Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
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After the brief national team training camp, Lance flew straight back to Madrid and returned to club life.
"Lance, I saw you beat Ronaldo again. You're too naughty."
Griezmann was gloating the moment he walked back in.
He had never liked Cristiano Ronaldo, going all the way back to his time at Real Sociedad. After joining Atlético Madrid, the frustration had only deepened every time Cristiano Ronaldo dominated the Madrid Derby. It wasn't until Lance arrived that Griezmann finally got his revenge, and seeing the "Cristiano Ronaldo Nemesis" put him in his place time and again brought Griezmann genuine satisfaction.
"It's not my fault. Blame FIFA's schedule."
Lance spread his hands, all innocence.
He wasn't deliberately going after Cristiano Ronaldo. It just kept happening.
Because Lance had just come off a FIFA international, he was named on the substitute bench for La Liga Matchday 31 on April 2nd, Atlético Madrid vs. Real Betis.
At such a critical point in the title race, Simeone couldn't risk leaving Lance out of the squad entirely. What if they dropped points? Even if the team were losing, as long as it wasn't by more than four goals, Lance coming off the bench could still turn things around. The players felt it too. Seeing Lance on the teamsheet settled their nerves.
Extremely reliable.
Beep.
Lance watched the opening of the match comfortably, legs crossed, leaning back in his chair.
Real Betis were sitting 10th in La Liga. No European competition to chase, no relegation to worry about. Their fighting spirit wasn't exactly burning, since neither outcome would change much about their final standing.
Atlético controlled the game from the start and had the majority of possession. But Real Betis being relaxed didn't mean they were going to roll over.
Their defensive shape was firm and disciplined, and they had clearly done their homework, doing a solid job of cutting off space on Atlético's left flank. Every time Griezmann, Torres, Koke, and the others tried to combine in the final third, there was no room to link up cleanly.
Saúl had more space on the right, but he wasn't a player who specialised in one-on-one situations, so the threat from that side was limited. As the game wore on, Saúl drifted into the center, leaving Ángel Correa to take the right wing. Correa found pockets of space to drive into, but his final product kept falling just short.
The two sides were locked at 0-0 until the 40th minute, when a set piece finally broke the deadlock.
"Griezmann!! The free-kick, swung to the far post!"
"Fernando Torres!"
"Goooooal!!"
"Torres, still as sharp as ever! Atlético Madrid lead Betis 1-0 at home!"
Even crowded by three defenders, Torres stayed calm and finished cleanly. His speed and explosiveness had been fading for years, worn down by a series of serious injuries that had almost pushed him out of the game entirely. But this man had kept going, and now he found moments like this through sheer experience and reading of the game.
"Well done, Fernando!"
Lance applauded loudly from the bench. Torres had been his idol growing up.
The lead didn't last long.
Atlético had been guilty of not taking Real Betis seriously enough, and the defensive unit paid for it. Filipe Luís had been pushing forward aggressively, looking to load numbers into attacking areas and create an overload on the left.
The gap he left behind was quickly exploited. Real Betis broke with purpose down the exposed side, and even though the delivery from the byline was nothing special, a Betis striker got his head on it and guided it into the net.
1-1.
Both teams were level again.
As soon as the players reached the locker room at halftime, Simeone was in Filipe Luís's face. The tirade was intense enough that Filipe stood there like a student who had been sent to the principal's office, taking every word without daring to say a thing back.
Once the storm had passed, Simeone turned and put a hand on Lance's shoulder.
"Start warming up at the beginning of the second half. Be ready to come on at any moment."
There was no other option. To make absolutely sure of three points, the ace card had to be ready.
The second half got underway.
Every time Lance stood up to stretch along the touchline, the Wanda Metropolitano erupted in waves of applause.
"Lance!"
"Lance!"
"Lance!"
Even the Real Betis players on the field couldn't hide their reaction. The man hadn't even come on yet, and the whole stadium was losing its mind just watching him loosen up. The nerves this created showed in their play, and Griezmann made them pay, dribbling past two defenders on the edge of the box before arrowing a low shot into the far corner from a tight angle.
"Griezmann!!! What a brilliant finish!!"
"Atlético Madrid lead 2-1!!"
Griezmann, in typical fashion, didn't head toward the fans to celebrate. Instead, he sprinted straight to the touchline and found Lance, who was mid-warm-up.
"Wait, what? Me?"
"Lance!! That's for you, man!"
Lance had absolutely no idea what he had done.
Even better were the rest of the Atlético squad. Seeing Griezmann and Lance exchange a high-five, Saúl, Torres, Koke, Gabi, Juanfran, the whole group lined up and jogged over one by one to slap Lance's hand in celebration.
Lance had apparently become the team's lucky charm.
The moment made the commentator, José Ángel, chuckle on air.
"It's clear that Lance is genuinely loved within this Atlético Madrid squad, which also puts a few recent media reports into serious doubt. With a bond like this with his teammates, how could anyone call him a locker room problem?"
Real Betis were already rattled by Lance warming up. What would happen when he actually came on?
The answer was not hard to predict.
In the 57th minute, Lance replaced Saúl and entered the field.
The Wanda Metropolitano rose to its feet, a sustained roar of applause greeting their king.
Three minutes later, Griezmann played a reverse-triangle pass back from the edge of the box, one of Atlético's most well-worn attacking patterns: stretch the defense wide on both flanks, then pull it back for Lance to receive on the turn.
Lance chipped the ball up with his back to goal as the defender behind him grabbed his jersey to stop him turning. But after the initial flick with his toe, Lance subtly knocked it higher again with his knee, and then—
"Laaaance!!"
"A bicycle kick!!! Out of nowhere!!!"
"Goooooal!!"
"A spectacular goal! Atlético Madrid lead Real Betis 3-1!!"
"Three minutes after coming on as a substitute, Lance scores and seals the three points!"
"For Atlético Madrid's opponents, Lance in the starting eleven is terrifying enough. But Lance coming off the bench might be even more terrifying. Since his debut, every single time he has entered the game as a substitute, he has scored. That magical 100% record still stands today!"
Commentator José Ángel thought that was Lance's moment done for the evening.
Then, ten minutes later, in the 71st minute:
"Goooooal!!!"
"A side-volley!!! Lance again!!!"
"A brace!! His 42nd La Liga goal of the season!"
"31 rounds played, 42 goals! We have every reason to believe that when the full 38 rounds are done, he might genuinely break the 50-goal mark!"
Lance sprinted across the field in celebration.
At that exact moment, both Messi and De Bruyne turned off their televisions.
In three days, the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals would begin.
De Bruyne would be going up against an Atlético Madrid side that looked completely unstoppable.
"Hopefully, the new tactics can hold up."
Before today, he had been fully confident.
After watching that performance, he was a little less sure.