Grace➛Mason Mount

T H I R T Y T H R E E

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Delilah took in a deep breath as she stood in the tunnel of Stamford bridge, her hands slick with sweat and her mind racing with a billion thoughts that were trying to take her away from the match she was about to play.

"Delilah, you're gonna do great. Work the magic you always do, okay? Don't sweat it." Tuchel reassures her, noticing the nervous look on her face. 

She took in another deep breath and exhaled heavily as they started to make their way onto the pitch, her team following behind her and lining up beside her on one half of the refs. She looked up into the stands and waved to Mason, the brunette waving back which made Thiago and Jorginho look at him and tease him for it.

Her nerves had died down a lot in the last few minutes whilst Atletico Madrid walked out onto the pitch themselves, the match flag held in her hands as the Spanish team walk down the line and shake hands with all the players.

She and the rest of the team took off their training jumpers and gave them to the coaches on the side, Delilah making her way over to the ref to hand over their Match Flag to the Spanish Team and receive one back. Once they had, the two captains shook hands as a sign of respect before she quickly jogged to the side to give the flag to one of the coaches before moving to get into position.

She shut her eyes for a moment to calm herself right down before the whistle blew to signal the beginning of the match, her players immediately getting to work alongside her. The team had started off well despite the opposing team already having a shot on target which Mendy saved and a chance from Suarez before Antonio got to him.

The next moments of the match were just spent passing the ball between another, tackling to get it back from Atletico players and keeping it out of their own half. But now was the real deal as Delilah receives the ball from Havertz, the girl glancing briefly to see if there was any space before she passed the ball to Ziyech and watches him hit it into the back of the net.

Half-time came soon enough, the team all taking it slow and steady in the changing rooms whilst Tuchel gave his team a pep-talk to keep their spirits up. The second they got back out onto the pitch they knew it was hammer time, needing to defend well and try and score goals if possible.

And boy was it tough.

Delilah couldn't keep count of how many times she had shouted at her team for not being where they were supposed to be, her voice loud and clear to everyone in the stadium which made the three lads in the stands laugh.

And it got worse from there.

Their defending was slightly falling apart, Atletico Madrid were starting to notice the cracks in the formation and get around it fairly easily, yet Mendy's brilliant goalkeeping allowed them to keep a clean sheet for the time being.

A red card was given to one of the Atletico players for elbowing Rudiger in the chest, leaving the team down to 10 men and giving Chelsea an advantage to slip and slide their way through the broken formation to get another goal.

92 minutes saw Mendy save a goal from the opposing team that Azpilicueta somehow managed to not defend again, resulting in a shouting at from his captain, but 2 minutes later the stress in her body has fizzled away and she no longer had a reason to be shouting at anyone.

Christian Pulisic had managed to get the ball from one of the Atletico players, and like the speedy minx he was, got away from them as quickly as possible whilst having Finnegan and Kante running either side of him.

Just as he was getting close to goal and the Ateltico player in front of him was getting closer, he passed it across to Finnegan who manoeuvred it a bit before she kicked it across the penalty area and straight into the bottom right corner of the goal. 

She slid on her knees in front of one of the cameras with Chilly, the entire team soon piling up on top of her with happiness in their bones, they were through to the Quarter Finals at last. When she stood back up on her feet she looked over at Jorgino, Thiago and Mason all celebrating in the stands before she continued with the last two minutes of the game.

"Fucking get in!" She hears Chilly shout as the final whistle blew. 

She found Christian first and hugged him softly, the two of them celebrating the goal they'd both helped to score before hugging a few other players in the squad. She heard her name being shouted from the stands, the girl turning around to see all three of the lads with their phones out recording the moment for Instagram.

Once everything on the pitch had died down, the girl hopped over the fence separating the pitch and the stands and raced up the steps to get to her three teammates, hugging Thiago and Jorginho and jumping around with them both before she got to Mason.

"I think you need to apologise to the team for shouting at them." Mason grins cheekily.

"They deserved to be shouted at, defense was terrible today." She responds, moving some hair out of her face as he wrapped his arms around her softly.

"I wish I would've been playing." Mason pouts.

"Maybe if someone didn't have 3 yellow cards he would've been on." Delilah smiles, scrunching her nose up at him before she stands on her tip toes and kisses him softly.

"Finnegan! C'mon!" Tuchel calls, the girl laughing as Mason presses a few quick kisses to her cheek.

The girl sprints back down the stands and back down to the pitch, Tuchel patting her shoulder proudly as they walk down the tunnel and back into the changing rooms.

"What did I tell you hm? Don't think about it and you'll do great." Tuchel smiles at her.

She felt great, her spirits had been lifted massively and the nervousness she was feeling earlier on in the day had gone completely. They were into the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League, that's all that mattered now.

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