Greatest Of All Legends-Chapter 773: Heart IV

A foul was given and after a freekick that went nowhere with the Lyon players clearing it easily, the game resumed again in full force.

#79th minute...

Jason jogged over to the corner flag to take a corner kick after another attempt ended with the ball being sent out of play before they could even get the shot away.

Normally, Oporto was a team with physically robust players who were always a threat on set-pieces, but since this was a friendly game with a mix of players who weren’t as physically robust as the normal starting eleven, the Lyon team was a bit lax on the defence.

They opted for a zonal marking approach instead of a man-to-man defense and only made a little more effort for the players who were threats.

They were more prepared for a counterattack after defending the corner than defending the actual corner itself, so when the ball came in from Jason’s cross, they tried to clear the ball out of their penalty area, but Jason had done enough with the ball to make sure it found Pepe’s head.

{PEPE!!!}

{He heads it home and gives Oporto the lead for the second time in this game!}

{It seemed like the tables had turned but the captain stepped up and showed his teammates how its done. A good example of leading from the front!}

While the commentator screamed excitedly, Pepe and the Oporto players were celebrating the goal while the Lyon players headed back to their positions, preparing to unleash their fury once the whistle was blown to continue the game.

#81st minute...

After kicking off the game, the Lyon team had surged into Oporto’s half of the field with the ball, looking to hit back and give as much as they had received however they didn’t become careless with the ball because of that.

Due to the lack of defensive midfielders, Vitinha and Viera could only chase the ball incessantly but unsuccessfully.

Winning the ball back was not a strong point of theirs and the Oporto manager was noting this down carefully on the sidelines.

The other Oporto players tried to join the two midfielders and aid them in closing down the opponent but since the other players couldn’t stray too far from their own position, what Oporto was trying to avoid finally happened.

Space opened up and Silmani was found just as he stepped into the penalty box.

Completely free because he hadn’t reached the defenders and there was no defensive midfielder to intercept passes to him or hassle him, Slimani caught the ball with the perfect touch to put it in the best position for a shot.

With a smooth follow-up swing, Slimani unleashed a cracker that Diogo Costa wasn’t able to reach and the net was sent flying.

{Slimani makes it three for Lyon!}

{It’s not even been two minutes since Oporto took the lead and Lyon has equalized yet again!}

{They’ve stolen the momentum and it’s up to them now what they can do with it!}

On the sidelines, Conceicao’s eyelid twitched as his brain began to figure out a way to deal with the defensive problem that would arise from playing Viera and Vitinha in center midfield.

Whether to have Viera play on the right flank and play a defensive midfielder in his place, or to change to a formation that would allow for three center midfielders.

The latter idea might lead to a drop in playtime for some of the forwards so the manager wasn’t going to be rushing to make a decision.

#84th minute...

With the game back on equal terms, it was anyone’s game and with it being so close to the end of the 90 minutes, the ball was being sent up and down the field by both sides as they tried to find that winning goal.

Neither team wanted to end the game with a draw after getting this far.

Lyon had just had the ball stolen while they tried to break past and Pepe found Vitnha with the ball as they began their counter.

Finding Jason who had come deep, he sent the ball to him and continued his run up the field.

His back to the Lyon goal, Jason received the ball with his left foot in a turning motion to his left as if he intended to go that way.

However, he snapped back midway and turned on his right before flicking the ball forward and running down his flank.

Some other Lyon players tried to get into his path, but Jason used the outside of his right foot to make an infield pass to Viera who was running on his right.

Receiving the ball with a heelflick that sent the ball between his marker’s legs and into the path of Vitinha who had arrived beside him, Viera also continued running forward as the ball rolled into the path of Vitinha.

The ball reaching him, Vitinha whipped a through-pass between Lyon’s defenders and into Jason’s path on the left flank where Jason was already running into.

Jason and his marker ran at the ball but while Jason was running directly at the ball, his marker changed his direction slightly infield, trying to insert himself between Jason and the goal when Jason finally reached the ball, but when Jason reached the ball, he did a Ronaldo backchop to his right while his marker who hadn’t slowed down enough flew out of Jason’s path.

Not taking on any other defenders, Jason simply rolled the ball into the path of Viera who had arrived at the edge of the penalty box, his leg swinging at the ball.

The remaining Lyon defenders immediately jumped between Viera and the goal, but Viera faked the shot and passed it to his right where Vitinha arriving from behind, hit it powerfully.

The ball flew close to the ground, but no one was able to reach it as it continued uninterrupted into the bottom left corner of the goal, Lopes crashing onto the ground a little distance away after trying unsuccessfully to reach the ball.

{Powerful drive from the line and it’s in the back of the net!}

{Oporto take the lead yet again!}

{What is going on here!? Excitement after excitement!}

{This is the third goal in less than ten minutes and with the quality on display, I feel like there might yet be more to come}

{This team seems to have set themselves up to counter and that was a counter unlike any other!}

{Three players pulling all the strings of the Lyon defense loose. From the start of that counter all the way till the end of it no one could disturb their flow, their perfect understanding with one another!}

{Oporto just might have a secret weapon that could sweep away all their opponents in the coming season!}

While the commentator was having a lot of fun on the mic, Vitinha overly happy after scoring a second goal within two games was celebrating joyously in front of the fans with his teammates.