Nothing Beats This Feeling

Source

A lot of persons would normally ask questions like, " What do people who don't watch football do with their free time?". There are a lot of things one can do with their Free Time and watching football should be one, although individual preferences differs.
Yesterday's experience coupled with other experiences in the past has made me love the beautiful game of football the more.

Source

After the first leg of the game between Manchester City and Real Madrid, a lot of persons already concluded that, there was no way Real Madrid was going to qualify for the next round. It was a very nice assumption, backed up with the fact that Manchester City would be having two of their best defenders back in the starting line-up, and as such would name a better and stronger squad than the one we faced a week ago.

Source

Getting into the game, (first leg ended 4-3) qualification was a daunting task and looking impossible, because in order to qualify for the finals, we would need to overturn the one goal deficit from the first leg and also score another to win the game.
Yea, we thought about all that, and had our plans in place, but football had better plans.
When the game kicked off, both teams were conservative in their approach, striking a balance between attack and defense. Manchester City, unlike them, resorted to absorbing pressure from their opponents, but we were not to be unfazed. Real Madrid being 13 times winners and winners of 4 of the past 8 editions of the competition, knew what it meant; they understood their assignment. What was left of them was the way they could carry out this assignment efficiently and effectively.
The first half ended in a stalemate (0-0), with mannchester City still leading (4-3) on aggregate. In order to win the tie, we needed to win the game by a margin of two goals, which wasn't really forthcoming at that time.
Barely 25 minutes into the second half, Manchester City scored to make it 5-3 on aggregate. At this point, we needed to score two goals to force ExtraTime and three to win the game. That wasn't looking like it would be possible, considering the way the game was going, but we kept on hoping and believing.
We were still a goal down until a minute to go in normal time when the fourth official raised his board to signal 6 minutes of additional time. Seconds after he raised his board, Real Madrid scored, to make the game 5-4 on aggregate and scored another in quick succession to tie the game at 5-5 thereby forcing ExtraTime. 5 minutes into extratime, Real Madrid scored another to win the Game 6-5 on aggregate and 3-1 on the night.

Source
As a football fan, I've seen worse things happen, but I wasn't expecting the tie to be turned around in split seconds. That's why the game of football is fun and loved by many. This minute its predictable, the next minute, its quite the opposite.
The sight of my team winning was just a very good way to cap off a stressful day.

May 5, 2022.