[Football] Bad Boy Batty

24 hours in advance, Guardiola led the team to the Ukrainian capital Kiev to check into the hotel.

The 2017-18 Champions League final will be held at the National Sports Complex there, and Liverpool will also check into the next-door hotel, less than 10 kilometers away, on the same day.

The last time two Premier League teams met in the final was in the 2007-08 season, when Manchester United and Chelsea faced off. The two sides played for 120 minutes but the game was still tied. In the end, Manchester United won the championship after a penalty shootout.

This is the second time in Manchester City's history that they have reached the Champions League final, and in two consecutive seasons. The last team to reach the finals consecutively was Bayern Munich, who lost to Chelsea in the 2-11 season final, but won the Champions League the following year by defeating Dortmund.

As for Liverpool, this is their 9th time participating in the Champions League final, and they have won the championship 5 times. It has been 13 years since they last created a miracle and won the championship in Istanbul. The Reds fans are very much looking forward to winning the championship for the 6th time.

After finishing the training on the field, the Manchester City players returned to the hotel. It was almost 7 o'clock when they still had night training and pre-match analysis meetings to attend.

Batty skipped dinner as usual. Loach complained as he prepared a plate of food and handed it to Batty's roommate, "Make sure he eats this...at least half of it."

De Bruyne nodded, then asked the waiter for a food cart and pushed him and Batistuta's dinner back to the room.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw Batty kneeling beside the bed, with his fingers crossed and his head bowed as if praying. He also had a cell phone in front of him with an enlarged image of Jesus on it. He was muttering something, as if he was reciting the Bible in Portuguese.

De Bruyne paused as he pushed the cart: "I didn't know you were into pre-match superstitions."

Batty, who was praying beside the bed, ignored him until he finished reciting the Bible passage and made the sign of the cross. Then he opened his eyes, patted his knees, and stood up.

"This is not pre-match superstition, touching the grass and kissing the trophy is," said Batty.

"Okay, but I thought you were not afraid of anything." De Bruyne placed the food from the food cart on the table. "This final is obviously in our favor. Liverpool is missing Salah and Milner, and they even played overtime in the semi-finals, which is almost the same as Bayern in 12."

"I know that people on the Internet are optimistic about us." Batty shrugged, "But prayer is a must. Those who come out of the City of God are children blessed by God. I am very pious and go to church every few months to ask God to bless us."

"Will you go to church?" De Bruyne was unconvinced.

"Of course, although I can't go every Sunday, at least I can let God remember what I prayed for. I did the same in the final last season."

"Really?" De Bruyne said slowly. "But Batistuta, if that works, then why didn't we win last season?"

Oh--
This is a fatal problem.

Batistuta narrowed his eyes and stared at De Bruyne. The Belgian quickly realized that what he said was a bit offensive and immediately raised his hands to show that he was harmless.

"Let's have dinner first." De Bruyne began to change the subject. He knocked on the table. "We have training tonight. You can't go hungry."

Batty looked around the dining car, but didn't find any dishes he liked. He jumped onto the bed and checked his phone without much interest. "I'm not hungry."

"I know you're not hungry, but your body needs them." De Bruyne brought the mushroom soup to the bedside, "At least drink some soup, otherwise everyone at the training ground will hear your stomach screaming at night."

Batistuta pouted and took the bowl of soup from De Bruyne reluctantly for a long time. His mobile phone was thrown aside with the screen still on. De Bruyne glanced over and saw the statue of Jesus again.

"You set it up as a desktop?"

"Ok?"

"That Jesus statue." De Bruyne raised his chin and indicated, "It looks different from the usual ones on the cross."

"It's different. This was given to me by my godfather." Batistuta licked the soup stains on his lips and opened the photo album to show De Bruyne.

[Repost this Jesus, and your wishes will come true in the next 3 days. ] - Edmundo

De Bruyne: …

Isn't this the most common type of retweet on Twitter to bring good luck? Why would such a big director post such boring stuff?

However, in view of Batistuta's fanatical worship of his godfather, De Bruyne swallowed the complaint that was almost on the tip of his tongue. "That's good." He said casually, "So - Batistuta, will your godfather come to watch the game tomorrow?"

"No, he told me that he was so lucky that sometimes he would even attract the luck of those around him. So in order to win tomorrow, he decided to watch the broadcast in Los Angeles." Batistuta finished the last bit of soup and pretended to burp to prevent De Bruyne from urging him to eat. "He also told me that he had prepared a surprise for me. My favorite singer will sing my favorite song at the opening ceremony before the game tomorrow."

De Bruyne was a little surprised.

It turns out that Batistuta's godfather can do this, even deciding the opening of the Champions League final. This is not something that can be achieved by spending money. Europe is different from the United States, and the Champions League is also different from the Super Bowl. Few people are willing to invite celebrities to perform.

"What song is it?" he asked.

"You'll know tomorrow!" Batistuta curled his lips and gave De Bruyne a mysterious smile, then asked him to push the two beds in the room to the middle and merge them into one. "I copied the Liverpool game and Ronaldo's amazing overhead kick against Juventus. Come over and study it. Maybe it can be used."

De Bruyne took only half a second to make the decision.

"Okay." He nodded, "Wait for me, I haven't had dinner yet."

De Bruyne came to the bed with a plate full of mashed potatoes and pasta, saying it was prepared for him, but in fact - after all, Batistuta would only listen when he was concentrating on studying the game, and that was a good opportunity to feed him.

It turns out that this method really works.

Batty unknowingly ate three meatballs, half a portion of pasta, half a portion of salad, and some beans.

