Free Web NovelChapter 538: Chapter 107: Another Record Broken! Half-Season Champion! A Zero-Angle Goal! Tremble, Bayern
"This is what a superstar brings to the table!"
"In such terrible weather and on a poor pitch, Dortmund couldn’t leverage their technical superiority."
"But at the crucial moment, Wang Shuo seized the opportunity and completed his brace!"
After scoring, Wang Shuo ran to the Dortmund fan section, his hands held high as he soaked in their cheers.
His Dortmund teammates all chased after him, swarming him in a group hug.
The Dortmund fans in the stands cheered even more fervently and loudly.
"Before this match, the media in the United Kingdom reported that Chelsea wanted to make a big-money move to sign Wang Shuo during the winter break."
"But the offer was rejected by both Dortmund and the player."
"Now, with his goals, Wang Shuo is showing all the Dortmund fans that he is still a Dortmund player, and he will continue to fight for this team in the Bundesliga and the Champions League!"
After switching sides for the second half, Dortmund continued to pressure Nuremberg.
Wang Shuo created a golden opportunity early in the second half.
He beat the offside trap and broke into the penalty area. Under tight marking from Wolf and Maro, he won a favorable position and headed the ball across to Reus.
But when Reus followed up with a shot, facing a nearly open goal, he couldn’t get a clean strike on the ball and sent it sailing high over the crossbar.
But in the 62nd minute, Nuremberg committed another foul in their own half, about 30 meters out.
This one was even closer.
Shahin took the free kick, curling the ball directly into the center of Nuremberg’s penalty area.
Hummels and Subotic both charged forward to get on the end of it.
But harassed by the defenders, neither of them could make clean contact with the ball as they jumped.
The ball was headed towards the right side of the six-yard box.
Just when everyone thought the attack had come to nothing, a figure suddenly emerged.
Wang Shuo peeled away from the crowd of players, cut straight to the right side of the six-yard box, and as the ball landed and bounced up, he seized the moment and smashed a shot on the bounce.
At that moment, the shooting angle was almost zero.
The goalkeeper, Schäfer, was standing just outside the right post, having cut off almost every possible angle.
Except over his head.
But to hit a shot from the right side of the six-yard box that could go over Schäfer’s head and dip perfectly into Nuremberg’s goal, there was only one extremely narrow path.
And Wang Shuo, trying to keep the shot from flying over the crossbar, struck it a little low.
Schäfer reached up with both hands and did indeed get a touch on it.
But the surface of the ball was covered in water; it was too slick.
More importantly, Wang Shuo had put everything he had into the shot.
Although Schäfer got a hand to the ball, he couldn’t alter its trajectory.
The football hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down over Nuremberg’s goal line.
Although a defender quickly kicked the ball out, the referee still blew his whistle.
"The goal stands!"
"Referee Michael Vinaer blows his whistle—the goal stands!"
"A hat-trick!!"
"Wang Shuo, at this crucial moment, has completed his hat-trick!!"
"Let’s take a look at the replay—that was a truly gorgeous goal, and incredibly difficult to pull off!"
As an ecstatic Wang Shuo turned and ran towards the sideline, Klopp, standing by the visitor’s dugout and wearing a Dortmund fan cap, snatched it from his head, slammed it onto the grass, and leaped into the air with pure elation.
"Brilliant, Wang!"
"Attaboy!"
After roaring, Klopp spun around and rushed over to Buvac and Krawietz.
"See? I told you! The kid was just waiting to explode!"
"I’m telling you, if he doesn’t break that damn Gerd Müller’s record this season, I’ll eat my hat!"
As he spoke, he excitedly grabbed both of his assistants, pulling them in close as he yelled.
After letting it all out, he turned back towards the pitch and shouted unrestrainedly at Wang Shuo.
"Wang Shuo, I love you!"
...
The winter cold snap affected all the teams.
While Dortmund was crushing Nuremberg 3-0 away from home thanks to Wang Shuo’s hat-trick, Bayern lost their away match.
They lost 2-0 to Schalke 04 at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen.
That’s just how bizarre the Bundesliga had been this season!
After their miserable 5-0 away defeat to Kaiserslautern in the last round, everyone thought Magat would be sacked and Schalke 04 was done for.
But who would have thought that they would turn around and beat Bayern 2-0 at home.
Aside from that match, the nine games in this round produced a total of only 19 goals, seven fewer than the Bundesliga’s average per round this season.
This just went to show how the entire Bundesliga was underperforming due to the rain and snow.
Only Dortmund was still winning, still pulling away from the pack.
Since Mainz lost 2-1 away to Frankfurt this round, they now only had 30 points.
Meanwhile, Dortmund, on an incredible 15-game winning streak, was ahead by a full 15 points.
According to Bild, Klopp’s team would probably have the league title locked up by the halfway point of the season!
Wang Shuo also raised his season’s goal tally to 29.
He also had 14 assists to his name.
After playing Nuremberg, Dortmund had a short rest, then immediately headed south to Portugal for an away match against Benfica.
Lyon, meanwhile, would host Spartak Moscow.
The two teams were fighting tooth and nail for the right to advance from the group stage.
