八字万年历

Chapter 263: Liga NOS is Back! II

GK: Augustin Marchesin,

LB: Zaidu Sanusi,

CBs: Pepe, Ivan Marcano,

RB: Wilson Manafa,

CMFs: Mattheus Uribe, Otavio,

LMF: Luis Diaz,

RMF: Fabio Viera,

CFs: Moussa Marega, Sergio Oliveira.

Porto and Braga’s first game of the 2020/21 Liga NOS kicked off with a sharp blast of the referee’s whistle at 9:00 pm sharp and the game took off.

With both sides being relatively well matched, the first few minutes of the game were spent testing each other, but by the fifth minute, the ball had begun flying from one corner of the field to the other with both teams already looking to get the game to a quick start.

By the time another ten minutes elapsed, the teams already had a few shots at their opponent’s goal, but it was hard to tell who had the upper hand as they were still matching each other pace for pace.

In the 21st minute of the game, however, the balance of the game was broken, and surprisingly it was done by the Braga team.

Despite all the talks about the two teams being equally matched, even the neutrals would pick Porto as more likely to win so when the Braga team got a ball past the Porto goalkeeper everyone was surprised.

The Braga team had been on the attack, the ball moving fluidly but swiftly among them and the ball had ended up being crossed into the penalty box by Ricardo Horta and found Andre Castro who was making his debut for the Braga team.

Andre didn’t hesitate to make a dream come through with a thunderous smack at the ball that sent it flying into the top right corner of the Porto goal.

{GOAL!!!}

{Before the game began, we debated whether Braga had it in them to be dragon slayers, and now they have taken a step in that direction!}

{Dream strike from the new Braga man! He’s gotten a goal on his debut!}

{Is this a sign of good things to come for Braga!?} The commentator did not hesitate to get to work and his excited commentary filled up the stadium that was devoid of physical cheers.

The Porto fans watching the game felt their confidence take a hit as they saw their team go behind, but they kept their heads up as they had unwavering trust in their team to still be able to pull off a comeback.

At the Estadio do Dragao, the match soon resumed after the Braga team was done with their celebrations.

Unlike the fans of the Porto team expected, after the kickoff to resume the game, Porto didn’t make any special efforts to go above and beyond what they were already doing.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to equalize the game, but they knew more than anyone else how important it was to keep one’s shape after conceding a goal if they wanted to avoid conceding even more.

They could not afford to lose their cool especially now and go behind even further just because they were rushing to equalize.

There was still time.

Thus the Porto team first secured their defense and shut down all the spaces that the Braga team was able to slip through earlier and from there they gradually went on the press to retrieve possession.

After retrieving possession, they settled for keeping possession and slowly advancing up the field.

Inevitably, they lost the ball a few times, but they always managed to snatch the ball back before the Braga team could get into a dangerous position, and from there they went back on the attack, pushing the Braga team back.

The end of the first half was rapidly approaching but Porto hadn’t yet gotten the equalizer that their fans so dearly wanted to see.

On the sidelines, the assistant referee held up the board to show that there would be an additional three minutes of injury time.

Almost as if on cue, the Porto team suddenly burst out on another attack after seeing the time that had been allocated to them as injury time.

Fabio Viera who was with the ball on the right wing tried to dribble past his marker down the right wing, but even though he managed to create a bit of space after a quick cut to the right, it was not enough for him to get a cross in so he passed back to Wilson Manafa behind him.

Manafa didn’t hold the ball for long and quickly released the ball to Otavio who was on his left and just a few meters outside Braga’s penalty box.

Otavio received the ball on the move and laid the ball off to Moussa Marega who was in the Braga penalty box but had his back facing the goal.

Otavio had begun moving forward after giving the pass and his marker immediately chased after him thinking that Marega would return the ball to Otavio to complete a one-two pass routine, but Marega instead made a tricky move of making a pass to his left with a fancy flick and Sergio Oliveira was there to receive it.

{Oh, a cheeky pass…! Can he find someone!?}

Sergio Oliveira rammed the side of his right foot into the ball from the edge of the penalty box and sent the ball flying into the bottom left corner of Braga’s goal.

{Oliveira!? GOAL!!!}

{Porto have their equalizer! And it’s come just before half-time!}

{There couldn’t be a better time to get an equalizer for the Porto team!} The commentator once again burst out in excitement, commenting excitedly for all he was worth, fully displaying his impartiality to the fans of the two teams.

He was only subservient to the team that performed plays worthy of his excited commentary and that was clear.

However, the Porto fans could not be bothered to care about that at the moment as they were instead more focused on celebrating their team’s equalizer just as much as the Porto players at the stadium.