Chapter 724: Stealing a Goal! A Draw Again!

Higo still remembered clearly Ozan Kabak’s message before the second half began. When it came to a counterattack, always send the ball to Morita first; he knew what to do.

Not that Higo would do otherwise, of course, as his Japanese compatriot was always the first option coming to mind when he wanted to initiate a counterattack. Still, this instruction showed that Frohling should have a unique instruction toward his friend, something that could be decisive for the team’s counterattack.

Thud!

"Oh! Nice pass, Higo!"

The throw itself was indeed good. The ball didn’t go straight to Morita’s body, but bounced slightly in the space in front of the boy. This allowed the Japanese midfielder to make a run immediately, not wasting too much time that could be taken advantage of by Bayern players to recover.

Hell, even if he didn’t do so, Bayern’s recovery speed was quite fast. The boy could see from his peripheral vision that Alphonso Davies was speeding up, trying to get him from behind. In front of him, Joshua Kimmich had also put his body in line, intending to stop this counterattack at all costs.

’Oh, well, unfortunately, you are too late here!’

BAM!

Before anyone could get closer to him, Morita had already let the ball go in the most sophisticated way.

He sent a direct through ball that moved in a big curve like a crescent, slicing through David Alaba and Jerome Boateng’s defense just to get into Fabian Reese, who was attacking the channel area there. Hell, even Benjamin Pavard was two steps behind, getting blown away by Fabian’s speed.

With how advanced the blonde winger was, it was clear to everyone that this was a pre-planned attack.

"YES! COME ON, FABIAN!"

Fabian Reese grinned widely, his hair fluttering behind him as he tried to increase his speed. Even though he was skeptical about this attack, the winger couldn’t help but feel ecstatic when the tactic they set worked perfectly.

"Listen, this will be our tactic if a quick attack at the beginning of the second half fails!" Frohling shouted with a thick vein popping on his neck.

"Both of Bayern Munich’s fullbacks are always prone to overlapping, and they could do so because Joshua Kimmich and David Alaba could hold the flank quite strongly until they are back in their position. However, they have one bad habit that other teams always exploit. When they attack from the left side, the right side will take time to recover, probably thinking that the counterattack will come from the same direction earlier. The same when the attack comes from the right side, so we will take advantage of this with a switch play!"

Honestly, it was quite baffling to hear that Bayern Munich had such a hidden weakness in their defensive system like this. Hell, it felt like this came out of a fairy tale, that an unbeatable giant like Bayern would have such a glaring weakness there. However, not a lot of teams could really exploit it so far, at least when it came to the Bundesliga.

After all, even though Joshua Kimmich and David Alaba would get overwhelmed from the flank like that, not a lot of wingers could win in a one-on-one duel against them, and not a lot of playmakers could send the ball to the spot that could trouble those two.

However, in Schalke’s case, they had them both here.

Even though Fabian was young and inexperienced, the boy was rapid and strong enough to at least let him battle against David Alaba without losing an advantage, especially when he managed to gather his momentum beforehand. Then, they also had Morita, a sniper who could send the ball anywhere on the pitch as long as he had the time to do so.

Now, in this moment, both conditions were fulfilled, and Fabian managed to sneak perfectly into the half-space area with both David Alaba and Benjamin Pavard getting blown away behind.

Of course, that didn’t mean it was a sure goal chance. No, Bayern Munich still had one more safety net on the back, and that one didn’t even hesitate to charge forward, leaving his territory empty behind.

That person was none other than Manuel Neuer, as he acted exactly like a sweeper-keeper would do. His task wasn’t just to distribute the ball from the back, but also to anticipate this kind of counterattack, and this time, the man was already halfway to cut off the ball from Fabian, leaving the penalty box empty.

Now, it was a pure race between Fabian and Manuel Neuer, and everyone held their breath unconsciously here, some even covering their eyes in fright.

Unfortunately for the German national team’s goalkeeper, Fabian was one step faster here. His speed was enough to catch the ball first, and he didn’t even try to control it. Instead, the boy saw that no one was behind Manuel Neuer, so all he had to do was push the ball quite lightly.

Thud!

This not only changed the direction of the ball, but with the power that Fabian added to the push, it would ensure that the speed was decent enough, at least to the point that Jerome Boateng could chase it and clear the ball away. When the push was taken, Manuel Neuer also jumped, trying to block the ball with his body. Unfortunately, he miscalculated where Fabian would send the ball, as it went through his right side quite easily.

"OH! THE BALL IS IN! THE BALL IS IN!"

"LET’S FUCKING GO!"

The moment the ball found the back of the net, Fabian roared, running wildly to the bench. All the Schalke players around followed, rushing there before slamming themselves into a big hug on the sideline.

"FUCKING HELL, REESE! THAT RUN! MAN, THAT CRAZY RUN!"

"Hey, don’t pull my hair like that!"

"It is a draw again! It is a fucking draw again!"

On the backline, Higo also clenched his fist tightly, celebrating the goal quietly in his spot. Excitement bubbled inside, but pressure also followed, falling on his shoulders like a heavy boulder.

’Now that we are back to a draw, everything depends on me! I have to do it perfectly and lead the team to steal a point from this place!’