Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 78: A Debut to Remember IV

The ball flew at the Porto goal at breakneck speed but Augustin Marchesin, the Porto team goalkeeper had been watching Alario from the moment the ball was passed at him so he was in a position to easily deal with the shot.

Thus the ball found itself smoothly grasped from midair by the goalkeeper.

Augustin Marchesin quickly stood up with the ball, knowing that this wasn’t the time to be lying around and he quickly threw the ball into the midfield towards Jason.

Jason quickly trapped the ball from the keeper’s throw before he turned towards the Leverkusen goal and accelerated, his legs pumping rhythmically and shooting him across the field.

Jason was soon faced with a Karem Demirbay, but instead of slowing down and dribbling past the player, he sent a pass past him instead.

Otavio appeared behind the pass that Jason sent forward and sent a through ball behind the players toward the left wing and into the path of Luiz Diaz who ran after the ball.

The sudden switch from defense to attack that had ended up in the lightning-fast counter that was currently taking place stunned the Leverkusen team and took almost all their players out of the equation.

Luiz Diaz managed to reach the ball on the left side of the penalty area, just a few yards before it rolled out of play and he quickly changed directions and charged into the box, but the Leverkusen defenders weren’t just going to let him do whatever he wanted and stood in his path.

For some reason, even though two defenders stood in his path, Luiz continued moving forward, intending to take them on despite better passing avenues open to him.

With brimming confidence, Diaz smoothly performed an elastico to dodge past Sven Bender before linking it with a 360 Cruyff turn that he used to escape Jonathan Tah, completely wowing all the fans and bringing himself face-to-face with the Leverkusen goalkeeper.

Hradecky hadn’t expected that Luiz Diaz would manage to get past the two defenders in his path but immediately he saw Luis Diaz escape the defenders, he charged out at him, wanting to stop this problem before it got too close for comfort.

Luiz Diaz who had just gotten past Jonathan Tah was stabilizing the ball as he moved towards the goal, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Jason just run into the penalty box from the right wing and he was completely free yet he ignored it as he was already in front of the goal anyway.

In his haste and a moment of selfishness, he had not paid any attention to the Leverkusen goalkeeper for a few seconds and when he finally realized it, Hradecky was almost at his feet jumping for the ball.

Surprised at the goalkeeper’s sudden appearance in front of him, Luiz Diaz was startled and immediately shot the ball, no longer having the composure to curl the ball around the keeper.

The ball flew from Luiz Diaz’s foot and hit Hradecky’s wide-spread hand and was deflected out of play for a corner.

{And Oh! What a run, what a chance, and what a save!}

{That was Luiz Diaz’s chance to put Porto in the lead but Hradecky has denied him and granted his team a lifeline and kept them in the game}

{Diaz’s teammates can’t believe that their team did not manage to get the lead from that attack and seem to be openly berating him as there were obvious passing options for him instead of him going solo with the shot in a selfish quest for glory} The commentator couldn’t stop talking, his voice displaying his emotions about the game to the listeners.

Jason could not believe that Luiz Diaz had wasted that chance either and neither could the other members of the team or the head manager.

Even the fans couldn’t believe it because not only was Jason free, Tiquiniho Soares and Otavio were also free enough to receive the ball and score and they were all onside, yet Luiz Diaz had decided to go solo and had still wasted the chance so at this moment, it was taking all the fans had to not curse at Luiz Diaz in anger as they still had hope for the game.

The same restrictions did not hold true for the Porto players on the field though and almost all of them berated Luiz Diaz endlessly.

Even Sergio Conceicao wasn’t left out and he could be seen throwing his foot in an annoyed gesture as he shouted at Luiz Diaz.

Jason was the only one who didn’t say anything to Luiz Diaz, but there was obvious annoyance on his face so no words needed to be said.

Luiz Diaz knew he had been a bit too selfish so he quickly apologized, not getting angry at his teammates as he knew that their anger was justified.

The team quickly gathered in the Leverkusen penalty box for the corner as the game was still not over and they had one last chance to make a difference in the next two minutes that remained of injury time.

As usual, it was Alex Telles who stood over the corner kick his hand in the air, signifying the set piece routine they would be using in the air with his hand while waiting for the referee’s whistle.

*Fweeeeeeee*

Telles ran up to the ball and sent it curling into the box.

Players of both teams rose to catch the ball with their heads, both teams players having different intentions for the ball but Jonathan Tah managed to beat everyone in the air and send the ball outside the penalty area.

The Porto players quickly ran for the ball and Otavio was the one who reached the ball first and passed the ball back to Telles who was on the right side of the penalty box, but Telles hesitated to send the ball back into the penalty area because he was very clear on the fact that their team did not have a height advantage so crossing the ball into the penalty box had low chances of leading to a goal.

He quickly passed the ball back and to Otavio who wasted no time in sending the ball over to Wilson Manafa.

The Porto players contented themselves with keeping possession of the ball just outside of the Leverkusen penalty area while trying to look for a space to break through the Leverkusen defense, but the Leverkusen players seemed to have come to a collective decision to stay back and defend till the final whistle.

The clock slowly ran down and when it remained ten seconds till the end of the allocated time, Otavio decided to send the ball into the box in a last-ditch effort to see if the team could cook something up as they were almost out of time.

Thus with a quick glance inside the box, he moved down the left side of the field, and from a distance of a few yards away from the left corner of the Leverkusen penalty area, he sent a curling trivela pass into the penalty area with the outside of his right foot.

The ball flew up into the air while curving out and it seemed that the ball would cross the face of the goal and go wide when suddenly a shadow in the Porto jersey rushed past his marker intent on catching the ball.

Jason had been watching and waiting for a chance to create something but due to the Leverkusen team quite literally “parking the bus” he had not been able to create anything because they were fully intent on defending the scoreline and just when he had thought that the game would end up in a draw, he had seen in Otavio’s eyes an intent to create something so he had readied himself to run for the chance should it ever come.

So when Otavio sent the trivela pass into the penalty box, he was the first to react and managed to move quickly enough to get past his marker, but even then the ball was moving too fast and he would not be able to reach it in time to trap it before shooting, not to mention that they were already out of time.

The only way he could reach the shot was with a diving header or lunging at it with his feet and since he didn’t trust his heading skills enough he launched himself into the air feet first.

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