper.

Therefore, the slight speed loss caused by Chi Zhen in stopping the ball can be almost ignored.

After he stopped the ball at his feet, he dribbled the ball out again and started!
Chi Zhen’s fast starting speed is one of his major characteristics, so even if there is a slight flaw in his ball stop, it is not a big deal for him.

Dragged behind... No, it should be said that Abdullah Sabah, the Qatari central defender who had been relatively active in returning to defense, did not rush to fight Chi Zhen who was rushing towards him with the ball, but slowly retreated to buy time for his teammates to return to defense. Chi Zhen increased his speed and moved closer to Sabah.

After being shortened in distance, Sabah continued to fight and retreat.

Chi Zhen was too lazy to waste time with him, he kicked the football forward suddenly, and then suddenly accelerated and started!
Two steps later, he surpassed Shaba, and the latter had just turned around and could only see Chi Zhen's back!
"Chi Zhen...Tu He! Beautiful!"

The boos from Qatari fans are deafening!

Chi Zhen who got rid of Sabah had a one-on-one attack!

Now the only one in front of him is Qatar's goalkeeper Osama Hassan!

"China's chance!!"

Hassan left the goal and rushed towards the football.

Even if he couldn't get the ball before Chi Zhen, he had to shorten the distance between himself and Chi Zhen as much as possible so that he could block a large enough angle...

When Chi Zhen caught up with the football, Hassan was probably only a few meters away from him.

He looked up at the opponent, swung his right foot and pretended to shoot!
Hassan immediately lowered his center of gravity, but did not pounce right away. Apparently he had something else in mind.

Sure enough, Chi Zhen's shot was a fake. He put down his right foot as if to push the ball away.

But it’s still a fake move!

His right foot just feinted behind the ball.

But Hassan could no longer maintain his balance, and he was knocked to the ground by Chi Zhen's second fake move...

Seeing Hassan sitting down, Chi Zhen's real action came.

He used the inside of his right foot to push the football to the left, changed direction slightly, and rushed past Hassan who had fallen to the ground.

The goalkeeper of the Qatar national team could only watch Chi Zhen rely on his powerful explosive power to catch up with the football, then raise his left foot and shoot into the empty goal!
Without a doubt, the football rolled into the goal!

The boos above the Al Thani Stadium were deafening!
But the three thousand Chinese fans were still cheering as hard as they could.

“Good shot, good shot!!”

"Chi Zhen is awesome!"

"Fuck Qatar!"

"Chi Zhen! Chi Zhen! Good shot!! In the 17th minute of the game, the Chinese team broke the deadlock! Chi Zhen made a long run to score the first goal for the Chinese team! Beautiful! This goal is crucial! Before Chi Zhen scored, Qatar had already taken advantage of the situation and pressed the Chinese team! This goal freed the Chinese team from the passive situation! One punch is better than a hundred!"

Luo Jin shouted excitedly.

Although when Chi Zhen and Wang Lie fought in the club, he had a slight emotional bias deep in his heart.

But when commenting on national team matches, he can really be fair and objective.

Because whether Chi Zhen or Wang Lie performs well, the Chinese team will benefit in the end.

No matter who wins, it’s the Chinese team that wins!
After scoring the goal, Chi Zhen excitedly rushed to the corner flag area, jumped high and punched the air.

I did it!

I did it!

He shouted excitedly inwardly.

The Chinese players rushed up, hugged him and drowned him.

The TV broadcast camera quickly cut away from the Chinese players who were huddled together and turned to the Chinese team's bench.

I saw Wang Lie hugging and high-fiving his teammates on the bench to celebrate the goal.

This shot is really meaningful.

Obviously, the official broadcaster of the AFC also knows about the problems within the Chinese national team.

However, Wang Lie did not put on a sour face and refuse to celebrate just because Chi Zhen scored a goal.

On the contrary, it seems that from this picture, it is impossible to tell that the two are direct competitors...

The better Chi Zhen performs, the fewer opportunities Wang Lie may have.

