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Chapter 373: Candido de Oliveira Cup

{It seems the referee is planning on letting that tackle slide and has called for a penalty}

The Benfica players ran over to the referee to object to the call for a penalty, but all their words only got the referee to do what he was initially going to do which was calling on the VAR for more clarification.

In the end, even the VAR agreed with the referee’s decision, and the penalty decision was given.

It took another half a minute to prepare the players for the penalty and soon Oliveira was standing behind the ball while staring off the Benfica goalkeeper.

*Fweeeeeee*

At the referee’s whistle, Oliveira ran at the ball and sent it flying to the top right corner of the goal while the goalkeeper stood rooted to the spot.

{Well taken penalty!}

{He sent a rocket into the top corner and they’ve taken the all-important lead in this game} The commentator shouted with excitement as Oliveira took off celebrating the goal with the whole Oporto team joining in.

The Oporto fans also joined in the celebrations as well, infected by the players’ excited reactions to the goal.

***

The match soon kicked off again and the game soon heated up.

Having gone behind, the Benfica players were doing all they could to get back in the game and this presented an enjoyable spectacle of beautiful attacking football from both sides as Oporto also looked to further their lead and reduce the danger of their opponents equalizing the game.

However, despite the goal-scoring attempts they made at each other, the scoreline remained the same till the referee’s whistle blew to end the first half of the game.

****

The second half began shortly after and the match continued right from where they had stopped, but even after almost twenty minutes, neither team had managed to send the ball past the goalkeeper for the second time in the game and soon the managers started making substitutions, hoping that one of the new players could change the game’s status.

Jason soon found himself standing on the sidelines with Mylo, preparing to be subbed onto the streets.

{The manager is bringing on the youthful thunder to the pitch, probably hoping that their youthful exuberance could do more upfront for the team}

{Jason will be coming on for Corona and Mylo will be coming on for Taremi}

Jason and Mylo were soon running onto the pitch after dapping their teammates who were now headed to the bench.

The match soon resumed and it did not take long for everyone to see that the Oporto manager had made the right decision by bringing Jason and Mylo onto the pitch as they injected new energy into the Oporto attack that was previously looking drained.

Jason wreaked havoc on the flanks, easily gliding past his markers and constantly sending crosses into the penalty box while Mylo was always moving around in the center and was always looking to get on the end of dangerous passes.

The two of them did not give a single moment of rest to the opposition defense and soon enough the Benfica defenders started lacking behind in their movements and were unable to keep up anymore soon, Jason received the ball again, faced his marker, and did a step over before darting left, leaving the poor guy stumbling over.

With the space he had created, Jason sent a low cross into the penalty box at Mylo.

{Mylo is in the middle, can he find some space?}

{He hits it!?}

{Goal!}

{Oporto!!! They are pulling clear here!} The commentator exuberantly described the goal to the viewers even though they were watching and could see the whole process.

The Oporto camp immediately erupted in celebrations as the ball went past the goal line.

At the 82ndminute of the game, going two goals up almost guaranteed them a win in the game and considering that it was a game that would end with them lifting a trophy if they won, there was no way they wouldn’t be happy at scoring an important goal like the one that had just gone in.

The Benfica players could only watch as the Candido de Olivera Cup seemed to disappear in their imaginations.

Some of them still harbored a strong enough will and a belief that the game wasn’t over, but they also couldn’t deny the reality of their situation.

If they put too much focus on attacking and trying to somehow find two goals before the final minutes, they would leave themselves open to counterattacks, and with the energetic Jason and Mylo looking for any opportunities they could find, that could prove to be their undoing.

They couldn’t ponder for long though as soon the game had to resume.

With nothing to lose anymore, Benfica switched to an all-out attack and tried to find something to sustain them in the game and give them hope, but it was not to be as the Oporto team responded just as strongly, defending well and pressuring them with sudden counterattacks.

*Fweeeeeeeeee*

Before they realized it, time had run out and the final whistle had been blown by the referee.

The Oporto camp immediately erupted in jubilation after the final whistle.

{It’s over! The final whistle has been blown!}

{After a hard-contested match between the two giants of Portugal, Oporto have proven themselves to be on top, at least for the ninety minutes that have just flown by!}

{They are ecstatic about the results and will get to lift the trophy in a few minutes!}

{Their joy is clear for all to see and the Benfica players are not happy about it!}

{For the next few days at least, the Benfica fans have lost their bragging rights and will be laying low, especially on social media. Twixxer is especially not a good place to be} the commentator snickered after his last sentence.

He knew from experience that the last place any fan would want to be after their team just lost a cup final was Twixxer.

The banter going on would make any fan bury their heads in shame.

While the commentator was thinking about his past experiences, things were moving in the stadium as the preparations for Oporto to lift the trophy had already begun.

Moods were high as the trophy awarding ceremony began a few minutes after and in a couple of minutes, everyone on the team had gotten their medals and were raising the Candido de Olivera Cup as they celebrated.

After the trophy was awarded and the players had celebrated for a bit, individual awards were given out after.

Marchesin got the goalkeeper of the tournament award while Mylo was named the player of the tournament.

Jason didn’t get any individual awards even though he could be considered as the player with the highest number of assists.

He wasn’t happy about missing out on any individual awards, but there was not much he could do about it other than to work harder.

However, while he himself knew that he had been off his game for a while, he hadn’t expected that the award of best player would be given to Mylo who had literally just kicked the ball in while he had done all the work.

If they had given someone else like Otavio who had caused the penalty for the first goal, or Oliveira who had scored the penalty, or even the team captain who had led the defense line of the team and ensured that the team ended with a clean sheet, Jason wouldn’t have minded as much, but for some reason, seeing Mylo looking all smug as he took pictures with the award irritated Jason.

Part of it was because of what had happened in the last game where Mylo had quite literally stolen two of his goals to complete his hat trick, but Jason felt like there was another underlying reason for him feeling annoyed by Mylo.

However, he attributed it to the things that had happened when they lived together.

In the end, he couldn’t change what had already happened so he changed his focus and focused on the next important thing for him at the moment.

Playing better was paramount, but first, he had other things to do to ensure that his $35 million didn’t go to waste.

As the celebrations continued to the bus, Jason was on the phone texting Adele about his schedule for the next five days.

Adele and Maya Singh had been working together on how best they could use Jason’s publicity and they had arrived at a few conjectures.

Due to football being a major sport in Portugal and Nigeria, there wasn’t much of a problem with Jason just directly endorsing the product, but in the USA where the company itself was based, Jason didn’t have much traction because football wasn’t a major sport there.

It wasn’t even called football in America.