Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 129

Chapter 129: Vs Rio Ave II
Mehdi Taremi kicked off for the Rio Ave team, resuming the match with a pass into his team’s half and immediately moving into the Porto team’s half of the field.

The Rio Ave players immediately took control of the ball and began passing it cleverly around between themselves, showing no signs of trying to immediately regain their lead, but the Porto players didn’t care and ran at them all the same.

Soon the Rio Ave team was dispossessed of the ball and Danilo Perreira immediately sent a pass back towards Ivan Marcano.

Instead of falling back after losing the ball to try and cover for any holes in their defense, the five midfielders immediately surged forward past the Porto midfielders and ran at the four Porto defenders, each player covering one member of the defense with two players chasing after the ball that was heading toward Ivan Marcano.

Ivan Marcano received the ball, but seeing the two players charging at him, he didn’t dare to keep the ball with him and he immediately wanted to send the ball back to the goalkeeper since all the other players were being marked tightly.

Mehdi Taremi had been sneaking around just behind the Porto defenders ever since he had kicked-off a minute earlier so he was close enough to suddenly pop out and snatch the ball from Ivan Marcano much to the surprise of all the other Porto defenders.

The Porto defenders led by Porto immediately charged at Mehdi Taremi who had just stolen the ball from Ivan Marcano, but Taremi hung onto the ball like his life depended on it and ran at Augustin Marchesin before chipping the ball over his outstretched arm, sending the ball into the back of the net and bringing his team back on equal terms with Porto just a minute after they went behind.

{What a turn of events!}

{Opportunistic, quick, decisive and he’s brought his team back with him} The commentator who lived for moments like this didn’t waste any time and began spitting bars but the silence in all but one side of the stadium showed that the majority of the Porto fans were unhappy with this development.

Mehdi Taremi didn’t care though and instead ran down the sidelines celebrating with his teammates.

On the sidelines, Sergio Conceicao’s face remained impassive apart from the slight frown that had appeared on his forehead for a few seconds after the goal, but the players on the bench could feel the tension from where they sat and they did their best to remain silent and unmoving.

It would not be the best of ideas to gain the manager’s attention at this moment, so they did their best to stay out of his view, but Sergio Conceicao’s attention was on the players who were on the pitch instead of the players on the bench.

In the end, he didn’t do anything other than simply watch in silence, but all that needed to be said was in his eyes and the players on the field didn’t need any reminding of what he wanted from them.

The celebrations continued for a few more seconds before the players started heading back to their halves of the field for the match to resume.

Less than a minute later the Tiquiniho passed the ball back to Fabio Viera to resume the match once again.

With both teams back at the starting line, they put their full efforts into trying to one-up the other and take the lead in the game, and for a while, the ball flew from one end of the pitch to another with both teams taking shots at each other, and then in the 35th minute of the game…

Rio Ave had just survived an attacking attempt by Porto that had ended with the goalkeeper holding the ball while curled up on the ground.

Confirming that they were out of danger, the Rio Ave goalkeeper stood up and moved toward the edge before sending the ball back into the field with a high punt.

The ball flew into the air before coming down into the middle of the pitch where players from both teams jumped for the ball, but it was a Rio Ave player who got his head to the ball and directed it towards a nearby teammate.

Receiving the ball on the right side of the field, just a bit past the halfway line, the Rio Ave right winger controlled the ball with his chest, before letting it fall to his leg, but instead of trying to run at the Porto team as one would expect, he suddenly made a sweeping through pass forward and past the Porto defensive line.

The Porto defenders watched the ball fly past them, wondering who the Rio Ave player was making a pass to only to be shocked out of their minds when they saw Mehdi Taremi somehow squeeze past Pepe and Ivan Marcano and appear in the path of the ball.

For the second time in the match, the Porto players began chasing after the Rio Ave striker, but just like before, Mehdi Taremi continued unhindered and unworried about what was happening behind him, bearing down on the Porto goal like a homing missile.

Once again, Augustin Marchesin had no other option but to come off his goal line and try to throw off the Iranian striker, but the striker seemingly had ice in his veins as he curled the ball around the goalkeeper, watched it go in, and then headed towards the sidelines to celebrate his goal.

{He did it once and now he’s done it again, but this time he’s put his team in the lead!}

{An exhilarating run and a wonderful finish from the striker and he has for a moment silenced the Porto fans with his display} The commentator was loving his job at the moment, despite the silence in most parts of the stadium as the Porto fans were too busy groaning in annoyance with their hands covering their heads and faces.

Sergio Conceicao wasn’t able to keep his annoyance bottled up this time and immediately kicked away the bottle of water beside him, his face a perfect expression of his anger.

The players on the bench seeing this display of annoyance from the manager shivered in their seats.