My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 425 Last Minute Rush

?

Having Unique FC score first against them was something Lazio had been fighting hard to prevent since the start of the match, and right now, Mateo just made sure that they wouldn't be seeing that plan through.

He just came in like the wind and blasted the ball into the goalpost to give his team the lead.

The chanting from the fans just got way louder as the winger rushed to the sidelines pulling his shirt off before he could get there.

"That was a wonderful strike from Mateo, a morale-shattering strike." Steve commented.

His teammates caught up to him pretty soon and now their voices were going up in front of the fans.

"There's still a lot of time left for Lazio to strike back but it's only a matter of if Unique FC will let them strike back, making a comeback didn't go so well for them in the last match."

Now that the celebration was over, the players had to return to the pitch for the match to continue and that was when Mateo was met with a yellow card for removing his shirt.

He was really bothered about that, as he slowly walked past the referee while putting on his shirt over his blue vest.

"All they need to do now is to see this through and they will be guaranteed to finish at the top of the table." Jim expressed.

"Yeah, and most importantly, it's time to see how well Lazio has improved with their response since last time, we all know Unique FC aren't going to make this easy for them now that they have the lead." Steve articulated.

"You got that right, it's a good thing Unique FC aren't known for blatantly passing the ball after securing a goal like this so we can still expect good football from them, I hope."

All that was needed to put the game back into motion was the referee's whistle, and at the sound of it, the game immediately resumed.

Since the start of the match, Unique FC had not been that aggressive in chasing the ball and stuck mostly to winning the ball through tactical methods, but now it looked like they just switched up.

Minino rushed toward Alfred as fast as he could, but before he could get to the midfielder, he sent the ball rolling to Carrigher who had the ball swept off his feet by Martinez as soon as he trapped it.

The striker crashed down to the floor in the process and raised his hand to call for a foul but it didn't look like the referee was going to give it.

"Unique FC aggressively getting the ball back, looks that goal just fueled the hunger to get a second one."

They knew best not to transfer their aggressive defense to attack because that would just mess things up for them.

Ferran received the ball from Martinez down the middle, and just before Zahid could get to him, he sent the ball rolling to Mateo.

"Mateo."

The winger slowly moved down the wing a little with the ball before he sent it flying over to Minino on the other side.

"Over to Minino on the other side."

Minino brought the ball down with a neat trap as he was quickly surrounded by Alfred and the defensive midfielder in front of him.

He knew trying to brute force his way through this one wasn't going to work, so he sent the ball rolling back to Norman who quickly sent it rolling to Ferran as soon as he got his foot on it.

Ferran quickly took off down the middle with the ball until he found Merino down the right and sent the ball rolling to him with a quick pass.

The winger feigned taking the route down the wing to confuse the left back before he quickly turned and pushed the ball to Fredinho.

There was still no clear opening to go through, so Fredinho had to pass the ball back to Ferran who immediately sent it rolling to Mateo.

"They're trying to find a way through here, really putting that pressure on Lazio."

Mateo slowly moved toward the right back with the ball before he quickly pushed it to the right for Roland who was just entering the area to get his foot on it.

Roland quickly got his foot on the ball and was about to make a quick run into the box when he was brought down by the defender there right at the edge of the box.

The referee blew his whistle because that was obviously a foul but the defender wasn't happy with that decision as he picked the ball up and fired it far away to the other side.

"Looks like Unique FC have finally won their first close-up free kick of the game, they might actually get that second goal from this." Jim expressed.

"I'm just wondering if they will call up Dave to take this one," Steve commented.

Lazio were setting up their four-man wall inside the box now as both Ferran and Mateo stood over the ball with their hands covering their mouths as they seemed to be talking about something.

"I don't think they're calling Dave for this one," Jim said after observing things for a while. I think you should take a look at

"Yeah, I can see that, looks like it's going to be either Mateo or Ferran, it's probably going to be Mateo," Steve commented.

Everything was set now, and after making sure there was nothing out of place, the referee blew his whistle.

"Looks like it's time to find out who it's going to be."

As soon as the two heard the whistle, they turned their gaze to each other and nodded.

Ferran quickly raced toward the ball and feigned firing it toward the goalpost before quickly moving out of the way for Mateo who was right behind him to get his foot on the ball and fire it toward the goalpost.

Jorge was glued to the spot as the ball flew toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and ended up hitting the crossbar before flying out for a goal kick.

"Oh, my goodness! That was so close!" Jim exclaimed.

After watching the ball go out like that, Mateo bit his lower lip before stomping his foot on the floor.

"Jorge was literally glued to a spot, that could have been a nice second goal," Steve commented.

"Yeah, but it looks like he aimed just a bit too high which is okay because he was always going to assume that Jorge will be able to go after it." Jim articulated.

<That's one horrible miss>

'Yeah, he shouldn't have gone that high.'

Mateo had to get over that miss because there was nothing he could do about it now, the only thing he could hope for was to pray for another chance to make up for it and also pray that Lazio wouldn't be able to get an equalizer against them.

The match continued until the seventy-fifth minute when both managers decided to make a couple of changes to their teams.

Ferran was replaced by Harry, Pirlo came on to replace Aima and Fred came to replace Fredinho who had been oddly quiet since the start of the match.

Lazio also made a couple of changes but the most noticeable one was removing Carrigher for their backup striker Leonardo Pedro.

After those changes, the away team slowly began to get back into their stride, but still Unique FC were doing well in keeping them contained.

Replacing Carrigher with Leonardo was a pretty good move by Lazio's manager because the striker was just more fierce and was linking up pretty well with Andrea, Zahid, and Alfred.

Their attacks carried more weight to it now, forcing Unique FC to get a little too defensive.

In the space of ten minutes, the away side had already made four shot attempts and none of those shots went over the bar or out from the side.

The first shot which came from Leonardo from the edge of the box was nicely blocked by Adolf before it could get to Dave.

The next two came from Andrea, he got past Roland to fire the ball toward the goalpost but it went directly for Dave so he didn't have any trouble stopping that.

The second one was fired from way outside the box toward the right-hand side, but Dave dived toward it at the right time to grab it with both of his gloves.

The smile on his face after catching that ball was quite wholesome and that was because he was beginning to pick himself up after the things that almost happened in the first half.

The last shot was the most fearsome one, a powerful strike from outside the box by Alfred.

It was aimed toward the top left-hand side of the goalpost but Dave was able to get to it right on time and slam it down for Roman to send it flying out.

After those intense moments, Unique FC were glad they were still leading but it was obvious that Lazio were starting to suppress them now, so when they got the ball, they decided to stall the game.

There was only five minutes of added time left on the clock anyway.

They passed the ball around mainly on their own side while Lazio players chased the ball around desperately.

Unique FC were good when it came to moving the ball around and despite the aggressiveness from Lazio, they were able to hold on to the ball until the referee blew his whistle thrice to bring the match to an end.

As soon as the players heard that whistle they raised their hands in jubilation as the fans got louder.

"There's the whistle, Lazio FC just suffered their second consecutive defeat in the hands of the Bilbeth Premier League side. They will go on to face West Ham United and hope that Unique FC beat Villarreal.

"Unique FC on the other hand are through to the round of sixteen with flying colors."