Chapter 5: Perfect Debut

The first half of the match came to an end with that scoreline, three goals to nothing, and now the players were making their way down the tunnel for their break.

"Well, that was an interesting first half, Wolves getting dismantled by Manchester City once again but they've put up a good fight so far compared to how they played in their first meeting this season, too bad they couldn't handle the home team's advances that well." Tony articulated.

"Yeah, and I don't see them making a comeback from this one, it's their loss at the Etihad once again, unfortunately."

The players had all walked into the tunnel now and were making their way to their locker rooms.

Axel was walking alongside Peterson with his arms crossed and a couple of thoughts running through his mind.

'Three goals up, we already have this match in the bag which means I can try a couple of unconventional methods in the. But I should be three assists up now if those three had just scored with their first strikes.'

"Hey, kid."

That was Peterson's voice and he had to turn his gaze to the winger as soon as he heard that.

"You've been great so far in this game." The winger complemented as the two kept moving down the hallway.

"Oh, thank you." Axel smiled.

"Also, I'm sorry for missing my first hit with that chance, I know you really needed that assist, I'll try my best to put it in directly next time." He assured him before placing his hand on his head.

'He had that in mind this whole time?' The youngster said inwardly before a warm smile appeared on his face.

"Oh, don't worry about it, I'll probably get one in the second half, and scoring a goal in my debut is something great. That said, you better keep your promise and don't miss my setups."

"I'll try my best not to," Peterson responded with a nod.

Manchester City players were all in the locker room now sitting quietly with their manager standing in front of them.

A hairless man who was putting on a pair of transparent glasses, his eyes were brown and he had a nice somewhat athletic figure which suggests that he used to be a football player.

This was Mr. Gregory's second season as Manchester City's manager, he proved himself by leading the Citizens to league glory last season and he was also doing okay this season as his side were in second place just six points behind Aston Villa.

Gregory observed the room to make sure all the players were there before clearing his throat.

"You guys have done a great job so far, well done."

While the coach was trying to pass on a message to all the players, Axel was sitting in the back with his gaze on his phone's screen but he wasn't texting anyone or anything like that.

He was looking at everyone's first-half performance on Sofascore.

'I can't believe I got the highest rating in the first half.' He said subconsciously with his gaze on his icon which had a seven-point five rating above it. 'Peter also did well to get a six-point nine and although Tacky hasn't been himself so far, he still got a six-point zero. These ratings can either go down or up in the second half.'

"Axel!"

He recognized that voice in all its fierceness and just raising his gaze a little bit, he found the coach glaring at him from where he was standing.

"Are you going to put away that phone or do you want me to come take it?" He fumed.

"I'm sorry coach, I'll put it away now." He stuttered before quickly turning his phone face down on his seat.

"Please refrain from using the phone when I'm speaking, I don't want a repeat of this." The coach asserted.

"Okay, it won't happen again," Axel replied with his gaze on the floor.

His teammates had their gaze on him now and that made the situation even more awkward for him.

'Oh, will you guys just stop staring already?'

After listening to everything the manager had to say, the players rested in the locker room for a while before they had to head back to the stadium for the second half.

Axel was okay with everything he talked about except for one thing.

He had to move back more to help out in defense, they weren't in need of any more goals so Gregory wanted to act more like a defensive midfielder in this half and make sure they didn't concede any goal that might end up shattering what he had built up.

The youngster understood his reasons but he still wished this didn't happen.

'Well, it's no big deal, it's not like I have to be stuck at the back, pulling off at least one assist is still very much possible.' He said inwardly as he slowly made his way to the pitch.

That was what he believed but the second half was nothing like the first half for him.

The freedom he had in the first half was gone now, he always had someone on him whenever he got his foot on the ball which led him to passing the ball out immediately and whenever he tried to dribble, he ended up getting bodied.

He managed to create two good chances from the center of the pitch but his teammates weren't able to get to the ball on time.

To put it simply, their opponents got tougher in the second half and were starting to succeed in putting them under pressure but they were able to keep them from doing anything too dangerous or starting a counterattack against them.

Axel had to be taken off in the sixty-ninth minute, and from the bench, he watched the match drag on till the end.

There was no goal from either side which was a good thing for Manchester City because they just ran away with a clean sheet victory.

"There's the whistle and it's all over, another victory for Manchester City here at the Etihad Stadium, Wolves put up quite a fight in this second half but Manchester City held on tight and secured their goal victory." Tony expressed.

"Well, this was some second half." Axel sighed before sitting up on the bench. "But we won as expected so, yay."

'I wonder who the man of the match is though.'

"The man of the match, Axel David." A masculine voice resounded from the speakers in the stadium.

"Huh?"

He was still trying to process what he just heard when he was suddenly pulled up from his seat.

"Did you hear that, kid? You're the man of the match." Peterson said with an ecstatic voice before putting his arm over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I did."

"Do you know what that means?"

"Huh?" He replied with a confused expression on his face.

"You had a perfect debut, that's what it means, scoring a goal with a man-of-the-match performance, that's a perfect debut right there." The winger explained.

"Oh, that makes sense." He responded before a smile slowly appeared on his face.

'I wasn't really expecting this with my second-half performance but I guess I was the best player today. This would have been way better if I had gotten an assist though.'

Even without the assist, he still felt overjoyed with what he had been able to achieve today but he still felt like something was missing, it wasn't the assist, it was something else.

******

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