You, come here for a moment."
Taking advantage of a dead ball situation, Zhao Zhao called Lescott, the team's center-back, to his side.
Lescott was a veteran defender, already 35 years old this year, but at 190cm tall and weighing 93kg, he was still very strong.
Today, he was primarily responsible for marking the opposing center-forward, Ibrahimović.
The reason Zhao Zhao called Lescott over was, naturally, because the next "victim" in Zhao Zhao's plan was Ibrahimović!
Ibrahimović is a technically complete forward, renowned worldwide for his mastery of various 'wonder goals,' and also boasts the reputation of being a 'self-contained system.'
However, because he always holds himself in extremely high regard and has a rather volatile temper both on and off the field, he sometimes finds it easier to lose control of his emotions due to external factors.
And this, one could say, is one of his biggest weaknesses.
Zhao Zhao then asked Lescott:
"Ibrahimović has been playing with a lot of emotion right now, you can tell, right?"
Lescott nodded.
Today, Ibrahimović's shots had consistently failed to convert into goals, which already made him a bit annoyed;
And he originally had a chance to regain his scoring touch with a penalty, but it was saved, and even led to his team conceding a goal instead;
This made the Sweden striker's mentality increasingly worse.
Coupled with Mourinho being sent off by Zhao Zhao, the angry shouts of the Manchester United fans throughout the stadium made Ibrahimović even more agitated!
Two minutes earlier, he had received a yellow card for a foul on Larsson.
"So… you need to take advantage of this emotion.
You know what I mean, right?" Zhao Zhao winked at Lescott.
Lescott instantly understood and nodded with a sly smile.
He had played over a hundred games for Manchester City and was a veteran of the Premier League; how could he not understand this principle?
At the same time, he was actually very surprised by Zhao Zhao's insight and control over the game.
To be honest, at first, the Sunderland players were a bit dismissive of Zhao Zhao, after all, he was young, inexperienced, and came from China, a football-poor land.
The losses in the first two matches also confirmed this point, and everyone was waiting to welcome the next manager after this match.
But what they didn't expect was that in the second half, everything seemed different.
Zhao Zhao became resolute and decisive, immediately substituting Captain O'Shea.
Although everyone didn't quite understand this, Lescott, as a center-back, felt there was nothing wrong with this decision.
Because O'Shea already had a yellow card, and given the pressure Manchester United was putting on Sunderland, a center-back with a yellow card was simply a ticking time bomb, liable to explode at any moment!
What happened subsequently seemed to confirm this point.
Kone was given a yellow card and a penalty, and if O'Shea had been defending in that position at the time, it would have very likely turned into a red card and penalty!
Sunderland, already trailing 0-2, playing with one man down against a formidable Manchester United, would have been lucky to avoid a massacre, let alone turn the tide!
Looking back at Zhao Zhao's substitutions now, they were so reasonable!
And then, it was Zhao Zhao's subsequent divine micro-management that helped Sunderland pull a goal back.
This goes without saying; it practically dropped Lescott's jaw!
Therefore, if Sunderland players had previously followed Zhao Zhao's tactical arrangements merely out of professional player ethics, now it could be said that their obedience was more out of trust in Zhao Zhao!
Now, hearing Zhao Zhao wanted him to "deal with" Ibrahimović, Lescott naturally obeyed without question.
His original task was to mark Ibrahimović; two tall, strong men would occasionally embrace each other, and at this moment, whispering a few "heart-to-heart" words into the opponent's ear was certainly no problem.
Ibrahimović was already annoyed, and in the subsequent match, a fly suddenly appeared in his ear, making him even more agitated.
In the 65th minute, Sunderland was awarded a corner kick.
Januzaj took the corner, while a group of big men in the box entangled with each other.
Suddenly, Lescott screamed, covered his face, and fell.
Before anyone could react to what had happened, the whistle blew immediately, and the referee ran straight to Ibrahimović, showing him a yellow card!
Two yellow cards meant a red card; Ibrahimović was sent off directly!
The referee had been closely watching the penalty area, so he was very clear about the situation.
Since it was a Sunderland attacking opportunity, Ibrahimović, who had originally been in a defensive state, was now defending the opponent's tall player, Lescott.
And in the process of defending, Ibrahimović actually backhanded Lescott!
Therefore, Ibrahimović was absolutely guilty of a foul!
Sunderland also received a penalty kick opportunity as a result, a red card and penalty!
What the referee didn't know was that the reason Ibrahimović suddenly became enraged was because Lescott, while embracing Ibrahimović, kept muttering:
"You had so many chances and couldn't score a single goal, what kind of forward are you playing? How about learning to play defender with me?"
"You couldn't even score the penalty just now, why are you still lingering on the field?"
"If I were you, I would have retired and gone home to hold my kids; what's the point of embarrassing yourself out here?"
"You're a softie in big matches, absolutely useless when it counts…"
Actually, what Lescott said before wasn't too bad, but that last phrase, "softie in big matches," really touched a raw nerve with Ibrahimović.
Ibrahimović is, of course, a universally recognized world-class star, for a long time the third-best after Messi and Ronaldo, the Sweden King of Football, and one of the few players in football who can maintain peak performance for a long time.
However, his performance in the Champions League, World Cup, and European Cup has been truly poor, which gives people grounds for criticism.
At the national team level, despite Ibrahimović's fame and skill, he was unable to lead Sweden to qualify for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, which is truly a bit indefensible.
What's even more perplexing is that after Ibrahimović announced his retirement from the Sweden national team, Sweden actually qualified for the subsequent 2018 World Cup qualifiers and reached the quarterfinals in the main tournament!
And then there's the Champions League.
Whether with the powerful Paris Saint-Germain or the cosmic Dream Team Barcelona, he never achieved good results, only scoring goals like crazy and racking up stats in the League.
There's a saying, "He who gets Ibrahimović gets the League, he who gets Ibrahimović loses the Champions League."
He participated in 77 Champions League group stage matches in his career, scoring 38 goals, which is not bad, but only 10 goals in 42 knockout matches is a bit embarrassing.
Precisely because of this, Ibrahimović truly hates it when people bring up this topic.
Although this Sunderland vs. Manchester United match had nothing to do with a "big match," when Lescott mentioned it, Ibrahimović, who was already vexed, could no longer control his emotions and slapped the opponent with a big open hand.
In doing so, he, after Mourinho, received Manchester United's second red card in this match!
And when he saw Ibrahimović storming off the field, Lescott, who had been rolling on the ground, also got up and slyly winked at Zhao Zhao on the sidelines.
Zhao Zhao was also overjoyed, giving Lescott a thumbs-up.
This is what an experienced veteran is like; his execution is strong—he said he'd take down Ibrahimović, and he took down Ibrahimović!
Having an old person in the family is like having a treasure!
Well, there are quite a few useful veterans in the Sunderland squad.
For example, Defoe, who scored the equalizer earlier.
Oh, it's time for another micro-management.
Zhao Zhao stood up from the coaching bench and started calling out to Defoe on the field:
"Come, you come here for a moment too."