Chapter 105: Champagne is Not Allowed in the Locker Room! AC Milan, Beware!
At the end of the first half, the Frankfurt players returned to the locker room with heads hanging low.
Before the match started, they were confident they could take a victory at the Weser Stadium.
But reality shattered their dreams, making them realize that Werder Bremen's home turf was not easy to conquer.
"In the second half, we need to be more active in our movements. Mayer, Schweigler, Egner, you guys need to play smarter, add some more variety to your attacks, don't let others easily see through your intentions!"
In the visitors' locker room, Frankfurt's head coach was urgently briefing the players on the tactics for the second half.
However, his explanations didn't receive much feedback. The players hung their heads, seemingly not absorbing the instructions.
On the other hand, in the home team's locker room, Werder Bremen's players had already started celebrating in advance.
"Haha, with the twin stars here, it's really different. This match is so damn fun!"
Arnautovic, shirtless, showing off his muscular arms, had Lin Quan and De Bruyne sandwiched under his armpits, laughing exaggeratedly.
Even though he didn't score himself, the feeling of winning a game while lying down was fantastic!
"Marco, let go quickly, damn it, your armpits stink!"
Lin Quan almost got carried away by the smell emanating from Arnautovic's body, unable to help but curse.
"Hahaha, a real man has a scent, right?"
Arnautovic didn't care at all, his conversation with Lin Quan causing his teammates to burst into laughter:
"That's right, you don't know, every time he goes to the nightclub and shows off his masculine charm to those girls, their eyes immediately light up!"
"What kind of light?"
"Tears of being overwhelmed by the stench!"
Junuzovic made a gesture of covering his face and escaping, causing everyone to burst into laughter.
Captain Fritz couldn't even stand straight from laughing, tears almost streaming down his face!
"Hahahaha!"
"So funny!"
"Indeed, it's you, Marco!"
"Damn it, no wonder every time I go to the club with you, those girls run away when they see us. I thought it was my problem, but it turns out it's you, you rascal!"
Everyone burst into laughter again, and the locker room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.
Although his Austrian compatriot Junuzovic exposed his embarrassing story, Arnautovic didn't mind at all.
He somehow found a bottle of champagne and was ready to add fuel to the atmosphere in the locker room!
Seeing his move, everyone's faces changed.
"Don't open it!"
"You can't open it!"
"Put it down quickly!"
Several people joined forces to snatch the champagne from his hands.
"Marco, there's a curse on opening champagne at halftime, don't make jokes like this!"
Captain Fritz also walked over, solemnly warning Arnautovic.
The incident in the AC Milan dressing room during the Champions League final had long been circulated throughout the football world.
This incident was often used to mock AC Milan, believing that it was their relaxed attitude at halftime that led to their collapse in the second half.
Moreover, the fact that their opponents were stimulated by their opening champagne at halftime was also an important reason for Liverpool's crazy comeback in the second half.
In short, it's not auspicious to celebrate prematurely before securing victory.
...
The fifteen-minute halftime break quickly ended, and the players from both sides returned to continue the game.
Leading the game, Werder Bremen played very relaxed, and in this relaxed state, they started a splendid passing and cutting combination in the opponent's half.
In the 55th minute, De Bruyne dribbled forward, glanced at Lin Quan's position while moving, and then sent a through ball.
Lin Quan saw the ball coming and ran towards it, as if to receive it, but deliberately let the ball pass by when it was about to reach his feet.
The Frankfurt players marking him were shaken, allowing Hunt, who was trailing in the penalty area, to sneak in.
After receiving the ball, Hunt directly sent a wonderful pass into the penalty area, and just as the defending players were bypassed, Lin Quan ran out of position and perfectly received the ball.
The goalkeeper chose to come out first, but Lin Quan didn't shoot. Instead, he passed the ball to a teammate in the open space on the right.
De Bruyne happened to be here, and after receiving the ball, he pushed it into the empty net.
The score was changed to 3-0!
After scoring this goal, Lin Quan breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that the curse of opening champagne at halftime didn't happen!
After scoring, De Bruyne waved his arms happily and then ran towards Lin Quan to celebrate with him.
It seems that De Bruyne's small-scale celebration wasn't something he picked up at Manchester City; it has always been like this...
"Why didn't you shoot that one yourself just now?"
After the high-five, De Bruyne asked curiously.
His positioning was just following the tactical arrangement by the coach, and he never thought that Lin Quan would pass the ball in that situation.
