FC Barcelona || Group Chat

Thirty six

A.N.
Just pretend Neymar was the captain, not Dani.

As the two teams lined up next to each other, Neymar felt James shooting daggers at him with his eyes. He thought it was comical that they were captains of their respective teams and that they had to play each other less than two weeks after the whole Bruna drama. At least it gave him a shot at fixing things up earlier than he thought.

The two teams walked out behind the referees onto the pitch. Once they had all lined up, the stadium quieted and the anthems of the two countries was played. Then the referee motioned for the Brazilians to start shaking hands. Neymar got the usual 'good luck' from the referees, but the response from the Colombian squad was very different. First was James who refused to speak to him and shook his hand with such a firm grip that it nearly broke Neymars hand. The rest of the Colombian team followed suit and shot him dirty look. It was obvious that James had told him.

The referees summoned the captains for the coin toss. The outcome, a Brazil kick off. The two captains re-shook the referees hands and then turned towards each other. They shook hands again, with James nearly breaking Neymars hand, again, and moved towards their teams for their final pep talks before kickoff.

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There was five minutes till half time and to say the game was dirty was an understatement. All the Colombian players were as physical as humanly possible, leaving a foot in here and an elbow in there. Three Colombians had been booked, all for fouls on Neymar but surprisingly James hadn't yet. Especially since he had been moving out of position as much as possible to foul Neymar. The score was currently 1-1, both goals from set pieces and both assisted by the respective teams' number 10.

As the fourth official held up his board to signal 1 minutes of injury time, Neymar went for a header. James jumped and went flying towards him with his foot raised. Neymar managed to flick the ball on and was looking to where he should make his run when James foot made contact with the side of his head, instantly drawing blood.

The refs whistle blew immediately and James was issued with a yellow. The medics took Neymar off to the side of the pitch and told him there was no point in them patching him up immediately to get back on as there was less than a minute left till half time. Holding a bandage to his head, Neymar walked over Rafinha who was on the bench.

'I can't take this anymore', he said. 'You and Celo pull him aside at half time and explain everything'

'No problem, now go get your head patched up'.

By the time the whistle had blown for half time Neymar was already in the tunnel. Immediately, Rafinha ran out onto the pitch to get Marcelo. They made a beeline for James and as soon as Dani saw the two heading towards James, he joined them already knowing what was happening.

The trio walked behind James silently waiting until they were away from prying eyes. As they rounded a corner in the tunnel Rafi nodded at the other two Brazilians. Instantly, they pounced on the Colombian and pinned him to the wall.

'What the fuck?' James exclaimed. Struggling to get out of the grip the two Brazilian full backs had on him.

'I'm sorry mate', Marcelo said, 'but you have to watch this'.

James stopped struggling and was slightly curious as to what he was supposed to watch. The second he saw Neymar in the club after the Olympic win, he wanted to roll his eyes. He should've expected this.

As he watched the video to the end, he realised how wrong he was to jump to conclusions. He actually felt sorry for Neymar, he was the victim, he didn't deserve this.

'Ok.' Was all that James said followed by a sigh.

'Soo?' Rafinha asked.

'I apologise to Neymar then I help you all.' And with that being said, he walked to the Changeroom.

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As James walked out of the Colombian dressing room he saw Neymar and ran up to him instantly.

'Mate, I'm so sorry about your Sarah, your head. Everything.'

'Look, no problem. I get that you were just being protective of her.' Neymar replied.

'The others showed me the video. I understand what happened and I'll be happy to help.'

'You have a good relationship with your sister? James nodded, 'don't wreck that trying to force anything too much.'

By now the two were at the edge of the pitch.

'So we cool?' Neymar asked

'Yeah,' James said.

The two shook hands and bro hugged before walking to their respective sides of the pitch.

He genuinely is a good guy. James thought to himself. Those two deserve each other.

A.N.

Yay! Things are starting to get fixed up!
Who watched some of the World Cup qualifiers? If so, which was your favourite?