The referee glanced at Gabi.
According to the rules, Gabi should have received a yellow card because he was the one who actually initiated the scuffle.
But the referee chose to balance things out.
Portugal and Spain had both benefited from his loose refereeing throughout the match.
Both sides had avoided quite a few yellow cards already.
But three minutes later, the Spanish fans erupted in celebration.
In the 79th minute, Mikel Arteta and Andrés Iniesta combined their way into the penalty area. Arteta's pass was blocked by José Fonte, and the ball bounced toward Fernando Torres.
Torres laid it back to Gabi.
The "Engineer" Gabi struck it immediately.
Iniesta timed his run perfectly, beating the offside trap. He burst forward, received the ball alone, took it slightly to the left, and smashed a volley from a tight angle.
Goal.
It was an extremely difficult finish.
And honestly… there was a lot of luck involved.
But Spain didn't care.
2–1.
They had taken the lead again.
On the Portuguese bench, Violante grabbed his head in disbelief.
Up in the stands, Pep Guardiola smiled faintly.
This is football.
You can plan everything perfectly, but reality will still slap you in the face.
Portugal had made almost no mistakes in this match.
Was their defense bad?
No. It was excellent.
Yet they conceded the first goal.
Completely anti-scientific.
Likewise, once Spain scored first, based on their style of play, it should have been almost impossible for them to concede.
And yet Ricardo Quaresma smashed in that outside-of-the-boot volley that dropped like a meteor, forcing Spain—who supposedly "never concede"—to concede.
Also anti-scientific.
Now Portugal had resorted to physical fouls and even provoked the Spanish players into anger. Spain's normally calm passing game had become aggressive and impatient.
That was actually a hidden danger for Spain.
Portugal had slowly started gaining the psychological edge.
But then Iniesta scored.
All three goals in this match had slapped the face of every so-called "tactical genius."
Football tactics are full of logic and technology.
Yet the results often move in the complete opposite direction.
That's the charm of football.
It's like the Portugal vs Ghana match in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
In the first half of that match, the most threatening player in Portugal's midfield was Otávio. Portugal couldn't break the deadlock and clearly needed more players with Otávio's style.
But the Portuguese coach substituted him off.
He replaced Otávio with a slower, more defensive player.
From a tactical perspective, that substitution looked like absolute garbage.
A disaster.
But less than a minute after the substitution…
Portugal scored.
Ridiculous.
And now the Portugal U16 team on the pitch had run into the same ridiculous situation.
They had clearly been closer to victory.
But suddenly, the story twisted, and Iniesta cut them down with one ruthless strike.
81st minute.
Portugal still hadn't fully recovered when Iniesta dribbled past players again, combining with teammates in tight spaces.
Arteta received the ball outside the box and spotted another passing lane.
The ball was about to enter Portugal's penalty area again.
And Torres was waiting inside.
At the critical moment, Portuguese right-back José Bosingwa stepped in and made a brilliant defensive tackle.
But he also received a yellow card.
This time, the Spanish players didn't swarm the referee demanding punishment.
After all, they were already leading.
If the match had still been tied, they would've surrounded the referee like angry wolves.
The free kick was taken by Iniesta.
His free-kick technique was excellent.
But maybe his touch was slightly off this time.
The ball slammed straight into the wall.
Portuguese center-back José Fonte jumped without hesitation and blocked the shot with his face.
No flinch.
No hesitation.
Just pure sacrifice.
Beside him, Hugo Viana quickly cleared the ball away.
Then the referee stopped the match.
Fonte's nose was bleeding like a broken faucet.
The team doctor rushed onto the field.
After several checks, Fonte couldn't even correctly identify the doctor's fingers.
When asked to point at them, he ended up pointing straight at the doctor's face.
Classic concussion symptoms.
Fonte could no longer continue.
Violante substituted him with Angelo.
At the same time, left-back Ribeiro was replaced by Rúben Amorim.
Portugal shifted from four defenders to three.
Amorim could both attack and defend, and Portugal clearly wanted to strengthen their midfield and push forward.
Because with the current scoreline…
Portugal were losing.
Amorim, Miguel Veloso, Kai, Raúl Meireles, Lorenzo, and others began pressing aggressively.
Even Cristiano Ronaldo and Ricardo Quaresma dropped deep, marking Spain's midfielders.
From a tactical standpoint, Portugal was actually walking into danger again.
Because they were being dragged into Spain's rhythm.
But there was another problem.
Spain had faced extremely physical pressure all game.
Players like Iniesta were clearly tiring.
He could still control the ball, but his reactions had slowed.
Instead of exploiting Portugal's defensive gaps, he could only pass backward.
83rd minute.
Amorim intercepted the ball and immediately passed it to Kai.
Kai quickly sent it to Quaresma.
Quaresma attempted another volley.
But it flew far over the goal.
After constantly pressing and defending, his legs had already gone cold.
85th minute.
Iniesta finally spotted a gap and played a direct pass to striker Gómez.
Gómez, who had dropped deep to receive the ball, turned and fired a long shot.
But the quality wasn't great.
Portuguese goalkeeper Vilela caught it easily.
Vilela didn't fall to the ground to waste time.
Instead, he launched the ball forward immediately.
The ball flew over everyone and landed near Ronaldo on the left wing.
Cristiano Ronaldo sprinted forward while Alvaro Arbeloa chased him.
At full speed, Ronaldo flicked the ball forward, stopping it more than ten meters ahead before accelerating again.
Arbeloa simply couldn't match his pace.
He lost the race.
But just as Ronaldo was about to reach the ball—
Gabi came flying in from the side with a brutal sliding tackle.
Finally.
Gabi got his revenge.
Ronaldo rolled across the grass several times, clutching his leg in pain.
That foul completely ignited the Portuguese players.
Several players—including Kai—rushed over immediately.
Lorenzo, the fastest among them, arrived first and slammed straight into Gabi just as he was getting up.
The substitute had plenty of energy.
And a lot of anger.
Gabi had barely regained his footing when Kai charged in again.
With the force of a damn truck, Kai knocked him flat once more.
"I'm going to kill you out here, you bastard!"
While Gabi was still dizzy, Kai seized the moment amid the chaos.
Spanish players rushed in to protect their teammate.
Soon both teams were pushing and shoving.
Even players from the benches ran onto the pitch.
The scene turned into absolute chaos.
The referee was furious.
He turned into a walking card machine.
Whoever he caught—card!
On Portugal's side, Kai, Lourenço, and Rúben Amorim were all shown yellow cards.
For Spain, Gabi, who had just been beaten around like a sack of potatoes, also received a yellow card for his dangerous tackle on Ronaldo.
If he had fought back during the brawl, he probably would've been sent off.
But the problem was… he got knocked around so much he didn't even get the chance.
Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta, center-back Gerard Piqué (the earlier mistranslated "Nami"), and González were also booked.
Spain quickly made substitutions.
And at the same time, they used the substitutions to deliberately waste time.
That decision immediately enraged the Portuguese players.
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