But Fernandez’s goal is more to hold the ball and look for breakthrough opportunities.
This is something he is not naturally good at, and today it’s even harder.
So Sotu replaces him.
On the other side, Bai Zhami is performing much stronger; once the opponent fails to take down Bai Zhami, he leaves them eating dust behind him.
Versachi replaces Fernandez and moves to the right midfield position.
Originally the right attacking midfielder, Lu Yang, is pushed to the right winger position.
San Remo... firepower upgrade!
Five minutes after this substitution, San Remo breaks through.
Canyes breaks through the right and passes to Versachi, who then passes to Morici.
Morici makes a long pass to find Lu Yang, who has reached the bottom line.
After Lu Yang receives the ball, he uses a Divine Dragon Tail, Rabona along the baseline to get past the Zenit left-back defending him.
Zenit’s No. 8 player was already nearby watching Lu Yang. Seeing Lu Yang about to cut into the penalty area along the baseline, he rushes at Lu Yang to try and intercept him.
After the Rabona flick, there is some distance between the ball and the player.
But Lu Yang moves quickly on the baseline with an excellent burst of speed.
He does a Marseille Turn before the No. 8 player, bypassing the opponent.
At this moment, Lu Yang has entered the penalty box.
But he is just on the baseline, facing zero angles.
So Lu Yang pushes the ball to the left, trying to create some angle for his shot.
Even an angle of eight degrees or ten degrees is better than zero.
But this push also brings Lu Yang closer to the opposing center-back.
It might even look like Lu Yang is voluntarily nearing the opposing center-back.
One opposing center-back presses Lu Yang and moves with him, while the other blocks Lu Yang from the front.
Behind Lu Yang are two Zenit players he bypassed, chasing after him.
In front of him, at the end of the less than ten-degree shooting angle, there’s a massive Zenit goalkeeper.
In a small right side of the penalty area, six people are tangled together, in chaos.
But suddenly, the ball flies out.
At incredible speed, rolling along the ground, full of surprise.
Lu Yang shoots with his right foot!
An extremely tight-angle shot!
Dribbling past two on the baseline, shooting amid a four-person enclosure!
The Zenit goalkeeper bends down facing the ball, swiftly bringing his legs together.
Because he realized his only defensive flaw — the small gate!
That space beneath his own crotch.
He was not standing with spread legs; there’s already an intentional prevention of a nutmeg as his feet were barely thirty centimeters apart.
But he didn’t expect such a tricky shot, and Lu Yang would be so determined to try kicking a twenty-one-centimeter ball through a twenty-eight-centimeter gap between his legs.
How confident does he have to be in his shooting skills?
Is this possible?
It seems it really is possible!
At times like this, the goalkeeper has no chance to move his feet.
The Zenit goalkeeper can only press his knees together, forming an X with his legs.
It looks a bit unmanly, but it’s his only possible attempt.
This can slightly reduce the space between his legs.
If Lu Yang’s ball bounces even a bit, it would be blocked.
But the strange part is, the ball... it seemed glued to the ground, not bouncing at all.
The level surface of the Zenit field played a huge role here.
Because uneven fields often cause irregular bounces, and even though Zenit stadium’s field quality was not high, the penalty area had been specially maintained.
Unexpectedly making it their pitfall!
Whoosh!
The ball sneaks between the Zenit goalkeeper’s legs into the net.
Lu Yang immediately runs out of the crowd, jumps up with his right fist raised high, like the Shoryuken punch from Ryu in Street Fighter, breaking the gloom over the stadium!
"Who else!" Lu Yang shouts mid-air.
Not far from him, Zenit players look mortified as if they just swallowed a bug.
Though players on the field can’t maliciously provoke opponents and fans, the goal scorers are given some leeway.
During the brief moment after the goal, as long as it’s not excessive, referees tend to turn a blind eye.
Otherwise, whether it’s Simeone or C Luo’s celebratory gestures, they would face more than one game suspension.
Two to one!
San Remo takes the lead again!
"Beautiful! That was a truly spectacular solo goal!"
"Lu Yang invades the opposing penalty area on his own, unstoppable!"
"This goal truly showcases Lu Yang’s well-rounded abilities! Ball control, dribbling, speed, power, shooting; all of Lu Yang’s skills are so comprehensive and balanced!"
"This goal is very similar to Mancini’s goal in the second round of La Liga, but with a higher difficulty and smaller angle!"
"Enriquez also had a similar dribble through from the same spot, but chose to provide a back pass assist instead!"
"The comparison between Lu Yang and the La Liga double idols seems odd. La Liga fans always thought Lu Yang was just clout-chasing. But actually... every rare encounter, Lu Yang’s face-offs with the La Liga idols have always ended victoriously!"
"From this perspective, the La Liga idols should be the challengers!"
"In this match week, San Remo scored twice, performances not at all inferior to the La Liga idols in the Champions League yesterday!"
"Lu Yang as a player is really strong! Major clubs should definitely pay more attention to him!"