Chapter 337 Through To The Group Stage

"Right from the first half, it looked like FC Basel were going to be the ones to pull through but Unique FC came into the second half and turned everything around," Jim said. "Mateo Smith was at the center of everything, setting up Ferran with that pass to level the aggregate scoreline and then coming up with that wonderful solo goal to seal the game."

"Yeah, Mateo was really extraordinary tonight and everyone else did pretty well too, but another player that stood out tonight was Dave, I wasn't expecting him to concede two goals early but he did quite well to make sure he didn't concede a third goal because he knew that was going to put the team in a really tough spot." Steve expressed. "Pulling off that last save was wonderful but Reto would have still put it in if it wasn't for Roland."

"You can see the bright smiles on the faces of the players, it was a really tough battle for them, but they managed to pull through."

'We did it.' Dave said subconsciously as he slowly got up from the floor.

He was the only person who crashed to the floor after hearing the whistle.

'I pulled through a match without the help of the system.'

<Well, the match ended in a draw so you barely made it out, but it's still a fair result, good job>

'Thank you.'

"It's nice to see that Unique FC's Europa conference league dream is still alive after not being able to show up in any European competition, don't you think, Steve?"

"Yeah, it sure is, they fought hard for it and they deserve what they got, they're now in the group stage and there's no doubt that they will make it to the knockout stage." Steve expressed.

"Yeah. Alright, that brings us to the end of this coverage, goodnight to you all and we'll see you again next time."

Just before going to applaud the fans for their support tonight, a couple of the players had a few that wanted to talk to them.

"Hey," Henrique said as soon as he got close enough to Mateo who happened to be sitting on the floor because his legs were quite tired from all the running he had been doing.

"Oh, hey," Mateo said before stretching his hand toward him. "Do you mind giving me a hand up?"

"Sure," Henrique said before he grabbed his hand and helped him up.

"Thank you," Mateo said after getting up on his feet.

"My pleasure," Henrique said. "You were pretty awesome today compared to the time you guys came to Switzerland, I didn't know you had that in you."

"I don't like to see my team lose so I did what I had to do." He said. "To be honest, it was quite risky going solo and anything could have happened, but I'm glad things turned out well, you guys came quite prepared in this second leg and you did quite well yourself."

"Yeah, but we made a mistake of not putting you on the list of seriously dangerous threats," Henrique said.

"Seriously dangerous threats?" Mateo muttered. "At least you'll remember to do it the next time we get to face each other."

"Yeah," Henrique said with a fake smile before proceeding to change the topic. "So, do you want to swap shirts?"

"Okay." He replied with a nod.

After agreeing to swap shirts, the two removed their shirts and exchanged them.

"Thank you," Henrique said.

"You too."

"I'll be going down now." The Swiss Super League player said before offering his hand for a handshake.

He took two steps away from Mateo before he suddenly stopped as he had something that he needed to tell him before leaving.

"One more thing."

"Oh, what is it?"

"I know you're pretty comfortable here in Unique FC but this shouldn't be your final destination, besides not being able to win many trophies and individual awards, you won't be able to discover your full potential here."

"Well, that's not particularly true, but don't worry, I'm not planning to stick around here for long and I'm not in a hurry to leave either, I just want to help my childhood club in every way I can before leaving," Mateo explained.

"Okay, that's good," Henrique said before turning away from him. "I'll see you around then, I won't lose to you the next time we meet."

"I'm not looking forward to losing either."

"You beat me to it once again, congratulations on getting through to the next round once again, we won it last two seasons ago anyway so getting knocked out isn't that much of a big deal although I wished we could have progressed further." Filip expressed.

"Well, only one team gets to progress in every match," Dave said.

"Yeah, and you guys beat us to it," Filip said. "I have to go now, I hope we'll meet again someday."

Dave didn't say anything and just kept his gaze on him until he disappeared down the tunnel.

<He's a pretty good goalkeeper, he'll certainly do well in a top-tier team>

'Yeah, I think so too.'

After joining the rest of his teammates to applaud the fans, it was now time for them to start heading home.

The official match interview was already over by the time they were about to start heading down the tunnel and that meant that both Emma and Amber were done with their work there.

As soon as she spotted her husband heading toward the area with his teammates, she quickly rushed to him and wrapped her arms around him.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you," Dave said with a warm smile on his face.

"Good job, Mateo." She said after turning her gaze to her brother who had caught up to them now.

"Thanks, sis, but um...where's your colleague?" The winger asked.

"Colleague?" She said before quickly turning her gaze to where Amber just standing beside her to see that she was no longer there. "Oh, she was just here, she has a lot to do tonight so she must have already left."

"Yeah, she did tell me about that, but it's sort of strange that she has a lot of work to do and you don't, are you sure you're not just piling your work on her?"

"Seriously? No, I wouldn't do that unless it's necessary, but why are you so concerned? Is there anything going on between you two that I don't know about?" She asked as she slowly pulled her face closer to his.

"No, no, no, it's nothing like that, I was just asking." The winger said abruptly before rushing out of the area.

"Yeah, nothing's going on for sure." She said before turning her gaze back to Dave. "I'll see you at home, dear, don't stay out too long, and don't even think of coming home drunk."

"Yeah, sure, you know I don't even take alcohol that much." The goalkeeper said as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, but you've gotten drunk on a couple of occasions so that possibility isn't ruled out for you, just be careful." She expressed.

"Okay, I will."

Just as he was about to take a step forward toward the tunnel, something suddenly popped up on his screen.

[ System is back online ]

***

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.