[Football] Bad Boy Batty

The two teams from the Premier League are old friends. They are very familiar with each other's tactical characteristics and almost play their cards openly. Klopp and Guardiola tacitly avoided the step of testing each other. They speeded up right at the start, launched a fierce attack, and pressed madly, trying to bring the opponent into their own rhythm.

In the first minute, Walker dribbled the ball on the right and cooperated with De Bruyne to pass the ball to the frontcourt. Batistuta quickly received the ball and turned around, but with Robertson and Henderson in front of him, he did not dribble by himself, but chose to continue to go down the bottom.

Robertson followed him to the corner flagpole. Batistuta used his body to hold the opponent back. After a few seconds, he easily passed Robertson through the crotch with his heel, and before being pulled down, he made a reverse triangle pass to the middle.

Liverpool's defense was very tight. After D Silva received the ball, he made a pass. Fernandinho made a high pass to the penalty area. There was no one guarding Aguero, so he turned around and shot directly in the penalty area.

Unfortunately, Mignolet cleared the ball early and Aguero was offside.

However, this was still a successful tactical cooperation. Manchester City's method of targeting the gaps behind Liverpool's two central defenders was effective. If Fernandinho had passed the ball faster, Lovren would have been left behind and Aguero would have been able to complete a shot.

There was a threatening shot less than 2 minutes into the game. Manchester City gradually gained momentum and Liverpool had to be on guard.

"Don't let him get the ball, follow him!" Klopp shouted from the sidelines, "It will be too late if he makes a move, Joel! Don't be greedy for the ball, move it quickly!"

Batistuta running without the ball is like a thorn hidden in the dark. If you relax a little, it will jump out and pierce your flesh at any time. But compared with the state without the ball, Batistuta running with the ball is more deadly, like a cannonball, and the danger index rises sharply.

Liverpool is now missing Salah in the frontcourt, which is equivalent to losing an arrow. If they think about defense, it will easily fall into positional warfare. In positional warfare, Klopp clearly knows that his team cannot beat Manchester City, so after comprehensive consideration, he chose to give up marking.

In the 5th minute, Manchester City launched a backcourt attack, Liverpool retreated and tried to steal the ball from the midfield. Lucas dribbled the ball from the left and chose a long pass. Arnold headed to the first point, but unfortunately there were no teammates around him, and the ball returned to Manchester City again.

Fernandinho got the ball in the middle, he quickly observed the position of his teammates and chose to take a long shot!
The ball went wide.

"I'm right here, why don't you give it to me!" As Mignolet was preparing to kick the ball, Batistuta trotted back to his position and turned around to complain to Fernandinho.

Although the distance was far and the noise from the fans was loud, it was hard to hear what Batistuta said, but Fernandinho could probably guess it. He spread his hands and said, "There's someone next to you!"

"No, no, I can handle it!" Batty retorted, "You should bring it here, that's how we train!"

“Pep said not to give the ball away easily,” Fernandinho shook his hands a little irritably, “Henderson is behind you. Believe it or not, he will steal the ball and counterattack as soon as I give it to you!”

How could there be internal strife in the Champions League final with less than 10 minutes to go?

It's not like Bayern, who are cursed by internal strife and the Champions League, that problems at this time would simply be giving points to their opponents.

"Okay! This is not the place to quarrel!" Kompany shouted to stop the two of them, waving his hand. "Go back to your position quickly, don't give your opponent a chance, have you forgotten how we lost before!"

Fernandinho waved his arms and Batistuta made a face, and the two of them tacitly turned the page and returned to their positions.

No matter how much we quarrel, the game must not be affected.

……

In the 11th minute of the game, Manchester City's momentum gradually returned to normal, while Liverpool's counterattack gradually began to improve.

Lucas got the ball on the left, and after observing, he signaled his teammates to press forward. Lallana and Milner stepped forward to block, and Lucas quickly kicked the ball out, and Sterling retreated to receive it. But he missed Lovren who was following him not far away, and before he could hold the ball firmly, he was stuck from behind by the opponent, who then stretched out his foot to break the ball.

Firmino passed the ball to Mane, and Liverpool launched a quick attack on the spot.

Before Salah transferred to Liverpool, Mane was the core of the attack in the frontcourt. Manchester City was very familiar with their offensive tactics. Kyle Walker knew that he could not let the opponent enter the penalty area, so he kicked Mane down decisively.

Firmino, who was passing the ball, had already moved forward, and there was Lallana at the back post. As long as he was let go, it would immediately turn into a threatening attack.

The referee stopped the game and Liverpool got a free kick in the frontcourt.

Then--

The referee from Poland showed Walker a yellow card.

"Hey! This punishment is too severe!" Guardiola shouted in disbelief on the sidelines, "This is the first time he has encountered an opponent. If he is given a yellow card for this, I believe there will be few players left here in the second half!"

The fourth official next to him signaled him to calm down. The referee has the final say on the field. It would be terrible if the referee sent him to the stands for disturbing the order.

Guardiola certainly knew this. He complained a few more words and waved back to the sidelines.

The penalty spot was 21 yards away from the goal, neither far nor close. The Manchester City players on the field formed a human wall under the command of Ederson.

"Bati, come out, go over there, with Stones!!"

To defend such a free kick, two separate players need to be left a little to the side to prevent the opponent from shooting directly. These two players do not need to be too tall, but not too short either. Batistuta and Stones are just right.

Stones was right next to Batistuta, who could feel the muscles tense beneath his jersey.

