Chapter 531: Chapter 531

The Manchester City players returned to the locker room sullenly.

The entire first half.

The most uncomfortable player was actually the midfielder Toure!

As he aged, Toure could no longer adapt to the high-intensity style of play and was more inclined towards ground passing and control, as it required less running.

However, due to Bony’s frequent mistakes on the frontline, he could not hold the ball, making it impossible to form an effective link between the frontline and midfield, causing Manchester City’s entire ground game to hit a stalemate.

"Bony, playing won’t work; you’re too hasty. After getting the ball, stabilize first; don’t always think about turning to face the goal and shooting immediately."

Toure began to patiently advise Bony.

As a professional player, Toure took football seriously; no matter what conflicts he had off the pitch, once on the field, he was always fully committed to the game.

He almost forgot that Bony was no longer part of the French Language Gang!

Ever since the secret meeting at Kompany’s house that night, Bony had publicly split from the French Language Gang and joined the Italian Language Gang, where Tang Long was.

So, in response to his former mentor Toure’s advice, Bony gave him a sideways glance.

"What does it matter to you? Just focus on playing your game, and don’t you realize that Gualin intercepted you twice in the first half!"

Toure had meant well, hoping Bony would pull himself together, but didn’t expect the young man to take kindness for weakness and not only rebut him but also expose his shortcomings!

Indeed, under Gualin’s attack, Toure didn’t play well in the first half; whenever he hesitated after the ball, Gualin would stick to him;

After getting nowhere against Tang Long, Gualin had shifted his focus to Toure.

The two argued noisily in the locker room, and many teammates couldn’t stop them.

It wasn’t until Pellegrini entered with a somber expression and shouted, "Shut up, all of you," that the room fell silent.

Pellegrini also noticed the problem stemmed from Bony.

So he immediately announced that Agüero would replace Bony in the second half.

Bony opened his mouth but said nothing since Pelligrini had already decided on this substitution before the game.

Toure looked on with cold detachment.

Tang Long compared the two.

Against a strong team like Tottenham, Agüero was undoubtedly better than Bony; when facing weaker opponents, Bony’s simple move of a diagonal run in the penalty area might be more effective.

As Agüero ran out of the player tunnel, he was greeted with cheers from the 60,000 fans at Etihad Stadium—

"Our king has finally appeared!"

Agüero waved to the fans in acknowledgment.

"Tang, just play like the last game; it’s only one goal down, let’s see how we turn things around!"

Although Agüero was ambitious, just 5 minutes into the second half, an unexpected event made things worse.

Gualin swung his leg in front of the penalty area, a powerful shot aimed directly at Ranocchia.

Ranocchia, seeing the ball coming aggressively, attempted to block it with his back but inadvertently touched the ball with his arm while turning around.

Clattenburg immediately blew his whistle and ran to the scene. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he single-handedly pointed to the penalty spot inside the area!

"Ah, just 5 minutes into the second half, and the referee gives Tottenham a penalty!"

"It’s Gualin again; he scored with a long shot in the first half, and just now created a penalty with another long shot."

"According to the slow motion, Ranocchia’s hand, well... was touching his arm?"

"How to put it, this position and angle could be called either way, but if it’s called, there’s nothing to argue about." Get full chapters from NovєlFіre.net

"Let’s just say Ranocchia was a bit unlucky not to dodge that!"

Gualin swaggered over to Ranocchia’s side.

"Haha buddy, sorry about that, but thanks for the penalty."

Ranocchia wanted to argue with Gualin, saying his hand was against his body and shouldn’t have been a penalty, but realizing it was pointless to debate with him, he merely waved it off and walked away.

Etihad Stadium erupted with sharp boos.

The fans cursed loudly, calling Clattenburg blind!

These controversial calls are not replayed on the stadium’s big screen, so the on-site fans couldn’t clearly see what happened, mainly because they were dozens of meters away from the incident location!

But fans are ; whenever there’s a call against their team, cursing the referee is inevitable.

Many fans also recalled Clattenburg’s series of questionable calls during Manchester City’s match against Liverpool, furiously cursing him as Liverpool’s dog, intentionally biting Manchester City!

Gualin reveled in the booing, even though it wasn’t directed at him.

Growing up in Colombia’s slums, surrounded by vagrants, prostitutes, and drugs, he developed a strong ability to withstand pressure and a rebellious spirit against fate.

When his face lit up with the green of the fluorescent marker, he didn’t flinch.

As soon as the whistle blew, he didn’t attempt any feints or eye distractions, just a straight powerful shot!

Even though Caballero guessed the direction right, such a mighty shot, like a cannonball, was beyond his capacity to block?

By the 51st minute, the home team Manchester City was already two goals behind.

Watching from home, Icardi embraced Wanda and cheered ecstatically.