The day was finally here, match day sixteen of the English Premier League.
It was a home match set to kick off by 3:00 PM and with the time being 1:50 PM at the moment, the players from both teams were on the pitch warming up for the match.
Axel was having the time of his life just trying to hit the crossbar from near the halfway line.
Okay, maybe not the time of his life because out of eight tries he had only managed to hit the crossbar once.
"Ninth try." He muttered before he dropped the ball on the spot and slowly took three steps backward.
There were a couple of his teammates doing shot drills near the box but they weren't bothered by what he was doing.
He stared at his target for a while before he slowly brought his gaze down and then proceeded to close up on the ball.
He got to the ball with his right foot and lifted it lightly.
The ball flew straight toward the right side just at the same time as Merino fired another ball from twenty-five yards.
Moreno was glued to the spot as both balls ended up clashing with each other before falling into the goalpost.
"Woooah." The winger gasped before quickly turning his gaze to Axel.
He wasn't the only one, all of their teammates in the area had their gaze on him now, and even some of the Arsenal players who caught it.
"That was cool." The midfielder muttered with an awkward smile on his face.
"Hey, Axel."
That voice came from the right and the youngster quickly turned his gaze to the area to see a ball coming in fast toward him.
He got his head on the ball and headed it up, the ball was immediately pushed down by the force of gravity, and without hesitation, he trapped it under his foot.
"Did you plan that?" The winger asked as he slowly made his way to him.
"No, I was trying to hit the crossbar, that's what I've been trying to do all along. Merino's the one you should be asking that question, he kicked his ball after I had already kicked mine." He replied before he kicked the ball up and began to joggle it.
"Well, judging from the expression on his face, he didn't intend for that to happen either, guess it was just a coincidence."
"A cool coincidence." Axel corrected before sending the ball over to him with just enough elevation to get it to his chest.
Peterson stopped the ball with his chest and allowed it to fall to his foot before he began to joggle it.
"Yeah, a cool coincidence." The winger said before sending the ball back to him.
He caught hold of the ball with his feet before slowly dropping it on the floor.
A sigh followed shortly after that before he slowly turned his gaze to the stands.
"I wonder what they think of me now." He remarked.
"Well, if you ask me, I'll say they think you're a talented midfielder at the moment but that isn't everything you have to show them, is it?" The winger inquired before moving closer to him.
Axel kept his gaze on the stands before replying, "Yeah, I still have to show them what I can do on the pitch."
________ ________
The match was set to kick off now as the players from both sides were lined up alongside each other inside the tunnel with their gazes on the exit.
The stands were slowly getting filled up by the fans from both sides and they were all doing well to cheer their teams on.
Manchester City were in their normal home kit, the light blue and white kit while Arsenal were in their black away kit.
The players stood in line for a while before they were finally given the signal to start making their way to the pitch.
"Hello and welcome to everyone who is tuning in to watch this highly anticipated match live at the Etihad Stadium, it's Manchester City vs. Arsenal, the game we've all been waiting for. I'm Tony Steel and joining me in the studio just like always is Mr. Mike Johnson." Tony articulated.
"Thank you, Tony, and welcome everyone, it's nice to be here today to watch and talk about this interesting clash alongside Tony here."
The voices of the fans were going up now as the players lined up in front of the pitch.
"Well, Axel seems to be doing okay, from where I'm looking at things from at least," Tony commented.
"It was quite horrifying for him to find out that his parents were involved in a plane crash, I can't imagine how he must have felt after getting home. It has already been a couple of games since that happened but yeah, he seems to be okay at least since he's able to start a match."
The players went around to shake each other's hands and after that, the captains of both teams had to make their way to the officials for the coin toss.
Manchester City ended up winning the coin toss which meant that they had the privilege of choosing a goalpost first and also starting the match from the kick-off spot.
"Let's look at the lineups from both sides."
Just like Gregory said, his team was starting with the four-four-two formation and Arsenal were starting with their standard four-three-three formation.
They weren't pulling their guns with their lineups and Manchester City weren't doing much of that either.
"Looks like neither Gregory nor Freger are planning to play things easy today, this is going to be an interesting match that's for sure."
'It's about to start.' Axel said inwardly with his gaze on Merino who was standing over the ball.
His gaze shifted a little to the right to Arda Guller who was standing opposite him before it shifted to Davidson by the left.
The youngster's blood was starting to boil in excitement a bit but he knew that wasn't going to do him much good so he kept that feeling in check.
After making sure that everything was ready, the referee put the whistle in his mouth and blew into it as loud as he could, and as soon as that high-pitched sound pierced through the air, Merino sent the ball rolling to him and without hesitation, he sent it rolling to Andrea just before the opposing players could get to him.
"There's the whistle, and we are on the way."
Manchester City played it safe for the first couple of seconds until Merino managed to break through down the right wing.
The winger had a lot of space to cover down the wing but he wasn't going to be able to get that close to the box on his own.
He sent the ball rolling to Tacky just before he could get close enough to the area and the striker quickly pushed the ball to Maxi before making his way toward the box.
Maxi pushed a little forward with the ball but he wasn't going to get far with it on his own so he turned and quickly sent the ball rolling back to Axel who was left unmarked in the center of the pitch.
"Axel."
One of the opposing players quickly closed up on the midfielder to take the ball off his feet.
Axel quickly ran forward with the ball before quickly touching it with the outside of his boot to move to the right with it and quickly accelerate away from the player to keep moving forward.
'One-on-one situations are not that hard to deal with, especially when it's one like this.'
He found Tacky inside the box along with Andrea and without hesitation, he sent the ball flying.
'Time to put all those practices to work.'
He floated the ball over the players near the edge of the box and the striker managed to get his head on the ball ahead of the defender marking him, but he ended up sending it over the bar.
"That could have gone differently in a lot of ways, nice pass from Axel considering how far away he was but Tacky could have done better," Tony commented.
'Well, I did succeed in getting it to him.'
"But perhaps playing it slow to get close will ensure better accuracy." He muttered before turning to his side of the pitch.