?


    The match had just entered the fifteenth minute now and so far, there had been no breakthrough from either side.


    As expected, Lazio had been trying their tricky long-range shots and two out of those three shots were quite close to going in but Dave was able to get to them on time and stop Lazio from taking the lead against them.


    Lazio was going all attack on them just like their formation suggested.


    They were ying a four-three-three formation with two attacking midfielders and a defensive midfielder who seemed to be causing a lot of trouble offensively.


    Unique FC on the other hand were ying with a four-four-two formation that had two attacking midfielders and two defensive midfielders.


    The attack was being led by Mateo alongside Merino and in midfield we had Ferran and Minino upfront and Frankie and Martinez behind them as the defensive midfielders.


    Norman was in the right back position, Rnd in left back and the center was upied by both Adolf and Aima.


    Unique FC were the ones with the ball now and they were neatly passing it around, moving forward with it with every opportunity and looking for any opening to strike their opponents from.


    So far, they had only been able to make one goal attempt which ended up flying over the bar, but they were looking forward to doubling it and getting a goal with it.


    Lazio''s midfield looked quite impressive in attacks and somewhat controlling the game, but in terms of fluidity, Unique FC had the better midfield.


    Frankie received the ball from Mateo after the winger almost lost it to one of the midfielders.


    The midfielder moved forward with the ball a little, and just before the yer quickly heading toward him could get to him, he sent the ball rolling to Minino.


    Minino got hold of the ball as the midfielder on his side quickly rushed toward him at that moment, but before he could get to him, he sent the ball rolling to Merino with a backheel pass.


    "Lazio are being quite aggressive with the way they''re chasing the ball here," Jimmented.


    "Looks like they''re trying to overwhelm Unique FC but if they''re not careful, they''ll end up overwhelming themselves instead."


    Ferran received the ball from Merino and gave it a single push before he sent it flying over to Mateo.


    The winger had the right back hot on his trail and after bringing the ball down with his chest, his path was blocked by the yer, right at the edge of the sideline near the box.


    Mateo tried to confuse him with fast leg movements and it looked like that worked quite well as he ended up getting past the defender with a nutmeg.


    "Oh, he''s through here."


    The winger raced toward the box and was about to enter it when he was suddenly brought down with a horrendous tackle from an attacking midfielder who had the name Ryan written above the number eight on the back of his jersey.


    "Oh, that is a horrendous challenge."


    The referee didn''t need anyone to confirm anything to him as he blew his whistle before quickly getting closer to the area even the lineman had his g up.


    Mateo was expected to stay on the floor after a challenge like that, but he got up like nothing happened to him.


    Ryan could have gotten a red card there and none of his teammates would have solid ground toin but the referee decided to show him a yellow card.


    There were Unique FC yers who weren''t happy about that, but none of them made a fuss about it.


    "To be honest that should have been a straight red card if this was some referee, Ryan should just keep himself in check or else he''s going to get sent out in this match and miss their next match." Steve expressed.


    "Yeah, but that aside for now, Unique FC have a really good scoring opportunity now. This is a massive scoring opportunity if you consider how great Mateo''s free-kick conversion rate has been so far this season."


    "Yeah."


    Both Mateo and Ferran were standing over the ball now, something that was done sometimes to make the fans, opponents, and everyone else confused about who was going to take the free kick.


    Lazio formed their four-man wall inside the box and as cautious as they were, they didn''t forget to put someone below.


    "I think Ferran is going to leave it for Mateo but he could take it, who knows," Jim said.


    "I think leaving it for him is the reasonable thing to do," Steve said.


    After making sure that everything was ready, the referee blew his whistle and now it was time to find out who was going to be taking the free-kick.


    "Who''s it going to be?"


    Ferran raced toward the balls and pulled his leg back before quickly jumping over it.


    At that same time, Mateo had gotten close enough to the ball as he was right behind the midfielder.


    He quickly pulled his right foot back and sent the ball flying toward the goalpost.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    The ball seemed to be flying a little to the left at first until it suddenly curled toward the top left-hand corner.


    Jorge dived toward it with his right hand to try and stop it but he was only able to get the tip of his glove on it as the ball ended up hitting the angle between the post and crossbar before falling into the goalpost.


    It looked like Unique FC fans held their breath as soon as the winger kicked the ball as they immediately burst into screams.


    "Oh, my goodness, what a free-kick!"


    Mateo wasn''t even given the chance to celebrate on his own after scoring that goal as Minino quickly dashed toward him and pushed him down before the rest of his teammates got to him.


    "What a neatly struck free-kick, I don''t know about you Jim, but I think his free-kick technique might just be better than Ciro''s," Steve remarked.


    "I have to agree with you there, Steve, but still it''s a bit too early to start debating about who''s the better free-kick taker," Jim said. "Back to the match, Lazio didn''t expect it but Unique FC has just shocked them to take the lead in the twenty-first minute."


    "Mateo just keeps getting better and better," Mateo said with a face beaming with a smile.


    <He knows what he''s fighting, this is his first time in a Europeanpetition and he wants to leave a good first impression even though it isn''t the Champions League or Europa League, he wants to be the best but you wouldn''t hear someone like him telling anyone about it>


    ''Yeah, I get that feeling about him too.''


    <He''s done his part now and you guys have the lead, make sure you guys don''t bottle this>


    ''I''ll do my best, Cat.''


    The match continued with Lazio desperately trying to find an equalizer, but so far, Unique FC were doing a good job of keeping them at bay.


    Andrea received the ball down the wing when Rnd quickly closed up on him and sent the ball out for a throw-in.


    <I didn''t check before but it looks like he''s gotten faster>


    ''Who?''


    <Rnd, you''re the fastest yer in the team now because of how you dumped so many stat points into your dexterity but he''s pretty close to you>


    ''How close?''


    <Very close, I could say the difference is a bit negligible>


    The ball was thrown to Ryan who quickly sent it back to the yer behind him with a backheel pass.


    He pushed forward with the ball a little before he sent it rolling toward Carrigher who quickly passed it to the left forward with a single touch.


    The yer had the name Zahid written above the number seventeen on the back of his jersey and had a pretty dark skin tone, there was no doubt that he was African.


    Zahid got hold of the ball and tried to dribble past Norman but Norman wasn''t giving him any space.


    After seeing that he couldn''t get through easily, he sent the ball rolling back to Ryan who said ''Screw it.'' in his mind before he sent the ball flying toward the goalpost.


    The ball didn''t have that much elevation to it as it flew toward the right side of the goalpost.


    It had quite the shot power to it, but that wasn''t a problem for Dave who quickly dived toward it and caught it with both of his gloves.


    "Nice catch."


    ''I don''t really need ball ma when I can move that fast.''


    <But not every situation requires you to move fast to stop a ball from going in>


    ''I''m aware of that, I wasn''t saying the skill was useless to me now, just saying its usefulness has been reduced to just critical situations.''


    The match had just entered the fortieth minute now as Unique FC were lurking around Lazio''s box looking for a way through.


    Merino received the ball from Ferran and was about to do something with it when it was quickly swept off his feet but before the yer who swept it off could get to it, Martinez got to the ball and sent it flying back to Dave.


    "Um…that''s pretty stupid given the fact that they were already cooking up something but he may be on to something," Stevemented.


    "You''re always doing this, Martinez," Dave said as soon as he trapped the ball under his foot.


    After saying that, a smirk suddenly appeared on his face.


    [ Shot stopping attribute activated ]