"Why are you so nervous? Are you afraid of getting hit in the face?" he joked.

"Shh!" Stones grabbed Batty's arm, "This position is very dangerous, Milner has a long shot."

"Don't pull me, idiot." Batty pinched him, "I won't be able to jump later."

Milner and Wijnaldum stood in front of the penalty spot and discussed tactics. As the referee blew the whistle, Wijnaldum took a run-up and then stepped over. It was Milner who actually took the penalty kick.

Batistuta saw through this, he pulled Stones along and waited for Milner to raise his foot before jumping.

Sure enough, Milner chose to shoot directly. The ball failed to pass the wall, or more precisely, hit Stones in the face and was blocked. The ball bounced back into the field, and Milner wanted to control the ball, but De Bruyne got in front of him and cleared the ball first.

[beep——]
The referee stopped the game again.

Some players fell to the ground and a small-scale conflict broke out between the two sides.

Just now, when Henderson was trying to score in front of the goal, his movement was too big and he knocked down David Silva. The Spanish midfielder sat on the ground with his hands open and complained, while Henderson kept asking him to stand up.

Lucas rushed forward and pushed Henderson away to protect his teammates, while Kompany and Fernandinho immediately raised their hands to signal a foul. Walker had just received a yellow card, and if Henderson could also be given one, then both sides would be back to the same starting line.

Just after Batistuta comforted Stones, who was hit in the face by the ball and had stars in his eyes, he heard shouting behind him. He immediately left Stones and ran over.

Because someone was blocking Batty's view, he couldn't see the whole process clearly, but this didn't stop him from standing up for his teammates.

"Stay away, don't bully others with your size!" Batty pushed Henderson away from Lucas, "If you really want to fight, come to me, I will provide you with the service of 'breaking the nose with one punch'!"

Henderson didn't understand Batty's rapid English mixed with Portuguese, but he couldn't lose his momentum, so he fought back fiercely. "I didn't touch him at all!"

"How did he fall when you didn't touch him? Was it a Force attack?" Lucas squeezed past Batty and said angrily, "I saw it! You were the one who pulled David's arm and brought him down!"

Seeing that the two sides were about to kiss each other, the referee came over to restore order. He waved away all irrelevant people and only kept D. Silva and Henderson by his side.

After asking the baseline referee for his opinion, he gave Henderson a verbal warning.

Later, when returning to midfield, the Polish referee stopped Batistuta and warned him to behave himself and not try to disrupt order on the field.

This made Batty very angry.

"It's not fair!" Batty complained angrily, stomping on the grass. "It's fine if he didn't give me a yellow card, but what right does he have to warn me?"

Aguero happened to pass by and comforted him: "Don't worry, Batistuta, it's only a few minutes, we still have plenty of time."

"No, no, no, A-Kun, you saw it, I didn't do anything just now!" Batty's eyes widened, "Just because I rushed up and said I wanted to fight, did that mean I really started a fight?"

"Don't argue with the referee. I know you can control yourself." The Argentine striker hooked Batistuta's neck and kissed him on the side of his jaw. "We want to win the championship. How can we hold the trophy if you can't even handle this little bit of anger?"

Barty exhaled and nodded.

Aguero patted the boy on the back, turned and ran back to the frontcourt.

The ball was given to Liverpool.

……

If the conflict occurred during the fight, Batistuta could still accept it, but he just went to protect his teammates. What happened over there had nothing to do with him. He didn't even see what happened in its entirety.

However, the referee gave him a warning.

Henderson hasn't been shown a yellow card yet, as it was clearly him who provoked the opponent first. Besides, who doesn't make some small moves with his hands when trying to score in front of the goal? Pretending to be innocent is almost a skill that every player must learn, so Batistuta believes that he is not absolutely innocent.

Hiss, I’m so angry.

Just like the unlucky person who tries to stop a fight (of course Batistuta was not trying to stop the fight), Batistuta ran while observing the positions of his teammates, his anger growing more and more.

No, I have to find a way to vent my anger!

Batistuta wandered around Wijnaldum and Robertson, waiting for an opportunity, and three minutes later, he finally found the chance.

Manchester City got a corner kick on the right side and De Bruyne took the shot.

There were high players like Kompany and Stones in the penalty area, and Van Dijk and Henderson blocked their positions, preventing them from competing for the ball and preventing anyone from getting in from behind. Batistuta simply gave up competing for the ball in front. He came to the front point, calculated the distance to the goalkeeper, and pushed Sterling.

"Do it to me later. When they create space, I will shoot from the middle, which will be more certain." Batistuta said in a low voice.

Sterling nodded.

After the corner kick, Kompany and Henderson judged the landing point correctly, but they were unable to jump to compete for the first landing point when they were restraining each other. The ball bounced off the ground. Mignolet tried to hold the ball directly, but David Silva pulled the ball away first and passed it to De Bruyne who was following him from the outside.

De Bruyne used a fake shot to deceive Arnold who was defending in front of him. Sterling took the ball and immediately passed it to Batistuta near the penalty spot.

Batistuta was unguarded at this time.

He turned around and shot directly!
Milner reacted and fell to the ground to tackle Batistuta, but it was obviously too late. The ball hit Milner's red shorts and flew into the net.

Mignolet had no time to go back.

"Beautiful!" Guardiola on the sidelines jumped up and punched excitedly, "I knew you could do it!!"

In the 19th minute of the first half, Batistuta scored and Manchester City led 1-0.

(End of this chapter)