Chapter 102 — The Highest Header in History and Messi's Comeback
The whistle had barely blown for 21 seconds!
An opening kill!
Tito Vilanova was stunned; he had imagined many scenarios, but never an "opening kill!"
Barcelona players and fans were dumbfounded — they already knew they were sometimes away-game chokers, but this… this… this was too fragile…
In the Penguin broadcast studio
Zhang Lu was also stunned; he had expected a very tough game for Arsenal, but who would have thought…
Professionalism steadied him quickly and he shouted:
"Goal!"
"Arsenal have taken the lead after only 21 seconds — incredible."
After the goal, the Arsenal players were ecstatic. This was a predesigned tactic, not solely Xia Qi's doing — everyone had a part.
After scoring, Xia Qi redeemed a goal celebration gesture from the future through the system. He thought it was perfect for tonight.
He summoned Mario Balotelli, Jack Wilshere…
They went down to the south stand. Xia Qi had his teammates sit on the turf in a circle, as if at a dinner table eating soup dumplings and drinking beer; finally they raised imaginary glasses and invited the fans to toast with them.
The fans in the south stand played along — those holding beer raised their cups; those without pretended to hold one. Both stands shouted together: "Cheers!"
The celebration finished amid laughter and joy.
["That idea from the Arsenal players is so fun — I want to eat soup dumplings and drink beer in the Emirates."]
["This kind of interactive celebration should be promoted — hope one day in the Chinese Super League we can interact with our favorite players like that."]
The match continued.
Tito Vilanova stood on the touchline urging his players to step up the attack.
At the whistle, Barcelona's front three and Xavi Hernández surged across the halfway line.
Arsenal, who had been knocked out five times in a row, had a bit of a "fear of Barça" — they dared not trade blows and instead tightened defensively.
In the minutes that followed, Andrés Iniesta and Alexis Sánchez each played a pass to Lionel Messi; Messi's two shots were both collected by his Argentine compatriot — Martínez.
Two minutes later, Alexis Sánchez, who apparently didn't love money, shot from the left of the box but Martínez saved; Messi chased the rebound and surprisingly lifted his shot over the bar.
Arsenal fans at the Emirates were sweating bullets!
Then Barcelona grew bolder.
They pinned Arsenal deep in their half.
On the touchline, Tito Vilanova was ebullient — if Barcelona played like this, goals would surely come sooner or later. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and put his hands in his pockets, as if he didn't know what "opponent" meant.
Tito Vilanova was so smug that the broadcast director cut to a close-up of Arsène Wenger.
In the frame, Wenger lounged lazily, leaning against the side of the dugout. If Pat Rice had eyes, he should have stood and given up his seat so Wenger could put his feet up and take a nap.
Such behavior would normally be impolite in public; the etiquette-conscious Wenger would never behave like this on an ordinary day.
But he wanted to send a message to his players: I am confident about Barca's attack.
Whether it worked was unknown for now.
But after seeing Wenger look so relaxed, Arsenal fans — who had been on edge because of Barcelona's mercurial attack — suddenly calmed down.
Some even showed an "I get it" aunt-like smile; these fans who seemed to understand something all rinsed with beer and drew in deep breaths to store lung power.
On the pitch, Arsenal's situation still looked grim.
Xavi Hernández passed to Pedro.
This was a player whose ability exceeded his fame.
In the 2010–2011 Champions League final, among Barcelona's MVPs, he was the least famous — yet he opened the scoring.
Sir Alex Ferguson's trembling hands became the iconic moment of that game and were the greatest tribute to him.
After that match, Pedro was noted by every Premier League coach, Wenger included.
As soon as Pedro received the ball, an already-prepared Santi Cazorla slid in.
Pedro, who had always developed quietly and prospered silently, did not expect Arsenal to mark him second only to Messi.
He thought he could take a few touches — he never expected Cazorla to just go straight in with a tackle.
Isn't that Messi's treatment?
Should I thank Wenger? Or thank Wenger!
Pedro was careless; Cazorla hacked the ball away and knocked Pedro down in the process.
Mikel Arteta, who had been cooperating with Cazorla, chased down the loose ball and flicked it forward.
At the same time, Xia Qi surged forward like a wild horse unleashed.
Clearly, this was the opportunity Wenger and the fans had been desperately waiting for.
The Emirates erupted in deafening roars as fans released all that lung power they'd been saving.
