Chapter 139 A Near Miss

The TV broadcast was still replaying Cristiano Ronaldo's missed opportunity from earlier, but the replay was abruptly cut off halfway through. Suddenly, Portuguese player was shown in the penalty area, practically prone on the ground, sweeping his foot at the ball.

For a moment, many who hadn't been paying close attention thought the replay had just switched to a different angle...

But that wasn't the case. This was a brand-new attack from Real Madrid!

While the TV broadcast was replaying the previous attack, they had already gotten the ball back to Borussia Dortmund's goal!

When Cristiano Ronaldo shot with a very unconventional motion, Dortmund's goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller also dove to make a save with an unconventional motion.

In the end, he managed to block the shot with his body.

"Weidenfeller!"

But Marcel Reif didn't have time to continue praising Weidenfeller, because Real Madrid's attack wasn't over.

After he blocked the ball, it didn't fly out of bounds, nor did it fly far out of the penalty area. Instead, it landed right inside the box.

Gonzalo Higuaín and Mats Hummels were fighting fiercely for the second ball. In the process, Higuaín fell in the penalty area.

He fell to the ground, opened his arms, and protested to the referee, reminding Howard Webb that this was a foul by Hummels.

But Webb didn't react at all, even though he was only five meters away from the incident...

The Spanish commentator exclaimed, "That's a foul by Hummels! That's a penalty! It's definitely a penalty!!"

But the game didn't stop. Hummels cleared the ball with a long pass.

Higuaín angrily jumped up from the ground, intending to rush toward Webb and demand an explanation.

In the process, he glanced up at the ball and then gave up on the idea of finding Webb—because he saw the ball land at the feet of his teammate Xabi Alonso. A new round of attack was about to begin, and he needed to quickly get into position.

He quickly turned his head to observe the positional relationship between himself and the opposing defenders, ensuring that he wasn't offside, and then moved laterally to find an opening.

Xabi Alonso didn't pass the ball to him, but instead gave it to Luka Modrić.

After receiving the ball, Modrić passed it through immediately, giving the ball to Ángel Di María.

Di María received the ball while running, choosing not to stop the ball at his feet, but instead lightly flicked it with his heel, following the ball's momentum!

The ball rolled toward Mesut Özil, who had run into the open space!

"Özil! Not offside! One-on-one—!" The Spanish commentator roared with all his might.

Özil, who was now one-on-one with the goalkeeper, took a low shot with his left foot from fifteen meters away from the goal. The ball flew straight toward the far corner.

Weidenfeller stretched out to make a save, but this time he couldn't touch the ball.

But the ball didn't roll into the goal either; it grazed the post and went wide!

"Ahhhhhhh—! Özil! Özil!" The Spanish commentator held his head in his hands, almost unable to believe his eyes—how could he miss such a good opportunity? "What a chance!"

Özil, who had missed the shot, also held his head in his hands, widening his already large eyes, looking at the place where the ball went wide...

"Close! So close!" The German fans in front of the TV could almost hear Marcel Reif patting his chest. "Real Madrid has had three one-on-one opportunities in a row at the beginning of the game, but they haven't been able to capitalize on them. But things rarely happen more than three times. Borussia Dortmund must be extra careful. Although none of these three went in, it also shows from another angle that Borussia Dortmund's defense has given the opponent three such good opportunities. They can be lucky three times, but can they be lucky four times? Hummels also needs to be careful. Before Özil's shot, his entanglement with Higuaín in the penalty area was really too dangerous..."

"The game has only started for fifteen minutes, and Real Madrid has already had three one-on-one opportunities. But at the same time, they have also wasted all three opportunities..." He Ping said. "Borussia Dortmund shouldn't be too happy too soon. It's certainly a pity that Real Madrid didn't take the lead at the start. But if Borussia Dortmund doesn't get into the game quickly, I'm afraid Real Madrid's offensive will continue to appear. As long as they continue to play like this, goals may happen sooner or later. This is their home field after all, and Real Madrid's players are performing almost like a different team compared to the last match..."

It was clear that Real Madrid's desire to turn the tables at home was not just talk. If the entire Borussia Dortmund team wasn't mentally prepared enough, from the looks of it, they really might collapse...

Because the pace of the game was too fast, it wasn't until after Özil's missed shot that the TV broadcast finally found a chance to replay the close-up slow motion of Hummels and Higuaín's physical contact in the penalty area.

