The livestream chat.
A dense flood of comments crazily filled the screen.
-[Awesome!]
-[Insane!]
-[Leverkusen forced Li Luo to unleash his full power?]
BayArena.
Leverkusen's defense was on edge.
Li Luo gradually understood why the permanent passive "Dragonfly Skimming" was a kind of momentum, an instinct.
The phantom of the golden bald head dissolved into specks of starlight and drifted away on the wind.
"Two composed escapes in succession."
"He's found the space."
"He's found the angle."
Almost instinctively, Li Luo raised his arm and swung his leg.
60 shooting.
81 kicking power.
The Chinese Super League's peak grand completion level.
Bang!
Tens of thousands of fans stared in astonishment.
Under the floodlights, the Chinese youngster drew his bow.
With textbook shooting mechanics, he unleashed a thunderous shot!
The ball rocketed away.
Leno was still positioned near the near post. Under Leverkusen's usual approach, containing a prodigious talent required the entire defensive line to work together...
There was no time to make the save.
The far post trembled slightly under the impact, followed by the rippling of the white net.
3-2!!!
A goal right after coming on?
"Beautiful!"
"It's in!"
"Li Luo fluked... Li Luo has unleashed an earth-shattering long-range strike to pull one back for Wolfsburg!"
"Unbelievable."
"A Ball-and-Player Split, a Marseille Turn, and a thunderous finish!"
"The perfect marriage of elegance and power."
"Can he lead Wolfsburg out of BayArena unscathed?"
The commentator marveled at it.
He carefully watched the replay of Li Luo's successive escapes.
For a moment, even Coach Zhang hardly knew how to describe it: Li Luo's three touches seemed to have crushed Leverkusen's high defensive line to pieces.
Li Luo had not expected it to go in either.
Wolfsburg had no big center-forward.
He was at the very tip of the formation, and his teammates had not had time to push up in support.
He could only have a go himself.
And somehow it had gone in?
He did not celebrate. His team was still behind.
Li Luo was about to rush into the net and collect the ball... then he spotted Leverkusen's fearsome defensive crew.
"Arnold, could you get the ball? We need to hurry."
"Sure, Li."
The livestream chat.
Slow-motion replays showed Wolfsburg's entire attacking move from different angles.
-[So damn stylish.]
-[Super Marseille Turn.]
-[Two goals down. Our Li Luo had no choice but to unleash his full power.]
-[The savior! Scores the moment he comes on.]
-[In master tactician Hecking's strikerless formation, substitute Li Luo is Fabregas, David Silva, and Totti.]
-[Mr. Hecking, take us to Russia.]
-[The Atlético Madrid version of Agüero, otherwise known as "Little Li Luo."]
De Bruyne followed Li Luo all the way back to the halfway line.
His face was animated, his eyes full of hope.
"Li, we can definitely turn this around."
"Yeah, yeah. Everything's under control."
After observing from the bench for so long, Li Luo's Spatial Awareness geometric model had already broken down the problem and found the answer.
He made several gestures toward Wolfsburg's half.
His teammates understood immediately.
This was different from Frankfurt, Hoffenheim, and Everton.
The gaps in Leverkusen's defense were not particularly difficult to spot. First, Wolfsburg needed to solve the problem of their rhythm being disrupted by relentless pressing.
On the touchline.
Leverkusen's assistant coach, Dino, instantly understood the Chinese youngster's gestures.
"Li is signaling his teammates to... rotate into the most advanced position for him."
"He's going to deal with Leverkusen's high press..."
On the other side.
Wolfsburg's older assistant coach said excitedly, "Li fluked a long-range goal too..."
"What do you mean, fluked?"
Hecking loudly objected. "Li calculated all of it."
Dost, sitting on the bench, wholeheartedly agreed. He was not angry about being substituted. Watching the Chinese youngster, his eyes were full of approval. "I'm not good at creating attacks myself. Li is the real nemesis of Leverkusen's defense."
The match restarted at the center circle.
Kießling took the kickoff and passed back into defense.
