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Chapter 188: Road to Liga NOS Champions 2019/20 XV

By the 75th minute of the game, which was ten minutes after Porto’s second goal, the Tondela had recorded an extra 4 shots with two of them being on target while the Porto team hadn’t had more than two shots that were not even on target.

It was clear that during the last ten minutes, it was the Tondela team that was on the front foot which was contrary to everyone’s expectation, but just as the Porto fans were thinking that their players would soon take back control of the game, an unexpected situation came up.

In a bid to stop a Tondela player from going past him and getting through on goal, Danilo Perreira tackled the player a bit harder than usual and carelessly swept the player off his foot before he even touched the ball.

Needless to say, the referee immediately called for a penalty and also showed Danilo a yellow card.

The Porto players immediately went to the referee to argue about the penalty even though they knew that a penalty was actually the correct decision from the referee.

The referee, however, didn’t budge, though he ended up consulting the VAR to assert his decision to the Porto players.

In the end, Ronan from the Tondela team stood behind the ball to take the penalty for his team while everybody else waited outside the penalty box.

*Fweeeeeee*

Ronan ran at the ball and swung the penalty to the bottom left corner of the post while Augustin Marchesin stood rooted to the spot.

Without any effort from the goalkeeper to stop the penalty, the ball slammed into the back of the net while all the Porto players could only watch, but they didn’t lose their cool since they were still in the lead.

However, it was obvious that the rest of the game would be filled with frantic attempts from both teams to get the next goal.

{GOAL!!!}

{Put away brilliantly! The keeper rooted to the spot!}

{Tondela are back within reach!}

{This begs the question, can they go further and cause a major upset?}

{We’ll see, won’t we}

{One thing’s for sure though, this match is shaping up for a frenetic finish!} The commentator displayed his impartiality for the game with his words while the Tondela players did a quick celebration among themselves.

The fans of both teams watching the game however had conflicting emotions, especially the Porto fans who despite having trust in their team still retained a lingering fear that something unfavourable could happen within the few remaining minutes of the match.

The fans of the Tondela team however were happy that their team had finally gotten one and they could not help having hopes that their team could go on to equalize… or maybe even stage a comeback, however their rationality tried to hold their imaginations from going to wild as the chances of whatever they were thinking actually coming to pass… was slim.

It was more likely that the Porto team would bear down on them with fury at having their clean sheet ruined, but then one could never tell with football.

Soon the match kicked off once again, this time with Porto in possession of the ball, and within the following minutes, the hearts of the Tondela fans almost flew out of their throats as Porto bore down on their team with righteous fury.

The Porto team attacked with so much aggression that it was almost like they could score a goal at any moment and the fans of both sides could not take their eyes off their devices as they watched the Porto push the Tondela side all the way back to their half.

The Tondela team managed to regain possession a few times, but each time that happened, the Porto players pressed them hard and boxed the Tondela players into a corner before stealing the ball back and resuming their oppressive attack on the Tondela team.

By the 88th minute of the game, the Porto team had pushed the Tondela team so far back that the game was only being played in the Tondela team’s half and the last time the ball crossed the halfway line was more than a minute ago, and that was because the Tondela goalkeeper had taken a goal kick and had sent the ball into the middle of the field.

At this point, the hopes of the Tondela fans were almost dead, but some of them still believed that it was possible for their team to get at least an equalizer and that all they needed was a single slip-up from the Porto team.

The Porto team however weren’t going to give them that chance.

Their concentration was at its peak as they kept the pressure on the Tondela team because contrary to how it looked, the Tondela team was actually holding up well since they hadn’t conceded or made any major mistakes despite how much they were being pressured.

It was very annoying for the Porto team to have this much possession and control and to be unable to put the ball past their opponents due to how tight their defensive backline was, but because of this, they knew that they couldn’t afford to slip up because at least this way, they could run down time and still take the win.

However, not all players on the Porto team planned on simply running down time.

One of those players was Jason.

He had been unable to get a goal in the last game and with this game running out, it would become two matches in which he hadn’t scored a goal.

It might be a bit petty or childish, but for Jason who strove to become the best there ever was, he didn’t like the thought of going two games without scoring a goal.

Even the fact that he had made two assists in the previous match didn’t ease up his desire to get the ball past the keeper, because, despite everything that people said about football, scoring goals was the only way to get acclaimed as the best of all time.

All that talk about assists and all that was okay, but football was inherently a game where the objective was to outscore your opponent and the only way to outscore your opponents was to score goals in the first place.

Jason wholeheartedly agreed with this point of view so, at this moment, his eyes were scanning the whole Tondela back line for a crack in the formation that he could slip through.

One thing was for sure… he wasn’t planning on letting the Tondela players go with just two goals.