[Football] Bad Boy Batty

The booing from the home team fans is indeed a bit annoying, but think about it, they have taken down Westfalen (Dortmund's home stadium), which is known as the devil's home stadium in Europe, so what is there to be afraid of?

Soon, the game came to the 26th minute. Under Manchester City's control, the rhythm of the game gradually entered their familiar area, which was very unfavorable for Real Madrid. Zidane called Modric on the sidelines to make quick adjustments.

"Rafi!"

Ramos got the ball in the backcourt and after receiving the order to press forward, he passed the ball to Varane, while pointing to the large open space between Neymar and Gundogan in front of Varane.

Varane understood what he was trying to do and dribbled the ball all the way to the midfield, but he took a few extra steps. Neymar retreated to press, and Rodri also put pressure from the side. With the passing space compressed, Varane made a pass error and kicked the ball to Eric Garcia's feet.

Real Madrid's counterattack rhythm was interrupted.

But at this moment, there was a low-level coordination error in Manchester City's backcourt. Eric Garcia made a short pass forward, trying to transfer the ball while pulling Real Madrid's midfield defense, but he didn't see Valverde watching him, so he gave the ball directly. Rodri didn't even think about it, and did a three-dimensional bouncing operation and kicked the ball back.

Eric Garcia was still thinking about why he had to pass the ball back, Modric started, and it was obvious from both the sidelines and the broadcast that Eric Garcia was a step slower. Fortunately, Stones was right next to him, and after realizing that something was wrong, he immediately moved sideways and passed the ball back to the goalkeeper before Modric could get a single shot.

Modric almost scored a goal with a single shot, and Manchester City escaped danger.

In fact, Eric Garcia, Rodri, and Stones are all responsible for this terrible mistake. After Varane's pass error, Rodri should have moved to the midfield immediately and become an effective midfield passing point when switching from defense to offense, but he did not do so; Stones should have reminded his teammate Valverde's approach earlier, he trusted Garcia's judgment too much; and Garcia's mistake was more low-level. Between passing the ball back to Ederson and passing it to Lucas to the left, he chose to give the ball to Rodri.

"Pay attention!" Guardiola was very angry watching from the sidelines. He clapped his hands and shouted to the field, "Pay attention, everyone!"

However, the situation on the court changes rapidly, and their advantage at one moment may become the opponent's advantage the next.

In the process of speeding up the attack, Real Madrid pressed forward as a whole, which gave Manchester City a chance to counterattack. Ederson passed the ball to the left, Lucas took the ball inside, and after two smooth wall passes with Gundogan, he successfully passed the ball directly to Neymar.

[Manchester City played a textbook quick counterattack. At this time, Real Madrid's defense was empty, and Batistuta also came up from behind. Let's see this time——]

Neymar did not use his familiar method of getting rid of the ball on the spot, but chose quick and high-frequency feints, and he successfully tricked Varane into the penalty area.

[Single blade! ]

Courtois was fully prepared. He spread his arms and lowered his center of gravity, blocking almost all angles well, leaving Neymar with few options for shooting.

However, Neymar once again contributed amazing operations.

[It’s time to shoot… Wait, Neymar didn’t shoot. He turned sideways and passed the ball to Batistuta at the back post on the right side with his left foot. What an unexpected connection! ]

But it was not easy for Batistuta either. Ramos had already predicted the position at the back post and was keeping a close eye on him. Although he did not dare to make big movements in the penalty area, it was not difficult for him to make Batistuta lose control of the ball.

Batistuta tried his best to complete a shot while being entangled.

The quality of this shot is not high.

Or--
Very bad.

Because the force was so small, like a light touch with the toe, and it didn't go towards the goal at all, it rolled sideways at a very slow speed.

【Bati didn't kick the ball well, the ball is still in the penalty area. 】

Courtois quickly adjusted his posture and rushed towards the ball. The penalty area was still under his control. As long as he held the ball, Manchester City's attack would be over.

Just as he was about to touch the ball, De Bruyne rode over.

With a fierce shot, the Belgian midfielder blasted the ball into the Real Madrid goal.

【De Bruyne! The ball went in! In addition to the amazing cooperation in the frontcourt of Manchester City, this goal was completely a tactical success of Guardiola, who restricted Real Madrid's flanks, calmed down and stabilized the defense, and then waited for an opportunity to counterattack. 1-0! Manchester City got a valuable away goal! 】

De Bruyne was very excited after scoring the goal, but he did not celebrate accordingly. He just raised his arms and shouted to express himself.