"What a beautiful counterattack!"
"Iniesta is tracking back behind Xia Qi."
Iniesta was behind Xia Qi; Xavi was in front of Xia Qi. Xia Qi jumped high and chest-controlled the ball, bringing it down lightly to his feet.
"Lovely control — Xavi must regret not closing him down more tightly!"
Indeed, Xavi must have been gnawing with regret; he thought that Xia Qi's control would allow him to intercept, but Xia Qi's touch was world-class.
At that moment Iniesta tried to come around from behind and steal it, but Xia Qi shrugged him off with his shoulder,
and with the tip of his left foot nudged the ball through the small gap that Sergio Busquets had left as he lunged forward to double-team.
Then, with both legs exploding, he burst out between Iniesta and Xavi.
There's a lot to describe, but all these motions happened in the blink of an eye.
After beating his man, Xia Qi, facing Busquets' interception, laid the ball to Mario Balotelli in the middle; Balotelli passed on and the ball reached Theo Walcott.
Young tiger Walcott and Barcelona's left-back Jordi Alba moved down the right side quickly.
Around three or four meters from the byline Walcott cut inside. Alba defended tightly; Walcott's feints didn't fool him.
Meanwhile Balotelli darted into the box centrally.
Xia Qi suddenly shook off Dani Alves on the left and sprinted into the left channel of the penalty area.
Walcott pulled the ball to the left, feinted a cut, shifted his weight to the right, pretending to change direction.
Alba immediately anticipated the ruse, shifted his center of gravity back, and blocked the interior cut.
But although he closed down the interior lane, he couldn't prevent Walcott's cross.
The ball flew from right to left.
It flew quite high; neither Balotelli nor his marker Marc Bartra jumped.
They looked towards the left channel.
There, Xia Qi and Gerard Piqué leapt together.
The raw masculine power in Xia Qi's leap momentarily shoved the oblivious Piqué right out of the way.
Under the gaze of more than eighty thousand people, Xia Qi rose like a rocket — in that instant he left the pull of the earth…
From the side, Xia Qi's raised knee was level with Marc Bartra's head not far away.
It was a height that would make defenders despair.
In midair, Xia Qi threw his head back and drove a powerful downward header!
The ball smashed toward Víctor Valdés' goal.
Valdés made a save motion in front of the line but couldn't parry it.
The shot was too fast!
Valdés could only defend with willpower.
Beep!
The referee's whistle sounded and he pointed to the center circle, signaling a valid goal.
Piqué rushed to the referee to complain that Xia Qi had fouled, but the referee pointed to his eyes and said: "I saw clearly. Xia Qi made no extra movement — it was normal challenge."
"Beautiful!"
"Xia Qi dove like a bomber and struck the header in the box."
"Barcelona's goalkeeper Víctor Valdés had no answer."
"Live data shows Xia Qi's jump height was 2.96 meters — this is the highest recorded header goal."
After scoring, Xia Qi ran again toward the south stand, leapt high and punched the air with a "lightning triple" celebration.
Fans in the south stand felt like they'd won a prize; weren't people saying Barcelona were very strong?
How had Arsenal gone two goals up within 25 minutes?
["Haha, Valdés looks awful."]
["It's not Valdés' fault — the shot was too fast; even Buffon wouldn't have saved that."]
The match continued.
Barcelona reverted to possession football — the tactic that made them a cosmic team.
After a series of passes, Dani Alves drove inside and was brought down by Mikel Arteta.
The referee awarded Barcelona a free kick — reasonable — but showing Arteta a yellow card was harsh.
Wenger stormed over to the fourth official and shouted: "Let's each stay in our half and just exchange long balls; that way the bodies won't make contact."
An early yellow card for a holding midfielder is a heavy burden for Arsenal.
Against superstars like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, taking necessary bookings is unavoidable; getting booked too early makes you timid, and that creates a hidden danger.
No matter how Wenger protested, Arteta's yellow card was not going to be rescinded.
The free kick Barcelona won was very close to goal and the angle was slightly off-center.
Perfect for Lionel Messi to take with his left foot.
Sure enough, Messi stepped up.
Barcelona fans were ecstatic, crying: "Messi! Messi! Messi!"
A star stepping up lifts the team's morale.
Xia Qi and Balotelli, because of their height, came back to form the wall.
When Messi placed the ball and stood up, the two locked eyes.
