The referee's decision shocked all the Chinese players and fans.
Fans in the stands cursed "black whistle" and "blind referee", while the players surrounded the referee to complain.
Zeng Cheng stood in front of the referee and shouted excitedly: "Open your eyes and see clearly, I didn't commit a foul, Neymar had already fallen before I touched him, he was faking a fall!"
As the captain, Lu Wenbin also took the lead. He stood beside Zeng Cheng and said in a positive tone: "Sir, I saw it very clearly. Neymar fell forward before our goalkeeper touched him. This was an absolute dive. There is no red card or penalty. Please change your penalty."
The referee angrily pushed forward with one hand, signaling Lu Wenbin and others not to get close, and reached into his pocket with the other hand, threatening:
"I saw clearly that Neymar had poked the ball away and the goalkeeper tackled him. This is a standard red card + penalty. Please step back and continue the game, otherwise I will show my card."
Although Lu Wenbin, who has a good field of vision, was farther away from the scene of the incident than the referee at the time of the incident, he was still quite sure that the ball was a dive by Neymar, and not Zeng Cheng who failed to save the ball and knocked Neymar down.
Just then, a replay of the conflict was broadcast on the big screen.
The replay showed that Neymar did indeed poke the ball away before Zeng Cheng touched it, but he also fell down before Zeng Cheng touched him.
Although it is not obvious, in the eyes of professionals, it should be easy to tell that this was Neymar's premeditated fake fall to get a penalty, rather than Zeng Cheng tackling Neymar and ruining Brazil's one-on-one goal.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin pushed the referee relentlessly, pointed at the big screen and shouted at him: "Open your eyes and see, Neymar is diving. If you don't change the decision, you will make the worst misjudgment in Olympic history."
However, neither the replay on the big screen nor Lu Wenbin's threats changed the referee's will.
Not only that, facing Lu Wenbin who was pressing hard, the referee directly took out a yellow card, showed it to Lu Wenbin, and said to the other Chinese players: "If you don't pull Lu away, I will send him off with a red card."
Seeing that the other party not only refused to repent but also showed him a yellow card, Lu Wenbin suddenly became furious. He cursed and wanted to force his way up to the other party to argue.
Of course, the referee didn’t understand Lu Wenbin’s Chinese curse, otherwise Lu Wenbin would have definitely been given a red card.
At this time, Zeng Cheng, who should have been the most annoyed, suddenly turned around and hugged Lu Wenbin. Together with his overage teammates Du Wei and Zhao Peng, they dragged Lu Wenbin away from the referee, while persuading him:
"Lu Wenbin, calm down, calm down!"
"The game isn't over yet. Even if the other team scores a penalty, it will only be a draw. We still have hope!"
"But if you get sent off, we really lose."
Lu Wenbin's scolding gradually subsided, and he finally calmed down. He waved his hand and said to Zeng Cheng, "You can go down and celebrate the championship later."
Seeing that Lu Wenbin had calmed down, Zeng Cheng finally left the field. Blazevic also replaced Wu Lei with the second goalkeeper Wu Sihuo, and the Chinese team changed to a 423 formation with 10 players without a striker.
There was no way around it. They had one less player to play with, but they needed a goalkeeper. In addition, the Chinese players were becoming increasingly exhausted. Blazevic could only replace striker Wu Lei with Wu Sihuo and play with a strikerless formation.
The pressure of counterattack and scoring goals almost all fell on attacking midfielder Lu Wenbin alone.
But Lu Wenbin did not feel any pressure at all, he only felt full of anger and fighting spirit.
He wants to defeat the referee who made the wrong decision and Neymar who deliberately dived with a goal and cannot let their misjudgment and dive succeed.
Amid the boos and curses from Chinese fans at the referee and Neymar, Wu Sihuo failed to save the penalty kick taken by Neymar himself. Brazil equalized the score with a penalty kick in the 92nd minute, and the score between the two sides became 2-2.
Neymar equalized the score for Brazil with a dive and a penalty kick, and sent China's main goalkeeper off the field.
The Brazilian team survived a desperate situation, and all Brazilians cheered and screamed for escaping death.
The Chinese players felt very frustrated.
They were just a minute or two away from the gold medal.
As a result, the opponent equalized the score in the injury time. The Chinese players felt a little desperate as they were one man down and the main goalkeeper was substituted.
Fortunately, not long after the game resumed, the regular game time was declared over and the referee blew the whistle to end the 90-minute game. Both sides took a short break and entered the overtime with a score of 2-2.
During the break, Lu Wenbin had completely calmed down.
After all, Lu Wenbin has seen too many big things. In the Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, and even the Champions League, Lu Wenbin has seen it all, and even experienced being misjudged personally.
This time it was just because it was related to the country's first men's football Olympic gold medal, so Lu Wenbin seemed a little too excited, which led to a conflict with the referee and he received a yellow card.
But now Lu Wenbin has calmed down. As the captain, he has to encourage his teammates to fight with the Brazilian team to the end and finally win the championship.
Lu Wenbin gathered his teammates in a circle and boosted their morale.
With the addition of his personal achievements and leadership aura, Lu Wenbin boosted the depressed morale of his teammates. Everyone shouted "China must win" and returned to the game.
The first half of the overtime game officially began.
The Brazilian team, who equalized in extra time, probably felt that God was helping them and that they were sure to win the game. As soon as the extra time started, they launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team.
In the absence of striker Wu Lei, Brazil's midfielder Sandro attacked the frontcourt, leaving only two central defenders behind to defend against Lu Wenbin's counterattack.
Sometimes Thiago Silva even bypassed Lu Wenbin and participated in the frontcourt attack.
This is a bit of disregard for the Chinese team!
However, the Chinese team did have a very difficult time defending.
The physical fitness of the Chinese players is already worse than that of the Brazilian team, and now they are one man short, and their defense is even more stretched. The Chinese team's goal is constantly facing attacks from the Brazilian team.
However, Wu Sihuo, the substitute goalkeeper, surprised everyone in this game.
He kept making high passes and blocked four shots from the Brazilian team in the first 15 minutes of overtime, including one shot that was very close to the penalty area.
Wu Sihuo's superb performance ensured that the Chinese team's goal had not been lost despite the Brazilian team's fierce bombardment, and the score was maintained at 2-2 until the end of the first half of overtime, which gave the Chinese team the opportunity to deal a fatal blow to the Brazilians.