My Ultimate Gacha System-Chapter 326 - 313: Road to champions league II

62’ |

The fourth official raised the substitution board on the touchline.

Number 10 — Teun Koopmeiners Number 7 — Ederson

Ederson jogged toward the touchline while Koopmeiners peeled off his training top and took the instruction from Gasperini’s assistant as he passed, and the crowd reacted to the change with a brief rise in home noise because Genoa’s supporters read every Atalanta decision for signs of anxiety.

Koopmeiners moved straight into position in the double pivot beside De Roon, and Demien pushed slightly higher in response while Lookman tightened his position on the left side.

63’ - 67’ |

Genoa pressed the change with purpose and two quick transitions in the next four minutes were broken down by Atalanta’s defensive shape, and Tolói cleared one dangerous delivery from deep with a timed header that sent the ball fifty yards upfield.

Koopmeiners received his first ball in the sixty-sixth minute and his first touch was clean and his second was a sharp switch to Mæhle that bypassed Genoa’s press in one movement, and the change of tempo was immediate.

68’ |

Demien received near the edge of the box from Mæhle’s cutback and shifted the ball to his right before striking toward the near corner.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 Claudio Marchisio — Balanced Engine

His run into the area had started from thirty yards while the ball was still wide with Mæhle, arriving at the exact moment the cutback landed — not early, not late — and his body was balanced through the contact because the skill’s quality was in the timing of the arrival as much as the strike itself, the kind of coordinated late run into the box that Marchisio turned into an art form across his career.

The contact was clean and the trajectory rose toward the top of the frame while the goalkeeper was already moving.

The goalkeeper stretched and palmed it over the bar with his left hand, and the away section groaned while Demien stood where he’d struck it for a second before turning toward the corner flag.

Commentary Booth

"Excellent save," the lead commentator said. "Walter gets the shot away cleanly but the goalkeeper is equal to it. Corner for Atalanta — and Koopmeiners over to take it."

Koopmeiners walked to the right corner flag and placed the ball while Genoa organized their defensive shape, and the delivery came inswinging toward the penalty spot with pace and bend.

68’ |

Scamacca had positioned himself between Genoa’s two tightest center-backs during the corner setup, and when the ball left Koopmeiners’ foot he stepped in front of the nearest defender and drove off his right foot with the full momentum of a late run.

The header was downward and directed toward the right side of the goal, and the goalkeeper got a hand to it but the placement was accurate and the power was enough, and the ball crossed the line before the goalkeeper’s second hand arrived.

GOAL: GENOA 1-2 ATALANTA (68’)

The away section detonated and the noise carried across the entire stadium despite the home crowd’s silence, and Scamacca sprinted toward the corner flag with both arms out while his face showed the release of someone who had been waiting for that moment since the equalizer.

Teammates arrived quickly — Lookman and Hateboer first, then Mæhle from the far side, then De Roon and Ederson — and the pile built near the corner flag while Atalanta supporters in the upper tier bounced as a single mass.

Commentary Booth

"SCAMACCA!" the lead commentator called over the noise. "The header from the corner and Atalanta lead again! All the movement was toward the far post and Scamacca comes in late on the near side — the goalkeeper couldn’t react in time!"

"That’s exactly what Gasperini called for at halftime," his colleague said. "Winning the second ball, staying composed, and the goal comes from a set piece which is appropriate given how they conceded. Atalanta two-one."

69’ - 90’+4’ |

Genoa understood what two-one meant for them and the urgency in their play became desperation, and long balls began arriving in Atalanta’s penalty area in waves while their shape pushed six players forward in search of an equalizer.

Atalanta’s back three dropped and held their shape without pressing high, and Musso organized his area with voice and positioning while loose balls were contested with bodies in the way.

In the seventy-eighth minute Musso threw himself at a driven cross to claim it just before Genoa’s striker could redirect, and the save was competent rather than spectacular but it prevented the chance entirely.

