Photo Credit: File Photo
Football. Soccer. It all depends on your tongue. On the fourth day of April football fans everywhere spectacled at the blockbuster of a match between two rivals. The Blues from North London and the Red Devils from Manchester participated in a nerve wracking match in the stadium Stamford Bridge.
Emotions were rampant as roars of triumph and defeat reigned after the one hundred minutes of playing. The winner could only be one.
The match kicked off at 22:15EST where the Blues or as I would normally say Chelsea got off to a scintillating start as their captain Connor Gallagher drove a shot under the Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana. Not long after, Chelsea doubled their lead after Manchester United winger, Antony, made a nasty challenge on Marc Cucurella and conceded a penalty.
As it was the norm, Chelsea left the task to their main man, Cole Palmer to deftly execute the penalty to the bottom right corner sending the keeper the wrong way. Distraught faces loomed among the United fans. This did not last long though as wonder kid Alejandro Garnacho capitalized on a Chelsea mistake to make it 2-1.
The United fans had hope in their eyes as they cheered their team on. Minutes later, the same individual who had scored United’s first goal lofted a cross into the penalty box which was met by Bruno Fernandes who saw it to the net to equalize the score. At half time both teams were level. After the break both teams were eager to break the deadlock. Launching wave after wave of attacks. One of the United’s attacks bore yield.
Antony who barreled through the right wing with his pace delivered an outside the boot cross to Alejandro Garnacho who had the judgement to catch it with his head and past the keeper. Reverberation could be felt as the united fans were pleased that they completed their comeback. The task at hand was now maintaining their lead. They had done a pretty good job of frustrating the Chelsea players until in the ninth minute of added time a sleek footed Noni Madueke dribbled into the opposition penalty box and was fouled by Diogo Dalot.
After much controversy, the penalty was awarded. Dismay among the United fans and players. Cole palmer seized this opportunity to equalize and shatter the will of the United players. 3-3. This would have been the end result but United had already shut down and Chelsea were taking advantage coupled with their new added momentum.
After a lousy marking of a corner in the one hundredth minute, Cole Palmer decided to punish the visitors even more as he released a shot which deflected off a United player and into the net. 4-3. Pandemonium. Two goals in less than three minutes. Hat trick for Cole Palmer. Heartbreaking scenes for the men in red. These are the kinds of games that are worth calling football an emotion.
By Adam Ahmed
