Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 265: Liga NOS is Back IV

After the Porto team had performed a dramatic comeback at the end of the first half, the first half ended and the players headed to their locker rooms for a much-needed fifteen-minute rest.

Due to the comeback, the conversations the managers of the two teams had with their respective players had drastically changed from what they had originally intended, and unlike Sergio Conceicao who was happy with the change, the Braga coach wasn’t happy with the change.

All Sergio Conceicao had to do was make minor adjustments to a game plan that was already working and give a few players more instructions on how to shut down their opponent’s attacks, and find spaces to get more goals.

However, in the Braga locker room, the manager had to function as a motivational speaker, a strategist, and a cold general to his players all in a bid to ready them for the upcoming second half.

Time passed quickly with all that going on.

*Fweeeeee*

The referee’s whistle blew to start the second half and Braga was the team that kicked off the second half of the game.

After passing the ball around for almost a full minute while warding off the Porto players from stealing possession, they quickly began implementing their manager’s instructions.

Quickly sending the ball down the wings where the Porto defense was slightly weaker, they tried to work their way into the Porto penalty box, but despite managing to break past the defense a few times, they had been unable to equalize thanks to heroics from the Porto goalkeeper or the terrible luck of the Braga players.

The clock continued running down but neither of the two teams managed to score another goal and soon the managers turned to their bench.

Players from both teams were substituted on and off to try and break the deadlock in the second half of the game.

For the Porto side, Jesus Corona was the first player to come on the pitch.

Coming on for Fabio Viera in the sixtieth minute after his injury against the Braga team in the last game of the previous season.

After Jesus Corona was Mylo who came on for Sergio Oliveira in the 72nd minute.

However, despite the changes made by the two managers to the lineup and their game plans as the game continued, neither of the two teams managed to score a goal even by the 85th minute of the game.

With the end of the match approaching, the Braga players let go of all reservations at the bequest of their manager and they stormed forward into the Porto half with the intention of getting at least an equalizer since a comeback was looking almost impossible for them at this point.

The Porto manager’s response to that was another substitution, but instead of the defensive player that almost everyone was expecting, the manager had instead chosen to bring on one of the new strikers who had just joined the team in the transfer window, Mehdi Taremi.

Mehdi Taremi did not need much of an adjustment period after joining Porto as he was already playing in the Portuguese League hence why he could quickly become a part of the Porto head manager’s plans.

Sergio Conceicao’s counter plan to the Braga team’s all-out attacking strategy was a counter-attacking strategy of his own.

When the Braga team had done something similar in the first half, the Porto team had been able to launch a devastating counterattack that although didn’t directly lead to a goal, led to the penalty that gave his team the lead.

The Porto manager planned to exploit this weakness hence his addition of fresh legs to his team’s front line.

In the 88th minute of the game, just as Sergio Conceicao had expected, the Braga team had lost the ball and left themselves open to a counterattack and according to his instructions, his players didn’t hesitate and immediately burst forward with the ball.

The ball flew from player to player as the Porto team burst forward, running into spaces where there was and sending the ball ahead when the space was narrow.

Soon the ball reached the final third of the pitch, but due to the Braga team’s efforts, they were almost recovered and were gradually blocking the counterattack.

Jesus Corona who was with the ball saw the space closing up and sent a last-ditch through pass forward to no one in particular, but Mehdi Taremi chased after the ball and got behind it just as it entered the right side of the penalty box, but though there wasn’t a single player in front of him, the angle he was standing at was too awkward for him to take a shot and hope to get a goal.

Knowing that his agility would not allow him to right himself while evading his marker who was right behind him, he decided to do the next best thing.

Changing direction slightly so he was in a slightly less awkward position and made as if to shoot the ball, alarming his marker and causing the guy to lose his head and clash into him from behind.

The moment he felt the Braga player crashing into him from behind, he didn’t waste any time in going along with the flow of force and even jumped a bit to add a bit of exaggeration in as he fell to the ground in Braga’s penalty box.

*Fweeeeee*

The shrill blasting of the referee’s whistle from somewhere behind him let him know his plan had worked as he sat up with a hint of a smile on his face and held his hands up to call even more attention to his situation.

Taremi didn’t have to overreact further as the referee was already pointing to the penalty spot for the second time in the match and it was still against the Braga team.

With his aim already achieved, Taremi was pulled up by Jesus Corona without much fanfare, but there was an evident smile on his face as he watched the Braga players argue with the referee that he had hardly been touched and that he had dived.

In truth, Mehdi Taremi also knew that he had dived, and a lot of other people could see it as well, but the problem was that the Braga defender had aided his performance by slamming into him from behind, thus despite his over-exaggeration of the situation, the penalty was rightfully given.

In the end, the Braga players weren’t able to convince the referee and Mehdi Taremi put the ball down on the penalty spot as he was to take the penalty.

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