Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 455: Super Coppa III

#28th minute…

The match was still a goalless one despite the efforts of the two teams to change the situation, however, with the increasing number of chances at both ends of the field, it was looking like sooner or later, one of the teams would succeed in opening up the game.

Currently, the Napoli team had a corner and after the referee’s whistle, the ball was sent flying into Uventus’ penalty area.

With the Uventus players’ height advantage, it didn’t need to be said who was more likely to get to the ball first and the ball was quickly headed out of the penalty box, but Insigne who was standing outside the penalty box soon got his leg to the ball and brought it under control.

Pushing the ball forward back toward the box, he glanced at the players in the penalty box and knowing that there was no way he could get a better chance than that moment to take a shot, he didn’t hesitate and sent a powerful drive at Uventus’ goal.

The ball flew powerfully and deflected off a teammate, suddenly changing direction and flying towards the bottom right corner of the goal but shockingly Sczesny managed to reach it and caught it deftly, not giving his opponents any chance to rebound the ball.

{Good shot, but the keeper was equal to it! Fantastic save from Sczesny} Guiseppe called out loudly.

The Napoli players disappointedly began to leave the Uventus’ 18-yard box while the Uventus players commended the goalkeeper before leaving.

Sczesny stood up and with a quick glance across the field, made a decision.

Moving forward a bit, he sent the ball hig across the pitch woth a high punt.

#35th minute…

Half an hour had already gone by which was a third of the match’s duration and there still wasn’t any change to the scoreboard, yet the excitement at the stadium hadn’t dwindled in the slightest as the two teams on the field had been displyaying exciting and attacking football which kept them on the edge of their seats up till now.

At any moment, a period of possession could turn to an attack and the fans just couldn’t get enough of it.

Once again, it was Uventus on the attack and they were working the ball towards the penalty area.

From the right flank, Bernadeschi who was with the ball did a quick feint to escape his marker enough to send a pass towards Ronaldo in the center.

Receiving the ball outside the penalty box, Ronaldo stopped the ball, pulled it back to confuse the defenders then kicked it forward, sending a pass to Kulusevski who had just run behind Koulibaly and was one on one with the goalkeeper.

Ospina immediately rushed forward on seeing the pass and jumped into the path of Kulusevski who had hit it immediately.

Spreading himself wide had allowed him to block the shot and the ball flew back outside the box, but Ronaldo quickly jumped in the way of the ball and brought it under control before quickly kicking it at the goal which was empty, however, as soon as the ball flew off at the goal, Koulibaly threw himself in the way of the ball and just barely deflected it with his body.

The ball bounced off Koulibaly’s body and flew at the goal, but at the last moment, it smashed against the bottom left post and rolled out of play.

{Saved by the bar!}

{They were scrambling over themselves there and they just managed to stay afloat!}

{The scores remain unchanged yet again!}

{Napoli have to put more effort into shutting down attacks like this or they might not get to stay equal with their opponents for much longer!} Guiseppe shouted with excitement while the Uventus players began arranging themselves inside the penalty box for the corner kick.

The corner kick was taken quickly, but was headed wide by Rabiot who got his head to it first and Napoli was given a goal kick.

The match continued with both teams making more efforts at triggering a change on the score board.

Shots were sent flying, crosses were sent flying in, attempts at dribbling were made and runs at goal were made, but the end of the first half continued to draw closer and neither team still didn’t have anything to celebrate despite their efforts.

***

{Fweeeeeeeeee!}

The referee’s whistle blew loudly across the field, bringing an end to the first half of the game.

The players began to walk off the field breathing heavily, their breaths forming white mists in front of their faces.

{It’s the end of the first 45 minutes of the game and despite an excitement filled half, the scores remain as the were at the beginning of the game} Guiseppe began.

{It was an half filled with exciting football as you said. Shots were sent flying in from all sorts of angles and quite a few chances presented themselves} Fabrizio added.

{I’m honestly quite surprised that the two teams are still stuck in a deadlock. A score like 2 – 2 feels more likely with how many attempts those two had taken at each other} he went on to say, his eyes following the players who were headed into the tunnel for the break.

On the field, the Uventus players quickly headed to their locker room for their break, discussing among themselves as they rued their missed chances in the first half and began discussing among themselves how best to advance in the second half.

Pirlo, the head manager joined his players and the half time tactical meeting quickly began with the manager addressing what he felt needed to be addressed.

There wasn’t much to talk about however as the players were already doing well, they were just a bit unlucky to not be ahead as despite them having a similar number of shots to their opponents, theirs were mostly on target as compared to their opponents who were not even able to take shots in comfortable areas thanks to the efforts of the defenders.

After a quick discussion, the players rested their muscles for the remaining time left in the break and were soon back on their way back to the pitch for the second half of the game.