Chapter 121: Like a fish in water

"Be careful! Be careful! Be careful!"
When Lasky kicked the football back to his right foot, Valente exclaimed in the stands.
Not only him, but the Alvara fans in their stands are screaming.
Because they are aloof, they have seen a huge hole in their team's defense.
Just as Pinto turned to defend Laski, the left back Nathan Shay, who hurriedly returned to the defense, was again restrained by the forward Leeds right back Josh Lawler.
So in the ribs between Pinto and Shay, there was an empty space that said it was big or not.
And Hu Lai is there!
Anyone watching the ball has seen it, and any fan who knows a little about penalty kicks knows what it means.
But when the Alvara players on the field were very nervous, their vision was reduced, and Laski was all attracted by Laski, completely ignoring the connection between the center and the wing...
Sure enough, in the exclamation, Lasky pushed the football sideways and threw it straight!
The next thing is logical, and it's a matter of course...
After seeing Hulai scoring the football goal, all Alvara fans made one action at the same time-holding their heads in their hands and shouting:
"Oh no--!"
Xia Xiaoyu also held his head with both hands, but he was trying to hide his inner joy-Hu Ge finally scored! I knew he could!
Then he put his hands on the back of his head and watched the familiar figure in front of the Alvara door turned and ran towards the corner flag area.
He knows that what should be here is coming again!
Seeing from high school now, Xia Xiaoyu still thinks this action is really cool, and she won’t feel tired after watching it many times...
He even made up his own brain, and the thunderous "HUUUUU!!!" exploded in his mind.
Then he came up with the same idea as Valente: I really... I really want to be able to compete in this arena!
Even if it's at the opponent's home court, even if it's booed by the opponent's fans...
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"Damn it!" Alvara's coach Ricardo Moya cursed swearing off the court.
But this is just his anger at losing the ball, not to blame a certain player.
He knows very well that the loss of the ball just now cannot be simply blamed on Pinto for letting off Hulay, nor can it be blamed for Shay for not returning to the penalty area in time.
It can only be said that the speed of Leeds from defensive to offensive is too fast, and Alvara's players did not react quickly. In the face of continuous passing and transfer, their defense has been completely disrupted by Leeds City. If there is a loophole in one location, people in other locations need to fill it up, so loopholes in other locations.
Just such a loophole produced more loopholes, which eventually evolved into an irreparable tragedy.
"Although it is very uncomfortable... but it must be admitted that Leeds City's offense is indeed as sharp as the legend." The assistant coach said next to it.
Moya nodded. As a head coach, this kind of judgment and calmness must be possessed.
Then he said: "But it doesn't matter. Their offense is strong, but their defense is weak. This is our home court. We can't be suppressed by them all the time."
After that, he walked to the sidelines and shouted to the frustrated players in the court: "It's okay, relax! After withstanding their offensive, we will attack again!! This is our home court! Our home court!!!"
He kept reminding his players to have confidence and not to be afraid of the offensive in Leeds City.
However, this verbal adjustment and encouragement did not help.
Moya guessed that Leeds City would continue to attack after taking the lead, but he still slightly underestimated the strength of Leeds City's continued attack.
Alvara shrank the defense after losing the ball, waiting for Leeds City's offensive to pass, and then counterattack, penetrating Leeds City's unstable defense.
But without waiting for them to penetrate Leeds's defense line, it's the moment when their defense line is penetrated for the second time...
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"Eh, it's dangerous!" The Portuguese TV commentator suddenly exclaimed.
In his exclamation, Hu Lai ran to an empty space and was raising his hand for the ball.
Fortunately, central defender Bruno Pinto stepped over in time to make up the defense.
But this time he made a gap between himself and another central defender, Matthew Kefir.
And Peter Williams, who took the ball, immediately passed the football through the air!
Pass behind Alvara's back line!
"Camara!"
The French winger has been inward since just now, and at this moment, he inserted behind the Alvara defenders and received a pass from Williams.
It was too late for Kefir to turn back to defense, and he could only watch Camara kick and shoot!
Although Alvara goalkeeper Ferreira made a save, he was not able to completely seal it out.
The football deflected slightly and flew into Alvara's goal!
Although Alvara’s players signaled to the referee and line referee that Camara was offside, both referees made the same decision—the referee pointed to the center circle and the line referee ran directly to the center line.
"Good goal! Goal effective! Camara expanded the lead for Leeds City! Who would have thought that Leeds City, who played away games, would have two goals ahead before the end of the first half!" He Feng said happily.
