Harbinger Of Glory

The whistle had barely faded when Jake nudged it straight to Reyes.

Reyes took it, shaped forward, and the commentary lifted slightly.

”Reyes on the ball early, and he looks like he might—” the commentary tried to say.

But whatever they thought he would do, Reyes proved unpredictable.

Instead of pushing it forward like he had shaped to do, he dragged it back with the sole of his boot, slow and deliberate.

The two Milan forwards who had begun to close down the space had to stop and reassess, and in the half-second that cost them, Reyes had already found Luke Robinson wide left.

The stands gave a small ripple while Luke Robinson inverted centrally, pulling his man with him, and before he could go past the centre circle, the ball went left to Carlo, who took it forward into the channel.

There, AC Milan’s right back Jimenez was already across, cutting the angle, and it wasn’t only him as Ricci arrived from behind to seal it.

The two players worked together and squeezed the space, leaving no way out for Carlo and with nowhere to go, the ball went out, hitting him on the way out after he tried to ricochet it against Ricci.

Jimenez picked it up for the throw, looked at his options, and played it in.

After that, Milan settled into their half of the pitch and kept the ball there, unhurried, playing it across the back line and into midfield without any particular urgency about advancing it.

They were content to wait and let the shape of the game reveal itself, and after pressing for a while without getting anywhere near it, Wigan read what was happening and retreated, dropping into a compact mid-block and inviting Milan to come forward.

Which was exactly what Milan wanted.

Space to operate in and room to build.

The opportunity to pin a newly promoted English side back and work them over in front of what remained of their support proved exciting, and so they advanced.

But the moment the ball crossed the halfway line, something changed in the Wigan shape.

Every blue shirt found a red one and attached itself to it, the man-marking spreading across the pitch, and suddenly the space Milan had been expecting to find wasn’t there anymore.

Yunus Musah, carrying it in midfield, looked left, looked right, and found both options uncomfortable.

He glanced back, but Ricci also had Jake stuck to him.

With nowhere to go, he looked at the option least likely to lose the ball and shifted it wide to Chukwueze on the right, who took it and drove immediately at the Wigan left, direct and purposeful.

Leo pressed across from the right, moving toward Chukwueze with Robinson tracking alongside him, and as they came, the angle narrowed and an opening opened on the outside, just enough, and Chukwueze took it the moment it appeared.

Robinson went with him while Leo peeled away.

Because he had already known Robinson would be faster from that position since he was still in his stride, while Chukwueze had slowed to make the decision.

And just like he had guessed, the ball was gone from Chukwueze’s feet before he’d finished making it.

Robinson immediately looked for an out and played it to Hughes, who grounded it immediately toward Leo, but just like how they had man-marked AC Milan, that meant the Italians could do the same to them, and they did, since the Wigan players still stuck to them.

Leo let it run across him as Musah came to press, but when Musah arrived, Leo stepped out further to meet the ball, causing Yunus to lunge in hope of getting to the ball, but Leo let the ball slide away, playing on Musah’s momentum and then turning away as a little groan invaded the stands.

”Brilliant ball from the skipper and now he’s driving forward,” the commentator said. ”This is something different from Wigan!”

As he pushed forward, Ricci came across to close the passing lane to Reyes, reading Leo’s body shape, which was open and pointed exactly where Reyes was.

And so Leo made him believe it further as he opened his foot, stretching it one more inch, and in reaction to that, Ricci’s weight shifted.

Then the ball went left, not right and past Ricci before he could correct.

”He’s gone past Ricci now, and Leo’s trivela finds Jake in the line.”

Jake held his run and kept himself in the defensive line.

Behind him, Malick Thiaw tried to push, but Jake stood stalwart and drew the press before laying it simply to Reyes, who had dropped into the pocket.

The moment the ball came to him, Reyes let it sit before smashing the ball towards the bottom left corner.

The keeper had shown him the right all the way through and had set himself for it, but the ball went the other way entirely, low and clean, and by the time the keeper’s body had begun to process the correction, the net had already moved.

Wigan one, Milan nil.

”GOAL. Wigan Athletic take the lead at the San Siro, and it is Matheus Reyes again.”

”What a signing he is turning out ot be so far!”

Des[ite the ball hitting the net, and unlike how he usually was, Reyes stood where he had struck it, not even bothering to run or turn towards his mates to gloat like usual.

He just stood there with the ball behind him in the net and looked around the stadium slowly with the expression of a man conducting a mild assessment of his surroundings.

”He’s not celebrating,” the co-commentator said.

”No,” the main commentator agreed, and there was something almost amused in it. ”He really is not, which is a very rare sight considering who it is.”

Behind him, Wigan’s players were already coming, and Reyes turned to meet them with the same unhurried manner, accepting the congratulations as they arrived.

But the look on his face before they reached him, the one the broadcast camera caught for just a second before the pile-up obscured it, said everything his silence was saying.

Is this supposed to be the San Siro?