Novo got himself into the game, just failing to get on the end of along ball into the Fiorentina box before he audaciously attempted a 40-yard chip that sailed over Frey's crossbar.
Grinding in old areas without a big XP bonus at the end takes FAR too long to level, and I think the game could benefit from more sidequests that are a different format to help with leveling for the main story.
Your player was utterly crippled, somehow, by his acquisition of an incredibly powerful weapon, and so you press one button over and over until the game appeared to end before jetting off to the present for a modern-day platforming section so long and boring it felt like a tech demo of a jump button.