25 Chapter 25- Wembley...

Wembley Stadium was the home stadium of the Three Lions and we were on the way there, in the luxury new team bus that the national team recently acquired to play a qualifier game that would decide if we went to the Euros.

I was sitting with Jude near the back of the bus listening to music and occasionally talking to each other about what we planned to do that could make a difference against the team we would be facing, a formidable opponent at that, Croai and a daunting personal challenge in the challenge, Luka Modric. He was associated with his far-sighted vision in making passes, if I let one of his passes by me, it would be a certain goal, that's how high quality his passes are.

We pulled up to Wembley, famous for its arches and huge pitch, and we waited in the locker room. Players who were playing with each other for the first time, all under one banner, to win it all for the country, to bring it home!

We walked onto the pitch to huge cheers from the fans, a sea of white, I don't think there was a single Croatian fan there, even if there was it would be immensely hard to figure out where they were located in this desert of white. We waited and Kane shook hands with Modric before placing the ball down on the center dot and waiting for the ref's whistle.

After some last-minute checks and adjustments, the ref looked towards the center and blew hard into his whistle, starting the game...

Hane passed the ball to Rashford who passed the ball to me, there was no way forward and I realized we would have to play carefully, so I passed back to Bellingham who did some passing routines with the wingers before giving the ball to the defenders, this was where England's true strategy begins, bore the opponents to death then get them by their throats with a rapid attack...

Pickford exploded onto the ball all of a sudden and it landed at my feet, turning rapidly I ran past Brozovic and threaded the ball to Phil Foden who began dribbling forward but was blocked by Sutalo, he cut the ball back to Jude who used this distraction to lob the ball to Saka who began streaking up the field.

Managing to find a gap between Josko Gvardiol and Barisic, which I then accelerated into, I was about to shoot Saka's pass into the net when I saw a leg sliding in to block my shot, Modric, he was so quick, but not enough, I spun past his sliding block and was against the keeper now, Livakovic lost the staring contest and I used this small victory to then smash the ball into the net and ran off to celebrate with my team, Jude and I ran together and did the "Calm Down" celebration.

The ball was again put into play, this time by Croatia, and Modric was on the ball, it was like watching myself in a mirror image on the field, just slightly slower in regards to pace, Modric made it past Kane and Rashford and was met by me, I kept close watch on him and stopped all his feints, but he was playing with me to open up space behind me, which he lobbed into past, me, Jude and Maguire.

Kramaric ran onto the ball and accelerated away from John Stones, causing Kyle Walker to run in and try to defend but even with all his pace, Walker was too slow, and Kramaric smashed the ball into the net and ran with Modric celebrating and as the English fans booed them, they put their hands to their ears. I sighed, this was going to be a long match.

Croatia had another chance as the scoreboard showed just five minutes left on the clock, we were caught lacking and the defenders played the ball to their flanks and Perisic ran onto the ball, streaking past Foden and meeting with Shaw, dribbling for a few seconds before passing to Marcelo brozovic in the center, I ran back and pressed in front of Brozovice pointing towards Modrics so Bellingham would understand the message to go there, he did, but it was too slow, Brozovic threaded the ball past me to Modric.

The ball was only a few meters out from the penalty box and I watched Modric's eyes as they calculated his options, I realized in an instant that he was about to shoot, the defenders hadn't, and no one else had, but I did, if Modric was anything like me, he would take the shot. I watched as the star midfielder pulled his leg back. I pressed into the ground and accelerated to our goal post, unleashing all of my pace, I could feel the tension in my leg, I was a meter out from the post when I heard a smash, the ball flew past Pickford's hands...

I accelerated forward, my leg lifting high, I felt the full force of Modric's power shot in my leg as I smashed it away from the goal line, the loose ball fell top Kramaric, but I stole it from him with ease and as I cleared the ball, the whistle went and we had to walk to the locker room. Everyone patted me on the back for reading the game well an for top-class defending, but I was angry that we weren't converting and I had a bone to pick with some strikers of ours...

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