八字万年历

Chapter 137: Vs Rio Ave X

The shrill sound of the referee’s whistle threw the stadium into a turbulence of oppressive emotions.

The Rio Ave team had been desperately launching attack after attack in a bid to break down the Porto defense and they had finally managed to successfully step into the Porto 18-yard box.

While trying to prevent the situation from being more dangerous, Ivan Marcano had immediately made a challenge on the player.

The Rio Ave player had tried to escape Ivan Marcano’s tackle and managed to move the ball out of the way of the tackle which led to Marcano’s tackle sweeping him off his foot without managing to touch the ball.

Ivan Marcano had desperately hoped that the referee didn’t notice the foul, but his hopes were immediately blown when the referee blew his whistle with his hand pointed to the penalty spot.

Before the Porto players could even try to convince the referee, he pulled out a yellow card from his breast pocket and showed Ivan Marcano the yellow card.

Of course, the Porto players remained undaunted and still ran up to the referee to try and argue that the penalty shouldn’t be given, but the referee turned a deaf ear to their arguments, staying with his decision.

He didn’t even bother checking with the VAR because he had seen the whole situation clearly and was a hundred percent sure that it was a penalty.

The Porto players and fans’ faces fell when they saw Mehdi Taremi take up the ball to take the penalty.

Their victory was about to be reduced to a draw and there was not going to be enough time to try and take the lead again after this as the time had already run out.

The time on the clock was ’94:16′ which indicated that even the added time had run out and the whistle would likely be blown immediately after the penalty was taken.

Immediately realizing that there was only one way out of this predicament, the Porto players went to their goalkeeper and tried to hype him up as he was the only one who could save the team.

As long as Augustin Marchesin managed to save the penalty, then the Porto side was almost guaranteed a win… of course, the same thing would happen if Mehdi Taremi missed the penalty, but the chance of that happening was even lower than the chances of Augustin Marchesin saving the penalty.

The referee didn’t give the Porto team much time to hype up their goalkeeper as he immediately started shooing them out of the 18-yard box so that the Rio Ave team could take their penalty.

With all the other Porto players apart from their goalkeeper outside the 18-yard box, Mehdi Taremi placed the ball on the penalty spot and took five steps back, regulating his breathing to calm down his tension as he awaited the referee’s whistle.

The whole stadium was filled with tension-filled mumbles and everyone watched and waited with eager tension.

Augustin Marchesin could almost feel the tension and the pressure as well, but as an experienced goalkeeper who had been in similar situations, he recalled his composure from deep within himself and stared down Mehdi Taremi, trying to impose his presence in Taremi’s mind but Taremi stared back at him completely unfazed.

*Fweeeeee*

The referee’s whistle blew loudly and could be heard in every corner of the tension-filled stadium and it was immediately followed by Taremi’s first step at the ball.

Advancing at the ball at a steady pace, Taremi ran up to the ball and swung hard.

The ball took flight immediately and flew towards the left side of the Porto goal at an alarming pace, yet the ball also seemed to be moving in slow motion in the eyes of everyone watching the penalty kick.

The ball flew unhindered at the Porto goal, but at the last minute, Augustin Marchesin’s figure appeared in sight and his hands managed to reach the ball and deflect it slightly.

*CLANG!!!*

Due to the slight deflection, the ball smashed against the left post of the goal, but to the dismay of the Porto players and fans, the ball flew back at Taremi after smashing against the crossbar.

{What a save! But the chance isn’t lost yet!} The commentator squealed in excitement.

Having not managed to score the penalty from the spot kick, Taremi lost his cool and immediately smashed his foot at the ball to catch it on the volley and send it back at the goal but before the ball managed to make it into the Porto goal, Augustin Marchesin appeared yet again and got his hand to the ball and pushed the ball upward and over the goal.

{And it’s saved yet again by Marchesin!!!}

{A double save when his team needed it most!!!}

{With that, he has successfully made up for his team’s earlier blunder and joined the ranks of heroes for today’s game}

{His teammates are joyous and the fans, ecstatic… he’ll definitely be getting a pat on the back from the manager after the game!!!} The commentator couldn’t keep his voice down despite the fact that he was already speaking into a microphone.

*Fweeeeeeee* *Fwweeeeeee*

The referee immediately blew the final whistle, not even giving the Rio Ave team a chance at taking the corner kick and the Porto players ran at Augustin Marchesin and jumped on him, celebrating as if they had just scored a goal.

The fans weren’t left out and even the players on the bench as well as some of the technical staff joined the post-match celebrations.

The Rio Ave team on the other hand was devastated and Taremi was laying on the ground listlessly, not believing that he could and had squandered his team’s last chance at redemption.

The Rio Ave fans were also very disappointed and had half an inkling to let loose their tongues on the Iranian striker for wasting their team’s clear-cut chance at equalizing with Porto, but they also realized that the striker had already done his best for the team.

He was the only reason why they were even able to do this much against the league giants, F.C. Porto… their not being able to equalize against Porto was just not meant to be, it seemed.

Unknown to the Rio Ave team and their fans, their striker had managed to catch the eye of the Porto team manager, Sergio Conceicao.

“Put his name on the list and scout him,” Sergio Conceicao muttered to Vitor Bruno who responded with a nod.