[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Thanks to Batistuta's wonderful goal, Manchester City led 1-0 in the first half. After the halftime break, it started to drizzle in Manchester, and the temperature suddenly dropped. Batistuta looked up at the gloomy sky when he walked out of the player tunnel. He pouted his lips and made a face in dissatisfaction.

It rained during the game on my birthday. God, are you kidding me?
Liverpool worked harder in the second half, and it was obvious that Klopp must have made adjustments during the halftime break. Now is mid-March, which is a crucial period for competing for a place in next season's Champions League (top 3 in the league).

The scores among the teams were very close, with the positions changing almost every two days.

曼城以73分的积分暂居榜首, 切尔西2分之差排在第二, 热刺以68分位居第三，利物浦以65分排在第四，而阿森纳只比他们低1分，积64分排在第五。

The scores of several teams are quite close. At the same time as Manchester City and Liverpool, there are also matches between Arsenal and West Bromwich Albion, and Chelsea and Stoke City. If Arsenal and Chelsea both defeat their opponents, then the scores of both teams will overtake, with Chelsea rising to the top of the list and Arsenal returning to the familiar fourth place.

Manchester City wants to maintain its top spot, while Liverpool wants to maintain its place in the European competition. Both teams have reasons to win.

In the 49th minute of the second half, Batistuta was brought down by Milner while dribbling the ball at the edge of the penalty area. The referee did not react at all, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the home fans, who booed Milner and the referee.

To be honest, this should have been at least a yellow card.

Milner used various small movements when defending Batistuta closely several times. It's not that Batistuta hates this kind of behavior. In fact, he sometimes uses small movements to interfere with his opponents, but it can't happen too many times in a game. Too many times will be annoying and will attract the attention of the referee.

Yes, the referee's lack of any response was the source of Batty's dissatisfaction.

"Try to pull my clothes again." Batty whispered to Milner as he ran back to his position, "I will let you know what regret is."

"Just you?" Milner raised his eyebrows and said disdainfully, "You should practice more. You can't even handle this? I was fighting reasonably."

Reasonable confrontation?

Is there a reasonable confrontation with pulling someone’s clothes?
His jersey was almost pulled into a robe and you still said it was a reasonable confrontation. Batistuta curled his lips and thought to himself that he would let him know the consequences of teasing him at the edge of the penalty area in a moment.

There is a saying that goes, a diver who can't act is not a good player. Batista, as a good player, has natural advantages and an innocent face, so he can naturally act and dive.

Five minutes later, Manchester City launched an attack from the backcourt. Jesus retreated to get the ball, Batistuta switched to the middle to receive the ball, and Milner followed. Liverpool's defenders were ready to use their physical advantage to block the position and cut off the passing route from Manchester City players to Batistuta.

[Entering the penalty area——Milner is fighting with Batistuta, Batistuta falls down! ]

Seeing their own player fall in the penalty area, there was another cheer from the stands. Of course, the players on the field were not idle either. The Manchester City players close to the referee rushed up to reason (asking for a penalty), while the Liverpool players kept arguing.

"Get up you little liar!" Milner waved at Batistuta who was sitting on the ground, "I didn't touch you, that tackle was aimed at the ball!"

"You're lying! You were going for my ankle!" Seeing the referee coming, Batistuta brushed off the grass on his body, pretended to be in pain and got up, then limped two steps and stumbled in front of the referee. "He knocked me down with a tackle, sir! My ankle must be broken. I can prove it to you if you need me to!"

Batistuta complained bitterly to the referee, and at the same time, he followed the teachings of several famous masters (like Inzaghi, Robben, and Busquets), that no matter whether the referee saw it or not, his expression must be surprised, innocent, and -

When telling the referee, don't mention a penalty.

Sure enough, because he had no previous record, the referee quickly believed Batistuta and pointed to the penalty spot 12 yards away.

Liverpool players also became impatient. They gathered near the penalty area and reasoned with the referee. Even Klopp started arguing with Guardiola on the sidelines. Fortunately, there was a fourth official who threatened to report the matter to the referee and then send both of them to the stands, which stopped the fight between the two coaches.

