[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Again, no one likes overtime, just like no one likes the air in a bag of potato chips.

但规则就是规则，90分钟2-2平, 巴西和比利时迎来了本届世界杯1/4决赛中的首个加时赛。

De Bruyne kicked off from the center circle, but Belgium did not launch the first attack. Instead, they passed the ball to the backcourt to cool down the game that was about to get on fire, which was exactly what the Brazilian players wanted.

There are 30 minutes of overtime and no one can be impatient. If you fight hard at the beginning and use up all the remaining energy, you don’t know who will be the one leaving with a smile in the end.

In the 104th minute, Brazil made the first substitution.

Paulinho couldn't hold on any longer, and while retreating to get the ball, he kicked it and fell to the ground with a thigh cramp. The ball was obtained by Hazard, who kicked the ball out of bounds without much thought.

Taking advantage of the few minutes of adjustment and substitution, Batistuta came to the sidelines to replenish water. The summer in Russia is not very hot, but running for 90 minutes continuously still made him soaked.

Neymar also came to the sidelines, and Batistuta handed him the water bottle, too tired to say a word.

It's much more tiring than playing overtime in Manchester City.

Suddenly I had the idea of ​​'just taking a penalty kick'.

Batty lowered his eyelids to hide his irritation and kept pulling his socks up. Every particle in the air made him feel hot, and the cheers and drums in the stands seemed to coincide with his heartbeat more and more, as if his body had turned into a sauna.

Damn it.

The treatment was coming to an end, and the team doctors were helping Paulinho off the field. Batistuta glanced at him and quickly looked away. He wanted to pull his socks down to his calves to cool down, but it felt terrible to play with his knees exposed, so he fell into a vortex of confusion.

‘Wow’

A stream of water came from the side and poured all over Batty's face.

"Hey!" He was startled by the sudden coolness.

It's Neymar.

Batistuta wiped the water off his face and looked at Neymar, who raised an eyebrow at him: "You seem a little confused, so I'll wake you up."

"I'm clear," Batty said.

"You look like you're about to fall asleep. Don't make excuses. I know all your expressions." Neymar said as he squeezed out another stream of water and splashed it on Batistuta's face. "Hurry up and adjust your breathing. We may have to take a penalty kick."

Batistuta took a deep breath, didn't care about Neymar splashing water on him, and didn't say anything else.

Just like overtime, no one likes penalties.

Many people have misunderstandings about this, and think that penalty shootouts are a simple matter. After all, the most basic thing in football class is shooting.

But don't forget to consider the issues of physical and mental stress.

After 120 minutes of fierce battle, there was no winner. Success or failure depended on the penalty taker and the goalkeeper. There were tens of thousands of eyes watching on the scene, countless cameras on the sidelines, and the scorching headlights of the stadium seemed to be shining directly on their heads, and every player had very little physical strength left.

Jesus came on as a substitute and the game resumed.

It was Brazil's throw-in, and Batistuta didn't make much adjustments before kicking the ball to Vitzer, out of respect for Hazard's care for the injured player.

Of course, it is also because Belgium’s attack cannot reach this position so quickly.

Batistuta gritted his teeth and insisted that he didn't want to take a penalty.

In the 109th minute, Neymar took the ball on the left, cut inside and passed the ball to Batistuta on the right side of the center in front of the penalty area. At this time, the Belgian center gate was wide open and only Kompany was guarding it. Seeing that the defense was about to be in place, Batistuta took a long shot directly from outside the penalty area, but unfortunately the angle was not right and the ball slipped out of the goal.

[It seems that Batistuta's physical strength has been almost exhausted. In this position and with this opportunity, he should be able to perform better.]

Batistuta knelt on the grass, watching Courtois turn his back to the caddy to ask for the ball, and punched the grass in frustration.

He should have been able to do better!
In the 116th minute, Belgium also got a good opportunity. The Brazilian backcourt failed to hold the ball. De Bruyne passed the ball directly to Hazard who was on the left. The Brazilian back line quickly retreated. Hazard advanced to the left side of the penalty area at high speed. Perhaps because of the large physical consumption, his low shot was the same as Batistuta's just now, brushing the right post and going out of the bottom line.

[There is one minute left, the overtime is about to end, will there be a penalty kick? ]

Someone always has to stand up in times of crisis.

Just 30 seconds before the end of the game and the brutal penalty shootout, Brazil made a last-ditch effort. Neymar made a cross from the left bottom, and the Belgian defenders were extremely nervous.

"Watch it! Over there!"

