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Dias played the kickoff pass to Stones.

Stones didn’t stay beside him.

He carried beyond City’s defensive line, moving toward Rodri.

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

His body angled toward Rodri while Bernardo stayed at the edge of his vision, inviting City to recycle backward rather than handing them the vertical pass behind him.

Stones gave it to Rodri.

McTominay started moving toward Stones.

Rodri opened his body as though he’d find Bernardo.

Demien slid into the lane before the ball left his foot.

Rodri saw it and turned the ball back to Dias instead.

City restarted from the other side.

Gvardiol received.

Grealish stayed wide.

Álvarez dropped between United’s midfield and defense.

Haaland stayed put between Maguire and Evans.

"Demien Walter’s starting far deeper than he did against Italy," the commentator said, "and he’ll need to — this is a completely different job. The whole week’s been sold as Haaland against Walter, but three minutes in, their actual roles barely overlap."

In the third minute, City tried their first vertical progression.

Rodri received.

Bernardo moved away from Demien toward Álvarez.

Demien recognized the rotation and passed Bernardo onto Amrabat rather than following him into the same space.

Rodri sent it toward Álvarez.

Demien had already moved into the lane and stepped across before the Argentine could control it.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Ball Winner」 「STATS ACTIVE」 「Interceptions: 94 | Reactions: 99」

He controlled rather than cleared.

Bernardo attacked him from behind almost instantly.

Rodri closed from the front.

Demien let Bernardo’s contact land on his shoulder, rolled the ball across his body, and spun outside him.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」 「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Johan Cruyff — Turn Innovator」

He created just enough separation from Bernardo to release Amrabat before Rodri arrived, then kept moving beyond Rodri himself.

Amrabat returned it.

Rashford had already started running behind City’s advanced right side.

Demien sent the diagonal.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Paul Pogba — Long Switch Flair」

Rashford controlled in stride and attacked Walker, losing half a yard before Walker’s recovery speed forced him wide.

Rashford drove a low cross toward

Dias reached the six-yard box first and cleared.

「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Pressure-Release Actions: 1/7」 「Transition Entries: 1/4」

Demien slowed near the edge of the box rather than chasing the clearance.

Escaping City’s midfield press only revealed another elite defender waiting behind it.

In the sixth minute, City began working England laterally, Grealish receiving wide against Dalot, Bernardo drifting closer.

Demien slid across to keep Bernardo from receiving inside.

Grealish returned it to Gvardiol.

City moved it through Rodri and Stones toward Walker on the far side, forcing United’s whole block to turn.

"Get back to Rodri," Demien told McTominay, who’d followed Stones too far.

McTominay corrected before the next pass came.

City manufactured their first real chance in the eighth minute, Rodri finding space and spotting Walker breaking behind Lindelöf.

He clipped a measured ball over United’s left.

Walker attacked it before it reached the byline and headed back across goal.

Foden arrived inside the box and headed toward the bottom corner.

Onana threw himself across and palmed it away.

The rebound dropped toward Haaland.

Haaland stretched a leg at the loose ball.

Maguire threw himself between the striker and goal while Onana scrambled off the turf.

Evans got the final touch away from the six-yard area.

Demien reached the box only as it cleared — he’d been tracking Bernardo through the switch and couldn’t also cover Walker’s run.

He could execute his own assignment perfectly, and City could still manufacture danger somewhere else entirely.

He pushed the line out and shouted for everyone to reset beyond the edge of the area before City could recover the second phase.

United got a transition chance in the tenth minute, Foden playing a loose backward pass that Højlund read and beat Stones to.

He turned and drove into City’s half, Rashford accelerating down the left, McTominay running the right channel, Demien staying underneath the move rather than overtaking him.

Højlund took one touch too many.

Rodri sprinted back.

Stones recovered from behind.

Demien shouted for it.

Højlund finally laid it to him.

Demien saw Rodri shading toward Rashford’s lane and turned his hips, sending it to Bruno on the opposite side instead of forcing the predictable pass.

Bruno received and clipped Højlund in behind Dias.

Ederson came off his line fast and reached it just before Højlund could.

No shot.

Højlund cursed under his breath, knowing the first release had been late.

"First pass," Demien told him.

Højlund nodded.

In the thirteenth minute, Maguire found Demien with Bernardo closing.

Demien cushioned it first time into Amrabat and spun away.

Amrabat found McTominay.

McTominay returned it beyond Bernardo.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Andrea Pirlo — Deep-Lying Playmaker」

Demien received facing Rodri.

Højlund checked toward the ball.

Rashford ran behind Walker.

Rodri shaded deliberately toward Rashford’s side.

Demien noticed and played Højlund instead.

Højlund laid it to Bruno, who shot from outside the box.

Dias blocked.

The rebound came back to Demien, and he recycled toward Dalot rather than force a shot through four bodies.

「MATCH MISSION PROGRESS」 「Pressure-Release Actions: 2/7」

Ten Hag applauded the recycle, not the blocked shot — the point was refusing City the transition they wanted.

