Chapter 94 — The Swordfish-Style Dive
Bayern took the free kick from the back after the whistle.
"Xia Qi executed Wenger's tactic very well, completely freezing Franck Ribéry."
"Bayern are slowing the tempo, no longer blindly attacking down the flanks."
Zhang Lu's commentary had barely fallen when, as if to contradict him, on the pitch Xia Qi charged from the wing into midfield, sprinting toward Toni Kroos.
Kroos was playing the attacking-midfield role for Bayern. As Xia Qi surged forward he glanced at Arsenal's rear defensive shape.
After a brief assessment he pushed the ball back to Bastian Schweinsteiger to reorganize the attack.
Kroos's play made both head coaches on the touchline nod in silent approval.
Bayern's idea:
the wide midfielder drifts inside and crosses,
the fullback feigns and sneaks,
all built on solidity through the middle.
Kroos and Schweinsteiger first had to ensure the center wouldn't lose the ball or leave gaps for a sharp counter.
Secondly, they needed to create space for wing breakthroughs, forward runs and underlaps.
Kroos passing back was meant to create space on the flank — an overt plan, and overt plans are hardest to counter.
Even with AI's superior calculation, he had to drive Arsenal forward to press.
As Xia Qi and his teammates just crossed the center circle,
Kroos immediately angled a 45-degree pass to Arjen Robben.
As Bayern's superlative force, Robben only came into view on camera at minute 16.
This wasn't Jupp Heynckes favoring Franck Ribéry; it was because Arsenal had at least three players marking Robben, while Ribéry had only Xia Qi. In attack they chose to target Ribéry.
The moment Robben received the ball,
Lukas Podolski and Kevin De Bruyne closed him down; they clearly had studied him, blocking Robben's left side to deny the inside cut.
Robben refused to play to their script and refused to stay wide and deep.
Feigning stubbornness, he insisted on cutting inside, battering the wall and forcing Podolski and De Bruyne to converge and close down, thereby freeing up the flank.
He then laid the ball off to the right front.
Philip Lahm raced forward, swept past Robben on his right, caught up with the ball, controlled it and cut inside from the right channel.
In a flash,
Arsenal's defensive line tilted and flowed.
As they shifted to cover him,
Lahm high-kicked, a grand transfer of play — the ball flew from the right half to the left half.
"Beautiful!"
"Fully using the width of the pitch."
"Lahm's switch has stretched Arsenal's defensive shape thin."
At the left corner of the area, Franck Ribéry stopped the ball under his foot.
Meanwhile Robben and Mario Mandžukić surged forward on the right and through the middle.
Because Arsenal's defense had slid toward Lahm, Ribéry at the left corner was unmarked and could control calmly.
"Danger!"
"Vermaelen is sitting on the inside cut."
"Thomas Vermaelen defends very shrewdly. Ribéry can't get a free run; he drops toward the byline."
"Ribéry!"
"No long pass!"
"It's a dummy — Vermaelen was fooled and let Ribéry glide along the byline into the box."
"Mandžukić and Robben are surging forward!"
"Ribéry!"
"Cross into the middle!"
"Ah! Lovely!"
"Cazorla does the work!"
"He tracked back at the critical moment and hoofed the ball away!"
"Arsenal escape a crisis!"
"That was very dangerous just now. Arsenal's back line was pulled around by Lahm. Ribéry was left free; at the crucial moment veteran Thomas Vermaelen covered back and forced Ribéry to the byline.
But in the second duel Vermaelen had with Ribéry, Ribéry successfully cut inside along the byline and slid a cross into the middle.
At the death, holding midfield man Santi Cazorla tracked back in time and cleared the ball before Mandžukić could get to it."
"If Arsenal can't smother Bayern's attacks outside the box, that three-defender system will be playing with fire..."
Cazorla planted his hands on his hips and breathed hard.
"Well done!"
"Good job!"
Emiliano Martínez and Thomas Vermaelen stepped forward to slap "Mama Caz" on the back in celebration.
"It's the 21st minute!"
"Bayern corner!"
"Bastian Schweinsteiger, Jérôme Boateng, Toni Kroos — Bayern's big men are all up!"
"Xia Qi is back too!"
Inside Arsenal's penalty area.
Players crowded together in a tight mass.
