Bellingham and Haaland

19)

It's been days since Dortmund arrived in Austria. They took a few days to relax and prepare for the upcoming match, happening July 30th.

The day eventually came.

"Boys, I know it's been some time. All I ask of you is to give it your all, and avoid injuries. We have an advantage here, I'm certain we can handle it." Rose gave an uplifting speech before the match.

The players of both teams stepped out onto the field, after the usual coin flip the match started.

From the bench, Bellingham, Hummels and the others were watching the match. "What can a Bologna team do against us?" Bellingham leaned into his chair and crossed his legs.

"Technically you're right.. don't jinx yourself though." Hummels adjusted his sunglasses.

"Or Dortmund might lose since we're not playing." Hummels smirked deviously. Bellingham nodded.

"We don't need to worry.. Haaland is on the field." Bellingham said shamelessly. Hummels laughed. "You're hopeless."

"Shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about." He snatched Hummels' sunglasses and planted them on his head.

Hummels squinted, taking a minute to adjust his eyes to the brightness.

"I like how you get mad when I tell you you have a chance with him, and when I tell you you don't have a chance with him." Bellingham kicked him in the shin, just hard enough to cause a reaction.

Whilst they were bickering, Reyna scored a goal. They didn't notice until Wolf notified them.

"Whilst you harass me here, Gio is scoring goals. Aspire to be more like him." Hummels defended himself from the harsh blows he was receiving from Bellingham.

The first half went very smoothly; with goals from Gio Reyna, Lennard Maloney and Steffen Tigges. The second half was sleep-inducing, with no real action from either side.

Only notable thing from the second half was an embarrassing missed tap-in from Haaland. That caused a horrific reaction from Wolf, who was watching the match very closely, tugging his hair. Hummels, who sat directly beside him, covered his ears, certain he would go deaf.

Wolf howled angrily; "Lukasz Skorupski!!! Küss meinen Arsch!! Arschgeige!!!!" He got a lot weird looks from his teammates and people in the stadium.

"Calm down, now." Hummels put his hand on Wolf's shoulder. Wolf smacked his hand. "Verpiss dich!!!" Hummels rolled his eyes.

Bellingham awoke from a long slumber. "Look who's coming. The Man of the hour." He whistled at Haaland, mimicking a VAR signal. Haaland shook his head disapprovingly.

"You didn't even start. Benchwarmer." Haaland hit him on the shoulder, sitting down next to him. Bellingham slithered his arm over his shoulders.

"Correction.. I wasn't on the bench." Haaland laughed at him. "What a neek." Haaland grabbed Bellingham's head and kissed him on the cheek. Bellingham's ears turned red and he immediately shooed Haaland away.

"You knob... there's people here." Haaland shrugged.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Haaland wrapped his arm around his neck. Bellingham didn't respond, only rolling his eyes.

***

The match went very smootly in Dortmund's favor: securing the win in the first halftime. Needless to say, Edin was pleased, at least for now.

Edin and Rose were in a local cafe near the stadium. They weren't really communicating, both of them preoccupied with their phones. Austria was a great way to calm down after the stressful happenings behind the scenes in BVB.

Edin was mindlessly reading random articles and protecting their public image, reporting any article that may say anything overly invasive or falsified about anybody in the team.

Rose was talking to his mother on the phone about his new position as the manager of Dortmund and the stress that comes along with it. He complained about the pressure after his debut.

All was calm, until Rose noticed Edin's expression shift drastically. "I'll call you later, Ma." Rose hung up, shifting in his seat.

"What is it?" Rose leaned over Edin's shoulder. Edin clenched his fist. "Read this."

news.ORF.at
The Norwegian Way - Erling Haaland
The BTS of Famous Norwegian Footballer, on How to celebrate a win..
..read more

Rose chuckled. "Seriously? You read this? What can this possibly contain?" Edin glared at him, and tapped on the article.

The attached image was one of Erling kissing Bellingham on the cheek.

Rose scratched his head, struggling to see the problem. "What is the issue here?" Edin shook his head.

"This is unacceptable behavior. I can't believe they are this immature.." Edin was furious.

Rose placed his hand on Edin's shoulder. "I think you're taking this too seriously. They were just messing around." Edin stared at him, unfazed.

"That's what they always say... in a few months time they'll be like Gary Neville." Rose shook his head.

"They'll be fine. Besides, we shouldn't worry about something so miniscule like that."

Edin pulled his hat over his eyes. "Fine. But I won't be so nice next time. If this happens again, I ought to talk to all three of you." Rose laughed. "Don't even worry about it.