"Damn it! I thought the ball was gone!" Batistuta got up from the ground and rushed over. He was so happy to be leading away from home that he didn't care about the quarrel. He jumped directly onto De Bruyne, "Beautiful! Kevin, so beautiful!"

De Bruyne subconsciously reached out to take it, then he suddenly remembered something and let go, without saying anything in response to the other party's congratulations.

Batistuta didn't pay attention to all this. All he could hear were the boos from the Bernabeu stands. After being put down by De Bruyne, he faced the home team stands, raised his hands upwards, and made a provocative and inciting gesture.

"Is that all the sound? I can hardly hear it!" he shouted.

The home fans were furious and threw drinks, mineral water bottles, wine glasses and other small items into the stands. But it was not a big problem as these things could not hurt Batistuta.

"Louder!" The Manchester City king blew a kiss to the home team stands as he retreated to his seat. "Thank you, Vamos!"

Now those boos aren't annoying anymore.

……

Soon the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and Manchester City temporarily led 1-0.

In injury time, Manchester City had a chance to extend their lead. It was a corner kick. Neymar took the kick, but Courtois punched the ball out from the front. Batistuta adjusted and shot without stopping the ball. Courtois was out of position, but there were three defensive players on the Real Madrid goal line and they cleared the ball.

"Damn it, we should have been 2-0, how come so many defenders were crowding into the goal, weren't they afraid of handball?"

In the visiting team's locker room, Batistuta was sitting at his seat removing his bandages, complaining as he did so. He was still brooding over the last move.

"It's good luck." B Seat walked over and said while drinking water, "Don't think about it, at least we are still in the lead now."

"Listen to what you said, it seems that you are satisfied with a one-goal lead." Batistuta gave B席 a disdainful look, then stood up and pressed his neck, "It's a bit like pursuing Bernardo. Today we have to go back with a three-goal advantage!"

"——Hey!" B Silva still had a water bottle in his hand, and Batistuta spilled most of it. "I just changed my jersey, Batistuta!"

"How dare you talk to me like that? I'm your captain!" Batistuta acted like a team bully. He first signaled with his eyes that Loach next to him should go get a new jersey for B Silva. Then he felt that it was not enough, so he took B Silva to the middle of the locker room to continue making trouble.

"I was wrong, I was wrong!" B Silva patted Batistuta's arm and begged for mercy, "Let me go, great King Batistuta, please!"

"Do not."

"Come on, I was wrong Captain!"

"The answer is still no!" Batty grabbed B's ear and laughed devilishly at him, "Unless you admit that we will win 3 games today and promise to pass the ball to me in the second half, I will let you go."

"what?"

"talk!"

(“Come on, Bernardo!” Lucas yelled. “If you don’t, Batty will beat you up!”)
"Okay, I say -" the Portuguese midfielder agreed with tears in his eyes, "I'll pass the ball to you in the second half, and you'll bring back a hat-trick, Batistuta. Really, this is what God told me."

"Nonsense!" Buddy insisted. "I didn't even see you pray!"

"I don't need to pray." B Seat pinched his wrist, "You almost strangled me to death just now. At that moment, I went to see God."

The locker room erupted in laughter.

"What the fu..." Batty's eyes widened, "How dare you make fun of me?"

"No!" Seat B retorted, "God bless you--No, everyone in this room can vouch for me, right, everyone!"

Batistuta narrowed his eyes and looked around, giving a death look to everyone who wanted to support B席.

"I don't dare to play with you." B Seat said again, "Everyone knows to be careful of you biting people, right, Kevin?"

Wow!

All the players and coaches in the room looked at Seat B with admiration.
Knowing that the two were having a quarrel, he still dared to drag Kevin into it. He was truly courting death.

"Really?" Batistuta kept holding onto B席 and looked at De Bruyne, "What do you think, Kevin?" His tone was so natural as if the recent disagreement between the two was fake.

De Bruyne was wiping his hair with a towel. He heard Batistuta's question but did not intend to answer it, nor did he care about it. He just sat there doing his own thing.

The air was a little frozen.

The locker room was as quiet as the bottom of the sea tens of thousands of meters deep.