De Bruyne: The plan works.

……

【Welcome to watch the live broadcast of the 17-18 UEFA Champions League final. You can see that the two teams have entered the player tunnel. The one on the left side of the screen is Liverpool, and the one on the right side is Manchester City. Before the game, there will be an exciting opening performance. 】

In the player tunnel, Batistuta followed Aguero, feeling calm and not as nervous as last time. Promotion Ambassador Shevchenko placed the Big Ear Cup on the podium. From Batistuta's position, he could just see the silver cup body and the red and blue ribbons tied on both sides through the gap.

What a familiar feeling.

It was the same last year. I felt so close to the trophy that I could touch it if I just took a few steps forward.

The venue was packed with 6.3 spectators, with the red and blue colors clearly distinguished. I don't know who started it, but fans from both sides sang their team songs, as if they were in a boxing match, and no one wanted the other side's voice to be louder than their own.

"What are you thinking about? You are so lost in thought."

De Bruyne's voice woke Batistuta up.

"Nothing," he said, "I'm just thinking about the performance." Batty smiled at De Bruyne and pointed to the passage behind the tunnel, where several artists were talking to the stadium staff. "You want to know what song it is, right? This is it."

They are American rapper Pitbull, Colombian singer J Balvin, and Cuban-American singer Camila Campero who has become very popular in the past two years.

De Bruyne looked at them for a few seconds and turned back. He didn't recognize them: "Which one is your favorite singer? The bearded man in the middle? I think I've seen him in your playlist."

Batistuta was a little surprised. "Not only have I seen it before," he said. "I've played it for you before! The theme song of "Fast and Furious", "Hey Ma", I played it for you on the bus on the day we won the Premier League title!"

Oh, that day.

De Bruyne had some impression of it, but that day all his attention was on Batistuta's jeans. They were a very trendy pair of ripped jeans, and Batistuta crossed his legs, with his honey-colored skin pressed against the white frayed edges of the holes, which inexplicably touched a certain point in De Bruyne's heart.

So, the song in the headphones almost goes in from the left and comes out from the right.

"You're such a bore."

Seeing the blank expression on De Bruyne's face, Batistuta roughly guessed the reason. He rolled his eyes, pulled his caddy to switch positions with Sterling in front, and then stuck out his tongue in disgust at the Belgian midfielder.

De Bruyne could only give an apologetic smile.

But it was too late. Batistuta said nothing that would make Sterling change his position back, not even if Sterling asked for it. The happy English boy shrugged at De Bruyne, "Sorry bro."

Several artists walked onto the court, ready to begin their performances, and the small theater in the player tunnel attracted the attention of the broadcast cameras on the sidelines. Those watching the game were not interested in the performances, but they were definitely interested in the players.

As the singing outside started, certain factors in Batistuta's blood began to awaken. The photographer zoomed in the camera at the right time, and Manchester City's Brazilian rose appeared in front of hundreds of millions of viewers, intoxicated and lip-syncing.

"Oh—" a female fan wearing a Brazilian team jersey hugged her boyfriend's arm and exclaimed, "He is such a sweetheart!"

"No, honey, once you see him doing tricks and kicking people, you won't think he's a sweetheart anymore," her boyfriend said with a smile.

Before the female fan could refute, Batistuta, who was on the live broadcast, discovered the camera that was secretly filming him from the sidelines. However, he was not shy at all. Instead, he lip-synced even more happily. The cameraman moved the camera closer.

"So won't you, come closer, Let me know you're all mine!"

Batty lip-synced and stretched out his hand towards the camera, looking over with an expressive look. With the lyrics that were almost flirtatious, thousands of people around the world covered their hearts and groaned at the same time.

The male fan who just disdained his girlfriend's behavior of looking at her face was now almost kneeling to watch the broadcast. "I was wrong, dear, Batistuta is really a sweetheart."

……

Accompanied by the live playing of the UEFA Champions League theme song, players from both teams walked onto the field under the guidance of the referee.

Manchester City's starting lineup today was the same as the derby that allowed them to win the Premier League trophy. Guardiola did not use any strange formation to limit Liverpool.

The formation is closer to 433, with Ederson still the goalkeeper, Kompany and Stones as central defenders, Lucas on the left, Kyle Walker on the right, Fernandinho as the single defensive midfielder in the midfield, D. Silva and De Bruyne on the left and right, Sterling on the left, Batistuta on the right, and Aguero at the front.

Jesus returned from injury some time ago and was in hot form, for a time keeping Aguero on the bench. However, since last month, the two's form seems to have been reversed. Several passing errors in the frontcourt led Guardiola to remove Jesus from the starting lineup.

Of course, in such a big competition, the depth of the bench is also very important.

As Salah was absent from Liverpool, Klopp fielded the strongest lineup at the moment, which was also close to 433, but Milner, who was speculated before the game that he might not be able to start due to injury, appeared in the starting lineup.

Goalkeeper Mignolet; new signings Van Dijk and Lovren partner as central defenders, Robertson and Arnold serve as two full-backs, the midfield is composed of Wijnaldum, Henderson, and Milner, Firmino is in the middle of the front line, Mane is on the left, and Lallana appears on the right.

As per convention, the captains of both teams shook hands, took photos and chose sides.

Manchester City took the first kick-off.

Near the center circle, Batistuta stepped on the ball with a look of arrogance.

"Are you ready?"

De Bruyne curled his lips, "Of course, I can't wait."

[beep——]
As the referee blew the whistle, Batty kicked the ball out.

"Then let's get started."

(End of this chapter)