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Chapter 264: Liga NOS is Back! III

The referee blew the whistle to resume the game and the Braga side kicked off.

Immediately after kick-off, the Braga players swarmed into Porto’s half of the field, giving support to the player on the ball as they wanted to launch a last attack before the whistle to end the first half was finally blown.

They were a bit anxious at having their lead snatched away from them just before halftime and they launched an attack intending to immediately take back the lead.

The ball flew from one Braga player to another as they overloaded Porto’s half of the field.

Soon the ball reached Porto’s final third and the Braga left winger sent in a cross, hoping to create a chance for his strikers, but Pepe had been watching the ball all the while and as soon as the ball came into the box, he lunged into the path of the ball and kicked it away to clear the ball.

Due to the ball being too fast, Pepe wasn’t able to kick the ball out of play like he intended as the ball flew towards the middle of the field instead where it was brought under control by Fabio Viera who had moved to the middle of the field.

With most of the Braga players having charged forward in an all-out attempt to regain the lead before the halftime whistle, the players in front of Viera were less than half of the Braga team which presented the opportunity for a counterattack.

Viera did not waste any time and immediately began pushing forward, but before moving three meters in the direction of Braga’s goal, his left leg snapped back and he sent a through pass down the left that carved through the already dwindled Braga defense.

Luis Diaz was the one the ball was intended for as he charged down the left of the field to catch the ball, leaving his marker to have a face full of his dust.

Despite leaving his marker behind, another Braga player immediately appeared to block his path, but Diaz had already gotten to the ball in the final third of the Braga half.

Slowing his pace so he could have more control over his movements, he kept his head up as he did a few step-overs to confuse the Braga player before suddenly darting down the left again to create just enough space to send the ball into Braga’s penalty box.

Moussa Marega was there in the penalty box to receive the ball, but with time running out, he knew he had to move fast and he put his foot into the path of the ball with just enough power to bring the ball to a halt in front of him while he swiftly changed his body position into a more optimal position for a shot.

This didn’t take more than a second and as soon as he was ready, Marega unleashed a powerful shot at the Braga goal, but before he could rejoice a Braga defender jumped into the path of the ball and deflected the ball just enough to send the ball flying out of play instead of the back of his team’s goal.

Unlike the disappointment that one would expect to see from the Porto players, the Porto players close by immediately held up one hand and began calling for the referee.

“Handball, ref!” Marega called out as he ran to the referee while tapping his right arm with his left.

To the Porto players’ joy, the referee’s whistle followed after with his hand pointed to the penalty spot in the Braga spot.

{What’s this? It seems like a penalty!}

{They barely managed to stop Porto’s counterattack that would have ended in a goal, but it seems the Braga defender’s hand was touched by the ball!} The commentator’s words immediately got the Porto fans in a frenzy as huge smiles appeared on their faces, while some of them even began hugging themselves in celebration as if their team had already scored the goal.

The Braga players weren’t going to just allow the penalty to be decided without getting a word in and the Braga captain immediately went to the referee to try and convince the referee that it was a ‘ball-to-hand’ instead of a hand ball, but the best he could manage to do was to get the referee to consult the VAR.

Less than a minute later, his efforts were rendered to oblivion as the VAR agreed with the referee’s decision to call a penalty as the player’s hand was already in an unnaturally high position.

With the penalty given, Marega immediately took the ball to the penalty spot and stepped back to take the penalty.

The referee quickly set everything in place and less than a minute later, the whistle was blasted loudly followed by Marega blasting the ball into the bottom left corner of the Braga goal out of the reach of the goalkeeper who had dived the correct way.

{Well taken penalty! He smashed it without any care for trickery and the goalkeeper couldn’t match his efforts!}

{With that, Porto take the lead for the first time in the game and it’s only been less than three minutes since they got their equalizer!}

{What powers of recovery!}

{They’re showing their opponents what it means to be defending champions! They just wouldn’t stay down!} The commentator’s excited commentary once again filled the stadium but the Porto players weren’t even listening as they chased after Marega who had run to the sidelines and jumped into a slide.

The Porto fans weren’t listening either as they were cheering loudly while shouting down the hate-watchers who were with them and telling them not to underestimate their team.

“Can your team make a comeback within 3 minutes of injury time!?”

This was a question that a lot of Porto fans were using to shout down the non-Porto supporters who were hate-watching the game with them.

“It’s just a penalty, you’ll see Braga make a comeback as well in the second half,” was the most heard response to that question, but the Porto fans just scoffed at those non-believers who refused to see the light.