Chapter 1257 - 294: Barça’s Twin Emperors, Lu and Shining Armor

"Alright, the match kicks off..."

In the 35th minute of the first half, Mateo cut inside from the right wing, dribbled past two players in a row, then, while double-teamed, pulled off an elastico nutmeg to send the ball through.

The onrushing Ortiz flicked it on with his heel.

The late-arriving Hernandez unleashed a long-range shot from outside the penalty area.

Bang!

The ball smashed against the underside of the crossbar and bounced into the net.

Barcelona lead one-nil!

This is their long-lost lead!

The whole crowd started applauding; they’d been holding it in for too long.

Three straight league losses, who can take that?

Originally some fans had prepared a giant banner reading "Gudiola Out" before the match.

But now it looks like there’s not much chance to roll it out.

Bit of a waste of the supporters’ club funds.

But nobody really cares; with a good player like Mebarak, the supporters’ club gets a hefty sponsorship every year.

They can afford to waste it.

They’ve also got a giant banner saying "Lu Yang Get Out of Camp Nou."

Bar?a’s players celebrated passionately on the pitch.

And the assisting Ortiz glanced over in Lu Yang’s direction.

"I’m sure he copied that assist from what I did in the training match!" Lu Yang laughed as he met Ortiz’s gaze, chatting with the teammates beside him.

The teammate was suffering inside.

He didn’t want to act overly chummy with Lu Yang, but now that the camera seemed to be panning over, he also couldn’t afford to look cold toward Lu Yang, right?

So he forced out an extremely awkward smile, carefully pandering to Brother Lu.

Being a young player is really hard.

In the second half, at the 60-minute mark, Lu Yang stood up to warm up.

Quite a lot of fans at the stadium got really hyped.

Was Lu Yang about to come on?

But in the 62nd minute, Bar?a’s midfield press forced the opponent into a poor back pass; Mateo pounced on the ball and only needed to beat one man to go one-on-one with the keeper.

And that level of difficulty, for this version of Mateo, is basically like playing against the CPU.

Bang!

Mateo curled a shot from the left side of the penalty area.

The ball flew straight into the top corner!

When a Divine-level talent takes a shot, you never need to worry.

If you need to worry, then he’s not Divine-level at all; he’s just a mortal.

Right, Sterling, Werner?

Two-nil!

Everyone knew this one was in the bag!

Even Gudiola gestured to Lu Yang to have a good rest.

Lu Yang nodded to show he understood.

For him, if he could sit this one out, all the better.

Because according to the system, his injury had recovered to 99.9%... stuck at that last bit.

That final sliver would take a few more days no matter what.

Even though he could play today, it’d be best to wait until he’s fully healed; otherwise, if some weird thing happens again, it’s not worth it.

The two-nil scoreline was kept until the end.

This was Bar?a’s third clean sheet across ten matches this season—eight in the league plus two in the Champions League.

It was also their first victory after three straight league defeats.

And it was the first time this season they’d won a match by a two-goal margin.

After the match, the Bar?a-side media were over the moon.

"Mateo Ends Goal Drought! Crowned Man of the Match!"

"Golden Midfield! That Damn Chemistry Between Ortiz and Hernandez!"

"Ortiz: ’That Backheel Assist Was Inspired by Lu Yang in Training!’"

"Mateo: ’Bar?a Are Getting Better. Looking Forward to Lu Yang Joining In, His Integration Is Shocking!’"

"Young Pirola Completely Outshines Mebarak, As Solid As a Rock!"

"Clement Back in Form, All-Round Like Bayern’s Apple!"

"Gudiola: ’The Team Played the Way I Want. We’ll Keep Winning!’"

"Up to Fifth in the Table! Bar?a Struggling Forward!"

"Sun Newspaper: This Is the Lu Yang Effect! Just Standing on the Touchline Is Enough to Lead the Team to Victory!"

Fans loved reading this kind of news but were disappointed with the Sun Newspaper’s piece.

Have you forgotten your actual job?

Fortunately, the Sun Newspaper has great professional ethics—churning out ridiculous fake news day in, day out, for ten years straight.

The Sun Newspaper: "The day before the match, Lu Yang and Ortiz booked the dressing room for half an hour alone! Given how quickly things have heated up between them on the pitch, we’re forced to make a bold guess... Sofia, you might have been cheated on!"

Pfft!

Spanish fans finally got to see the Sun Newspaper’s full power; while flaming them like crazy, they also honestly hit favorite and subscribe.

Meanwhile Sofia’s movie was still a big hit in North America, with box office takings approaching 200 million dollars; she was on a huge high and had no time to bother with this.

Besides... you at least have to be a woman for Sofia to even consider it.

The male category is Morici’s department.

Sure enough, Morici went into the weekend league match absolutely fired up, leading Arsenal to a 7–1 demolition of Crystal Palace and winning this London derby.

North vs South London, the Gunners went crazy!

Morici scored one and assisted three, and was named Man of the Match.

In his post-match interview, Morici was praised by a reporter as the man who understands passing the best.

Then the reporter asked for Morici’s thoughts on the Sun Newspaper article, and he replied, "The Sun Newspaper is just a trash tabloid. They have zero professionalism."

"If they knew even a tiny bit about football, they should know that I don’t dare claim to be the one who understands passing the most in the world. But when it comes to knowing how to pass the ball to Lu Yang, I’ll take that crown!"

The next day, the Sun Newspaper dropped a new front-page headline: "Three Seconds Max? Morici’s Girlfriend Tina Buys Him a Pile of Delay Products! Serie A Assist King Really Can’t Shoot!"

Morici: dead.

...

October 20th.