Chapter 503 - 109 — Copenhagen Away (I)
Copenhagen came out exactly the way Ten Hag had promised they would.
Their front line jumped onto United’s first buildup before the ball had even settled, the crowd whistling every touch United took, Lerager already sprinting toward second balls that hadn’t been won yet, Falk positioning himself close enough to choke off the easy central pass.
Demien didn’t let any of it rush him.
His job hadn’t changed from what Ten Hag had given him in the dressing room — break the first pressure when it was there to break, then move the ball before Copenhagen’s second line could collapse around him.
MANCHESTER UNITED
Onana.
Wan-Bissaka — Maguire — Evans — Dalot.
McTominay — Demien.
Rashford — Bruno — Garnacho.
Højlund.
「UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCH MISSION」 「Complete 8 Line-Breaking Actions」 「Create 3 Clear Chances」 「Record 4 Defensive Recoveries」 「Maintain 90%+ Pass Accuracy」 「TEAM OBJECTIVE: Manchester United Win」 「Reward: +80 MP」
Copenhagen pressed him the first time he received it properly, checking the angle before the ball had even arrived.
「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」
One touch took him away from Falk, and instead of carrying into Lerager the way an earlier version of himself might have done, he released Bruno immediately.
Bruno turned.
United were through the first press in one pass, and the noise in the stadium changed almost instantly — six Copenhagen shirts suddenly running the wrong way.
In the third minute, United built patiently through Onana and the back four rather than trying to match Copenhagen’s opening intensity note for note.
Copenhagen’s front players kept jumping.
Demien kept shifting position just enough that they couldn’t lock onto one passing lane, and eventually Dalot received with real space because Copenhagen had drifted too far toward him.
Dalot carried forward and found Demien.
Demien already knew Bruno had slipped beyond Copenhagen’s midfield line.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Andrea Pirlo — Deep-Lying Playmaker」
The pass split the first line clean.
「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Line-Breaking Actions: 1/8」
Bruno didn’t slow it down — he switched immediately to Rashford, who found Wan-Bissaka advancing on the right. Wan-Bissaka combined with McTominay, who’d attacked the box the instant Demien stayed behind to cover the space.
McTominay received inside the right side of the area and drove it across goal.
Højlund had already separated from his marker.
He finished from close range.
FC COPENHAGEN 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITED Rasmus Højlund 3’ (Assist: Scott McTominay)
United’s away end went up immediately.
The home end didn’t go quiet — if anything it got louder, angrier, determined to answer.
Højlund celebrated hard but didn’t turn it toward the home crowd, not with this being his own city, his own former club. He let the goal speak for itself.
Copenhagen tried answering fast, pushing their midfield several yards higher, Achouri going straight at Wan-Bissaka.
Demien adjusted, sitting closer to McTominay every time United lost the ball.
Around the seventh minute, Copenhagen tried working it through Falk before switching to Achouri. Demien read Falk’s receiving angle early and got across before he could turn.
「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Ball Winner」
Clean interception.
「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Defensive Recoveries: 1/4」
He saw Rashford already breaking behind Copenhagen’s high line.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Mesut Özil — Eye-of-Needle」
The ball reached Rashford before the defense could reset. He drove at the box and squared it for Højlund, but Diks recovered just in time to smother the finish.
「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Clear Chances Created: 1/3」
Copenhagen surviving one attack didn’t mean anything had gone wrong on Demien’s end — the quality of the chance he’d manufactured was obvious to anyone watching, even if it hadn’t gone in.
United kept building, most of it now in simple elite habits rather than flashy activations — shoulder checks before receiving, one-touch releases, a quick switch away from pressure, one moment where Demien dropped briefly between the center-backs when Copenhagen tried pressing with three at once.
Around the twelfth minute, Copenhagen stopped sending Falk directly at Demien on every possession — he kept turning their press straight into United attacks — and started cutting his forward options instead, letting Maguire and Evans have the ball a little more freely.
Demien clocked it immediately.
He dropped beside the center-backs on the next buildup. Copenhagen’s midfielder hesitated over whether to follow him that deep, and the hesitation freed McTominay between the lines.
Demien found him.
McTominay tried to find Bruno with the next pass. It was cut out before it arrived.
Demien had solved his part of it again. The next link in the chain hadn’t held.
Around the sixteenth minute, the first real complication arrived.
Jonny Evans pulled up mid-stride after a Copenhagen break, one hand reaching for the back of his leg.
He tried jogging it off, took two more steps, and stopped, signaling toward the bench almost immediately.
The physio came on. A few words exchanged, one test of the leg, a shake of the head.
He couldn’t continue.
Raphaël Varane replaces Jonny Evans.
The interruption cost United several minutes of rhythm — Varane entering cold, Copenhagen immediately testing him with a direct ball down his channel.
Demien dropped a few yards deeper on the restart, giving Varane an easy midfield option rather than demanding something difficult from a defender who’d just walked into a hostile stadium mid-half.
Varane found him.
Demien moved it away from the pressure, and United settled again.
Between the eighteenth and twenty-fifth minutes, Copenhagen finally found something that worked.
They stopped forcing everything centrally. Jelert started advancing from left-back while Elyounoussi tucked inside, giving Wan-Bissaka two separate problems to solve at once.
Demien could close the inside runner.
He couldn’t also track the overlapping fullback in the same motion.
Copenhagen used it once — Demien followed Elyounoussi inside, Jelert received free outside him and crossed, Maguire won the first header, Lerager attacked the second ball, McTominay challenged him and the ball spilled loose.
Demien got there first and cleared it through possession rather than just hacking it away.
「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Defensive Recoveries: 2/4」
United used the ball to push Copenhagen backward again, and Demien started deliberately slowing the tempo, not because a five-yard pass needed help but because United needed to drag Copenhagen’s aggressive block from one side of the pitch to the other until it lost its shape.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」
Right. Back through Demien. Left. Back inside. Copenhagen chased every ball without winning it, and the crowd’s patience started fraying audibly.
Then Demien changed speed without warning, punching a vertical pass into Bruno.
「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Line-Breaking Actions: 4/8」
Bruno released Garnacho, who attacked Jelert and forced Grabara into a save from a tight angle.
United kept the pressure building.
The second goal began in the twenty-eighth minute, from a Copenhagen attack that briefly looked promising.
A delivery came into United’s box. Maguire won the header clean. Demien had already read where the clearance would drop before Copenhagen’s midfield reacted to it, collecting the second ball and immediately spotting Garnacho already moving.
Rather than holding it because United were leading, he attacked the transition, turning away from the nearest Copenhagen shirt and releasing Bruno.
Bruno slipped Garnacho into the open left channel.
Garnacho accelerated, Diks and Vavro retreating in front of him, Højlund running centrally to occupy them both.
Garnacho got his shot away.
Grabara saved it, but couldn’t hold it, the ball spilling across the six-yard box.
Højlund reacted first and buried it.
FC COPENHAGEN 0 — 2 MANCHESTER UNITED Rasmus Højlund 28’
Too many touches sat between Demien’s pass and the goal for it to count as anything on paper — but he’d been the one who’d turned defense straight into attack in a single decision, and he knew it even if the stat sheet never would.
Parken went flat for a few seconds, United’s away end the only sound left in the building.
Højlund celebrated his second, Demien and Bruno and Garnacho piling into him, before Demien pulled back and pointed everyone toward halfway.
"Too much match left," he said. "Reset."