God Of football

Chapter 73: Finally,

The Spain team kicked off with Morata sending the ball to Unai Simons at the back. Mikautadze, who was looking to make an early impact, pressed high and rushed towards the Goalkeeper.

His teammates followed suit and pressed the viable passing options of Unai Simon. The Goalkeeper, who suddenly found himself under pressure, tried to get the ball into space, so he sent the ball to Rodri, who was still marked.

This led to a turnover in possession as Lobjanidze got the ball instead of Rodri. It was on for the Georgian team.

The Georgian winger drove forward with the ball expertly looming and weaving around the two Spanish players who approached him.

Le Normand, who found himself alone in the face of the opposition, tried to stall, but Lobjanidze took advantage of his stalling and nudged the ball around him.

Unai Simon saw the ball, the ball getting far away from Lobjanidze, and after much deliberation on whether he could get to the ball first or not, he rushed forward.

Unfortunately for him, Lobjanidze was a beat faster and got to the ball first. Unai Simon didn’t back down and still attempted to get the ball.

Lobjanidze saw this and didn’t test the keeper anymore opting to send a pass to his left. Unai Simon, who thought Lobjanidze was about to shoot, was flustered when the latter passed.

He looked to his right and only then could he see Kvarastskhelia appear. The winger could slotted the ball home before running to celebrate with the Georgian fans.

The ball hitting the net set off a wave of emotions across the stadium. The Georgian Fans were happy that they were back within one.

The Spain Fans, on the other hand, didn’t know how to feel. They were disappointed but at the same time, the Georgian players did well.

Luis de la Fuente felt a vein pop. He had just told his players to be vigilant and to play cleverly during the halftime break, and just after coming on for the second half, his team had conceded.

He shook his head and started directing his gaze towards the bench but it didn’t linger for long as he returned to to watch the match.

After the restart, the Spanish players tried to give back an answer to Georgia’s goal but they fell short.

In the 48th minute, a shot from Olmo forced a corner out of Marmadashvili. The latter stood up after saving the ball and felt the power packing behind the ball.

Jose Gaya, stepped up to take the corner and sent a teasing ball into the corner. Marmadashvili who felt that the ball was too close for comfort, lunged at the ball and punched it out of the box.

Alex Baena, who was outside the box, got to the ball first and prevented it from going out of play. Adjusting his body, Alex sent another cross into the box.

This time, Aymeric Laporte rose and headed the ball towards the goal. All eyes watched as the ball looked to enter the goal, but Marmadashvili, who was nowhere near the ball, stretched to the fullest.

He was able to get a minuscule touch on the ball but touch was enough to change the trajectory of the ball as it smashed the post.

Morata, who was lurking around, saw the ball coming his way, but he felt a tug on his shirt. Kashia, the Georgian captain did it so discreetly that Morata was impressed for a second.

Morata, who knew that he couldn’t dive, dragged himself and got his head on the ball, but the header wasn’t too powerful.

This caused Marmadashvili to recover and pull another save, this time punching it out for a throw-in. Willy Sagnol, the Georgian Coach, felt his scalp go dry at the near-goal encounter that his team had just escaped from.

Mikel Oryazabal went for the ball, but the throw-in didn’t amount to anything good. The match went on for a while with neither side able to do much.

Luis de la Fuente wanted to wait for some time before changing but decided against that when the Spain team almost conceded from a free kick.

In the 54th minute, the ball went out of bounds. Luis de la Fuente took advantage of this to send Pedri in for Alex Baena, who seems to have lost his spark.

The Spanish fans who saw Pedri coming on started clapping. They knew what he could do if left alone.

After Pedri came on, he went to fill in Dani Olmo’s role, making the latter drift wide to the right.

The match dynamics shifted a bit as one side started doing all the Attacking. One would have expected Spain to be on the attacking end but it was quite the opposite.

The Georgian team attacked relentlessly in hopes that they could equalise. The Spanish players kept silent and faced the barrage of shots from the opposition.

Willy Sagnol, standing on the touchline, felt something was wrong, but he couldn’t see why, no matter how he looked at the game.

He looked at his team again and saw that his defenders were now in the centre of the pitch. He felt his heart sink.

