As soon as the high-pitched sound of the referee's whistle pierced through the air, Fred sent the ball rolling to Ferran and Without hesitation, the midfielder pushed the ball back to Martinez.
"There's the whistle and we are on the way."
They played it safe for now, passing the ball around in their own half and near the halfway line, they were doing well in keeping the ball away from Lyon, but so far they had been unable to move forward with it.
Frankie received the ball from Ferran after managing to escape from almost losing it near the edge of the box.
The midfielder moved a little forward with the ball before he turned and sent it rolling to Roland down the left.
"They're not trying anything brash and I guess that's the right move because if they concede a goal first, it might as well be over for them."
Roland tried to run forward with the ball, but he had Antoine in his way so he sent it rolling to Martinez who quickly linked it up to Minino.
Minino had two players in front of him, Marcel and Novich. The midfielder was able to push past Novich with a body faint but before he could go any further with it, Marcel got his foot on it and sent it rolling out for a throw-in.
"The first throw of the game against Lyon."
Norman quickly rushed to the sidelines and picked up the ball, he threw it to Martinez as fast as he could, and without hesitation, the midfielder sent the ball flying over to Merino up ahead.
The winger brought the ball down with his chest, and just before the player close to him could do anything to put him in a tough spot, he sent the ball rolling to Fred who quickly pushed it back to Ferran with a backheel pass.
As soon as the midfielder got his foot on the ball, he got past Novich with a nutmeg and quickly sent the ball flying down the left.
"Ferran gets past Novich and finds Roland down the left."
The left-back brought the ball down with his chest before getting past the defender who raced toward him at that moment to change his course.
"Nicely done by Roland, they're on the move now!"
The left-back raced down the middle as his teammates and the opposing players ahead quickly got into the box and the other opposing players coming in hot from behind.
The wing-back slowed down a little as he got closer to the box, and with the opposing players surrounding him now, he tried to find Fred inside the box with a lob.
The striker wasn't in a good position to go for the goalpost because of all the players around but he managed to get his head on the ball somehow and ended up heading it back to him.
By that time, all the players around the left back had already pushed forward a little, and as soon as he brought the ball down with his chest, he pushed forward with it a little to the right before he pulled his right foot back and struck it.
The goalkeeper was glued to a spot as the ball flew toward the top right-hand side but it ended up hitting the crossbar before flying over for a goal kick.
"Oh, that was so close! Just missed the goalpost by a few inches and ended up hitting the crossbar."
Roland bit his lower lip before kicking the floor, but the fans were happy with that attempt and even applauded him.
That was enough to lighten up his mood a bit as he quickly made his way back to his position on their side of the pitch.
The match continued with Lyon now able to get proper possession of the ball.
They still had their coordination and great teamwork but breaking through Unique FC's defense was sort of tough for them now.
Then tried piercing through from the middle but Adolf and Martinez were there to keep Mason, especially Adolf.
They tried attacking from both flanks after that, but the wingbacks got help from the midfield to thwart their advances.
Twenty-five minutes had already passed and Dave was yet to make any contribution to the match because Lyon were yet to fire a single shot on goal.
The match was moving at a snail's pace so far, Unique FC had just one shot which wasn't on target, while their opponents had none.
None of the sides were really dominating the other in terms of possession but Unique FC had one more possession so that was something.
It took until the thirty-second minute for Lyon to win something that had a very good chance of giving them their first shot on goal.
A free kick from twenty-five yards out a little to the right.
Roland had to get a little rough to stop Antoine from causing serious trouble for them, and although he didn't get booked, they had something serious to deal with now.
"The first set piece of the game, can they do something with this?" Jim commented. "Their third goal in the first leg came from a free kick but it wasn't directly."
"Yeah, Dave Richards is yet to concede directly from a free kick this season, I wonder if Antoine can change that." Steve expressed.
"He has a good free-kick record, so maybe."
Antoine was standing over the ball with his gaze moving over the four-man wall near the edge of the box to Dave who was standing in the center of his goal line, adjusting his gloves.
The away fans were getting really rowdy now and of course, the home fans weren't going to leave all the noise making to them.
The winger was standing a good distance away from the ball now with both of his hands on his waist, all he was waiting for was the referee's whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he took a deep breath before he quickly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost with his right foot.
The ball flew toward the top right-hand corner with a neat swerve but Dave dived toward the ball just at the right time and he ended up catching it with both of his gloves.
"And Dave says no, that's the second time I've seen him catch a free kick like that, how does he even do that?!"
'This is our chance.'
The goalkeeper quickly sprang up from the floor and sent the ball flying forward in an attempt to find Merino and start a counterattack.
There was a player a little ahead of the winger but neither he nor Merino were the ones to get to the ball first, it was a player dressed in black, Lyon's goalkeeper.
"What's going on here?"
The goalkeeper quickly pushed past Merino as soon as he got possession of the ball and just after pushing forward with it one more time, he fired the ball straight toward the goalpost.
This was something he had failed to anticipate, and there was no way he was going to anticipate something like that.
However, he was able to dive toward the right side of the goalpost just to get the tip of his gloves on the ball in the nick of time and send it over the bar for a corner kick.
"Giovanni doing the unexpected! What was that?!"
Dave was still lying on the floor after pulling off that save and his breathing had gotten a little fast-paced.
"Well, it looks like Dave got a taste of his own medicine, he might be taking the whole dose next time," Steve commented.