However, just as the two head coaches were reluctantly shaking hands and making peace, something went wrong on the field again.

The referee took out a yellow card and pointed it at Liverpool captain Henderson.

“WTF!” Klopp didn’t see what happened at all and almost jumped up on the sidelines, “What the hell are you doing!”

Oh, this yellow card was really not premeditated.

Just seconds after the referee made the decision (penalty), the Liverpool captain muttered swear words as he passed by Batistuta. Then he looked up and glanced casually, and happened to see the Brazilian boy who was celebrating his birthday today with a smug smile on his face, exchanging glances with the Belgian midfielder of their team.

Henderson was furious: "I knew you were just pretending, you little liar!"

He took a big step forward, pointed at Batty with his index finger, but he was too close to Batty, and the finger accidentally poked Batty's chin in the process.

Batty was stunned for a moment.

0.03 seconds later, the light-haired boy standing opposite Henderson fell to the ground with his mouth covered with a look of shock on his face.

"you--"

The Liverpool captain didn't react at first, but he soon realized that something was wrong.

"Hey! Get up!" Henderson said angrily. "I just touched you lightly. Not even a blade of grass could be hurt."

Batty ignored him and sat down on the grass, covering his lips and chin, with red eyes, as if he had suffered a great injustice.

So the referee was deceived again and decisively showed the yellow card.

A few years ago, this would have been a red card, Batistuta thought.

"Are you okay?" De Bruyne came over and bent over to ask, "Where did he touch you?"

Batty didn't answer and gave him a 'you know' look.

De Bruyne was stunned for two seconds, then smiled helplessly, "Don't do it next time." He reached out and pulled Batty up, "It's easy to get into trouble."

“But we got a penalty.”

"Yes, you can tease the referee once, twice, but you can't succeed every time." De Bruyne helped him straighten the hem of his jersey. "Have you heard the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'? At that time, even if you are really fouled, the referee will not care about you, but will think you are diving."

Batty didn't care much: "It was Milner who pissed me off that made me do this."

"I know, but try not to do it," De Bruyne said. "You'll get yourself hurt."

Well, this conversation will never end.

Batty rolled his eyes toward the sky.

At this moment, Jesus waved at them in front of the goal——

"Bati! Come and take your penalty!"

So Batistuta patted De Bruyne's arm, indicating that he could talk about this topic next time, and then ran to the penalty spot.

[beep——]
With the referee's whistle, Batty scored the penalty.

[The ball went in! Thanks to Batistuta's penalty, Manchester City beat Liverpool 2-0 at home! Today is also Batistuta's birthday. There are still 35 minutes left. I wonder if he can get a hat-trick before the end of the game and go home with his head held high to celebrate his birthday.]

The answer is no. In the 73rd minute, Liverpool pulled one back. Coutinho and Firmino connected to accurately hit the gap behind Stones. Caballero saved it and Mane followed up and shot into the net.

The two teams maintained this score until the end.

Manchester City originally had a good opportunity to expand the score, but Sane made a low-level mistake when receiving the ball in the frontcourt, and the ball stopped steadily at Sane's feet. Sane rolled twice on the grass and watched the ball roll out of the baseline.

Batistuta on the other side of the penalty area was stunned.

"How did you-"

The German boy got up somewhat awkwardly and gestured to apologize to his teammates. Batistuta took a deep breath, and just when he was about to say something sarcastic, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.

Manchester City narrowly beat Liverpool 2-1 at home.

Arsenal and Chelsea next door also finished their match. Chelsea beat Stoke City 1-0, while Arsenal unexpectedly lost 0-3 to West Bromwich Albion.

In this case, the top four positions will remain unchanged at the end of this round of the league.

……

"Who is the BOSS! We are the BOSS!
Who is the KING! We are the KING! "

The fans' celebratory slogans rang out over the Etihad Stadium. At the moment of victory, Aguero jumped up first. Amid the nervous calls of the team doctors, he rushed into the field wearing the little king's three-piece suit. He found Batistuta, jumped on him, and then put the equipment on him again.