In the eighty-third minute a headed clearance from Scalvini found space at the edge of the box and Lookman reached it first and drove forward with pace, but the counter-attack ran two-against-three and the angle wasn’t right, and rather than forcing a low-percentage shot he slid the ball square to Demien who had overlapped on the right.

The chance was there for a fraction of a second — the goalkeeper narrow, the far post open, the ball arriving at the right height — and Demien struck first time.

His plant foot landed slightly behind the ball rather than beside it and the contact came off the outside of his right boot instead of through it, and the ball curved away from the post rather than toward it and missed by the width of a forearm while the net didn’t move.

He exhaled sharply through his nose and stood where he’d struck it for one second before jogging back.

Genoa pressed forward again and the fourth official raised the board showing four minutes added.

A Genoa corner came in the ninety-second minute and Musso moved early to claim the delivery, and his hands closed around it at the near post before pulling the ball into his chest while the Genoa striker’s charge arrived a half-second late.

Musso set and cleared long toward the right flank where Hateboer chased it without catching, and the ball ran out for a goal kick.

The referee checked his watch while both sets of players arranged themselves for the kick.

The whistle came.

Fweeeeeetttttttt! Fweeeeeetttttttt! Fweeeeeetttttttt!

FULL TIME: GENOA 1-2 ATALANTA

ATALANTA QUALIFY FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Players across the pitch raised their arms and the away section became noise without shape — every flag moving at the same time, every voice in the same register — and the sound from two hundred supporters in the upper tier filled the Ferraris like it had been built for them.

Demien stood near the center circle with his hands on his knees and his breathing heavy, and the confirmation of it took a moment to arrive properly — not the scoreboard, which he’d been watching for four minutes of added time, but the referee’s whistle and the fact that the match wouldn’t restart.

Ederson walked over and clapped him once on the back without saying anything, and then De Roon arrived from the far side and raised both fists toward the away section while the supporters’ noise answered him immediately.

Gasperini was already moving toward the tunnel when the whistle blew and he shook hands with Genoa’s coach briefly before walking down the touchline with his hands in his pockets and his face giving nothing particular away, and the assistant coaches on the bench stood and congratulated each other quietly while packing away the tactical boards.

Away Dressing Room Ferraris, Genoa 8:34 PM

The door closed behind the last player and the noise from the corridor dropped, and the room had the atmosphere of a team that had done something necessary rather than something unexpected.

Hateboer sat with his head back against the wall and his eyes closed and both boots still on while his chest rose and fell slowly, and Scamacca had a towel around his neck and was scrolling through his phone with the particular blankness of someone whose body hadn’t finished processing the last twenty minutes of defending. Koopmeiners stood at the sink near the back filling a water bottle from the tap and Mæhle was beside him doing the same, and neither spoke while the water ran.

Players sat with their boots still on and conversations were quiet and disconnected — fragments about specific moments in the match, about the long balls in the final twenty minutes, about Musso’s claim in the second minute of added time.

Gasperini came in and the room settled automatically.

"Champions League secured," he said, and he let it sit for two seconds while the room was completely still. "That’s important. That’s what we needed from tonight." He looked around once. "Good performance. Patient, disciplined, we scored from open play and from a set piece and we defended what we had. That’s professional football."

He paused.

"Parma at home on Sunday," he said. "We finish the season properly in front of our own supporters. Full commitment, full intensity. The same as tonight." He looked at De Roon. "Same as always."

He turned and left and the room exhaled slowly and conversations resumed, and showers started running while boots came off and phones appeared from bags.

Demien sat for a moment before reaching for his phone, and the screen showed forty-six notifications that had arrived while he was on the pitch and a message from Sophia at the top that had come in at the final whistle: Watched every minute. Well done. Call me when you can x

He scrolled further and found Marco’s message below it, sent two minutes later: Congratulations. We need to talk soon. Clubs are circling.

He locked the screen and set the phone down on the bench beside him, and the message from Marco would still be there in the morning and the clubs would still be circling and the conversation would happen exactly when it should.

He unlaced his right boot and set it down carefully, and the bus back to Bergamo left at nine.