Chapter 157: Volume 2, - 157: Seven Minutes in England

Chapter 157: Volume 2, Chapter 157: Seven Minutes in England

The referee’s sharp, shrill whistle cut through the damp Merseyside air as the ball rolled out of play near the corner flag.

"Now!"

The fourth official hoisted the electronic board. Red number two blinked on the substitution board; green eighty-two illuminated beside it. Mateus Reiz trudged off the turf, offering a tired glove-slap as he crossed the touchline, while Rayan stepped past him onto the Goodison Park pitch.

The roar of the crowd was a heavy, physical wave that pressed against his chest. For a fleeting heartbeat, the sheer mass of the towering blue stands felt entirely suffocating.

"Keep your shape! Move!" Ricardo Esgaia shouted from deep on the right, his voice cutting through the noise.

Rayan took his position on the left wing, his boots gripping the wet pitch. Everton restarted quickly, launching a diagonal ball toward their right flank. Rayan tracked back with disciplined urgency, closing down the advancing full-back just as he received the pass. He didn’t dive in or lunge; he simply stayed on his feet, arms tucked, forcing the defender to check back and recycle possession sideways under pressure.

"Good discipline, Rayan!" Hidemasa Morino barked, shifting across to cover the space.

Moments later, Sporting recovered the ball in midfield. Mateus Fernandis slipped a short, safe pass wide into Rayan’s feet. Instead of attempting to turn into traffic, Rayan took a single touch with the instep of his right foot and immediately popped a simple square return pass back to Fernandis, maintaining the team’s circulating rhythm before sprinting forward to occupy his zone.

"And a change for Sporting as we enter the final stretch," the lead broadcast commentator noted over the gantry feeds. "Number eighty-two enters the fray, fifteen-year-old academy winger Rayan El Mansouri given another run-out in senior pre-season. Unlikely to alter the fixture single-handedly, but a great experience for the youngster in these closing minutes."

The physical test of senior English football struck hard just two minutes later.

Sporting pushed bodies forward again, and Viktor Gyoker laid a bouncing ball into the left channel for Rayan to chase. Rayan accelerated onto it, but Everton’s veteran centre-back read the flight early, aggressively stepping across his running lane. Before Rayan could shield the ball, a heavy, legal shoulder-to-shoulder impact crashed into his ribs.

The force winded him completely, sending him tumbling onto the rain-slicked turf.

"Play on!" the referee waved.

"Tarkoski gets across him and the youngster’s down!" the broadcast commentator called out.

"That’s good defending," his partner analysed immediately. "He’s got his body between Rayan and the ball, and the referee’s quite happy with it."

Rayan scrambled to his feet, holding his aching ribs for a moment. The Everton defender was already moving away with the ball.

"Come on, Rayan!" Morino shouted.

He dropped his hand and chased back.

Later in the match, as Sporting recycled possession through the middle, Morino swept a crisp pass out to the left flank. Rayan received it cleanly in space, but as he took a touch to look up, he spotted the second Everton defender closing down the angle rapidly.

Recognising the trap, Rayan didn’t try to force a low-percentage dribble; instead, he opened his body and clipped a useful, perfectly timed release pass inside to Mateus Fernandis.

"Rayan’s got support inside. Finds Fernandis!" the commentator noted.

"That’s the right decision. The second defender was closing him down, and he’s kept the attack moving."

Yet, as the game continued to stretch into its final phase, his next major involvement brought a flash of raw acceleration. Everton overcommitted bodies on an attacking foray down their right, and Afonso Morel intercepted cleanly, immediately feeding Pedro Gonsalves in the centre circle. Gonsalves slipped a swift vertical ball down the line just as Everton’s right-back misjudged the bounce, his weight caught entirely on his heels.

Rayan anticipated the shift instantly. Utilising an explosive first-step exit, he burst past the flat-footed defender with a sharp acceleration that left him trailing in his wake.

