The day after Arsenal returned from the Champions League, there was a league match against Everton.

Needless to say, the result was that the Gunners once again chose to give up strategically and continued to use a full substitute lineup to face the third-ranked opponent in the league, so a 2:3 defeat seemed reasonable.

Arsenal had already won the championship ahead of schedule and had no need to maintain their unbeaten season after losing to Liverpool, so they naturally didn't mind losing again.

Therefore, Arsenal will still use a rotating lineup to face the next two league games. The winning or losing of these games is no longer important.

What matters now is the seventh round of the FA Cup and the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals at the end of the month.

If they want to win the five crowns, they cannot lose these two cups.

On April 22, Arsenal first started the FA Cup semi-finals, facing the Gunners' most hated North London rival Tottenham.

However, although this city's mortal enemy has a high hatred value, it is unable to pose a real threat to Arsenal.

Arsenal did not have any mentality of underestimating the enemy. In order to prepare for the FA Cup semi-finals, they specifically let the main players rest for a week.

This minimized Tottenham's chances of being upset. Although they resisted tenaciously in the first half and did not hesitate to put up a steel barrel formation to stop Arsenal's attack, they still fell to Wu Jie's free kick in the end.

superior.

In the end, Tottenham defended a seemingly decent 0:1, but the whole process was not decent at all, because even after Arsenal took the lead, Tottenham did not drive away the bus in front of the goal and still defended.

The formation prevented Arsenal from scoring.

Arsenal doesn't care about the process of winning. As long as they can win, that's the best result. They still focus more on the Champions League.

The English Football League and the FA Cup are similar in importance, and it mainly depends on which club wins less honors.

Arsenal have won these two honors more than once, and last season they won the three major championship trophies in England, but they have never won the Champions League. There is no need to say which is more important.

Gunners fans have also set their sights on the Champions League. Although they defeated Barcelona 2:0 in the first round, this score does not mean they can rest easy. Anything can happen in the away game.

Barcelona didn't give up either. As long as they could give Arsenal a 2-0 at home, they would have a chance to drag the game into overtime.

It would be best to postpone it to a penalty shootout. Barcelona fans have absolute confidence that as long as it can be postponed to the goalkeeper competition, Lin Yaodong will never let them down.

This is true, because in the second round of the Champions League semi-finals, Arsenal relied on Wu Jie's perfect movement in front of the penalty area + a fairy stop in the first fifteen minutes to successfully break into the penalty area, and then was desperately beaten by the Barcelona defender.

Put down.

The referee clearly understood the situation and immediately showed a yellow card. Naturally, the penalty kick could not go away.

But Lin Yaodong really did not disappoint the Barcelona fans. He actually defended Wu Jie, who had only missed one penalty kick in his entire career. Even though Wu Jie's "spoon shot" was a bit of a gamble against a historical goalkeeper like Lin Yaodong.

Element.

However, no one would blame Wu Jie for missing the penalty kick, because before he missed the penalty kick, his data was 26 of 27. His penalty success rate of 96% ranked among all 20+ penalty kickers in history.

Second place.

In the entire history of football, only Dutch star Johan Neeskens has a higher penalty kick percentage than him, because this guy has never missed a penalty kick, even though he has not faced several truly top goalkeepers.

But look at Lin Yaodong in turn. This guy has defended a total of 22 penalty kicks during the regular season, of which 12 were saved successfully. His 54% success rate is also unmatched in the entire history of football.

If I had to name one person, it would probably be Yashin.

However, due to the long history, FIFA does not have accurate statistics on points saved by this legendary goalkeeper, so it is impossible to judge who is more powerful.

And Lin Yaodong is now the goalkeeper with the highest success rate among all goalkeepers recognized by FIFA who have saved more than 20 points. It can be said that he is the goalkeeper with the highest success rate in saving points in the history of football.

This time the person who is best at throwing defeated the person who is best at shooting. Wu Jie is not very embarrassed, and Lin Yaodong is naturally more valuable in the point of attack. I just don’t know if there is any PY transaction in it!

Wu Jie said: Really not!

In this penalty kick, he not only made a change of speed during the run-up that made most goalkeepers vomit blood, but also made a realistic fake move when shooting.

Wu Jie didn't believe that anyone could judge the angle of his shot, so there was only one explanation: it was all fake!

Lin Yaodong didn't say anything because he was really in the dark.

He and Wu Jie have faced each other countless times in dream training, and his winning rate is less than 30%. After all, the goalkeeper is definitely at an absolute disadvantage in penalty kicks, and he often has to rely on blindness.

Wu Jie didn't hold back this time. Lin Yaodong couldn't judge the angle of the shot, so he simply took a gamble. Wu Jie was also afraid of his reaction and skill, so he probably chose the spoon penalty that seemed the most dangerous, but was probably the safest.

So among these two people, who is on the fifth floor and who is on the fourth floor?

Is he really a fool who beats the master?

They can’t even explain it themselves!

But the result was: Lin Yaodong saved Wu Jie's penalty kick. After Barcelona survived the disaster, they quickly saw hope of a comeback.

Before the end of the first half, Barcelona's forward Carrasco, nicknamed the "Gray Wolf", took a well-positioned free kick in front of Arsenal's penalty area.

Zubizarreta quickly looked towards the opposite half with a pained face, and as expected, the most hated colleague ran over in a hurry.

The entire "Camp Nou Stadium" instantly burst into deafening cheers. Today, in the stadium that can accommodate 120,000 people, 80,000 are Barcelona home fans. At this time, they are either shouting Lin Yaodong's name or shouting wildly.

waving his portrait.

This is also the most exciting scene in every game at Camp Nou since last season.

