Chapter 113

A drizzle began to fall, and Endrit, who almost fell, was grabbed by Lampa's arm and taken back to the locker room.

"I almost fell down," Endrit said helplessly, "but I didn't fall down yet, did I? There's no need to be like this..."

"How can we not do this?" Ballack cast a disapproving look at Endrit. "If you fall in the last 45 minutes before the final, even if the club and all the fans don't blame you, are you sure you won't feel bad?"

Endrit said nothing and let Lampard take him into the locker room. Ballack was right. If he fell down now, the guilt and regret in his heart would be enough to crush him.

"Are your shoes not fitting?"

Back in the locker room, Makelele drank a sip of water and then stood in front of Endrit. He bent down and stared at Endrit's shoes. "Do you want to change a pair? You almost fell down now. Aren't you going to fall flat on your face in the second half?"

"Change your shoes now?" Ballack twitched his ears and cast a disapproving look at Makelele. "Are you crazy? What if the new shoes are even more inappropriate? Ritter almost fell just now because the grass was too slippery on a rainy day."

"Damn this rotten lawn," Drogba muttered in dissatisfaction as he sat aside. "I discovered it yesterday. Does this lawn really meet the qualified standards?"

"If it were me, I would not have fallen!" Makelele turned around twice and showed Endrit his shoes in all aspects. "I am very experienced in this kind of weather and this kind of grass!"

Endrit tilted his head back slightly, with a hint of hesitation on his face, "Are you setting a flag?"

Makelele was confused and Endritt was unable to elaborate because coach Mourinho pushed open the door of the locker room and walked in to start arranging tactics for the second half of the game.

"This rain probably won't stop in the short term, but fortunately we are temporarily ahead, so in the second half we just need to seal the goal." Mourinho paused and scanned the faces of every player to make sure they were looking at him at this moment. "Listen, I'm not excited at all, and I don't want to see you struggling and scoring another goal in the rain. I just want you to defend the goal and keep this lead until the end of the game!"

To put it bluntly, in competitive games, the winner takes all. As long as you lose, no matter how magnificent the process was, you will be hung on the pillar of shame forever. Even if you win more championships later, your failure will be deliberately brought up by your opponents again and again.

"Welcome back. You are watching the second half of the 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League final. Chelsea is leading Manchester United 1-0. Can they maintain this lead until the end of the game?"

"It started to rain at the Luzhniki Stadium near the end of the first half. According to the local weather forecast department, the rain is likely to continue until eight in the morning. This is very bad news, which means our players will have to finish the second half of the game in the rain."

"Just now when he came off the court, Ritter almost fell down. The grass of the Luzhniki Stadium is really hard to describe." The commentator was completely certain of his thoughts, "This is the worst venue for a final I have ever seen."

As the referee Brüch blew the whistle, the second half of the game began in the rain.

Endritt did not become timid because of the fact that he almost fell just now. He even became tougher in defense.

In the 54th minute, Ronaldinho made a straight pass from the backcourt, Evra made a cross from the left side of the penalty area, and the ball flew straight towards Hargreaves. The latter ran forward to catch the ball, but the dense raindrops hitting his face affected his vision and judgment. When he jumped up, he failed to head the ball as he wished.

When he landed on the lawn, the splashing water hit his legs, making Hargreaves' mood instantly worse.

After the ball landed, it was intercepted by Malouda, who showed off his dribbling skills and passed the ball to Essien. Essien received the ball in the Manchester United penalty area and cooperated with Makelele to pass Ronaldinho before shooting with his left foot at the edge of the penalty area. Because of the rain, Essien deliberately put some strength into kicking the ball, trying to score a goal in the blind corner of the goal, but the former obviously could not control the natural rain, and the football flew directly over the goal and out of the boundary.

In the 66th minute, when Essien shot again, the ball flew straight into Van der Sar's arms and was easily caught by the latter.

Essien's face looked a little dark, but Van der Sar's expression wasn't much better. This rain is not only aimed at Chelsea, but also at Manchester United.

Originally the lagging side, they naturally had to launch a fierce bombardment on Chelsea's goal in order to overtake the score in the second half. However - it was a damn rainy day, even Ronaldinho could not be sure where the football would land at the moment he kicked it!

Within 22 minutes after the start of the second half, Manchester United launched five attacks on Chelsea's goal, but most of the shots that were originally aimed at the blind corner were forced to lower their height due to the rain, and were easily caught by Endrit after he jumped up - although Endrit looked a little embarrassed after his consecutive saves, the ball did not go in, and no matter how embarrassed Endrit was, he could not put a smile on their faces.

