SWDnovel Chapter 422 - 90: Toying with De Gea! Single-handedly Toppling Atletico Madrid
Chapter 422 - 90: Toying with De Gea! Single-handedly Toppling Atletico Madrid
The ball shot out at incredible speed, skimming across the grass. It practically scraped the inside of the right post as it flew into Atletico Madrid’s goal!
De Gea reacted, diving sideways in an instant, but he was just a fraction too slow.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!"
"In the 12th minute, just four minutes after Dortmund conceded, Wang Shuo has equalized for the Bumblebees!"
"What an absolutely brilliant individual performance!"
"Relying on his individual skill, Wang Shuo took on Atletico Madrid’s entire backline up front, ultimately equalizing for Dortmund with a blistering shot."
"And now, Dortmund is once again ahead on aggregate!"
The entire Calderon Stadium fell silent in an instant!
No one could have imagined Dortmund would equalize so quickly.
It was as if Wang Shuo had single-handedly torn through Atletico Madrid’s entire defensive line.
Pereira and Uyfalusi were on the ground, Domingos and Assunção couldn’t stop him, and in the end, even the genius goalkeeper De Gea was powerless against Wang Shuo’s shot.
What more was there to say?
If Aguero had single-handedly taken down Dortmund’s two center-backs just moments ago...
...then Wang Shuo had just done the same to Atletico Madrid’s entire backline!
After scoring the goal, Wang Shuo waved his teammates over to celebrate with him.
The Sheet Army, on the other hand, was dealt a heavy blow.
They had fought so hard to turn the score around, only to have the tables turned on them again less than four minutes later.
This feeling of gaining an advantage only to lose it immediately left everyone on the Atletico Madrid squad feeling incredibly frustrated.
Especially because of Wang Shuo.
He had single-handedly dismantled Atletico Madrid’s entire backline!
’What kind of skill is that?’
’Other than Messi, no one else could do that!’
Wang Shuo paid no mind to the mood of the Atletico Madrid players, nor did he care about the fans’ reactions in the stands.
He gathered his teammates not just to restore the team’s morale, but to fire them up.
"All right, let’s press the advantage! They’re reeling from that goal. We launch an all-out attack now and try to grab another one!"
"Yeah!"
The players roared in response to Wang Shuo’s call.
...
The match resumed.
Dortmund immediately launched into their signature high-press offense.
As soon as Atletico Madrid kicked off, the Bumblebees pushed nearly their entire team forward. Everyone swarmed into the attacking half, putting Atletico Madrid under a relentless, frantic press. Each player was fully committed, and their tactical execution was flawless.
It gave the Sheet Army a taste of what suffocating pressure truly felt like!
Under Dortmund’s frenetic style of play, Atletico Madrid—a team not known for its passing and possession—simply couldn’t cope and kept losing the ball.
As soon as Dortmund won the ball back, they would immediately launch a swift counter-attack.
This sent waves of panic through Atletico Madrid’s penalty area.
Then, in the 19th minute.
Dortmund won the ball again near the halfway line, and it was passed to Wang Shuo.
With his back to the goal, Wang Shuo used his body to shield the ball from Pereira, brought it under control, and laid it off to Götze.
The moment Götze controlled the ball, Assunção was on him.
Götze must have had a rough time against him in the first leg, because the moment he saw Assunção, he flinched. His first instinct was to shield the ball.
Wang Shuo had started to run back to support Götze.
But then he spotted Shahin, who had found an open space to the left of the center circle. Glancing behind him, an idea suddenly sparked in his mind.
"To Shahin!" Wang Shuo yelled.
Then, he immediately spun around and sprinted forward.
Götze already had his back to the goal.
Hearing Wang Shuo’s shout, he quickly located Shahin and passed the ball.
Götze laid it off, and Shahin, facing forward, saw Wang Shuo’s sprinting run. He immediately followed up with a perfectly weighted chip over the top, sending the ball precisely behind the defensive line and down toward the Arc Top District.
Wang Shuo surged forward at top speed, bursting between the two center-backs, Pereira and Domingos.
"He’s beaten the offside trap!!"
"Wang Shuo is onside!"
Wang Shuo continued his charge, catching up to Shahin’s pass at the Arc Top District and deftly bringing the ball down from mid-air with his foot.
At that moment, De Gea rushed out of his six-yard box, charging at Wang Shuo.
The two center-backs chasing Wang Shuo were too late to stop him.
So he focused all his attention on De Gea.
After taking the ball down with his right foot, Wang Shuo took another touch to control it as he entered the penalty area.
As De Gea closed in, he quickly stepped out with his left foot, his eyes locked on the goalkeeper.
In that split second, the Spanish goalkeeper had no time for a rational decision. He instinctively realized what was coming—another Swing Pass!
During his pre-match preparations, he had studied Wang Shuo extensively.
The Swing Pass was Wang Shuo’s signature move.
’This time has to be it!’
De Gea refused to be "fooled." He waited for Wang Shuo’s next move, ready to dive and smother the ball.
After all, he could use his hands.
But in that instant, after Wang Shuo feinted with his left foot and saw that De Gea hadn’t "fallen for it," his right foot immediately followed through. He pushed the ball forward and to the left with the outside of his boot and sprinted after it at top speed.
De Gea was completely stunned!
’Damn it, he actually went that way!’
’Isn’t the Swing Pass his specialty?’
’Why didn’t he do it this time?’
By the time De Gea realized he had been tricked and turned to chase, he slipped in his haste and fell right there in the penalty area.
The moment he hit the ground, he watched in despair as Wang Shuo fired a left-footed shot into the open goal!
After scoring, the Chinese player even turned to look back at him with a surprised expression.
’Holy shit!’
’I didn’t even do the Swing Pass, so why did he still go down?’
’Could it be that my one-on-ones have a built-in "make the goalkeeper fall" effect?’
’Whatever, time to celebrate the goal!’
Wang Shuo excitedly ran off to celebrate!