Chapter 1001: Dortmund’s Early Attack!

Well, for Schalke’s defense, indeed, this was going to be a long game.

Just 10 minutes after the game began, they had already faced three dangerous threats from different areas.

The first one came from the triangle combination between Sancho, Reus, and Haaland. This was what Frohling feared the most, as he had warned his boys so many times in the training session not to let them do anything they wanted in the team’s territory.

Unfortunately, the theory was nice, but reality slapped them all pretty hard.

Those three were quite good at defending themselves and even breaking into a tight space, forcing all the attention on their side.

They passed the ball short from one foot to another, and with a quick little movement, one of them managed to sneak behind the defensive line to receive the decisive pass.

This time, it was Sancho who managed to get inside and received a pass that slipped through Kolasinac and Malick Thiaw’s defense.

Fortunately, the boy was in a hurry, taking a shot directly without even looking at Higo’s position. As a result, the goalkeeper just picked up the ball easily, not even bothered by the attempt.

Then came a diagonal cross from Raphael Guerreiro. The wingback dropped a little and sent a high ball that curved sharply, avoiding Higo’s territory and going straight to Haaland’s head.

Honestly, this was the scariest threat that Dortmund gave so far.

After all, with Higo still unable to understand why his clairvoyance ability didn’t work against Haaland, he was forced to be in a passive state, reading the intention and reacting to it rather than taking the initiative to move.

It was something normal for any goalkeeper in the world, but for Higo, who had been spoiled by his ability to read the future five seconds ahead, not being able to do that just for one person was enough to frighten him.

Fortunately, the header itself didn’t fly that perfectly.

No, somehow, Stambouli managed to hold the boy down, and even though the defender still lost the aerial duel, in the grand scheme, the man still won, as Higo managed to pick the ball easily once again.

"Nice defense, Benjy-san!" Higo gave the man a thumbs-up. "Whatever you did earlier, keep doing that against Haaland in an aerial duel, okay?"

"Sure, sure! If we win, give me half of the credit, okay?!" The man joked before running back to his position.

This was just one of the small episodes in the middle of the game, before all the players put their focus back on the pitch.

As for the latest threat, it all came from chaos that happened inside the penalty box.

Somehow, Jadon Sancho managed to sneak in with the ball at his feet, and like a slippery eel he was, it took a cautious approach for Rudy to finally be able to clear the ball out of the box, just for Julian Brandt to receive it without any guard around him.

BAM!

A long shot was made, taking advantage of the free space in front of him!

Fortunately, Higo also reacted faster, leaping into the air with one hand stretched out to block the ball away from his goal, giving Dortmund another corner kick for their chance.

For a moment, it looked like Schalke got the momentum here, as they managed to establish their strong defense this early in the game.

However, some experts didn’t see it this way, and one of them was Michael Ballack from the DAZN Studio.

"I know that Schalke’s strong point is their defense, but letting three shots escape from their grasp like this is unacceptable." The man stated directly in front of the camera.

However, his partner clearly didn’t agree with that statement.

"You might look at it as three shots on target, