Just as Higo expected, all the Bayern players became berserk. They started launching more passes to the penalty box, with the aim of feeding Lewandowski so that the Polish striker could score a goal.
From Thomas Muller, Alphonso Davies, Benjamin Pavard, Ivan Perisic, to even the center backs like Jerome Boateng and David Alaba were firing one pass after another, which, frustratingly enough, always found the Polish striker at the end of the box. Ozan Kabak also worked hard to occupy the man, but all of his effort was futile in the face of real strength.
In the end, it was Higo who had to clean up everything, showing off his capability as Schalke’s new goalkeeper.
A header to his left side; he blocked it with one hand.
A shot from slightly outside the box; he caught it after knowing exactly what would happen a few seconds earlier.
Even a rocket launched to the top part of the net, with his quick reaction speed, the boy still managed to deflect the ball upward, denying the goal that the Polish striker was waiting for.
25 minutes in, and Higo had already made 5 saves, all blocking Bayern’s attempts to put the ball onto the back of his net. The score was still 0-0, and honestly, the supporters were in awe right now, wondering if they were witnessing the birth of a legend here.
"Fucking hell... His name is Ryusuke Higo, right?! He is such a beast!"
"I know! Can you see that he is always one step faster?! He could see the future, I tell you that!"
"I wonder how many years should we let him develop before we get to recruit him..."
Yeah, it was not a strange reaction coming from Bayern Munich fans. They could appreciate good players from their opponent, because most of the time, those guys would end up joining Bayern Munich in the future. It was the only way if they wanted to shine brightly in this country.
Higo also heard the chatter behind him, but the boy was too busy focusing on the game to care about that right now. He could feel his shoulder aching from jumping and falling to the ground so many times today, and the rocket shot that he had to block from Lewandowski was also enough to make his hand tremble.
Still, even with his body screaming in pain, the boy’s expression was flat, not showing any sign of weakness.
"Bastian-san, Oz-san cannot hold him back anymore; shift around and don’t let Lewandowski move freely again." The boy whispered to Oczipka next to him. "Also, ask Juan-san and Kenny-san to collapse the defense; let the wingers handle the flank. We don’t need to think too far about counterattack right now."
The man nodded quietly before relaying the instruction to the others. At this point, he and the rest of the team had already gotten used to Higo taking command in the defensive line, and since everything worked well for their side, there was no reason they would disobey this.
Even Frohling nodded from the sideline. He still didn’t have any illusion of stealing a point here, thinking that sooner or later, their defense would break. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to make Bayern Munich sweat. The man had already thought about shrinking his defense, and when he saw his players’ actions after Higo’s instruction, the coach looked at the goalkeeper with an appreciative gaze.
’Yeah, even though he only cares about defense, that is what we really need right now. The longer we hold on, the more confident we are in ourselves. Maybe that is going to be our biggest gain today.’
Now, with this new adjustment, Schalke basically had 9 players in their own penalty box, leaving Suat Serdar and Fabian to chase the rebound away when the ball was cleared away from the team’s territory. This made everything harder for the home team to get their first goal today.
Still, harder didn’t mean impossible, and they proved it straight away in the 35th minute of the game.
It all started with Ivan Perisic, who was playing around with Alphonso Davies on the flank, trying to gain room while also getting rid of Morita in front of them. Then, without any warning, the Croatian winger suddenly made a chop move that caught Morita off guard, and right when the Japanese midfielder turned around, the ball was passed back again to the Canadian fullback behind him.
"FUCK!" Morita couldn’t help but curse, trying to turn as quickly as possible.
However, Davies moved faster here, whipping a cross toward the penalty box again. The target was still the same, and this time, Lewandowski showed his superiority in the air by beating two defenders at the same time to get the ball first.
BAM!
"FUCK!"
Higo dived at the same time, managing to block the ball with his left foot. However, with two defenders getting attracted to Lewandowski, no one with a blue jersey was close enough to clear the ball away, and Thomas Muller arrived straight away to put the ball at the back of the net here.
"No, not this time!" Higo roared; adrenaline forced him to get up as quickly as possible just to block that shot.
BAM!
Another one hit his head, and Higo felt a little bit disoriented for even a second. Still, that was the price that he was willing to pay just to block that shot, realizing that he still managed to keep everything clean. Hell, even Thomas Muller himself was taken aback, not expecting his rebound shot to be stopped by such an unconventional method.
However, Higo’s luck was over as, in the next second, the third attack finally came from behind. This time, it was Leon Goretzka who came out of nowhere, charging like a tank before jumping so high and beating the rest of the Schalke defenders around him. Now that Higo was still down on the ground, it only took a weak header from the midfield, and then...
Thud!
The ball finally got through the back of the net, giving the home team their first goal of the day.
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