[Football] Bad Boy Batty

"Great job, Batistuta! I can't believe it's only been a few minutes." Sterling excitedly ran over and hooked Batistuta's neck, showing more excitement than the goal he scored. "You always kick such a cool overhead kick, how do you do it?"

Batistuta came out from under his arm and said, "That's not true. The last time I scored a goal with a bicycle kick was two seasons ago." He raised his eyebrows and said.

"But they were all big occasions. That was the Champions League final!" Sterling ruffled Batistuta's hair. "Tell me the trick, Batistuta. I want to score a hook too!"

Barty blinked.

There is really no trick to scoring a goal with a back-heel.

For example, the one a few minutes ago, when B Silva lifted the ball a little high, at a speed that was neither fast nor slow. Batistuta had just finished a pressure on the penalty area, with his back to the goal and facing the midfield. At the same time, River Plate's defense line had not yet entered the game state, and did not tighten the lineup or adopt a man-marking tactic, which gave him room to operate.

But to be honest, there is also a certain element of luck involved in the hook.

Normally, in a situation like the one just now, Batistuta would choose to jump up and stop the ball with his chest, then turn around and shoot. This increases the time he controls the ball and allows him to grasp the direction more accurately.

"I didn't do anything. It was Bernardo who passed the ball well." The little king raised his signature smile to Sterling and half-jokingly gave the credit to B Silva, "Build good relationships with the midfielders, so that they will be willing to help you."

"Oh!" Sterling showed an expression of sudden enlightenment, and then raised his thumb, "Got it!"

The Portuguese midfielder was so surprised when he heard what Batistuta said. He pinched his arm and pulled Foden next to him: "Did you hear that? Batistuta just praised me?"

Foden looked at Batistuta and Sterling who were laughing together, and nodded a little enviously.

"This is really novel!" Seat B rubbed his chin, "This guy doesn't often praise others."

"Of course, that's Batistuta," Foden said.

He needs to work harder. If he wants Batty to praise his passing, he has to show his performance. To be worthy of the Kings, he has to at least be a starter.

A River Plate player kicked off from the center circle and the game resumed.

Fifteen minutes later, Phil Foden fulfilled his promise.

Stones kicked the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt, and David Silva, Sterling and Batistuta played smoothly. The River Plate backcourt was lost in the tacit and quick passing control of Manchester City players. Finally, Foden made a key high-quality through pass, and Batistuta successfully cut in front of the goal and the ball went into the net!

[The ball went in! Prince Foden lived up to Guardiola's expectations. In less than 20 minutes, Batistuta scored another goal and scored twice! Manchester City leads River Plate 2-0! ]

"Nice one, Phil!" Batty ran to the corner flagpole and danced to celebrate, then he turned around and hugged Foden, kissing him on both cheeks. "Keep it up, I promise you, Kevin and Ney will be in danger of you!"

Foden knew that Batistuta was praising him for his progress, and that the sense of crisis he was talking about was on the court, but he couldn't help but think about other things.

"Don't say that, you scored a more beautiful goal." Foden hugged Batty back hard, but then he stepped back, opened his arms to Batty and asked, "Can I?"

Batty was stunned for half a second, pouted, and reluctantly agreed.

What the hell, why are they all so persistent? He complained in his heart, this is disrespectful, no respect for me or my height!

"Oh Yeah! Get him up!"
"Go ahead! Phil!"
"Hold it high! We are going to win big!"

Amid the cheers and boos from the surroundings, Batistuta jumped onto Foden to complete the climb, and everyone started celebrating for the second time. The camera was on Guardiola on the sidelines, and the head coach looked a little helpless, stroking his beard and shaking his head. But no matter what, he couldn't help but be happy.

Leading 20-2 in less than 0 minutes, is there anything better than this?

The short-term lead allowed Manchester City players to relax a little, and River Plate took the opportunity to launch several threatening attacks, but fortunately Stones and Ederson were in good form, so Manchester City escaped without any danger.

"Don't lose heart! We still have time!" A young-looking River Plate player shouted to encourage his teammates, "Come on! We are very close (to scoring)!"

He should be the striker with great potential mentioned in the forum. Batistuta took some time to look at him. Haha! Don't mention it, his clear and clean temperament is really like a combination of Aguero and Messi.