Batistuta let go of B Silva. He was ready to find De Bruyne to ask why he was being treated like air. Now it was the game period and they were about to start the second half. 1-0 was not safe, and it was not a smart move to make the atmosphere awkward at this time.

Just then, Guardiola walked into the locker room with Neymar.

"Don't relax, everyone. The game is not over yet. We still have 45 minutes left to play." The head coach came to the middle. He pushed Batistuta's shoulder and signaled him and Neymar to hurry to the cabinet to get ready. "We did a good job in the first half and restricted the opponent's wing attack. Let's continue in the second half. There are a few problems I don't want to see again, such as passing errors. We have practiced thousands of times. Control, okay -"

Everyone listened carefully to Guardiola's instructions. Taking advantage of a gap, Neymar quietly pulled Batistuta's arm and asked him with his eyes what happened in the locker room just now.

Batty shook his head and didn't reveal what happened.

'The second half continues. ' He wrote on Neymar's leg with his index finger, 'Come on, don't stop, we can do it! '

Neymar liked this inconspicuous but warm little gesture very much. He smiled and replied with his fingers. He did not ask any more questions about what happened in the locker room when he was communicating with the head coach just now.

……

In the second half, neither team made any substitutions and there were no obvious changes in their tactical arrangements.

In the 48th minute, Real Madrid suffered another blow.

Manchester City launched an attack from the backcourt. De Bruyne did not pass the ball in the way Guardiola required. He took the ball into the penalty area by himself. Neymar on the left distracted the attention of two defensive players, which allowed De Bruyne to turn around and cross the ball smoothly under the double-team of Varane and Carvajal.

Ramos wanted to clear the ball with his head in the middle, but his header missed the target, which not only interfered with Courtois' judgment, but also helped to stop the ball. Batistuta behind him successfully scored the goal with his thigh.

【The ball went in!! Just 3 minutes into the second half, Manchester City took advantage of a Real Madrid defender's mistake and extended the lead to 2-0! With 2 away goals in hand, if they can keep winning, then the chances of advancing to the next round at home will be greatly increased! 】

After scoring the goal, Batistuta also chose to celebrate on the spot, not because he couldn't think of a celebration move, but because Ramos was here.

"Did you see that? This unexpected goal was quite beautiful!" The Manchester City king raised his hands and blew kisses to the Real Madrid defender, "Thank you for stopping the ball. If I had done it by myself, it would definitely not have been so beautiful!!"

Ramos: ...

Soon the game came to the 60th minute, and this time it was Manchester City that suffered a blow.

During a counterattack by Real Madrid, Stones and Casemiro competed for the ball in the backcourt. He did not make any more mistakes and successfully cleared the ball, but right after that, he fell to the ground holding his calf.

The referee stopped the game.

Batty quickly ran to him to check: "John, John? How is it, can you continue?"

Stones didn't say anything, but judging from his painful expression, it seemed he couldn't.

"Team doctor!" Batistuta waved for the team doctor to come on the field, and then gestured to Guardiola to make a substitution, "He's not good enough, quick, Pep, replace him!"

[It seems that Stones can't continue to hold on, which is troublesome for Manchester City. They are also unlucky this season. The two central defenders are injured in turn. One is well today and the other is injured again tomorrow. According to official news, Laporte has started recovery training, but he is not fully recovered, so he was not brought to Madrid this time... There are still 30 minutes left, let's see what Manchester City will do. ]

Guardiola urgently replaced Otamendi and told him to slow down the pace and not let the team spread out too much. After all, they were now leading 2-0 and all they needed to do was to stabilize.

Otamendi nodded to show that he understood.

But just knowing is not enough, you have to be able to do it well.

In the next 10 minutes, Real Madrid fully demonstrated what it meant to "attack you while you are weak". They seized the gap between Otamendi and Walker to launch a fierce attack, and the team was in a panic in front of the goal.

In the 68th minute, seeing that Manchester City's defense was about to collapse, Zidane replaced Vinicius with Bale to strengthen the attack.

The effect was immediate. Two minutes after Bale came on the pitch, he seized the opportunity to assist. Otamendi lost the ball in the backcourt, Bale intercepted the ball and rushed into the left side of the penalty area. Walker accelerated back to defense, but still failed to prevent the ball from being passed. Isco, who was unguarded at the back post, shot in front of the goal and broke through Manchester City's goal.

