Chapter 27
The first leg of the quarter-final kicked off at Old Trafford.
The main players of both teams stood on the green field of Old Trafford and expressed courtesy to the players of the other side one by one.
——Part of it is courtesy, and part of it is a true expression of feelings.
Cristiano clapped his hands one by one, with a big smile showing his white teeth - Gattuso, was good to Kaka, but was slapped on the forehead by Kaka; Nesta, who couldn't be beaten, was a handsome guy; Cafu, Kaka's national team teammate, was shorter than him; Seedorf, well, the tallest, racial advantage...
The teammates who were clapped and passed by by Cristiano looked at each other and inexplicably felt a strange feeling of being inspected.
Cristiano shook hands with his national team teammate Costa, then moved closer and bumped shoulders. Rui Costa smiled and looked at his national teammate: "In good shape?"
"Excellent," Cristiano replied with a grin, and quickly moved on to the next one.
Kaka!
Cristiano suppressed his excitement and joy, and tried to keep his lips from curling up too much. He pursed his lips, which had just been painted with lip balm before the game, and whispered, "Kaka!"
Kaka held the hand that Cristiano extended to him. He saw the joy and excitement in Cristiano's eyes, like a cluster of flames illuminating those amber eyes. He didn't want Cristiano to restrain his emotions all the time. Cristiano had done enough in his previous life.
He held Chris's hand, then grabbed him into his arms, hugged him tightly, and smiled widely, "Cris!"
Cristiano took advantage of the situation and put his hands through Kaka's shoulders like an octopus to hug him back. It was only two or three seconds. He quickly buried his head in Kaka's jersey, took a deep breath, and whispered: "Great! Let's play a beautiful debut."
"Okay." Kaka responded, and the two quickly separated.
Costa, who was standing next to Kaka, showed a helpless expression as he witnessed his club-mates and national team teammates smiling brighter than the sun. The perfect eight-teeth smile almost blinded his eyes.
With a whistle, the game begins.
Cristiano, wearing Manchester United's red home jersey, ran diligently on the field, while AC Milan wore white jerseys.
Rooney got the ball, ran with it twice, then raised his foot and made a quick pass. Cristiano ran to the front as fast as the wind and caught up with the ball.
AC Milan's captain Maldini immediately defended against Chris, and after the boy made a few deflection moves, he skillfully and decisively shoveled the ball out.
Cristiano lost his balance and fell forward, but he immediately got up and quickly caught up with the ball.
Maldini noticed Cristiano's reaction. He didn't expect the boy to pretend after falling down. Instead, he got up and caught up with him.
He immediately passed the ball, and the defender quickly followed up, and as Cristiano caught up with the ball, he made another flying tackle.
The fans at Old Trafford booed in dissatisfaction.
This time Cristiano fell hard to the ground and pouted helplessly, not surprised at all. The defender who had just knocked him down stepped forward and pulled Chris up.
Rooney and Ferdinand were about to rush over when they saw Cristiano nod slightly to the opposing defender. He was patted on the shoulder in a friendly manner and he returned a handshake. The referee, who was moving towards this side, saw this and signaled to continue the game.
Rooney and Ferdinand looked at each other and gave up for the time being.
Cristiano looked past Milan's defensive teammates and accurately caught the attentive gaze from his lover.
He almost curled up the corners of his mouth subconsciously, but then he stopped, lowered his head and pinched his nose to hide his little expression.
Sir Alex Ferguson couldn't help but raise his arms vigorously when watching in the coaching area. His neck and face turned red with excitement - two tackles! Shovel twice in a row! Damn it!
When Rooney ran to the wing, Sir Alex Ferguson sprayed him in the face. He ran forward in a daze. It was Sir Alex Ferguson who said he would not cause trouble, and now it was also Sir Alex Ferguson who asked him to fight back. What was he going to do?
His eyes were fixed on the two men who had just tackled Cristiano. It doesn't matter, it's just these two.
Neither side scored in the first half, and the main players of both sides met briefly in the player tunnel.
