***7th December 2021***

"Damn it!"

"When did it start?"

In the manager’s office at Hotspur way, Conte was looking at a piece of paper on his desk with the team’s medical staff in front of him. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"We don’t know where the initial issue came from and now there are 8 players and 6 staff members who tested positive for COVID."

Every word that came from the medical staff threw him into a mental spin and the thoughts of the repercussions of this event had him rubbing his brows in frustration.

The world might have long begun to move past the effects of COVID-19, but the trauma still remained.

The players who tested for COVID in the squad were very healthy otherwise and were in little to zero risk despite testing positive, but that wasn’t the issue at hand.

The problem was that COVID was very contagious and to stop the spread before it reached people whose lives it would risk, the players would have to be quarantined and with this many people testing positive in an already thin squad... The outcome could be guessed.

Glancing at the calendar and the games coming up, his mind quickly began calculating.

The most problematic game was the one that was just 2 days away against Rennes.

There were too many important players who tested positive so Conte didn’t want to have to play a crucial game with a team far from its best.

Right now, they were the second on the table in their group with 10 points but Vitesse were right behind them with 7 points so they needed at least a draw against Rennes to be completely sure of qualifying for the knockout stages.

"No, we need to postpone the game," he decided and grabbed his phone, beginning to make some calls.

Shortly after the event at Conte’s office at Hotspur way, reports began to emerge on the internet that Tottenham had appealed to UEFA to postpone the match against Rennes.

Instantly the news had people wondering why the club needed to do that, but like they said, bad news always came in pairs.

The club soon released a statement stating that some players had tested positive for COVID and there had been a rapid spread among the squad and some staff, hence their reason for trying to postpone the game.

They also admitted that the training grounds had been partially shutdown with the uninfected players training in a different field from the one they normally used while the rest of the training grounds were undergoing disinfection.

Adding that no player was in a critical condition, and that they would do their best to ensure safety for both the players and the fans, they ended the report.

The Tottenham fans were left feeling concerned at what had happened to their players, but the Rennes side smelled blood.

With Tottenham recently getting into top form, their chances in the coming game had been more doubtful than ever.

Of course, even if Tottenham beat them, they would still qualify as they already had eleven points and had secured a qualifying spot, but if they did lose, they’d fall to the second position and would have to take their chances with a team that was first in its own group.

For the sake of going farther in the competition, Rennes weren’t about to let that happen and that was why they weren’t going to let this chance slip.

Luckily they had already made the trip to London by the time Tottenham released their statements and despite Tottenham’s efforts to call the game off, Rennes didn’t budge, saying it was unfair for a smaller team like them.

Unfortunately, according to the UEFA rules, as long as a club still had at least 13 available players including a goalkeeper, then technically the match still had to go ahead.

Despite their somewhat thin first team squad and the COVID issue, as an elite club, Tottenham still had more than 13 players.

Tottenham’s side tried to argue that they were trying to stop the spread of the virus and had even stopped training completely when another player among the supposedly healthy group tested positive, however their arguments fell in deaf ears.

On the 9th of December with barely 4 hours left to the game, it was clear that UEFA would not approve the match being postponed so now Conte had to make a choice.

Play with a fragmented first team squad, filling in the space with players from the youth teams and under-age squads and risk it despite the players having barely trained for the game or play it safe, avoid any problems and not risk his players health.

Conte didn’t have to think too long.

With the club fully behind him and not showing much care for the UEFA Conference League, Conte decided to forfeit the game.

If they were lucky and still qualified, then that was good, and if they didn’t qualify, then that was also good. They could then fully focus on the League and the domestic cups.

With Tottenham forfeiting the game, Rennes were awarded a 3-0 victory over Tottenham and Tottenham had to hold hope that Mura could stop Vitesse from taking the full 3 points from them again.

Thus Mura and Vitesse received a huge boost in the viewership of their match as Tottenham fans tuned in to watch and support Mura against Vitesse.

The match began and like everyone expected, Mura was easily dominated by Vitesse all over the pitch, but they did their best defensively, trying not to concede.

To the dismay of the Mura and Tottenham fans, Mura couldn’t hold on for long and in the 28th minute, Vitesse found a goal from a clever header in the box that found the goal easily.

Mura reacted explosively after the goal and they seemed to go for broke, doing their best to equalize.

Their pride was on the line now.

They didn’t want to be known as the team that qualified for a continental tournament but didn’t manage to take home even a single point.

Football wasn’t all about sheer will and determination, but in this case, it fueled the Mura players and thirty two minutes into the second half, they got a counter chance that they turned into an equalizer goal.

Mura wasn’t done yet and struck once more in the third minute of added time, getting another counter opportunity thanks to Vitesse throwing all their men forward to find the goal that would give them a qualification spot.

As the ball made it past the goal line, the stadium exploded with the Mura fans joyous cheers.

All over North London, the Tottenham fans also erupted in cheers since this cemented their qualification spot.

It was a result everyone was happy with... Well everyone but Vitesse.