Xia Qi saw no killing intent in Messi's eyes, only calm.
But the calmer Messi looked, the more uneasy Xia Qi felt.
Yet there was nothing he could do — it was Al taking the kick.
Beep!
Messi ran up and hit it with his left foot.
Although Xia Qi and his teammates jumped high, not one player touched the ball.
The ball curled around the wall!
It raced toward the Arsenal goal.
Martínez, affected by his sightline, leapt up and stretched his arms, trying to make his reach longer and longer…
But he still couldn't touch the ball…
"Messi!"
"Goal!"
"In the 30th minute of the first half, Barcelona pull one back from a free kick — a precious away goal. The score is now 2–1!"
With Zhan Jun's passionate commentary, a "Boom!" resonated on the broadcast feed!
It wasn't the sound of the ball hitting the net — Zhang Lu and Zhan Jun looked at the picture.
The ball had struck the crossbar.
"Ah!" Zhang Lu immediately added: "Unbelievable! Messi's free kick flew around the wall and beyond Martínez's fingertips but was rebounded by the crossbar."
"Tonight the goalframe is Arsenal's twelfth man."
"Messi produced Barcelona's most dangerous chance of the game! Although it didn't go in, it shows he's in fine form — the goal is just a matter of time."
Online, people laughed:
["Exposed! If only I'd known you're a Messi fanatic — too impatient."]
["Major production accident — luckily it's Penguin station; if it were the national broadcaster it would have died on air."]
["You can't blame Zhan for talking too much; the main thing is Zhang Lu kept speaking and speaking; Zhan just wanted a chance to say something…"]
["Zhan: Whether my commentary is right or not doesn't matter; I mainly wanted to get a word in."]
["Messi: I'll take the blame — I let the coach down."]
On the pitch, a relieved Arsenal sang the "Martínez Song," using the same tune as their Xia Qi chant but with different words.
Though Martínez didn't actually save the free kick, he was still pumped and gestured to the fans to sing louder.
Wenger smiled on the touchline: "This kid!"
"This kid is the opposite of Xia Qi — he's full of passion on the pitch while Xia Qi is calm like a thirty-something old rogue."
The match resumed.
Although Messi's free kick didn't score, it boosted Barcelona's morale.
Soon after, Barcelona won the ball from Jack Wilshere and once again dominated the game.
Barcelona love possession — under modern football theory that is sometimes seen as an inefficient style.
Pep Guardiola wanted to add the word "effective" to Tiki-Taka, but that angered the higher-ups who treated Tiki-Taka as sacred.
As a result, the helmsman of the cosmic team was sacked.
At that time Barcelona hadn't yet been taught a harsh lesson and didn't realize they were wrong; Guardiola was the one who was right.
On the pitch:
Wave after wave of attacks seemed to smother Arsenal, but in truth they harmed Arsenal little — they were mainly very insulting!
Apart from the cheers of the traveling Barcelona fans, Barcelona got little else.
After prolonged failure to break through, Barcelona slowly realized their shortcomings; Guardiola had often pointed those out.
So they consciously increased the number of passes to Messi.
Messi's individual technical traits matched Barcelona's Tiki-Taka perfectly, creating a sum greater than the parts.
Because of that, Messi was long criticized as a system player, until he strolled through leading his youngsters to win the World Cup — then the doubts quieted…
But that's a later story.
On the pitch, Messi could occupy two or three Arsenal players by himself, forcing Xia Qi and Walcott to both come back and defend.
In effect, Arsenal were sacrificing counterattacking potency to defend with everything.
Even so, Arsenal's defense was on shaky ground…
Arsenal fans had little heart left for singing; the faint-hearted clutched their chests to stop them from popping out, the faithful silently crossed themselves and muttered prayers,
while the south stand fans clapped in unison and shouted for their ice-cream prince — Xia Qi!
If anyone could stand up at a dangerous moment, clad in golden armor and riding the rainbow clouds to save Arsenal, it would surely be their ice-cream prince — Xia Qi!
There was no other answer!
The rhythm and chants from the stands infected Arsenal's back line.
They squeezed a few drops out of the fuel tank and suddenly counterattacked, finally winning the ball off the great demon — Messi.
At that moment the Emirates felt fully alive again; their shouts became a tsunami: "Xia Qi!"
Take advice when offered and eat your fill!
Per Mertesacker passed the ball to Xia Qi…
(END CHAPTER)
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