Chapter 67
With three rounds left in the Premier League, Manchester United faced their old rival Leeds United.
Leeds United and Manchester United can be said to be sworn enemies. Their relationship can even be traced back to historical hatred. Everyone knows that this will be a tough derby.
When Cristiano met this life's Alan Smith in the player tunnel, he knew he would see him, but was still very happy - the healthy, young, fierce, Leeds United captain who always had a wild and vigorous growth force.
Even though they were rivals now, he was still quite open about wanting to come over and say hello.
——Then Fanny grabbed her neck and pulled her back: "Where are you going?"
Pique leaned behind Van Nistelrooy and shook his head slightly.
Please, if it were him, he would never take the initiative to approach anyone from Leeds United off the court.
It’s not that they are some kind of monster, I just don’t want to cause trouble.
Cristiano was suddenly pulled back by Van Nistelrooy. His old friend on the opposite side had already walked out with the team. He shrugged helplessly and had to wait until the meeting before the game to say hello.
“I just want to make a friend,” he explained to Fanny.
"With whom?" Pike asked curiously.
Before Cristiano could answer, Giggs pointed his mouth towards the outside of the pitch and replied: "I bet one hundred pounds on the most handsome one, the captain of Leeds United."
Cristiano: “…”
Although Giggs's answer made him sound like he was going to make friends with the other person just for his appearance, he couldn't refute that he was indeed planning to look for Alan.
Pique looked at Chris when he heard this, and saw that Cristiano did not refute, and Giggs actually guessed it right!
He narrowed his eyes slightly and began to doubt the authenticity of the tabloid news that "Cristiano Ronaldo is a face control". Giggs had ridiculed him many times before, saying that Ronnie would greet him at the beginning, entirely due to his good looks.
Maybe that's it? Pique quickly accepted the idea, he does have a good appearance.
"With Leeds United?" Keane heard the discussion behind him and couldn't help but look back. He twitched his mouth and said to Cristiano, "It's not suitable, at least not before or after the game. Ronnie, pick a better time."
Cristiano touched the tip of his nose.
The two teams came to the field and lined up. Keane and other eleven main players shook hands with the main players of Leeds United one by one.
Cristiano walked up to Alan. He still smiled at his old friend who was already a little unfamiliar. When shaking hands, he said softly and quickly: "It's nice to play football with you again."
It's always nice to see friends who are healthy and still active on the court.
He thought to himself, he could always change something, he had already kept Keane, why couldn't he prevent Alan from getting injured? Maybe he will figure it out.
Alan looked at the big boy with a few tufts of curly blond hair in front of him with a little surprise and confusion. The other party seemed to know him, but he was sure that he had never had any intersection with Ronaldo. Maybe it was because the Portuguese boy's English was not good at grammar?
He didn't take it to heart, but just withdrew his gaze, nodded slightly expressionlessly, and responded coldly to Cristiano's words.
Van Nistelrooy and Keane, who were secretly observing from the side, couldn't help but glance away first - they knew that their curly-haired dog would definitely go out to say hello, and sure enough, they were coldly and rudely ignored by the captain of the opposing team.
Cristiano was used to Alan's temper. He kept a happy mood and trotted to his seat.
To be honest, since Alan left Manchester United due to injury in the previous life, they have had much less contact - they were not the kind of friends who would always have dinner and parties together.
Alan is more like an old-fashioned Englishman who doesn't like social media very much. Even twenty years later, he rarely uses these things.
Even if they occasionally met, they would choose to meet in an ordinary street coffee shop, although Cristiano would often be surrounded by a crowd. Then Alan would rarely laugh and point at Cristiano's embarrassed look but having to keep smiling, and joked sincerely that he had long forgotten the treatment of a big star.
But the reduction in contact did not affect their relationship. Some relationships could be broken up even if they were having dinner together one moment. However, getting along with people like Alan proved the opposite point -
They could go years without any contact, save for the usual Christmas greetings, probably sent in bulk, but then, days after Cristiano returned to United, he would suddenly receive a message from the other side:
"We all know it shouldn't be like this, this won't be the end, hang in there, Cristiano, you can always prove yourself. Your friend Alan."
Cristiano didn't know if it was because his friend felt the same way as he did in the past, but at that time he really wanted to ask this old friend out for another coffee.
…
When the Manchester United Red Devils put on their red jerseys and Leeds United put on their white jerseys, the sense of historical destiny seemed to have come full circle and returned to the green field.
As the game whistle sounded, Ferguson stood on the sidelines of the coaching area, his eyes cast at the red and white jerseys overlapping and interlaced on the field. The white rose of Leeds United and the red rose of Manchester United were like twin flowers entwined on thorny ivy, romantic yet bloody.
Cristiano revisited Allan as a striker.
To be honest, he almost forgot what a striker who loves to tackle people looked like. Defenders like to tackle strikers to steal the ball, but Alan did the exact opposite of them - he tackled the defender and then stole the ball.
Cristiano soon found himself the next target. He won the ball and made a fancy run past Allan with it. He just wanted to send the ball to Rooney in the frontcourt, but his trick to get around Allan was obviously annoying.
