Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 135: Vs Rio Ave VIII

The clock was slowly running down and there were only 15 minutes left of the 90 minutes for the match, but neither of the two teams had managed to cause any changes to the scoreline.

That was not to say that the two teams were in a boring deadlock… in fact, it was quite the opposite.

They had been charging at each other and the constant shots they sent at each other did not just have the players under constant tension, this extended to everyone else within the stadium.

The fans of both teams were not even able to sit down due to how fast and how often the ball flew from end to end and they were already certain to wake up tomorrow with sore throats as they were shouting themselves hoarse already and this was almost guaranteed to continue till the last minute.

The managers of both teams were watching intensely from the sidelines, but needless to say, neither of them was enjoying the current situation where it seemed like either of their teams could go behind at any moment.

Their hearts had almost leaped into their throats countless times already so how could they enjoy it when it felt like they were just mere inches from a cardiac arrest?

The only person enjoying this situation was the commentator who was having the time of his life as he did his best to intensify the pressure and emotions floating around in the stadium.

The noise in the stadium suddenly spiked up once again just as it had already done so many times in the last few minutes, but this time it was Jason who had caused the crowd’s volume to spike.

Jason who had his back to a Rio Ave player had gotten a pass from Mattheus Uribe but instead of receiving the ball, Jason had made a feint to confuse the player while letting the ball pass between the legs of the defender while he disengaged the player and went behind him to collect the ball.

As Jason chased after the ball, he saw the Rio Ave left-back coming at him, wanting to clear both the ball and himself.

Jason increased his pace and managed to get to the ball first and he immediately laid it off to Vincent Aboubakar while taking off down the right wing, speeding past the Rio Ave left-back.

At this moment, Jesus Corona was also making a similar run down the left wing like Jason, and Vincent Aboubakar immediately decided to send the ball to him as he did not want to waste any time shifting his body so he could send the ball back to Jason.

Sending a chipped pass that fell into Jesus Corona’s path, Jesus Corona deftly flicked the ball forward as it came into his path and advanced undeterred into the Rio Ave penalty area since he had already made it behind the Rio Ave defensive line.

Advancing into the Rio Aves penalty box, he immediately took the shot, curling it past the keeper and into the back of the net, but he had barely turned towards the sidelines to celebrate when he heard a shrill whistle and saw the assistant referee on the sidelines holding up the offside flag.

The crowd that had gone wild with excitement almost went mad with disappointment the very next second, but the assistant referee was pretty confident about his offside call and the referee agreed with him.

Jesus Corona had been slightly offside due to making his run a bit too early since his pace wasn’t exactly the fastest on the field and he wanted to cover for that, so he had moved a bit too early.

The assistant referee who was trained to spot the slightest movements quickly noticed this and already had his flag up immediately the ball left Aboubakar’s feet, but Jesus Corona had managed to score before the referee blew the whistle anyway.

For the Porto team it was more annoying this way, but arguing with the referee would get them nowhere, especially when they needed all the time they could get as they still had to get a winning goal.

The Rio Ave goalkeeper soon took the free kick and sent the ball back into the Porto’s half of the field, but it didn’t stay long there and less than a minute later, the Porto players were passing the ball around in the Rio Ave half of the field making the Rio Ave players chase after the ball.

For the next few minutes, this was the situation of the match as the Porto players continued passing the ball around in the Rio Ave half, but were unable to break through the Rio Ave defense.

The disallowed goal that Jesus Corona had scored had seemingly shook the Rio Ave team and their manager who immediately changed his decision and told his players to stay back and focus on the defensive.

Porto already had the upper hand in terms of momentum and player quality and if the Rio Ave team had stubbornly decided to continue attacking, they may have ended up conceding instead and losing the game, so the Rio Ave manager had opted for his team to go on the defensive and hope that they could keep out the Porto team for the few remaining minutes left in the game.

That way, they could at least gain a point from the game and regarding that it was against F.C. Porto, a point was already a good result to have.

Of course, the Porto team had different ideas and the moment the attacking pressure from the Rio Ave team disappeared, every player moved further up the pitch and took part in the team’s build-up play.

The Porto team wanted a goal and they wanted it soon as time was running down quickly.

The ball flew around between their players as they tried to break through the Rio Ave defense but time did not stop running down and soon there were only about 4 minutes of the 90 minutes left, but they focused on the game and not the rapidly running down clock and their next attack finally seemed to have the potential to help them to find the light.