Chapter 2 After the Start of the Second Half, the Japanese Team Strengthened Their Control and Marking of Zhou Yi

The Japanese team made sure to stick to Zhou Yi like glue.

Sometimes, they wouldn't hesitate to commit fouls.

So in the fifty-second minute, Makoto Hasebe received a yellow card for fouling Zhou Yi twice in three minutes.

Although he received a yellow card, the Chinese fans were still unforgiving, and boos rang out from the stands—fans have never had much affection for Japanese players. In today's China, people who truly love Japanese football are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

In addition, how dare Japanese players continuously foul the core player of the Chinese team? Weren't they courting death?

Chinese fans felt that giving only a yellow card was too lenient, and a red card should have been given to send him off the field directly!

After resorting to foul tactics against Zhou Yi, the Japanese team slightly salvaged the situation and was no longer so passive on the field.

They also had some threatening attacks.

After all, Japan's midfielders and forwards are still very strong, and they wouldn't be beaten by the Chinese team without any ability to fight back.

The two sides resumed their back-and-forth attacks.

Since it was a back-and-forth attack, it was of course good to watch, focusing on the attacking players of both sides, and also on the goalkeepers of both sides.

Japan's attacking strength may be similar to that of China, but their defense was a bit lacking.

Especially lacking a top European goalkeeper...

Sun Pan was very excited when facing the Japanese team's attacks, making high and low saves, and dissolving several shots from the Japanese team one by one.

He quite enjoyed this kind of busyness, because it meant he was the protagonist.

When Zhou Yi scored before, he really stole the spotlight. How could he let Zhou Yi take all the credit?

So sometimes, Sun Pan would even shout: "Let them shoot!!"

As if he was afraid that the Japanese team wouldn't shoot, and he wouldn't have the chance to show himself.

Thinking of Zhou Yi's volley during the pre-match warm-up that stunned him, he was very angry, feeling that his performance at the time was really too poor.

But the warm-up was already over, and there was no way for him to ask Zhou Yi to do it again, so he could only vent his anger in the game, treating every Japanese player who shot as Zhou Yi.

"Kagawa's shot! Ah... saved by Sun Pan..."

"Okazaki Shinji in front of the goal - Sun Pan! He truly deserves to be called the 'Wall of Sighs'!"

The commentators on Japanese TV kept exclaiming, and then sighed.

If the Japanese side knew that Sun Pan, who was giving them a headache, was performing so well because of Zhou Yi, they really wouldn't know what to think—you two teammates are competing with each other out of jealousy, what does it have to do with our Japanese team!

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Sun Pan's excellent saves and Zhou Yi's goal made the Japanese focus on these two people, as if they were the most threatening players on the Chinese team.

But they all forgot that there was actually another person on the Chinese team who was also holding his breath...

The strongest player in this Chinese team, recognized as number one, is Zhou Yi, and the recognized number two is Sun Pan, so who is the recognized number three?

It's He Ying.

As the most talented national youth team player before Zhou Yi, He Ying became famous much earlier than Zhou Yi and Sun Pan.

However, his later development was far inferior to the other two, which was related to his initial choice to stay in Barcelona, which cost him a lot of playing time.

But gold always shines.

Now He Ying, who is at Paris Saint-Germain, is performing well and has made Paris Saint-Germain want to buy him out and keep him.

The last time the Chinese team played against the Japanese team in the Top Ten matches, He Ying started, but his performance was very poor, wasting many opportunities.

If it hadn't been for Zhou Yi's goal at the last moment to help the Chinese team draw with the Japanese team on the road, He Ying would definitely have become the biggest culprit for the Chinese team's loss.

In fact, after the game, He Ying was indeed heavily criticized.

That game became a thorn in He Ying's heart.

Now that he has encountered the Japanese team again, he is of course eager to prove himself again.

Only by performing well in the game against the Japanese team can he pull out the thorn in his heart.

So his performance was very active.

By the seventieth minute of the match, he had already had seven shots, five of which were on target.

Quite threatening.

Today, no fans or commentators would complain about him wasting opportunities—some of these seven shots were snatched and ran out by himself.

But He Ying was still not satisfied with his performance, because he hadn't scored a goal.

As a forward, not scoring a goal is a failure.