He was hit hard by the fierce and direct forward and was pushed to the ground with one arm.
The referee blew the whistle, trotted over, and finally gave the striker, who had made quite a move, a yellow sapphire card, while Cristiano was still a little stunned as he sat on the ground - damn, how come this guy is so strong? !
Alan glanced at the dazed curly-haired boy sitting on the ground. He turned his head and snorted, then turned and walked away.
Cristiano got up from the ground speechlessly. He clearly felt that he had become much stronger through recent training with the system, but he didn't expect that he would still fall down after being pushed.
Pique trotted over and patted his shoulder to comfort him: "Wait for me to get the ball back for you."
What’s the use of being good-looking? You still have to be at home. Pique glanced at Alan's back, then turned to Cristiano and smiled.
Cristiano nodded casually, brushed off the grass and mud on his white shorts, and felt that Keane was right. It would be better to wait until Alan came to Manchester United before building friendship.
The first half of the game ended with Leeds United leading by one goal. Cristiano and Pique left the field and walked into the player tunnel one after another.
Alan glanced over there and quickly looked away.
In the second half, Cristiano pressed deep into the sideline and tried to pass the ball to Rooney several times, but each time the ball was kicked away. He stomped his feet in frustration, as if he was the one who kicked the ball away.
It didn't take Pique long to fulfill his promise in the first half, as he shoveled the ball away from a Leeds United defender and quickly regained his balance.
Pique looked up and found Cristiano's position. He jogged forward a few steps after the ball and made a long pass across half the field.
Cristiano stopped the ball with his chest, then immediately dribbled the ball and rushed towards the opponent's penalty area in a threatening manner.
Seeing this, Alan immediately sped up from the midfield and tried to catch up with Cristiano, but he could only watch the figure in the red number seven jersey pass over their defender and kick the ball through their goal!
Cristiano cheered loudly!
Pique ran straight up from behind him and jumped onto Cristiano's back.
But soon Pique was pulled down by other teammates who surrounded him and was squeezed to the outside. He had to rely on his long arms to reach over the crowd and vigorously ruffle Chris's curly hair coated with hairspray.
The game was tied in the 60th minute. Alan glanced at Cristiano who was surrounded by his teammates. He pursed his lips heavily, and a spirit of defiance rose up.
Ferdinand also had to admit that his former Leeds United teammate was a headache for all defenders. Even when they were training with the same team, Alan was the striker that all defenders didn't want to play with. He would make all the defenders' fun disappear.
But despite this, Alan's three shots in the second half hit the post once, went wide of the post, and one was confiscated by the Manchester United goalkeeper.
As the game entered injury time, the Rose War between Leeds United and Manchester United still maintained a close 1-1 draw.
In the last two minutes, Keane fired a cannonball into the frontcourt, all the defenders pressed forward, and Pique got the ball at his feet.
He turned around with the ball under his feet, glanced at his teammates beside him, then looked at the goal and Cristiano.
Cristiano is just further to the left of Pique, and no one is in a more suitable position than Pique.
Unfortunately, Pique's feet suddenly slipped, the ball rolled out, and the tall and strong Spaniard fell face down on the ground.
This happened so suddenly that the Leeds United defender closest to Pique immediately grabbed the ball, and Pique's teammates on the side also immediately stepped forward to press!
Alan was just about to move forward to defend when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a red shadow rushing past him like a rocket.
Alan saw the number behind the red figure. It was Manchester United's number seven. His pupils shrank slightly. He realized it almost before the ball hit the net - they were going to lose.
When the Leeds United defender snatched the ball and ran forward two steps due to inertia, Cristiano rushed up from behind at a faster speed.
When the goalkeeper saw Cristiano starting, he quickly ran out from the front of the goal and tried to hug the ball into his arms.
However, Chris was still one step faster!
"There's an empty net in front of the goal! Ronaldo shot into the empty net from a small angle! Manchester United! In the final injury time, they beat Leeds United 2-1!"
"GOOOOOOOOOOALL!"
The commentator shouted in a long breath as if his soul was about to leave his body! This is enough to show how exciting the reversal of the final result of this derby is!
Cristiano's heart was also beating very fast. He rushed forward completely on instinct and scored!
Before he could react, he was pressed up by Pique, Van Nistelrooy, Ferdinand and a group of people in the next second. He was caught off guard and knocked down. At the moment he fell, he was still thinking that this time he would fall hard.
But unexpectedly, he landed softly. I don’t know which unlucky guy was underneath him, and several hands grabbed his waist and jersey.
The Red Devils roared and laughed as if to vent their anger, and even Ferguson couldn't help but run onto the field with the players on the bench.
However, Ferguson gave each of those ignorant boys a light slap in the face, telling them not to crush his little Ronnie!
Leeds United were so dejected as if they had lost the whole world.
Alan looked at his teammates silently. After losing strong teammates such as Ferdinand and Viduka one after another, even if he struggled hard, he had to watch the white rose wither and die.
When Cristiano was finally rescued from the crowd, Ferdinand grabbed Cristiano who was about to walk into the player tunnel.
"You're not planning to look for Alan at this time, are you?" Ferdinand raised his eyebrows.