By the sixteenth minute, City had begun pinning United deeper, Stones sliding beside Rodri, Bernardo tucking into the right half-space, Álvarez underneath Haaland.

Demien couldn’t press Bernardo fully with Álvarez behind him.

Amrabat couldn’t step to Álvarez with Haaland occupying the center-backs and the box growing crowded.

City strung together several passes across United’s defensive third.

Demien defended it through positioning and voice rather than force.

"Stay on Gvardiol," he told Bruno.

"Don’t lose Stones," he told McTominay. "They can’t get a free double pivot."

He kept checking Bernardo over his shoulder.

Grealish’s chance came in the twentieth minute, receiving wide on City’s left, Dalot keeping him outside at first.

Bernardo moved inside and dragged Demien several yards centrally.

Grealish used the separation to cut onto his right foot.

Dalot tried to recover.

Grealish curled toward the far corner.

Onana launched across his goal and pushed it around the post with both hands.

Demien turned to Bernardo after the save, understanding it now — City had used his movement deliberately to drag Demien away from Grealish’s side.

From the corner, Maguire beat Haaland to the first ball.

Rodri collected outside the area.

Demien reached him before the shot could go off and forced City backward.

United finally sustained possession in the twenty-second minute, Onana to Evans to Demien, Álvarez stepping to him, Bernardo arriving from his blind side.

Demien released it first time to Amrabat.

Amrabat found Dalot.

Demien kept moving and received again beyond City’s first two players.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」

Rodri stood directly ahead.

Rather than force it, Demien slowed everything down.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Toni Kroos — Metronome」

United strung passes together through Bruno, Demien and Dalot while City reorganized, the crowd applauding just for the relief of holding the ball for once.

Demien saw Rashford breaking behind Walker and tried the early diagonal.

Walker read it and headed it back to Ederson.

No chance.

City restarted before Rashford could even complain.

The penalty sequence began in the twenty-fourth minute, Foden turning near the right side of midfield and drawing a foul.

City moved players forward for the free kick, Álvarez standing over it some thirty-five yards out.

Before the delivery, Rodri and Højlund wrestled for position away from the flight of the ball, Højlund’s arm hooking around Rodri as he tried to stop him attacking it.

Rodri went down.

Álvarez’s free kick came in.

United cleared it.

Play continued for several seconds.

Then referee Paul Tierney stopped the match.

Players looked around, unsure why.

The Old Trafford screens flashed up a VAR review — possible foul, Rodri.

Højlund understood immediately and turned toward the referee, dread written across his face.

Tierney jogged to the pitchside monitor.

Demien walked over to Bruno rather than shout at anyone. "What happened?"

Bruno pointed toward Højlund and Rodri.

The replay ran again — the arm hooked around Rodri’s shoulder, clear as anything.

Demien exhaled sharply. He already knew what was coming.

Tierney pointed to the penalty spot.

Højlund argued for a moment before Maguire pulled him away.

Demien didn’t waste breath joining it.

Haaland picked up the ball.

The noise inside Old Trafford rose immediately — the first moment all week’s media coverage became unavoidable.

Haaland placed it on the spot.

Demien waited outside the box with Rodri nearby, the cameras cutting between the two of them because broadcasters had spent days selling exactly this image.

He watched the penalty like every other United player, nothing theatrical in it.

The referee blew.

Haaland opened his body.

Onana committed.

Haaland sent him the wrong way and rolled it into the other side.

Manchester United 0 — 1 Manchester CityErling Haaland 26’ (pen.)

City’s traveling end erupted.

Haaland ran to the corner, Rodri reaching him first, Foden and Álvarez following.

Demien’s jaw tightened.

He glanced once at Højlund, standing with both hands on his hips, and said nothing to him publicly.

He walked toward the center circle and waited for City to finish.

The broadcast camera found him on the big screen.

He noticed it for half a second and looked away — that irritated him more than the goal itself, the cameras already turning the match into the duel they’d advertised all week.

At the restart, Demien demanded the first pass.

In the twenty-eighth minute, he received from Amrabat with Bernardo pressing.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」

He turned through the contact.

Rodri stepped toward him.

Rather than force it, he found Bruno.

Bruno tried the early pass behind Gvardiol toward

Dias covered and cleared.

Demien pressed the second ball immediately rather than stand frustrated.

Højlund’s biggest chance of the half came in the thirtieth minute, Foden playing a poor backward pass, Højlund reading it and accelerating before Stones could react.

Ederson charged out.

Højlund knocked it around him.

Stones recovered hard from behind and stopped the clean finish.

Højlund carried it to the side of the box and cut it back to Bruno.

Bruno shot over.

Højlund stayed inside the box afterward, slamming both palms together, bent forward — that chance could have erased the penalty entirely.

Demien reached the edge of the box.

He didn’t console him.

"Again," he said.

Højlund straightened.

That was enough.

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