You lit up the sky above me.

****

Saturday 5 June, Champions League final day, Barcelona, 08:26 a.m. Spanish time.

A pair of blue glass-like eyes suddenly opened. Patrick wakes up from a nightmare. The temperature in the room was perfect, but he still felt some sweat on his neck. He kept his eyes open to the ceiling for two seconds before getting up.

Patrick has a habit of sleeping in only panties, though sometimes he will tell her that he is not used to sleeping in panties to amuse Tina. It's a lie that will be exposed time and time again, and he's still happy to do it.

Patrick walked barefoot to the bathroom mirror, where he washed his face with cold water before looking up at the man in the mirror. It was a handsome-looking, extremely well-proportioned, muscular blonde Englishman.

Maintaining a relatively stable body fat percentage throughout the year is not an easy task, even for athletes. And even though it's a must. In the locker room, people laugh at Leon, who can grow fat around his waist on a casual vacation, and at the guy who is completely meticulous during the holidays — highly professional and sometimes considered boring. Peer pressure is never limited to the teenage years. Patrick is glad that he didn't have to take peer pressure too seriously since he was a child.

He turned on the mirror headlights again. The warm light made his eyes a little green, and Tina said that his eyes would be blue-green under some indoor lights, and he knew this at a very young age. He leaned a little closer, and touched his stubble in the mirror, and there was still some water on it. He still doesn't plan to shave today. His hair had grown a little longer, but it hadn't bothered him. He intends to get it back to an inch after the Champions League final.

Patrick turned off the mirror lamp and walked back to the bed, picking up his phone and walking to the window. He opened the curtains, and a ray of sunlight entered the room. Barcelona was still sunny today, and he was not surprised that it was Barcelona he was familiar with. He looked down at his phone screen in the sunlight. There are some messages and missed calls. His index finger slid across the screen, and finally he dialed a call. The other end was quickly connected.

"Good morning baby."

"Good morning. Did you just wake up? Still in bed?"

"yes, I mean I'm already up. What about you?" her voice sounded like she had just gotten out of bed, he thought.

"Me too. ”

Really. "Did you sleep well? Did you shower?"

"It's not bad. I'll go right away. How did you sleep?"

He wasn't going to tell her about the dream. "I'll be right away. He said.

"Okay. …… Is there something wrong with you? Pat, your voice sounds strange. ”

"It's fine. Just like usual, want to hear from you. See you at breakfast later?"

"No problem. Pleasant shower. ”

Patrick paused, and said quickly and mutterably, "Come and join me." ”

"What?"

"Didn't you say that the shower was pleasant, come and join me, we'll all have fun. ”

"No ......"

"Okay, just a joke, see you later. "A joke, of course.

"I'll see you later. ”

Patrick hung up. He looked out through the glass window, the sun shone on the whole city of Barcelona, and a smile gradually appeared on his lips. It's just a nightmare. He turned around, threw his phone on the bed, and headed for the bathroom.

Half an hour later, Patrick opened the door to his hotel room. The door to the opposite room was ajar, and the rhythmic sound of music came out. And the sound of Jake and Phil talking.

"Let me see Tianna...... Let me see, will she call uncle?"

"Sometimes she doesn't even call her father...... Oh yes, I'll tell you a secret, Jake......"

"I don't want to hear it, I'm not good at keeping secrets. ”

"Tianna called her boss mom last time. ”

"I said I didn't want to hear it, and now that you told me, don't blame me if I can't help but tell Pat that you got beaten. By the way, your daughters are very tasteful, although they don't look like each other at all. ”

"Haha, I thought so too. But the fact is that whenever Tianna sees a woman recently, she calls her mother......"

"Poor little girl......"

"No, she's not, she has me, the super dad who will score in the Champions League final tonight......"

“…… Then can we at least tone down the sound of this ass song, you see, Tianna doesn't seem to like to listen to it......"

Oh poor little girl, Patrick sighed to himself. He looked at his watch, and before going to the restaurant, he wanted to visit her room first.

****

9:00 a.m.

