The Greatest of all Time

Chapter 346 Parking the Bus

After the goal celebrations, the game resumed. Juventus continued attacking in full swing, all guns blazing. They launched a fierce offensive in the remaining minutes of injury time as they searched for that one goal that would immediately take them through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

However, the Rosenborg players remained steadfast and uncompromising in defense. They remained tactically disciplined and ensured that the Italian giants would not create more opportunities at goal.

The time passed by quickly, and finally, the referee blew the whistle after six minutes of injury time. The score was still 3:1 in favor of Juventus for the night. But since Rosenborg had also previously won 3:1 in Turin, the overall aggregate score was a tie of 4:4. And since there was no clear winner at the end of regular time, the game would be heading into thirty-minute overtime.

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There was only a five-minute break before the start of the thirty-minute overtime. The members of the technical staff of both teams had taken center stage. They were doing their best to prep their respective players for the extra thirty minutes of football.

The Rosenborg players had already settled down in a circle on one side of the pitch. They continued to chug down water as they received therapeutic massages from the skilled Rosenborg medics and assistant coaches. All the while, they were also listening to Coach Johansen's pre-overtime briefing.

"Our first and foremost priority is to avoid conceding a goal within the thirty minutes of overtime," the coach said, pacing back and forth in the middle of the circle. "So, most of the time, we'll all have to stay in defense and deny space for Juventus' attacking players to create opportunities."

"Marking will need to be tight in our defensive third since we don't want to allow any opponent to break through into our box. Our defensive width will also have to be narrow, and if we can't stop a player, we bring him down long before he can step into our box. Our aim is to frustrate our opponents and limit them to long-ranged chances by playing nine or ten men in front of the ball."

"As for you, Nicki," the coach continued, turning towards the center forward, "You'll have to keep a close eye on their deep-lying playmaker - Andrea Pirlo. Don't let him escape from you and unleash those long-range passes that are very dangerous to our defense. And also, beware that he can dribble if there's a need. So, you need to be on your toes and ensure that he doesn't elude you. If you miss the ball while marking him, don't also miss the leg. Okay?"

"Yes, coach," Nicki replied, nodding.

The coach finally turned towards Zachary. "Zachary, you have an extra role," he said, "We'll rely on you to initiate the counterattack whenever there's an opportunity. Be swift in transition from defense to attack and ensure that you're efficient. Kasongo and Ekambi! You will aid Zachary on that front. However, if the attack fails, all three of you have to fall back into defense at your fastest speeds as our primary aim is defending. Are we together?"

"Yes, coach."

The coach glanced at his watch. "It's almost time. Get ready to go back on the pitch. Remember, tactical discipline and hard work are the two most important keys necessary to achieve the desired result from this game. If we play as a team, we'll easily overcome Juventus."

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On the other side of the pitch, Coach Conte was also finalizing his pre-overtime briefing. "We'll attack from the first minute with a high tempo and ensure that we don't allow the opponents a moment of rest. We'll also play with urgency and release more crosses and through-passes into the box for Osvaldo and Fernando. We don't want to drag this game for too long. We need to score a goal within the first fifteen minutes of overtime. Got it?"

"Yes, coach," the players replied.

"Vidal and Claudio!" The coach turned towards the two midfielders. "I don't care what you do, but make sure that Zachary Bemba doesn't launch another successful counter against us. He is the only variable in the entire Rosenborg who might actually be able to prevent us from winning this game."

"So, you guys have to be constantly on your toes. If you can't stop him, don't be scared to pull his shirt or something. We're already in overtime. There's nothing a yellow card can do to us. Okay?"

"Yes, coach."

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The thirty-minute overtime finally restarted after the five-minute intermission. Juventus kicked off the ball that time around and immediately launched a fierce attack on Rosenborg.

Vidal received the ball close to the center circle before passing it to Pogba, who'd just run into space. The latter immediately flicked it to Andrea Pirlo — the deep-lying playmaker positioned just a few yards behind him.

Before Pirlo could control the ball, Nicki Nielsen was upon him, harassing him to prevent him from unleashing any killer passes towards Rosenborg's box.

However, Pirlo turned away from the center forward with a single deft touch before dribbling the ball towards the other side of the pitch. He quickly covered a distance of more than five yards through the middle before looping the ball over the defense to find Stephan Lichtsteiner on the right flank.