Finding what the opponents were doing, he tried to convey instructions, but Spain had already caught them on a big break.

It started from Le Normand who played a one-two pass with Laporte to get rid of Mikautadze. Le Normand, who saw the defensive line of the opponents, sent the ball out wide.

Oryazabal started running, trying to catch up to the ball that led him before it fell onto the ground. The Georgian defender scrambled back as they tried to get in shape.

Oryazabal took a nice touch, letting the ball roll in front of him before sending a pass with the outside of his right boot.

The ball went in an arc and found Morata who had just stepped away from the defenders. Morata nudged the ball forward and led the Georgian defence, which was trying to intimidate him.

Morata didn’t falter and went on with the ball. Coming one-on-one with Marmadashvili, Morata didn’t push his luck this time and sent the ball around the keeper.

The ball scraped Marmadashvili’s boot but Morata didn’t see it. The whole stadium thought it was another goal for Spain.

To their utter surprise, the ball hit the inside of the goal and rolled on the goal line. Gagnidze, who was the fastest among the defensive players, ran with his might and stopped the ball from going in.

Morata held his head in surprise. ”How the heck that that not go in” he thought as Gagnidze kicked the ball out for a goal kick.

The players on the bench couldn’t believe how Morata wasted that chance. The players could have sworn they heard Luis de la Fuente cuss, but they couldn’t tell him not to cuss, could they?

”Tell Asensio and Joselu to get ready in 3 ” Luis de la Fuente said sharply. Assistant Coach Pablo Amo nodded and relayed his words to the players.

Asensio and Joseph nodded and Proceeded to warm up. The duo found themselves on the touchline 3 minutes later waiting to be subbed on.

Izan, who sat on the bench, smiled wryly. The Coach had 2 substitutions left and one would probably be used on the defence and the other on the two defensive midfielders.

[Izan’s Pov]

’Seems like I won’t get to play. No worries, though; I’m just glad to be here. But it would still be nice to play. So what was all that talk about letting me loose? This old man

The substitution was made in the 63rd minute after Morata sent another ball flying off the target. Morata and Olmo saw their numbers on the board and started walking towards the bench.

The Fans clapped for the duo as they got off. Many Fans were still irked by the chances Morata had wasted, but they were still leading, so they couldn’t show it yet.

Seeing the opponent’s double change, Willy Sagnol also decided to send on some fresh legs. Willy Sagnol made three changes at the same time

Gocholeish, Asarovi and Lobjanidze are all substituted out. In turn, Lasha Dvali and Saba Sazonov came on for the two defenders while Giorgi Chakvetadze came on for Lobjanidze.

The match resumed after the changes with two intentions. One side wanted to extend the lead while the other was hoping to draw level.

What would happen? Well, we could only wait and see. The match went on for a while, with neither side able to penetrate the opponent’s defence.

Luis de la Fuente turned towards the bench and looked at the kid. Izan, who felt a stare, turned to look at the Coach looking at him.

”Oh my God, don’t tell me, ” Izan thought. ”I didn’t want to do this”, Coach Luis de la Fuente muttered while looking at Willy Sagnol before calling Pablo Amo.

”Get him ready,” he said. Pablo Amo understood what his boss meant by this and approached the person in question.

”Zubimendi, get ready,” Pablo Amo said as he walked away. Zubimendi nodded at his words and got up to warm up.

Izan, who heard Pablo Amo’s words, got downcast but didn’t show it. Pablo Amo, who was walking away, stopped and looked at Izan.

”What are you sitting there for? Get ready too. You’re both going on” Pablo Amo said before joining Luis de la Fuente.

”Why are you so dramatic? ” Luis de la Fuente, who had seen what transpired, said. Pablo Amo just stood there laughing sheepishly and scratching his head.

Pablo Amo’s words sank in as Izan got up to Warm up. Some of the players tapped him on the shoulder while some mouthed his congratulations.

Those whose faces were crunched up, too, kept their heads down. Izan thanked his mates before walking to join Zubimendi in his warm up.

A/n: Hello guys, double chapter day. Enjoy it. I’ll come back with a more exciting chapter tomorrow. Bye for now.