[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Argentina or Brazil?

This is an enduring topic.

No one can give a definitive answer to which of the two countries that produce the most football talents in the world is better. Fans have been arguing about this since the last century, and the games between them are always popular and talked about.

【Argentina has the best player in the world! Lionel Messi! 】
【Messi comes from another dimension, and the situation is different when playing against him.】
[Brazilians hate Argentinians, just as Argentinians hate Brazilians. If we can score goals against Argentina, I hope it will be 3 or 4. I don’t like them at all.]

【Messi is a genius! But his teammates are all idiots. 】
[What right does Argentina, which only qualified for the group stage thanks to an unwarranted penalty, have to challenge Brazil, which has won every game? ]
[Stop saying Messi is an alien. Football is a team sport.]

[We also have talented players! We have Neymar! The results will tell you that he is no longer the weak player who needed the protection of his big brother. He is fully capable of competing for the third place in the world! ]
[Guess who won all the big prizes at the age of 19? It’s 2019, wake up! ]
[Even if our World Footballer of the Year is unfortunately injured, he only needs to sit in the stands, and his teammates will hold the trophy in front of him. The trophy is ours, there is no doubt about it.]

In the stands, Batistuta was scrolling through his phone out of boredom. No matter which country the forum was from, the fans' rhetoric was the same, praising themselves and criticizing others. After seeing it so many times, it no longer seemed new to him.

Today is the day for the semi-finals. 12 hours in advance, the Brazilian team flew to Belo Horizonte, which is about 380 kilometers north of Rio. It is the sixth largest city in Brazil and is also considered the largest agricultural town in the world. The Mineirão Arena, known as Brazil's cultural heritage, is located here.

Yes, it is the Mineirão Stadium where the famous 7-1 tragedy took place.

"Don't worry, Batistuta, we will win," said Richarlison, who had been ill with mumps two days before and was unable to attend the game, so he appeared in the stands with Batistuta this time.

"How can you tell I'm worried?" Batistuta put down his phone and raised an eyebrow at him. "Given Argentina's current form, if we don't win by 3 or more, I'll assume we're letting them win."

Richarlison was a little surprised at Batistuta's "arrogance" at first, then nodded and immediately stood on the same front with Batistuta.

"Yes! With Argentina in such a shitty state, we can definitely win by a big score!" He took out his phone, and the wallpaper had been changed to the America's Cup. "Once we beat Argentina, neither Chile nor Peru will be our match. We've definitely won the America's Cup!"

Batistuta couldn't be more pleased with this statement. He hooked his arm around Richarlison's neck, took a selfie of the two of them face to face making a hip hop gesture and posted it online.

[Bati9: Come on (Brazilian flag) We can't play, but our spirit is with you! @Richarlison]

Regarding this gesture, some people had an argument on his Instagram or Twitter a few years ago. Some people said that it was disrespectful to the rock circle, and some people said that it offended the Latin Kings gang in New York. But no matter what this gesture represents, Batty doesn't care. He just thinks it's cool.

Richarlison was the first to like, comment and forward.

Loach on the other side glared at him. He was supposed to have said that. Most of Batistuta's photos of watching the game were posted first and with him. But now this guy who jumped out halfway through took the lead. He felt that his position was threatened.

"Hey, let's play some games before the game starts." Loach suggested, "We were unlucky the few times we played on the road yesterday. If we could have picked up a better gun, we would have won easily."

The game he was talking about is the mobile version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is currently at the top of the mobile game download rankings in South America, and almost everyone on the Brazilian team has it on their phone.

Of course, Loach did it on purpose.

Because Richarlison is very bad at this game. He likes to go to the most dangerous places and is always yelling at his teammates to protect him. He doesn't know how to use guns and can't kill people. He was killed as soon as he landed on the ground several times. He is the type of person who is both bad at playing and loves to play.

Loach chose this game just to dampen his arrogance and let him remember that he will always be Batty's best friend and most capable younger brother.

"Come on, come on!"

Batistuta readily agreed, and Richarlison did not realize that this was a trap and happily went on the field.

Then--

Before the competition started, they played 13 games and never won a single game.

"Oh my god! Are you a vehicle killer, Rich? I asked you to drive a car over here, but you got a motorcycle instead. You even made it explode by sitting in the baby seat!" Batty, who fell into the first wave of poison circle again, threw away his phone in frustration and rushed over to grab Richarlison's ear. "You don't even have a pistol, why are you rushing over? You can't win without doing anything. What's the use of you!"