Lu Ling's room was located in the last room on this floor. The team wrapped two floors in a row. Her floor is dominated by members of the coaching staff and medical team, and there are also a few players who live on this floor. JT, Glenn, Ian, Joey Freeman. It seems that the other guys are reluctant to share a floor with the coaching staff. No, there's one guy who'd be happy to, even, preferably be able to stay in her room. But Patrick Amber also understands that that is not a good idea, after all, not every player's girlfriend is on the team.

The room was bright and spacious, with grey curtains pulled up. Lu Ling sat on the sofa with his side facing the window. From her vantage point, she could clearly see the spire of the Sagrada Familia. It shouldn't be too far in a straight line, she thought. She held her head high, faced the sun, and took a sip of the black coffee in her cup.

She knew that some coaches couldn't sleep at all on the eve of the big game. The pressure from all sides is indeed difficult to see, but sometimes it is always yourself who is really unwilling to let go of yourself. She didn't really sleep well last night. However, she has already adjusted herself after waking up. First, it's normal to be nervous, and second, you can catch up on sleep in the afternoon.

There are some other emotions.

A permanent departure and an agreed reunion.

Lu Ling put down the coffee cup and stood up. She was still facing the window, her gaze fixed on the spire in the distance. She seemed to see the Queen of Spades on Pat's left arm, but the man's voice suddenly sounded in her head. "Patrick Amber. Pretty sure. ”

The next second, she heard a knock on the door distinctly.

Before going to open the door, Lu Ling drank all the black coffee, and the bitterness continued from his lips to the deepest part of his throat. "It's coming. She shouted. She knew who it was.

Patrick stood in the doorway with his hands in the pockets of his training pants. In fact, they wore almost identical clothes, both Adidas dark blue sweatpants and white training T-shirts.

"I'm waiting for you. She smiled when she saw him. She leaned in and put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. She thought it was a feather kiss, and then the two went downstairs to breakfast together, but the man was clearly not satisfied, and he put his arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground briefly, kissing her for a while before letting go of her.

"Coffee. Patrick let go of her, and said with a light smile.

"Is it bitter?"

"Sort of. But you are sweet. Patrick said and leaned slightly over and kissed him on the cheek. "You said you were waiting for me, did you know I was coming?"

"Yes. ”

"I'm hungry, baby, if you're not going to invite me into your room, we'd better hurry to the diner. ”

"We went to the restaurant. Lu Ling said, and then she closed the door.

The elevator stopped at the lower level. The elevator doors opened, and several teammates came in one after another. Gonzalo cleared his throat, and then cleared his throat. Suddenly, the Spaniard felt a slap on the back of the head. "I didn't spend the night in the owner's room, if that's what you're curious about. Patrick said. Gonzalo stuck out his tongue, "I didn't say anything, Pat." ”

Everyone in the elevator laughed.

Benjamin turned his face sideways with a smile on his face and asked the manager gently, "Did you sleep well?"

"Not bad. Thank you. What about you?" replied Lu Ling.

"It's not bad. Thank you. Benjamin also said.

****

10:25 a.m.

Both Sky Sports and BT Sport are streaming live ahead of the Champions League final.

In Phil's room, several QPR players watched together. Patrick and Ian are both sitting on the couch, Benjamin is sitting on the chair, Phil is on the bed, Jacob is on the other side of Phil, and John and Leon are sitting at the head of the bed.

Sky Sports has guests including Robert Green and Nedham Onuoha, who won their first Premier League title with QPR two years ago. The 41-year-old has retired from Leeds United in the Championship at the end of the season, while Nedham is still playing and the 34-year-old former QPR captain currently plays for Barnsley in the Championship. These two, especially the latter, are the objects that QPR fans miss a lot.

"I'm looking forward to their performance in the final, I think Real Madrid are strong, but QPR is definitely not worse than them," said Robert. Before playing AC Milan, didn't some people say that Milan were the favourites to win the title? Christine's greatest strength is that her tactics are varied. I've never met a coach like this in my entire career, and she's very detail-oriented. Believe me, as the back-up goalkeeper at the time, I had a lot of time to observe. ”

Nedham picked up Robert's words and said, "I admire Christine's courage, it's very important. As you may recall, it wasn't always pleasant when we first worked together, but we worked through this. Oh my God, she dared to throw me into the reserves! That was definitely the first time for me......"

