[Football] Bad Boy Batty

The Premier League resumed in August. Fans who had not watched the game for two months were looking forward to the new season with great joy. Although the transfer window has not yet closed and the players of each team are not in their final lineup, nothing can stop the fans' enthusiasm for watching the game.

However, after two rounds and halfway through three rounds, the ranking on the Premier League standings has reached a jaw-dropping state. The giants have collectively suffered an upset, and there is not even a single big six team in the top three.

First, Manchester United, who was the most favored team before the game, lost 1-2 to Brighton in the first match due to the absence of Mbappe and Ronaldo. In the second match, the whole Brentford team was sleepwalking and was tied after leading by 3 goals. Fortunately, in the third match, Liverpool beat Liverpool 2-1 at home thanks to the outstanding performance of new signing Lisandro Martinez.

接着是本息夏窗较为大手笔的切尔西, 前三战他们连平两场，2-2战平热刺，0-0战平埃弗顿，第三轮更是爆冷0-3输给利兹联。

还有利物浦，利记开局也同样不顺, 先是2-2战平富勒姆，随后1-1战平水晶宫，刚结束的三战还1-2输给了老对手曼联。

Currently at the top of the Premier League table is Leeds United, which has won three games and has 9 points. Compared with other giants, Manchester City is in a relatively stable state. Although they won the first two rounds with small scores, they still won. As of now, the Blue Moon Army is temporarily ranked 4th with one game less.

In the third round of the league, Manchester City will play away against Newcastle. This is their chance. If they can win, they will win all three games and return to the top of the list with the advantage of goal difference.

Of course, Newcastle is not a sheep to be slaughtered. Since they were acquired by a Saudi consortium last year, the team's situation has gradually improved and they are also making a push for the Champions League qualification.

On the evening of August 8, Manchester City visited St. James' Stadium to challenge Newcastle. Judging from the lineup they gave before the game, Guardiola returned to the 21 lineup. Neymar and Messi did not start and temporarily sat on the bench.

Since the beginning of the season, Guardiola has been testing his new lineup like a routine. Batistuta is undoubtedly the core. According to the original lineup, he retreated to play the No. 10 position, which increased his offensiveness but reduced his number of goals. Now with Haaland in front, there are more ways to match the frontcourt. Guardiola hopes to maximize his development to relieve the pressure on Batistuta behind him.

In this lineup, he made relatively drastic changes. The two wingbacks are Phil Foden and B Silva, Stones was promoted to midfield and formed a double defensive midfielder with Rodri, De Bruyne was positioned forward and would rush to the front line to act as a striker when necessary, or provide support and cooperation when Batistuta retreated to midfield. Behind them was the defense line composed of three central defenders: Ruben Dias, Ake, and Laporte.

Among them, the two points that Guardiola is most concerned about are Batistuta with Haaland in front of him, and Stones who switched positions to play as a defensive midfielder.

Under absolutely ideal circumstances, without considering other factors, this is the main lineup that Guardiola currently recognizes most in this season.

Of course, the final test still depends on the competition.

For Batistuta, in addition to taking care of the team as captain, he also has a very important task, which is about himself, that is, the psychological effect left to him by his fifth metatarsal injury.

Before the start of the league, he consulted the team's psychologist and studied his condition in detail. What Alandes said was right, his current condition is a branch of post-traumatic stress. After all, this time he injured his bones. It was the first fracture in his career and he was out for 3 months.

"You were right to come to me, boy. I've seen thousands of players like you. As a professional player, if your mental state doesn't change after recovering from an injury, it's abnormal." - Ms. Kelly
The psychiatrist's words were like a stimulant, striking directly into Batty's heart every time. Sometimes he even thought that the psychiatrist was repairing his soul.

'Nothing happened, you have recovered, God bless you.'

Before the game, the King of Manchester City repeated the prayer to himself over and over in his heart, and he kept this behavior until the end of the side selection. The captain of Newcastle also wanted a human head portrait, but in the end Batistuta got there first. Batistuta thought this could be regarded as some kind of omen, some kind of good omen.

The Manchester City captain took the ball back to the center circle and put it down. After moving his shoulders to adjust his position, he stepped on the ball and looked at De Bruyne not far away.

"Are you ready?" he asked, but it seemed more like he was asking himself.

De Bruyne took half a step back and gave him a thumbs up.

"Great, I guess - this means ready." Batty whispered to himself, and clapped his hands, "Come on, you can do it!"

[beep——]
With the referee's whistle, Batty kicked the ball out and the game officially began.

……

At the beginning of the game, Newcastle deliberately tested and slowed down the pace, while Manchester City quickly advanced to seize the start.

In the 5th minute, Stones made a long pass to the right, B Silva dribbled the ball sideways and passed it back from outside the right penalty area. Haaland sprinted to the left and took away two defensive players. Batistuta turned around and shook off the Newcastle defender. After a simple adjustment, he shot with his right foot!

The Newcastle goalkeeper missed the best chance to save the ball due to obstructed vision.

1-0! Manchester City took the lead away from home.

"Yoooooooo!" After scoring the goal, Batistuta ran towards the visiting team's stands. He stopped near the corner flagpole and, like a robot, jumped on his right leg first. After looking around confusedly, he switched to jumping on his left leg.

It was like he was using this strange, almost pantomime-like form to tell the fans and himself that he was fine and he could still score goals!

"See that ball?" Batistuta said after his creative celebration. He turned around and opened his arms to his teammates who were running towards him. He said, "Is it beautiful? Just tell me if it's beautiful or not!"

but--

Apparently Batistuta forgot one thing. Among his teammates running towards him was Haaland. Although this was not their first time playing together, it was the first time they created a scoring opportunity (space) for the other side.