Even if he provides three assists in a game, even if he completes ten dribbles and eight steals... none of them are as important as a goal.

He Ying did not give up looking for opportunities to score.

With twenty minutes left in the game, he was still running non-stop up front.

He didn't know if a ball would be passed to him every time he ran into space. But he knew very well that if he didn't run into space, then there was a 100% chance that no ball would be passed to his feet.

Before, Zhou Yi could have passed the ball to him for that goal, but He Ying didn't complain, because it was okay for Zhou Yi to choose to shoot directly, and the facts also proved it. It was a very, very beautiful goal. With Zhou Yi's ability and confidence, it was absolutely reasonable for him to shoot.

He Ying didn't think that Zhou Yi didn't pass to him because he was greedy for credit.

Want to score? Just keep trying.

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In the seventy-fourth minute of the match, the Chinese team organized an attack in front of the Japanese team's penalty area.

Zhou Yi took the ball with his back to the attacking direction and couldn't turn around, but he quickly passed the ball horizontally to Yang Muge, who was supporting him in the center.

Then he turned around again and moved forward without the ball.

He didn't move fast, just like taking a walk, not the kind of run that charges aggressively into the penalty area.

He did this naturally to minimize the possibility of attracting the attention of Japanese players as much as possible. Even if he could make them ignore him for a second, that would be enough.

A second was enough for him to be spotted by Yang Muge.

Sure enough, just as he came in front of the Japanese defender and into the space behind the defensive midfielder, Yang Muge passed the ball over.

Along with the football, Zhou Yi returned to people's attention, and two Japanese defenders, Yasuyuki Konno and Maya Yoshida, quickly turned their eyes over.

But they didn't rush up immediately. Konno Yasuyuki might still remember the scene of losing the ball, and didn't dare to rush up easily.

They might wait for Zhou Yi to stop the ball before taking further action.

Yasuhito Endo rushed up from the side at the first time, wanting to stick to Zhou Yi.

But Zhou Yi didn't give the opponent a chance to do so. He didn't stop the ball, nor did he receive the ball. Facing the ball passed by Yang Muge, he directly slid!

He shoveled the ball towards the penalty spot in the penalty area!

There, He Ying happened to run into space!

"Zhou Yi... a wonderful pass!"

Duan Xin cheered.

In the cheers, He Ying received Zhou Yi's pass near the penalty spot.

At this time, Maya Yoshida raised his arms, signaling that He Ying was offside.

But the referee didn't blow the whistle, and the linesman didn't show anything either.

He Ying, who received Zhou Yi's pass, made a slight adjustment, and then shot!

Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima attacked to save, but the ball slipped past his feet. He stretched his feet down, but failed to stop the ball.

He could only look back as the ball slipped past his feet and rolled into the goal behind him...

"He Ying! Hey! He Ying!! The ball went in——! The Chinese team is leading the Japanese team by two goals!" Duan Xin on the commentary seat was so excited that he almost jumped up——if he wasn't still working...

And those fans didn't have the concern of "having to work," and they jumped up and raised their arms and shouted.

The sound of thunder rang out again in the sky above the Helong Sports Center.

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He Ying was very excited after scoring a goal—he had finally waited for the goal to come!

Zhou Yi passed the ball beautifully, but his own running was also very important. If he hadn't run into that space, even if Zhou Yi passed the ball, no one would have received it. Of course, the most likely thing was that Zhou Yi wouldn't have passed it there at all...

Before running, He Ying saw the space, so he hung back for a while and ran towards the space in advance. He was betting that Zhou Yi could see the space and pass the ball over.

He bet right.

Zhou Yi used an unconventional method to pass the ball, and he himself did not disappoint Zhou Yi's pass. He scored a clean and neat clever shot with not much power, but very cleverly, with a tricky angle, just catching Eiji Kawashima off guard!

Most importantly, this goal allowed He Ying to get rid of all the bad air in his heart.

After scoring, he ran all the way, then flew over the advertising boards, jumped to the runway area behind the advertising boards, and waved his arms to the excited Chinese fans in the stands.

The other Chinese team players also followed over the advertising boards to celebrate with He Ying.

"It's stable!"

Those Chinese fans who were cheering in the stands only had this one thought in their minds at this moment!