Chapter 427: Chapter 34: Allianz Vs Red Devil I
Kickoff
Bayern came straight onto United from the first whistle.
United tried to play short out of the back the way the plan asked, refusing to panic and hammer it long, and Onana took the ball with Lindelöf splitting right, Martínez angling left, Casemiro holding the centre, and Demien dropping into a lane where he could receive if Bayern’s first line jumped.
The press closed fast.
Kane stepped across to block the return to Onana, Musiala pushed up toward Casemiro, and Sané curved his run to threaten the inside pass while bending the angle to force the ball wide.
Demien read Sané’s body before the ball was even played.
He pointed once toward Dalot on the right, then checked over his shoulder and slid into the half-space, half a step out of Musiala’s shadow.
Onana played out to Lindelöf, and Bayern jumped, the pass into Casemiro covered before it existed.
Demien moved off Musiala’s blind side and showed for it, and the ball came into him with the press arriving on his back.
「TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED」 「First-Touch Set — RARE」
His first touch opened his body away from the pressure and laid the second action in the same motion, and the trap never got the chance to close around him.
He slid it into Bruno, Bruno bounced it first time out to the right, and United were clear of the first wave.
「MATCH PROGRESS」 「Pressure-Release Actions: 1/5」 「Bayern Pressing Traps Identified: 1/3」
It wasn’t a dribble and it didn’t draw a roar, but the danger died the instant the ball touched his foot, and that was the whole point of it.
United didn’t take over the match, but they breathed easier than anyone in the stadium expected over the next five minutes.
Demien kept offering the angle beside Casemiro, Bruno pressed the moment a side locked shut, Rashford held himself ready to attack the left channel, and Pellistri worked hard on the right while Davies kept testing him.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」
He wasn’t spraying long balls every touch — he was keeping United moving, recycling when Bayern shut one side, shifting the ball early when the far side opened, and dropping to cover the lane behind Bruno whenever Bruno stepped out of it.
The ball reached him three times in one sequence, and each time the player who took it next was already facing forward, the pass arriving on the right side of the body so nobody had to check back.
Casemiro glanced across at him after the third pass, because the rhythm of the whole midfield had become easier to hold.
The commentary caught it too.
United aren’t panicking through that first press, and a lot of that is Walter — they’re finding him early and he keeps giving them a way out.
Bayern adjusted.
They stopped jumping blindly at Demien and started using Kane and Musiala to sit across his passing lanes, cutting his access before the ball even reached him.
The play went wide to Reguilón, Sané drifted inside as Laimer pushed up behind him, and United’s left side got squeezed into a narrow strip of grass.
Musiala received between the lines for the first real scare of the night.
Casemiro stepped to him, Bruno turned to recover, and Demien read the next pass early and blocked the lane into Kane, but Bayern still slid it wide to Sané before the cover arrived.
Sané drove inside off the touchline and pulled the trigger, and the strike came in low and hard — THWACK — forcing Onana down to his right to push it away, and Martínez spun to hack the second ball clear.
Demien had killed the Kane pass, but the wide lane had opened too fast for him to be in two places at once, and the crowd came up off their seats anyway because the first warning had landed.
United answered instead of folding.
Demien took the ball from Casemiro with Bayern’s midfield stepping toward him, and he used the rhythm to slow the moment, opening his hips as though he’d play it safe and short.
Bayern’s winger shifted inward to read the obvious pass.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Luka Modrić — Outside-of-Boot Laser」
「STATS ACTIVE」 「Long Passing: 99 | Vision: 99」
He drove it with the outside of his boot across the face of the press, the ball bending away from the shifting winger and cutting into the left channel ahead of Rashford.
Bayern’s midfield turned a fraction late, Davies had to spin and sprint backward to chase it, and Rashford took his first touch forward instead of stopping to control.
Rashford carried into space, Højlund pulled off the back of the centre-back toward the box, and Bruno arrived at the top of the area.
The cutback came back across the six-yard line, Højlund got his boot to it on the stretch, and Ulreich threw out a hand to turn it past the post — TWEEEET gave the corner.
「MATCH PROGRESS」 「Clear Chances Created: 1/1」 「Bonus Objective — Direct Goal Contribution: Pending」
On the United bench Ten Hag clapped twice, not for the pass alone but for the shape that had carried it forward, and two of Bayern’s defenders exchanged a look as they reset, because United had just played clean through them.
After that chance, Bayern stopped treating the night like a normal opening.
They went after the places Demien couldn’t reach, and the danger stopped coming through the middle where he lived.
Davies pushed harder and earlier against Pellistri, Gnabry began arriving behind Dalot on the far side, Kane peeled off Martínez to drag the center-backs into decisions they didn’t want to make, and Musiala kept slipping into the pocket beside Casemiro.
Demien pointed Pellistri back to cover Davies, then turned and found Gnabry already drifting away on the far side, and there was no way to point at both lanes at once.
United survived one phase because Casemiro read the passing lane and stepped across it, and another because Martínez won his duel against Kane in the air, and another because Onana came off his line early to claim a ball before Gnabry could get to it.
But the pressure was stacking now, layer on layer, and Bayern weren’t trying to beat Demien anymore.
They were stretching the whole team around him until something tore.
Bayern’s next press looked like the first one, and that was the trap inside the trap.
Kane still blocked the return to Onana, Musiala still shadowed Casemiro, and Sané still curved toward the inside pass — but Goretzka stepped up two strides higher than before to seal Demien’s escape lane, and Kimmich set himself to jump the third-man pass United had used to breathe earlier.
From the back, it looked like the same picture United had already solved once.
Demien saw that it wasn’t.
His eyes flicked from Goretzka’s starting position to Kimmich and then to the ball at Lindelöf’s feet, and the difference registered in the half-second he had — Goretzka too high, Kimmich loaded and waiting.
He pointed hard for the switch, wanting the ball sent the other way, away from the lane Bayern had baited.
But the pass was already leaving Lindelöf’s foot into the familiar gap.
「MATCH WARNING」 「Bayern Pressing Trap Identified: 2/3」 「Danger: Central Turnover」
Demien moved to meet it, but Kimmich was already jumping.
The interception cut in front of the pass, Musiala turned on it the instant it dropped, and Sané was already breaking inside off the shoulder of the last man while Kane slid across to block United’s recovery route.
The crowd rose before the shot could even come, the home end seeing the break open in front of them.
Demien’s hand was still out, still pointing to the safer side, when the ball was stolen.
He turned and sprinted back as Sané broke into the inside channel.
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