Chapter 283: The Blue Side of Manchester VII

Chapter 283: The Blue Side of Manchester VII

Chapter 283: The Blue Side of Manchester VII

On the sidelines, an assistant referee held up a board to signify a substitution as soon as the ball was out of play and the players who saw their numbers in red began heading to the sidelines.

Jason and Fabio Viera stood on one side of the referee while Phil Foden, Ferran Torres, and Aymeric Laporte stood on the other side as they waited for their teammates to arrive on the sidelines.

Feeling a bit to finally get back on a pitch after a long period of injury, Jason looked over at the Manchester City players beside him and stretched a fist over, half expecting to be ignored as he was doing it for fun and expected to laugh at himself after he was ignored.

Surprisingly though, Phil Foden responded and fist-bumped him, and then Ferran Torres did the same, and finally, Laporte fist-bumped Jason as well.

This scene was caught on camera as the cameras were on the players who were about to get on the pitch and it brought a smile to the fans of both teams as well as all the other people watching the match on their screens.

{A display of sportsmanship from the fresh players, It’s almost like they’re telling each other “No hard feelings, bro”}

{Wonderful to see this from the young players as they come on the pitch} Derek Rae didn’t hesitate to say something about it as the new players finally ran onto the pitch after their substitution.

For the Porto side, Jason was coming on for Luis Diaz on the left side of the midfield and Fabio Viera was coming on for Mattheus Uribe on the left-center side of the midfield.

On the Manchester City team, Ferran Torres was coming on for Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden for Bernardo Silva, and Aymeric Laporte for Eric Garcia.

{Jason Bolu, It’s his return to the team after his injury in the Europa League quarter-finals match against Inter Milan last season}

{He’ll be looking to hit the ground running, but with his team currently losing the game, it may be a bit difficult to enjoy his return to the field after such a long recovery period} Alan did his job as a pundit, giving the listeners the facts about Jason’s long-awaited return to the pitch.

{I personally think that he can do something here. We’ve seen him be very instrumental for his team last season, displaying results that one would think to be impossible from someone his age} Derek Rae commented.

{I concur, hopefully, he can pull some of that out before the end of the game, Porto could use some of last season’s Jason right now} Alan agreed with Derak as the match continued.

#72nd minute...

It had been a few minutes since the substitution, but it had been quiet all over the pitch with neither of the teams managing to do much more than pass the ball around among themselves in the last few minutes.

The ball deflected off of Zaidu’s leg and flew towards the left, flying over the penalty box and seemingly heading out, but not everyone gave up on the ball.

Raheem Sterling was inside the box and near the estimated path of the ball and he quickly noticed that the ball wasn’t unreachable and he quickly made a run for it.

His movements were noticed by Chancel Mbemba, but Mbemba was a step too late and Sterling had already managed to get to the ball and keep it on the pitch with an amazing display of skill and ball control.

Chancel Mbemba immediately rushed at Sterling, hoping to clear the ball away before the situation got worse for his team, but Sterling who was currently in a state of high alert after displaying inhuman-like ball control, feinted left and tricked Chancel Mbemba before flicking the ball to the right and immediately sending a grounded through pass across the Porto goal.

Due to the ball moving too fast and at a bit of a distance from the Porto goalkeeper, he only kept his eye on the ball and followed it as much as he could, but all of a sudden Ferran Torres weaseled his way between all the players in the penalty box and appeared in the path of the ball and poked it with his foot.

Augustin Marchesin immediately jumped at the ball, but he wasn’t able to reach and the ball flew past him into the back of the goal.

{GOAL!!!}

{CITY!!!}

{They make it three!}

{They are pulling clear here and it’s beginning to look like a game set-in match!}

{The goal scorer has only been on the pitch for a few minutes, and already, he has scored!}

{He wasn’t the only substitute, but he’s the only one that has left a mark on the game so far!} Derak Rae shouted into the microphone, not masking his excitement as he delivered his commentary, making for an animated scene with the Manchester City players celebrating their goal.

Needless to say, the Porto team looked down after Manchester City’s goal and even the manager was short of words and didn’t know what to do at that moment.

He had chosen to go defensive, but that hadn’t worked due to his terrible luck, yet even after deciding to risk everything, he hadn’t seen any other change than an even more negative one.

Things weren’t going his way at all, and with the little time left in the game, his hopes were dwindling.

The Porto fans in their homes felt the exact same way.