"Beautiful!" The Nordic giant picked up the little king, just like holding a cat upright, "You are a smart guy, you can score a goal, I don't even need to see it with my eyes!"

Being suddenly lifted off the ground made Batistuta dazed for a moment. He felt like a toy doll that could be manipulated at will. The traditional move that usually required cooperation was now easily accomplished by Haaland on his own.

"Uh, thank you." Batty patted Haaland's arm nervously, "Leading at the start! Keep it up, guys! We must get the three points today - okay, let me go now, Erling."

Haaland obediently let him go.

Batistuta felt much more comfortable after his feet returned to the ground. At this time, B Silva came over and whispered to him teasingly: "Erling can complete our tradition by himself. Otherwise, let him do it all in the future. It will save a lot of energy. What do you think, captain?"

He has to come from now on? Forget it. Batty rolled his eyes and then pushed B's head hard.

"Stop talking nonsense and get back to the game! If you say another word, I'll let you have a taste of what it's like to be thrown into the sky by a Nordic giant!"

……

After taking a one-goal lead, Manchester City wanted to press on, but Newcastle reacted quickly and did not give them the chance to expand the score, maintaining the score of 1-1 until the end of the first half.

In the second half, from the 65th to the 69th minute, a series of thrilling and interesting accidents happened on the field.

The thrilling thing was that Batistuta made a mistake in coordination with Stones when he got the ball in the midfield, and the pass was too hasty, reaching the opponent's feet. Newcastle players took advantage of this accident and made a straight pass to penetrate Manchester City, tying the game 1-1.

Interestingly, just four minutes after Newcastle equalized the score, the home fans were still immersed in the carnival of celebration and did not react. Their goalkeeper seemed to be infected by Batistuta and made a fatal mistake in throwing the ball. However, he did not pass the ball to a Manchester City player, he threw the ball at the feet of the referee.

"Hey! Damn it!"
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way—Oh my God! Sir!!"
"Who told you to throw it over there!"

The Magpies were in chaos in the first half.

The referee deliberately dodged and just stood in front of Newcastle players, and the ball refracted under the referee's feet, just like giving Batistuta a penalty kick, and he didn't need to stop the ball himself or even think about it.

"coming!"

Relying only on simple muscle memory, Batistuta stretched himself and volleyed the ball. At that moment, he had no thoughts in his mind, no tactics, no position, not even a goal, and he simply relied on the inertia formed by years of shooting training to kick the ball out.

At that moment, time slowed down throughout the stadium.

The fans in the stands kept eating French fries and slowly opened their eyes to look towards the goal. On the sidelines, a drop of sweat behind the cameraman's ear was stagnating in the air.

Like in slow motion, the ball drew a straight line like a meteor and rushed into the net.

Newcastle's unlucky goalkeeper fell down in panic while chasing back and could only watch the ball pass over the goal line in front of his nose.

In just 4 minutes, Manchester City went from being equalized to overtaking again.

and so.

It turns out that football sometimes requires a bit of luck.

……

In the end, thanks to Batistuta's two goals, Manchester City beat Newcastle 2-1 away and won 3 points, returning to the top of the Premier League.

After the game, when they returned to the locker room, before anyone went into the shower room, the Manchester City captain stood in the middle and apologized to everyone, saying that if it weren't for his stupid mistake in the second half that allowed the opponent to equalize the score, today's result would definitely be better than it is now.

However, Batistuta was the only one feeling guilty in the locker room. Everyone was focusing on the godly goal that was assisted by the referee. Everyone was laughing and no one blamed Batistuta at all.

"Don't make fun of Batistuta, if it weren't for your goal, how could the Newcastle goalkeeper have such butter hands!" Grealish patted Batistuta's shoulder and laughed foolishly. He didn't even get a chance to play for a minute today.

"He makes sense." De Bruyne agreed while holding back a laugh. "Think about it on the bright side, Batistuta. If you hadn't made a mistake we might have won the game 1-0, but now it's 2-1 and you scored an extra goal!"

Batty made a crying face at him.

In fact, it's not just the players, Guardiola also doesn't blame him.

The Catalan player kept laughing while holding a tablet in his hand, which was playing Batistuta's second goal on a loop. Seeing that Batistuta was in a bad mood and his head was covered by a dark cloud, he freed one hand to rub the captain's hair.

"You know, Batistuta, you're a lucky bastard! Since I became a professional player, I've only seen this once!" Guardiola said with a smile, showing the tablet to Batistuta, "Thank you for giving me a second chance to see it with my own eyes!"

Batty: ...

This is not the kind of comfort he needs!
At this time, Haaland was about to take a shower. When he passed by the depressed captain, he took something out of his pocket and stuffed it into Batistuta's mouth.

"Maybe this will make you happy."

That's a candy bar, a compound fruit-flavored vitamin supplement.

Haaland did not stay too long. To be precise, stuffing candy into Batistuta's mouth did not affect his pace to take a shower. Before entering the shower room, he turned around and winked at the captain, made a "watching you" gesture, and then disappeared behind the door.

Feeling the sweetness gradually spreading in his mouth, Batty didn't know what expression to make.

Although this is a heartwarming act and the candy is tasty, Haaland's actions just now were not gentle at all! No one has ever stuffed something (referring to the candy) into his mouth as forcefully as he did!
That's hard candy, hard candy! The vibration of hitting your teeth is enough to shake your brain!
He didn't believe that this guy didn't do it on purpose. The Manchester City king swept his still numb gums with the tip of his tongue, and felt an indescribable melancholy in his heart.

This Norwegian giant might have been sent by God to punish him.

(End of this chapter)