Chapter 868: Young Blood
"OFF. OFF. OFF."
3,000 people behind that goal, and then the whole north stand, and then most of a small ground in Estonia.
Second yellow. Red.
He did not argue. That is the thing I will remember. He looked at Marciniak for about 2 seconds and then he turned round and walked, and 10 men in white had 32 minutes left and no captain.
"CHEERIO. CHEERIO. CHEERIO."
3,000 people sang a 30-year-old song at Sergio Ramos in Estonia and I stood in a technical area and did not know where to look.
[SERGIO RAMOS. SENT OFF 58 MINUTES. SUSPENDED: 1 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURE.]
Prrp.
Lopetegui made 2 changes inside 90 seconds.
Isco for Asensio. Nacho for Benzema, a centre half for a centre forward, because he had 10 men and a back 4 with a hole in it and no captain, and he took a striker off in a European final in the 59th minute.
That is not a tactical decision. That is a man trying to keep a scoreline.
[REAL MADRID. 10 MEN. 3 CENTRE HALVES. 0 RECOGNISED STRIKERS.]
On their bench a lad of 18 in a tracksuit stood up and started warming up on his own down the far touchline.
Vinícius Júnior. They bought him from Flamengo for 45 million euros when he was 16 and left him in Brazil for a year, and he arrived in Madrid 5 weeks ago.
I have got a 17-year-old in São Paulo doing the same thing and he cost me 26 and a half million pounds and I cannot pick him until next July.
Neither of us got to use ours on Wednesday.
Tk.
Rebecca stood up at 63 and I did not argue with her.
And here is the thing about that 12 man bench, and it is the thing I had not thought about properly until I was stood on a white line in Estonia with 26 minutes left.
I get 3 substitutions.
12 men in tracksuits, 4 of them 20 or under, and UEFA give you 3 changes and a 4th only if it goes to extra time. That rule went in in March and I read the good half of it and skipped the other half, and Sarah read all of it, and she has left me to find that out on my own for 5 months.
Hakimi was 1. That was Rebecca’s and it was promised in July.
So I had 2 left and 12 men, and 1 of those 2 was already spoken for because Christian Benteke was at 8.4 kilometres and Rebecca had said 65 on Tuesday and meant it.
So on 64 minutes I put Michael Olise on for Jarrod Bowen.
Right hand side of a front 3 at a European final against Real Madrid, 4 days after 12 minutes at Craven Cottage, 16 years old.
Sarah put a hand on his back at the fourth official’s board and said 4 words to him and I have never asked her what they were.
Eberechi Eze sat down. Nya Kirby sat down. James Rodríguez, who has 2 World Cups and a Golden Boot, sat down and folded his arms and watched a 16-year-old go on in front of him and did not say a word about it then or since.
That is a bench. It is 12 men and 3 seats and 9 of them go home in a tracksuit.
The last one went on the board 60 seconds later.
Alexandre Pato had his tracksuit top off at 62 and he had it off because everybody in that dugout including him knew he was the 9 when the 9 came off.
I gave it to Ellis Cartwright.
Bip. Bip.
He is 18. This football club released him on the 6th of June and he came in at 7 in the morning for 6 weeks afterwards with nobody expecting him and nobody paying him, and we signed him again on the 23rd of July, and he took a penalty in a shootout in Pennsylvania 2 days after that.
He stood at that fourth official’s board with his hands by his sides and did not look at the bench and did not look at the crowd.
Sarah told me on Friday that he was shaking.
Alexandre Pato is 28 years old. He was the best 19-year-old in the world in 2008 and he has 1 European appearance in 4 years, and he put his tracksuit top back on, and he clapped, and he clapped properly.
"NUMBER 40. NUMBER 40 FOR NUMBER 9."
Christian Benteke came off having done 8.4 kilometres and marked Sergio Ramos out of a European final, and he stopped at that white line and got hold of the back of Cartwright’s neck with 1 hand and said something into the side of his head.
12,424 people were on their feet for it. The Estonians. A decent number of the Spaniards.
25 minutes left of a European final, and the centre forward of Crystal Palace was a boy this club let go 10 weeks ago.
69 minutes.
This is the one they will play for 20 years and it started with a boy chasing something that was gone.
Isco took a touch 40 yards from his own goal and looked up for Kroos.
Achraf Hakimi was 30 yards away from him.
He went anyway. Nobody sent him. I was shouting at Højbjerg about something on the other side of that pitch and I did not see him go.
shhk. shhk. shhk.
That is a 19-year-old on dry grass at 20 past 11 at night in the 69th minute of his first match in 3 weeks, running at a man who has had 4 seconds of comfort in every one of the last 400 games he has played.
Isco heard him at about 6 yards and it was already too late.
Hakimi took it off his foot without touching him.
GO. ACHRAF, GO.
I came 2 steps out of that technical area with my arms going and the fourth official put a hand out and I did not see him do it.
25 yards. Nacho in front of him, a centre half playing his 3rd position in 10 minutes, backing off because that is what you do.
Come on.
Every single person in that ground thought he was going to the byline. I thought he was going to the byline. Nacho thought he was going to the byline and dropped his left shoulder to take the outside away.
Hakimi stopped dead.
shhk.
Ball under the sole of his foot, still, on the corner of that box, and Nacho went 4 yards past him and had to turn his whole body round to find him again.
And everything went slow.
I saw Keylor Navas set his feet for a cross. I saw Varane turn his head to find Cartwright. I saw a gap open across that 6 yard box that had 1 person in it.
Michael Olise. 12 yards out. Nobody within 8 of him.
He has been on that pitch 5 minutes.
Hakimi did not pass it hard. He rolled it, flat and slow, the way you roll a ball to somebody who is 16 years old and has been at your football club for 5 minutes and might take a heavy touch.
Fsst.
Bottom corner. Navas got a glove about 6 inches from it.
4-0.