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📍Allianz Stadium
chelseafc All the action comes next in Turin! 💪 cesarazpi #JUVCHE #UCL #CFC #Chelsea
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"Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman to a warm night here in Turin where the Blues will face Juventus in the second game of the group stage".
It was finally time for the Blues to face their Italian opposition, Juventus in their second game in the group stage. The team had come onto the pitch and were welcomed by boos from the Italian fans became a song to their ears giving them more motivation than they had before, within 30 minutes they all made their way to the dressing room to prepare themselves for the game at hand.
The second they all walked onto the pitch with their tracksuit jackets, adrenaline rushed through their veins as they took in their surroundings
The starting line up showed up on the monitors for both teams: Edouard Mendy starting in goal. Andres Christensen, Thiago Silva and Antonio Rüdiger made up the back three. Marcos Alonso, Mateo Kovačić, Laia Schmidt and Azpilicueta in midfield. Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz and Romelu Lukaku as the front three.
Even though she felt the adrenaline run through her veins Laia couldn't help but have a feeling of uncertainty once she stepped onto the grass but pushed it to the side and focus on the game they needed to play. Laia went to get to her spot in between Kova and Azpi giving them both high fives before she was finally lined up just waiting for the referee to blow the whistle for the start of the game.
"This is it Chelsea fans welcome to Chelsea vs Juventus for the teams first game face to face in this seasons group stage".
Finallythe sound of the noise of the whistle reached her ears, Kai passed the ball towards Lukaku marking the first touch of the game. The blues immediately started pressing the Italians in stripes trying to break through their defence, the ball was now at Laia's feet since the Juve defence was pushing them higher up, the she ran up the pitch weaving through the Italians before she passed the ball towards Hakim who was open hoping that he could put it in the back of the net however his shot hit the cross bar for a goal kick.
Opportunities came back and forth for Chelsea but to the Blues' frustration they all had either hit the crossbar, went wide or saved by the goalkeeper and the frustration showed, passes became easily intercepted by the opposition which also added more pressure onto the team and Tuchel made sure the team knew they were not playing the way he wanted them to with his voice being heard from the sidelines.
"The Blues are starting to look more out of line and desperate for the ball even though they have the most possession at this point in the game as Juventus are intercepting their chances in the Italian's box"
Like the whole team Laia was trying her best to make runs up front and weave through the defence but at the last minute they would be met by defeat, so by half time the blonde had stomped of the pitch running her hands over her now loose bun as she walked along side the rest of the players making their way to their designated changing rooms.
"What do you think Thomas Tuchel will be telling those players in the dressing room Graham?"
"Well Brian, I think he would be happy with the overall possession but I highly doubt he will be happy with how the players are finishing off those chances I mean there have been countless times Chelsea could have taken the lead but their finishing has stopped them from doing just that. So those front three will most probably will be the subject of Tuchel's half-time talk".
Tension surrounded the dressing room at half-time, of course none of them were happy about the first half but they believed that they could take the lead within the second half since they had the most possession. Thomas' half-time talk as expected was about how they had to improve their finishing and to put pressure on the Italians back players pointing to the tactics board they had done during the duration of the first 45 minutes.
Stepping onto the pitch once again Laia couldn't shake off the same feeling of uncertainty that she had felt before but once again pushed those feelings aside to focus on the second half, however the reason for that feeling revealed itself seconds into after the referee's whistle when Bernardeschi passed the ball to Chiesa through a gap in Chelsea's defence he took the chance and shot the ball into the top left corner from a tight angle.
Mendy started shouting at the players around him about how they have to close up, Laia could feel her anger start to bubble up which made her just want to scream and break something.
"Well it looks like Schmidt's day has come to as Chelsea make their 2nd substitution of the night, amazing game for her but unfortunately she comes off the pitch with her team being 1-0 behind".
Her game day came to an end in the 62' minute when she was being subbed off and replaced with Trevoh Chalobah, her anger was pushed aside when she met his face giving him a tight smile as well as a small pat on the back. Once she got to the bench she put her jacket back on and sat down putting her head in her hands trying to calm herself down when she saw a water bottle slowly appear right in front of her, she turned her head to the left side in confusion and was met by Mason with a small comforting smile on his face holding out a water bottle for her to take.
"Water?". He asked trying to calm her down with the small smile which was plastered on his face, he knew it was a stupid attempt to calm her down but it was worth a try.
"Thank you". She returned the same smile he was giving her, she hated to admit it but the past few days made her realise why she used to have feelings for Mason and she feared those feelings were slowly rising to the surface and wasn't sure if she should embrace them or push them away like she had done countless times before. What took her by surprise was being pulled into him for a side hug and the warmth from his jacket radiating onto her, they had stayed like that for two minutes without realising until Mason saw they were on the big screens taking away the warmth which comforted Laia.
The game had ended 1-0 with the first defeat in the Blues' Champions League campaign, the whole team were disappointed but the next game was the full focus. Laia couldn't get mason out of her head no matter how hard she tried, they had walked back to the changing room together laughing about a stupid joke that Mason had said and she realised that she was genuinely happy around him even though she always tried to convince herself that she wasn't as a defence mechanism. She had tried to drown out her thoughts by blasting her music on the way to the hotel but it was to no use.
Laia was falling. Falling for Mason Mount.
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A/N: Hey lovelies! sorry updates have been a little slow, writers block hit me 😑 Thank you all for being patient, not sure if I like this chapter or not but we'll roll with it! I appreciate you all! <3