"Oh, it hurts! Batistuta, I was wrong, I was wrong!" Richarlison screamed and begged for mercy, "I won't do it again, I won't do it next time - wow, stop it!"

Looking at Richarlison's miserable appearance, Loach showed a sinister smile that only a bad guy could have.

But whether it was good or bad, Richarlison successfully attracted Batistuta's attention without much effort, and it was a completely true self-display.

It's a win-win situation on another level.

……

Back to the game.

After the opening, both sides did not hold back and went all out, the scene was very exciting. Argentina had similar ideas to Batistuta, and indeed designed a plan to target Neymar as the receiving point.

But it doesn't matter, they can lock down Neymar but not Jesus and Coutinho. In addition to breakthroughs and goals, Neymar's passes are also very deadly.

So in the 15th minute of the game, the Brazilian team scored a goal.

Coutinho's breakthrough in the middle was blocked by Otamendi, Alves stepped forward to counter-attack and successfully stole the ball from Lautaro. Argentine midfielder De Paul stepped forward to fight for the ball and knocked Alves down, but the referee did not blow the whistle, and the ball was obtained by the retreating Neymar. Paredes came to defend, but Neymar made a wonderful arc pass before him, and Jesus successfully scored in front of the goal!

【Gooooooal! Nothing can be more perfect than this pass! Did you see that, Argentina! No matter how you defend, you can't defend against Neymar. Look at this arc, it goes straight through the defense, the ball is right in front of the goalkeeper, but he hasn't even realized it yet!】

After scoring the goal, Neymar was pulled by his teammates to the corner flag area in front of the Argentine fans to celebrate. Wine glasses, hot dogs, shoes, accompanied by insults, anything imaginable was thrown into the field, and the stadium security had to raise the explosion-proof shield to protect the players.

Soon the camera cut from the celebrating players to the stands, where Batistuta, Richarlison and Loach were also celebrating passionately. They jumped up from their seats, put their arms around each other's shoulders and cheered with the fans.

Aguero and Otamendi were both on the field, and their faces did not look very good.

But this did not affect Batistuta's celebration.

He loves Aguero, but now they represent Argentina and Brazil, so there is no conflict. If he doesn't celebrate with his teammates because of this, Aguero will be angry with him.

Celebration and humiliation are two different things.

……

In the 29th minute, Brazil scored again.

De Paul returned to defense actively, but his good intentions led to bad results. He brought down Neymar at the edge of the penalty area. The referee did not give him a yellow card, but awarded Brazil a penalty kick. Neymar scored the penalty kick himself, and Brazil won 2-0. There was no suspense at all. Batistuta thought that this Argentina team had been in a bad state since the America's Cup, and the domestic football association had been plagued by negative news. It was a miracle that they had come this far. They always thought that Messi would come down to earth to score the winning goal, which was simply unrealistic.

The game then entered a short period of tension.

The tension between the two sides grew stronger and stronger. No one could break into the penalty area. In the hinterland and near the midfield on both sides, the two sides started fighting.

The game was exciting, but Batty didn't watch it anymore. He devoted a lot of energy to chatting.

Before the game, the moment when he was pissed off by Richarlison while playing games was photographed by fans and posted online. Somehow, it was seen by Kyle Walker, who took a screenshot and flooded the Manchester City chat group with comments to make fun of Batistuta.

Batty wanted to ban him, but they all had management rights, so after they cursed at each other for a long time, Batty kicked him out of the group chat.

But Walker is not going to give up easily. He borrowed Stones' account to pull himself back, and then kicked Batistuta out of the group while Batistuta was still not able to react.

Batistuta then upgraded his method, borrowing the accounts of Lucas and De Bruyne, one to pull himself back and the other to kick Walker out, and then he completely cleared himself from the matter on the public screen, under the pretext that someone couldn't stand it anymore and offered a helping hand.

The two engaged in a long tug-of-war.

The excitement is no less than the game on the field.

By the time the second half started, they hadn't finished yet.

Lucas and De Bruyne sent private messages to Batistuta using different apps. They felt it was time to end this "battle". The match between Brazil and Argentina was attracting worldwide attention. There were cameras everywhere on the sidelines, and several of them were specifically filming Batistuta. He was always fighting with Walker on his waist, and maybe after the game someone would come out and criticize him for not concentrating and trying to get traffic.

