Greatest Of All Legends

523  A Tough Game in Verona IV

The stadium erupted in a bout of cheers as the Hellas Verona fans finally had something to shout about in the game.

The fans who had been slowly losing their motivation to cheer for their team once again had their hopes filled to the brim as there was now only one goal between them and their opponent.

The plausibility and the possibility of them being able to score that goal didn't matter to the fans.

All that mattered was that there was a chance, and they automatically believed that there was a way back.

The Hellas Verona players had also been thoroughly motivated by their goal and were already taking the ball back to the middle of the field without an exhuberant celebration, after all, they were still behind.

Pirlo immediately recognized the shift in momentum and immediately started shouting out instructions to some of his players from the sideline, not caring whether anyone else could hear him shouting out instructions.

With the ball back in the middle of the field, the match quickly resumed, and the Uventus team kicked off the game once again.

Now that their opponents were this close to them at this point in the game, there were only two ways that any normal team could play for the rest of the game.

They could either hope to defend their one-goal lead for the rest of the game or do their best to score another goal to increase it.

However, a team with as much quality and a strong mindset like Uventus wouldn't subject themselves to a streamlined choice like that unless the situation was truly that dire.

What Pirlo wanted his players to do was a combination of both tactics.

#83rd minute…

De Ligt made a long pass towards the left flank, and the ball rolled speedily at Jason, who wasn't running and was holding his marker off so he could receive the pass.

Looking at the ball, which was still rolling speedily even as it neared him, Jason suddenly changed his mind.

Spreading his legs wide as the ball reached him, he allowed it to pass between his legs and continue moving behind him. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

His marker wasn't expecting that, and Jason used his surprise to escape from him and run behind him to chase after the ball.

{He's put on the afterburners and managed to reach the ball before it rolls out of play!} the commentator shouted, but Jason was already cutting back infield with the ball.

The Verona players were already tightly getting into formation, but their annoying positioning was still loose, thanks to Jason's pacy and sudden attack.

Jason immediately made use of that and continued infield, leaving the defenders no other than to give up on zonal marking and try and pressure him to push him back out to the flank, but that was a mistake.

As soon as he was near enough and tried to make a tackle, Jason pushed the ball between his legs and jumped behind him, escaping infield.

The defender immediately realized his mistake and tried to react, but as soon as he turned around, the ball once again went in between his legs, this time back towards the flank.

The confusion of what had just happened disoriented his senses and caused him to trip over while still in motion while Jason escaped from him.

With one defender out of the way and his way infield open, everyone thought Jason would make a run infield, but Jason chose to send a pass forward instead.

Unleashing an inwardly curling trivela pass into the penalty, the ball curled behind the defenders and found Dybala in the penalty box.

Dybala immediately hit the ball first time, trying to send it into the back of the net, but the goalkeeper was alert and jumped immediately at the ball, unleashing a spectacular dive and managing to reach the ball with the tip of his fingers.

The ball deflected off the goalkeeper's fingertips and slammed against the bar before flying out of play.

{What a save!}

{The goalkeeper sprung into action there, keeping his team's hopes alive!}

The fans were unleashing a thunderous applause at the goalkeeper's heroics that had prevented Uventus from once again taking a two goal lead.

The Uventus players quickly rushed into the opponent's penalty box for the corner kick while the Verona defenders were doing all they could to block them from having any freedom.

"Sorry about that earlier," Dybala said to Jason as they both stood at the edge of the box.

"Oh, sure," Jason swallowed heavily, his breathing a bit strained as he kept an eye on the ball at the corner of the field.

While it was regrettable that they hadn't been able to score a third, Jason figured the game was not over, and there would be more chances. He could not afford to be angry about something like that at the moment.

*Fweeeeeeeeeee*

The ball was sent flying in at the referee's whistle and all the players began moving towards where they expected the ball to be.

Jason stayed near the edge of the ball in case it came bouncing his way, but he didn't get that chance as Chiellini got his head to the ball and did his best to direct it as the goal, but only slightly missing and the ball flew just over the crossbar, skimming the top of the net.

# 87th minute…

The ball once again reached Jason on the left flank, and once again, he quickly took off down the flank.

Jason had realized that his markers were not usually always around him as he wasn't the only one on the team so as long as he moved fast enough, he could have a bit more space before they came at him and that could help him to escape their defensive efforts.

Once again, he cut infield, moving toward the guy who was right beside him, not paying attention to the guy coming from behind.

As Jason drew nearer, the guy instinctively narrowed the space between his legs. He thought Jason would once again try to nutmeg him, but Jason noticed the narrowing space between his legs and changed his plan.

Suddenly flicking the ball back to the left, Jason left the player confused and continued running down the flank.