I never expected that Papastathopoulos cheated the team.
This guy's condition was really bad. He got two yellow cards and was sent off in a few minutes.
If it were De Ligt, this situation might not happen.
All this is fate.
Emery quickly made adjustments while standing on the sidelines of the court, signaling Luo Wu to retreat. Now he could no longer play as a double forward. Luo Wu retreated and appeared in the midfield position, while the back line continued to maintain three players.
This is also based on the fact that Arsenal's strength is originally superior to Rennes. If they were in the Premier League, he probably wouldn't dare to do this.
The Rennes team began to strengthen their attack, after all, they had one more person to fight.
I became bolder.
Although the formation has not changed, the pressure has been pushed forward. The extra players will have an extra route for the ball. In turn, Arsenal's defense must be much bigger than before.
Xhaka, Lichtsteinerli, Van de Beek and Iwobi must shoulder more defensive tasks.
Although Luo Wu retreated, he certainly would not be responsible for the defense. At most, he would be a hub for transitioning between offense and defense.
This is a knockout round after all, doesn’t Rennes want to advance?
Now the situation was reversed, and the more energetic Rennes players suppressed Arsenal in the half.
Soon they won the opportunity to hit the goal. First, the midfielder took a long shot from outside the penalty area. Martinez saved the ball. During the chaos, Mustafi kicked the ball out of the penalty area.
But then the ball fell to the feet of the Rennes player again, and then another long shot from outside the penalty area went straight to the upper left corner of the goal. Martinez dived again and dragged the ball out of the baseline.
Corner kick.
But after the corner kick was taken, veteran Lichtsteiner pushed the ball out of the sideline.
A depth charge once again fell into Arsenal's penalty area. This time it was cleared by an Arsenal player. However, outside the penalty area, Haaland made a dragging movement with his hands during the fight with the opponent.
The referee awarded a full-time set kick.
Harland was very depressed. He ran to the referee and spoke to the referee several times. He was explaining that he had not committed a foul at all and it was just ordinary physical contact.
However, the referee ignored him and maintained the penalty.
Two Rennes players stood in front of the foul spot. Although the position was not very dangerous, Arsenal still formed a wall of six people.
The shot was taken by midfielder Rennes midfielder Bruno. This guy took a curved ball and hit the near corner!
But when the ball flew over the Arsenal wall, it hit Mustafi's head and suddenly turned to the far corner!
Martinez had already rushed toward the near corner, and now he could only watch the ball fly into the far corner.
Arsenal's luck is really unlucky, conceding the ball in such a way.
Martinez climbed up feebly. He was the most depressed one. It seemed that the defense was not reliable at all today.
Mustafi, who scored an own goal, also had his head drooped. Others also spread their hands, unhappy with the loss.
But then the captain's voice rang out.
"What are you thinking? Didn't you just lose an unexpected goal? Cheer up."
"Just give them a ball and let them be alone..."
"There is still time, don't wait until the second half!"
For Luo Wu, he has long been accustomed to the team conceding goals, so there is no fuss now.
"Remember what we said, as long as we score more goals than them, we will be able to win the final victory."
His mentality is really terrible...
In the 42nd minute, the Rennes team playing at home equalized the score.
This is not the result Arsenal wanted.
Although it was only the first round, Emery did not want to return to the home court for a hard battle. He originally wanted to win the opponent with a big score in the away game, but judging from the current situation, it is not optimistic.
Arsenal had many shooting opportunities in the first half, but only scored one goal.
What was even more unexpected was that Papastaspoulos would be sent off the court with a red card.
The Rennes fans are going crazy now, and they have not forgotten to abuse Arsenal.
"This is the legendary Arsenal, isn't it just that?"
"It's said that the strongest team in Europe, no team can beat them, look at how we just kept them in the half-court friction."
"Isn't it awesome at the beginning? Why are you shrinking now, like a turtle with a shrunken head?"
"Come on, come on, come on!"
"What about the guy who is known as the God of Football? How many minutes has it been since he touched the ball? He's trying to find a way to score one."
"Is this guy on the field?"
Abuse and ridicule echoed throughout the stadium.
The Rennes fans spoke unscrupulously in broken English.
After the game resumed, Rennes actually still dominated Arsenal.
Although there is not much time left in the first half, they still want to score goals.
The Rennes coach loudly urged his disciples to press forward on the sidelines of the pitch. It seemed that he really didn't care about Arsenal.
With Luo Wu's reminder just now, the Arsenal players calmed down quickly. This time on the left wing, Van de Beek, who retreated, easily took the ball back.
As soon as he looked up, he saw Luo Wu appearing next to him and handing over the ball without hesitation.
Luo Wu made a spin in Marseille, turned around and easily shook off the opponent who was marking him, but another opponent immediately tackled him.
But Luo Wu was well prepared, and immediately swung the outer instep of his right foot to the right, narrowly avoiding the flying shovel.
At this time, Haaland had already rushed to the front and stood between the two Rennes central defenders.
Luo Wu continued to dribble the ball forward and had no intention of passing the ball to Haaland.
Haaland did not stop moving and continued to struggle with the two central defenders.
Luo Wu soon ushered in a third defensive player. This player came from the right wing with murderous intent. When approaching Luo Wu, he immediately swept out his right leg without thinking.
It seemed that he wanted to knock Luo Wu down, but the flexible Luo Wu tapped his right toe, slammed his left foot on the turf, and forced his body to dodge to the right.
The ball passed through the opponent, and Luo Wu, who was as light as a swallow, circled behind him.
In one breath, he had broken through the defense of three players.
At this time, Luo Wu had already reached the top of the penalty area, and the opponent's players didn't even have a chance to touch the corner of his clothes.
Then his left foot took the lead in stepping into the penalty area, and one of the central defenders originally following Haaland had to make up for it.
But this reckless central defender did not pose any threat to Luo Wu.
Even if there is another player flanking you from the other side at this time.
I saw Luo Wu's left foot lightly stepping on the left side of the ball. The ball jumped up obediently and drew a circle in the air. Then his left foot tapped again.
The ball flew high and then passed the central defender!
It's like a magic trick.
When the central defender was at a loss, Luo Wu had already circled behind him from the other direction, just avoiding the defense of another player.
When they collided, Luo Wu didn't wait for the ball to fall. He suddenly thrust his right foot forward and fired a half-volley!