[Football] Bad Boy Batty

[beep——]
The referee blew the whistle to end the game. Manchester City lost 1-2 to Arsenal and missed the FA Cup final. David Luiz performed well and blocked almost every threatening shot of Manchester City. He responded to the public's criticism of him with his superb performance. Batistuta scored a penalty that he created for Manchester City, but unfortunately, he failed to save the team in the end.

After the game, Arsenal legend Henry commented that Manchester City has hit rock bottom. Manchester City's players seem to have not recovered from the suspension. After losing 0-1 to Southampton, they personally sent Liverpool to the Premier League throne. Now they are out of the FA Cup. The only championship Manchester City still has hope of winning is the Champions League. Bayern is in hot form at the moment. If Manchester City fails again, they will most likely face an embarrassing season of winning nothing.

After the interview, Batty returned to the locker room with a sullen face.

To be honest, it is not difficult to be interviewed after losing a game, but it becomes more difficult to maintain a good attitude when the team is about to face a fruitless season and reporters keep asking about the conflicts within the team.

Fortunately, De Bruyne helped to attract most of the interview attention, so that news like "Manchester City missed the FA Cup final, the captain angrily criticized the reporter, losing the game and losing face" did not appear.

The atmosphere in the locker room was not good. According to regulations, the players were seated separately, and due to the distance and the loss, almost no one spoke.

Batistuta walked in angrily, pounded the door, and then sat down to change clothes with a cold face. The bathroom had to be used in turns, because he and De Bruyne went to an interview and returned at a similar time, so they were naturally assigned to the same group.

When the game is lost, everything goes wrong.

"-Damn bandage, curse you!" Batty cursed and threw the socks stuck with bandages into the laundry basket. He took the shampoo and prepared to take a shower. Only then did he realize that the towel was missing.

Soon, he turned out everything in the cabinet, but the towel was nowhere to be found.

"Damn it!" Batty slammed the closet door, but the force of the rebound made him step back and fall on the pile of dirty clothes. "God, you just don't want me to have an easy life, right? No! I swear I--hmm?"

Before he could finish yelling at God, a towel fell from the sky and covered his face.

"You never value your things. You leave them all around like a little kid. I don't know how you survive."

Batistuta grabbed the towel and looked up to see De Bruyne's expressionless face.

"Brand new," the Belgian midfielder said. "Take it and use it."

What is this doing?
court?

Batty blew his lips in disdain, stood up and threw the towel back: "That's none of your business. I can do whatever I want. You don't need to teach me a lesson."

"Yes, yes, you can do whatever you want. I am being nosy." After being rejected, De Bruyne did not insist, "Then I will go first. I can't even find a towel, sir."

After finishing his sarcasm, he took his things, turned around and walked into the bathroom.

Batty rolled his eyes at his back several times, refused the help of others, and continued to look for a towel while muttering "asshole" under his breath.

Things aren't getting better.

After 3 minutes, he still hadn't found one that worked.

"What, not yet?" De Bruyne came out after washing, and seeing Batistuta still looking grumpy, he deliberately continued to tease him, "It's unbelievable that our omnipotent king is stumped by a towel."

"Go away Kevin. If you don't know how to talk, just shut up." Batty gave him two middle fingers, then picked up the shampoo and walked towards the bathroom.

Who says you need a towel when taking a shower? He doesn't need it this time, so what?

But when Batty rushed in, he saw a very familiar towel stuck on the shelf of his favorite shower head on the far right side. It was obviously left by someone who had just left. At that moment, he felt an inexplicable mixture of anger and amusement.

After hesitating for more than ten seconds, Batty walked into the shower room.

Several staff members came into the locker room to clean up. After saying hello, De Bruyne began to pack up the things in the closet. Not long after, he heard Batistuta come out. De Bruyne was not a very patient person, and he was eager to know whether the other party had used his towel.

So he turned his head and wanted to take a quick look.

At this moment, a wet towel was thrown on his face.

"What are you looking at? Pack your things." It was Batty's voice.

De Bruyne took off the towel and just saw the silhouette of his king turning and leaving, his light-colored hair bursting out in all directions, not much moisture, obviously having been rubbed by something.

Very good, it looks like it has been used.

Suddenly it feels like I have a new pet.

De Bruyne smiled and lowered his head. In a way, Batistuta was really like a cat that had just arrived in a new environment and had not yet established trust. If you watched him, he would not like cans and toys. If you walked away, when you came back the cans would be empty and the toys would be taken away.

"Hurry up, we should go." Batty had no idea what De Bruyne was thinking. He quickly changed his clothes, stuffed his things into his backpack, and walked to the door while wearing a mask. "By the way--"

He stopped as he passed the Belgian midfielder.

"I'm going to visit Jam next weekend, probably after we beat Real Madrid, we'll decide the time," Batistuta whispered. "This is not a request, it's a notice, understand? I'm going to go in even if you're not there, and I can't guarantee what will happen afterwards."

This should be considered as——
concession?

De Bruyne wiped his nose.

"Okay," he said, "Call me when the time comes and I'll pick you up."

Batty didn't refuse this. …

Just the day after Manchester City lost to Arsenal, the next result came out. Thanks to Mbappe's hat trick in overtime, Manchester United reversed Chelsea 4-3 and advanced to the FA Cup final.