【1-2! Real Madrid pulls one back! 】

Otamendi was so frustrated that he punched and cursed in the middle of the field.

"Come on Nico! Look forward, look here!" Batistuta took two steps back to remind the Argentine defender, "Clear your mind, we need you, Manchester City needs you, stay calm, okay!"

Batty is right, now is not the time to find mistakes, they still have to persevere in the remaining games and hold on to the final victory.

Otamendi took a deep breath, looked over from a distance, and raised his thumb to indicate that he was fine.

"Everyone, cheer up! Do as Pep says, we still have the advantage!" Batistuta waved to his teammates, "Don't let these white guys take the advantage away from us!"

There are still 20 minutes left and the game is getting more and more exciting.

The calls at the Bernabeu reached a new level.

……

With the game entering the last 10 minutes, something unexpected happened on the field.

Manchester City's midfielder intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack. De Bruyne observed and made a long pass to Batistuta. Batistuta ran with the ball and after dribbling past Mendy, he went inside and came to the edge of the penalty area. In desperation, Ramos pushed Batistuta from behind.

Real Madrid was sentenced to death.

The referee showed Ramos a yellow card and then pointed to the penalty spot.

"Hey! Not in the penalty area!" Ramos protested angrily, "He didn't even run in, this guy fell down and rolled in!"

Neymar reached out and pulled Batistuta up, but Batistuta didn't say a word.

Because he didn't know whether he was fouled outside or inside the penalty area. When he was dribbling forward, all he could see was Courtois (and the goal behind him). After he fell, all he saw was the grass, the dark sky, and the fans. He didn't have time to look at where he fell.

After communicating with the VAR video assistant referee, the referee said there was an error in the decision. He canceled the penalty and changed it to a free kick at the edge of the penalty area.

Tsk.
pity.

Batty pouted and took the ball from the referee.

But it’s okay, this is a good position, and it is equivalent to a penalty kick in some ways.

"Are you coming?" Neymar asked as he stepped on the penalty spot.

"Yeah." Batty responded, "I felt good today. I had a feeling this ball would happen."

"That's fine." Neymar wiped the sweat from his head and leaned over to whisper, "The opposing goalkeeper made a very accurate save, but I noticed that he was slow to get down to the ground. I think you can take advantage of that."

"Okay." Batty lowered his head and tugged at his socks, then raised his head and deliberately glanced to the left of the goal in order to mislead his opponent, "Got it, go ahead."

Real Madrid formed a human wall in front of the goal. Varane seemed to notice something and turned back to quickly say a few words to Courtois. Manchester City players stood on both sides of the human wall, ready to make a follow-up shot at any time.

Batty pushed his hair back, took a few steps back, got ready, and started running.

[The ball went in! Wonderful! The King of Manchester City hit an unexpected ground ball, which just passed under the feet of the jumping wall. Courtois didn't have time to get down to the ground to save it. 3-1! Manchester City got 3 away goals while leading by two goals! ]

"You really hit a low shot!" Neymar rushed towards Batistuta excitedly, "There is no better striker combination than us, we are Batman and Superman!"

"Wrong!" Batty hugged his face and kissed him hard between his eyes, "I am Batman, and you, my friend, you are my Robin!"

Then others gathered around to celebrate.

Batistuta looked not far away through many blue and white figures, and just then, the pure white figure with the captain's armband looked up at the same time as if he had sensed something.

Their eyes met.

Did you see it, dear?
You can steal my penalty, but you can't steal my goal!
"...Puta, don't just stand there, stand still!" The Real Madrid captain turned around and gave orders while biting his back teeth. In a place where no one could see, there was a surging anger in his eyes that was almost uncontrollable.

Batty was totally unaware.
He stretched out his right index finger and middle finger together and blew a kiss to the other person again.

It's like flirting and provocation.

Then in the 85th minute, the furious Real Madrid captain finally made a big mistake. When Batistuta dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the right bottom line, he made a fierce tackle and was sent off with a red card. This directly led to him only being able to watch the second leg in the stands or in front of TV.

After showing the red card, the referee pointed to the penalty spot.

There was no controversy over this penalty.

At the end of the game, Manchester City had the opportunity to further expand the score.

(End of this chapter)