[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Batty did plan to speak to Stones, but problems arose before he could do so.

At the end of April, Manchester City and Chelsea faced off in the Carabao Cup (EPL) final at Wembley Stadium. This was the first game in the UK in the post-epidemic era in which all fans were allowed to enter. In this game, Stones almost ruined everything with his poor performance.

In fact, Stones was not included in the starting lineup. Based on past matches with Chelsea and Tuchel and other factors, Guardiola chose the central defender combination of Laporte and Dias.

It was still the familiar strikerless formation, with Batistuta still playing as a false No. 9 in the center position. Behind him were the midfield combination of Foden, De Bruyne, and B Silva. The double defensive midfielders were replaced by Fernandinho and Rodri, Zinchenko was on the left back, and Walker on the right.

But Manchester City's opponent is Chelsea.

This is not the Chelsea that was about to fall into the relegation zone after losing consecutive games at the beginning of the season, but the Chelsea that became an iron shield after Tuchel's careful coaching.

According to statistics, after the German coach took office, Chelsea kept 19 clean sheets in 14 games in all competitions, the best record in the top five leagues during the same period.

During the same period, Manchester City scored 18 goals in 37 games in the past two months, also the team with the most goals in the top five leagues.

So this game can be described as a battle between the strongest spear and the strongest shield.

Batistuta had a vague feeling that something was not going well from the second leg of the league match against Chelsea in February. Although they eventually won 1-0, most of the players said after the game that they felt more tired than usual.

Perhaps it was because Tuchel had accumulated experience after losing to Guardiola many times. In this final, Chelsea's three-center-back and two-defensive midfielder lineup made Manchester City unable to make any progress. The backcourt advancement sometimes couldn't get past the midfield, and the ball possession rate that the Blue Moon was proud of dropped to less than 50% at one point.

In the 33rd minute of the first half, Chelsea made a long pass, Chilwell received the ball, Walker pressed forward, but Fernandinho did not put enough pressure on Mount who was retreating to receive the ball, allowing him to pass a straight pass without any defense, Werner received the ball and passed it horizontally, and Ziyech pushed the ball into the net from outside the penalty area.

Fortunately, the linesman raised the flag and Werner was in an offside position at the moment of passing the ball, so Ziyech's goal was invalid and Manchester City escaped a disaster.

However, Manchester City's front attack group is not for show. Although De Bruyne and B Silva did not look very good today, their penetrating power plus the impact of Foden and Batistuta meant that Chelsea could not guarantee a long-term high-level attack and their physical energy consumption was huge.

After a tit-for-tat battle for most of the game, in the 61st minute, De Bruyne took a corner kick and Batistuta volleyed into the goal from the back post. Thanks to the connection between the two, Manchester City finally broke the deadlock.

With 15 minutes left in the game, Guardiola made a substitution. De Bruyne was substituted for examination due to ankle discomfort. To be safe, the Catalan player simultaneously withdrew a forward player and replaced him with a defender, changing to a relatively conservative style of play.

In the 76th minute, Gundogan replaced De Bruyne and Stones replaced B Silva.

And it was at this time that Stones began his performance.

In the 81st and 86th minutes, Chelsea came back to life and took the lead 2-1 thanks to a handball and a missed pass by the England defender.

"JOHNNNNNNNNY!" Batty was about to explode with rage. He jumped 5 or 6 times like he had two springs on his feet. "Did you leave your fucking brain in the locker room? You are simply--"

Of course, there's no point in being anxious at this time.

Including injury time, Manchester City still has 8 minutes left. Now De Bruyne and B Silva are not on the court, and Phil's physical strength is almost exhausted not far away. Batistuta forced himself to calm down.

The only way is to attack with all your strength.

"Gundogan! Come up!" Ignoring Guardiola who was yelling on the sidelines, Batistuta fiercely demanded to the German midfielder, "Stop staring at the ground, pass the ball, pass the ball, pass the damn ball to me!"

Gundogan hesitated, he didn't know whether he should listen to Batistuta.

"Are you deaf? Pass it! Don't worry about anything else, just give it to me! I can definitely catch it no matter what!" Batty shouted angrily to the back, "We only have a few minutes so forget about Pep, just pass the ball to me!"