A goalkeeper not only ranks first in the league in conceding rate, but can also use free kicks and penalty kicks to compete for the league's Golden Boot. This is something that only Camp Nou can see in the world.

Therefore, just this one repertoire can make the attendance of every Barcelona game full, and even the betting group will specifically open a handicap for Lin Yaodong on "whether he can score a free kick" in every game.

Zubizarreta's face has turned dark. Lin Yaodong is the most hated colleague. The biggest reason is that he can always score goals with free kicks and penalty kicks.

Just imagine, for a world-class goalkeeper, what is the most embarrassing scene?

The answer is not an own goal, not a fat hand, nor is it scored seven or eight times in a game, but a goal scored by the opponent's goalkeeper. This is the most humiliating moment for a goalkeeper!

This is similar to being a striker, if the opposing striker not only scores a goal, but also serves as a temporary goalkeeper to save your shot.

Today's first half is destined to be Lin Yaodong's performance moment.

He used an unexpected ground ball to shoot, which not only successfully deceived Arsenal's wall, but also made Zubizarreta stand helplessly at the other end of the goal, watching the ball roll into the goal quickly.

At this moment, Zubizarreta felt as if someone had slapped him in the face and then spat on him, because he was experiencing the ultimate humiliation from a goalkeeper.

However, except for the humiliated goalkeeper, the other Arsenal players did not panic!

Their tactics today were defensive counterattack from the beginning, and the defensive effect was quite good. The best opportunity created by Barcelona was this free kick.

As for the counterattack, in addition to creating a penalty kick in the first half, Arsenal also made several threatening counterattacks and had more shots on target than Barcelona.

If Lin Yaodong hadn't made several world-class saves, including Wu Jie's penalty kick, Barcelona's coffin would have been nailed long ago.

The reason why Arsenal didn't panic is of course because they know that the opportunities created by Barcelona are far inferior to them. No matter how brave Lin Yaodong is, he can't be the savior in front of the goal every time, so why bother to mess up the situation?

At this time, we have to say that the so-called "superstars" not only have outstanding abilities, but also have very comparable mentality, otherwise they will not become superstars.

Arsenal's two midfielders, who are not yet famous as superstars, but whose strength has already reached the level of superstars, were terrifyingly calm today. Not only did every move they made when handling the ball reveal the demeanor of a general, they also always had an aura that exuded from time to time.

In the 60th minute of the second half, Laudrup and Gullit completed a breakthrough in the middle through continuous collision with the wall, and a pass from the latter allowed Laudrup to reach the hinterland with the ball.

Laudrup's dribbling breakthroughs, including long-range shots, are very threatening offensive methods.

Barcelona's defense naturally did not dare to be careless. In addition to guarding Wu Jie and Lineker who were advancing, they also allocated a lot of troops to defend Laudrup.

At this time, Laudrup made a move that was unforgettable for Barcelona fans 40 meters away from the goal - he took a big step forward with the ball and made a very realistic and powerful shot.

Lin Yaodong in front of the goal was deceived into focusing on this long shot.

Laudrup did hit the football, but at the last moment he lost his strength and pushed the football into the penalty area. This was a pass!

When Laudrup pretended to take a shot, Wu Jie first made an emergency stop to avoid possible offside, then accelerated diagonally into the penalty area, instantly throwing away the two defenders around him.

Lin Yaodong screamed inwardly, he had just been shaken by Laudrup's fake shot. Although he was in a position that could block Laudrup's long-range shot angle, it was blocked by Wu Jie who was diagonally crossing to the left side of the small penalty area.

A shooting opening was revealed.

At this moment, the fans on both sides were very excited and did not dare to breathe. The Barcelona fans were worried that Wu Jie would take off the ball and then score the goal. The Arsenal fans felt that it was not difficult to stop the ball, but they had to finish the shot before Lin Yaodong blocked the shooting angle.

It's difficult.

Laudrup's pass landed on the left side of the small penalty area. If it is not difficult to stop the ball, Lineker and Elkyr can do it.

But the difficulty with this goal is that there cannot be any delay, otherwise not only can Lin Yaodong re-block the shooting angle, but the two Barcelona defenders who were just thrown away by him will also immediately catch up.

Arsenal fans know very well that even if Wu Jie still had a chance to shoot at that time, as long as the perverted goalkeeper was given time to prepare, he would probably be blocked again.

But if we want to shoot directly, how can we stop the ball?

You can't stop the ball and just shoot in the air, right?

It’s not that Wu Jie has no similar shots, but this time his position is still some distance away from the football. Obviously, he cannot use a direct shot to hit the goal. He must first remove the ball and adjust it before hitting the goal. But this will not

Did the opponent's goalkeeper have time to respond?

Arsenal fans and players all felt that this second pass looked like an opportunity, but in fact it was impossible to seize it. It was too difficult.

But Wu Jie proved what it means to be a "ball king", that is, being able to turn impossible opportunities into possibilities.

While rushing forward, he first raised his leg and tapped the dropped cross ball like a feather. He used a wonderful stopping action to prevent the ball from falling to the ground, but bounced up a few centimeters.

At this time, Wu Jie did not make any further adjustments. He turned and volleyed directly along with the inertia of his forward motion, and used an unconventional volley side hook to hit the ball towards the goal.

Although Lin Yaodong did not completely return to the defensive position at this moment, he was confident that even if Wu Jie volleyed the shot without making any adjustments, he would be able to make the save with his agility.

But he really didn't expect that Wu Jie would use such an unconventional action to shoot. The biggest threat of this volley side hook was not the suddenness, but the angle of the shot was completely beyond his expectation, and it actually hit the position where he just rushed over.

At this time, he must stop quickly and then return to the previous position instantly to make the save.
To be continued...