八字万年历

Chapter 186: Road to Liga NOS Champions 2019/20 XIII

The Porto team bus arrived at the Estadio Joao Cardoso for their match for their match against Tondela at the Estadio Joao Cardoso in Tondela.

This was the next step in Porto’s march toward the League title and should they win this game, they would be able to lift the trophy in their next game if they managed to win the next game as well.

Benfica, which was the second team on the league table had lost their last match and were now eight points behind the Porto team, so as long as Porto didn’t fling away the title that almost certainly belonged to them, then their position as league leaders was already as good as confirmed.

With the trophy in sight, the Porto player’s morale was high and the morale of the fans was even higher and they wished that they could be present at the stadium to witness their team lift the trophy, but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

The stadiums had to remain empty for the foreseeable future and even Jason who was from a different timeline didn’t know when the fans would be allowed back into the stadiums.

His future knowledge was only up till the later parts of the year 2020 and he had not lived to experience 2021 in his world so he was pretty much a normal human at this point without any more future knowledge advantage.

The only extra knowledge he had in his head was a few things that were present in his past life but due to some sort of butterfly effect, weren’t present in this world, and none of those things concerned football so he was just as lost as the rest of the normal humans.

However, none of those things took any space in Jason’s head as the only thing in his head at that moment was the upcoming match.

As usual, the players got off the team bus and headed into the stadium, moving towards their respective locker rooms to change and prepare for the pre-match warm-up while the manager and the captain separated from the rest of the players to go do the pre-match interview.

Every player on the squad was soon in their training clothes and heading out to the green for the warm-up and pre-match training.

Each team performed their pre-match warm-up and training on the different halves of the pitch and soon enough the manager and the captains came to join the players in the pre-match training.

After a while of training, the players headed back through the tunnel into the stadium’s inner grounds to ready themselves for the match while the pre-match tactical meeting was held at the same time.

By 7: 15 pm that evening, the two teams were done with all pre-match formalities and were standing in position, waiting for the referee’s whistle to start the match.

*Fweeeeeeeee*

The players didn’t have to wait long as the shrill sound of the whistle soon escaped the referee’s whistle as he blew hard on it and the match immediately kicked off.

Both teams immediately got to work and started charging at each other, each intent on achieving the different goals they had coming into the match.

Porto’s goal was to defeat the Tondela team and take another step at the League title while Tondela’s goal was to do everything in their power to stop the Porto team from achieving their goals.

They were not going to be some soft persimmon that the Porto team could easily walk over, they had decided to themselves, but the Porto team’s players couldn’t care less about their thoughts and went at them, their first aim being to retrieve the ball from the Tondela team so that they could immediately begin trying to get a goal.

With high pressure from the Porto team, it didn’t take long for the Tondela team to lose the ball and the Porto immediately began passing the ball around cleverly while looking for spaces to begin an attack, executing their manager’s strategic possession game plan.

The Porto players fanned wide and changed positions continuously as they exchanged the ball with each other, but all their attempts at breaking past the Tondela defense line were met with rigid refusal from the Tondela team.

With Porto not being able to break through the Tondela team’s defense, their momentum soon diminished and Tondela soon regained possession and it was their turn to attack the Porto team’s defense and try to get the first goal of the game.

The first half of the Tondela vs Porto match was filled with such back-and-forth moments from both teams and though each team occasionally broke through their opposition’s defense line, neither of the teams had been able to put the ball past the goalkeeper despite getting a few shots away.

The first half passed like this and the referee soon blew the whistle to bring an end to the scoreless first half of the game.

With the first half of the game over, the players of both teams headed off the field for a much-needed fifteen minutes rest as despite neither of the two teams managing to get one past the goalkeeper, they were still exhausted from going at each other throughout the first half… without any results to show for it as well.

Sergio Conceicao didn’t think that his players had played terribly in the first half, but he wasn’t pleased with his players letting the first half of the game slip through their hands without them being able to score even one goal.

Nevertheless, he knew that a lot could still happen in the second half of the game so he only corrected the players that needed correcting and made the appropriate changes to the squad line-up.

Soon the second half was about to kick-off and newly on the team was Jason who hadn’t started the match, but was now coming on for Jesus Corona on the right.

Soon the second half began and with Porto in possession of the ball due to them kicking off the second half, they started slowly building up an attack and advancing further and further into the Tondela half of the field.

They continuously exchanged the ball among themselves as they advanced while the Tondela players ran at them, constantly on press, but the Porto players somehow managed to avoid losing possession of the ball and after almost two minutes of passing the ball around, the ball finally found it’s way to Vincent Aboubakar who did not hesitate to send the ball at the Tondela goalkeeper.

The Tondela goalkeeper quickly extended himself horizontally at the ball with amazing power and flexibility, managing to push the ball off its intended path and pushing the ball out of play for a corner kick.

As Alex Telles ran over to the right corner flag to take the corner kick, the players of both the Porto and Tondela teams arranged themselves in the 18-yard box, pushing against themselves and using different maneuver techniques to escape from the other person, all in preparation for the incoming ball from the corner-kick.

*Fweeeeeee*

The referee blew loudly and that was Telles’ cue to run at the ball and swing hard, sending an inwardly curling ball into the Tondela 18-yard box with a powerful left foot.

The players pushed against each other and a select few who were closest to the path of the incoming ball jumped to the air to get to the ball.

Danilo Perreira somehow managed to outmuscle his marker and get his head to the ball, changing its direction and even adding a bit more power to the ball.

With the header from Danilo Perreira, the ball flew at the bottom right corner of the goal and the keeper quickly dived at the ball, but the ball bounced on the ground before reaching the goalkeeper and flew over him into the back of the net finally putting an end to the goalless status of the game.

{GOAL!!!}

{It’s Tondela who buckle first!}

{Whatever the Porto manager told his players at half-time, it’s working as they have taken the lead already, just barely two minutes after the break!}

{Just like many other times this season, it’s come from a corner and Tondela should have known to be better prepared and will now have to deal with the consequences of not paying enough attention to clear threats like the strong Portuguese defensive midfielder, Danilo Perreira} The commentator did not hesitate to get on the mic and unleash line after line of almost poetic content, especially when it was the first goal of an almost goalless game.

The Porto team most certainly did not hesitate to celebrate their goal and they were joined by the Porto fans in their respective locations.

The Porto fans celebrated with extra excitement since their team had taken yet another step towards the League title with this goal.

The League title was already close enough that they could almost taste it and they probably would as long as nothing too out of the ordinary happened.