Glory Of The Football Manager System

[José Alvalade. Lisbon. Thursday May 3. 19:54 BST.]

Forty-eight thousand in green and white when we walked out.

The Palace away end was up at the corner at the far side. Two thousand eight hundred of them. Across the back of the away end the banner: MATEO. SEE YOU AT LYON.

Wayne. Aaron back. Mama with the armband. Konaté. Ben. Mili. Rúben. Olise on the right. Eze in the ten. Wilf wide left. Christopher off the line.

The Sporting end did its thing. Sporting. Sporting. Sporting.

BLEEP.

[19’.]

Sporting came at us in the first ten the way Bruno Fernandes had told his teammates to come at us in the first ten.

By the eleventh we had the ball back.

By the eighteenth Rúben had it in midfield with the press all around him and Eze in the half-space because the half-space was where Eze lived.

Rúben played him.

Eze took one touch. Looked up. Sporting’s left-back was four yards too high.

He played the ball with the outside of his right.

Wilf was running.

He took it inside the full-back. One touch. Two. Cut inside on his right because the left-back had committed to his left.

Whump.

Low across the keeper.

Bottom-right corner.

[Sporting CP 0 - Crystal Palace 1. Aggregate: 4-1.]

The José Alvalade went quiet in the way the José Alvalade went quiet when the José Alvalade had been told inside twenty minutes that this was not the night.

The Palace away end did the song they had been working on at the airport in Lisbon at five o’clock this morning while waiting for the bus.

[28’.]

Bruno Fernandes had it thirty yards out.

CRACK.

The post.

[38’.]

Eze got it off Acuña on the halfway line on a Sporting turnover.

He did not pass.

He carried it.

Past William Carvalho. Past Carvalho’s covering man. Past the centre-back who had come out too high.

Twenty-five yards from goal he looked up.

Did not look up for a teammate.

Looked up at the keeper’s feet.

He went past the second centre-back with one touch and slid it inside the post from the corner of the eighteen-yard box.

Whump.

The Palace away end lost it.

Eze turned. Walked back to the centre circle. Did not change expression. Wilf got to him at the halfway line and shook his head twice. Konaté got to him second. Mama came up from the back to put one hand on the back of his neck.

[Sporting CP 0 - Crystal Palace 2. Aggregate: 5-1.]

[HT.]

Two-nil at the break. Five-one on aggregate.

I did not say much in the dressing room.

Same shape. We do not relax. They will go four-four-two flat in the second half because Jorge Jesus is going to throw Bas Dost and Pellè on together to chase pride. We let them throw it. Eze finds the channel. Michael wide. Wilf wide. Rúben does the carry.

Mama from the bench: ”Bray.”

Bray looked up.

”KB-twenty-two.”

Bray nodded. Did not say anything. Wrote it down on his clipboard.

The bell went.

[67’.]

Corner. Eze on the left.

Bray had drawn KB-twenty-two at Beckenham last Tuesday morning. Mama on the near post running across the keeper. Konaté at the back post. Christopher dragging the centre-back across the penalty spot.

Eze put it where Eze put it.

Mama ran across the keeper.

The keeper came. Got blocked.

The ball went over Mama into the back-post zone.

Konaté.

THUD.

Bottom corner.

[Sporting CP 0 - Crystal Palace 3. Aggregate: 6-1.]

Bray on the bench got off the bench. Did not punch the air. Did not need to. Looked across at me. I nodded once. He nodded back. Sat down.

The Palace away end started European nights at the José Alvalade.

[81’.]

Bas Dost off a Bruno Fernandes cross.

Thud.

Past Wayne’s right hand.

Three-one. Did not matter.

The Sporting end stood for the goal because the Sporting end had needed something to stand for since the nineteenth minute.

[FT.]

BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

[FULL TIME: Sporting CP 1 - Crystal Palace 3. Aggregate: 6-2.] [Crystal Palace to UEFA Europa League Final, Lyon, 16 May.]

The Palace away end sang.

The lads ran a lap of the pitch in front of the José Alvalade. The José Alvalade applauded them off because the José Alvalade were football people. Mama at the front with the armband. Eze in the middle. Wilf at the back with Olise on one shoulder and Aviero on the other because Aviero had come on at seventy-five for Eze and Aviero had not played in a European semi-final away leg before.

Bruno Fernandes met me at the halfway line. Did not laugh this time. Did not have the energy.

”You played the football you came to play.”

”We played the football we came to play.”

”Tell Mateo I would have kicked him at the seventy-second minute if he had carried the ball again. I am not getting the chance. Tell him I am sorry.”

”I’ll tell him.”

”His baby.”

”Who told you.”

”My mother knows his mother. The mothers know. Tell him from one Sporting fan to another that the baby is going to be loved.”

”From one Sporting fan to another.”

He shook my hand. Walked off. Stopped. Turned back.

”And Walsh.”

”Yeah.”

”Sign me.”

He kept walking.

[Tunnel. 22:14 BST.]

Sarah at the wall.

”Lyon.”

”Lyon.”

”Mateo will be at the hotel. On the bench in the tracksuit. In the team meeting.”

”All right.”

”Bruno.”

”Sign him in the summer.”

”He told you that.”

”He told me that.”

She nodded. Did not say anything else.

[Hotel. Lisbon. 01:21 BST.]

I rang Mateo from the room.

He picked up on the first ring.

”Daniel.”

”Mateo. Mama scored.”

”Mama scored.”

”Bruno told me to tell you he is sorry. He told me to tell you he would have kicked you at the seventy-second minute. He told me to tell you the baby is going to be loved.”

”Bruno is a good lad.”

”He told me to sign him in the summer.”

”Sign him.”

”All right.”

”Lyon.”

”Lyon.”

”And Daniel.”

”Yeah.”

”Iza had her twelve-week scan this morning at the Cromwell. She is twelve weeks tomorrow. I was meant to be there. The surgeon let her come into recovery to show me the picture. The baby is good.”

”That is everything, Mateo.”

”That is everything.”

He hung up.

I sat on the edge of the hotel bed. The Lisbon night was outside the window. The bus to the airport was at six. Lyon was thirteen days away.

***

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