八字万年历

Chapter 217: Arrival at the MSV-Arena

Joining the few teammates that had already arrived, Jason left his luggage to the staff who would be doing the loading and he sat comfortably inside the bus after greeting his teammates.

As more teammates arrived, Jason received quite a few congratulations from his teammates who had heard of him sweeping up three LPFP awards.

While waiting for the bus to fill up, Jason put on his headphones and began listening to music as he waited and it didn’t take too long before the last teammate who would be going to Germany with the team arrived.

Telles had arrived last and had surprised everyone with a new look of dying part of his hair blue while dying his beard grey.

Surprisingly, Marega had also done something similar though he had arrived a while earlier.

After sharing a few laughs with the team while his luggage was being packed, Telles sat in his seat and the team bus soon started moving.

The bus headed to Francisco Sa Carneiro Airport where the Porto team’s private jet was hangared. They would be taking off from the airport and heading to the Dortmund DTM Airport which was the nearest airport to North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany, where the rest of the Europa League was scheduled to take place.

Getting on the plane took more time than ever before because of the various tests that the players had to go through to ensure that they were safe from the COVID-19 virus.

After almost a full hour, the plane carrying the Porto players finally took to the skies at high speed.

The flight to the Dortmund DTM Airport took almost three hours before the plane finally touched down in Germany.

After the check-in and even more tests, they boarded a chartered bus that took them to Althoff Grandhotel Schloss Bensberg where rooms had already been booked for the players’ stay in Germany.

Of course, not knowing how long they would be staying in Germany would make things a bit complicated in their reservations, but that was for the club’s staff to worry about and did not concern the players whose only concern was their performance on the pitch in the coming days.

Every other thing related to the players’ stay in Germany like their boarding, their feeding, where they would be training while they were here, and any other such concerns were the club staff’s business and were not the Porto players’ cup of tea.

After lodging at the hotel, the players had a quick lunch and were released to rest for the rest of the day.

**6th August 2020**

*5:30 pm*

It had been almost three days since Porto had arrived at North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany for the continuation of the Europa League and today was the day that the Europa League would kick off again with the first match between Porto and Rangers.

Since arriving in Germany three days ago, the Porto team’s schedule had been filled mostly with training and lounging around at their hotel as this was no time to be going sightseeing.

Apart from the risk of being exposed to the Coronavirus, the players also did not feel the need to explore the North-Rhine Westphalia region of Germany when there was an upcoming match… a very important one for that matter.

They had instead been more focused on putting their full efforts into training and preparing for their Europa League campaign instead of playing tourists.

The days had flown by as they prepared and the d-day had already arrived.

The match was scheduled to start at 8:30 pm, but the players were already on the bus and en route to the MSV-Arena in Duisburg which would be the venue for the Porto vs Rangers match.

On arriving at the MSV-Arena the Porto players got down from their bus and headed into the stadium, their faces a picture of determination and most of them ignoring the flashing cameras.

Some of the players sent a few smiles and waves at the cameras but, most of them just walked in irresponsive of the cameras flashing.

On reaching their allocated locker room, the players started changing out of their suits and into their pre-match training outfits.

After changing, most of the players headed to the field to begin pre-match training, but four players remained behind with Sergio Conceicao.

The four players who remained were Pepe, Alex Telles, Tiquinho Soares, and Jason.

They had been told to wait behind by the manager as they would be following him to the press conference due to them currently being the major interests in the team.

Pepe was the team captain, Telles was an irreplaceable member of the team and had been named as LPFP Primera Liga Player of the Season, Tiquinho Soares was the highest goal scorer for the Porto team, and Jason was the young talent making waves at the club and was named the fan favorite of the team after an online poll held by the Porto fans.

The head manager was taking this squad of names with him to the pre-match conference as he wanted to make a statement of intent.

Not only he, but the Porto players and fans were all intent on seeing Porto advance through the Europa League and try to end the season with a triple.

It was definitely a back-breaking task considering they would be going up against some of the best sides in Europe, but one could at least have hopes and dreams.

The Porto side had such hopes and dreams and they had been working hard at the training grounds ever since they arrived in Germany, all in a bid to turn their hopes and dreams into a reality.

They were a picture of determination and were ready to give their all in the coming game, and the game after that, as well as the game that would follow… assuming they got that far, but that was not a matter for consideration.

The least they could do was try irrespective of the future that awaited them.