God of Greenery

Even in a two-round knockout round, a three-goal lead is already a very big advantage.

Therefore, Marten Martens, who scored the third goal, and his teammates celebrated wildly, and the Alkmaar home fans in the stands also applauded thunderously, celebrating excitedly for the team's big lead.

Coach Van Gaal and assistant coach Junker on the sidelines also hugged each other. Junker hugged Van Gaal while laughing and said: "Boss, your tactics worked, the goal was too easy."

Van Gaal smiled and said: "Yes! Leading by three goals, this game is much easier to play! Next, no matter how the opponent plays, we will win. Tell the boys, shrink the formation, play defensive counterattacks, and continue to use Jiang Xiaolin Attract the opponent's defensive attention and attack more points."

Junker nodded, ran to the team members to celebrate together, and then explained Van Gaal's latest tactical instructions, Jiang Xiaolin and others expressed their awareness.

Alkmaar was celebrating wildly, but the players and coaches of Zenit St. Petersburg felt dazed.

On the one hand, the score of 3-0 stunned them.

Faced with such a score, even the Russians, who call themselves a fighting nation, no longer have much confidence in continuing to fight to make a comeback.

On the other hand, what Alkmaar showed in this attack made them feel at a loss.

They don't know whether the offensive players such as Moussa Dembele and Maarten Martens who attacked Alkmaar this time did not pass the ball to Jiang Xiaolin on purpose or not.

It is also unknown whether Maarten Martens' shot was his personal decision on the field or a tactical requirement of coach Van Gaal.

Not to mention that they are now three goals behind, even if they are not three goals behind, they will lose their direction on how to play the next game.

On the one hand, the fact that they were behind by three goals made them have to step up their offensive efforts and strive to score goals in order to retain a glimmer of hope for a comeback in the second round.

On the other hand, they must do their best to prevent Alkmaar's counterattack while attacking.

Otherwise, let Alkmaar score another goal, and they will not even have a theoretical possibility of a comeback.

In the European knockout rounds, there was an example of being behind by three goals in the first round and returning to the home court in the second round.

Therefore, the players of Zenit St. Petersburg are very confused.

Offense must be attacked, and if you do not attack, you will definitely die.

But what about defense?

Should we focus on defending Jiang Xiaolin, or should we take into account other Alkmaar players?

Focusing on defending Jiang Xiaolin, I am afraid that, like just now, Alkmaar will not pass the ball to Jiang Xiaolin at all, and other players will easily hit the ball in.

As for defending other players in Alkmaar, with Jiang Xiaolin's ability, it is also possible to break through the defense and score goals.

Everyone couldn't help turning their eyes to the coach on the sidelines.

Three goals behind, the opponent's third goal was neither Jiang Xiaolin's assist nor Jiang Xiaolin's shot. Jiang Xiaolin just ran to the frontcourt and attracted the defense of three of his own, allowing Alkmaar to score easily. .

His intuition as a coach told him that this may be the opponent's tactical arrangement, which is to use Jiang Xiaolin to attract his own defensive attention, so that other players can get a shot and score easily.

But he didn't dare to gamble.

Because Jiang Xiaolin's personal ability is too outstanding.

Just looking at the first two goals, as long as the defense against Jiang Xiaolin is relaxed a little, Jiang Xiaolin is very likely to score or assist. It is really difficult to relax the guard against him.

Helpless, the head coach could only order an all-out attack.

As for defense, they could only focus on defending Jiang Xiaolin.

Because Jiang Xiaolin was alone after all, and there were too many other Alkmaar players.

Since Zenit St. Petersburg wants to attack, how can they have the energy to defend the counterattack of so many opponents?
It is not bad to be able to focus on containing Jiang Xiaolin's counterattack alone.

This is Zenit St. Petersburg's last struggle.

The players naturally did as the head coach ordered.

After the game restarted, Zenit St. Petersburg, who were three goals behind, really launched an all-out attack.

In addition to the two central defenders, even the full-backs and defensive midfielders were inserted into the frontcourt to participate in the attack, because the reality of being three goals behind made them really have no way out, so they had to give it a go.