Patrick, Ian, Leon, and John all went through that season. That was when QPR had just been promoted to the Premier League and Kristen Luke had replaced Bielsa as acting manager. But Leon joined in the winter and didn't know the specifics. Others are even less aware of that history.

"Why did the boss throw him into the reserves? Could he have been a member of 'I fell in love with my manager's club'?" Phil asked as he sat up from his bed and looked at Patrick and Ian. He nudged Jacob again in disgust, "Jake, can you not lie next to me and ...... like my wife"

"I'm not your wife, Phil Beasley!!" Jacob nudged Phil as well. "Stay away from me. ”

"This is my bed!Go, sit next to your boyfriend, Benjamin Hamilton. ”

"Shut up, Phil, listen to Ian, I fucking want to know. ”

Phil scolded and looked at Ian, who was really silent.

Ian laughed and said, "Trust me, Nedham definitely didn't fall in love with the boss. The Scotsman smiled at Patrick. Ian then began to tell them about that year: "We were losing in a row, and Christine was asked by the board to get four points in four games or she had to leave. We only picked up one point in the first two games, and we played Tottenham and Manchester City in the second place......"

Patrick listened to Ian's voice a little distracted. It's been almost five years. Before the Battle of White Hart Lane, her whole person was in an extremely crazy state......

Thankfully, they took out Tottenham in the pouring rain and later Pep Guardiola's Manchester City.

Those were the two games in which she gambled everything and poured her talent into it. That was the real start of Kristen Lu's legendary career.

Benjamin listened and said with a faint smile, "You have been through a lot together. "Phil and Jake probably didn't know, but he knew something, from the video, in the news, but he wasn't involved, he was a kid at the time.

"yes, it's been a long time, and I remember the first time I saw my boss in Harrington call her 'Beauty', and she almost beat me up, she was just a teaching assistant......" John's voice said.

Phil kicked the North Love Kid with his foot, "You deserve it." He kicked and thought back to the first time he saw her, and it was pretty much the same.

Nedham continued to speak on screen, "Tactically, I've been following QPR for the last year as well, and I know they've gone through a transition from a back four to a back three, which has happened in the past, but this season is not the same as before, John playing in central defence is something I didn't expect...... I'll admit that he's now the valve for the QPR tactical switch, which is fantastic......"

Everyone looked at John, and the Northern Irish grinned very smugly.

Phil frowned, "Nedham seems to be quite smart, why didn't I see it before?"

Ian turned his head and said, "Nedham got eight A's in the GCSE, how many did you have?"

Jacob interjected with a laugh, "He probably doesn't know what a GCSE is." ”

Phil cursed in his heart, saying that the Newcastle people were the little henchmen of the Scots. He thought about it for a moment, and at that time, he was busy selling cigarettes and alcohol to his classmates, and he was kicked out of Leyden East for fighting, and he was kicked out of school for fighting...... The next few years were miserable, but it didn't matter, what matters was that he was now the fucking number one striker in England, what GCSE results do he want? Although Harry Kane may be ranked higher in the national team, isn't he the number one striker who can reach the Champions League final? Harry Kane will give way to him sooner or later.

Benjamin abruptly switched the station and now the TV screen is a pre-match show from BT Sport.

David Silva is a guest on this show. The Spaniard arrived at QPR in the winter window during the Premier League title season two years ago and has been a key substitute in the squad and has been playing a lot of fine performances in his limited playing time.

“…… Patrick Amber is the best player I've ever seen, and I agree with Christine, but it's a shame I haven't played with him. I still like Leon in the current QPR squad and new to the team Benjamin Hamilton is also a very smart player. ”

"And what about Phil Beasley?" asked the host, seemingly teasingly.

"Phil was great, of course. But when I was in the team, he seemed to be very upset with me all the time, because we were all regulars on the bench at the time, and Christine used to change me first, and I could feel his gaze from behind! I can tell you, that gaze wasn't that friendly. ”

Phil thought about it carefully and exclaimed, "I was obviously very friendly at that time!" No one paid attention to him, and no one believed him.