Of course, Batty doesn't care about this.

He quickly changed the subject, and while trash-talking Walker, he was chatting animatedly with Lucas and De Bruyne on different apps. The topics were things that couldn't be seen by outsiders or had to be blurred, and if they were sent to the wrong person accidentally, it could cause big problems.

But Batistuta never missed a screen, he was very good at it, it was just three, he could handle more, as long as his phone was not stuck, he could chat with an entire football team at the same time without being discovered.

This is basic literacy, no big deal.

What surprised him a little was that usually Qiao Lin would come out to mix things up, as this kind of chaotic situation was her favorite. However, today the green software was quiet, which was not like her style.

"Hey Loach, have you talked to Qiaolin recently?" Batty took the time to look at his younger brother, "Is she busy and too busy to ask me for gossip?"

Loach was stunned for a moment, then shook his head, "The last time she came to see me was the day we returned to Brazil."

"Really? The last time we talked was earlier than that." Batty replied casually, "Maybe she's busy. I'll give her a call in a couple of days. The three of us haven't gotten together for a long time."

Hearing this, Loach was a little dazed, but in the end he didn't say anything more and just nodded.

At this time, the score on the field became 3-0. Neymar scored twice and did not give up even when he fell to the ground. He poked the ball into the Argentina goal with his toes.

"Look! I did it! We did it!"

He ran madly towards the stands. Batistuta saw through his intention and ran towards him to hug him and celebrate, then turned around and completely forgot about his friend.

"We are going to the final, Batistuta!" Neymar caught Batistuta who was flying down and turned half a circle, his voice breaking with excitement, "Did you see my goal? I can't believe it, I didn't have any hope, but it went in!"

"Of course I saw it! I haven't taken my eyes off you since the game started!" Batty responded with a kiss on the top of his head, "You are such a genius, Ney, unparalleled! Now lead the team and continue, I have no doubt that the trophy will be ours!"

Neymar returned to the field amid the cheers of the surrounding fans.

He received a yellow card for celebrating with Batistuta, but it doesn't matter, it will not be carried into the final and the impact is minimal to non-existent.

With only 15 minutes left in the game, Brazil secured the victory.

……

In the last 5 minutes, Aguero and Messi teamed up to score a goal, but ultimately failed to save the game. Brazil won 3-1 and advanced to the final.

After the game, Aguero brought Messi to find Batistuta. They came to express their gratitude. Assistant coach Brian returned to the team safely, and with the help of a mysterious person, the incident did not become a big deal. There were only a few sporadic reports internationally, and the Argentine team was not mentioned. Their assistant coach was only described as a fan who had mistakenly entered the slums.

"I hope no one in your team will use this as an excuse to say that you lost to us on purpose." Batistuta crossed his arms and said rather frivolously. His eyes flickered between Messi and Aguero. "How about you consider staying and wait for us to win? Maybe after the celebration party when everyone is drunk, I'll let you touch me."

"Hey!"

This was not an appropriate statement, and the Argentine players would be furious if they heard it. Aguero patted Batistuta on the head and opened his eyes wide to signal him to be careful.

"I just said that." Batistuta raised his hand to indicate his innocence. Then he suddenly remembered something and patted Messi's arm. "I remember that De Paul in your team is your crazy fan, right? Go back and tell him, I'll remember him."

Messi didn't understand what he meant.

"That guy's hands were dirty. I saw him foul Neymar. If it was normal standards, he would have been sent off in the first half." Batistuta made an eye-to-eye gesture, "Go back and tell him, Leo, if we meet again in the future, I will let him have a taste of that."

[Hey Buddy! What are you doing? Come on! We are taking a photo!]
"It's coming!"

After saying that, Batistuta gave Messi and Aguero his signature smile, gave them each a hug, then turned around and waved away. As if on purpose, he hummed the famous song "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" loudly enough for the two people behind him to hear.

"See you later."

……

Watching Batistuta leave happily, Aguero let out a long sigh and exclaimed: "When I saw Mario, I said this kid is amazing."

Messi struck the same pose and nodded, his eyes filled with a complexity that was difficult to fathom.

"Yeah, it's amazing," he said.

(End of this chapter)