八字万年历

Chapter 257: Not Friendly

With Rio Ave kicking off, they once again began exchanging the ball while trying to get at least one goal back, but their efforts were devoid of the desperation that one would normally see from footballers in a losing match.

It was only natural for such a lack of desperation since the match was just a friendly match with the aim being to get the players back to match fitness, and there wasn’t really a huge requirement to win, especially against an opponent like Porto that they would find usually difficult to defeat.

Soon, time ran out in the first half with neither of the two teams being able to disturb the scoreboard operator any further, and the players headed to the tunnel after the referee blew the halftime whistle.

In the Porto team locker room, the moods of the players after such a positive first half for their team was very good and they had smiles on their faces as they listened to the manager’s instructions for them in the coming second half.

Even Sergio Conceicao’s instructions catered to the current situation as he wanted the players to go further and get even more goals after already scoring three in the first half.

He wasn’t planning on leaving a way out for the opponent as he wished to use the pre-season to make a statement to everyone that despite the team losing quite a few of their important players, they weren’t adversely affected and still had it in them to become champions in the coming season just as they had done in the previous season.

Rio Ave was just unfortunate to be among the sacrifices for his plan in the pre-season.

The Rio Ave manager did not know Sergio Conceicao’s intentions for his team, but he could guess that Porto would not sit back in the second half against an opponent that they had already gotten three past in the first half.

Thus he tailored his instructions for his players to go on the defensive and do their best to prevent the Porto team from racking up their tally against his team.

He didn’t want the embarrassment of losing with a higher goal difference between the two teams than the goal difference they already had.

Soon enough, the fifteen minutes given to the players for a half-time break were over and the players were back on the training grounds of the Porto team, CTFD Portogaia, for the second half.

*Fweeeeeee*

The referee blew his whistle and the second half began immediately after the blast of the whistle.

Following the instructions of their manager, the Rio Ave team tried to get into a tight defensive formation even though they were in possession of the ball, but the Porto team struck fast before they could react, sweeping past them in a sudden burst of attack.

The Porto players quickly surged into the Rio Ave half of the field and snatched the ball from the Rio Ave players and the ball began moving forward along with the surge of the Porto players.

The ball moved from Mylo to Marega who made a quick back pass to Romario Baro.

Baro quickly sent the ball to Joa Mario who was on his left with a one-touch pass and Joa Mario didn’t hesitate to send the ball into the path of Luis Diaz who was running towards Ri Ave’s penalty box from the left wing.

Not bothering to trap the ball, Luis Diaz quickly sent a curling cross into the penalty box.

The ball rose above everyone and flew into the middle of Rio Ave’s 18-yard box.

Moussa Marega immediately rose to the ball, hoping to catch it off his head and send it past the goalkeeper, but the goalkeeper who had been watching the situation with utmost concentration right from the moment that his teammates lost the ball, quickly reacted.

Running out of his goal line and jumping past Marega to punch the ball out of the box, he hoped to clear the ball, and luckily, he managed to get to the ball first and send it out of the box, the problem of making this decision came right after that.

The ball flew out of the right side of the penalty box and landed close to Fabio Viera who immediately trapped the ball and looked to his left.

Seeing Mattheus Uribe making an inside run after standing by for a while, Viera waited for a bit while holding off his marker before rolling the ball into Uribe’s path.

Mattheus Uribe didn’t need an invitation and immediately launched his right foot with the fury of a rocket launcher and slammed the ball at the Rio Ave team’s goal.

He had intended the shot to be a carpet shot when he had run up to the ball, but with the powerful but slightly clumsy attempt at the shot, the ball involuntarily took off from the ground in a manner similar to the taking off of an airplane and thundered past everyone before slamming into the top right corner of the Rio Ave goal despite the goalkeeper’s attempt at keeping the ball out.

{What a shot! What a goal!}

{Barely a minute after the second half whistle and Porto have once again made themselves a nightmare to their opponents!}

{This is punishing!}

{The heading of this game says “Pre-season friendly”, but while this may be pre-season… it is anything but friendly!}

{Porto are at it again, they don’t know when to stop and they may be doing some psychological damage to their opponents now!} The commentator who had thought it would be a while before he would have to perform this much intense commentary was taken by surprise and his tongue just wouldn’t stop working.

In the food court that Jason was, not leaving as he intended to finish watching the game there, the atmosphere that had just barely quieted down after the banter between the fans cooled off a bit, once again took a strange turn.

“Sh*t,” the guy that started the earlier argument didn’t have any words other than this singular word escape his lips.