Amid the laughter of the presenter, David Silva continued:

'I've said before that it's the first time I've experienced a situation where the manager is younger than me. Christine has a very charismatic personality, I only knew her tactical ability before, but I also experienced first-hand how she can control in the dressing room during that half season. I want QPR to win the title, even if Real Madrid is a Spanish team. ”

As soon as David Silva's words fell, Leon held up his phone and said, "Look at your Instagram, Missy just posted one!"

Mitsy Batshuayi, the team's main centre-forward for most of the Premier League-winning season, posted a photo on Instagram of himself and manager Christine holding the Premier League trophy with the caption:

[Always remember that wonderful season, Come on you RangersCOYR]

COYR is now the hottest hashtag on Twitter. In the past two days, many former teammates have posted words of support on social media, from the earliest Charlie Austin, Matt Phillips, Nathan Raymond, Artem Dzyuba, Eduardo Vargas, but also on loan, Hoel Campbell, and Mario Fernandez, who has just been eliminated from Milan, and so on.

Patrick clicked on Instagram, not only Missy, but also his past teammates at Barcelona, Messi and Pique also posted on Instagram to express their support for QPR, and countless text messages came in......

Just then, assistant coach Tim Lewis sent a message in the WhatsApp group that the last pre-war meeting was about to take place.

****

7:02 p.m.

The entire Queens Park Rangers are ready to go.

Lu Ling was the last to step on the bus, with a total of 10 coaching staff, medical team and relevant staff, and a total of 23 members of the QPR first team. The players wore uniform light blue dress shirts and trousers, and when she got on the bus, she saw most of them wearing headphones. She herself is dressed in a formal suit, with black heels, trousers, and a white shirt.

The bus starts and slowly leaves the hotel.

On both sides of the streets of Barcelona, you can see QPR supporters holding blue and white flags and scarves. The Catalan city of countless squares suddenly seems to be West London. A smile spread across Lu Ling's lips. She heard Simon say that the QPR club was allocated about 24,000 tickets, but the QPR fans who poured into the city actually exceeded sixty thousand. They occupy the Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, Plaça Catalunya, places she knows very well. They turned Barcelona into their own city, with blue and white converging and bouncing all over the city and all the way to Camp Nou.

At 7:19, the QPR bus arrives at Camp Nou. It was less than an hour and a half before the start of the game.

The Queens Park Rangers disembarked from the bus and passed through journalists and videographers from around the world to enter the stadium.

Lu Ling and Thiem went first to inspect the turf, while the players went to the dressing room, where they would later enter the pitch to step on the pitch and warm up.

When Lu Ling stepped into the stadium, there were already many fans in the stands. She took a deep breath of air, warm and fresh. The sky was still bright, with a light breeze blowing, and the Camp Nou stands on all sides were still in their original red and blue colors.

She leaned over. The blades are just the right length, very neatly cut, and somewhat dry, although there will be a spray of water later.

When she got up, she saw the trophy.

There were fans in the stands chanting her name, but at that moment all she could see was the huge silver trophy in her eyes.

She felt her chest rise and fall, and she knew that her deepest desires were being aroused.

She froze and looked away.

Then, she saw Real Madrid coach Nicolás Flores in a crisp suit.

He's looking at that trophy as well.

At this moment, he slowly turned to her.

Their gaze met briefly, then staggered extremely quickly. There was no smile, no conversation. They tacitly saved the first exchange of the night for the official handshake before the game.

Lu Ling looked at the Spanish man and turned around, it was her familiar and abnormal back, probably hesitated for half a second, and he walked back to the player's tunnel.

****

7:48 p.m.

Mrs. Hamilton has never liked Spain, more precisely, she doesn't like anywhere where the temperature is higher than thirty degrees Celsius. At this point, it is clear that London has greatly catered for the needs of Mrs. Hamilton. Benjamin was not like his mother, he liked Spain and the sun and the beach like more of England. In fact, he loves Barcelona. It's a city where paranoia and inspiration shine in every detail. Like everyone and everything he likes.

