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He called Sophia after.

"Adjusted my whole week around this," she said. "You’d better be worth it."

"Thank you," Demien said, meaning it plainly.

"Is the Haaland thing driving you mad yet?" she asked.

"It doesn’t make football sense," he said. "We do completely different jobs."

"So you don’t want to outperform him," she said.

He paused.

"I obviously want United to win," he said. "And I want to play better than everyone wearing blue on Sunday. That’s different."

"Now that I believe," Sophia said, laughing. "Which one are you thinking about more — the derby or Paris?"

"Sunday," he said, immediately.

"Monday’s allowed to matter too, you know," she said.

"I know," he said.

Friday, October 27th, Ten Hag’s pre-match press conference ran without Demien in the room, the players watching selected clips afterward instead.

"Casemiro’s still being assessed," Ten Hag told the reporters. "Not fully ready yet."

"Why do you believe United can beat City?" one asked.

"They demand a higher standard," Ten Hag said. "They punish structural mistakes more consistently than most sides. We have to be at our best — nothing is guaranteed just because of recent results."

"What about Haaland?"

"We’re not preparing for one player," Ten Hag said. "City create his chances collectively. Stopping him means defending their buildup, their wide rotations, their second phases. It’s never just him."

"Is Sunday ’Demien against Haaland’?"

"They play different positions," Ten Hag said. "Derbies are won by teams."

Across the city, Guardiola’s own preview stressed how difficult Old Trafford always was, how much individual quality United carried, and how the derby mattered without deciding anything about the title this early.

Asked how City intended to handle United’s teenager after his recent scoring run, Guardiola acknowledged his quality and his ability to progress the ball through pressure, then turned the answer toward United’s whole attacking threat — Rashford’s running, Bruno’s passing, Højlund attacking the line.

The next morning’s headline read differently.

GUARDIOLA WARNS CITY ABOUT WALTER

Demien read it and noticed immediately how much it had been squeezed to fit the story everyone already wanted.

He had one short club-media obligation after Friday’s training.

"Is Sunday Demien Walter versus Erling Haaland?" the interviewer asked.

"Unless he’s marking me, probably not," Demien said, smiling. "He’s obviously dangerous, but City have too many players who can hurt us for us to spend ninety minutes thinking about one striker."

"First Manchester derby — what’s that like?"

"Training for it and hearing people talk about it all week is different from actually living it," he said. "I’ve been in Manchester a few months. I’m not going to pretend I understand decades of this rivalry the way the lads who grew up with it do."

"And Paris the next day?"

"I’ll think about Paris after the derby," Demien said.

Saturday, October 28th, the final session ran short and sharp — dynamic activation, short possession, defensive shape, transition patterns, set-piece defense, finishing, nothing that added unnecessary load.

In the defensive shape work, Maguire stepped into contact with the Haaland-role forward while Evans dropped half a step rather than standing square, Amrabat protecting the central lane, Demien positioned for the second ball.

In another repetition, the simulated Bernardo slipped behind Demien.

He recovered without fouling, angling the midfielder away from goal until Amrabat could arrive, forcing him backward.

No skill activation needed — positioning alone had solved it.

Set pieces followed, Maguire taking the strongest aerial threat, Evans protecting the central zone, McTominay tracking Rodri, Demien waiting at the edge for second balls and recycled possession.

The session closed with a transition rehearsal — Demien winning the second ball, Rashford already moving, the pass arriving before Rashford turned his head twice, the shot forcing a save from the goalkeeper.

Ten Hag ended it there.

Saturday evening, Demien’s flat carried its own quiet routine — match bag already packed, recovery meal, hydration, his phone silent except for family, Sophia and Marco.

Ballon d’Or coverage appeared whenever he checked one screen.

Derby coverage covered every other.

Marco sent the preliminary Paris itinerary.

Demien opened it, scrolled past the first line — Monday, October 30 — Paris — and locked the phone.

Sunday came first.

Sunday, October 29th, and he woke before his alarm again, sleep already gone.

His legs felt fresh, the workload management through the week finally paying off.

No ankle problem.

Nothing lingering from Copenhagen.

He sat up immediately.

Breakfast, hydration, final activation all moved fast and familiar.

At the final team meeting, Ten Hag confirmed the eleven.

MANCHESTER UNITED

Onana.

Dalot — Maguire — Evans — Lindelöf.

Amrabat — Demien.

Bruno — McTominay.

Rashford.

MANCHESTER CITY

Ederson.

