Harbinger Of Glory

Spotting the run from Leo, Gravenberch began moving across to meet him while Mac Allister held his position, but Leo kept carrying the ball and didn’t commit to either side.

That forced Gravenberch to hesitate lest he create space for Leo, but the latter accelerated even more and with less time to think, Gravenberch followed through with the next thing on his mind.

Mac Allister adjusted his position too, looking to swoop him and take the ball should Leo go past his teammate and through it all, Szoboszlai was also recovering from behind.

Leo could hear him coming and knew he had to make a decision soon.

He took another touch with his right foot, and Szoboszlai reached him at almost the exact moment Leo released the ball.

The contact sent Leo stumbling sideways, but his pass was already away.

The ball travelled toward the Liverpool left full-back before beginning to curl away from him, and Robertson reacted immediately.

He sprinted away from Ezra and across to throw himself into a slide, his two legs looking to clip the ball away, but he felt his heart sink when the ball somehow got away.

”Robertson can’t get there!” Tyler shouted over the broadcast, and Gray’s voice rose with him.

”And Wigan have found the space again! Surely now!”

Ezra, waiting on the other side, took the ball in stride and looked ahead.

Van Dijk immediately moved across, and Konaté was recovering toward the centre, trying to close the gap before Ezra could deliver.

It was now or never, and Ezra wasn’t going to think too long.

Right before Van Dijk could block the line, he leaned back and then wrapped his weaker right leg around the outside of the ball, sending it outward before it began bending, low, hard and straight through the space between the defenders and the goalkeeper.

Alisson looked like coming out, but then the ball suddenly gained more power, skipping past his gaze, and when he looked ahead, all he saw was Jake, outmuscling Konate and meeting the ball with his whole form.

The shot flew across Alisson and slammed into the side netting as Jake slid into the net with the ball, and then immediately, the stadium came apart.

”GOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL” the crowd screamed at the top of their lung.

”There it is. Jake Sulley!”

Tyler’s voice was nearly swallowed by the roar.

”WIGAN HAVE THE BREAKTHROUGH! AND IT IS THE 20-YEAR-OLD STRIKER WHO LOOKS UNSTOPPABLE AT THE MOMENT!”

Jake scrambled back to his feet as Ezra was already running toward him.

They met near the corner, Jake grabbing him around the shoulders as the rest of the Wigan players rushed over with the home crowd bouncing behind him.

”ONE-NIL!” Tyler continued. ”Wigan have found the opening after thirty-seven minutes!”

Gray laughed in disbelief.

”And they’ve earned that, Martin. Liverpool have had their moments, but Wigan have been the sharper side when it has mattered. They looked like scoring, and now they have finally done so!”

While the Wigan players celebrated their goal, Van Dijk was already calling his teammates together.

”Come on!” he said, clapping his hands.

”Let’s keep our heads!” he continued as the Liverpool players regrouped quickly.

There was frustration, certainly, but no panic.

Klopp was already on the touchline, speaking to his assistants before turning back toward the pitch.

Dawson watched from across his coaching box, and that response was exactly what he had expected, though it still wasn’t what he would have loved to see.

Liverpool had conceded, but they had not lost their heads.

Jake started jogging back toward halfway, but stopped briefly as the noise from the home stand rose again.

He turned toward the supporters, grabbed the Wigan badge on his shirt and pumped his fist once.

The scoreboard had changed as Liverpool took their positions.

Wigan 1-0 Liverpool.

.....

Klopp turned away from his coaching box and ran his tongue across the front of his teeth, something he did when he didn’t like what he was seeing.

He looked at the analyst standing to his left and then moved slowly forwards towards him.

”How much has he run?”

The analyst pulled up the tablet and found the number and turned it toward Klopp.

Klopp looked at it and then looked at the pitch.

Of all the Wigan players as well as the Liverpool players, Leo was the outlier.

Most of the squad were running the distances you’d expect from their positions, but Leo was running distances that didn’t match the job description at all.

”When does he get tired?” Klopp said, more to the pitch than to anyone beside him.

As the match progressed, Salah received the ball from Gravenberch on the right side of the Wigan half and went at Bennett.

The Wigan fullback held his ground well, but Salah wasn’t a legend for nothing.

He was still able to force a route inside, but he hadn’t gone too much when he stopped, because the space he’d expected to find there wasn’t empty.

Leo had slotted into it, and at that moment, he was being locked between two players.

Salah strained his expression and looked elsewhere, and luckily, with Bennet having committed to one side and the covering players occupied, he played it diagonally behind the Wigan line.

At that instant, O’Shea’s hand and mouth went up immediately for offside, but the flag stayed down.

Nunez got to the ball and played it sharply across goal, hoping someone would find it, and luckily Diaz arrived from the left.

”It’s LUIZ DIAZZZ!” Martin Tyler roared on the broadcast as the Colombian tried to hammer it home, but Seriki read the trajectory and stuck a leg out.

The deflection went right into Wigan’s post, and the clang of it rang across the stadium, but as the ball came back off the post into the area, the scramble began, and in the middle of it Leo was already moving.

He tracked the loose ball as it bounced away from the challenge, but he didn’t have too much time on hand with Szoboszlai already closing him down.

For a moment, it looked like Leo had nowhere to go, but then as the ball bounced once more, Leo, without even looking at where he was playing to, swung his right foot through it.