But Wang Lie was still applauding Chi Zhen's goal.

Maybe he was not applauding Chi Zhen, but applauding the Chinese team.

※※※

"Ah Zhen is awesome! This ball is really inspiring!"

When Su Ju pounced on Chi Zhen, he yelled and slapped his body, shoulders, back...

He might be the second person besides Chi Zhen who knows how important this ball is to Chi Zhen.

Chi Zhen also smiled happily amid the praise from his teammates.

But he couldn't help but look towards the Chinese team's bench, searching for his target.

He saw Brother Wang high-fiving his substitute teammates to celebrate.

Wang Ge was not upset because of his goal or outstanding performance...

Brother Wang did what he said.

Let football be football.

Let football speak!
Chi Zhen's guilt for going all out to compete with Brother Wang for the core position was alleviated a lot.

Then he took the opportunity when his teammates came up to celebrate and said to them: "This is Qatar's home court. It is not safe to be ahead of them by only one goal! Come on, everyone! Keep up the good work and let's try to score one more goal before the end of the first half!"

"Okay! One more of them!"

"come on! Come on!"

“The Chinese team!!”

The teammates who came to celebrate were also very excited.

※※※

"Fuck you!" Qatar head coach Jose Rezende couldn't help but swear when he saw his team lose the ball.

It was obvious that their team had the upper hand on the field and the situation was also favorable to Qatar.

As a result, the Chinese team lost the ball in a counterattack...

"Our luck is really bad..." Assistant coach Amado shook his head and sighed. Then he asked Rezende: "What should we do next? Should we continue to press in the front court and try to equalize the score in the shortest time?"

"No!" Unexpectedly, Rezende shook his head and rejected the assistant coach's opinion. "First, stabilize the defense and strengthen the pressure and defense against Chi. The Chinese team will definitely increase their offensive next time, so we will defend and counterattack!"

Even though the game had just begun, Rezende believed that the Chinese team was in the midst of an internal strife crisis.

But he also knows that sometimes goals can cover up those problems.

No matter if Chi Zhen scored due to luck or some other reason, the goal changed the situation.

He couldn't still think that the Chinese team was in a state of internal strife and division, as this would lead him to make a wrong judgment...

And if Qatar had performed more tenaciously and maintained the score of 0:1 in the first half, they might have been able to force Wang Lie out during the halftime break.

Based on Rezende's speculation about the internal situation of the Chinese team, he believed that Wang Lie's appearance was actually a good thing, and it might even become a turning point in the game.

When Wang Lie came on the field and Chi Zhen was not replaced... Rezende thought that if he was the head coach of the Chinese team, he would not know how to arrange these two people clearly and avoid trouble.

※※※

After scoring the goal, the Chinese team's morale was boosted and they wanted to continue to expand the score.

But they soon discovered that Qatar was different from before they conceded the goal.

They changed their previous posture of pressing in the Chinese team's frontcourt and retreated to park the bus.

This was actually the tactic Qatar used when playing away against the Chinese team in the first round of the top 12 matches.

It was actually quite successful.

In the end, the Chinese team only scored one goal.

Considering that this was the Chinese team's home court, a small loss of 0:1 was completely acceptable.

Therefore, if Qatar just focuses on parking the bus, it will be difficult for the Chinese team to score a goal now.

Chi Zhen made a bold statement, but he found out that it was not that easy to score a goal...

When he got the ball on the left side, he was double-teamed by two Qatari players.

He tried to force a breakthrough, pushing the ball with his left foot to the outside of the Qatari right-back who was defending him, then suddenly started and passed through the gap between the two Qatari players.

But when he squeezed through the gap, he saw that the ball had been cleared by the third Qatari player who rushed up...

"Oops! It was just a little off! The ball Chi Zhen kicked out was still destroyed!"

In the close-up shot on TV, Chi Zhen looked up at the sky, clenched his teeth, and seemed to have bitten his back teeth to pieces...

(End of this chapter)