Maybe after the game he could change his jersey or something, he thought.

……

At the end of the first half, Manchester City almost secured the victory. Foden assisted Batistuta to score twice. Although Sterling missed an empty goal, which upset many people, Batistuta soon created a penalty and gave up the chance of a hat-trick to give him the penalty. This time the happy boy was no longer happy, and the score was widened to 3-0.

Neither side made any substitutions in the second half. Manchester City intentionally slowed down the pace and River Plate did not give up. However, facing a situation of falling behind by 3 goals, the players were inevitably a little discouraged, which gave Manchester City the opportunity to continue scoring goals.

In the 60th minute, Lucas dribbled the ball from the left and tried to cross near the baseline, but was blocked by the River Plate defender, and Manchester City got a corner kick.

"Luki, go back! Stand still!" Batistuta gestured to him, "Pep told us to slow down, control ourselves, and not rush forward so much!"

Lucas gave Batistuta a thumbs up to show that he understood, and he retreated slightly to the front of the midline, ready to go back after the corner kick. But this time, Manchester City scored the fourth goal.

[David Silva takes this corner kick, but the ball is headed by a River Plate player. After a fight outside, Lucas gets the ball at the second spot and passes it to the penalty area - shoot! Batistuta's left-foot shot is blocked, but he makes another shot - the ball goes in! Young player Foden! He is the first post-4 player to score in the Club World Cup! Manchester City leads 0-! ]

"Ha! Who wanted to chase me away?" The French defender ran over excitedly and flicked Batistuta's head. "Luckily I didn't go back! Otherwise, the ball would be gone!"

Batty rolled his eyes at him.

"Pep said so." He rubbed his forehead. "If you want to, play him."

Lucas blew his lips, hummed and stopped talking. Guardiola is easy to get along with, but he is also a perfectionist and a paranoid. The only player in the entire club who dared to joke with him like that is Batistuta.

That's his treasure.

Lucas remembered a picture he saw on the Internet. He didn't know which wicked person did it, but he photoshopped Guardiola's face onto Gollum's head, the monster in "The Lord of the Rings" who was crazy about the One Ring, and then photoshopped Batistuta into the ring being protected by Gollum.

Today's netizens are really smart. When it comes to stirring up trouble, no one can compare to them.

"Don't be distracted, idiot!" Batty's voice rang in Lucas' ears, "Stand still and keep going! In another 30 minutes we will be the champions!"

……

Not long after, Manchester City scored again. This time they reversed the situation. B Silva took a free kick and Stones headed the ball into the goal, making the score 5-0.

70 minutes in, trailing 0-5, this is a score that is enough to make any team despair.

Perhaps knowing that there was no hope of a comeback, River Plate's head coach used up all his substitutions in one go, allowing the young players to gain some experience and receive some training.

Batistuta vaguely heard the name Enzo from the live broadcast. His eyes jumped back and forth between several young players. It was not until the end of the game that he was sure who was the one identified by FM as having potential, because River Plate finally scored a goal. The goal was scored by the combination of Kunssi, and the assist was provided by Enzo.

Not bad, he thought. It was amazing for a young player who was only 18 years old to be able to play like this. I believe it won't be long before he will be called up to the national team, and the same goes for the striker.

Maybe one day they will meet on the field, and by then -

Batty raised the corners of his mouth quietly.

I'm sorry, you are going to experience the pain of a big defeat again.

[beep——]
[Okay, the referee blew the whistle to end the game! Congratulations to Manchester City for winning the Club World Cup. They made history by becoming the first Premier League team to win all the championships in a single season! Seven-time champions! They deserve it! ]

In the stoppage time, Laporte seemed to have some problems with his thigh, but he persisted and it had no impact on the final championship.

The organizers quickly set up the podium, and when Batistuta stood in front of the team and received the trophy from the FIFA President, he felt that everything was worth it.

The championship trophy has this kind of magic.

Let him forget the club's long injury list, forget the next-door rivals who are chasing him closely in the league, forget the constant criticism of him on the Internet, forget the previous unpleasantness with Kevin, forget everything.