In the 74th minute, Ronaldinho seized the opportunity on the left side, deceived Essien with a feint and then broke into the left side of the penalty area, intending to score with a small angle shot. Endrit was a little nervous when he saw Ronaldinho rushing towards him, but he did not act rashly because it was a damn rainy day and he was not sure if he would be able to get up in time to make a second save if he accidentally fell down after making a rash move.

With such a rainy day and such a rotten lawn, Yashin was still confused.

The football flew towards the goal through the dense raindrops. Looking at the trajectory of the football, Endrit's intuition told him that the ball would go directly out of the goal. He could just watch the ball go out of the goal like before and pretend to be a big shot. But before his brain made a final judgment, Endrit had already quickly pounced in the direction where the football was coming from, and slapped the football with his big hand, causing the football, which was already a little off, to instantly move away from the goal, completely destroying the Manchester United fans' hopeful fantasy: What if the ball goes in with the help of the rain?

No one knew whether the rain in the sky would help Manchester United, but when Chelsea fans saw Endrit quickly climb up from the lawn and stand in front of the goal, they smiled with relief.

Oh my God, he is not pretending at all in our family, he is going to carry the whole game!

In the 78th minute, Ashley passed the ball to Drogba, who shot a curved ball outside the penalty area. The ball hit the right post and bounced out. The commentator on the scene sighed with regret, but the camera was immediately given to Endrit.

"It's a pity that the ball didn't go in and Chelsea couldn't continue to expand the lead."

"Ritter didn't show any frustrated expression. Does he no longer have any hope for his teammates to score goals?"

Two minutes later, Drogba shot in front of the penalty area. After the ball went wide, the camera once again focused on Endrit, but the latter still had no expression on his face.

In the 83rd minute, Ballack shot from the top of the penalty area. After the ball went over the bar, the commentators were amazed at the regretful face of Ballack that appeared in the camera.

"Finally I don't see Ritter's face right away. To be honest, I missed it."

His partner rolled his eyes in annoyance and was about to say something when the director's camera was turned to Endrit again: the referee blew the whistle and the game resumed. The director smoothly cut to Endrit before turning the screen to the players on the field who were ready to start the battle again.

In the 85th minute, chance favored Chelsea again. Vidic fouled Drogba in the frontcourt, and the latter got an indirect free kick opportunity. But after receiving the pass from Malouda, Drogba's shot from a small angle missed the near corner.

Two minutes later, Ferguson took a deep breath and turned to look at Giggs: he no longer had any expectations for this game. Even if injury time is included, there are less than five minutes left until the end of the game. With Endrit on the opposite side, can they really get the ball into Chelsea's goal?

"Is Giggs going to come on as a substitute?"

"Statistics show that this will be Giggs' 759th game, breaking the Manchester United appearance record held by Charlton!" The commentator passionately introduced this breakthrough and then realized something. After a moment of silence, he said in a low voice: "Manchester United fans should probably look forward to the next season."

As Brüch blew the whistle at the end of the game, the suppressed cheers and shouts of Chelsea fans instantly filled the entire Luzhniki Stadium.

"Chelsea!"

"Let us congratulate Chelsea for becoming the 2007-2008 Champions League champions!"

Endrit blinked in front of the goal, then fell directly to the ground with a "plop".

In the last ten minutes, Endrit did not make any saves, but these were the most tiring ten minutes in his career. He was afraid that the opposing Manchester United players would suddenly burst out and kick the ball into the goal, so when the ball was in the hands of Manchester United, he kept moving, staring at the ball, and not giving the opponent any chance to play overtime.

"The Champions League awards ceremony will take place in twenty minutes, but Chelsea's players are so excited that they may need more time to prepare!"

"Endrit, who doesn't like to celebrate, also celebrated with his teammates this time! He was very excited because this was a moment of honor that belonged only to the champions!"

Endrit, who had just laid down on the grass and was ready to give up, was instantly surrounded by his teammates and forced to pile up.

Mourinho, who had spent several minutes standing at the sidelines to finally suppress the corners of his mouth, stepped forward to rescue Endrit and called on the players to go back to rest and attend the award ceremony later.

Makelele pulled Endrit and patted Lampard's shoulder excitedly. He turned his head and motioned him to look at Endrit: "Look, he's so happy! He doesn't even laugh anymore, hahahaha..."

Lampard tried to suppress his smile and looked at Endrit, who silently rolled his eyes: after the game, before he had digested the exhaustion emanating from his body, he was piled up on top of others. After being finally pulled out, he was laughed at in the face. Endrit felt that he could not laugh at all now.

Isn't it just winning the game? It’s not like he hasn’t won before… cough cough cough!

Endrit raised his arm, stretched out his index finger and pressed hard on the corner of his mouth which was constantly rising.

Twenty minutes later

Endrit was surrounded by his teammates and stood in the middle, holding the Big Ear Cup high.

Shoot and freeze. In all the photos, the boy standing in the middle showed a very bright smile.