Become A Football Legend

Dovbyk kicked off and Lukas gave chase.

Roma was playing a 3-4-2-1 formation, with Svilar in goal; Hummels, Mancini, and N'Dicka as the back three; Saelemaekers, Angelino, Paredes, and Koné in midfield; Dybala and Pellegrini just above them; and Dovbyk leading the line.

It was a formation completely set up to attack as much as possible.

Toppmöller lined his side up in a 4-4-2 formation: Trapp in goal; Theate, Tuta, Koch, and Kristensen in defense; Chaibi, Larsson, Skhiri, and Knauff in midfield; with Ekitike and Lukas as the front two.

{IT:} "And we're off. You can hear the expectation from the crowd. They will accept nothing but a win."

From the onset, Roma played like men possessed.

In only the second minute, Pellegrini had a right-footed shot on goal — blocked by Theate — after Angelino dribbled down the left flank and cut the ball back to the middle for him to shoot.

They showed their aggression too, not letting Eintracht build up any meaningful play.

In the 6th minute, Lukas received the ball from Larsson down the left flank on a half-turn. He saw Saelemaekers coming and nudged the ball to the side before trying to accelerate.

"Arghhh!" he screamed as he rolled on the floor while the fans cheered.

Saelemaekers had just tackled him even when the ball was clearly out of reach.

Knauff and Ekitike ran to confront Saelemaekers as Larsson checked on Lukas.

"I'm okay," Lukas replied as he stood up after a few seconds and stomped his foot on the turf to make sure nothing hurt.

{IT:} "Saelemaekers with a bad tackle on Brandt, the kid who has been causing a ruckus in Frankfurt this month, and the referee rightly books him."

The game resumed, but the aggression didn't stop. Roma won the second balls, the 50-50 duels, the tackles. It was clear they wanted the ball more than the Frankfurt players.

Even Lukas, who was normally the most energetic on the pitch, covering a lot of distance, was being outworked by some of the Roma players.

By the 20th minute, Roma had five shots on goal against Eintracht's none. Although they were mostly off target, they were creating the better chances.

Dovbyk missed a tap-in, Angelino missed a header, a shot from Saelemaekers went just inches wide of the post, and Hummels hit the crossbar after a cross from a corner.

They were knocking on Eintracht's door. The door remained closed for now, but it was obvious Roma were ready to barge in at any moment.

Lukas tried his best to relieve the pressure on his team.

In the 39th minute, he received a pass from Koch deep in his own half. With a deft touch and a stud-roll, the ball went through Pellegrini's legs, and before he could recover, Lukas was off to the races.

He sprinted down the middle, with Angelino, Pellegrini, and Dybala chasing him.

He looked up and saw Paredes in front of him, then tried to side-step him.

The Argentine, however, stood his ground as he swiped the ball off Lukas — getting both the ball and Lukas's feet.

Lukas rolled on the ground and sprang back up while Toppmöller protested heavily to the fourth official by the sidelines.

Ranieri just stood with his arms crossed, watching the match unfold.

While researching the Eintracht Frankfurt squad, he had found that a new player, who had only made his debut that month, was going to be one of the hardest to keep out of the game.

He had already instructed his players before the match to put in a strong tackle on Lukas early. He wanted to see how Lukas would respond to a heavy start since no team had done that before.

A few minutes later, Roma struck!

An attack started from deep in the Roma box, with Svilar rolling the ball to N'Dicka on the left.

Lukas and Ekitike tried to press high, but the ball was just passed around the defense to beat the press.

N'Dicka passed to Hummels, who managed to turn swiftly under pressure from Ekitike and released Saelemaekers running down the right flank with a lobbed pass.

Saelemaekers tried to run with the ball down the flank but saw the space was covered by both Chaibi and Theate, so he promptly passed the ball backwards to Mancini at the halfway line.

At this point, every Eintracht Frankfurt player was in their own half. Both Lukas and Ekitike had tracked back to defend.

However, instead of stepping out to mark Mancini — who had the ball and acres of space — they all stayed in the low block, looking to cut out probable passing lanes instead of rushing Mancini into a mistake.

{IT:} "Mancini with the ball. Dybala's come short calling for it. Saelemaekers makes the run down the flank. Frankfurt is allowing Roma a lot of time on the ball. Mancini is considering his options... He floats the ball towards the back post... ANGELINOOOOO! Roma has taken the lead!"

Lukas turned to the post and shook his head as the Roma players ran to celebrate. He had tried to close down Mancini just before the cross, but he hadn't got there on time. The ball reached Angelino, who was free at the back post and smashed it past Trapp, who had come off his line to block the shot — only for it to deflect off Koch and into the goal.

The home crowd went wild.

Lukas looked around at his teammates. It was obvious they weren't fully tuned into the match.

There was a sense of nonchalance as they played. Ekitike and Ansgar would normally be sprinting forward whenever Lukas got the ball — even during training — but tonight they were just walking around.

Unconsciously, the fact that the result of this match wouldn't affect their position in the competition had made them complacent.

The first-half whistle blew shortly after the restart, and the players walked through the tunnel into the dressing room.

It had been 45 minutes, yet the energy from the stadium didn't seem like it would be going down anytime soon.

The Ultras led the chants as they echoed throughout the stadium.

Even from the dressing room, the banging of drums and the songs were still very audible.

Toppmöller, however, did not care about any of that.

"What the hell was that out there, boys?! Did you come here to play football? Or did you come to take a stroll and enjoy the atmosphere?! How are they outplaying us this badly? Two shots on goal against their eleven! We have to take the game to them! Disrupt them! Don't think we have nothing to play for. If we show such a lazy side, what happens if we draw them in the knockout stages?"

The players had their heads down as he spoke. Lukas sipped his hydration drink, his mind empty, as Toppmöller's words blurred out in the background.

He had lost competitive games before, but that was during his time in the reserve team when he was competing in the Regionalliga.

This was the Europa League.

Granted, it was all in all a ceremonial game, but it was still the Europa League.

"We've been playing like shit. Something's gotta change in the second half," he thought to himself as he jogged out of the tunnel onto the pitch with his teammates.

{IT:} "Roma with 45 minutes to see out this win. Forty-five minutes that could spell disaster for the season. They are not in a great position in the league. They have had to change their manager twice already this season. Being unable to see this game through might cause irreparable damage to the season. They have the crowd behind them, they have the goal advantage. Will they see it through, or will they be sent out of Europe in the league phase? The next 45 minutes will determine that!"

The referee blew his whistle to signal the start of the second half. Lukas was the one who took the kick-off for Eintracht — a pass to Skhiri, who sent it backwards to Koch, who then sent it down the right to Kristensen.

Roma pressed high right from kick-off, and immediately Kristensen received the pass from Koch, he had Dybala and Pellegrini closing him down.

Without trying any fancy tricks, he turned around and sent the ball back to his goalkeeper.

Dovbyk chased down the ball. Although he was nowhere near it, he tried to disorganize Trapp and make him play a suboptimal pass. Trapp, however, just launched the ball straight down the middle.

The ball flew towards Ekitike, who was just inside Roma's half. He looked around to see he had Koné and Hummels for company, both trying to win the ball. That was the last line of defense for Roma, who were pressing high.

From the corner of his eye, Ekitike spotted a figure in white, unmarked, body leaning forward, and ready to make a run.

Ekitike jumped and flicked the ball into the open space behind him — and the player he had spotted became a blur of white as he zoomed toward the ball.