Chapter 1416 There is a goal
When Li Qingqing opened her eyes, there was no light in the bedroom with the curtains closed.
She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room.
Then she realized there was no one around her.
But there was a faint sound coming from downstairs outside the bedroom.
She looked back and saw that the bedroom door was open.
So she lifted the quilt, did not change clothes, and got out of bed wearing only simple pajamas, then walked out of the bedroom, walked through the corridor and went downstairs.
The originally vaguely audible voice became clearer and clearer:
"...In the last Champions League semi-final that ended last night, the Madrid Kings at home lost 1:2 in the first leg, but returned to their home court and defeated the Madrid Pirates 4:2, thus winning 5:4 on aggregate. The score advanced to the final... This game went on with great ups and downs until the 87th minute, when the Kings of Madrid tied the Pirates with Cerrados and sent the game into overtime..."
When Li Qingqing walked to the stairs, she saw that the living room was empty, but the TV was on and the morning sports news was playing.
What's in the news is the replay of Cerrados' goal against the Pirates yesterday.
After Melly attracted five Madrid Pirates players in the penalty area, he unexpectedly passed the ball to Cerrados, which was really beyond the expectations of all Pirates players.
Only Hulay guessed something, or it was the intuition of a top shooter in front of the goal that made him realize that Melly might pass the ball.
But he was still a little slower.
Li Qingqing saw the scene in the replay of Hu Lai falling to the ground, the football rolling past him, and then being pushed into the goal by Cerrados...
"Ahhhhh! Eighty-seventh minute! Cerrados!! He received an assist from Melli and helped the Kings equalize the total score again! When the game was about to end with a few minutes left, the Kings Escaped from death, although the game is not over yet... but no matter what, they are still in the semi-finals! ”
Here, the news uses the original sound of the game commentary at that time.
Listening to Sanchez's passionate roar, it seems that people can go back to the moment last night.
Li Qingqing remembered the live TV broadcast he watched at home.
After Cerrados scored, she sat motionless on the sofa like a statue.
Because she realized that this ball could be a devastating blow to the Madrid Pirates.
The game was equalized with just a few minutes to go. There are not many players in the world who can keep their expressions straight and their hearts not beating.
The next thirty minutes of overtime also proved this.
The Madrid Pirates' counterattack didn't even take many attempts before they gave up. They just wanted to drag the game into a penalty shootout.
This cannot be blamed on the players on the field. On the one hand, their morale has been severely hit, and on the other hand, their physical fitness is close to exhaustion and they are powerless.
The Kings players are temporarily able to ignore physical constraints because of their high morale.
"In overtime, young midfielder Gomez Buitrago came off the bench to score the winning goal, and the Kings finally eliminated their city rivals Pirates and reached the Champions League final in London..."
When Buitrago scored, several Pirates players lay down directly on the turf, covering their faces with their hands, looking very frustrated and painful, and seemed to have lost all strength.
At this time, there were only four minutes left before the end of overtime.
With such a huge morale gap, it is almost impossible for the Madrid Pirates to do anything.
When the final whistle sounded, the substitute players of the King of Madrid rushed onto the court and embraced their teammates to celebrate. The entire Crown Stadium was filled with deafening cheers.
This season, the Kings were really frustrated in front of their rivals in the same city. They were beaten home and away in the league. This time they finally regained a victory in the Champions League!
"Hey, Qingqing, are you up?"
Just as Li Qingqing was looking at the TV screen in a daze, Hu Lai's somewhat surprised voice sounded in his ears.
She turned around and looked around, and saw Hu Lai in an apron standing in the direction of the restaurant.
"No, I just woke up and found you weren't there. There was another sound in the living room, so I came down to take a look... You got up so early?" Li Qingqing faced Hu Laidui with a smile.
"Well, I can't sleep anyway, so I might as well get up. I'm making breakfast, and it's not that fast yet. Do you want to continue sleeping?"
Li Qingqing shook his head: "I'm already up, and I can't fall asleep again. I'm going to wash up."
"Okay, I'll call you when breakfast is ready." Hu Lai waved the shovel in his hand, turned around and walked towards the kitchen.
