Messi was very active in those few minutes. After he took the ball in front of the penalty area, he and Coutinho did a knock-the-wall combination and nimbly broke into the penalty area.
Messi's characteristics were very distinct. His footsteps were very fast, and he was always able to grab the ball in front of his opponent. His breakthrough was not big, but the effect was very obvious.
After Messi took the ball, he looked up to observe and found that it was Xia Ruofei who was defending him. Barça's several passes and pulls just now, RCD Espanyol's rear defensive line also frequently changed positions. Xia Ruofei just happened to fill this position.
Messi was slightly happy. He knew that Xia Ruofei was an offensive player. Such players were often not as experienced in defense as professional defenders. They lacked defensive skills and defensive experience. Messi himself was like that. In fact, he basically did not participate in the team's defense, unless the situation was very passive.
Originally, Suarez had run into a gap in the middle and Messi had a chance to send the ball to Suarez's side. But when he found that it was Xia Ruofei who was defending him, he gave up the attempt to pass the ball and decided to bypass Xia Ruofei.
As long as he could break through Xia Ruofei's line of defense in the first instance, there would be a big gap to shoot.
Messi's move to bypass was very simple. He dribbled the ball and rushed straight toward Xia Ruofei. The frequency of his small, quick steps was very fast. And Xia Ruofei, as Messi judged, rushed up to block the ball.
Messi confidently poked the ball, followed by a quick reverse poke. Many experienced defenders would be shaken in the face of Messi's rapid change of direction.
Even if they knew that Messi would do this, their bodies could not react. After losing their center of gravity, their bodies would be in a deadlock. They could only watch Messi pass by them.
Therefore, the fans who often watched Messi's football highlights knew that some of his passes often did not have any fancy movements, but the defenders were like wooden stakes. They could only watch Messi pass, but there was nothing they could do.
In the face of Xia Ruofei's defense, Messi still used his most familiar breakthrough method.
When Messi poked the ball to the left, Xia Ruofei tilted his body to the right and stretched out his foot to intercept.
There was a flash of joy in Messi's eyes. His feet did not stop moving and he immediately gave the ball in the opposite direction.
At this time, Xia Ruofei had already leaned to his right, and his center of gravity had also shifted to the right. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible for him to adjust in an instant.
However, in the next second, Messi could not help but widen his eyes. Xia Ruofei seemed to be completely unaffected by the rules of physics. After he poked the ball for the second time, Xia Ruofei's leaning body suddenly straightened up. At the moment he poked the ball, Xia Ruofei's left foot also stretched out and hit the football.
The football immediately bounced up.
At this time, Messi was still in a short period of shock. Xia Ruofei reacted very quickly. After intercepting the ball, he immediately lifted his right foot and deftly flicked the ball over Messi's head and hid behind him.
At this time, Messi was still leaning forward. He also felt the helplessness of his opponents' loss of center of gravity. The idea in his mind was to immediately turn around and snatch the ball on the spot, but his body did not listen to him at all. He was stiff in place.
Xia Ruofei, on the other hand, was like a cheetah. After completing a beautiful pass, she immediately rushed up and firmly controlled the ball.
The first one-on-one contest between Messi and Xia Ruofei ended with Xia Ruofei's complete victory.
When Xia Ruofei snatched the football and began to pass, his mental strength had already swept out at the same time.
He found that the RCD Espanyol players had retreated very deep. Not only did the midfielders and attacking midfielders return to the vicinity of the penalty area to participate in the defense, even the forwards had retreated to the front of the penalty area. Barça's attack was as smooth as flowing water, flattening the RCD Espanyol's formation.
Even Wu Lei and Iglesias did not expect Xia Ruofei to be able to complete the steal of Messi so neatly, so they did not speed up to sprint into Barça's half of the field.
Therefore, although Xia Ruofei had unexpectedly snatched the football, there was no point for him to send the ball out.
Barça's team would launch a counter-snatch on the spot after losing the ball, and they were very proficient in this kind of encirclement and snatching.
Xia Ruofei had just unloaded the ball and immediately sensed through his mental strength that three or four opposing players were approaching him at the same time. Messi, who was behind him, had also turned around and quickly caught up from behind.
Xia Ruofei faced the fate of being chased and intercepted.
