Chapter 429 - 36: Allianz Vs Red Devils II
Bruno received it facing forward instead of fighting for the angle, bounced it first time out wide, and Rashford carried United up the pitch with the ball already moving instead of stopping to control it.
「MISSION PROGRESS」
「Pressure-Release Actions: 2/5」 「Midfield Collapse Prevention: Recovering」
United found the same escape again a minute later, this time through the right. Dalot received under pressure, Demien offered the inside angle, Casemiro became the bounce option off him, and Pellistri finally got the ball with enough room to turn and face forward.
「MISSION PROGRESS」
「Pressure-Release Actions: 3/5」 「Midfield Collapse Prevention: Recovering」
None of it looked spectacular. It didn’t need to. Demien wasn’t carrying the ball from box to box — he was giving the team clean angles and the right weight of pass, and that alone was enough to make United function again.
Bayern changed their approach rather than repeating the last one.
Kimmich and Goretzka stopped jumping straight at Demien and started using his own outlet movement as the bait. Kane sat across the return lane, Musiala shadowed Casemiro tight, and Kimmich hung back, waiting for the third-man pass United had leaned on twice already.
Demien saw it before the ball was played.
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Andrea Pirlo — Deep-Lying Playmaker」
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」
He let the pressure lean toward him the way Bayern wanted, then moved the ball early into the opposite lane before the trap could close around the pass he’d used before.
Kimmich started to step across, expecting the ball to come the familiar way, and pulled up short when it had already gone somewhere else.
「MISSION PROGRESS」
「Bayern Pressing Traps Identified: 3/3」
It didn’t finish the mission. It only proved he’d read every trap Bayern had shown him so far.
United finally built something that wasn’t just survival.
Onana played a brave pass into Martínez rather than going long, and Martínez found Demien in the pocket between Bayern’s midfield and defensive line.
Goretzka stepped to close him. Kimmich shifted across to seal the second lane. Musiala tried to recover from behind, chasing back into a position he’d left minutes earlier.
「TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED」 「Through-the-Lines Drive — EPIC」
「TRAIT ACTIVE」 「Press Resistant」
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Jay-Jay Okocha — So Good Twice」
Demien took the ball and opened his body, one touch rolling away from Goretzka’s lunge, then a single body feint that held Kimmich still for the fraction of a second he needed.
He carried it forward through the gap before Bayern’s back line could step across to cover it.
Upamecano stepped out to meet him, Højlund pinned the other center-back on his shoulder, Bruno dragged a marker wide, and Rashford widened the lane by holding his run out toward the touchline.
Demien slipped the ball through to Højlund on the run.
Højlund took it in stride and got a shot away under pressure, the ball skidding low, and Ulreich threw himself across to push it behind for a corner, the deflection catching enough of the ball to send it wide of the far post.
Højlund slapped his hands together once, frustrated but not deflated, and Demien pointed at him to keep making the same run instead of dropping his head.
After that chance, Bayern started treating Demien differently.
Kimmich said something to Goretzka before the restart, his hand chopping once toward the center of the pitch. Kane glanced back over his shoulder toward midfield instead of just holding his position up front. Sané began his next pressing run from a different starting angle than before.
Nobody needed to say United had forced the change. It was there in how carefully Bayern were setting up around him now.
United were still 1-0 down, but the wobble had passed, and the match had turned dangerous in both directions.
「MISSION UPDATE」
「Pressure-Release Actions: 3/5」 「Bayern Pressing Traps Identified: 3/3」 「Clear Chances Created: 1/1」 「Midfield Collapse Prevention: Recovering」 「Bonus Objective: Pending」
United attacked again through him minutes later, Demien receiving slightly higher this time, in the pocket between Bayern’s midfield and defensive line.
Bruno pulled wide to drag a marker off the central lane. Rashford held his position on the shoulder of the last defender. Højlund occupied both center-backs just by standing where he stood.
「TECHNIQUE ACTIVATED」 「Through-the-Lines Drive — EPIC」
「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Gareth Bale — Galáctico Surge」
He knocked the ball forward off his first touch and tore through the space in one explosive burst, five yards that closed before Bayern’s midfield could react to it.
Goretzka caught his stride from behind, a hand clipping his shoulder that Demien rode through for one more step, and then Laimer’s second challenge took his balance and put him down just outside the box, in the left half-space.
Fweeeeeet!
The referee’s whistle cut through the noise immediately.
Bayern’s players threw their arms up in complaint, a couple of them already jogging toward the referee before he’d finished pointing, but United moved toward the ball without waiting for the argument to matter. Bruno arrived first, because he was always one of the ones who wanted it. Rashford stood close by, glancing between the ball and the wall already forming.
The Allianz whistled long and low, because everyone in the stadium understood exactly how dangerous the spot was.
「DANGEROUS SET-PIECE WON」
「Bonus Objective: Pending」
Demien picked the ball up and set it down himself, the movement calm rather than showy.
Bruno looked at him for a second, then stepped half a yard aside without a word. Rashford’s eyes went from the ball to the wall Bayern were still shuffling into shape. Ulreich adjusted his footing on the line and pointed one glove toward the far side of his goal, organizing his defenders.
「TECHNIQUE READY」 「Curling Free-Kick — EPIC」
「ATTRIBUTE CHECK」 「Curve: 99」
「ATTRIBUTE CHECK」 「Free Kick Accuracy: 75」
The curve was there. The accuracy underneath it wasn’t guaranteed, and that gap was the whole tension of the moment.
Demien wiped the ball once with his palm, set it down carefully on the spot, and took three steps back. He looked at the wall, then at Ulreich, then at the upper corner of the goal.
The system settled one more time in the corner of his vision.
「MISSION PROGRESS」
「Pressure-Release Actions: 3/5」 「Bayern Pressing Traps Identified: 3/3」 「Clear Chances Created: 1/1」 「Midfield Collapse Prevention: Recovering」 「Bonus Objective: Pending」
「DANGEROUS SET-PIECE WON」
Ulreich bent his knees and shifted one small step to his left. Kimmich shouted something from the edge of the wall, one arm raised to square it up.
Demien exhaled once, and under the sound of his own breath, the whole stadium seemed to drop into the moment his boot shifted beside the ball.
The wall waited.
The system waited.
The Allianz waited to see whether United’s new boy could answer Bayern’s first punishment.