He already had the taste of blood in his throat.

But this is just right.

His adrenaline was being secreted crazily after being stimulated.

"Come up, come up! Let Fernandez take up the position. I'm talking to you, JOHNNNNY! What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and get the fuck up!" Taking advantage of the out-of-bounds ball, Battie ran to the sidelines. He poured half a bottle of water into his hands, and then gathered all his hair behind his head.

With sweat, it gives people a sharp visual impact.

There are still 6 minutes left.
Gundogan made a long pass, Batistuta failed to grab the ball and Manchester City got the ball out of bounds.

Batty: "We only have this one chance!"

There are still 4 minutes left.
Rodri passed the ball to the frontcourt, Stones passed it to Foden, but the force was too strong and it went out of the baseline.

Batty: "We only have this one chance!!"

There are still 2 minutes left.
Fernandinho made a straight pass, Batistuta fell to the ground and was blocked by Kante, and Walker received a yellow card during the counter-attack.

Batty: "We only have this one fucking chance!!"

30 seconds left.
Ederson came to the frontcourt from the goal area and shouted a long pass. Zinchenko protected the ball near the baseline, and Foden used his last bit of strength to move to the back point.

13 seconds left.

“Bati!!”

After Batistuta stopped the ball with his calf, he turned around and accelerated. In front of him was his familiar national team teammate Thiago Silva. Veteran D. Silva was very familiar with Batistuta's playing style and always blocked the edge of the penalty area to prevent him from passing. Batistuta protected the ball and came to the baseline.

"Come on, come on!!"

This is truly the last chance.

It’s not that losing the League Cup is shameful, but losing this League Cup final is equivalent to ruining their record of winning all seasons, which is a world record that no club has ever been able to achieve!
All win, all win, all win!

Batistuta was relying on this sentence to keep himself in suspense. He shouted to his teammates in a hoarse voice to go to the front of the goal to support. The angle was too small and the possibility of scoring was too low. Someone was needed to support.

In a split second, he saw Stones standing in the position where the center forward should have been in front of the goal.

Hell, why not Gabi (Jesus) or Kun?

Batty hesitated.

Then he saw Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa coming out, probably to prevent Manchester City from rushing towards the middle. Bad's eyes moved away from him, passed the fans in the stands behind, and finally came to the blind spot of the goal.

Bet?

Can you?

In that instant, or even shorter than that, Batistuta made his choice. He used his right foot to rush to the baseline, then used the momentum to turn around with his waist and volley the ball with his left foot. [Bang——]
Amid the noise, Batistuta heard the sound of the ball hitting the post, but he didn't know whether the ball went in or not. The next second after the ball left his feet, Batistuta fell outside the baseline. He rolled twice and then immediately knelt up. For a few seconds, he could only hear the sound of his heart beating in his chest.

Did you get in?
“Ahhhhh! Batty!” Ederson rushed up, waving his gloves. The moment Batty saw him, he thought he was hallucinating or the game was over. “It’s in! You did it!”

The Brazilian goalkeeper reached out to pull Batistuta up, but before he could stand firmly, others rushed forward.

"It's incredible! I saw you shoot the ball from the baseline, oh my god!"
"We're not out, we're not out!"
"Bati! Batti! Batti! You are our God!"

[The ball went in! Unbelievable! Batistuta scored from almost a negative angle to help Manchester City equalize the score. Now the score is 2-2. Regular time is over and the game enters overtime! This game is so exciting. Friends who stayed up late to watch the game! Are you refreshed? ! ]

"Okay, everyone, let's stop celebrating here." Batty signaled his teammates to disperse. "The game is not over yet. We still have another 30 minutes of hard battle to fight."

Through the gap in the crowd, he made eye contact with Stones on the periphery.

"Can we do it?" Batty looked around and asked solemnly.

Stones was stunned.

"Yes!" Ruben Dias responded loudly, "We can!"

"Can we do it?" Batty asked again.

It seems like I haven't heard the answer I want yet.

Or rather, I haven't heard the answer from the person I want yet.

Stones swallowed, his throat and lips were also dry, as if they were sealed with glue.

"We can do it!" He broke free from the glue, "Win the season! We can do it!"

(End of this chapter)