Stephan Lichtsteiner, the attacking wing-back who'd come on as a substitute, controlled the ball well. He took off instantaneously, racing towards the other side of the pitch like a Ferrari on a formula one race track.

Kasongo tried to stop his run a moment later. However, the wing-back was surprisingly agile and broke past him with a burst of speed. Stephan continued racing with the ball through the wing before releasing a curling cross towards the box.

Both Fernando Llorente and Daniel Osvaldo immediately rose up to meet the ball within the box. But fortunately for Rosenborg, Yerry Mina was in a position to check their jumps.

The tall Columbian pushed off the ground before heading the ball away to safety. He'd saved Rosenborg from conceding a goal in the second minute of overtime.

Be that as it may, Juventus didn't lose all their attacking ferocity and aggressiveness due to a single missed opportunity. They continued storming Rosenborg's box with crosses, grounded through-passes, and long-range aerial balls. They pulled out all the stops to score and secure their place in the quarter-finals.

However, their efforts bore no fruits due to Rosenborg's determination and tactical discipline.

The Troll Kids defended deep in their half, tackling and intercepting balls like their lives were on the line. They didn't just park the bus in those minutes of overtime. Instead, they literally brought a Norwegian Air Shuttle plane and parked it in front of their goal to prevent Juventus from scoring.

With nine or ten men constantly between the ball and the goal, they forced Juventus to resort to long-range shots and high crosses over the defense. But those couldn't bring much of a threat to Rosenborg.

The Troll Kids always outnumbered the Italian giants within their defensive third due to the ultra-defensive tactics. So, Rosenborg was constantly at an advantage when clearing the high crosses and blocking the long-range shots. As a result, they limited Juventus to only a few attempts on target throughout the first twenty-five minutes of overtime.

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Zachary was growing more anxious as the match approached the end of the 30 minutes of overtime. He was tense since he didn't want the game to head into penalties.

He didn't like the whole prospect of leaving his team's fate to a process that relied mainly on luck rather than actual footballing skill. So, he started working harder than ever to win the ball back and launch a counter.

He was like a tireless maniac in the defensive midfield as he constantly ran at opponents and tried to intercept balls. And finally, his attempts paid off in the 28th minute, with only two minutes remaining to the end of overtime.

After receiving a pass from Vidal, Paul Pogba tried to dribble past Zachary at the border of the defensive third. With flamboyant footsteps, the Frenchman faked going right before stopping suddenly. He then changed his center of gravity before trying to break through the other direction with a burst of speed.

But Zachary was having none of his nonsense. He immediately slid in and tackled the ball off his feet with an outstretched boot. Before the Juventus man could realize what was happening, he was already tumbling to the green.

"Ref! Foul!"

Pogba cried out and raised his arms as the tackled ball rolled towards Thomas Partey, Rosenborg's defensive midfielder. But the referee just ignored Pogba and motioned for play to continue.

Thomas Partey immediately returned the ball to Zachary, who'd just picked himself up from the ground.

Zachary received it and quickly flicked it towards the wing to find Karl Toko Ekambi, who'd just made a daring run towards Juventus' half.

Ekambi controlled the ball mid-sprint before feeding it past Martín Cáceres, one of Juventus' center backs. He beat the defender for pace and then squared a beauty of a pass to Nicki Nielsen, who'd opened himself up in the middle of the pitch.

Nicki connected with the pin-point pass and immediately skipped past a challenge by Leonardo Bonucci with a simple deft touch. He then kicked the ball to his left—into Zachary's sprinting path the next moment.

Zachary didn't even bother to slow down to control the ball. Instead, he met it with his boot on the sprint and fed it past Giorgio Chiellini, the only remaining Juventus defender. Before long, he was running into yards of free space, clearly bound for the goal without any obstructions.

His long strides were like the rims of a moving bike as his lungs labored to take in rapid breaths of air to support his intensive burning of energy. His vision soon became hazy as he approached the goal at breakneck speed. He was obviously running out of stamina, especially after playing more than 120 minutes of highly-competitive football.

But he persisted and kept going through the sheer willpower, supported by his conviction to win and take his team to the quarter-finals. He unearthed one burst of remaining energy from within himself before side-stepping past the keeper and shooting the ball into the back of the net.

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