Another Goal

After the substitutes finished celebrating, Lin Quan's teammates helped him up from the ground.

A few close teammates even ruffled his hair before returning to their positions.

It was not just the substitutes. Several players from the starting side also came over to congratulate Lin Quan.

Deulofeu even gave Lin Quan a big hug.

"Lin, how did you do that just now?"

Even he, a proper winger, could not beat an entire defensive line by himself.

Yet his friend, who played as a defensive midfielder, had managed it. Deulofeu found it utterly unbelievable.

"Want to learn?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Deulofeu nodded eagerly.

"I learned it from watching Messi too. If you want to learn, watch more of Messi's matches. Watch and learn often, and eventually you'll get it!"

Lin Quan said with a completely serious expression.

He had only meant to bluff him, but he had not expected Deulofeu to actually believe it.

"So that's why! No wonder the way you beat defenders just now felt a little familiar!"

Deulofeu secretly made up his mind. Once training with the youth team was over, he would go to the first team and study Messi up close.

As long as he kept at it and went to learn from him every day, he refused to believe he would not master it!

Lin Quan was speechless. Seeing how eager Deulofeu looked, he could not bring himself to dampen his enthusiasm.

Besides, it did not seem like a bad thing for Deulofeu to show his face around the first team more often.

It would at least leave some impression on the coaches. When the time came to promote players from the youth team, they might be more likely to think of him.

The match continued. Trailing on the scoreboard, the starters were unwilling to accept it, so they increased the intensity of their attack right from the restart.

They began using the first team's Tiki-taka tactics, stepping up their pressing in the midfield and attacking third, pushing their defensive line forward, and packing those areas with players.

The advantage was that it effectively intercepted and compressed the opponent's passing lanes and space, increasing the likelihood of mistakes.

And once the opponent made a mistake, they could win the ball high up the pitch and immediately launch a dangerous attack.

The downside was that if they faced a quick counterattack and failed to win the ball during the opponent's advance, their exposed back line would become a fatal weakness.

Guardiola's Tiki-taka improved defense even more than it improved attack. At its core, it was a revolutionary defensive tactic.

And its method of defending was simple: do not let the opponent touch the ball.

Without possession, they naturally could not score.

And so they would eventually collapse under Barca's siege.

After all, constant defending was bound to lead to a mistake!

To counter this tactic, Mourinho had specifically developed a fast counterattacking system during his time at Real Madrid.

The central principle of this tactic was to reduce the number of passes as much as possible. Players could not dribble; they had to move the ball quickly, preferably with one-touch passes.

And the passes could not go sideways or backward. They had to go forward.

The players on both flanks had to be fast on the counterattack and make runs into space, giving the players behind them suitable passing options.

The transition had to be as direct as possible, without battling Barca head-on in midfield.

They would bypass midfield entirely, play out from the back, move the ball into the attacking third with two or three quick passes, and threaten the opponent's goal within seconds.

Once such a counterattack came off, even if it did not end in a goal, it could still intimidate the opponent enormously, making them cautious and unwilling to commit too many players forward.

To produce that effect, the defending side needed a player at the back capable of playing quality passes, as well as one or two fast wingers with strong individual ability.

And the youth team happened to have such a player!

That was Lin Quan, who had inherited Messi's attributes!

In the 18th minute, the starters pressed frantically in the attacking third, and the substitutes made several consecutive mistakes.

After winning the ball, the starters laid siege to the substitutes' goal.

But with too many players in the penalty area, their several shots failed to pose much threat.

The goalkeeper caught the ball.

Lin Quan glanced at the starters' empty half and immediately raised his hand for the ball.

As the team's main midfielder, the substitute players naturally treated him like their big brother!

The goalkeeper passed him the ball without hesitation.

As soon as the ball reached Lin Quan's feet, two starters immediately closed in, hoping to dispossess him just as they had done to the other substitutes.

But Lin Quan controlled the ball, turned, and smoothly skipped past one defender.

He then used that player as a screen to block the other opponent who had rushed in to challenge him.

It was a beautiful escape, the movement fluid and effortless, instantly opening up an angle.

Without hesitation, he sent a long diagonal pass to the substitutes' right winger while signaling for a tactical combination.

After receiving the ball, the right winger immediately surged forward into the starters' half.

There were only three defenders left at the back for the starters. Seeing trouble, one of them immediately stepped up to stop the substitutes' right winger.

The other two defenders retreated while preparing to cover.

The substitutes' right winger did not dare to dribble. After seeing the defender block his path forward, he immediately passed the ball diagonally ahead.

There was nobody in the space he passed toward, making it look like a mistake.

But then a yellow figure flashed past and took the ball away.

The player receiving it was none other than Lin Quan!

"Stop him!"

The starters' center-back panicked the instant he saw that Lin Quan had the ball!

After making his pass, Lin Quan had immediately sprinted forward and reached the ball before the defenders.

However, Lin Quan did not have much of a speed advantage, and the starters' central midfielder caught up with him.

He was around thirty-five meters from goal. If he was allowed to carry the ball any farther, he would be very likely to create a shooting opportunity.

So the starters' central midfielder immediately grabbed Lin Quan's shirt and barged into him, intending to bring him down.

In an official match, he would already have gone in with a sliding tackle.

Even if he could not get the ball, he would at least have taken the man down.

But this was only an internal training match, and such a tackle could easily injure the opponent, so he did not dare to commit recklessly.

Lin Quan was smaller and lighter than his opponent, leaving him completely at a disadvantage in the physical contest.

After being barged into like that, he immediately lost his balance.

Fortunately, the substitutes' left winger had already made his run into space, so Lin Quan passed the ball before he fell.

After receiving it, the left winger quickly cut inside and closed in on the penalty area.

The two defenders had no choice but to send one over to mark him, but before the defender could get close, he had already passed the ball to the right.

A supporting attacker smashed a shot toward goal. It was hit a little too centrally, and the goalkeeper was ready to make the save.

But the ball clipped the leg of a starters' defender in flight, took a deflection, and bounced into the net.

Only then had the starters' players just managed to run back into the penalty area.

The score became 2–0!