Walker — Dias — Stones — Gvardiol.

Rodri.

Foden — Bernardo Silva.

Grealish.

Haaland — Álvarez.

Ten Hag didn’t pin City to a rigid shape.

He drew arrows instead — Stones stepping into midfield, Walker adjusting around the right, Bernardo and Foden dropping into pockets, Grealish holding width, Álvarez working underneath Haaland, Haaland himself pinning the center-backs.

"One instruction," Ten Hag told Demien. "When we win it back, check Rodri before your first forward pass. If he’s shifted toward Marcus’s lane, go the other way through Bruno or Rasmus. If he’s stayed central, Marcus is free immediately behind their line. His position tells you where they’re weak."

The team bus moved through Manchester with United shirts and City shirts crossing on opposite sides of the same streets, police controlling the final approach, supporters packed behind barriers with scarves raised and phones tracking the coach’s every turn, the noise climbing before Old Trafford even came into view.

Not every banner carried Demien’s name.

Rashford’s, Bruno’s, old United legends from decades back — the club was bigger than any one player, and the streets said so.

As the bus turned toward the stadium, the tributes to Sir Bobby Charlton were still visible everywhere around the approach — this was United’s first home match since his death, and the club had built the day around remembering him.

Demien went quieter looking at it.

Not about what it meant to him personally.

About what it clearly meant to everyone who’d lived with this club far longer than he had.

Inside, the arrival corridor moved fast, cameras tracking the players, a reporter shouting something about Haaland, another about Paris tomorrow.

Demien kept walking through both.

His kit was ready among the starters in the dressing room.

Højlund sat across from him, preparing for his own first Manchester derby.

Maguire and Evans were still discussing where Haaland liked to start his runs.

Amrabat sat with the tactical card in his hands.

Bruno moved between players as captain rather than staying at his own seat.

Demien retaped one wrist while the dressing room television ran pre-match coverage.

For a few seconds it showed the same graphic from all week.

HAALAND vs WALTER

Then it cut to the Sir Bobby tribute package.

Demien looked away from the comparison and watched the old United footage instead.

「MANCHESTER DERBY MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Manchester United vs Manchester City」 「Complete 7 Pressure-Release Actions」 「Create 4 Transition Entries」 「Record 5 Defensive Recoveries」 「Record 2 Direct Goal Contributions」 「Reward: +120 MP」 「Bonus Objective: Win the Manchester Derby」 「Bonus Reward: +10 SP」

The reward number was bigger than almost anything he’d seen domestically.

He closed the panel before the warm-up call came.

City warmed up at the far end, Haaland working through finishing patterns, one cross arriving, the strike snapping the net back on contact.

Demien noticed.

So did Højlund. "Still think he’s Maguire’s problem?" he asked.

"Yes," Demien said.

Maguire, close enough to hear, didn’t look up. "Stop volunteering me for things."

Demien’s own warm-up ran through short passing with Amrabat and McTominay, pressure-release patterns, long diagonals toward Rashford, finishing from the edge of the box, one final sprint sequence.

He and Haaland never exchanged a look across the pitch.

They were both warming up with their own teams — the media could stage the duel; the players didn’t need to perform it.

Back inside, wet layers came off, boots got retightened, black armbands were handed out for the tribute.

Ten Hag’s final words stayed short. "Don’t follow them into every movement. Protect the middle. When possession changes, act before their counterpress sets. No cheap second balls around Haaland."

In the tunnel, Demien finally stood close to Haaland in the opposite line.

Neither spoke.

Haaland faced forward.

Demien faced forward.

Højlund stood nearer the City defenders.

Bruno waited as United’s captain.

Walker wore City’s armband.

The teams walked out, and the stadium turned toward its tribute — the big screen, the applause, both sets of players in black armbands for a man who’d meant more to this ground than any single match could carry.

Demien stood among the United players and applauded with them.

He let the stadium hold the moment rather than narrating it for himself.

Then the applause shifted into derby noise, singing rolling around both ends as players moved to their positions.

Haaland stood between Maguire and Evans.

Álvarez positioned underneath him.

Grealish started wide.

Foden was ready to drift inside.

Bernardo checked the space near Demien.

Rodri pointed Stones forward.

Demien looked at Rodri.

Not Haaland.

City took the kickoff.

Dias played the first pass to Stones.

Stones didn’t stay beside him.

He carried forward, crossed the defensive line, and moved toward Rodri.

Demien took one step toward the center, checked Bernardo over his shoulder, and waited.

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