Mr. Brightside || João Félix

T W E N T Y - T H R E E

"Sofia incoming," I knock on the locker room door.

The door swings open and I'm allowed in as Portugal players start making their way into the tunnel while the Brazilians begin to infiltrate the locker room.

"Bom jogo," I tell the guys, "nicely played."

"Beautiful finish," I walk over to Casimiro and hug him. He takes his jersey off and hands it to me.

"Thank you," he smiles, "for you, I'll have it washed first," he laughs taking it back and I agree. I say my goodbyes to the rest of the players and head under the tunnel with the Portugal team to wait for us to go out.

S C O R E:   B R A Z I L     S W I T Z E R L A N D
                   1                               0

Once it's time for Portugal to go out, I wait until I'm introduced and go out to sing the national anthem again. After I finish, I wish the starting XI good luck and sit on the bench by Antonio Silva.

9:00PM   P O R T U G A L   V S   U R U G U A Y

So far, not many chances have been created in the first half. Right before halftime, Nuno goes down and stays down for a bit, medics approach him on the field and he's ushered out and under the tunnel back into the locker room.

"I'm gonna go check on him," I tell Antonio and he nods.

I head back under the tunnel following the medics and Nuno. "Are you alright ?" I ask Nuno.

"I'll survive," he smiles at me as the medics continue to check him out.

The first half ends in a zero, zero tie and I hang back in the locker room with Nuno as the rest of the team join us. During halftime, I make small conversation with Nuno since he won't be playing anymore while the rest of the team strategizes.

It's soon time for us to head back out to the field and I sit next to Antonio again and Nuno sits next to me. The second half begins and a few minutes in, Neves goes down and there's people checking up on him but soon enough he's up and playing. A few minutes after that, we're all on our feet cheering on Portugal as there's a chance and there's our first shot on target for the night.

"BRUNOOOOOOOO," I scream watching him score. The crowd goes crazy.

In the next few minutes, there's a few changes but for the time being, only one for Portugal as another striker joins the field. I wish Rafael good luck as he steps onto the field replacing Ruben Neves.

Uruguay has another shot on target but Costa is quick to make sure they don't score. A few minutes after Suarez is subbed in, João carelessly fouled him and is rewarded with a yellow card. There's a few more shots taken but no goals and soon enough there's some changes again as my dad, João and Carvalho are subbed off and Uruguay makes a switch too.

The game seems to be coming to an end, but on the 90th minute, after a VAR revision, there's a penalty awarded to Portugal due to a handball on Uruguay's behalf. Bruno steps up to take the penalty and soon enough has Portugal fans on their feet chanting his name again as we celebrate another one of his goals. In the last additional minutes, there's a few more shots but no more goals ending the game in Portugal's favor.

S C O R E:   P O R T U G A L     U R U G U A Y
                           2                              0

"Turn that frown upside down," Ruben says as he steps off the pitch, "we won."

I wanted Portugal to win, I'm rooting for them this World Cup, but it sucks to see Uruguay's chances of moving on slipping from their grasp, the sad faces weren't nice to look at. I stay still ignoring Dias.