Dominating Football with Perfect Ball Control

Chapter 241: 241. Guardiola: He is on par with Messi

Check out advanced Chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari

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”King Lance Scores Another Hat-trick, Bayer Leverkusen Dominates Schalke! 33 Goals in 26 Rounds to Lead the Top Scorer List!”

”Schalke 04 Loses 0-4 to Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Loses 0-2 to Borussia M?nchengladbach, Bundesliga Title Race Intensifies!”

”Young Magician Explodes! Hat-trick Conquers Veltins Arena, Lance Leads Team in Strong Title Challenge”

A 4-0 victory over Schalke 04, Bayer Leverkusen’s dominance shocked Germany!

Lance’s Champions League match against Atlético Madrid had already left all Bundesliga coaches scratching their heads, almost holding late-night meetings to strategise against Lance.

A 3-0 victory over Atlético Madrid, and a 4-0 victory over Schalke 04!

Excluding the Bundesliga Round 25 match where Lance rested and didn’t play, his two starts could be considered ”back-to-back hat-tricks”!

This was truly terrifying.

So much so that Bayern coach Guardiola himself tweeted his congratulations:

”Lance’s performance is astonishing; he seems to have completed some kind of evolution, with his scoring efficiency taking a leap to a new level. In the upcoming league title race, we will do our best to study this dazzling forward. In any case, his current performance is enough to rival Messi...”

Guardiola used to constantly praise his ”favourite protégé” Messi on social media.

Don’t ask, because the answer was always that he was the greatest of all time.

No matter if Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewandowski, Suárez, or Neymar came along, Guardiola always said they weren’t as good as Messi.

This was the first time Guardiola publicly admitted that another player could rival Messi, and it was a Chinese-German youngster who would turn 18 this year!

He was even commenting on a rival team’s forward.

It was enough to prove that Guardiola was serious.

”No problem, what part of Lance’s recent performance is inferior to Messi’s?”

”He is still very young, and his future might be even more terrifying.”

”Has the Messi era ended early? Is it the Lance era next?”

”The debate over the world’s third-best player ends here.”

In recent years, the debate over the world’s third-best player has been ongoing, with Rooney, Neymar, Drogba, Iniesta, and Suárez all failing to convince everyone.

Lance’s performance these two seasons, especially recently, is absolutely beyond dispute.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi themselves couldn’t score a hat-trick against Atlético Madrid.

Lance is probably the only player this season to score three times against Atlético Madrid.

”Guardiola’s comments are premature; it takes time to verify if he can rival Messi. If Bayer Leverkusen can overcome Real Madrid and meet Barcelona in the semi-finals, then he might temporarily be qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as Messi. Otherwise, Guardiola’s words are just casual, and Messi remains a player in a league of his own...”

When Guardiola made such a comment, Barcelona’s mouthpiece, Mundo Deportivo, naturally couldn’t stand it.

The reporter’s commentary was full of sour grapes.

Barcelona’s extreme fans also went mad commenting under Guardiola, and even Bayer Leverkusen and Lance’s Twitter accounts, as if they were surrounded by a zombie horde overnight.

”How dare you compare yourself to Messi?”

”What titles do you have?”

”Chinese people can’t play football, go back to playing ping-pong!”

”You won’t get past Real Madrid, you’ll be going home in the quarter-finals!”

”Messi’s achievements are something you can never compare to in your life.”

”Do you have a Ballon d’Or?”

Before Bayer Leverkusen fans could react, many Chinese netizens wandering on foreign websites couldn’t stand it first.

These extreme comments were made into screenshots and reposted on Weibo, which further aroused the unanimous indignation of all domestic fans, they all bypassed the Great Firewall to confront these Catalan fans.

”How dare you mention titles won with the help of referees?”

”What about stealing Sneijder’s Ballon d’Or?”

”#StamfordBridgeTragedy”

”Anyone with eyes can see the water content in the FIFA Ballon d’Or, a fake King of Football.”

”What is Messi without the Barcelona system?”

Lance woke up to find his phone about to explode.

The 999+ comments and private messages left him a bit bewildered.

There were extreme fans barking, as well as supporters cheering and comforting him; in short, it was the current state of netizens, where you could see everything.

#Guardiola: Lance Rivals Messi

He brushed his teeth whilst scrolling through his phone, and only understood what happened after seeing the Twitter trending topics and media reports.

Even his Bayer Leverkusen teammates sent messages of support immediately.

Julian Brandt, still awake past 1 AM.