Cristiano glanced around, slowed down and fell behind a few people, walking slowly as if waiting for someone. Nesta and Rui Costa noticed Cris's little move, they curled the corners of their mouths, showing a tacit smile, and simply walked quickly to the front.
Kaka immediately took big steps and walked side by side to Cristiano. The two met briefly in the player tunnel, clapped their hands tacitly, shook hands quickly and then released them, and then returned to their respective locker rooms.
Cristiano lowered his head, unable to control the corners of his mouth that were raised, as if he was secretly delighted. This was like a secret little happiness that no one knew about.
Returning to the locker room at halftime, Sir Alex Ferguson was like a cannon full of ammunition, angrily firing at all the main players:
"Are you sleepwalking?! They tackled your winger! And you still keep them?!"
"I told you to stay out of trouble, but I didn't tell you to be a saint! Can't your brain even tell the difference?"
"I want to see your blood in the second half! This is not the place for you to daydream! If you can't do it, get out!"
The entire locker room was silent. No one wanted to run into Ferguson's gun at this time.
Manchester United's main players were on the verge of collapse after Ferguson's bombardment. When they came back on the field at the end of the first half, each of them was like a beast that was stimulated in the arena, and was full of aggressiveness.
The second half begins.
Less than ten minutes into the game, Kaka organized a beautiful counterattack. Cafu and Nesta passed the ball to Kaka in succession.
Seeing this, Cristiano immediately sped up. No one expected Chris to suddenly speed up and return to defense.
However, the next second, Kaka was seen running towards Manchester United's penalty area with the ball at an even more incredible speed.
Manchester United's defense was unable to contain the terrifying running ability of the Son of God. He carried the ball like the Son of the Wind, creating a whirlwind on the green field.
Cristiano followed Kaka's eyes closely, and it seemed as if there was a surge of blood in his body, and his adrenaline was surging uncontrollably.
It has been so long since he has personally felt Kaka like this! Kaka runs wildly on the court with the ball at a speed as fast as a meteor, unharmed by injuries and fully releasing all his energy. He shines incredibly brightly even in the star-studded AC Milan.
"Oh my God! Now it's a one-on-one contest between the Milan Saint and the Manchester United Red Devils! The two of them started almost at the same time!" The commentator exclaimed, "Ronaldo's terrifying predictive ability! It's like he knew what his opponent would do in advance!"
In the broadcast screen, two figures, one red and one white, changed directions flexibly as the players from both sides moved in and out.
Kaka raised his head and quickly glanced at Cristiano. The moment their eyes met, Cristiano guessed what the other wanted to do, and he took action without hesitation.
However, just as he understood Kaka, Kaka also understood him.
He smiled slightly, showing amazing ability to control the court and the ball, perfectly opening a gap for himself to attack.
"Kaka! He's like a god descending from heaven! He reviewed Manchester United's entire defense! He tore through Manchester United's defense right in front of Ronaldo!" the commentator shouted excitedly.
"Long shot! Goal!!"
A black and white arc flashed quickly past Cristiano's eyes and went directly into the goal!
"Kaka! His signature long-range shot! The winner!" the commentator yelled at the top of his lungs, "AC Milan broke the deadlock! The score is one to zero!"
Kaka smiled and turned to look at Cristiano, and saw that the boy almost jumped up and was about to run towards him excitedly, but fortunately he was comforted and held down by his captain, with a stiff expression on his face, not knowing whether to smile or not.
Kaka laughed when he saw this, but before he could do anything, he was hugged tightly by his teammates who came over the next second. Shevchenko put his arm around his neck tightly, almost pressing Kaka under his elbow.
Cristiano's face showed some dissatisfaction, and he stared at Shevchenko. Kaka's spine was obviously injured, so didn't anyone take care of it? !
"Oh, the camera is on Manchester United's Ronaldo. He looks very unhappy. It is really depressing to lose a goal in front of him." The commentator added, "But Ronaldo's performance just now was equally wonderful, but Kaka's long shot was real and unreasonable."
Ruud van Nistelrooy also came over and patted Cristiano's unhappy face: "Well done."
