八字万年历

Chapter 284: The Blue Side of Manchester VIII

The players went forward boldly as they no longer had anything to lose and staying back would allow the Manchester City team to continue dictating the game and giving them more opportunities to score more goals.

With this in mind, they played more boldly, but Manchester City wasn’t easily giving up their control of the game and continued pressing hard against the Porto team.

Thus the match went into a stalemate with the ball moving up and down the pitch, but neither of the teams managed to create any dangerous chances.

#78th minute…

Manchester City had just gotten a corner kick after they tried to break in from the left wing, but Diogo Leite had managed to block Sterling from getting past him and had sent the ball out for a corner kick.

Ilkay Gundogan ran over to take the corner kick while the other players arranged themselves inside the Porto penalty box.

*Fweeeeee*

At the sound of the referee’s whistle, Gundogan whipped the ball into Porto’s box with a high cross while the players of the two teams began pushing against each other as they tried to get closer to the path of the incoming ball.

Making use of his burly body, Pepe pushed his marker out of the way and jumped up to get his head to the ball first and clear the ball out of the danger area.

The ball bounced off Pepe’s head and flew outside the penalty area towards the right flank where Jason and Fabio Viera of the Porto team along with Zinchenko from the Manchester City side waited.

Jason immediately sent a knowing glance at Fabio after seeing that the ball would land nearer to him, and Fabio immediately understood Jason’s gaze.

Immediately after that, Jason turned and took off towards Manchester City’s half of the field, running down the right flank while Fabio Viera moved closer to the ball and caught it on his foot, bringing it under control.

With Jason already making a run towards the Manchester City penalty box, this was a perfect opportunity for a counter, but Fabio Viera had to first escape Oleksandr Zinchenko before he could send the ball to Jason.

Knowing that he couldn’t take too much time on the ball if he did not want to be tackled from behind, Viera immediately feinted to the left before snapping back and drawing the ball to his right, creating just enough space for him to send a long through pass forward.

Sweeping the ball with his left foot, Viera immediately sent a curling pass forward at Jason.

Hearing the sound of contact, Jason glanced back to see the ball flying and curling into his path, but he also took that opportunity to take notice of the other players’ position and he immediately noticed Joao Cancelo advancing on him at breakneck speed, as well as a few other players moving forward.

After swiftly making internal calculations, Jason took to the air and caught the ball on his right leg, taking all the power out of the pass and bringing it under control before gravity took control and he came back to the ground with the ball.

Without a pause, Jason kicked the ball forward and continued running as he could already hear Joao Cancelo’s approaching footsteps getting louder.

After moving forward a few more yards, Jason began cutting inside as he was already near the penalty box of the Manchester City team, but Joao Cancelo wasn’t having that and wanted to take him out before he got into the penalty box, hence he flew into a sliding tackle, homing at Jason’s legs like a missile, but Jason who had made sure to remain cautious immediately noticed Cancelo’s tackle.

Flicking the ball upward just enough so that Cancelo couldn’t reach the ball in his sliding tackle posture, Jason smoothly jumped over Cancelo’s tackle and continued his run, leaving Cancelo behind and unable to recover in time to stop the counterattack.

As Jason ran into the penalty box of the Manchester City team, he stayed on the edge of the penalty box and didn’t cut in any further, causing Aymeric Laporte who had been marking Mylo to move forward a bit and try to tackle him, but this was what Jason was waiting for and immediately Laporte was at a safe distance away from Mylo, Jason immediately sent a quick grounded pass at Mylo who didn’t hesitate to smack the ball past Ederson.

{GOAL!!!}

{Porto have lit a fire of hope with that goal!}

{There’s only one in it now!} Derek commented excitedly as he watched the ball go in.

{It was a splendid counterattack, with both individual efforts and teamwork coming into the fray to create a masterpiece of a goal} Alan commented at a much steadier pace than Derek, his commentary focusing on analyzing the goal instead of hyping up excitement.

{That makes it the young striker’s first goal in the Champions League and it was all thanks to a splendid assist from the young winger}

{Porto seems to have great luck in their youth development area these days} Alan continued to talk while Mylo had picked the ball out of the goal and was moving back to the halfway line, understanding that this was not the time to be frivolous with a celebration as they were still losing the game.

The other Porto players also understood this fact and quickly headed back to their half of the field as well, eager to build off the momentum of the goal and go on to equalize.

On the sidelines, Sergio Conceicao looked quietly at his players with his right hand on his mouth as he tried to think whether he needed to give his players any new instructions that could potentially help them to get an equalizer, but even after a minute of thought, he couldn’t think about anything and just stayed quiet.

#82nd minute…

Manchester City had increased the pressure they were putting on the Porto team, doing their best to kill the Port players’ momentum, but the Porto team responded in kind and was doing their best to keep their hopes alive.

The two teams matched each other aura for aura as they clashed for the win.

On the right side of Porto’s box, Ferran Torres tried to get past Zaidu Sanusi, but no matter the step overs, or feints he made, Zaidu stuck to him like glue, not giving him an inch of space and in the end, Ferran Torres didn’t have any choice but to pass back.

Jason lunged for the ball, trying to intercept the pass, but he missed and the ball found its way to Joao Cancelo who immediately passed the ball infield to Gundogan.

Fabio Viera immediately ran at Gundogan, but as if they had made a plan to keep the ball moving, Gundogan immediately sent a pass to Foden on his left.

Receiving the ball just a few yards outside the center of Porto’s penalty box, Foden pushed the ball forward and faced off against Otavio.

Quickly feeding the ball towards his left leg, Foden tried to push past Otavio and Otavio immediately reacted, but perhaps due to his exhaustion, he ended up a bit behind Foden, giving him a clear view of the goal and Foden immediately pulled back his left leg.

{He lets fly of the ball!?} Derek Rae’s voice was filled with anticipation as Foden took the shot.

The ball thundered off Foden’s foot, immediately flying towards the top left corner of the goal with Augustin Marchesin following after the ball, doing his best to get in the way, but he fell short and the ball smashed into the net.

{GOAL!} Derek Rae shouted in excitement as Foden immediately took off to celebrate his goal.

{We thought a goal would come at one end, but the ball had gone in at the other end!}

{Porto are pegged back again and it’s looking like the end of the road for them!} Derek’s excited commentary was splayed all over the faces of the Porto players, the manager, and the fans.

{I believe I speak for everybody when I say that none of us saw that shot coming from anywhere} Alan began saying his bit of the commentary.

{It was an absolute stunner, for us and for the Porto team, and with time running out, can the Porto team find it anywhere within them to recover from this shock}

{Strangely this reminds me of Porto’s loss against Inter Milan in the Europa League just last season where Porto had lost the game}

{Porto have an uphill battle to fight and this trauma wouldn’t make it any easier for them} Alan said as he could clearly see the negative expressions of the Porto players from inside the commentary box.

Sergio Conceicao on the sidelines didn’t even have it in him to shout at his players, but it was his job and he did it regardless.

Clapping his hands from the sidelines, he shouted at his players,

“We still have at least eight minutes, we can score three!”