A rare smile lit up Coach Jorge Jesus' face as he watched his players celebrating the goal. His players had finally met his expectations and scored a late equalizer. As a result, his team was just minutes away from securing one of the two tickets to that year's Europa League finals.
Coach Jorge Jesus breathed in deeply to calm himself down. Due to his long experience as a coach, he understood that he couldn't relax before hearing the final whistle. He had to continue encouraging and instructing his players to ensure that they would remain focused during the rest of the game.
"Fejsa! Enzo!" He yelled at the top of his voice after the Benfica players had just finished celebrating the goal. "Stay focused during the remaining few minutes and mark Zachary. Watch him at all times, and don't allow him to hurt us when we're only minutes away from the finals. Clear?"
The two midfielders responded by raising their thumbs to indicate that they had gotten the message. They then turned their gazes away from the sidelines and returned to their starting positions in Benfica's half. Judging by their body language, they were ready to try their best to mark Zachary until the final whistle sounded.
Coach Jorge Jesus let out another long, drawn-out breath to calm his still racing heart. He couldn't let anything go wrong during the final minutes of the semi-final since he wanted to win. So, he spent a few more seconds hollering out more instructions to ensure that his players understood their roles during the remaining minutes of gameplay.
On the pitch, the gameplay was about to restart.
Zachary was already in his starting midfield position, just outside the edge of the center circle. He was expressionless and at peace with the world as he waited for the referee to blow the whistle to restart the match.
A minute back, he'd been depressed after his team conceded the equalizing goal, especially that late in the game. But after pondering for a few seconds, he'd gotten his priorities straight and decided to prioritize what was crucial. He'd pushed all his worries about the game's result to the back of his mind and forced himself to attain an incredible state of calmness. So, there were no distracting thoughts in his mind, and his focus was only on the opponents on the other side of the pitch.
*FWEEEEEEE*
The referee blew the whistle, and Nicki Nielsen immediately passed the ball to Zachary to restart the game.
Zachary pounced forward and controlled the ball at the edge of the center circle. Without wasting a moment, he turned around and passed it to Takumi Minamino, his counterpart in midfield.
Takumi was also quick on the ball. He utilized a simple deft touch to quickly control the ball before kicking it towards the flanks to find Mikael Dorsin, Rosenborg's left-back. The latter also brought it under control swiftly and then passed it ahead to Alexander Söderlund, Rosenborg's left-winger for the night.
But by then, the Benfica players had already swarmed into Rosenborg's half to high-press and stop Rosenborg from settling down and building momentum. So, Alexander Söderlund was under immense pressure from Benfica's right-winger as he controlled the ball close to the flanks.
Be that as it may, Alexander remained composed and shrugged off the opponent before flicking the ball back to Mikael.
Mikael was also facing pressure from a Benfica attacker at the moment. He also chose to immediately pass the ball all the way back to find Daniel Örlund, Rosenborg's keeper.
However, even after the ball made its way to the keeper's feet, the Benfica attackers didn't let up the pressure. Lima dos Santos, Benfica's center-forward, quickly closed in on Daniel Örlund without allowing him to settle down with the ball. As a result, Daniel Örlund could only choose to kick the ball far and away toward the other side of the pitch, where Zachary was lurking.
Zachary, who was close to the center circle at the moment, immediately got into action. His long strides ate up half a dozen yards of space in a couple of seconds, and he managed to get to the descending ball before any other player on the pitch.
He didn't even bother to slow down to bring the ball under control. Instead, he headed it forward before chasing after it like the wind. He was eager to advance the attack as fast as possible since he understood that time wasn't on his side. However, the situation on the field couldn't allow him to do as he pleased, and he immediately ran into two roadblocks in the form of Ljubomir Fejsa and Enzo Pérez, the two Benfica midfielders.
Zachary's football instincts started tingling, and he immediately had a feeling that the two opponents wanted to foul him. His mind went into overdrive mode, and his spatial awareness combined with his Zinedine-Pirlo mental Juju. His vision of the pitch widened, and within an instant, he picked out a passing route before flicking the ball to his right to find Takumi Minamino.
After that, Zachary didn't bother to check whether Takumi had received the ball. Instead, he chose to circumvent the two opponents as quickly as possible before continuing toward the other side of the pitch. He didn't halt his dash for anything as he expected Takumi to read his move before reacting appropriately.
A few seconds later, Zachary relaxed when he noticed that Takumi hadn't disappointed. The midfielder had already looped the ball over the two defenders with a simple chip to find Zachary again. So, Zachary stretched out his boot and controlled the ball mid-sprint before continuing his mad dash towards Benfica's box.
Adrenaline continued flooding into Zachary's systems, and his instincts totally took over the control of his body. His mind was blank as he circumvented another opponent and skipped over a dangerous tackle while bearing down on Benfica's box like a raging Tsunami.
He utilized various skills, including side-steps, body feints, and elastico dribbles to elude more opponents. And before long, he skipped past another tackle and approached the edge of the eighteen yard box. His instincts started tingling again, and he immediately decided to go with his gut and shoot the ball.
He didn't slow down his actions to deliberate as he was sure that his opponents were on his heels. He drew his left leg back and delivered a ferocious kick onto the ball, sending it zooming past an opposing defender's outstretched boot and towards the inside of the left post.
It was a tense moment for the players and fans of both teams, and a rare wave of silence swept across the stadium as the ball soared towards Benfica's goal. The time seemed to slow down before finally coming to a standstill, and then the ball grazed the left post and nestled into the back of the net.
Zachary immediately raised his arms high, and the next moment, a wave of thunderous cheers swept across the stadium. Finally, he had managed to score Rosenborg's second goal for the night during the 91st minute of gameplay. So, he could hardly contain his excitement as he immersed his mind and soul into the booming voices of the home supporters chanting his name.