Ferdinand and Neville also looked unhappy. Kaka tore through the defense right in front of them. The feeling couldn't be worse.
Cristiano blinked, then realized that he was misunderstood, but he was relieved at the same time. This was better than being photographed being happy when AC Milan scored a goal.
He nodded quickly to Fanny and started running again.
"There's not much time left for Manchester United, less than thirty minutes!"
Kaka's long shot not only broke the deadlock, but also made Manchester United's defense look as fragile as a piece of thin paper. The Manchester United Red Devils were completely enraged, which obviously made the game more offensive.
Just when Maldini got the ball and was about to dribble forward, Neville rushed over and made a flying tackle. His foot first touched the ball and kicked it out. At the same time, a hard body collision knocked the AC Milan captain to the ground. Maldini hugged his ankle with a trace of pain.
At this moment, the referee quickly rushed to the position, and the main players from both sides gathered around and gestured something angrily.
"My goodness, the situation is a bit chaotic now... Let's first take a look at what's going on with Maldini." The commentator paused and spoke.
"The team doctor came up and applied emergency ice treatment. It looks like the injury is not serious and he should be able to play soon." The commentator said, "But the atmosphere on the field looks very tense. Gattuso pushed Giggs who was explaining something to the referee, and Giggs fought back! Nesta rushed over!"
The commentator sounded even more excited than before.
Seeing his national teammates rushing over, Cristiano took a step forward, intending to separate the emotional teammates on both sides. However, before he could get a word in, he felt two forces coming from behind and dragging him back.
Two shares.
Cristiano turned his head and saw Ferdinand and Kaka grabbing his clothes and pulling them back at the same time.
Cristiano: “…”
Ferdinand glanced at Kaka, then without saying anything, he pulled his teammate behind him with more force. He glanced at Kaka expressionlessly, then turned his gaze and said to Cristiano: "What are you doing in there? Who can you beat?"
Cristiano: “…”
He turned to look at his lover and quickly gave him a look for help.
Needless to say, Kaka didn't want to see both sides getting cards for fighting, so he nodded at Chris soothingly and strode straight into the crowd.
——He could fully feel the gaze from behind him as if it were real.
Cristiano watched as his lover used his body to push Neville and Rooney away. Although he shouldn't laugh, it was the first time Cristiano felt that these two people would take two steps back when being pushed.
Kaka directly used his body to block his teammates, holding down the shoulders of the two who were in conflict with each other with one hand.
Giggs was hit on the shoulder by Kaka's elbow during the scuffle. He took a step forward angrily, but when he saw Nesta, Shevchenko and others surrounding him aggressively, Sir Alex Ferguson on the sidelines pressed his hand down at him, indicating that the game should go on first.
Giggs looked down at Kaka. He did not engage in any physical confrontation. He just uttered some trash talk that had no effect.
"Do you think you can be a diplomat just because you are good-looking? Boy, if you were in our Premier League, you would only be beaten and cry."
After he finished speaking, he spat on the ground. Before he could turn around, Kaka suddenly grabbed his throat with one hand. The sudden attack caught Giggs off guard.
Although Cristiano rushed up and immediately blocked Kaka and blocked him in the middle as a human wall, Giggs angrily tried to cross Chris and counterattacked, cursing: "Shameless sneak attacker!"
Kaka had a cold face and showed no intention of retreating. His eyes were like a pool of bottomless black water.
If Cristiano hadn't stopped him, he had no doubt that he would have hit the opponent again.
So this is how Giggs and others treated Cristiano?
Kaka bit the soft flesh in his mouth and, under Chris's gaze, barely controlled the anger that had just been aroused. He found that he had not forgotten the tabloid news about Chris being privately "trained" by Manchester United.
Cristiano had never expected that Kaka, who was supposed to be a mood stabilizer, would directly choke Giggs. It was incredible to think about it, especially since Giggs was considered the locker room bully in his eyes. It had to be said that when the two men confronted each other just now, Giggs was completely crushed by his lover in terms of height, body shape and aura.