However, Alkmaar has already shrunk his formation under Van Gaal's latest tactical instructions. The dense defense in the backcourt made Zenit St. Petersburg's aggressive attack ineffective.

Even Jiang Xiaolin retreated outside the penalty area to participate in the defense.

His full-value positioning skills interfere with the opponent's passing and running positions, making it even more difficult for Zenit to make long-range shots outside the penalty area.

After all, breaking the dense defense itself is a worldwide problem in football, not to mention that they don't have a long-range shooter like Jiang Xiaolin, and they are also interfered by Jiang Xiaolin's full-value positioning skills.

So, after the game restarted, Zenit St. Petersburg bombarded Alkmaar's half for more than 20 minutes, but failed to score a goal, and there were very few threatening shots within the range of the goal frame.

On the contrary, on Alkmaar's side, as long as there is a counterattack, it will definitely make Zenit St. Petersburg's defense jump for a while, but Alkmaar is almost lucky and has not been able to turn the counterattack into a goal.

But with more counterattacks, you can still score goals.

Especially in the second half of the game, Zenit St. Petersburg under the pressure of a big score lagged behind after a long period of indiscriminate bombing. Alkmaar countered with pace.

Therefore, it became a matter of course for Alkmaar to score the fourth goal in the end.

In the 76th minute, Zenit St. Petersburg's attack in the frontcourt made a pass error under the pressure of Alkmaar players and was intercepted by Steyn Schals. Forwards Jiang Xiaolin and Hamdoy immediately Turned around and rushed towards the opponent's half, and started a counterattack.

Styne Schals, who got the ball, made a two-for-one cooperation before Martens. After passing the Zenit player who was grabbing the ball, he sent the ball to Jiang Xiaolin's feet.

The two central defenders of Zenit St. Petersburg had originally focused their attention on Jiang Xiaolin, but now that Stein Schals passed the ball to Jiang Xiaolin, they naturally completely gave up on the other striker. Hamdoi's marking, trying his best to intercept Jiang Xiaolin who was advancing with the ball.

As for Hamdoy, who was unmarked next to him, the two thought that as long as they stopped, Hamdoy would naturally be in an offside position, and it would be useless for Jiang Xiaolin to pass the ball to Hamdoy.

As a result, just when the two of them thought this way and were about to stop, Jiang Xiaolin suddenly kicked the ball to the front of Hamdoy's running.

Hamdoy jumped in from the side without stopping, and successfully reversed offside after receiving a pass from Jiang Xiaolin, and headed towards the penalty area of ​​Zenit St. Petersburg, creating a chance to go to the meeting alone.

The two central defenders Kanishinahi and Vidic Shelton, who originally wanted to intercept Jiang Xiaolin, turned pale with fright. They wanted to speed up again to chase Hamdoy, but it was too late.

They originally wanted to stop and intercept Jiang Xiaolin, but with this change in the center of gravity, they couldn't catch up with Hamdoy, who was advancing at full speed.

Although Hamdoi's shooting skills are not as good as Jiang Xiaolin's, it seems that Jiang Xiaolin was the top scorer in Alkmaar before.

When Jiang Xiaolin was injured and did not return to the team at the beginning of the season, Alkmaar's offensive point was mainly from Hamdoy, and he was once among the top three scorers in the Eredivisie.

Therefore, although Alkmaar's goals now mainly come from Jiang Xiaolin, it does not mean that Hamdoy is completely dead.

Under such uninterrupted single-handed meeting conditions, facing the attacking goalkeeper Malafif, Hamdoi chose the same style of play as Jiang Xiaolin, and hit a light kick from outside the penalty area.

Hamdoi's lob shot made no mistakes.

Not only did the goalkeeper Malafev miss the ball when he took off to make a save, but the ball fell over the top of Malafiv's head and fell to the goal without going above the crossbar. It fell steadily into the goal of Zenit St. Petersburg.

With a sound of "Wow...", the entire AFAS stadium erupted.

Countless people shouted, yelled, and cheered in the stands, with thunderous applause, celebrating Hamdoi's goal.

4-0!

In the 76th minute, with Jiang Xiaolin assisting Hamdoy's goal, Alkmaar took a 4-0 lead at home.

