Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 259: 2020/21 First Pre-Season Friendly III

The friendly match at the CTFD Portogaia continued after the Porto payers were done with their celebrations and were back in their half of the field.

The Rio Ave team that had come into this half with hopes of defending and potentially getting a goal or two back had been unstabilized even further by Porto’s goal and were already having problems keeping the flow of the ball constant, but after a while, it seemed they had settled for a defensive game and chose to stay back and let the Porto team have the ball while they defended.

The Porto players didn’t need an invitation and quickly took control of the game and began applying pressure to the Rio Ave team.

They pushed the Rio Ave team further back until they were exchanging the ball only in the Rio Ave team half while the Rio Ave team chased after the ball.

Despite spending most of their time chasing after the ball, the Rio Ave team still managed to keep the Porto team at bay for a while, but the Porto team stayed patient, knowing it was only a matter of time.

In the 54th minute of the game, Otavio came on for Joao Mario, and the game continued once he was on the pitch.

Coming onto the pitch, Otavio immediately began using his fresh legs to oppress the Rio Ave defenders and it was quite clear that his marker couldn’t keep him in check, but Otavio kept going at the Rio Ave defenders until he finally found space in the 59th minute.

Otavio had just received the ball from Viera on the right wing and with a drop of his shoulder to the left, he deceived his marker into thinking he was going left, but with a feint, he escaped the guy and charged towards the ball and sent a pass to Mylo, not stopping his run as he evaded a Rio Ave player.

Mylo didn’t bother taking an extra touch and simply sent a through pass behind the Rio Ave defense and into Otavio’s path.

Receiving the ball behind the Rio Ave defense and just barely managing to stay onside, Otavio smoothly curled the ball behind the Rio Ave goalkeeper without delay.

{GOAL!!!}

{He’s only been on the pitch for five minutes but he’s already gotten one past the goalkeeper!}

{Absolutely fabulous team play and exchange of the ball between the Porto team and they were rewarded with a goal for their efforts!}

{They have five now, and one cannot help but think that there is still more to come} The commentator’s excited commentary showed itself once again in the match and at this point, almost everyone watching the game was already numb to the Porto team’s continuous racking up of a goal difference.

Even then Rio Ave fans were no longer bothered by the loss and were now scared for the coming season instead as losing with such a huge difference in the pre-season did not bode well for their upcoming seasonal campaign.

The players on the pitch were unaffected by any external factors thanks to the empty stands, and soon the match continued.

Just like before, the Porto team continued on their all-out attack against the Rio Ave team with most of the defenders forsaking their defense positions and moving forward to join the attack.

Yet despite this blatant disregard for their defense, their attacking pressure left the Rio Ave team unable to make use of the open opportunity.

However, despite their little success in attack, the Rio Ave team were finally having some success in defending and they somehow managed to hold the Porto team away from adding to their tally until the 80th minute.

Due to the shortage in the striker position, Sergio Conceicao had been trying various efforts to make sure that the lack of presence in the striking position didn’t affect the team and one of the experiments he wished to try out was a position conversion of one of his available players and the player he had chosen for the job was Sergio Oliveira.

Sergio Oliveira was a central midfielder who was a major part of the team, but due to the congestion of players in the midfield position, he hadn’t been able to get much game time.

Even in the upcoming season, Sergio Conceicao wasn’t sure he could guarantee him much game time in the central midfield, and that was one of the factors that had made him choose Sergio Oliveira for his conversion project.

He planned to play Sergio Oliveira in the center forward position and hoped that Oliveira could somehow manage playing in that position and it would be even better if he performed well upfront.

Of course, he had made this decision knowing that Sergio Oliveira had an eye for goal and now he hoped that talent could help the team upfront in the upcoming season.

Thus Sergio Oliveira had been substituted for Mylo at the 65th minute but so far, he had been quiet.

Apart from a few touches on the ball to keep the passes flowing like he normally did in the midfield, he also joined the team in pressing from the front, helping the team to shut down the Rio Ave team before they could even make it to the defense line, but in his attacking endeavors for the team, he hadn’t been able to get anything going.

However, that was about to change.

The Porto team had been on the attack as they passed the ball around the Rio Ave’s players just outside the Rio Ave 18-yard box.

Suddenly Otavio tried to break through the Rio Ave defense line by dribbling past his marker, but this time, no matter how many tricky movements Otavio made, the guy just wouldn’t be shaken off and Otavio ended up turning and sending the ball back to Pepe.

Pepe received the ball and waited for a Rio Ave player to come at him before sending the ball down left to Zaidu Sanusi.

Zaidu quickly moved the ball down the left side of the field and passed the ball to Toni Martinez in his path while continuing his run on the outside.

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