It was as though all the defenders including the left back had zoned out for a moment as Fredinho zoomed past them to get to the ball and stab it into the goalpost with the to tip of his boots before Filip could get to it.
The striker quickly sprang up from the floor as soon as he put the ball into the goalpost.
He pointed toward the assist provider as he quickly made his way to him, but before he could get there, Ferran and the others had gotten there to celebrate the goal together.
"A goal just before the halftime whistle, taking the lead before the halftime whistle, what a wonderful build-up they had to get that goal, it was mostly Mateo with that run and smart decisions but that's why he's their wonder kid, everyone just needed to do their parts and let him work his magic." Steve expressed.
"Yeah, everyone did their part quite well, I'm sure he could have scored from there had he gone for goal himself but I guess he just wanted Fredinho to be the one to score the goal and the striker didn't disappoint." Jim articulated.
"We're leading now, I just need to get that goal from over here and everything will be fine," Dave muttered.
The match resumed as soon as Unique FC were done with a goal celebration.
FC Basel began the kick-off with a quick attack that failed just like the first one they attempted.
They tried to get an equalizer but they weren't, they were rash and that resulted in Unique FC always reading them and stopping them right in their tracks.
They were lucky that Unique FC didn't get a second goal from their mistakes and that was all thanks to Filip who did well to prevent Mateo from scoring from outside the box.
As soon as the two minutes of added time was completed, the referee blew his whistle twice to bring the first half to an end.
"There's the whistle and that marks the end of the first half," Jim said. "It sure has been an entertaining first half, both teams fighting with their hearts, I expected Unique FC to get a bit overwhelmed by the hosts but it turns out the hosts are the ones getting overwhelmed.
"They've had a lot of good chances and although they've missed a couple of chances thanks to both goalkeepers being up to the task here, Unique FC has managed to salvage a goal to keep their hopes high for the second half."
"I have a feeling things are going to get more interesting in the second half," Steve said.
"Yeah, I feel the same way." The first half of the Europa conference league qualifiers match comes to an end, FC Basel nil, Unique FC one."
The guest players were all in the locker room, some of them were pulling off their shirts while some of them were taking sips from the water cans to quench their thirst while waiting for Norman to start saying what he wanted to say.
"You guys have played quite well, there's no doubt about that, but there are a couple of errors from you that I would like to correct starting from the defense."
"Defensive errors," Roland muttered.
"Yeah, and most of them are coming from you," Norman said after turning his gaze to the left back.
Roland slowly put his head down as he already knew what he was about to say.
"The major attacking threats we've received so far have come from Henrique on the right wing, he's getting past you easily and that's not a good thing, if it wasn't for Dave, who knows how those scenarios could have turned out." He expressed.
"I know you're doing your best to stop him, and I also know that your speed is your strength but that speed can also be your weakness and it looks like Henrique knows how to do that quite well.
"If you want to stop him, you have to be calm and collective, don't rush in like he wants you to do always, try defending slowly for a change, and then once you have the ball, you can speed off."
"So, I have to defend slowly to be able to stop him." The left-back said.
"Not exactly because approaching him slowly may result in him quickly getting past you and leaving you behind, what I just told you is a countermeasure to him using your speed against you, you should know when to put it into action."
"Okay, coach, I understand." The left-back said with a nod.
After talking to them about a couple of other things before the break time got exhausted and they started making their way to the pitch.
"Welcome back everyone, the halftime break is over as we can see the players making their way to the pitch now," Jim said as the players made their way to the pitch while the fans cheered them on.
Since FC Basel started the match from the kick-off spot, it was Unique FC's turn in the second half.
Carlos was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he quickly pushed the ball to Mateo who sent it to Frankie with a single touch.
"There's the whistle and the second half is on the way."
Unique FC slowly began to build their attack all the way to FC Basel's box but Fredinho lost the ball after he tried to dribble past a player and failed and now, FC Basel were with the ball.
"Fredinho has lost the ball."
Instead of a slow build-up, they went for a quick attack as the center back quickly sent the ball flying to Henrique.
The Brazilian winger brought the ball down with his chest but just as he turned and was about to move with it, Roland was upon him, and with a slide, the left back swept the ball off him and while he was still on the floor, he pushed the ball to Adolf just before the midfielder heading toward him could get to him.
"Nice defending from Roland, that's one way to get the job done nicely," Steve commented.
Norman was standing on the sidelines with his arms crossed and as soon as he saw Roland do that, a smile appeared on his face.
Adolf was about to move the ball forward with a pass when he heard Dave call him from behind.
"Hey, captain, just pass it back to me!" The goalkeeper yelled.
"Okay," Adolf said before he turned and passed the ball to the goalkeeper.
He didn't even wait for the ball to get closer as he quickly closed up on it and sent it flying toward the goalpost
"It's one of those shots again!"
This time, Filip was prepared for it as he dived toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and pushed the ball over the bar with both of his hands before he crashed to the floor.
His heart was racing but he managed to get up from the floor as soon as possible.
"If he can do something from that far consistently then why the heck is he a goalkeeper?" Hans said with a puzzled look on his face.
A magic castle= one extra chapter.
Two magic castles= two extra chapters.