Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 109

< Euro Finals >

From a defender’s perspective, a through pass that goes over their heads is always a threat.

However, this time was a bit different.

The threat of a through pass isn’t about missing the ball, but about losing track of the player.

A ball that belongs to no one.

It becomes dangerous when the opponent is the first to chase after it.

So, in this case, it wasn’t immediately a threatening situation.

What’s threatening about a pass going over the halfway line when the attacker who needs to reach that pass is behind the halfway line?

However,

the speed of the guy starting from so far back was changing the dynamic.

Fortunately for Spain, the defenders made a quick decision.

“Out you go!”

Thinking it might be dangerous as it was, Spain’s defensive leader, Juan Gonzalez, shouted at the goalkeeper, who quickly snapped out of it and rushed out.

Tata tat-!

Whoosh-!

Bang-!

Even so, it was a close call.

Spain’s keeper, Caceres, cleared the ball to the side with a sliding tackle and quickly got up to run back to the goal.

As this series of scenes unfolded in an instant, Wembley was filled with awe.

“Crazy, he’s so fast.”

“Those Spanish bastards must be sweating bullets. Are they still going to play with a high line [a defensive tactic where the defensive line is positioned far up the field]?”

“If it connects just once, it’s over!”

The English fans were starting to get excited.

It was clearly a tight game, but the flow was a bit frustrating.

It felt like Spain had prepared well for the game in many ways.

However, that moment seemed to disrupt one of Spain’s plans.

Solely through the individual ability of a player named Johan.

In fact, after England’s attack, the Spanish defenders were seen discussing it.

“Should we… drop the line [move the defensive line further back]?”

“No. We shouldn’t drop it.”

“But, that was dangerous.”

Because they were veteran players, Spain often held tactical meetings on the field without needing input from the bench.

But even those players couldn’t help but feel uneasy when they witnessed Johan’s speed.

“We have to stick to what we’ve been doing. As we’ve been doing.”

In the end, Gonzalez made the call.

Certainly, Johan’s speed was frightening.

Enough to make you wonder if you should drop the line.

Because you need to secure a safe distance.

But if you think about it a little, you can see that dropping the line isn’t the answer.

If you drop the line, Johan has no reason to stay behind the halfway line.

He’ll come up to match the dropped line.

Then it becomes even more dangerous.

Maintaining the line is the only way to keep him pinned back.

It can’t be helped.

There’s no way to perfectly block an attacker like Johan without taking any risks.

No matter how big the risk, it seemed like the only way was to push ahead as they had prepared.

<30 minutes have passed in the first half in an instant. It's 0-0, but it's a tense game that makes your hands sweat.>

In the end, after a chilling moment, Spain continued to raise the line and did not back down.

Thanks to that, the game started to heat up even more.

Shots from both teams were fired in quick succession, creating an atmosphere where a goal could be scored at any moment.

In the process, it wasn’t just the game that caught fire.

The atmosphere among the players also began to overheat.

In the 35th minute of the first half, a rough tackle by Spanish defender Aspas occurred near the halfway line.

Price, who was kicked in the ankle by this tackle, screamed and fell, and Aspas was given a warning [yellow card].

However, Aspas, in a brazen manner, protested fiercely, and when it was not accepted, he shouted something at Price, who was lying down.

Well, it must have been something like, “Don’t act like you’re in so much pain.”

“Hey!”

“Get lost, you son of a bitch!”

There was no way the English players who saw that would stand idly by.

“What, you bastards.”

“What?”

“Dirty tactics.”

“Did you say everything you wanted to say?”

In the end, all the players from both teams gathered and clashed fiercely, and the referee had no choice but to temporarily stop the game to calm them down.

This scene definitely suggested that Spain was in a hurry inside, even if it didn’t appear that way on the outside.

In any case, they had the initiative and were dictating the flow of the game in the first half.

It was a flow where a goal should have been scored by now.

That was Spain’s winning formula.

But since they haven’t scored a goal yet, emotional responses have started to surface.

England couldn’t have known that.

“Hey, hey. Let’s back off here. Leave the rest to me.”

Shay Bellamy holds back the England players.

At Bellamy’s urging, the furious England players nodded and returned to their positions.

Because everyone knew.

What Bellamy meant by saying to leave the rest to him.

Bellamy of Chelsea, who I face in the league, is a player who is so annoying that I really want to beat him up.

However, now that we’re wearing the same uniform, there is no player as reliable as Bellamy.

The game resumed, and the rough play continued.

Shay Bellamy began to make his presence felt in the game.

Whenever a foul was called on Spain, Bellamy was always involved.

The Spanish players probably wanted to kill Bellamy.

He would make a whimpering sound and fall as soon as he was touched, or he would cover his face even if he wasn’t touched there.

When Spain was awarded a throw-in, he pretended not to know and tried to take it himself, or he lingered in front of the player trying to quickly take a free kick, or he threw the ball back.

Emotions were already running high, and Bellamy fueled the fire even more.

Every time that happened, boos poured out from the English fans, who were acting as home fans.