In fact, the RCD Espanyol team had tried to steal before, but without exception, they were all snatched back by Barça on the spot.
There was no support from his teammates in the front field. Behind him was his own team's penalty area. Moreover, Messi was also chasing back. Xia Ruofei naturally could not simply pass back. Otherwise, if he made a mistake, it could be fatal.
He made the most correct decision in an instant — to break through forward.
Xia Ruofei did not expect the attack to pose any threat. He felt that as long as he kept the football as far away from his team's penalty area as possible, it would be considered a success.
From the moment he snatched Messi to the moment he made this decision, it was basically a flash of thought. After he made up his mind, Barça's Atul was the first to rush up.
Xia Ruofei did not panic in the face of Atul's ferocious rush. He did not hesitate to use a very realistic oxtail move to directly pass Atul.
After consecutively passing Messi and Atul, Xia Ruofei took a big step forward, and then his whole body rushed forward like a clockwork.
Barça had just maintained their offensive formation. The moment they switched from offense to defense, there was bound to be a loophole. Xia Ruofei's movement to pass Messi and Atul was extremely fast. There was no pause in the opportunity. Therefore, although several of Barça's midfielders and backfield players quickly closed in, they were a little far away.
Xia Ruofei wanted to take advantage of the opportunity when they had not yet formed an encirclement to kick the ball out.
Xia Ruofei was so fast that he passed through the gap between Busquets and Rakitic like a flash of lightning before the two men formed the door.
The front was already a flat stretch of land!
After Xia Ruofei's speed increased, no one could stop him.
At this time, Xia Ruofei was the person closest to Barça's goal. His teammates, including Wu Lei and Iglesias, fell behind him.
Therefore, Xia Ruofei did not have any other thoughts at all. He just rushed forward with the ball.
Xia Ruofei's speed was very fast. In the blink of an eye, he had already crossed half of the field. At this time, the right back, Semedo, rushed over from the side. He was very imposing. Clearly, he had made up his mind. Even if the ball went over, he would not let him pass! He would not hesitate even if he had to receive a yellow card.
Because Barça's rear defensive line was not completely in place, Xia Ruofei was already directly facing the rear defensive players. It could be said to be very dangerous.
However, Semedo still miscalculated.
Some people could not be kept just because they wanted to.
Xia Ruofei first made a rough pass to avoid Semedo's pressing. Then he swept past Semedo from the other side and ran in a big arc to chase the football.
The experienced Semedo slammed his shoulder into Xia Ruofei.
At this time, Xia Ruofei's body was tilted to the side in order to resist the centrifugal force.
If Semedo had hit him, if it had been any other player, they would have definitely lost their balance and fallen heavily.
If he could do that, Semedo would have been satisfied.
Moreover, there was a possibility that the referee would think it was a reasonable collision. In that case, he would not even need to receive a yellow card. He would be able to resolve the opponent's sharpest attack.
However, after Semedo hit Xia Ruofei, it was as if he had hit a steel plate. His whole body could not help but fly out.
He had thought that if he could not break Xia Ruofei's balance, he would take Xia Ruofei down even if he had to use a clinch move to prevent Xia Ruofei from continuing to go deep into his own side's hinterland. But this collision did not knock Xia Ruofei down. Instead, he flew out. Naturally, there was no chance to implement a tactical foul.
And Xia Ruofei acted as if he had never been fouled. His speed did not decrease at all, and he quickly caught up with the football.
Xia Ruofei's kick was powerful and heavy. Rather than saying it was a pass, it was better to say it was a pass. However, the pass was not to any of the RCD Espanyol players, but to himself two or three seconds later.
Previously, Xia Ruofei just wanted to take the football as far away from his own side's penalty area as possible, so that the team could have some breathing room. But now, Xia Ruofei had a bolder idea.
Now, in front of him was only the Barça center back, Pique, who was jokingly called "Leather Through" by the Huaxia fans.
Speaking of the nickname "Leather Through", which was given to him by the Huaxia fans, there was an interesting allusion.
In the 12-13 season, Real Madrid played Barça. Before the game, Pique said in an interview that he could see through all of Cristiano Ronaldo's feints. As a result, he was hit by Ronaldo's heel during the game, so his nickname "Leather Through" became famous.
