The gaze of all the fans converged on one person, who wore an Arsenal jersey with two clear characters on his back: 21!
Cao Baiming's eyes flickered. At this moment, countless hypothetical routes began to play out in his mind, not only the routes for shooting himself but also passing routes and even attacking organization routes.
Although these lines intertwined intricately, he could choose the best route in an instant with the system's ability.
The Manchester City players were a top professional team in the Premier League. They had won the league title for several seasons, and their reputation was well-deserved. They possessed very strong defensive awareness and capability. The moment Cao Baiming received the ball, everyone reacted by converging on him.
Cao Baiming was no stranger to this situation; he encountered it almost every time he received the ball.
Three or four people were rushing towards him, including the master of offensive organization, De Bruyne, who was personally participating in his defense.
However, while everyone's attention was focused on Cao Baiming, many Arsenal players like Messi, Henry, and Odegaard had begun to move quietly, with a single thought in their minds: to convert this opportunity into a goal.
Even though, in everyone's eyes, this wasn't even a good opportunity, or perhaps not an opportunity at all, for Cao Baiming, it was enough.
Naturally, people hoped Cao Baiming would choose to end it with a long-range shot himself.
Looking at the dense lines before him, Cao Baiming vaguely saw a white line with the number 69 displayed.
A long shot only had a 69% chance of scoring? But considering the distance, that probability was quite sufficient.
However, through the active runs of Messi and Henry, they had both created excellent opportunities on the left and right flanks of the goal. In an instant, a light flashed, and a number close to 100% appeared before Cao Baiming.
Following this route forward, as expected, the route was created by Henry's run. At this moment, he was quietly approaching the side of the penalty area, while the player marking him was running in the opposite direction. Clearly, they hadn't seen Henry at all.
Too much attention was drawn to Cao Baiming alone. This was an excellent opportunity, and Cao Baiming didn't hesitate to kick the ball directly.
Faintly, the audience seemed to see the air above the field split open as if torn by a crack. Although this ball flew through the air, its penetrative power was no less than that of a surgical scalpel.
In an instant, Manchester City's two defensive lines seemed to cease to exist. They were like fig leaves, not at all like the defensive lines of a world-class team.
In front of Arsenal, or more precisely, in front of Cao Baiming, these defenses instantly appeared like a kindergarten team.
This single pass went through one, two, three, four, five, six, seven defenders. It was too exaggerated.
Henry controlled the ball with his chest, then let it drop to his thigh. After a simple adjustment, he unleashed a thunderous shot and sent the ball into the net!
Arsenal thus scored their first goal of the match, precisely at the 3 minute and 35 second mark.
At this moment, Cao Baiming suddenly recalled that a few days ago, during the Time Cannon simulation, there was one thing that repeatedly appeared: the first goal of the entire match.
Although the methods varied, some through throws, some through assists to Henry, and others through long-range shots by himself, the timing was always similar. All goals were scored between three and four minutes, and this match was precisely within that timeframe, even the seconds matched perfectly.
What deep reasons lay behind such occurrences, or was it merely a coincidence?
With this goal, the entire stadium erupted. They cheered that Arsenal had set the tone for the match in just three minutes, feeling extremely excited and thrilled.
Cao Baiming suddenly felt a warmth behind him. All his teammates had rushed up. Although he wasn't the scorer, this assist was definitely much more significant than Henry's goal.
It seemed Manchester City was not that formidable! He had been worried just at the beginning, but unexpectedly, the opponent revealed their true colors in just three minutes.
However, what everyone failed to realize was that only three minutes had passed in the match. Even the goal celebrations hadn't ended before five minutes. Countless more three-minute intervals awaited them, and no one could predict the final score.
As Manchester City's home fans, all they could do at this moment was to cheer loudly for their beloved team.
They hoped that if their voices were loud enough, they could inject strength into the players on the field, enabling them to better cope with the match. As long as they could perform at their normal level and maintain their best form, even facing Arsenal, they shouldn't lose the game.
Cao Baiming himself was well aware of this. If today's opponent were a full-strength, fully-equipped Manchester City, the match would not be this easy; it would at least have some challenges.
Although the final outcome was not something to speculate about, there was no doubt that Manchester City could not win, no matter what.
As time went on, Manchester City even lacked the confidence in possession they had earlier, and the situation was gradually returning to Arsenal's control. Cao Baiming also quietly moved to midfield, becoming the team's midfield organizer.
Once this happened, it was like a signal. Anyone who understood Cao Baiming and Arsenal would naturally understand what it meant.
At this instant, De Bruyne and Cao Baiming's eyes met. In that moment, they understood each other's intentions. Beyond mutual respect, there was also the animosity of opponents.
Soon, Manchester City couldn't cope. Guardiola clearly realized this. He had already anticipated it when Cao Baiming moved to midfield.
Even the possession-based system he had trained would be rendered useless by Cao Baiming, the disruptive force.