Well, one thing was certain after that first half, Norman was just glad that they somehow managed to clutch onto the lead despite the disastrous lineup he started the match with.
Clutching onto the lead was just Mateo's individual brilliance though, the team was just not it during the first half and their possession was a huge proof of that.
In almost all of their matches, Unique FC would always dominate the possession even if Supreme United were to trash them but that wasn't the case for the first half of this match.
They were able to acquire only twenty-nine percent of ball possession while their opponents ended up with sixty-nine percent of ball possession.
"Well, it looks like I have a lot of changes to make in the second half but still, you could try to work on your pass a bit more and Edward…"
"I knew it, there was just no way that he was going to take all the blame for himself," Minino muttered before slowly turning his gaze to Mateo who was sitting beside him. "I just wish I was on the pitch when those bulls with no manners decided to play that trick on you, coach should hurry up and bring me in."
"Well, I'm sort of glad you weren't there," Mateo replied.
"Huh?"
"You would have definitely gotten in a fight and then you would have gotten a red card for it."
"Yeah, and it would have been for the best, they've been really dirty so far and I thought it was going to stop with just the fans." The winger expressed with a whispering tone.
"Losing a player for any reason is not for the best, that would just give them the advantage over us." Mateo necessitated. "But yeah, they started to play dirty toward the end of the first half."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Now listen up everyone!" Norman beckoned causing the two and anyone else who might not have been paying attention to what he was saying before to start paying attention now. "We have the lead now mostly thanks to Mateo, now all we just have to do is to take this second half seriously and we will defeat them.
"There are going to be a lot of substitutions in this second half mostly in midfield because our midfield has played shit so far, I knew things wouldn't be that great with the normal midfield composition but I honestly didn't expect it to be this bad.
"That said, Supreme United aren't like any of the other teams we've faced until now so just making a couple of changes won't necessarily seal things for us, we need to either get a third goal as quickly as possible or focus most of our forces in defense and make sure they don't get that equalizer."
He came to a sudden pause with that before glancing from left to right and after that, he inhaled deeply and exhaled.
"So, what's it going to be?"
______ ______
"Welcome back everyone to arguably the most interesting match we've seen so far in the Bilbeth Premier League this season. Supreme United has dominated the game so far and even managed to take the lead first but it took just one man from the other side to equalize the scoreline and turn everything around." Jim articulated with an enthusiastic voice as the players from both sides made their way to the pitch.
"Yeah, and outside that there was a pretty interesting highlight when the ball was not in motion," Steve commented.
"Well, this is not the first time the Audiz derby was getting a bit physical, the tempers are always flaring when these two face each other." Jim expressed. "But anyway, it looks like Norman has not made any changes to his side which is quite surprising."
"Maybe he's waiting for the match to go on for a while before doing that."
"Yeah, but I thought he would do that quickly after everything that happened in the first half."
Everyone was on their sides and in their positions now with Fred standing over the ball in the kick-off spot.
All they were all waiting for now was the referee's whistle, and as soon as that high-pitched sound pierced through the air, Fred sent the ball rolling to Harry who quickly sent it rolling to Norman with his first touch.
"There's the whistle and we are back into it."
Norman had to send the ball rolling back to Adolf just because of the way Carlos was quickly racing to him now.
Adolf got hold of the ball and pushed a little forward with it before playing it short to Martinez because Roland who was in between the both of them was closer to him at the moment.
Martinez swiftly turned with the ball as soon as it got to his foot, and just before Foden could get to him, sent the ball rolling to Ferran who quickly linked up to Mateo down the left as he got his foot on it.
The winger didn't even get to do anything with the ball because just after it got to him, Pelcao rushed toward him with a slide that ended up sending the ball out but the ball wasn't the only thing he sent out with that vicious tackle.
Mateo was also sent tumbling past the sideline but he was able to get up on his feet almost immediately.
Ferran wasn't happy with that tackle because it looked like he had another motive there and he didn't waste time in approaching the midfielder.
He wasn't trying to start a fight, he just wanted to have a few words with the midfielder.
However, just before he could get there, the referee blew his whistle and the midfielder did not escape the yellow card.
He didn't try to complain about that because he knew what he did and it was pointless.
"I thought you guys were tough, you know you could try to win a match without trying to take the kid out," Ferran said as soon as he got close enough to the midfielder.
"I wasn't trying to take him out, but sure, you can believe anything you want I don't care." Pelcao scoffed before turning to walk away from him.
"Me neither I might if you attempt a foul like that on him again." The midfielder replied as he slowly moved back.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Well, I'm just surprised by how quickly Mateo was able to get up after that but anyway, it looks like Norman has finally decided to bring in some fresh legs."
He was right about that, Norman was finally bringing in the rest of his midfielders with a forward.
Harry had to be replaced by Minino who was all smiles as he bounced onto the pitch and then Carlos had to leave the pitch for Merino.
"Minino is on the pitch now, their midfield is complete, time to start getting that Unique FC vibes, I hope."
Mateo was standing over the ball now on the spot he was fouled a little close to the halfway line.
He was on their side of the stands so the whistling from the away fans wasn't just hitting him from behind.
As soon as he heard the referee's whistle, he quickly sent the ball flying toward Merino down the right.
"He sends it flying to Merino."
The winger had to nod it back toward Minino who was right behind and just as soon as the midfielder brought the ball down with his foot, he quickly sent it flying into the box with the hope of finding Fred.
Well, that worked out quite well for him because the striker somehow managed to get past the defense to bring the ball down with his chest but just before he could shoot, he came crashing to the floor.
Conan was the person right behind him and he had to quickly lift both of his hands to deny doing anything.
However, the referee saw everything and he didn't hesitate to blow the whistle before quickly rushing to the area pointing at the penalty spot.
"Oh, it's a penalty, Unique FC have a penalty!"
Supreme United players quickly gathered around the referee to see if there was anything they could do about that decision but he was shaking his head.
"A chance for the Uniques to go two goals up, things are looking up for them."
"Nice," Dave muttered with a bright smile on his face.