Benjamin grabbed his collar with one hand and walked out of the tunnel with his teammates. This is the pre-game stamping. The QPR players entered the pitch in uniform as the club's formal attire. When he looked up, the grand, somewhat classical course made him smile. He looked at the watch on his wrist, it was 6:49, and he realized that he had not been in Spanish time.

It's 7:49 and the starting line-ups for both teams have been given about ten minutes ago.

Benjamin greeted the enthusiastic QPR fans like all his teammates.

Real Madrid's players have been on the pitch.

With less than an hour to go, the stadium was half-full and the noise was everywhere. Benjamin heard his teammates shouting, so he looked back to see that some of the players' family members were already in place in the VIP seats on the second floor of the stands. He could vaguely recognize the figure of his agent, Steve Baker, and sure enough, the figure stood up and waved to both him and Pat. He and Pat reacted almost identically, only nodding their heads without raising their hands. At this moment, Benjamin could even imagine Steve complaining about his and Patter's pretentious virtues in the future.

However, Benjamin did not see his eldest brother Brandon and sister Debra for the time being. He knew they should be sitting near Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and QPR president Nathan Nile Lawrence, as well as the directors of both clubs. Or just by Nate's side.

Phil howled from the sidelines, "Tianna!! see Daddy!!"

Benjamin looked down and smiled.

In the stands, Phil's mother was already seated holding Tianna with a pacifier in her mouth, and the lady was waving Tianna's small hand into the field. Benjamin glanced over and saw Ian's wife, Kate, and son, Alain, and Hans's girlfriend Mia. Oh, and there's the team's youth director, Tom Jones, who everyone calls Old Tom.

Finally, Benjamin's eyes fell on an Asian woman in the stands. He knew who it was, obviously. The Asian woman was following ...... The Amber family talked.

"I'm guessing your dad is bothering to get your future mother-in-law to pay for the wedding. ”

Benjamin's voice was also hard when he wanted Hans to joke. He turned his head, but Pat didn't answer, just smiled casually, and then, the superstar's eyes were fixed on the huge silver trophy.

Barcelona, under the blue sky, above the green space, sits there so quietly the top glory of European professional football. She was waiting for tonight's winner to pick her up and kiss her.

"You've won once. Benjamin spoke suddenly.

Patrick didn't look at Benjamin, still staring at the trophy, and he said, "A few more times won't hurt." ”

****

8:02 p.m.

Lu Ling stood in front of the dark blue billboard of the Champions League, where BT Sport reporters were already waiting, and press officer Josh stood next to him, as part of the routine pre-match interview.

"Christine, the decisive battle is finally coming, what is the mood now?"

"I feel very happy. Hopefully it's a final that will be remembered. "It's obviously a joke.

"There weren't too many surprises with QPR's start today, so can we understand that you still have enough faith in Joey Tomlin?"

"I know what you mean...... Against Milan we needed a different style of play and it had nothing to do with JT's individual ability. I trust him and he knows this very well. ”

"Nicolas Flores mentioned in his press conference yesterday that if he had a bullet, he would shoot Patrick Amber, which may be a joke, but what do you think about that?"

Lu Ling smiled, "Yes, I know about this, but it seems that a reporter asked after the press conference, and it wasn't even orthodox question time." She shrugged again, "I'm grateful he let me go, I think his joke was an affirmation of Pat, who apparently thinks he's more of a threat than me." ”

"Then we don't know. Christine, in the preparation yesterday, Real Madrid trained on penalties, you don't seem to practice, are you confident that you can win the game in 90 minutes?

'Of course I hope to win in 90 minutes. But didn't we practice penalty yesterday? Then I must have forgotten. She made a joke. 'The fact that we've been in the Champions League knockout stages since we got to the knockout stages of the tournament and we're not worried about it in our training sessions. ”

"In our experience, there are often very conservative tactics in the finals, will QPR prioritise defense today, or will the game plan be different today against a super team like Real Madrid?"