The tempo did not drop.
The defensive line did not retreat.
Both teams' midfielders and forwards rapidly crossed the halfway line, their figures converging and then separating.
"They're still going toe to toe!"
"Çalhanoğlu's movement and passing combinations are very sensible."
"He keeps turning his head to assess the situation on the pitch."
"Some viewers have called Çalhanoğlu, Pogba, Pjanić, and Li Luo the four kings of the new generation of midfielders."
"..."
Çalhanoğlu controlled the rhythm of Leverkusen's attack.
Move.
Receive.
Pass.
He dismantled Wolfsburg's midfield barrier and led Leverkusen's formation forward.
"Beneath the crescent and star, North Rhine..."
A moment later.
"Oh no, he's lost the ball."
"Arnold has finally won it off Leverkusen's key man."
"Beautiful, he passes back to Li Luo."
"Huh? Li Luo has dropped back. Who's moved up to the front? De Bruyne!"
Li Luo did not launch an attack straight away.
He needed to wait.
Wait for Leverkusen to unleash their relentless high press without the ball.
Tap.
He knocked it sideways to Guilavogui.
The Atlético Madrid castoff had good footwork. Spotting Li Luo's movement, he decisively passed the ball over.
"Beautiful."
"One-Touch Passing from Li Luo."
"He finds Knoche pushing forward."
"Gustavo drops back to fill in along Wolfsburg's center-back line."
"Both fullbacks have pushed up too."
Wolfsburg's players understood what he wanted and worked hard to coordinate their rotations, shortening the distances locally while spreading out the passing options on the far side.
The ball's path.
The changes in Li Luo's movement.
Together, they formed a series of constantly shifting triangles.
Leverkusen unleashed a furious high press, yet it was like a fist slamming into the ocean.
The livestream chat.
-[Positioning, awareness of the bigger picture, vision, reading the game, tactical analysis, tempo control, anticipation... the perfect combination of every element.]
-[A maestro.]
-[Yes, yes, yes. The nemesis of the high press.]
-[A stylistic hard counter!]
-[That was so close. Li Luo nearly got dispossessed. Why do I feel like the quality of his short passing... isn't very consistent?]
-[That must be because his Wolfsburg teammates aren't passing well, making the ball awkward for him to handle.]
Çalhanoğlu kept running.
He tried to cut off Li Luo's passing connections.
Gradually, he realized.
He seemed to keep overestimating the power and trajectories of the Chinese prodigy's passes...
Why did I guess wrong again?
Impossible.
His short passing can't possibly be that average.
Even Guilavogui and Knoche have better short passing than him. No, no, I haven't fully understood the passing-and-movement logic behind his One-Touch Passing.
The technical area.
Dino was utterly horrified.
Schmidt abruptly rose from his seat, confusion in his eyes.
On the other side.
The older assistant coaches were overjoyed.
Hecking clapped softly. "Li and I are thinking along the same lines."
BayArena.
Leverkusen's fans were getting angry. Their team was being led around by the nose.
In recent years, their natural enemies seemed to be teams led by those genius midfielders-the "linchpins," the "Web Weavers," the "thieves of time."
Two years ago.
The nightmare of that 10-2 defeat on the UEFA Champions League stage still seemed vividly fresh.
Within the Spatial Awareness model.
Li Luo realized he had "drawn in" several Leverkusen players.
He did not hesitate.
If he hesitated any longer, he could no longer count on keeping his passing and receiving steady.
Smack!
"Here it comes!"
"Li Luo with the chipped pass."
"What vision."
"He's already drawn Leverkusen's high defensive line out of position, opening up several gaps."
The ball floated through Leverkusen's midfield screen.
Then it dropped onto the tip of De Bruyne's boot.
The next moment.
As if given life, it sprang lightly toward the flank.
Wolfsburg fullback Sebastian surged forward at speed, controlling the ball straight into his stride and racing away like lightning.
"A third-man combination."
"He's onside."
"One-on-one."
"Leno comes out... and he's been lobbed!"
Before you continue