Perfect Center

Chapter 162 Hat Trick!

Beep!
The linesman raised his flag and the referee blew his whistle, arms raised high.

"Eh? Was Xia Han's shot offside? Let's take a look at the slow-motion replay."

The commentator's tone was full of doubt. His attention was just focused on Xia Han's goal, and he had already prepared his commentary on Xia Han's hat trick.

Before Xia Han made the hat-trick gesture, the Dortmund players who were about to join in the celebration looked at the referee with question marks on their faces.

The result was not given until the broadcast footage showed the result given by the video referee team. The result was obtained by slow-motion replay of the entire goal process, freezing the video and drawing reference lines.

At the moment when Shinji Kagawa made the pass, Xia Han's shoulder protruded slightly, and he was offside!
Although only his shoulders were slightly extended.

But it is also offside.

"Ah! What a pity! Even though Xia Han just leaned his shoulder forward a little, offside is offside. Both Hummels' long pass and a series of passes outside the penalty area were ineffective! What a pity!"

"Xia Han was just a shoulder away from scoring the third goal and completing a hat trick. What a pity!"

Xia Han showed a helpless smile on his face, shook his head, and prepared to wait for the next opportunity. After all, there were only ten minutes left in the second half.

Weigl came over, patted Xia Han on the shoulder, and said with a smirk, "What a pity! But it's not a big problem. There are still ten minutes in the second half. I'll assist you and pass you some good balls. I guarantee you can continue to score hat tricks!"

Xia Han patted Weigel's hand and said with a sigh: "I didn't expect that bursting too fast is also a mistake."

In the slow-motion replay, the moment Xia Han started, Gülselam and Milosevic failed to react, causing Xia Han's shoulder to stick out, resulting in an offside.

It can be considered as an offside tactic of the two of them, after all, it was successful.

"Okay, let's continue the game. It's a pity that Xia Han scored an offside goal. The linesman's eyes were like piercing eyes. He saw this moment and raised the flag in his hand!"

“Perhaps all the players of Hannover 96 should thank this young linesman. Their morale has already dropped to the bottom after being defeated 3-0. If it weren’t for this linesman, perhaps the ball would have gone in. After all, the referee’s angle was difficult to judge, and there were many people in Hannover 96’s penalty area, making it even more difficult to judge.”

There are about ten minutes left in the game. As long as Hannover 96 can hold on for these ten minutes, even though Dortmund has scored three goals, no fan will blame them unless they are not fans, seeing Xia Han's bottle-opener shot from the center circle.

Schaaf stood on the sidelines, and in this game he made more command gestures than ever before.

"Fortunately, the ball was offside. Well done to Gülseram and Milosevic!" The assistant coach exclaimed while standing next to Schaff.

Schaff looked at him as if he was a fool, but he didn't say anything. He just said to the assistant coach, "Tell the players in the frontcourt not to press too far forward and press the opponent. Let them move back and keep the score at 3-0 before the game. Don't let the goal difference increase. We still have hope of staying in the league."

"I believe that fans who watched this game will not blame us for the loss."

This is the fact. Hannover 96 fans who came from afar or stayed at home to watch the live broadcast will not blame Hannover 96 today.

In the first half, all the players did a great job. If it weren't for Xia Han's kick, Hannover 96 might have had a chance to get a draw at the Westfalenstadion and get the key points to avoid relegation. At the last minute, Hannover 96 replaced striker Sobiech and winger Beck with a central defender and a midfielder, forming a defensive formation.

"Hannover 96 actually did a good job defensively, blocking Dortmund's attack throughout the first half and getting a good chance."

"Now that Hannover 96 has retreated to the defensive bus, there is no one left in the frontcourt. Saint-Maximin's position is slightly forward, and the others are very active in retreating to the front of the penalty area to help defend!"

"It's a bit difficult for Xia Han to perform a hat trick!"

The 83rd minute of the game.

Dortmund's attack in the frontcourt was repeatedly stalled. There were too many defenders surrounding the front of Hannover 96's penalty area, making it difficult to make a move.

Xia Han retreated to the front of the penalty area. Although the change in rhythm widened the distance between him and Hoffman, the remaining defenders rushed up immediately and did not give Xia Han the chance to take a long shot.

"Xia Han! Move around! But all the players of Hannover 96 are crowded here, constantly pressing you, so it's really difficult to kick a high-quality shot!"

"Another lateral pull, this time Xia Han found the space to shoot!"

Xia Han kept dribbling the ball sideways and cooperated with his Dortmund teammates. In a moment, he found a loophole in Hannover 96's defense.

Some people were a little slow to react.

It was this half-beat gap that allowed Xia Han to find the space to shoot!
He shot immediately!
Zieler, who had been scored three times by Xia Han in this game and was an iconic player of Hannover 96, misjudged the direction of Xia Han's shot at the first opportunity.

But with his body losing its center of gravity, Zieler used the outside of his right foot that was trailing behind to deflect Xia Han's long shot!
The football deflected slightly, and Zieler turned his head to look at the football that hit the post, and in his heart he kept hoping that the football would hit the post and fly out of the bottom line.

Unfortunately, the goalposts of the Westfalenstadion did not protect Hannover 96.

In front of Zieler's wide eyes, the football hit the post, bounced back and slowly rolled into the goal.

4-0! ! !

"Xia Han! Qi Le! Wow!"

"Great shot! Beautiful save! Zieler almost saved Xia Han's low-flying long shot!"

"But unfortunately, that touch could not change the result of the ball going into the net!"

"Xia Han scored a goal. After failing to score in the first half, he scored three goals in the second half, performing a hat trick in front of tens of thousands of fans! 4-0! Four goals by one person! Terrible! It's really terrific!"

After scoring the goal, Xia Han finally made the celebration move he wanted to do after the goal was called offside.

He trotted to the corner flag area and made three gestures to the fans in the stands, indicating that he had performed a hat trick!
(End of this chapter)