"Oh our plans...... We had two plans: to kick the ball into the opposite goal, and not to let the opponent kick the ball into ours. If we can do it, we can win. With that, Lu Ling blinked, "Thank you, I should go in." ”

Lu Ling shook hands with reporters and walked in the direction of the locker room. Before she entered the locker room, she caught a glimpse of the figure again, she didn't look back, and in a moment she would be directly face-to-face.

****

8:06 p.m.

"Nick, it's going to be an interesting final, we all know what that means. ”

'Yes, I'm looking forward to my first Champions League final. ”

"Neither you nor QPR's starters looked very surprising in this game. Real Madrid have been very consistent this season, will you change tactically this game?"

"There will be some changes. You should be able to see it in a moment. ”

"On that question you answered at the last time at your pre-match press conference yesterday......"

"That's a joke, and I'm sure the reporter who asked that question was just trying to make some fun attempts. Nicholas thought about it, and all that everyone wanted to see was an attitude and a trend. He gave such an answer, and in the past 24 hours, it has undoubtedly caused another hurricane on social media.

The routine pre-match interview was soon over, and Nicholas hurried back to the dressing room.

In the dressing room, quite a few players are changing their clothes and shoes. His gaze swept over Gabi, Pierre, and Zixiang. Sweep over every player. also swept the corner table, the stack of two teams' appearances. However, Nicholas did not need to look at it, he remembered it well. Until now, the two teams have no secrets from each other.

Perhaps, she would have thought so, too. He curled the corners of his mouth.

QPR（3412）：

Phil Beasley, Leon Ferreira;

Patrick-Amber;

Gonzalo Chica, Ian Parker, Benjamin Hamilton, Jacob Harding;

Joey Tomlin, Glenn Mitchell, John O'Connor;

Hans Bachmeier

Subs: Trevor Harwood, David Luiz, Marcelo, Thorin Mitulescu, Genk De Graaf, Joey Freeman, Brill Embolo

Real Madrid (433):

Vi/Nicius, Gabriel Jesus, Kylian Mbappe;

Pierre Junkay, Toni Kroos;

Frank Vanderberg;

Yu Zixiang, Antonio Rojas, Raphael Varane, Danny Carvajal;

Matteo Diaz;

Subs: Keyler Navas, Terence Kongolo, Theo Hernandez, Casemiro, Theophanes Gianakopoulos, Marco Asensio, Pablo Alonso

****

8:43 p.m.

Patrick Amber stands at the back of the line. It's a familiar tunnel for the players, now decorated in a Champions League-themed dark blue. Outside, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi performs the opening performance of the Champions League final. Tina was standing behind him, he didn't need to look, he knew she was there.

Two teams entered.

A huge, dangling round Champions League flag came into view, black and white, flanked by an unprecedented number of journalists. The flashing lights flashed and cheers erupted. The Champions League theme song rumbles in your ears, and it is a piece of music that can make your blood boil instantly whenever you hear it.

Patrick looked up, he knew the pitch all too well. The coercion is coming, and the first capacity in Europe - close to 100,000 seats, the stage for the decisive battle has been set.

Behind the two goals, there are supporters of two teams, each with more than 20,000 people, who have formed their own patterns.

THE BLUE AND WHITE SIDE IS "NOW IS THE TIME"

THE WHITE SIDE, ALSO IN ENGLISH "GLORY IS OURS"

At this time, the Champions League trophy was being picked up on the pitch by Barcelona and Spain legend Puyol, who showed it to the whole stadium and then put it back in place.

One by one, the Real Madrid players walked over and started shaking hands.

On the sidelines, the coaches of the two teams were also shaking hands.

Suddenly, from behind the goal of the blue-and-white side of the gathering, QPR fans eerily sang a song.

She played a game with a Spanish man

She played a game with a Spanish man

But she fell in love with an English man

But she fell in love with an English man

Your proposal didn＇t go according to the plan

Your marriage proposal fails

And damn， we just want to dance

Fuck, we just want to dance

Patrick didn't hear the specifics, and he couldn't have heard them in the rumbling noise and scattered applause. But he heard the phrase "She fell in love with an English man". He touched the Queen of Spades on his left arm and smiled slightly. She was in love with an English man.

The night has not yet fallen, the stars have not yet risen, but the game is about to begin.