八字万年历

Chapter 496: Maybe I Am The Villain III

“Things were looking a bit shaky for us for a little bit there, but I’m glad you guys were able to find your way back,”

“What we have to do in the second half is very clear now,” Pirlo addressed the Uventus players who were seated around him, their breaths slowly evening out after the intensive first 45 minutes of the game they had just undergone.

The first half had ended shortly after the equalizer and the Uventus players were almost bursting to rush back out to the field and build off of their momentum, but unfortunately the referee’s whistle said otherwise.

It was for sure that the moment they got back on the pitch, they would want to unleash hell on their opponents.

Contrary to the high flying mood in the Uventus locker room, the Oporto locker room was silent except for the manager who was expressing his displeasure at his players and correcting his players mistakes.

In the end, the game was only at half time, so Conceicao held back on his complaints and focused more on adjusting the gameplan and correcting his players mistakes so that they could end the first game on a good note.

Soon enough, the players of the two teams were heading back out to the field.

It took them less than a minute to take their positions on the pitch and the match soon resumed.

As soon as the referee’s whistle went off, Uventus kicked off the second half, and just like their opponents did in the first half, they opted to pass the ball around comfortably, not giving the Oporto team a chance to get on the ball, talk less of being able to create a goal-scoring chance, but the Oporto team wasn’t so easily dissuaded.

They kept chasing after the ball tirelessly, continuously closing down the Uventus player who had the ball and making it hard for the Uventus team to create anything as well.

For a while, the match fell into a deadlock with the ball only moving around in the middle of the field, being exchanged between both teams.

***

#57th minute…

Despite the match staying in a deadlock for a while, neither team could keep up such a concentrated defensive effort for too long and the ball soon started making it past the defenders on both sides as shots were sent flying at the goal of both teams, however, so far, neither team had been able to make the ball fall into the back the opposition goal.

This time, it was Uventus on the attack and they had been passing the ball around for a few seconds already, keeping the ball out of reach of their opponents despite all the attempts being made at stealing possession away.

The ball kept moving around and the Oporto fans were beginning to get alarmed at how the ball seemed to be slowly but surely progressing towards their goal.

The ball moved towards Jason on the left flank and on taking control of the ball, Jason took on three defenders, snaking his way in-between them before sending the ball to Ronaldo in the center standing just outside the penalty box.

On receiving the ball, Ronaldo turned at the goal and immediately made to shoot, but he soon realized that there were too many Oporto players in his path.

Opting to fake a shot instead, he pushed the ball to his right with the tip of his foot to Mckennie who was arriving from behind.

As Mckenni moved toward the ball, he noticed that Jason had not stopped moving after sending the ball to Ronaldo and was now almost running past the last defender from the left flank.

After spotting Jason’s run, his mind was instantly made up and he chipped the ball into the penalty box right before Jason skipped past the offside line with his marker hard on his trail.

Seeing the ball flying into his path, Jason’s first thought was to fly at it and catch it off his head, but his brain quickly reminded him that even though he had started header classes with Ronaldo, he was still nothing more than a beginner at heading.

Augustine Marchesin did not choose to wait on the goalline when he saw the ball flying in behind the defenders and Jason running at the ball and he quickly came off his line to try and get to the ball first, or at least force Jason to shoot the ball wide.

What he didn’t know was that this move had given Jason another option.

Jason immediately took to the air with his leg outstretched before him, catching the ball in the air like he was doing a slide tackle mid-air.

Flicking the ball upwards just enough so it would fly up and out of reach of Marchesin, Jason sent the ball flying at goal.

His calculations were correct and Augustine couldn’t reach the ball. It flew over the Oporto goalkeeper and dropped past the goalline, slamming onto the inside right of the net.

{GOAL!!!}

{They’ve done it! He’s done it!}

{Uventus take the lead!} the commentator shouted as the Uventus fans burst out in excited cheers at their team finally taking the lead.

Jason didn’t get the chance to celebrate his goal as the Uventus players immediately jumped on him in celebration while some Oporto players went to go argue with the referee about Jason being offside.

Jason didn’t even pay attention to those guys as he knew that there was no way he was offside. It might be close, but he was sure and they would soon find out.

Just as he had expected, the referee soon disregarded the Oporto players claims after consulting the VAR.

The suspected offside call had dissuaded Jason from celebrating his second goal which made this his first brace in the Champions League, and Jason had decided internally that if he could score one more goal, he would do an extravagant celebration, respect for his home team be damned.

***

#65th minute…

After Uventus’s third goal, they had stepped up their goal-searching attempts even further, but so had Oporto who were now playing almost with desperation to find a goal that would bring them back on equal terms with their opponents.