[Football] Bad Boy Batty

For Argentine fans, the second half of the week was simply heaven. Apart from making fun of Batistuta's pass to Aguero, Messi was like a god descending from heaven and single-handedly led Argentina into the World Cup. In the last round of the World Cup qualifiers, Argentina defeated Ecuador 3-0 away and successfully qualified.

At this point, the South American qualifiers for the World Cup have all ended. Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Colombia have advanced to the World Cup, while Peru ranks fifth with a goal difference advantage over Chile. In the future, it will participate in the intercontinental play-offs and compete with New Zealand in Oceania for the remaining places.

After sending last year's Copa America champion Chile home with a 3-0 victory, Brazil played warm-up matches against England, also known as international football friendly matches. To be honest, Batistuta thought they were completely unnecessary.

As expected, the warm-up matches between Brazil and England, Belgium and Japan, and Germany and Spain all ended in a draw. Some fans launched a vote online to select the most boring match during the international match day, and the match between Brazil and England was voted in by a large margin.

Most people think that this game was the worst to watch. The two sides were tied in 90 minutes. The highly-anticipated Neymar, Batistuta, and Rashford all failed to perform. In the end, the two sides ended up with a goalless draw.

After the game, many media outlets specifically asked Batistuta questions, hoping to get some explosive content from him. Batistuta didn't buy it and only answered a few simple questions before leaving the interview area. If he had stayed any longer, he might have criticized FIFA from top to bottom.

……

By mid-to-late November, all national team match days were over and most players ended their national team journeys and returned to their clubs. The same was true for Batistuta. He, Ederson and Jesus were among the first to return to the club, but they only prepared for two days before embarking on the road to play.

In the end, Manchester City beat Huddersfield 2-0, who were hovering near the relegation zone, but the price they paid was heavy.

In the 33rd minute of the first half, Stones had to leave the field early due to a right thigh strain. Not long after, Danilo also felt discomfort in his knee. Guardiola replaced him out of caution. At the beginning of the second half, Kompany used a dangerous move to get himself a ruby ​​card, and Manchester City had to play with 10 players.

And Sterling then became happy at a very inopportune time.

In the 48th minute, David Silva made a straight pass from the middle to break through Huddersfield's defense. Batistuta followed up on the right, and then watched Sterling dribbling the ball slower and slower, and finally shot with no space, but the goalkeeper easily saved it.

"Rahim! What are you thinking about? Why are you slowing down?" Batty opened his eyes wide in disbelief. "If you don't dare to kick it, just give it to me. I'm already in position. Don't you see it?"

"I'm afraid of offside." Sterling replied, shaking his hands irritably.

"Fuck offside! Is your brain a mess? We were already in the penalty area and the linesman didn't raise the flag, so how can you say it's offside!" Batistuta rolled his eyes at him, "Besides, if it was already offside, why didn't you just kick the ball in? Let's assume that the referee's eyesight is not good, then it will be counted as a goal!"

Oh, don't say that casually.

Batistuta's voice was not small, so Guardiola quickly called him to his side and gave him some instructions. The last thing you should mess with on the field is the referee. It is very easy for them to target a team, and sometimes it is even within the rules, so you can't find any fault with it.

"I know you are frustrated and tired now. Everyone is. It's just a one-on-one chance. It's no big deal." Guardiola patted Batistuta's hair and said to him quickly, "You know they (defenders) can't stop you. One less person can't stop us from creating opportunities. Go and win the game!"

Batistuta took a deep breath and nodded to Guardiola.

……

However, things are unpredictable and the same missed opportunity happened again 10 minutes later.

The protagonist is still Sterling.

De Bruyne dribbled through the midfield and passed a low ball into the penalty area from the right side. Batistuta attracted the attention of two defenders on the right side of the penalty area. Aguero took the ball with his back, held off the defender and turned to shoot. The ball was saved by the goalkeeper and bounced back into the field, right in front of Sterling.

However, facing an empty goal less than 3 meters away, the England striker kicked the ball out of the baseline and resolutely spit out the cake that was almost delivered to his mouth.

"Wtf!"

"How could this ball not go in, Rahim!"

"You...I am really impressed!"

This time it wasn't just Batistuta who complained. There was a groan in Manchester City's frontcourt, and even Guardiola held his head in pain on the sidelines. The broadcast camera perfectly recorded this precious scene. After all, when the game was at a stalemate, the reactions of the players and coaches became the best solution to increase ratings.

[Typical FIFA sequelae.] The commentator gave the answer in the studio, [Today's Manchester City team seemed to be sleepwalking. It's not their fault. They have to play just a few days after returning from the national team. Many players will be in poor condition. Only Batistuta is still young, so the symptoms are not obvious in him, but Sterling's two missed empty-net shots are indeed a bit excessive.]

"Now you know how I felt just now. If Ramsey had been better at seizing opportunities, just a little bit, we should have been ahead by at least one goal." Batistuta ran over to complain to De Bruyne, "We were at the top of the table, but after 1 minutes we were tied 60-0 by a relegation team. Who could have imagined that?"

"Don't take it personally. You also said they are a relegation team. We will always score a goal. It's just a matter of time." De Bruyne was a little abnormal today. He didn't ruffle Batistuta's hair or kiss him while talking, and he didn't even hook his neck. "Go back to your position. Pep is watching you."

Batty looked at him strangely for a few seconds, turned around and went back to his seat without saying anything. In fact, Kevin had been acting strange since he came back from Belgium, but he had never asked much about it. Now it seemed that the problem was quite serious, so Batty decided to wait until the game was over to ask him what was going on.