At this moment, when Camara ran to the camera to dance his weird robot dance, the noise in the stands of the Lisbon Arena was much quieter.
Many Alvara fans held their heads in their hands and looked at the stadium quietly, their eyes out of focus and their brains empty.
"In the 40th minute of the first half, Leeds City led by two goals! The only pity is that UEFA has cancelled the away goal rule three seasons ago, otherwise Leeds City has almost killed the suspense of the two rounds in advance. !" Matthew Cox said with regret.
UEFA abolished the away goal rule in all European competitions in the 2023-2024 season.
The previous away goal rule stipulated that in a two-round home and away UEFA Champions League knockout game, if the total score of the two teams is tied, the side with the most away goals will advance.
Now that this rule is cancelled, and the two teams in the two rounds of the competition have tied the total score, then there will be 30 minutes of overtime in the first and second halves.
The extra time is still tied and the penalty kick is entered.
In this process, the so-called number of away goals is not considered.
That's why Cox regrets it.
Otherwise, with these two away goals now, Leeds has almost been invincible.
Alvara wanted to erase the advantage of Leeds City's two away goals, so he had to score two away goals when he went to Leeds City at home in the second round-but it was difficult.
Even if Alvara achieved a shocking reversal in this game, he won with a score of 3:2. In the second round of the game, Leeds returned to home and only needed a 1-0 victory to advance to the Europa League semi-finals.
This has greatly reduced the pressure on Leeds to advance.
The away goal rule has been implemented in UEFA games for half a century, and countless classic games have been achieved. It has long been a part of the football game, and even many fans believe that the home and away knockout system has an away goal advantage as a matter of course.
When UEFA decided to abolish this rule, it also caused a lot of controversy.
Almost all fans are scolding UEFA and clearly oppose the abolition of away goals.
They think that the away goal rule is a "great invention." Without the away goal rule, the football game is not even complete.
Regardless of whether the fans are willing or not, UEFA’s decision will not be changed once it is made, and the fans cannot control the life or death of this rule.
After all, even if UEFA abolished the away goal rule, they would not be able to stop watching the European game.
Moreover, after the cancellation of this rule, some people benefited-Leeds City is now considered the benefit of the abolition of the away goal rule, and Alvara is the beneficiary.
Alvara fans are now very grateful that the away goal rule in the European game has been cancelled.
In this way, they don't have to carry huge pressure to go away.
Assuming that they can catch up to a 2:2 tie in this game, then go to the away game and only need to win one goal to still be able to eliminate Leeds City.
This is a good thing for them.
For this reason, although they were silent and painful, they still stayed in the stands.
After all, there are still fifty minutes before the end of the game, and Alvara still has a chance.
If it was before, maybe during the intermission, the Lisbon Arena would have left a lot of people.
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Joao Valente put his head in his hands, his eyes widened and he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
In front of him, on the big screen on the opposite stand, Alvara's 0:2 Leeds score was very dazzling, stimulating his heart.
"how so……"
He murmured.
Xia Xiaoyu didn't say a word beside him.
He was not very surprised. On the one hand, because he believed in Hu, on the other hand... To say something rebellious, he thought that the first team coach, Mr. Ricardo Moya, was a bit "adventurous".
Mr. Moya must have thought it was Alvara’s home court, and Leeds was good at attacking and weak defensively, so he took advantage of the momentum of the home court to get to Leeds.
How could he expect that his offensive against Leeds was so fierce that he had misjudged...
He thinks that Alvara's home court advantage can be like a rope, binding Leeds' hands and feet, so that they can kick.
But from the actual effect, the advantage of the Lisbon Arena is not as big as everyone thinks.
Leeds City is not only unaffected, but also in excellent condition.
In the face of Alvara who also chose to attack~EbookFREE.me~ Leeds came in like water.
In fact, based on a full understanding of Leeds City, Xia Xiaoyu felt that Alvara should choose a more secure and pragmatic tactic.
That is to play steadily on his home court, first deal with Leeds patiently, and kill the opponent's fighting spirit and momentum.
Then is to use home advantage to suppress Leeds City.
According to this strategy, even if the goal is not so smoothly scored, it will not be possible to lose two goals in the first half...
He felt that Mr. Moya's response was simply to rush to give people away.
Because there are no rules for away goals, so if Alvara can reverse the game and win, that's okay.
Once he can't win, maybe Mr. Moya will be under great pressure...
(End of this chapter)