”Lance, Guardiola is right, you really are on par with Messi recently.”

There was also a message from De Bruyne.

”You’ve really blown up, damn it.”

Even coach Hyypi? was very concerned about Lance.

”No matter what, don’t pay attention to outside voices, just play your own game.”

Hyypi? was afraid Lance would get carried away by Guardiola’s comments, and also worried that the mad remarks from Spanish media and fans would interfere with Lance.

Lance, however, felt nothing inside, and even wanted to laugh a little.

”No, what does this have to do with Barcelona! The war of words should at least wait until the Champions League semi-finals, has it started this early?”

Lance mused that Barcelona might be panicking.

Back-to-back hat-tricks were indeed quite intimidating.

Previously, with only the [Hyuga Kojiro] template equipped, his shooting level had greatly improved, already enough to crush Atlético Madrid.

Now, with an expanded equipment slot, combining Bachira Meguru’s dribbling and Hyuga Kojiro’s shooting, his performance against Schalke 04 was truly impactful.

Leaving aside the first two goals for now, the third goal was definitely a perfect combination of speed, power, and technique.

In the second half, the home team Schalke 04 didn’t want to sit back and take it, planning to attack and create some pressure.

Bayer Leverkusen’s defence played its part, Maguire won the header, Lars Bender accurately passed the ball to Lance.

Son Heung-min on the left and De Bruyne on the right made runs to stretch Schalke 04’s defence, making it very thin, like spreading a pancake.

Lance had a flash of inspiration, under the influence of his monster intuition, he dribbled through the middle!

Schalke 04’s defensive midfielder was caught off guard, and Lance bypassed two players in a row; two centre-backs tried to close him down, but Lance burst past them with another touch.

The visual impact was comparable to the 2011 Champions League group stage, when Milan striker Pato scored a shocking solo goal from the middle just 24 seconds into the match against Barcelona.

The blank [Hyuga Kojiro] with no skills already had a ”Tiger” attribute attached to his shots near the penalty area.

Who knows how insane it would be once the skills are unlocked!

Lance felt he had underestimated the [Hyuga Kojiro] template.

”It didn’t seem like much in Captain Tsubasa, but now that I think about it, the entire Captain Tsubasa anime is pretty fantastical.”

Relatively speaking, the unknown work that Nagi Seishiro and Bachira Meguru are in actually feels a bit more realistic.

As for the fourth goal against Schalke 04, it still seemed a bit funny when he thought about it now.

In the final stages of the match, Bayer Leverkusen was leading Schalke 04 3-0 away from home.

At that time, Schalke 04’s morale had completely collapsed, Bayer Leverkusen could press aggressively in the attacking third without restraint.

From a corner kick, De Bruyne delivered the ball outside the penalty area, and Lance originally intended to score another goal to complete a super hat-trick.

Suddenly, he had an idea and wanted to try the B-rank template, [Nekketsu Soccer - Raichou], to see what effect the main character’s teammate with pigtails, the forward who kicked ninja shurikens on the FC Famicom, could have.

Except for S-rank templates, A-rank and below templates had no skills, they could only use the template’s passive abilities to play.

Originally, Lance could have controlled the ball, but instead, he jumped up under defensive pressure and directly attempted an overhead kick!

Not only Schalke 04 players, but even Bayer Leverkusen teammates were stunned by that move.

Lance’s overhead kick turned into an afterimage, bouncing off the ground to create a rebound shot towards the goal, unexpectedly, the ball hit Schalke 04’s goalkeeper Ralf F?hrmann directly in the face, knocking him backward onto the ground.

Son Heung-min, with quick eyes and feet, followed up with a close-range shot to put the ball in.

”As expected of a B-rank template...”

Lance broke into a sweat; this was purely for show.

Attempting an overhead kick at the risk of injury, with the shot highly likely to be blocked by the opposing goalkeeper, currently held little practical value.

His thoughts returned from yesterday’s match.

Lance had already finished his morning routine and was ready.

He drove his Lamborghini Murciélago to the training ground, starting a new day of preparation.

The upcoming April would be a series of tough battles!

8 April, German Cup quarter-finals, a direct clash with Bayern Munich! The decisive battle advanced!

15 April, Champions League quarter-finals, against Real Madrid!

Before the system upgrade, dealing with these formidable clubs in a packed schedule was still a bit challenging for Lance and the Bayer Leverkusen players.

Now, with the help of new templates and new items, Lance felt his fighting spirit soaring!

He pressed hard on the accelerator, as if accelerating towards the upcoming battles!