Neymar is convinced that Nia is perfect for him, but Nia is not so sure she needs guys in her life anyway, thank you very much.
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Neymar Jr ft. Alexis Sanchez
"One thing you should know about me is that I play games to win them."
I had grown...
A/N: Before reading this chapter, I just wanna acknowledge this video I've tagged above which is an absolute masterpiece and really helped me write this chapter, you'll see why. I don't mind if you watch it before or after reading the chapter but please do watch it at some point, especially if you're an arsenal fan.
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PARIS, FRANCE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL Arsenal vs Barcelona
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It probably wasn't doing my wrist any good at all, but I was clenching my fists so tightly they were turning white. I was right there on the bench, with the pitch only a few feet away, but I felt more disconnected from the game than the fans in the stands behind me probably did. Wether we won, or wether we lost, there was nothing I could do about it. And I'd known it would be like this. However, knowing what I'd feel and being prepared to feel it were two very different things. I was nervous like I'd never been before, and I almost wanted it to be all over already to spare myself the stress of going through this.
Was this how the fans felt?
I clenched my fists tighter again, to stop myself from picking at the bandage which covered my wrist and most of my hand. My eyes flickered over the players on the pitch. Hector was bouncing on the spot, keeping his muscles warm. Granit and Rambo were sharing a few words. Neymar and Alexis were there in the centre, ready to kick off. My eyes met Thierry's, the manager sitting on the bench beside me, and he gave me a small smile.
Neymar opened the scoring against his former club in the 25th minute, which finally helped me to feel more at ease. The Barcelona fans hadn't exactly been impressed that he'd run off to Arsenal, and they'd been voicing their disproval ever since his transfer. Therefore, I wasn't surprised that he had no problem with celebrating in front of their fans. Alexis was the first to celebrate with him, and the big cameras caught the two of them smirking knowingly at each other. Once those of us on the bench were done jumping up and down like maniacs, we took our seats again, as the game restarted. I wondered how the Barca fans would retaliate to seeing two of their ex players celebrating like that.
As it turned out, they didn't need to. Barcelona themselves retaliated, and they did it in style. Two goals in five minutes, one from Messi, and one from Suarez, saw us lose our lead before the first half was over. It was engrained within me to analyse every aspect of our game, and I attempted to focus on doing that, rather than my slowly sinking heart. After their second goal, we began to lose our foothold in the game, and I could see that we were lacking the width at the front that was normally provided by Neymar and I. The two of us had an understanding, both with each other, and Alexis who played striker, that allowed us to work fluidly as an attacking force, but when one or other of us was missing, something always seemed to go missing from the fluidity too. But we were better than this, I knew we were, and I knew what I'd say to my teammates to encourage them if I was out there too. But I wasn't. This wasn't the rhythm that had become so familiar to us over the past few months. Everything was disjointed, allowing Barca to pick us apart easily. It was like someone had pulled the handbrake.
