Unbreakable

T w e n t y T w o

After a night filled with entertaining speeches from Klopp, Hendo, and a few club officials, dance offs between Ox, Gini and Amyrah, and enough food to sink a battleship, Jordyn felt ready to focus on their upcoming games. She was all too aware that they would be some of the most important of her career to date.

The heartbreak of the league that year was perhaps softened by the fact that they were still in the champions league final, but it still stung. It was out of their control, and they were forced to do the best they could. Win their own games, and hope that City would slip up. But City never slipped up, and their win on match day 38 was overshadowed by the fact that they were the greatest second placed team to ever grace the Premier League. It had been an incredible season for all the big English teams, however, and there was proof of this in the Europe wide competitions as well. Liverpool would play Tottenham in the Champions League final. Arsenal would play Chelsea in the Europa league final. And Manchester City had won all four of the domestic trophies that year. The Premier League was the best league in the world, and they deserved to be proud for doing so well in it. The only big six team who'd done absolutely nothing for themselves was Man United, but as far as Jordyn was concerned, that was how it should be.

It was a warm evening in Madrid, but Jordyn could feel goosebumps rising on her skin as she stepped off the bus with Virgil by her side, to enter the Wanda Metropolitano stadium with the rest of the team.

"I expected to be comparing every second of this to last season," she said quietly to her boyfriend, as they walked through the grand entrance, and headed towards the dressing room. "But I'm not."

"Is that a good thing?" He asked.

Jordyn nodded, a serious expression on her face.

"It feels nothing like it did last time. I don't even feel worried."

The pre-match rituals and paraphernalia seemed to go by in a blink, and one of the scouser girl's regrets from the previous season was that she hadn't allowed herself to live in the moment, to appreciate everything for what it was. This season, she was determined to do just that, and with the determination came a quiet confidence. This time, she and Trent did their handshake on the pitch, just before taking their places for kick off. They didn't say anything, but Jordyn could see the passion in her best friend's eyes, and knew it was reflected in her own.

The game itself was intense, a fierce battle of grit and determination. There were only two goals scored - a penalty, less than a minute into the game, and another goal four minutes before the end, and Liverpool, once they'd gotten a bite of it, held on for all they were worth.

It was Sadio who won the penalty - he was in the box with the ball, with a Spurs defender attempting to block him, a hand raised to wave his teammates in line so that they weren't playing Jordyn and Mo onside. Sadio hit the ball, intending to curl it in towards Mo, but it struck the defender on the arm. The referee immediately blew for a penalty, and everybody was a little dumb struck for a moment. They'd barely been playing for fifty seconds, and the Tottenham players began protesting wildly. But the call stood firm, and by all the books, it was the correct call. The defender had been holding his arm in an unnatural position when the ball had struck it, and the fact that he clearly didn't intend to handball was beside the point.

"I can't believe this," Jordyn said to Trent, as the two of them stood at the line, watching Mo prepare to score the penalty. "I've believed everything I've seen today up until now, and I believe we're gonna win this game. But if we win because of this penalty..."

"Tottenham will never live it down?" Trent asked, raising an eyebrow at her in amusement.

"Let's score another anyway, I think," said Jord, with a laugh. "Come on, focus. He hasn't scored it yet."

"He's going to, though. It's Mo."

When everyone was in position, the ref blew the whistle again, and Mo slotted the ball home cleanly, just as everyone expected him to. The stadium erupted in excited cheers, although much of the noise came from the opposite end. They'd just scored a soft penalty right in front of the Tottenham fans, and Mo was beaming in delight as the rest of the team followed him to the corner to celebrate.

"Can't believe we're celebrating this early!" Exclaimed Amyrah, after they'd all finished jumping on top of Mo.

"I know!" Said Virg, grabbing the Egyptian by the shoulders, and shaking him. "Beautiful pen, Mo."

"Thank you, brother!" Mo grinned at him.

Then began the longest eighty minutes of their lives. After the early penalty, Tottenham's defence could have been excused for being a little shaken, but they were not. Instead, they became such a tough barrier to break that Liverpool were reduced to taking long shots at goal outside the box, none of which produced any results, although the keeper was forced into some spectacular saves. Trent and Andy both came close on several occasions, the two fullbacks causing Tottenham the most problems to deal with. However, Tottenham didn't score either, and Jordyn was encouraged by the fact that they looked much less likely to score than Liverpool. Virgil put Son and Kane in his pockets upon his first encounter with both of them, and didn't let them out the whole game. However, being 1-0 up was not a comfortable position, and Jordyn was ever conscious of the fact that they were one concession away from being level again.

Then, in the 86th minute, they broke through the Tottenham wall. There was a scramble in the box, but Ellie broke free of it, received the ball, and fired it into the bottom right corner of the net.

Everybody started yelling, and chased after Ellie towards the corner once again, because surely now, they'd ended their wait, and all the heartbreak of the season before, the heartbreak of losing the league, always coming so close and yet so far - it would have all been worth it. And they were the ones to be written in the history books of their club, for what they'd achieved as a team, as a family. Whatever they did, they'd do it together, back each other up, stand side by side in victory or defeat. They were the proof of their own motto, you'll never walk alone.