Li Qingqing looked at him blankly and almost had the urge to stop him again. But her mouth was opened, but in the end she said nothing. After watching Hu Lai go to the kitchen, she also walked back to the bedroom upstairs.
The TV in the living room was still on, and the morning news was still discussing yesterday's Champions League semi-final.
But Li Qingqing didn't look at it again.
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When Li Qingqing and Hu Lai sat opposite each other at the dining table, preparing to enjoy breakfast, the TV in the living room was still playing the news.
But it has nothing to do with last night's Champions League semi-final.
Li Qingqing looked at the simple breakfast made by Hu Lai - she had done this in the past, because Hu Lai really didn't know how to cook.
She smiled and asked: "Why are you thinking about making breakfast today?"
Hu Lai pouted: "Just do it if you want to. Why, is it weird?"
"It's not very strange." Li Qingqing covered her mouth and smiled, "It's just the first time you made breakfast for me after we've been together for so long."
Hu Lai coughed twice in embarrassment.
Seeing this, Li Qingqing comforted her in a low voice:
"Actually, you can have a clear conscience... Didn't you see how excited Merry was after yesterday's game? It's already amazing that you can make him try his best and then rely on a little luck to defeat you. That's Merry, Everyone recognizes the superstar of tomorrow..."
Hu Lai's behavior was indeed a little abnormal today. It was like a wife coming home from get off work and suddenly finding that her husband not only cleaned the house, but also cooked a table of delicious meals. The wife's first reaction must be "Is he sorry for me?"...
Of course Li Qingqing would not think that Hu Lai was sorry for her. She knew why Hu Lai was so abnormal because he lost yesterday's game.
She was afraid that Hu Lai would carry some psychological baggage.
What she said were not all words of comfort to Hu Lai, but her true words.
In her opinion, Hu Lai can fight Meili back and forth, which is already very powerful.
You must know that just nine years ago, the 16-year-old Melli had already emerged in the youth team of the Madrid Kings and became a star of hope. In "The Godfather of Champions", he was a talented player with a potential of -10 and was famous.
At that time, Hu Lai was just a rookie who was not even wanted to play football in Dongchuan Middle School's physical education class.
Even Li Qingqing did not dare to think that Hu Lai could be compared with Meili at that time. Hu Lai's own goal was just to join the Dongchuan Middle School team...
The two of them are like two parallel lines that can never intersect, and they are parallel lines that are thousands of miles apart.
And now, less than ten years later, Melly is already celebrating crazily for defeating Hu Lai.
Although Hu Lai was eliminated from the Champions League by Melly this time, Li Qingqing hopes to let Hu Lai know that this is not the end, let alone a failure, it is just a part of the long-term competition between the two.
The two of them are the same age and have highly overlapping careers. There will be many opportunities to meet in the future, and they cannot care about the gains and losses of one or two games.
It doesn't matter if you are eliminated once, it's okay to win back next time. That's how football is.
Moreover, even if he is eliminated, Hulay's performance in the Champions League this season is already good enough.
He has scored 16 goals in the Champions League this season, which is only one goal away from the single-season scoring record in the Champions League set by Caesar. It is a pity not to tie this record, but he is only 24 years old and already has unlimited goals. Being close to the achievements of "The Great", why can't we have more expectations for the future?
As the top scorer of the Champions League in the Madrid Pirates, Hulay actually does not need to bear any responsibility for the team being eliminated.
No matter who is asked to take the blame, it will not be his turn.
Without Hulay's sixteen goals, the Madrid Pirates might not even have reached the semifinals - the last time the Pirates reached the semi-finals of the Champions League was in the 2023-2024 season, and the team's head coach at that time was now coaching Blue and White. Bjorn Hantcek in Munich.
They lost to future champions Torino Bulls in the Champions League semi-finals.
As for the Champions League final, Madrid Pirates have not tasted reaching the Champions League final in sixteen years. Therefore, everyone's expectations for the Pirates in the Champions League are not as great as imagined.
In fact, after this semi-final, no one in the media criticized Hu Lai.