In an interview with a reporter yesterday, Pique said, "I know that RCD Espanyol has brought in Huaxia players, and more than one. What I want to say is that the strength of the Huaxia players does not meet the requirements of La Liga. RCD Espanyol brought them in just for marketing, for the huge Huaxia market! Wu Lei and Zhang Chengdong, who used to be at Vallecano, are the same! "
When Pique's words reached Huaxia, it naturally caused strong dissatisfaction among the Huaxia fans.
Although Wu Lei's strength was not particularly strong in European football, he could not be ridiculed by others. Furthermore, Wu Lei still had some ability, and was not completely a product of marketing like Pique said.
Of course, Pique himself did not care — his big mouth was not a problem for a day or two. He had offended many people, and he did not care if there was another group of Huaxia fans.
Now, when the Huaxia player, Xia Ruofei, faced Pique, the live broadcast of the game was still very lively even though it was already past two in the morning in Huaxia. Everyone said that they wanted Xia Ruofei to teach Pique a lesson!
Pique also knew that he was the team's last line of defense. He looked at Xia Ruofei, who dribbled the ball quickly towards his own penalty area, and gritted his teeth to meet him — he knew that Xia Ruofei's feet were very hard and very accurate. If he did not rush up in time and let Xia Ruofei get a chance to shoot calmly, the team was likely to fall behind by two goals in just ten minutes. That would be terrible.
Therefore, Pique had no choice but to bite the bullet and meet him.
The distance between Xia Ruofei and Pique was rapidly shortening. Pique stared at the ball under Xia Ruofei's feet and did not rush to make a move — he did not want to take the risk of stealing. In fact, he only needed to block the angle of Xia Ruofei's shot and delay Xia Ruofei for a moment so that the Barça players could return to their positions and the opportunity for a quick attack would disappear.
Xia Ruofei's feet skimmed over the top of the football, and he made three consecutive bicycle movements, but Pique did not make a move. At this time, the rolling speed of the football had slowed down.
Xia Ruofei took another step forward, and Bick took a step back, maintaining the best defensive distance from Xia Ruofei.
At this time, Xia Ruofei's right foot kicked the football to the right, as if he was going to break through from the right. Pique immediately moved two steps sideways, but still did not have the intention to steal. He still focused on blocking the angle.
However, it was this two steps to the side that caused him to reveal a flaw.
After Xia Ruofei's right foot kicked the ball, it immediately landed on the ground and became a supporting foot. His left foot kicked backward, and he used a very fancy flowery kick to knock the football to the left.
If Xia Ruofei had used the bicycle movement, Pique would have been able to predict it in advance. However, Xia Ruofei's flowery kick this time was the opposite of the trajectory of the football.
The football was knocked to the left by Xia Ruofei. Pique did not expect Xia Ruofei to make such a move, so when the football skimmed past him, he did not react at all.
Xia Ruofei kicked off the ground, and his body was like an arrow released from a bow. He ran past Pique's right side and caught up with the football in two steps.
Xia Ruofei kicked the ball into the penalty area. At this time, Barça's goalkeeper, ter Stegen, immediately abandoned the goal, hoping to expand the defensive area by closing the distance.
Xia Ruofei had already formed a one-on-one opportunity at this time.
In the face of ter Stegen's attack, Xia Ruofei did not use fancy moves to get past him. Instead, he went straight to the side.
Ter Stegen quickly got off the ground and chased after the football, hoping to disrupt the RCD Espanyol's attack. However, he was still a little clumsy. Although he tried his best to get off the ground, the football only touched his fingertips. Other than producing a little bounce, it did not change direction.
After Xia Ruofei stopped the football, the opportunity was already at the end line. The shooting angle was already very small.
And Barça's other defender, Alba, had finally arrived.
Ter Stegen had already been shaken. At this time, Xia Ruofei was facing an empty goal.
In the case of a very small angle, Xia Ruofei simply dribbled the ball two steps into the penalty area.
Alba could not have asked for more. He directly shoveled over.
Xia Ruofei pulled the ball and did a beautiful Marco Polo spin. Alba directly slid into the goal.
Because of the Marco Polo spin, Xia Ruofei's shooting angle was also a little wider.
At this time, ter Stegen had already rushed over again, but it was useless. Xia Ruofei gently pushed with the arch of his foot, and the football slowly rolled into the goal …
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