Batistuta did not react when he heard the news, at least in the locker room he behaved normally. When facing reporters' questions outside the training ground, he used the excuse of "focusing on the Champions League" to block them all.

On the day of the final, he watched the game in his living room.

Arsenal performed well, but Manchester United performed better. Just 10 minutes into the game, Mbappe accelerated the game, created a penalty and scored it himself. Halfway through the first half, Manchester United led 2-0.

Batistuta didn't watch the rest of the game. He turned off the TV and went downstairs to find Lucas to swim. The result was already decided. Arsenal's chance of a comeback was less than 1%.

After they played a few rounds of heading games in the swimming pool, the game was over. Batistuta sat by the pool and checked his phone. When he saw Manchester United win the FA Cup 3-0 and be crowned the double champions of the season, he was not surprised at all and even made a few jokes about the score.

"Listen to this Luki - Manchester United fans have always wanted a hero, Augustus, but he was more interested in Batistuta next door than being a hero, so he bought Mbappe. Mbappe has grown rapidly and has surpassed Augustus to become the most mentioned player among Manchester United fans. He is the well-deserved number one hero!" Batistuta read out the contents of a report while shaking his calves.

"It's funny, the British newspapers always like to say who 'deserves' something, I clearly remember them saying the same thing about me four years ago, when I had just arrived at Manchester City, played like shit and was very independent," he said.

"And can Mbappe surpass Augustus? Don't be ridiculous. Augustus is a madman who bought shares of Manchester United. He is both the boss and the player. Who can be more talked about than him?" He continued sarcastically.

"Well, maybe I can, but that's because he's obsessed with me and I can't get rid of him. I can ignore this. They won? They deserved to win. Do you know how much money that lunatic has spent in the past few years? If there is no return from such a high investment, God will not be able to tolerate it." Batty kept talking non-stop, and it was unclear whether he was talking to Lucas or to himself.

"Don't think about it, Batistuta, they were just lucky." Lucas swam over to comfort him, "We still have the Champions League, and when we reach the quarterfinals it will be a single-elimination tournament. To be honest, that's in our favor."

"Yeah, I know." Batistuta shrugged, "But only if we get past Real Madrid."

"Wow, this is not like you. When did you worry about this?" Lucas smiled and patted Batistuta's knee. "What are you afraid of? In the first leg, Real Madrid won 4-1. There is no way they can turn the tables."

Batty looked down at Lucas' wet curly hair, reached out and rubbed it, and soon returned to his usual lawless self.

"That's right." He raised his leg and put it on the French defender's shoulder. "With a three-goal lead and four away goals to go, we're sure to win."

……

8月7日晚上8点，19-20赛季曼城与皇马欧冠1/8决赛次回合的比赛在伊蒂哈德球场打响，照例空场进行。

Compared with the first round, there were some personnel changes on both sides in this game.

For Manchester City, Aguero injured his left knee during training and missed the squad. Jesus replaced him. Kyle Walker tested weakly positive for nucleic acid, and the UEFA Champions League organizing committee did not approve his report, so he could only be isolated at home. Cancelo appeared in the right back position.

This season, the Portuguese defender who transferred from Juventus is still in the process of adapting. For Batistuta, partnering with him on the wing is far less comfortable than partnering with Walker. He is too aggressive, and even with Guardiola's special instructions, he will unconsciously compress Batistuta's space. In addition, he is not fast and his defensive ability is weaker than Walker, which makes Batistuta's opinion of him always remain in the wait-and-see stage.

But one thing is for sure, Batistuta never questions the head coach's decision before the game.

Moreover, Manchester City has a three-goal advantage in the second leg. Even if Cancelo plays badly, he is confident in the team.

The changes on the Real Madrid side are reflected in Ramos and Vinicius. The Real Madrid captain was sent off with a red card in the first leg and failed to make the squad, but for the stability of the locker room, Zidane still brought him to Manchester; on the left winger position, Hazard, who returned from injury, replaced Vinicius. In Guardiola's tactical arrangement, he will become Manchester City's key breakthrough point. After all, he has not played in a game for almost half a year, and whether he can recover his feet is a problem.

Following the referee, players from both teams walked onto the court.

Today Manchester City changed into next season's home jersey. There are not many changes, and it is still mainly light blue.

Before the game, both sides held a one-minute silence for the epidemic.

Soon, the moment of silence ended and the referee called the captains of both teams to the front to select sides. Since Ramos was no longer there, the captain's armband of Real Madrid was worn on Benzema's arm.

Benzema guessed the portrait correctly and Real Madrid kicked off first.

So far everything is normal.

Benzema then reached out his hand to Batistuta. At that moment, a hint of doubt flashed through Batistuta's mind, but his body acted on his behalf and he held Benzema's bandaged hand.

The two hugged each other subconsciously.

"Hey!" The referee blew the whistle, "Remember to maintain a controlled distance!"

Oh.
This time Batty realized what he had just been confused about.

"Sorry." Benzema scratched his hair awkwardly, "I forgot about the epidemic."

"We just mourned the epidemic." Batistuta joked, "Fortunately, I didn't give you a kiss on the cheek, otherwise the captains of both teams would have been given yellow cards before the game. What's the point of playing?"

"It won't be a yellow card," the referee said, "but if you are going to get infected, it won't be me who will be in trouble, it will be the team."

Batistuta and Benzema smiled and returned to their respective venues.

The game is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)