"Are you ready?" Batty held the trophy in both hands and bent slightly, with his teammates looking at him expectantly on both sides.

[Bang——]
Sequined fireworks exploded above my head.

As Batty held the trophy high, everyone jumped up and cheered.

"We are the champions! An unprecedented seven-time champion in the Premier League!"

With the help of Stones and Walker, Lucas carried Batty and the trophy together, and looking at the blue flags waving in the opposite stands, Batty showed them the trophy.

"We are the seven-time champions! Manchester City is - the seven-time champions!"

……

Needless to say, the locker room was crazy after the team won the championship. Batistuta quickly went to the River Plate striker to change his jersey. He was not even sure whether the other party really understood what he meant or whether he forced him to take off his clothes. In short, the trophy was in the hands of others for less than 5 minutes before it returned to Batistuta.

The little king acted like he was walking on the red carpet in Hollywood. He was shirtless, with the jersey he had exchanged for draped over his shoulders, and holding the trophy in his hand, he accepted worship along the way.

They opened the champagne first, and then jumped together like a group of savages with the champagne liquid. The floor of the locker room was shaking. Walker got a bottle from somewhere and started spraying water. Stones was a little drunk and stood on the table and started dancing.

After a while, people started passing around the trophy to take pictures with it.

Batistuta took many photos and sent them all to Neymar, but to his surprise, Neymar, who should have called or sent a message to congratulate him immediately, did not respond at all. Three minutes after he sent the photos, his son's messages were all shown as 'unread'.

strangeness.

What is Neymar doing?
Batti frowned, and just when he was wondering, an unexpected person sent him a text message, and the content of the text message was beyond his expectation.

[Hi Batty, this is Rafina, this is the first text I sent you since we exchanged numbers, it might make you a little upset, but I want you to know that I am on your side, always. ]

The text message from Neymar's sister was a bit long, so he continued to scroll down.

[Congratulations on winning the championship. I watched the game and it was pretty good, but I want to say this: Ganso went to England the day after you went to the game. You should know who Ganso is, right? He is my brother's best friend in Santos. I hope they have a relationship like you and Loach, but I don't know the details. The boys always get together and I rarely participate in their conversations.]

Looking at Rafina's text message, Batti's eyebrows twitched.

[I told you this just to avoid any misunderstanding. Neymar Jr. cares about you, really. He is a typical Aquarius. I have never seen him care about anyone so much. Call him, or ask him directly when you get back. He will explain it to you. You two are very cute together. I hope it will stay like this.]

After reading the text message, Batti understood what Rafina really wanted to express.

but--

What does it matter to Neymar who he makes friends with and who he hangs out with? He respects him. Everyone has the right to make friends they like, and also has the right to not reply to text messages and ignore him.

Batty simply replied to Rafina, then looked at the screen, touched the tattoo behind his ear, raised his eyebrows and chuckled.

Isn't it just a Club World Cup championship? There will be more in the future. He can share his joy with whoever he wants. He has no shortage of people around him, and the party can still be held even if someone is missing.

Sudden--

Batistuta's phone vibrated as a video call came in from Manchester.

"I watched the game, it was amazing! I can't even find a more appropriate word to describe it, you really made us history! The first seven champions!"

The Belgian midfielder on the screen was much more excited and lively than usual, and seemed to have no mentality problems due to Neymar's transfer. It was as if he had returned to last season, or the season before last. His hair was a little messy, and he looked like he had just celebrated for the team from a distance.

Batty looked at him and suddenly smiled.

He thought that when he returned this time, Kevin would probably stop being upset.

Please, no one can resist the charm of the seven-time champion.

"Hey Kevin, when are you going to come back?" Batistuta poked De Bruyne's nose on the screen with a smile, "I'm serious, if you don't come back, your position will be taken by Bernardo."

"About this -" De Bruyne deliberately dragged out his voice, and said in a playful tone that was almost flirtatious: "When you come back with the Ballon d'Or, then I can return to the court, just like the good old days."

Batty was stunned.

Did he just hear—

"Oh yes." De Bruyne was very satisfied with Batistuta's reaction. He pinched his fingers in front of the camera. "The chairman told me that at the awards ceremony next week, Manchester City will have a Golden Ball winner."

(End of this chapter)