"El Mansouri’s away down the left!" the commentator called out sharply. "Good turn of pace from the fifteen-year-old!"

Goodison Park’s stands rippled with a collective murmur of surprise at the sudden injection of youth-side speed. But the momentary advantage evaporated as Everton’s covering central midfielder raced across the cover shadow, forcing Rayan wide before he could cut inside.

"And the cover comes across! Excellent recovery from Everton," the analyst added over the feed. "The right-back was beaten for pace, but the midfielder tracked across quickly and took away the route into the box."

The climax of the match arrived in the eighty-eighth minute as Sporting launched everything forward in search of an equaliser. Fernandis won a crucial second ball in midfield, feeding Viktor Gyoker, who held off two defenders before prodding a clever, disguised pass into the path of Pedro Gonsalves inside the penalty area.

Gonsalves took a touch, opened his body, and unleashed a spectacular, curling effort that beat Jordan Pickfort all ends up, only to crash flush against the crossbar with a resounding, sickening thud that echoed across the entire stadium.

"GONSALVES OFF THE BAR! SO CLOSE FOR SPORTING!" the broadcast roared.

"Everton have been pushed deeper and deeper," the analyst added over the replay. "Gyoker holds off two defenders, Pedro finds that pocket of space, and Pickfort is beaten. Everton have got away with one!"

The rebound bounced frantically into a crowded six-yard box. In the frantic chaos, the ball broke loose toward Rayan near the left corner of the penalty area. It was a prime opportunity to deliver a decisive cross or combine for a final look at goal.

Rayan planted his left foot awkwardly as he swung his right boot through the bouncing ball. He caught it entirely underneath, sending the cross spinning wildly over the penalty spot, high out of play and deep into the empty tier behind the goal.

"Ah, poor execution from the youngster," the co-commentator sighed instantly over the feed.

"The chance was there to measure that delivery, but he’s snatched at it under pressure."

"Oy! Keep it in play!" Ricardo Esgaia shouted from deep, waving his arms in frustration.

Rayan grimaced, biting down on his lower lip as he turned and sprinted back toward his defensive assignment. There was no time to dwell on the mistake; Everton immediately restarted, killing the clock through patient possession and tactical fouls.

Moments later, the referee blew the final whistle.

Full-time: Everton 1–0 Sporting.

"And that’s it! The final whistle sounds at Goodison Park," the lead commentator recapped as players began shaking hands across the pitch. "Everton hold on to their slender lead courtesy of Calvert-Lewis’s first-half penalty. Sporting created enough openings through Gonsalves and Gyoker to feel genuinely frustrated, but a pre-season defeat leaves Amorim with a few final things to iron out before the league campaign begins. For young Rayan El Mansouri, a lively seven-minute cameo at the end, but ultimately a quiet afternoon for the visitors."

As the final whistle echoes faded in his mind, a sharp, familiar blue interface flickered across his vision.

[CAREER MILESTONE VERIFIED.]

[FIRST SENIOR-TEAM APPEARANCE OUTSIDE PORTUGAL.]

[COMPETITION TYPE: FRIENDLY.]

[REWARD: AWAY-ROUTINE ANALYSIS MODULE.]

The notification hung in his consciousness, clear and clinical. There was no sudden surge of explosive speed, no supernatural jump in his technical ratings, and no XP reward to inflate his status. His overall rating remained locked at 53. The new module was purely functional, designed to silently catalogue travel logs, sleep schedules, and hydration tracking to aid physical recovery across future away fixtures.

His senior-friendly ledger updated quietly:

4 appearances | 3 goals | 3 assists.

His official competitive senior record remained entirely untouched: 0 appearances | 0 goals | 0 assists.

Rayan walked slowly toward an opposing Everton player near the edge of the box, offering a polite handshake while still mentally replaying the trajectory of that overhit cross, already calculating what he needed to fix before training on Monday.