"The match is in the 88th minute. David Qin is juggling the ball on the flank, drawing three defenders toward him!"
"Beautiful! He flicks it over to Ricardo Rodríguez, who surges into the vacated space on the left. He unleashes a low drive toward the far post!"
"The Lille keeper makes a crucial save, but the rebound falls to Perišić... he taps it in!"
"Goal! Wolfsburg extends their lead in the dying moments of the match!"
The Volkswagen Arena was a sea of laughter and cheers, and the players were visibly jubilant. David Qin glanced at the goal, a trace of regret lingering in his heart. He hadn't managed to find the back of the net himself.
He understood that with Ivan Perišić back from injury, his share of the ball would naturally decrease. Given Dieter Hecking's pragmatic football philosophy, the manager was never going to put all his eggs in one basket. David knew he had to keep elevating his game to command more tactical resources.
In the final moments of stoppage time, Lille finally found a counter-attacking opportunity, launching a long ball over the top. Divock Origi took off like a racehorse, but Luiz Gustavo grabbed him by the collar, sending him sprawling.
"Yellow card! Gustavo seems to have rediscovered his old form from the Bremen days—the season has barely started, and he's already collecting yellow gems."
"Trading a yellow card to kill off a Lille counter-attack and a potential goal is definitely worth it."
"This should be Lille's final wave... intercepted before they could reach the danger zone. There's the final whistle!"
"Congratulations to Wolfsburg on their first Europa League win of the season!"
Wolfsburg fans were singing and dancing in the stands. They had cause to celebrate: of the two strongest opponents in Group H, they had held Everton to an away draw and defeated Lille at home. With four points, they were now in the driver's seat to advance.
After the match, David Qin, Kevin De Bruyne, and Ivan Perišić stood side-by-side for a group photo. Bild used the image for a featured cover story:
Wolfsburg's Midfield Trident: The boundless creativity of David Qin, the extreme rationality of De Bruyne, and the balanced utility of Perišić. These three form a world-class midfield engine!
@MidfieldMaestrool: "World-class" is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?
@CatalanCrusxh: Busquets, Rakitić, and Iniesta at Barça; Kroos, Modrić, and Isco at Real; Pirlo, Pogba, and Vidal at Juve—those are top-tier midfields.
@TacticsTalk: True. The Wolfsburg trio has potential, but they have a long way to go. Plus, Wolfsburg won't even get a chance to face the giants this season.
@GreenWhiteHope: A shame we finished one point behind Leverkusen last season, or we'd be in the Champions League play-offs.
@FixtureFan: Looking at the October schedule—Augsburg, Freiburg, Mainz, and Heidenheim. Except for Mainz, they all finished in the bottom half last season. Should be a smooth run.
@J-LeagueWatcher: Mainz is on a tear lately. Shinji Okazaki is scoring every game; heard he's heading to the Premier League next season.
@WinterI1sComing: November is going to be the real test. The Europa League and Bundesliga opponents are both brutal that month.
@SoccerooBound: Good thing the winter break lines up perfectly with the Asian Cup in Australia. If David were in La Liga or the Prem, the scheduling would be a nightmare.
Two days later, Round 7 of the Bundesliga took place at the Volkswagen Arena. Because the Lille match had been so recent, Hecking opted for heavy rotation. Nicklas Bendtner made a rare appearance in the starting XI. After a long stint on the cold bench, "Lord Bendtner" had learned to curb some of his arrogance. However, the years he had wasted in his youth were now catching up to him like a bullet; his overall ability had clearly declined.
Bendtner achieved virtually nothing in the first half and was quickly replaced by Bas Dost. As the Dane returned to the bench, he cast several long, lingering looks at David Qin.
His eyes were filled with envy and resentment. Self-centered people often view the gains of others as their own personal losses. He had fallen into a delusion: they had both started their careers as highly touted prodigies, so why was David's path so smooth while his was covered in thorns?
"Let's look at a corner for Wolfsburg from the right. Perišić curls it to the far post, and Klose wins the initial header!"
"The ball hits a defender and bounces right to Naldo—he taps it in!"
"1-0! In the 65th minute, Wolfsburg finally breaks the deadlock!"
The fans expected a floodgate to open, but the score remained 1-0 until the final whistle. The rotated lineup found it heavy going. Defensively they were sound, but offensively, without David Qin's dribbling, Wolfsburg seemed to have... lost its spark. After missing him for just one match, the fans were already yearning for the teenager's nimble presence on the pitch.
Following the match, the international break arrived. Manager Alain Perrin still chose not to call David Qin back to China. It was unnecessary to make David fly 8,000 kilometers for two insignificant friendlies—especially when their opponent, Thailand, was sending a B-team while their own head coach was reportedly vacationing in Europe.
Regarding Thailand, the Chinese National Team seemed to have developed a "fear of Thailand" over the past year, most famously evidenced by the 1-5 thrashing last year. Former international Fan Zhiyi's legendary rant from that time was still widely quoted: "Chinese football has no shame! If we keep going like this, we'll be losing to Vietnam next! After Thailand, it's Vietnam, then Myanmar—soon there will be no one left to lose to!"
On October 10th, at the Jiangcheng Sports Center, the national anthem played and the match began. David Qin sat in front of his TV, rubbing his temples with a sigh during a dull first half. The skill level was indeed limited.
However, the second half provided a surprise. Zhang Chengdong delivered a cross that Wu Xi met with a poaching finish. Then, the national team used a high-press to force Thailand into repeated errors. Zhang Ke and Yang Xu seized the opportunities to score in quick succession.
At the post-match press conference, Perrin remained humble. "A 3-0 result is far from enough; we should have scored more."
"Of course, winning is happy, and the players' mental state was good. As I emphasized before, we need to leverage the advantages of collective football, keep the fight in the opponent's half, and maintain a tight high press."
"Our attacking efficiency didn't manifest in the first half, but the substitutions in the second half brought the expected results. David Qin? I watch every one of his matches at Wolfsburg. I've noticed he is progressing at a speed no one anticipated. I believe that by next year's Asian Cup, he will take our offense to a whole new level."
Perrin was immensely bullish on David's future and didn't hold back his praise. Four days later, in another friendly, the national team defeated Paraguay 2-1 with goals from Zheng Zhi and Wu Lei.
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