Mandžukić and Bastian Schweinsteiger were the key markers for Arsenal.
Outside the area, Ribéry and Robben hovered at the edge, ready to attack the second ball.
From the corner, Lahm swung the ball straight at the near post after the whistle.
Sure enough!
It found the Mandžukić spot again.
Luckily Mandžukić had Per Mertesacker next to him.
The two almost jumped simultaneously.
Mertesacker won the position and timed his leap well. Mandžukić, though large, was held under him.
Just as it seemed Mertesacker would clear the ball, Mandžukić, in a "break the jar and go home" move, simply leaned on Mertesacker rather than contesting the header cleanly.
Mandžukić's chest bumped Mertesacker, skewing the headed clearance.
The ball flew out of the box but oddly bounced toward Franck Ribéry.
Ribéry at the top of the box saw the ball coming,
bent his body like a bow and prepared to pounce.
"Danger!"
"This ball is headed!"
"Ribéry ready to shoot!"
Because of the broadcast angle, Zhang Lu only saw Ribéry draw his bow to shoot and didn't spot a red streak whipping out of the penalty area alongside the ball.
That was Xia Qi under AI control!
The ball had reached its apex and was about to drop.
Arsenal fans clutched their chests in anxiety.
Normally Ribéry's shot or pass would be faster.
AI made that calculation too.
So during his sprint, Xia Qi launched himself forward, and in mid-air his back formed a "U." As the ball neared he snapped his body like a shrimp and jabbed his forehead forward to meet the ball.
This move has a football term: "van Persie-style diving header."
It was Robin van Persie's flying header in the 2014 World Cup match between the Netherlands and Spain that was hailed as the greatest header in history.
People named that kind of diving header after him.
This was 2013, before van Persie's flying header had become widely eponymized.
Moreover,
van Persie's dive was like a carp leaping to the dragon gate; Xia Qi's was like a sailfish launching out of the sea and flying some distance.
Xia Qi's dive covered over two meters — harder than van Persie's and more visually explosive.
But Xia Qi's diving header was intended to win the ball; to have the move named after him he would need to score with it.
"Wow! What a stunning diving header!"
"Xia Qi's football IQ and technique complement each other; others use the dive to score, but Xia Qi ingeniously uses it to salvage a ball. A stroke of genius!"
Ribéry hadn't expected Xia Qi to launch himself like that. By the time the cloud passed and he prepared to leap and contest the double— it was already too late.
But he was an old streetwise pro and reacted quickly, turning to chase the ball.
After landing Xia Qi sprang up and, in the fans' stunned gaze, put his foot down and accelerated after Ribéry.
Arsenal fans hadn't recovered from the previous "Hollywood aerial" frame before they were plunged into a "Hollywood car-chase."
Ribéry was fast, but Xia Qi was faster. When Ribéry slowed to control the ball, Xia Qi caught up.
Xia Qi also slowed, boxed into Ribéry's back, swung a leg around and nipped the ball out from between his feet with a light poke.
Xia Qi pulled his leg back, sped past Ribéry, and thunderous applause followed as he chased after the ball.
Ribéry was taken by surprise —
a sudden lightning strike — and lost the ball.
He immediately charged at Xia Qi, intent on reclaiming it.
But reality is harsher than ideals.
When he accelerated, an incredible sight unfolded.
Though he was giving everything, the boy before him increased the gap with visibly discernible speed.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
In just three seconds Ribéry realized with shock:
in his proud domain he had been beaten — utterly and completely.
Ribéry thought that from now on, speed players only have two tiers: Xia Qi and everyone else.
At this moment!
Ribéry could only grit his teeth and chase silently behind Xia Qi, waiting for a chance and for teammates to create an opportunity.
Inside Bayern's box,
Boateng panicked. He'd battled Xia Qi before and knew the youngster's terror more than Ribéry did.
Still, he gritted his teeth and charged at Xia Qi.
The heroic image of Boateng as a mighty general only existed in Boateng's own fantasies.
To onlookers,
as Boateng arrived in front of him, Xia Qi simply flicked the ball laterally with his right foot, switched feet and burst forward.
A single change of rhythm and the defender was left behind.
"The great path is simple. When a lateral drag and change of direction are taken to the extreme, it becomes invincible."
"In the last match Boateng was beaten by Xia Qi; his market value dropped €5 million. Tonight it will drop again."
