The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Welp, Leroy Sane had a real reason why he was so bewildered to see the shot was saved.

The scheme where he made a small cut-in movement to find a space to curl the shot to the back post was his signature move, his bread and butter. He had scored so many goals from this exact same scenario over and over again, either when he was with Bayern Munich, Manchester City, or even in his youth with Schalke.

Even though it was not a sure-goal move, it should still be enough to catch the goalkeeper off guard. Also, the boy felt it himself that the shot earlier was probably one of the best he had ever taken in his career. Hell, he also made sure to pinpoint Higo’s position first before taking it, and that was why he was so confident that it should be a goal.

Who would’ve thought that Higo would arrive at the crime spot so easily, denying his attempt without even breaking a sweat.

What was more infuriating, though, was that the goalkeeper didn’t even celebrate it here. No, the ball was still inside the penalty box, and Robert Lewandowski, who managed to escape from the eyes of two defenders, burst into the scene, ready to get the second ball.

’Fuck! No defender!’ Higo gritted his teeth, trying to bounce back as quickly as possible.

Even without his clairvoyance ability, Higo knew that he would be late to close down the gap here, so the boy spread both his legs and arms quickly, trying to cover as much space as possible. In his mind, he also felt so helpless, getting ready to concede the second goal of the day.

However, it seemed that he underestimated what he had done so far against Lewandowski to the Polish striker’s mental health.

Even though Lewandowski himself didn’t notice, his unconsciousness screamed at the man in the last second after seeing Higo charging at him, telling the man to avoid the goalkeeper.

This was what happened when a striker got blocked so many times by the goalkeeper.

This time, Lewandowski didn’t even think, following his instinct completely. Instead of trying to get through Higo directly, his eyes shifted to the near post, wanting to aim for the area between Higo’s left arm and foot. However, that angle was too tight, and while he could send the ball to escape from the goalkeeper...

Thud!

The ball went wide! It didn’t even find the goal, just hitting the side net gently before rolling on the ground.

Seeing this, the one who was in disbelief the most was, of course, the striker, as the Polish man had to cover his mouth to hide his jaw dropping.

"Wait, that is not a goal?!" The man asked around confusedly.

Higo himself got up immediately, clenching his fist so tight that he felt like his skin would be dug by his nails. This was the closest threat from Lewandowski to the goal, and the boy himself was unsure whether he could save it or not. Fortunately, the execution was poor, and the man failed to find the back of the net even from such a close distance.

Still, of course, he had to say something to his teammates here.

"Rudy-san, you shrank pretty quickly, but why wouldn’t you pay attention to him?" He asked the fullback; his tone was a mixture of helplessness and dissatisfaction.

"You need to be more decisive, you know? If you want to protect the outside, go there! But if you want to help the middle, take action! Don’t just move so hesitantly between those two; it fucking confuses me!"

This time, it was a real annoyance that was talking, not just a helpless feeling when the own goal happened in the first half.

Still, Higo couldn’t be blamed here. He truly didn’t know what Sebastian Rudy wanted to do, and the boy was so sure that the man himself was clueless about it. Even though in the end, everything went well, the goalkeeper could imagine what would happen if the rebound ball went to a different spot.

’He didn’t really guard Lewandowski on time, and he also didn’t know that someone was sneaking from the flank, so what the hell was he trying to do?! Just a fucking gimmick?!’ He huffed annoyedly.

Sead Kolasinac also noticed this, and he came to be the middleman immediately. Well, the Bosnian defender just dragged Sebastian Rudy, who looked so lost, whispering something to the man quietly. As for Higo, he just let the goalkeeper vent his grievance here, knowing full well that the boy deserved to be angry right now.

Still, this was a big relief for all the Schalke players, with some of them wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads. Just like what Higo thought, this was the first time in this game that they were so sure they would concede a goal, and honestly, losing a point straight after the kick-off when they planned to do something big would end up destroying their spirit to continue the game.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

They were just so lucky that Higo was still as strong as ever to stop Sane’s shot, and Lewandowski’s feet were so smelly in front of the goal today.

Of course, that didn’t mean they would start lowering their guard. No, as Higo was about to handle the goal kick, he also thought inwardly, ’We are lucky this time, but they wouldn’t be this bad for the rest of the game, right?’

This thought was one that bugged his mind, knowing that Bayern Munich was not a team that could be shut down for the whole 90 minutes, especially not by a team of Schalke’s caliber. Sooner or later, the crack would appear, and there was no way the home team wouldn’t take advantage of that.

’Fuck it! We also failed to get a chance earlier, right? Man, tying the score here will be a mission impossible...’ Higo couldn’t help but curse, finding this game to be hopeless. ’Oh, well... As long as I don’t concede any more goals, the team will be okay. At least, even if we lost, only losing by one goal against Bayern Munich is an achievement, right?’