Chapter 510 The Last Thirty Minutes

With the match nearing the seventieth minute now, Fred had to make way for Mateo who Norman had finally decided to bring into the game.

They had gotten a couple of chances to seal the game so far in this half but with Giovanni being the beast he was in between the sticks, those chances didn't turn out quite well.

He had just barely over thirty minutes left so he had to do something or risk losing this game.

Mateo had gone through a lot of check ups before Norman made the decision to put him on the bench today.

There wouldn't have been any problem if he had decided to start him but he didn't believe that the winger was all that well and tried to see what he could do without him.

The winger was quickly making his way to the opposition box now as the home fans got up from their seats to applaud him.

It was a standing ovation, one that was very well expected.

"Lyon pulled in Duncan and Mateo is now on the pitch for the home team, the match was already interesting but it's about to take a whole new turn in the interesting route and I'm here for it." Jim sounded quite ecstatic as those words left his lips.

With Mateo now on the pitch, it was time for Ferran to take the corner kick, another chance for them to see what they could do.

Just as the clock hit the seventieth minute, the referee blew his whistle and as soon as Ferran heard it, he slowly took two steps backward before he closed up on the ball and launched it into the box from the top.

He sent it flying a little closer to the edge of the box because that was exactly where Frankie was with just one player marking him, but just before the ball could get to the midfielder, it curled a little deeper into the box.

That caused it to completely evade Frankie and Merino couldn't get his head on it either as one of the opposing defenders in the box got his head on the ball and sent it flying out a little to the right.

"It's cleared!"

That was exactly where Mateo had been waiting but he wasn't alone.

Just as he brought the ball down and trapped it near the edge of the box, the left back quickly rushed to him but the winger quickly drifted off a little to the right with the ball before firing it straight toward the goalpost.

"Mateo!"

Because of how the defender closed up on him, he was only able to aim for the top right-hand corner.

Giovanni was standing right there and even raised his left hand to try and stop it but there was no point as the ball ended up flying over the bar for a goal kick.

"Oh, he just couldn't get it on target, his first shot of the game just a few seconds after coming on but it was a wasted effort," Steve commented.

"The fans would have jumped off the stands if he had managed to pull that off."

'With Mateo now on the pitch, we should be able to get a second goal with our teamwork and a little bit of individual brilliance from him.'

<You're not wrong to believe that but you should remember that a top player's individual brilliance doesn't show in every match>

The game had resumed now and just as expected, Lyon were back to trying to kill time on their side.

Duncan sent the ball rolling to Antoine as soon as he received it from one of the central defenders, and just before both Roland and Ferran could gang up on the winger near the halfway line, he sent it rolling back to Duncan.

"Lyon are not making any real effort to attack, they're just trying to keep hold of the ball and let time run out, Unique FC are obviously not happy with that," Jim commented.

Duncan had to push the ball back to the midfield behind a little to the left and as soon as he sent the ball rolling that way, Martinez immediately began to move over there.

That was the moment Unique FC began to get aggressive with the way they were chasing the ball and that forced Lyon to start moving further down on their side of the pitch.

"Unique FC finally doing something about the situation Lyon are trying to force them into."

With Marcel now forced back along with the rest of his teammates, he sent the ball rolling to the left back who had the name Levi above the number two on the back of his jersey.

Levi pushed forward with the ball a little and just before both Mateo and Martinez could close up on him, he sent the ball flying forward toward the right in an attempt to find Antoine, getting the ball through to Antoine would give them a chance to quickly advance forward to do something.

That turned out to be a mistake as Roland managed to get his head on the ball first and he sent it flying to Ferran who quickly flicked it to Frankie before it could touch the floor and Frankie didn't waste any time in taking off with it.

"Unique FC finally have the ball and they're quickly pushing forward with it!"

Frankie's shirt was drenched with sweat and his breathing had gotten quite fast-paced but he kept to cover the space he still had left before anyone would get in his way.

Despite that, someone managed to get in his way before he could get close enough to the edge of the box but after drifting a little to the right, he sent the ball rolling to Mateo who quickly pierced through Levi with a neat nutmeg.

The defender quickly got up from the floor and rushed to the winger to get the ball off his feet and Mateo, being aware of him, quickly moved closer to the sidelines before taking off further down the wing before his backup could get close enough to pose any problem to him.

"Mateo dominates the right wing just as much as he dominates the left wing and he's not done yet."

Crossing the ball from the wing was an option but Mateo didn't take that option, instead, he managed to force his way into the box with three Lyon players right behind him and one in front of him.

One of them tried to grab his arm with the other one pulling on his shirt and the one in front of him stretching his right leg to stop him.

It was a moment of weariness for the Olympique Lyonnais fans and while they were worried, Unique FC fans were hanging on the edge of their seats.

"Mateo's still going, can he put it away!"

The winger managed to evade the player in front of him to get a clear shooting chance but getting past the player came with the cost of getting knocked off balance and just before he could hit the floor, he tried to get the ball to Merino.

However, his pass was weak and Giovanni ended up grabbing the ball before things could go any further.

"Oh, Giovanni steps up to kill the danger, the fans must be relieved now."

Mateo who was still on the floor now raised both of his hands calling for a foul because he got pulled on a couple of times inside the box, but the referee didn't consider it as Giovanni quickly sent the ball flying out.

"That was such a great chance for the home team to take the lead and grab the advantage, he should have thought of passing that to someone else earlier."