In the 52nd minute, Southampton attacked from the left through the coordination of Rudolf and Wright-Phillips. Rudolf gave a lob pass into the wing area. Wright-Phillips tried to catch the ball, but Hosingwa beat Wright-Phillips with a body charge. After controlling the ball, Hosingwa immediately started Chelsea's counter-attack.
Chelsea players are trained to be ready to strike back at any time. Hosingwa passes the ball to Essian. Rudolf tried to snatch the ball from Essian, but in a physical confrontation between them, Essian won. Essian put the ball forward, Shank Lambert took the pass. It was too difficult for Lambert to breakthrough in midfield, so he transferred the ball to Zelatta.
The Spaniard went down to midfield to pick up the ball. He then dribbled the ball forward. Benson stood in front of Zelatta trying to stop the Chelsea right-winger. However, once again, Zelatta is too agile for a Benson. After running past through Benson Zelatta sent a crossing pass into the penalty box.
Dusan collided physically with Okhalo to grab the most appropriate position to receive the ball. Both jumped and made a header. The ball then bounced to the front of the penalty box. Maroda, Chelsea midfielder received the ball he provided a through ball to the left side. Ridge which was not tightly guarded managed to receive the pass. Ridge did a flat shoot towards the post near him.
Dean Smith extended his legs and blocked the ball. The ball bounced back, but this time, Hilton managed to throw the ball.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Mourinho held his head and put on an expression of disbelief. He didn't expect that in such one on one situations Ridge would miss an opportunity to score.
"Relax, Chelsea are still ahead," said the Chelsea assistant coach.
Mourinho exasperatedly said, "Yeah, I don't care if we win 1-0 or 2-0 but missing a good chance is not my style. Call on Hazard to warm up."
The assistant nodded, Hazard is a young Chelsea player, just like Kazuki, he is also recognized as one of the best young players in the premier league at the moment.
In the 61st minute, Hazard came on for Ridge. Ridge walked off the field while showing an annoyed expression. He even skipped Mourinho's handshake.
While Hazard was entering the field, Kazuki came to Wright-Phillips.
Kazuki said, "Don't you want to swap shirts with Lambert? Lambert won't recognize you if you keep playing like this."
Wright-Phillips replied with a helpless face: "I know that but I feel helpless every time I face a Chelsea right-back. I couldn't do it right."
Kazuki said in a cold tone, "If you feel useless, you better talk it over to the coach. Let him replace you with someone more useful."
Wright-Phillips fell silent. During this match, he always lost his duel against Hosingwa. Hosingwa's experience, speed, technique, every aspect is better than Wright-Phillips.
"Football is a team sport. If you can't beat someone, don't be afraid to run away and tell your friends," Kazuki then continued, "Come on, swap position with me."
Swapping positions is one way of dealing with solutions when players lose individually to opponents in their lane. Kazuki wasn't a winger, but his dribbling skills and foot technique had improved after continuous practice. He believes that his ability to play on the wing is not too bad.
"All right," Wright-Phillips accepted the suggestion.
They did not immediately change positions. The two made a deal they would swap positions when Southampton's next attack came.
In the 66th minute, Southampton got a chance. This started with Hazard's failure to break through Southampton's center-back, Okhalo. After successfully stealing the ball from Hazard, Okhalo gave the ball to Simone. Lambert and Essian, immediately press on Simone. The Southampton captain gave the ball back to Southampton center-back Hilton. Hilton gave the ball to left-back Benson.
Benson passed Zelatta at full speed. He takes the ball across the half-line. Chelsea midfielder Maroda came and tried to tackle Benson. However, Benson first gave the ball to Rudolf.
At the same time Chelsea center-back Ruiz followed Kazuki closely, after Rudolf received the ball Kazuki ran to the right flank, Ruiz followed him, but at that moment Wright-Phillips ran at full speed into the gap left by Ruiz. Rudolf provided the through ball. Ivano rushed over and made a tackle on Wright-Phillips, but the ball was still going, Wright-Phillips immediately got up and chased the ball.
Wright-Phillips chased the ball into the box, no one in front of him except Peter Krech. Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Krech stepped up to snatch the ball, Wright-Phillips got the ball first and then poked the ball into the Chelsea goalpost.
"Goaaall!! Wright-Phillips equalized, tension returns! Southampton managed to equalize after Wright-Phillips received Rudolf's pass. In addition, it should be noted, Kazuki's movement that elicited Ruiz was also the key to this goal."
Mourinho kicked the plastic bottle in annoyance, he cursed and let out his anger. Especially on David Ruiz who made a blunder.
Mourinho said to his assistant, "Let John Terry warm up."
***
On the other hand, Wright-Phillips hugged Kazuki and said, "Thank you, I can score the goal because of you, Kazuki."
"Don't get too excited, we're not ahead of Chelsea yet."
Wright-Phillips looked at Kazuki in surprise, "You seriously want to win this match?"
Against The Big Six, Southampton has not won since 2009, their best record is a draw.
"What can I do? I haven't scored yet." Even though Kazuki was happy that Wright-Phillips scored but as a striker, he still wanted to score his own goals in this match.
It was fine for Mourinho didn't know Kazuki before this match. However, Kazuki wanted to make Mourinho know and acknowledge Kazuki's abilities after this match.
In the 74th minute, Southampton who scored 8 minutes ago should be able to see the reality. Hazard passed three defenders at once and helped Dusan to score his second goal. Chelsea fans cheered simultaneously after seeing Chelsea's second goal. Hazard's appearance was more pretentious than Kazuki's.
"Hazard! He passes 3 players at once, it's beautiful, I dare to say that in a few years Hazard would be Mattheo's rival, his dribbling ability is not inferior to the Juventus Superstar."
If the 2-1 score lasted until the end, then media discussion about Kazuki would disappear and be replaced by Hazard as the protagonist. Kazuki knew that, therefore, he didn't want to lose to Hazard, especially in this match.
Kazuki was still on the wing, swapping positions with Wright-Phillips. In the 81st minute, the opportunity came. Kazuki received a pass from Simone, Essian came to snatch the ball from Kazuki. Kazuki did a step-over technique, he did a feint move, then pushed the ball to the right suddenly, he managed to break through Essian. Hosingwa came and made a tackle, but Kazuki pulled the ball back at the right moment and managed to dodge Hosingwa's tackle.
Kazuki continued to bring the ball into the penalty box, Ruiz tried to stop Kazuki, but Kazuki made a fake move, Kazuki's movements were too fast and accurate so Ruiz, an experienced defender, was unable to guess Kazuki's movements. After breakthroughs past Ruiz, Kazuki faced Krech, without hesitation Kazuki delivered a hard shot into the corner of the goalpost.
"Goaaalll! Just now Hazard performed a very beautiful dribble, and surprisingly, Kazuki did the same, no, even better. He passed three players in a row from Essian, Hosingwa, and finally Ruiz. I didn't expect him to have such ability. It's amazing."
This was a goal that was completely purely because of Kazuki. There is no help from other players in the process. While celebrating the goal, Kazuki looked at Hazard from a distance, he smiled while muttering, "I can do that too."
Kazuki's training on his skills was not fruitless.