But he thought too early.

Sterling's happy time was not over yet. In the 63rd minute, Batistuta dribbled the ball on the right side of the penalty area. After thinking for a while between dribbling and crossing, he chose to pass the ball to the middle. Aguero's shot was blocked by the goalkeeper. Kompany got the ball on the outside, pulled the opponent's defense line and passed the ball to Sterling on the left. Sterling dribbled the ball inside, and then kicked the ball wide when he created a gap and got a perfect shooting space.

Compared to his first two mistakes, this one was not that bad, but the result was still the same, so it just felt like 'three missed empty-net shots'.

Is this guy an undercover agent sent by the other side?

Batty has given up complaining into Sterling's ear because it would have no effect at all. He now deeply regrets not choosing to dribble past the opponent.

Qiao Lin mentioned to him a Chinese saying: "You can make the same mistake once, twice, but not a third time." The same mistake can be made once or twice, but a third time is unforgivable.

Guardiola didn't seem to want to replace Sterling. Batistuta gnashed his teeth and thought, it's time to be selfish.

……

So in the next 20 minutes until the end, Batistuta never passed the ball to Sterling again. Even when he was in a bad position, he chose to shoot instead of passing the ball. This is a situation that no head coach wants to see.

There were still 5 minutes left and the score was still 0-0, which gave Huddersfield players hope. They seized every opportunity to fight back and try to end the defending champions' undefeated record last season at home.

Guardiola hurriedly called De Bruyne to deploy: "Tell Batistuta to stop doing this, I would rather have a draw or even a loss than see him have an attitude problem!"

However, before De Bruyne could find Batistuta, something unexpected happened on the field.

In the 87th minute, Batistuta dribbled into the penalty area again and was pulled down after passing the opponent continuously. The referee penalized the Huddersfield defender for a foul and gave him a yellow card and a penalty.

Aguero is still Manchester City's first penalty taker this season, but most of the time Aguero chooses to take the penalty created by Batistuta.

[The game is coming to an end, and Manchester City gets a penalty kick. This is their best chance to change the result! Batistuta's penalty kick is still very stable. As long as nothing unexpected happens, then - wait? ]

To everyone's surprise, Batty angrily threw the ball into Sterling's arms.

"You come!"

Sterling opened his eyes wide, "You want to, you want to give me this penalty kick Batty?" He asked in disbelief, "How did you-"

"Don't be happy too soon." Batty pinched his arm, then squeezed out a few words from between his teeth, "I have never given anyone a fourth chance. You are the first. If you don't score this time, I will kill you when we get back to the locker room. Do you hear me?"

Sterling gave Batty a grateful look.

"I won't let you down." He said as he wiped the ball with his jersey and walked solemnly to the free throw spot.

Batistuta was not sure if what he was doing was right, so he stepped back and stood outside the penalty area with his teammates, ready to rush in and take a follow-up shot at any time.

Sterling scored in one fell swoop, and the happy boy finally stopped playing happy football. In the 88th minute of the second half, Manchester City led 1-0 away.

After scoring the goal, Manchester City players seemed to be relieved and played less compactly. In the stoppage time, Sterling made an assist, Aguero made a fake shot and missed the ball, and Batistuta made a successful shot without stopping the ball. 2-0! Manchester City scored two goals in 5 minutes to seal the victory and achieve a desperate counterattack.

"You should have done it earlier, Raheem." After scoring the goal, Batty jumped on Sterling's back and gave him a loud slap on the head. "If you waste the opportunity again next time, I will scold you."

With Batistuta taking the lead, the others had no more scruples and lined up to hit the striker who had wasted several chances. Sterling rubbed his forehead with a silly smile and accepted all the blows.

"Not next time," Sterling promised.

"I don't believe it! You will definitely dare to do it again next time!" Batty jumped off him with a wicked smile, then pushed Sterling to the grass, and then waved to his teammates, "Come on, let's teach baby Raheem a lesson!"

"Ohhhh yeah!"

Aguero was the first to respond. He rushed forward and held down Sterling who was trying to escape. Kyle Walker also stepped forward to help. At the end of the game, Manchester City played human towers on the sidelines. Even the most calm captain Kompany and Guardiola jumped up to try it out. However, Batistuta, the initiator, was smart enough to stay until the end.

"Come on, Kevin, what are you waiting for?" Batistuta turned over and leaned on the human tower formed by his teammates, waving at De Bruyne. "Ramsey also wasted your assist. This is a good opportunity to take revenge on him."

Sterling: "Bati! I knew you had bad intentions!"

"Shut up, you are a spitting striker and you have no right to speak." Batty said and looked at De Bruyne, this time with a pleading look in his eyes, "Come on Kevin, I'm waiting for you."

De Bruyne's face turned red. He stood there and looked at Batistuta for a while, and finally chose to compromise. He curled the corners of his mouth slightly, then took two steps back, took a run-up, and jumped onto the human tower.

Sterling, who was at the bottom, pretended to scream, but finally stopped moving.

Feeling De Bruyne's breath beside his ear, Batistuta rolled his eyes, thinking that the problem was not too serious. So that night he found an excuse to follow De Bruyne home, ready to use a warm night to resolve the other's knot.

However, he thought too simply and did not realize that De Bruyne's condition was related to him.

and so--

The result can be imagined.

In short, Manchester City won the game without any major fuss and maintained their undefeated streak for the season.

And Guardiola has to worry about the defenders again.

(End of this chapter)