He was familiar with his former teammate. Putting aside some historical conflicts, he didn't think he would get any friendly response if he greeted the curly-haired puppy at this moment, not to mention that it was this little curly-haired dog who scored two goals in a row for Leeds United.
"Well, it's not a good time." Cristiano cleverly learned to answer quickly. He touched the tip of his nose to show that he was not that stupid. He just wanted to take a shower. His whole body was covered with sweat, his own and his teammates', which did not smell good.
Seeing this, Ferdinand let him go with relief, and Pique stuck to Cristiano like a piece of brown paper and walked back with him.
"It's a good thing you scored that goal, otherwise I would have been eaten alive today." Pique said with lingering fear.
Cristiano twitched his lips when he heard this. Thinking of the last goal, he couldn't help but glance at Pique: "Seriously, you didn't do it yesterday?"
"What?" Pique didn't react yet.
"Do that kind of thing." Cristiano made a virtual circle with one hand, and with the other hand, he raised his index finger and thrust it into the circle twice, then looked at Pique with a wicked smile, "So you're weak?"
The big golden retriever's face instantly turned red: "No! Chris!"
He jumped up and hung on Cristiano's back. Cristiano staggered forward two steps under the pressure of the obviously heavier golden retriever. He raised his eyebrows and teased: "Have you gained weight?"
"You've grown taller, Cristiano!" Pique went crazy for a second.
Cristiano burst into laughter, and the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes were brought out. He looked extremely happy, as if his prank had succeeded.
Only Pique, who was only 17 or 18 years old, could blush after being teased by his joke. Cristiano happily confirmed the "bullying" rumors in some tabloid media.
Alan saw Manchester United's number seven appear in his field of vision again. He turned his head away unhappily, but the laughter of the two big boys playing and joking was too loud. He subconsciously glanced over there and saw that the one called Ronaldo was laughing so hard that his eyes were narrowed into slits.
He sneered and turned his head away completely, looking like a fool. He thought to himself that if he looked for too long, he might be infected with the same silly smile. Just look at the big golden retriever next to him.
Cristiano went into the locker room, took a shower, re-sprayed his curly hair, sprayed some perfume, and changed into a clean T-shirt and jeans.
Pique thought Cristiano looked better in football shorts than in low-waisted skinny pants, but Cristiano rolled his eyes in disgust.
The two of them got themselves ready first and went to the post-match interview area together to answer brief questions from the media.
Pique consciously stood at the side, he knew very well that he had no place to speak next to Cristiano.
"We played a close game today and it felt good. We played normally and so did our opponents," Cristiano said in the official words. He shrugged his shoulders and motioned Pique to come closer. "Pique gave me a good pass and let me score the first goal of Leeds United. This was very crucial and undoubtedly boosted the morale of the whole team."
Pique heard Cristiano answer the media's questions in English. He also heard his own name. He guessed that the media was probably asking Cristiano about the question that caused him to trip in front of the goal.
Pique lowered his head and kicked his shoes, feeling bored. Anyway, this kind of post-interview had basically nothing for him to do.
But the next second, several microphones were pointed at his eyes and spotlights flashed several times.
Pique blinked several times in surprise.
"What's going on?" Pique asked Cristiano, covering his mouth.
Cristiano couldn't help laughing when he thought of his good friend's poor English - it reminded him of himself when he had just arrived in England in his previous life, and Neville did a lot of translation work for him.
He acted as Pique's Spanish translator and simply repeated what he had just said.
Pique opened his eyes slightly, looking like he was caught off guard and stunned. Looking closely at those ice-blue eyes, they seemed to be stunned, which reminded Cristiano of a husky.
He pulled the corner of his mouth together. He really shouldn't expect the young Pique to be half as adept at handling the media as his old friend in his memory.
Fortunately, Pique reacted quickly——
He took a nervous breath, and then heard the media reporters on the other side start asking questions again.
He gave an embarrassed smile and turned to look at Cristiano for help.
Cristiano said: "They asked you how our relationship was?"
Pick paused for a moment, then turned to the camera and uttered a few words in broken English: "Good, very good!"
After he finished speaking, as if it wasn't enough, he hooked his hands around Cristiano's neck and gave him a big thumbs up.
Cristiano: “…”
He kept smiling at the media's guns and cannons.
Some worthless proof.
"Why do they ask that?" Pique frowned and asked Cristiano as he returned to the team bus first after the interview. "Do they think our relationship is bad? Then why don't they ask about my relationship with other people in the team?"
Obviously he and Chris have the best relationship. Pique suspected that those media reporters had no eyes at all.
Cristiano raised his eyebrows. Wasn't it the photo that Pique posted later that caused this first?
He poked Pique's forehead with his finger in silence: "It's 2005, Pique, use your brain."
"Hey, why don't you call me Gerrard anymore?" Pique was even more dissatisfied.
Cristiano put on the headphones he had left in the car, too lazy to argue with a childish 17 or 18-year-old.
Of course, even twenty years later, Gerard Pique is still a childish guy with a bad temper and a dull mind - so Cristiano twenty years later is also often too lazy to pay attention to him.
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