"Encounter Xia Lang and your transfer value falls! Xia Qi will never have defender friends in this life."
Boateng was dribbled past!
Ribéry's hoped-for chance didn't materialize. His teammates only bought him half a second — that 0.5 seconds shrank the distance from seven paces to four.
But so what?
At that point Xia Qi had already driven into Bayern's penalty area.
Facing the onrushing Manuel Neuer and the covering Dante,
Xia Qi didn't wait for their coordination. Flash-like,
he wound his left foot high behind, swung through and struck the ball squarely in the center.
A windmill rocket!
Fast and fierce!
This was AI's rebuttal to Neuer's rush:
you come quickly?
Or is the ball quicker?
"Eh!"
Many Arsenal fans involuntarily sighed.
A one-on-one with the keeper spoiled by Xia Qi — the fans' appetite had been raised by his exploits.
A windmill shot wasn't enough to satisfy their desire to see Xia Qi score superhuman goals; they wanted to witness the nonhuman.
On the touchline Wenger crossed his legs in pride. "Calling the parents" had worked after all. Otherwise the opposing keeper might not have been frightened to death, but Wenger's heart surely had nearly exploded first.
"Boom!"
A tremendous sound!
Neuer made a desperate reach with his gaze alone in vain as the ball nestled into the net, stirring up a thousand heaps of snow…
In the 21st minute of the first half,
Arsenal used Bayern's corner to strike back and take the lead.
"A near-range worldie! Dante couldn't cover back in time; facing a shot of such speed the keeper Manuel Neuer was helpless."
"1–0! This gives Arsenal a huge advantage. There's an eighty percent chance of qualification now; pressure is on Bayern. For Bayern to advance they'd need to score four in a row — difficulty rating 5.0."
"This is Xia Qi's night!"
"This is Arsenal's night."
Online:
[That dragon is too short — it only swallowed a few guys?]
[Pure speed crushing Ribéry wasn't enough?]
[Pity Ribéry for three seconds.]
[Short but brilliant — Xia Qi's diving header to save the ball, overtaking Ribéry, nutmegging Boateng, blasting past Neuer — which of those isn't spectacular?]
[Mountains don't need height — if there's a spirit it becomes sacred...]
[Xia Qi single-handedly smashed through Bayern's goal; no wonder he's a brutal emperor.]
[You hype Xia Qi to the skies, but you still haven't doused my disappointment. Didn't you notice Xia Qi has become ordinary? That goal was just normal. Where's the wild imagination?]
[Are you secretly an enemy of Wenger or a spy sent by the southern king?]
[Securing points and eliminating the opponent — isn't that good?]
On the pitch!
At the instant the ball hit the net, Xia Qi immediately chose an independent celebration, taking back control of his body. He made a gesture to Jack Wilshere on the bench, then beckoned his teammates toward the C stand.
Wilshere quickly dug a birthday cake out from under the bench and ran toward the C stand.
Wenger looked at Pat Rice in puzzlement. "What are they doing?"
"Having a birthday, perhaps!"
Wenger rolled his eyes as if he'd never seen a birthday cake in his life.
Under stand C,
Alice saw Xia Qi calling his friends over and intuited faintly that it had something to do with her.
When Wilshere produced the birthday cake she was sure — tears blurred her vision.
Alice's girlfriends nudged her waist: "Who are they celebrating? The lucky one shares your birthday…"
"Ah!"
Alice's three companions suddenly realized and screamed, drawing surprised looks.
"Is it you, right?"
"Ah! It's you!"
"Isn't he your ordinary tenant?"
The unusual scene in the stand caught the director's eye and the four girls were shown in a close-up.
In the VIP box Emma Watson's face went pale; bottles and glasses were smashed to the floor...
Under stand C, Arsenal's players formed a "U" shape; Xia Qi stood in the "C" position holding the birthday cake. Together with his teammates they sang the birthday song as they crossed the advertising hoardings, reached the railing and passed the cake up.
Alice's seat wasn't well placed — it was on the 12th tier — and the cake made its way to her through many hands.
By then she was in tears…
The stadium DJ shouted: "Happy birthday, Your Highness!"
The whole ground joined in a birthday chorus…
For Alice, for the fans, for the Champions League... this was an eternal memory.
(END CHAPTER)
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