So, Cristiano biasedly pulled Kaka away, thinking in his heart that he was doing this to protect his big brother teammate.
This time, Nesta didn't have time to intervene in the melee. He was surprised to find that Kaka's friend was faster than them. He directly inserted himself between the two of them, put his hands on Kaka's shoulders, and got so close that it seemed as if their foreheads were touching.
If he didn't know that these two were close friends, he would have thought that the other party was coming to provoke him.
Fortunately, they recognized it in time.
The referee rushed up and gave each side a yellow card. Giggs was still furious and was taken away directly by Keane to prevent the yellow card from being upgraded to a red card.
Cristiano couldn't stay there any longer. He looked at Kaka twice more, and when he trotted past his Portuguese teammates, he whispered, "Costa, help me keep an eye on Kaka. He's really angry."
Rui Costa's mouth twitched. Is Kaka his teammate or Chris's teammate?
He rolled his eyes at Cristiano, covered his mouth and said quickly: "Okay, look at Giggs over there, he's the one who's angry."
Cristiano thought that Giggs must have done something or said something unpleasant to make Kaka, such a good-tempered person, get angry and fight on the court.
As far as he could remember, Kaka had never resorted to violence on the field, unless the opposing players tackled him with the intention of crippling him. Otherwise, even if Kaka himself was tackled, he never got angry. Even the players who committed fouls would praise Kaka after the game.
Cristiano had no idea what Giggs had said, but he would find out after the game.
Cristiano glanced towards Kaka and saw Inzaghi, Gattuso and others surrounding Kaka and talking to him quickly. They also rubbed Kaka's hair a few times. Kaka looked pretty good.
He focused back on the court.
The referee blew the whistle and signaled the game to continue.
"There was a scuffle just now. I didn't expect that Kaka, who is always called the 'Son of God', would have such a side. This makes people curious about what Giggs did just now. Is there any expert who knows lip reading who can share it after the game?" The commentator joked, "Okay, the game continues. You can see that Manchester United has the ball now."
Giggs dribbled the ball and kicked it with a long foot. Cristiano jumped high and caught the ball with his shoulder. With a shake of his shoulder, he sent the ball to Rooney who was in position.
Rooney received the ball and ran towards AC Milan's half, while Cristiano also started and sprinted quickly from the sideline.
Rooney made a long, low pass.
"Ah! The ball was a little faster! But Ronaldo caught up!" the commentator shouted.
Cristiano moved his feet and the ball with high frequency and small amplitude. In front of him were Cafu and Maldini.
He raised his head and quickly glanced at the positions of the two people, then suddenly accelerated and rushed forward. Cafu immediately followed closely to defend him, but he didn't expect Cristiano to run towards the penalty area with the ball at a high speed along the inside corner, then suddenly changed direction and immediately created a gap with the ball!
Cafu was unable to return to defense due to inertia, and Maldini also missed the best time to defend!
"Cristiano shot from a small angle! The ball went in!!! The score is tied!"
Cristiano raised his hands vigorously, grinned and hugged Rooney who rushed towards him. Rooney jumped heavily on Chris, straddled Chris' waist, and shouted excitedly: "Ronnie!"
The commentator watched the replay of the shot and said, "A beautiful shot! Cristiano actually dribbled past two AC Milan defenders! Now he and Kaka each have a goal! It seems that the battle between the Son of God and the Devil is still evenly matched!"
The score of 1:1 remained until the end of the game, and the first round ended in a draw.
When the referee blew the final whistle, Cristiano's thighs and calves were cramping. He lay on the ground with his teeth bared, gasping for breath, his chest and abdomen heaving violently.
He couldn't help but lift up his shorts to expose his thighs, frowned uncomfortably, closed his eyes and hummed softly.
He raised his hand to signal, but before his teammates could come over, a pair of familiar hands grabbed his legs.
Cristiano opened his eyes and saw his lover standing in front of him, frowning slightly, with both hands pressing on the inside of his thigh where he had cramps: "Cramps?"
Cristiano snorted and nodded, and subconsciously pouted his lips and acted like a spoiled child: "Kaka..."
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