Kompany urgently called on his teammates to keep a close eye on Jesus, who had just come on as a substitute and was full of energy, while he himself followed Batistuta closely.

However, what they didn't expect was that Jesus didn't touch the ball in front of the goal. He sprinted towards the ball with his right hand, and then missed it lightly, and the attention of Vermaelen and Fellaini was diverted.

Then the next step is——

'not good! '

Kompany's pupils shrank to the size of rice grains in an instant. He made a wrong judgment. Like Batistuta and Jesus, he did not choose to shoot!

[Ouch, this ball! Jesus and Batistuta missed the ball consecutively, let's see who will be at the back post——]

Alves!

The 35-year-old Brazilian defender stepped forward and shot directly after getting the ball at the back post. As the game was about to end, the Belgian players might have been thinking about the order of penalty kicks in the penalty shootout, but they missed the target on this side!
Courtois fell to the ground to save the ball, but it was too late.

Alves fired a powerful shot into the far corner.

3-2!

Brazil killed the game at the last minute!

[The ball goes in! A buzzer beater! In the last 30 seconds, Alves scored the winning goal! The referee blew the whistle - the game is over! Brazil has entered the World Cup semi-finals! The second quarter-final will be held tomorrow night, Croatia vs. Russia, the winner will compete with Brazil for the ticket to the final.]

……

Won?

No need to take a penalty kick?!
At that moment, all the Brazilian fans in the stadium celebrated like crazy. Alves was so excited that he ran to the sidelines with rapid breathing like a bellows, and opened his arms to accept praise and blessings.

"Ahhhhh! So beautiful Dani!"

"A killer move! This is the best killer move ever!"

"Praise God! We don't have to take a penalty kick!"

All the Brazilian players ran towards Alves, even the guys in vests on the bench and the coaching staff came, and everyone celebrated wildly.

"Let's play human mountain!" Batty suggested loudly. "Dani - hey! Catch him! He's running away!"

Marcelo was the first to respond to Batistuta, he grabbed Alves' jersey and dragged him to the ground, then flew over and pressed on. Casemiro was the second, Firmino was the third, and then everyone rushed over.

But Batty, the instigator, hid far away.

"Bati! You little bastard!" Alves, who was pinned down and almost vomited his overnight meal, cursed angrily, "Don't let me catch you, otherwise - Aa ...

With Ederson joining in, Alves' screams were completely drowned out by the crowd.

Batty clapped his hands and looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction. The next second -

"Bati!"

He turned around and saw Neymar running towards him with his arms open, smiling excitedly.

The Paris star was covered in dirt, as he had just fallen while dribbling the ball near the baseline, but he didn't care at all. It was his assist that allowed Brazil to advance!
Of course, Batty didn't care.

At that moment, he even had a vision of a dirty dog, just like the three wolfhounds his godfather gave him, especially the one named Kyle, who would always roll in the garden covered in mud and then run towards him with his tongue hanging out.

The puppy's feelings are pure and passionate, and there is only one person in his eyes.

The same thing happened to Neymar, who was running towards Batistuta. "We won! Batistuta!" Neymar rushed over like a cannonball and hugged Batistuta's neck, "See? No need to take a penalty!"

Batistuta caught Neymar, staggered back two steps, and then allowed himself to be knocked down by the impact.

The view turned into the scattered lights of the stadium, the dark night sky, and Neymar's sweaty face shrouded in shadow and eyes brighter than the stars.

"I saw it, that pass you made was amazing, Ney." Batty moved his hands up and hooked them around his neck. "Thank you, we're one step closer to the trophy!"

Alves, who had just climbed out of the crowd, was so angry when he saw this scene that he almost got hurt again: "Okay, you two kids! It was clearly my goal, but you ended up rolling on the grass to celebrate!"

……

Compared to the enthusiastic celebrations like the Carnival in Brazil, Belgium was in deathly silence. Losing to Brazil was not such a difficult result to accept. The most difficult thing to accept was being defeated at the last moment.

It's like a roller coaster. One second it's thrilling, and the next second it's hitting rock bottom.

The saddest person is probably De Bruyne.

Lukaku walked over and said, "Don't be sad Kevin, let's go, we have to go to the curtain call."

De Bruyne nodded, then waved to Lukaku who was blocking his way to move away. Lukaku obediently moved aside. He looked forward in the direction of his gaze and just saw Batistuta and Neymar rolling on the grass in celebration.

Oh, it was tough watching his club team-mates celebrate with his national team team-mates.

Lukaku sighed, patted De Bruyne on the shoulder and walked away.

De Bruyne was still staring at the celebration over there, staring and staring.

