Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 158

< The Matchup of Dreams >

“…”

Something’s off.

The training is the same as always.

But today, the back of my head feels particularly prickly.

“…”

Even now, I feel a gaze from somewhere, and when I turn my head, I meet Buckley’s eyes.

Buckley gives me a strange, unreadable smile.

What is it?

What’s with that cheesy smile?

‘Kane is enough to deal with.’

Being watched every move by Kane is enough, so why is Buckley, who never used to be like this, acting like this?

I don’t know.

Yo Han sighed.

Anyway, it was a pleasant training session for once.

Well, it’s not like today’s training was lighter than usual, and it’s certainly not because we finished the first leg against Juventus well.

The donut was just delicious.

I’d get scolded a lot if Dad or the coach found out about this.

But, isn’t the reason I get scolded for eating donuts because it might make me worse at soccer?

Because gaining weight would make me slower.

Then, conversely, it wouldn’t matter if I play well in the game, right?

That way, Capello won’t find out that I’m secretly smuggling and consuming donuts.

To continue enjoying this secret pleasure in the future, I need to play even better in the games.

So that no one notices that I’m inhaling donuts behind their backs.

“…”

No, but seriously.

Why does Buckley keep doing that?

ㆍㆍㆍ

The biggest achievement of winning 4-1 in the first leg against Juventus is that the quarter-finalists are decided by the aggregate score of the first and second legs.

A whopping 3-point lead.

Even if West Ham loses 0-1 or 0-2 in the second leg, West Ham will still advance to the quarter-finals.

Of course, the same goes for 3-4 or 3-5.

Even if they lose by a 3-point margin, they can still grab a last chance to go to extra time with a tied score.

West Ham was in a much more relaxed position than Juventus, as they only needed to avoid losing by 4 points or more to prepare for the second leg.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were going to be complacent.

They would give their all in that game as well.

The best players were scheduled to play in the second leg as well.

However, there was some leeway to conserve the players’ stamina depending on the game situation.

For example, if the score difference was comfortable until the mid-second half, there would be no need to make the starting players play until the end.

Anyway, that meant there was more room to focus on the league.

Manchester City, for example, drew 2-2 with Paris in the first leg, so they have no room to spare.

Manchester City, who finished as runners-up last year after losing the championship to Real Madrid, are putting their lives on the line for the Champions League this year.

But they were even put in a situation where they had to risk everything in the second leg, so their concentration would inevitably be divided between the league and the Champions League.

Although they are currently in 3rd place in the league, Manchester City is always the most troublesome opponent in the championship race.

It was a good situation for West Ham.

That good situation led to the 26th round of the league.

West Ham’s opponent in the 26th round, riding the momentum of defeating Juventus, was Sheffield United.

Indeed, going to the Champions League is like this.

After playing against Juventus, how would it feel to face a relegated team like Sheffield?

Sorry to Sheffield, but it couldn’t help but feel easy.

There’s a reason why they say you have to play in the big leagues.

The players who played in the Sheffield game felt like the league game was so easy and had a great time playing.

<3-0, West Ham takes a clean victory. With this, West Ham wins again after two draws!>

In fact, just because they drew twice in a row, it can’t be said that they ‘stumbled’.

However, because West Ham’s momentum was so good, the fans of other teams were making a fuss as if they had lost several games in a row, hoping that West Ham would collapse.

But it’s not the West Ham of the past.

West Ham, who was lucky enough to take a spot in the top ranks at the beginning of the season, is a thing of the past.

West Ham has finished preparing to continue their winning streak.

ㆍㆍㆍ

After the 26th round of the league, West Ham flew to Turin.

The second leg of the round of 16 takes place at Juventus’ home ground, the Allianz Stadium.

“They’ve prepared a lot?”

“They must be desperate.”

The West Ham players smiled as they entered the stadium on the team bus and looked at the stadium’s scenery.

Indeed, Juventus seems to be in a hurry.

Following the route where the away team bus enters, a group of men who looked like thugs were giving the bus the finger and even throwing eggs.

They are all in plain clothes, but anyone can tell they are Juventus fans.

The reason they are not wearing uniforms is to make it look like they are not Juve fans, but who are they kidding?

Why would someone who is not a Juve fan do that?

“They’re just standing there blankly, don’t they think of stopping them?”

“They’re all in cahoots [colluding].”

Although police officers were stationed along the entrance line, they didn’t seem to be actively trying to stop the angry fans.

After all, they are also fans of Juve.

Indeed, this is an away game.

Perhaps if they were players who played in a league where the fans are very gentle and gentlemanly, they might have been intimidated by their actions.

“How cute.”

“Can they even scratch the bus with just eggs? They should throw stones.”

“The fans here are too gentle.”

But, sorry, but the players on this bus belong to West Ham of the Premier League.

To them, it just looked like a cute prank.

“If we invite them to the game against Millwall, they’ll probably pee their pants.”

“That’s scary for us too.”

In fact, it couldn’t help but look like child’s play to some players, including Gordon, because these West Ham veterans had experience in the derby match against Millwall [a fierce rivalry known for its violence].

That derby is really brutal.

The spectators who come to the stadium for that game are not coming to watch the game.

They’re coming to fight.

If not, why would they wear sturdy clothes and bring tools when they come to watch a soccer game?

It’s not something to be proud of, but anyway.

