Chapter 242: [242] "MATCHDAY d’Azur 4"

Klaus passed to Kévin Aubert on the right flank. Aubert looked up, searching for Gabriel Assis.

Gabriel was positioned exactly where Henri had ordered him to be, but his body language screamed frustration. The Brazilian winger was hovering nearly ten yards deeper than his natural attacking instinct desired. He was stationed just ahead of Aubert, acting as a secondary fullback to ensure the wide channel remained locked down.

Aubert pushed the ball to Gabriel.

Gabriel trapped it under his right boot. He looked at the Côte d’Azur left standing ten yards away. Gabriel’s ego demanded that he put his head down, accelerate, and attempt to beat the defender with pure pace and step-overs. He wanted to highlight his individual brilliance. But Henri’s halftime ultimatum from the previous match echoed in his mind.

Play the system, or sit on the bench permanently.

Gabriel swallowed his pride. He held the ball for a second, inviting the left midfielder to step up, and then played a simple, uncreative pass to Cillian Doyle.

The possession sequence stretched toward the three-minute mark. SC Valois was dominating the statistics, holding onto the ball for hundred percent of the opening phase, but they had not registered a single touch inside the opposition’s final third.

Cillian received Gabriel’s pass near the center circle. He looked forward, overlooking the short options, and drove a firm, grounded pass straight into the feet of Hugo Blanc.

Hugo was operating in the pocket of space just behind the two Côte d’Azur central midfielders. It was a dangerous zone, heavily congested and constantly monitored. The teenager did not consider taking a touch to settle the ball when it arrived. He knew that any hesitation would result in a tackle.

Before the ball reached his boots, Hugo had scanned the pitch three separate times. He had mapped almost every player. He saw Dário marked heavily on the left. He saw Luc with two center-backs in the middle.

And he saw Gabriel Assis on the right flank.

Hugo visualized the pass.

It was a narrow, diagonal corridor of space that required absolute precision to escape the grasp of the opposing left-sided midfielder. If the pass was weighted correctly, it would find Gabriel in stride, allowing the Brazilian to run through the defensive line and initiate a dangerous crossing opportunity.

Hugo opened his right foot, locked his ankle, and struck the ball first-time.

It was a technique he had executed flawlessly a thousand times. But sometimes things were unpredictable and went bad for no reason.

Perhaps the grass was cut a millimeter too long.

Perhaps the moisture lingering in the soil grabbed the outside of the ball just enough to alter the friction.

Or perhaps, in the rapid calculation of the pass, Hugo had anticipated Gabriel’s starting position based on their standard 4-3-3 attacking shape, momentarily forgetting the strict, deeper defensive mandate Henri had forced upon the winger.

Whatever the minor miscalculation was, the result was about to be catastrophic.

The pass lacked the required speed. It did not zip across the turf. It dragged, the momentum dying rapidly as it crossed between the center of the pitch and the right channel.

It was going to fall short. It was going to miss Gabriel by minor measurements.

The Côte d’Azur left midfielder, wearing the number eleven jersey, recognized the error instantly. He had spent the last minutes shifting side to side, waiting for exactly this type of failure. He abandoned his slot in the block and accelerated towards the ball.

He arrived at the ball a full stride before Gabriel could close the gap to compensate for the short pass.

The wide midfielder intercepted the ball cleanly with the inside of his left boot. He took a very heavy touch forward, pushing the ball into the massive expanse of empty grass that Valois had left behind. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

The stadium noise shifted.

The frustrating whistles vanished, now a deafening roar fueled by pure adrenaline. Thousands of supporters rose to their feet simultaneously. The Valois possession had been broken.

The transition was immediate.

The Côte d’Azur left midfielder drove down the flank, tearing into the turf as he accelerated to his maximum speed.

Kévin Aubert was caught out of position. The Valois right-back had pushed up to support Gabriel during the possession phase, assuming the pass would continue safely. Now, Aubert was forced to backpedal furiously, his hips squared toward the attacker, desperately trying to delay the progression.

But the nightmare scenario Henri had warned them about materialized in an instant.

The Côte d’Azur left-back, recognizing the turnover, initiated an overlapping run. He tore past his own midfielder on the outside, utilizing the white chalk of the touchline as his runway.

Aubert was suddenly isolated. He was caught in a two-versus-one overload.

If Aubert stepped inside to engage the ball carrier, the midfielder would simply slip a pass down the line to the overlapping fullback, providing him with a completely uncontested path to the penalty area. If Aubert drifted wide to track the overlapping run, the midfielder would cut inside, driving toward the center of the Valois defense.

Aubert tried to split the difference, backpedaling at a slight angle, waving his arm desperately for support.

Inside the Valois penalty area, panic began to set in.

Pinto stood rooted to his goal line. The backup goalkeeper’s eyes were the eyes of a scared man, tracking the rapid development of the attack on the right flank. He shifted nervously from side to side, but his cleats remained painted onto the white chalk.

He refused to step forward.

Amadou Fall and Leo Hernandez recognized the keeper’s paralysis. The two center-backs abandoned their high line, sprinting backward toward their own goal, preparing to construct a wall of bodies to intercept the inevitable aerial delivery. They knew they were going to have to win the header, because Pinto would not come out to punch it away.

Out on the flank, the Côte d’Azur left midfielder made his decision.

He waited until Aubert shifted slightly toward the center, then executed a perfectly weighted, outside-of-the-boot pass down the touchline.