Greatest Of All Legends-Chapter 771: Heart II

For the first thirty minutes of the game, despite the Lyon side’s efforts, things consistently kept going Oporto’s way, but after the second goal shocker, the Lyon side finally began to look like a threat.

With smarter play and not just reckless attacking, they slowed the game down and began trying to dictate the tempo.

The Oporto players didn’t like that and after chasing the ball for a while, they began trying to foul them to unsettle them.

*Fweeeeeeee!*

With a sharp blast of the whistle, the referee pulled out his yellow card and showed it to Zaidu Sanusi who had made an unsavoury tackle on Keita who had been trying to dribble past him.

The players of the Lyon side got into the penalty box, awaiting the delivery from the right side of the field.

Without much delay, Toko Ekambi whipped the ball in, sending the ball into the airspace above Oporto’s penalty box.

{Beautiful ball in from Toko Ekambi. Can he find someon-! MARCELO WITH THE HEADER AND ITS IN!!!}

This time Marcelo didn’t waste the chance and sent the ball into the top left corner with a perfect header that couldn’t be denied.

Diogo Costa was still rooted to the spot when Marcelo turned back with his teammates, high-fiving them as the Lyon players headed back to their half of the pitch.

This time, the few Lyon fans who had travelled over to support their team even though it was only a friendly match, finally had something to cheer about.

It was a low shout in comparison to the Oporto fans at the stadium, but their hearts were just as much with the players like the Oporto fans.

After that goal, the two teams tried to add to their tally within the few minutes still left of the second half, but they were unable to disturb the scoreboard operator before the referee blew his whistle for halftime.

{What a half we’ve witnessed, goals from both sides and there looks to be more to come. It’s been quite the splendid display from these two teams that will definitely leave the fans hungry for what’s to come for their teams this coming season}

{We’ll be back in fifteen minutes after half-time. Stay tuned} the commentator said before the commentator’s box went silent.

The players were already halfway to their locker rooms at this point, guzzling water, wiping their sweats and talking with each other about the things that happened in the first half of the game.

In the Oporto locker room, there wasn’t much for Conceicao to say. The team was already winning and this was a friendly game.

This was more of a match to see more from his players before the season began. They were playing well, following instructions and winning.

There clearly wasn’t much he needed to say, but he still admonished the defending of his players on the set piece, pointing out that after Marcelo had shown that he was a threat in the air, he shouldn’t have been allowed to roam freely during that set piece.

After the little discussions, he began making substitutions.

He wanted to see some other players in action.

Mylo was taken off for Taremi. The manager’s son, Francisco, was subbed on in place of Joao Mario and finally, Wendell was put on in place of Zaidu Sanusi who had taken on a yellow card.

The fifteen minutes came and went quickly and the players were soon running back on the field with the second half beginning.

The two teams quickly tried to pick up from where they left off and tried to break each other down. Both sides looked like a threat and it was beginning to look like the match could go any of two ways.

However it was a sudden attack from the Lyon team that shattered the deadlock.

After dribbling past Wendell who was struggling to match the pace of the game, having just come on, Keita crossed the ball into the penalty box to Slimani.

Pepe wasn’t near enough to hold off Slimani from reaching the ball so he tried to insert himself between Slimani and the goal, but Slimani headed the ball towards an arriving Toko Ekambi instead.

Catching the ball on his chest and then volleying it before it touched the ground, the Lyon man sent the ball powerfully past Diogo Costa.

{It’s there!}

{They have their equalizer! They’ve gone and down things the hard way and finally they are back on level terms!}

Unlike during the first goal where their celebrations had been moderate, this time the Lyon players celebrated their goal with more freedom and their fans joined them however they could.

Screams, cheers, songs, throwing of hats, whatever could be done to express their joy, the Lyon fans did it.

However, the celebrations couldn’t last long and the game was soon to resume.

For the third time in thirty minutes, the Oporto side kicked off the game and began moving the ball around cleverly, trying to find a way behind their opponents.

The Lyon side had clearly closed up defensively as opposed to earlier, but that was not going to stop the Oporto side from trying.

Unfortunately, even after a while, all their efforts to take the lead only led to blocked attempts and off-target shots.

Even Diaz’s flank which had been receiving much love in the first half had closed up now after the earlier right back was subbed off.

With energetic strides, the new substitute did all he could to keep Diaz in check.

He was a fresh player out of the academy and this was his first game with the first team. With a manager to impress, Diaz was hounded to tears.

When the clock hit the 70th minute, Conceicao had finally had enough and he turned to his bench.

"Viera, Vitinha... and Jason, warm-up, you’re up,"

"Eh? Oh, oh, right," Jason was a bit surprised to hear his name among those called up, but he stood up anyway, joining Viera and Vitinha to jog up and down the sides and do some stretches.

The fans who had been watching the game that had slowed down suddenly noticed movement on the sidelines and when they saw the players warming up, the cheers that shot through the stadium had the Lyon fans wondering if a goal had been scored suddenly.

Viera was a player who had become a fan favorite during the last season despite the disappointing outcome of the season and Vitinha was a player who been showing off large potential.

The fans were still not over his last game.

As for Jason...

Apart from his new hairstyle that the fans were seeing for the first time because Jason had been wearing a hoodie throughout all the last three friendly games for some weird reason, his presence among the players warming up was one most of the fans, if not all of them, wanted to see.