It seems that the Juve fans have prepared a lot, but the atmosphere here cannot break the spirit of the West Ham players.

The West Ham players smiled and entered the Allianz Stadium.

*

West Ham’s starting lineup was the same as in the first leg.

They saved their stamina in the game against Sheffield, and they played the first leg so well that there was no reason to make changes.

On the other hand, some changes are noticeable in Juventus.

First of all, the starting formation has changed.

Juventus, who came out with a 4-4-2 formation in the first leg, came out with a 4-3-3 formation today.

It’s an aggressive arrangement.

If the existing 4-4-2 was a form of aiming for a counterattack by placing two defensive midfielders and setting up two lines of defense, today they placed a more aggressive midfield arrangement and even put two wing forwards.

Of course, it was as expected.

Juventus, who are behind by as many as 3 points, must be aggressive no matter what.

For Juventus today, 90 minutes is like a lit fuse.

If that fuse burns out, boom.

It’s elimination.

Therefore, coach Schmidt could easily predict Juventus’ strategy today.

However, coach Schmidt had no intention of changing his tactics to match it.

This is originally coach Schmidt’s tendency, but from the beginning, he had no intention of getting to the quarter-finals by defending the score.

There is a way to reduce the number of goals conceded as a way to protect the 3-point lead, but there is also a way to score one more goal.

Juventus will be aggressive to catch up with the 3 points, and as a result, there will be no choice but to have loopholes in the defense.

Rather than simply defending, he intends to actively aim for that loophole and create a 3-point difference like a parallel line that can never be caught up.

What does this mean?

The game started to flow in a slightly different direction from the expectations of Juventus and its fans from the start.

“Those guys aren’t lowering the line?”

“Are they going to come out with a counterattack? Well, that’s good for us. I came expecting a very boring game.”

“Arrogant bastards! Score 3 goals quickly and turn the game around!”

At first, everyone was happy.

About West Ham not being defensive.

Thanks to that, they expected to be able to score an equalizing goal more easily and quickly than they thought, and they thought they could.

Of course, there was also anxiety.

As much as they needed an equalizing goal, they shouldn’t concede a goal either.

Juventus conceded 4 goals in the first leg despite being defensive.

Moreover, in this situation, there would be even more dangerous scenes exposed.

Still, they thought it would be better than the opponent locking up tightly.

First of all, they thought that whether the equalizing goal was scored early or not would greatly affect the atmosphere of the game.

In the end, the game was like a double-edged sword.

Or heads or tails.

Juventus could catch up more easily than they thought, or they could collapse more easily than they thought.

It’s a fight of how the players play.

Sadly for Juventus fans, it was Juventus’ neck that the double-edged sword cast its shadow on.

Also,

Not heads or tails, no.

A back-door came out.

The first goal was scored in the 12th minute of the first half.

Guimarães stole the ball from Juventus’ attack situation, and Guimarães immediately kicked a long kick towards the front to develop a counterattack.

Yo Han headed the ball down to Capello, and Capello returned the pass to Yo Han.

Yo Han received this pass with a wonderful turn, overtook Barzagli, and then shot towards the upper corner of the goal.

The shot shook the net as it was.

Juventus is in a position to catch up with 4 goals in about 80 minutes.

Of course, it’s not impossible, but it’s also very difficult.

Still, Juventus did not collapse easily and did their best.

Fortunately, this was their home.

If it was an away game, they might have collapsed even more easily, but with the enthusiastic support – or threat – of the home fans, the Juventus players accelerated their attack as much as possible, and

In the 24th minute of the first half, an equalizing goal like rain after a drought was scored.

The score difference is narrowed to 3 points again.

However, as soon as the score difference narrowed.

West Ham ran away once again.

This time, the Yo Han and Capello connection exploded.

Yo Han’s killer pass and Capello’s calm finish.

Capello, who showed a celebration of putting his hand to his ear in the first leg, made the Juventus fans furious this time by celebrating with his index finger to his mouth.

The first half ended with 2-1, with a combined score of 6-2.

In the second half that followed.

It was Juventus who scored the first goal in the second half.

Dimitri Volerović broke the frustrating flow with a cannonball-like long-range shot.

With this, it’s a 3-point difference again.

Juventus seemed to be reviving the last hope.

However, time passed as goals were not scored easily.

Before they knew it, the game was approaching 90 minutes.

Now it’s too late to hope for a miracle physically.

West Ham was already preparing to finish the game by using player substitutions to save the players’ stamina around the 75th minute.

Unfortunately for Juventus.

The gap between West Ham and them was a parallel line that could not be caught no matter how hard they reached out.

In the end, Juventus collapsed without overcoming the 3-point difference.

It was the moment when West Ham greatly defeated Juventus and secured a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

*

◆West Ham United 6 : 3 Juventus

◆Bayern Munich 6 : 1 AFC Ajax

◆Manchester City 5 : 4 Paris Saint-Germain

◆Real Madrid 6 : 3 Borussia Dortmund

◆Atletico Madrid 2 : 0 Sporting CP

◆Liverpool FC 5 : 2 Inter Milan

◆Sevilla FC 3 : 2 Arsenal FC

◆SL Benfica 3 : 4 Villarreal CF

◆West Ham United FC

◆FC Bayern Munich

◆Manchester City FC

◆Real Madrid CF

◆Atletico Madrid CF

◆Liverpool FC

◆Sevilla FC

◆Villarreal CF