Different people had different interpretations of this slow motion. The Spanish commentators were very certain that Hummels had fouled, and this should have been a penalty. Their evidence was that Hummels had a squeezing action on Higuaín's body, which was very obvious, and it was precisely this action that caused Higuaín to lose his balance and fall to the ground.

Since there was physical contact and a clear cause-and-effect relationship, why shouldn't Hummels be called for a foul?

But German commentator Marcel Reif believed that although there was physical contact between the two, Higuaín's falling motion was too exaggerated and suspected of being a dive. It was debatable whether Hummels' squeezing action was strong enough to make Higuaín fall like that.

Of course, he didn't deny that Hummels did have physical contact with Higuaín, which was very dangerous. They were lucky this time, but maybe not next time...

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While Real Madrid was frantically besieging Borussia Dortmund's goal, what Borussia Dortmund fans were most worried about was that the team wouldn't be able to hold on and concede a goal. That would be the end.

But after withstanding Real Madrid's "three axes"—they really were three axes, three one-on-one opportunities—Borussia Dortmund also tried to start counterattacking.

Łukasz Piszczek and Marco Reus both had shooting opportunities, but they were both saved by Diego López.

At this time, the TV broadcast didn't bother looking for Iker Casillas sitting on the bench...

And after the "three axes" at the beginning of the game, Real Madrid's offensive momentum was still strong, but they never created offensive opportunities as good as those three one-on-one chances.

In the twentieth minute, Di María passed the ball, and Cristiano Ronaldo shot from the edge of the penalty area on the left, but the ball went wide of the near post.

In the twenty-fifth minute, Özil forced a breakthrough and then passed the ball back from the left side of the penalty area. Di María's powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area was blocked by Weidenfeller again.

Seeing that they missed three opportunities at the start and then didn't have any good chances, Real Madrid's players became a little impatient.

Their actions in defense became increasingly aggressive.

Neven Subotić's warning to Zhou Yi before the game became a reality—as Borussia Dortmund's core and the initiator of counterattacks, he would of course be "taken care of" by Real Madrid's players.

In order to ensure that he wasn't injured, sometimes Zhou Yi had to give up possession of the ball—of course, he wouldn't let the opponent directly steal the ball from his feet. When faced with pressure, he would always kick the ball out of bounds at the first opportunity or try to kick it to an empty area in Real Madrid's backfield. Even if Borussia Dortmund's players couldn't receive the ball, letting Real Madrid's players chase it could consume some time and give Borussia Dortmund's players a chance to fall back.

In addition to Zhou Yi, Robert Lewandowski, who had scored four goals in the previous game, was also highly "favored" by Real Madrid's players in this game. Fábio Coentrão received the first yellow card of the game for fouling Lewandowski.

When Webb showed Coentrão the yellow card, the stands at the Bernabéu were filled with boos, and the Spanish commentators were also complaining, "If Coentrão should get this yellow card, then Hummels shouldn't be spared either!"

They were still brooding over Hummels' foul. Now that they thought about it, they really should be brooding over it, even more so. Because if that foul had been called, Real Madrid would have gotten a penalty, and after Cristiano Ronaldo kicked the penalty in, they would now be leading by one goal. The mentality and situation would be completely different.

And under a relaxed mentality, Coentrão's yellow card might not have even happened...

Higuaín, as the victim of that foul, was also full of resentment. In the scramble with Borussia Dortmund's players, his actions inevitably became more aggressive, so he also received a yellow card.

Of course, Borussia Dortmund wasn't a group of polite gentlemen either. Both of the starting defensive midfielders, İlkay Gündoğan and Sven Bender, were cautioned with yellow cards.

The first half hadn't even ended yet, and both sides had already received two yellow cards each, which shows how intense this game was.

Especially for Borussia Dortmund, with both defensive midfielders receiving yellow cards, it was disadvantageous for Borussia Dortmund. In the second half, Real Madrid could completely take advantage of this and gain control of the midfield. It could be said that their two yellow cards might foreshadow some things for the second half...

Until the referee Howard Webb blew the whistle to end the first half, neither side had scored, and the score was fixed at 0:0.

Borussia Dortmund was only sixty minutes away from reaching the Champions League final again after sixteen years.

And Real Madrid only had one hour left to create a miracle...

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ps, Today is New Year's Eve, I wish you all a happy Spring Festival! Happy Year of the Rooster!