Suddenly he wanted to call Guardiola and ask him if he could return to the team for training early.
……

"It looks like I won." After celebrating, Batistuta finally remembered that there was someone he cared about on the other side. He pulled De Bruyne by the collar and walked towards him, "Sorry, Kevin, do you want to change your jersey?"

De Bruyne was silent for a while, then nodded. While taking the jersey, he pulled the man into his arms.

"Congratulations, Batistuta," De Bruyne whispered. "I hope you can take the World Cup home, sincerely."

Batistuta patted De Bruyne on the back: "I will bring the trophy back."

at this time--

"Let's go, they're going to celebrate with the fans." Neymar grabbed Batistuta's arm and pulled him out of De Bruyne's arms. "Look forward, Batistuta, and focus on our future opponents."

Batistuta only had time to wave to De Bruyne before he was surrounded and taken away by more Brazilian players. During the process, Neymar wanted to take the red Belgian jersey in his hand, but Batistuta did not agree and put the jersey on directly.

Neymar looked a little unhappy, but finally ignored the glaring red for the time being.

Looking at the boy wearing his No. 7 jersey, De Bruyne felt as if his heart was cut open, and then he had to get a few stitches.

Without waiting for Brazil's celebration to end, he turned and went back to the locker room.

I have to calculate how long it will take until the league starts.

……

Batty felt very tired.

He leaned over, supported himself on his knees and gasped for breath.

and many more?

Batistuta found himself wearing the blue away jersey of the Brazilian team. He looked around in panic, trying to find someone to ask what was going on.

But his breathing was so loud that it blocked out all other sounds in his ears.

Is this... a competition?

It took Batistuta at least five minutes to figure out what game he was in: the 5 World Cup semi-final in Russia, Brazil vs. Croatia.

The cheers from the audience in the stands were hollow, as if they were covered by several layers of quilts. Batistuta felt more and more tired, and he looked at the scoreboard.

1-1, 122 minutes.

That means it's now... a penalty?
Why? Why is it——

[beep——]
Batistuta heard the referee's whistle and the Brazilian player whose face he could not see clearly walked up to the penalty spot. He missed the penalty, but Croatia scored an accurate penalty half a minute later. He knew the player who took the penalty, the current Real Madrid midfielder, Luka Modric.

Damn it!
If this continues they will lose!

The first penalty kick was the most important. Once he missed it, there was almost no suspense in the game.

It was the fourth one. Batistuta saw Marquinhos in a trance. He walked to the penalty spot with a serious face, and then kicked the ball on the post.

All the Brazilian players fell to the ground in pain, while the Brazilian team ran away to celebrate.

Batti felt like his heart was about to be crushed, he couldn't believe what he saw.

Lost?

Lost to Croatia?

Penalty kick?

"This is the king of overtime!" A Croatian fan in the stands shouted, "Tremble, we have never lost any overtime game since 04!"

Batty looked over and was horrified to find that everything in front of him was dark.

The voices of the fans were still echoing in his ears, and the air in the stadium was becoming thinner and thinner. He reached out and scratched his neck. If this continued, he would suffocate.

The next second, Batty opened his eyes.

It was quiet all around, with only Neymar's snoring, which was as loud as Aguero's.

Batty swallowed to moisten his dry throat, staring at his messy suitcase not far away for nearly 10 minutes, and his heart rate gradually returned to normal.

It's a dream.

He closed his eyes and grabbed the spare tablet on the bedside. It was 7 a.m. on July 8, and the second match of the World Cup quarter-finals between Croatia and Russia had just ended.

Batty quickly clicked on the news to check.

[After overtaking in extra time, Croatia defeated Russia 4-3 on penalties and advanced to the semi-finals, where they will face Brazil]

Damn it, Batty cursed inwardly.

Their next opponent turned out to be Croatia.

Thinking of the Brazilian elimination on penalties in his dream and the comment of the fan in the stands that "Croatia is the king of overtime", Batistuta could no longer sit still. He threw back the quilt.

Oh, that's why he felt so tired in his dream.

Batistuta got Neymar out, then turned over and mercilessly woke him up from his sweet dream: "Wake up! Don't sleep anymore, we are in trouble!"

Neymar was still in a daze with a bird's nest on his head. Suddenly he saw Batistuta lying sideways in front of him with several bite marks clearly exposed to the air. His throat tightened.

Is this... another round?

However, before Neymar could react, Batistuta snapped his fingers several times in front of him. When Neymar looked up in panic, Batistuta raised his index finger at him with a tense face.

"The semi-final against Croatia must not go into overtime! Never! Do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)