Rise of a Football God

"What the heck happened out there?!" Marco Silva raged in the dressing room as soon as his players entered.

"Can someone tell me what the heck happened?!"

"How can you start the game so good and end it so horribly?!"

"What went wrong???!"

He panted, glaring at his players. "Pereira, you were sh*t! Cordova-Reid, you were sh*t! Is that how we want to win this game?!"

Today, this coach was done with mincing words with his players as he told them the meanest words he could think of.

He didn't just criticize Pereira and De Cordova-Reid's performance, he also criticized Willian, Cairney, and heck, he criticized the whole defense.

Marco Silva was already emotional, weighed down by the performance of his players in the first half. After his rant, he located a chair and sat down, panting heavily as he had a look of frustration on his face.

After about a minute or so, he finally calmed down. He cleaned his face with a towel before facing his teammates again. "Come on guys".

He looked them in the face. "We can still do this; you just have to believe".

"Teams have comeback from much worse situations before. Even Liverpool, do you guys remember the miracle of Istanbul?" He grinned.

"If Liverpool could do that, we can't we create our own miracle of Istanbul?"

"Do you think we're too small to do it?"

There was no response.

Your journey continues on empire

"Come on guys, do you think we're too small to do it?!"

"No coach".

"Good," Marco Silva nodded. "Now listen to me," he looked at them. "I'm not making any changes yet, I'll keep on trusting you guys".

"Remember the game plan, stick with it, and give your all".

"We need a goal, come on!" He clapped. "Go in there and get me the first goal! We can do this!"

Like he said, Marco Silva didn't make a single change for the second half and this was a decision he grew to regret.

As soon as the second half started, Fulham FC kicked off play but they didn't hold possession for long, the aggressive Liverpool press won the ball back and almost immediately, Luis Diaz almost scored his 2nd goal of the game.

The goalpost came to the rescue, leaving a frustrated Marco Silva kicking angrily on the touchline as he yelled a few words in anger.

The coach's frustrations didn't matter though, the war continued on the pitch. To the Fulham players' credit, they didn't role down on their belly.

The Fulham fans were still loud, creating a noisy atmosphere to support their team and in this atmosphere, the Fulham players strived to play their game.

Among the forward line, despite their incredible work rate this game, they could not create anything tangible against the Liverpool defense, only Jimenez caused a threat the few times that the ball got to him.

Virgil Van Dijk had him firmly under control.

Liverpool started the second half on a high, dominating but as the game wore on, they reduced their intensity a bit as Fulham started regaining control, but never enough control to pose a serious threat to their goal.

The Fulham players on the pitch tried everything, did their best but the brutal reality was that their best was not enough.

60 minutes in and still no goal, an agitated Marco Silva finally made changes.

The Fulham coach made a double change, taking off Cairney and De Cordova-Reid who was locked by Joe Gomez all game, introducing Muniz and Alex Iwobi to try giving his team some attacking thrust.

With Alex Iwobi's introduction, Fulham's control over the game became a bit firmer but that was all, their attacking threat barely increased.

A few minutes later, Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager made a double change, bringing in Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones while taking off Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch.

With the change, Liverpool's attacking threat increased even more.

As for Fulham, their attack remained as bland as ever against the star-studded Liverpool FC defense.

Having screamed his lungs out in the touchline for the past dozen minutes and still no improvement, Marco Silva finally gave up on his team, going back to the bench immediately after the 75th minute mark when another of his team's more promising attacks led to a corner.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

With the likes of Darwin Nunez and Virgil Van Dijk defending the corner, he saw no hope of his team scoring but that was the unpredictable aspect of football.

As soon as the corner was taken…

"GOALLL…!" The Fulham coach jumped to his feet, running around the touchline as he celebrated excitedly.

Against the run of play, Diop, the Fulham center back rose highest for the corner, planting a firm header beyond Kelleher into the goal to score Fulham's goal of the game in the 76th minute of the game.

"What a header!"

"Are Fulham back in the game?"

"They still need one goal to make the aggregate even, but surely this goal can turn the momentum round, right?"

Diop, the Fulham center back didn't celebrate his goal, simply pumping a fist at the home fans to acknowledge them before picking the ball and running back.

They needed to restart the game fast.

Standing on the touchline again, Coach Marco Silva was hopeful, cheering his team on alongside the fans but after the game restarted, his energy started reducing as Liverpool put out a defensive masterclass.

All the Fulham FC attacks were like bricks harmlessly thrown against a stone wall; it didn't even budge it.

And with the Argentinian midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister still boxing the midfield battle with Luiz Diaz still being electric, Liverpool still posed a great threat.

As the minutes wore on, the Fulham manager's endless energy slowly drained till his face became that of frustration again.

He made another change, introducing Tete into the game in place of Castagne who picked up a knock, and yet his team was barely stringing passes together.

80 minutes passed; Liverpool still dominated.

85 minutes passed; Liverpool still dominated. And that was the straw that broke his already weak mental defenses, Marco Silva gave up on the game as Jurgen Klopp made another double change.

The Liverpool coach introduced the French defender, Ibrahima Konate alongside Clark, taking off Alexis Mac Alister and Darwin Nunez from the game.

With the double change, Liverpool totally locked the game off.

Marco Silva watched as his players made mistake after mistake, failing to do the bare basics to commence an attack.

The pressure already got to his players, now all he saw was chaos.

Marco Silva gritted his teeth, admitting defeat to the superior team but at that moment, one of his assistant coaches snuck up to him.

"We already lost grips over the game, why not give the boy a chance? You know who I mean".

Hearing that, Marco Silva stared at his assistant before staring at the boy, then he shook his head. "I need to discipline him. He needs to know his place".

"Silva, can you put your pride down for once and think of the team?"

The coach glared at his assistant but he didn't flinch.

"What will it take away from you? Pride? Who cares about pride if it will help us win the game?"

"The game is literally already over; you'll only be handling him a few minutes to live up to his words".

"If he can't, fine, you can punish him all you want".

"But, what if he can?"

Silence; Marco Silva just stared at his assistant.

"What if he can?"

Marco Silva closed his eyes, then he sighed. "Tell him to warm up, he's entering the game".

His assistant tapped him on the back before leaving. "I think you made the right decision".

A few seconds later, Sam started jogging on the touchline, warming up and a minute later, he was introduced into the game.

Sam was introduced into the game at just the 88th minute, 2 minutes to fulltime.

What could he do?