It was infuriating.

Perhaps, if today was not the final but an ordinary game, someone would have risked being sent off and taken Bellamy out.

Fortunately, it was too important a game, and it was still the first half, so they had no choice but to endure it somehow.

However, even if they endured it, yellow cards were still piling up anyway.

The flow of the game was getting strange.

Spain’s attacking moves looked rushed and disjointed, unlike before, and England was blocking them more easily.

This highlights the importance of maintaining composure.

When emotions are mixed in, you become impatient and your movements become exaggerated.

It becomes easier to read from the opposing point of view.

For England, now was the biggest opportunity of the first half.

With the game overheated, in the final minutes of the first half.

Spain’s pass was intercepted in midfield, and Price, who won the ball, played a pass forward.

A pass that sliced through the defense.

Johan ran towards that pass.

Tata tatatat-!

The Spanish defense, realizing their mistake, ran after him.

The concentration that had been so sharp until the middle of the first half was now scattered.

In a situation where emotions had risen, it was difficult for them to calmly maintain their shape, so they had pushed higher up the pitch than usual, exposing the space behind them.

“I’ll stick to you!”

The only fortunate thing was that Price’s pass was spinning and curving slightly to the side.

The ball drifted to the left side of the box.

Thanks to that, it seemed like they could buy some time to delay him.

However, Aspas, who was chasing after Johan in a hurry, also knew.

That Johan is not a player who waits for the defense to close him down in this situation.

As expected,

Tata tat-!

Johan’s quick steps came into Aspas’ eyes.

Left of the arc circle. Few players would attempt a shot from there.

However, Johan is a player who can shoot from any position, with either foot.

Therefore, Aspas, certain that Johan would shoot, threw himself into a block.

However, Johan did not shoot.

Whoosh-!

Johan, using his left foot as if he was going to shoot, tucked the ball behind his right foot, decelerating and changing direction at the same time.

A heel chop, commonly known as a backheel.

Whoooooosh-

With that sudden change of direction, Aspas, who had thrown his body into the tackle, slid past Johan as smoothly as someone who had come to the swimming pool,

Johan now had a perfect right-footed shooting angle.

Since Aspas failed to delay him, the Spanish defense had no time to regroup.

Boooooooom-!

A shot aimed at the far post.

The shot, which was cleanly struck on the instep,

Whooooooooooosh-

rose to a height that the goalkeeper’s hand could not reach, and then dipped sharply in front of the goal.

Thud-!

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaack-!!”

It was the moment when Johan became the first teenager in history to score in the Euro final.

*

“Ugh!”

“I’m going crazy. My whole body is still shaking!”

The first half ended with Johan’s opening goal.

However, the excitement didn’t easily fade even after the whistle blew.

Throughout halftime, Ban Seok-ho and Rohan couldn’t hide their excitement.

“With that goal, he scored in every game of this tournament! And the only teenager to score in the Euro final!”

“There’s a reason why they say kids these days are scary!”

The moment Johan’s goal went in.

The two of them thought they were going out of their minds.

The two of them were so frenzied that they felt like their memories had been cut off for a while.

They were hugging the surrounding spectators and dancing wildly, and their hair was all disheveled.

But they had no time to care about such things.

“Did you see the Spanish guys completely bowing their heads and going in? They’re going to push even harder in the second half!”

“It was really big that they managed to not concede a goal. Spain was nothing special because their attack was shut down!”

It was definitely very meaningful to finish the first half 1-0 with Johan’s goal.

First of all, it was good that they kept Spain from scoring, but they were also entering the second half with a lead.

England is in a much more comfortable position to manage the game.

If you only look at the atmosphere at the end of the first half, it seemed like the game had become quite favorable.

However,

“If possible, I hope they score one more in the beginning of the second half.”

“Then it’s definitely a decisive blow. Spain will try to change the momentum. If you score one more in the beginning, they will be completely shaken. Above all, Johan is a guy who is hungry for goals. Already.”

I can’t be satisfied with this.

Anyway, there are 45 minutes left in the game, and Johan has only scored one goal now.

It’s a great thing to score a goal in the final, but it’s a bit different when it’s Johan.

For the current Johan, one goal is about as good as an average performance.

He has to score at least 2 goals, or even 3 goals.

If possible, I want that second goal to be scored in the beginning of the second half.

Then, we can really easily win the championship.

“Hoo, let’s go.”

“Let’s go!”

The game continued into the second half.

*

What Spain needed during halftime was to clear their heads and calm their emotions.

Spain had been controlling the game well until the middle of the first half.

However, things started to go wrong after that point, and their heads got hot, completely ruining the end of the half.

“Don’t say anything! Just breathe! Inhale deeply and exhale slowly. That’s all you have to do before the second half starts!”

Thanks to Spanish coach Martinez’s scolding, Spain, who came out in the second half, felt much calmer.

However, it didn’t seem like that was necessarily a good thing.

That’s because Ranieri expected it.

At the start of the second half, coach Ranieri ordered them to pressure the opponent, and the players faithfully carried it out.