Because he had already scored two goals, if he had scored that one just now, it would have completed a hat-trick.
A hat-trick is still very attractive to forwards, and he believes that few forwards can resist the temptation of achieving a hat-trick.
But Lin Quan chose to pass.
"Don't overthink it, it's because your position was better!"
Lin Quan couldn't explain in detail. He couldn't tell De Bruyne that he wanted to steal the throne of the assist king from him, right?
De Bruyne didn't think much at first, but after hearing Lin Quan's words, he couldn't help but think:
Could it be that because this is my first game back from injury, he gave me such an excellent opportunity to score at home?
De Bruyne increasingly felt that this possibility was very likely. This guy is someone who silently does good deeds behind the scenes!
So, feeling grateful, he showed a twelve-point attitude in the subsequent game, crazily sending wonderful passes to Lin Quan.
Lin Quan was green-faced!
Brother, I'm really troubled by you giving me assists like this!
Should I shoot?
If I score, it'll count as your assist.
If I don't shoot?
It seems a bit disrespectful to your wonderful pass!
So he could only reluctantly score another goal, increasing his single-game goal tally to 3.
Seeing the twin stars in the team completing an assist hat-trick and a goal hat-trick respectively, the fans at the Weser Stadium were boiling!
What kind of fairy game is this?
Having watched football for so many years, I've never seen such a strange game.
The scorers and assist providers are all concentrated on two people!
Scoring three goals in a single game is already very rare, let alone providing three assists in a single game, which seems even rarer!
Most importantly, both of these things happened in the same match.
And they were fortunate enough to witness history.
Lin Quan, who completed the hat-trick, was quickly substituted by Schaaf. The Frankfurt players looked at him as if they wanted to kill him.
Schaaf dared not risk letting the team's treasure continue to be kicked around on the field. The game was already a foregone conclusion. Could they still be reversed by being four goals ahead?
Since the outcome was no longer in doubt, keeping Lin Quan on the field would only increase the risk of him getting injured.
If he got injured, Werder Bremen's frontcourt attacking system would collapse!
Lin Quan also didn't want to score any more goals. Seeing Schaaf about to substitute him, he hurried to the sidelines, high-fived with Petersen, who was coming on as a substitute, and sat on the bench wrapped in a jacket.
Scoring three goals with tears in his eyes was enough to make him collapse. If he continued to play, he dared not even think about how many more goals he could score!
Even after this match, even if De Bruyne didn't get any more assists after Lin Quan was substituted, his cumulative assist count reached 14.
And he currently had only 11 assists on the assist leaderboard, three behind him.
These were three assists, not three goals.
It might not be that difficult to score three goals, but it's much harder to complete three assists.
He didn't have the same favorable conditions as De Bruyne. De Bruyne played as an attacking midfielder, passing and assisting were his basic responsibilities.
Moreover, he had another goal machine like himself helping him pad his assist stats. But he didn't have another Lin Quan to help him score goals.
He needed to pad his assist stats, which was much harder than De Bruyne's situation.
Moreover, this guy De Bruyne wouldn't just stay in place waiting for him.
With his current hot form, who knows how many more assists he could rack up in the next game!
...
After Lin Quan was substituted, although De Bruyne still diligently passed the ball to his teammates, their shooting skills were indeed much worse than Lin Quan's.
Plus, after suffering a disaster, the Frankfurt players seemed to wake up and were no longer as sluggish as before.
Not only did they increase their defensive intensity, but they also achieved results in the attack.
Shortly after Lin Quan was substituted, in the 71st minute, Frankfurt scored a goal through Mayer.
Two minutes later, Schweigler's shot deflected off a defending player's leg and into the net, and they pulled back two goals in two minutes.
These two goals made Werder Bremen fans nervous.
Could they still be overturned by the opponent when leading by four goals at home?
Impossible, right?
On the substitutes' bench, just like the players on the field, Lin Quan couldn't help but think of the bottle of champagne in the locker room.
That bottle of champagne wasn't opened, right?
Lin Quan almost couldn't help but get up to go to the locker room to check. Champagne can be deadly!
Fortunately, the Werder Bremen players quickly realized the danger, and they began to increase the intensity of their midfield defense, marking Frankfurt's number 10, Hofler, effectively stifling Frankfurt's attack.
In the end, the ninety-minute game ended with Werder Bremen winning 4-2 at their home stadium.
However, after this game, a rule appeared in the Werder Bremen locker room:
Champagne is not allowed in the locker room!
(End of this chapter)