"Great! Batistuta! You'll soon surpass me in the scorer list at this rate." He kissed Batistuta on both cheeks, then asked his teammates to lift the boy up, "See! This is our genius who just turned 18, our little king!"

A large group of people threw Batty into the sky amid the cheers of the fans.

To be honest, the feeling of being thrown up is really not good, especially when the cloak is out of control and directly wraps the person into a meat roll. Everything in front of the eyes is dark and the body is still in the air.

"Alright! Put me down!" Batty struggled to get out of his cloak. Static electricity made all his hair fly. "Stop!"

Aguero laughed and refused.

"No—" he said to the others, "Let's carry him in!"

A group of people surrounded Batistuta and took him into the locker room. When they were passing through the passage, someone shouted, "Don't bow your head, or your crown will fall off!"

However, it was these words that made Batty turn his head, and then his forehead hit the beam.

"Well!"

The crowd dispersed with a noise, and Batty sat on the ground, covering his red forehead with his hands, with a resentful look in his eyes.

Facts have proved that even if you don't bow your head, the crown will fall off.

……

The locker room after the game was as joyful as usual, but there was one more part today, which was the cream war.

The 18th birthday cake given to Batistuta by the club was eaten up by the players, and Batistuta didn't even get to eat a bite of the chocolate underneath.

As the birthday boy, Batistuta was targeted the most and was therefore in the most miserable state.

What's worse is that when the battle was over and the players left the locker room and returned, a group of reporters appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Batistuta, who was covered in cream.

If nothing unexpected happens, the media headlines tonight will be this:

"The star scored 2 goals on his birthday, but was targeted by his teammates after the game"

……

"I'm the one having a birthday, why can't you be nicer to me?" Batty complained as he wiped the cream with a tissue. "Kun is the same. I invited him to my party, and this is how he repays me - by stuffing a big piece of cream in my ear."

After the game, it was soon Batistuta's party. He invited everyone in the club, most of whom agreed to attend, and even Guardiola decided to join in the fun.

However, most of them said that they would go back to their homes first, pack up and then go to the party, except for De Bruyne, who was the least affected in the recent cream war, so he took the initiative to express his willingness to send Batistuta home.

"That's usually what they do to the birthday boy, don't mind it." The Belgian midfielder took more tissues to Batistuta as he drove. "There's one in your collar, too. I saw a piece of strawberry slipped in there."

Barty made a meaningless complaint, grabbed the strawberry slice between two fingers and threw it out the window.

"I have to see what presents they give me. I won't forgive them for treating me like this if they don't give me something good." Barty muttered and removed another chunk from his hair.

Suddenly, through the rearview mirror, he and De Bruyne made eye contact.

The carriage was filled with silence for a few seconds.

"So..." Barty spoke first, "What gift are you going to give me, Kevin?"

【brake--】

De Bruyne turned the steering wheel and parked the car on the side of the road.

Half a minute later, he climbed onto the passenger seat and twisted his body to get closer to Batistuta.

Batistuta was caught off guard, and the scene in front of him was quickly occupied by the serious face of the Belgian midfielder. The distance suddenly shortened, making it impossible for him to focus his vision. After blinking twice and opening his eyes again, Batistuta fell into the other party's sky-like eyes. He could even see the other party's white eyelashes and the skin at the root of the eyelashes.

"Kevin?"

De Bruyne responded vaguely, then he reached out and slid his fingertips down along Batistuta's jawline. Perhaps because the distance was too close and his movements were slow enough, Batistuta felt a ball of fire passing through his skin.

"Kevin?" Batty called the other's name again. He tilted his head, his expression even more innocent than when he was deceiving the referee on the court. "I'm going to be late for the party."

De Bruyne still didn't answer. He unbuckled his seat belt, which made his movements more aggressive.

The tips of their noses almost touched each other, and their breathing became entangled.

"I've been wanting to do this for a long time," he said. "I—"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the car window.

(End of this chapter)