This basically announced the end of the game, and even ended the outcome of the two rounds of the quarter-finals.

Four goals behind, Zenit St. Petersburg is absolutely impossible to comeback!

Not to mention whether they can score four goals, even if they can score, it is impossible to prevent Alkmaar from scoring counterattack goals.

With Jiang Xiaolin present, whether it is Jiang Xiaolin scoring a goal or attracting the opponent's defensive attention as just now, and then assisting his teammates to score, Alkmaar's goal will become very easy.

What's more, there is not much time left for the game now.

Once Zenit fails to score an away goal, and Alkmaar goes to the away game to score in the second round, it will be a top two away goal, and Zenit St. Petersburg will die even more.

No matter how you look at it, when Jiang Xiaolin assisted Hamdoy to score Alkmaar's fourth goal, no matter the first round or the second round of the game, it was basically over.

The defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg is sure to be eliminated by Alkmaar.

Looking at the Alkmaar players running wildly and celebrating on the field, the players and fans of Zenit St. Petersburg lowered their fighting nation's heads.

Even with their wildness, they have to admit that they lost this game.

Even, there is no need to think about the second round of the game.

The situation of falling behind by four goals cannot be reversed even if the gods come.

The defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg's road to defending this season was completely over at the moment Jiang Xiaolin assisted Hamdoy to score Alkmaar's fourth goal.

Sure enough, after Jiang Xiaolin and the others celebrated their goal and the game restarted, Zenit St. Petersburg was still attacking, but its determination and strength to attack suddenly dropped a lot.

Obviously, a large part of the players have lost the determination and confidence to continue the game, and they are just continuing to play according to the inertia.

What effect can such an attack have?

Not only the offense, Zenit's defense also began to appear chaotic.

Because the score was so far behind, I lost confidence in the game, and because I didn't know how to defend.

So, in the 85th minute, when Zenit midfielder Scheinlov's aimless shot from outside the penalty area was blocked, Alkmaar took advantage of the opportunity to launch a wave of fast breaks.

In this counterattack, Jiang Xiaolin got the ball again.

Although Jiang Xiaolin assisted Hamdoy to score the fourth goal, Zenit's head coach did not make tactical adjustments because he had lost confidence in the game, and the players on the court could only continue the game according to inertia.

In this counterattack, they habitually focused their defensive attention on Jiang Xiaolin.

At most, pay attention to the defense against Hamdoi.

This is the best they can do.

Because it was the counterattack of their failed offense and being hit, the back line was understaffed.

On the other hand, Zenit, who fell behind by a large score, also had a lot of time to attack in the second half, and the players in the frontcourt could not come back even if they wanted to return to the defense.

And, what about coming back?
With such a big score gap, could it be possible to make a comeback?
Therefore, in fact, there were a few players in the midfield who could barely return to the defense. They stopped chasing after seeing Jiang Xiaolin dribbling the ball past the center line: they just gave up.

In the end, two central defenders intercepted Jiang Xiaolin, a full-back intercepted Hamdoy, but the full-back Moussa Dembele who inserted on the other side was unguarded.

Therefore, Jiang Xiaolin used his superb passing skills to send the ball in front of Dembele's running position at the moment when Moussa Dembele was about to be offside without any pressure.

Dembele, who was plugging in at full speed, surpassed the back line in an instant, successfully reversed offside, and received a pass from Jiang Xiaolin to kill Zenit's penalty area.

The central defender Kanishinahi, who was defending Jiang Xiaolin, turned around and chased Dembele who was holding the ball diagonally, but he couldn't catch up.

Dembele drove the ball into the penalty area, facing the attacking goalkeeper Malafif, and easily hit a far corner.

The ball got into the goal of Zenit St. Petersburg against the post.

Jiang Xiaolin scored a hat-trick of assists.

And Alkmaar, in the first round of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, bloodbathed the defending champion Zenit St. Petersburg with an amazing score of 5-0, completely ending the suspense of the second round.

Even if Alkmaar sent Jiang Xiaolin to lead a group of substitutes to play away in the second round, Zenit St. Petersburg would not be able to comeback.

[-]% death penalty.