Some fans on the Internet complained that if Hu Lai had returned to defense faster and scooped out Melli's ball, he might have been able to save the team. But such people are very few, very few. Moreover, if Hu Lai did not clear the ball out, but kicked it into his own goal, I am afraid they would have another excuse.
After hearing Li Qingqing's obviously comforting words, Hu Lai shook his head: "Ah, I'm not thinking about this, Qingqing."
"Then what are you thinking about?"
"I am planning to use the time before breakfast every day to do morning exercises, specifically strength training, and continue to strengthen my core strength."
Li Qingqing was not surprised by Hu Lai's statement, although Hu Lai's strength was much better than before. But strength training, especially core strength training, is a long-term thing because you have to keep doing it. If you stop practicing after a period of time, the strength you have developed will disappear.
Therefore, Hu Laihui plans to use the time before breakfast to do morning strength exercises. Li Qingqing fully understands and agrees.
She touched her palms and smiled and said: "Okay, then we will practice together, and I can also be your physical coach!"
She also made a move to show off her biceps.
Yes, this is the correct attitude towards failure!
Failure is not terrible. What is terrible is that you will be devastated after losing once. Look at Meili, how many times have you lost? I never thought about giving up. Isn’t this just a win?
So I lost to Merry this time, I will look for a chance to win it back next time...
Huh?
Li Qingqing suddenly thought of something and looked at Hu Lai with wide eyes.
Hu Lai was confused by her look: "What's wrong?"
"I suddenly remembered something...Melli seems to be participating in the Los Angeles Olympics as an over-age player!"
Hulay was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that this was indeed the case - the Argentine Football Association was obviously very upset about being eliminated from the Olympic group stage four years ago, so it decided to recruit Melli to participate as an over-age player. Merry seemed to have the same resentment, so the two sides hit it off.
Hu Lai's eyes, which were still confused, lit up.
But he soon came to his senses, shook his head and said: "We may not be able to meet him."
Li Qingqing said: "After all, it is a goal!"
Hu Lai tilted his head and thought for a moment, Li Qingqing was right.
Regardless of whether we can meet him or not, the score of being eliminated by Melli in the Champions League still has to be settled, so there is no problem in making meeting Melli in the Olympics a goal.
With this goal in mind, he is even more excited about this summer's Olympics.
Li Qingqing felt the changes that had taken place in Hu Lai, a change that Hu Lai himself might not even realize.
Only then did she confirm that Hu Lai had really recovered from yesterday's failure. She safely picked up the eggs Hu Lai fried for her with her chopsticks and took a bite.
Although it's a little cold, it's still... well... it really doesn't work!
"Hu Lai."
"What's going on?"
"I'll make breakfast from now on..."
"What are you doing? Do you think my cooking tastes bad?"
"No, no, you should spend your precious time on core strength training, and strive for an early revenge success!"
"Tsk!"
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PS, all updates are completed today. I wonder if anyone can guess the result? Because I read many chapters saying that Hu Lai wins anyway, why does it take so long? Wouldn’t it be over if he wins directly?
But I really didn’t mean to be surprising. I wrote it this way after thinking about it for a long time. I think such a defeat is needed to further shape Hu Lai's old enemy.
So I finally wrote it.
In fact, this plot is mainly about Mellie... I know some of you don't like to see people other than the protagonist occupy too much of the scene. I also saw someone counting how many times the protagonist's name appears in a chapter, and some people directly said that he I don’t care how Merry is, let me not waste my time on Merry.
But I still wrote it, because judging from the length of the book, which is about 2,000 chapters - now there are 1,440 chapters, and another 600 chapters for the remaining content should not be a big problem - it would take a few chapters to describe Merry more. It is necessary.
After all, I am writing about a virtual football world, and every major character in it requires a lot of writing and ink to shape and manage. Melly is definitely not a simple tool like "the protagonist's opponent".
This is my little insistence as an author.
This is also to explain to readers who were dissatisfied with Melly's too many scenes some time ago.
Finally, I will start to collect the manuscripts tomorrow. I am unable to do what I want when I reach middle age. Please be considerate and considerate... (End of this chapter)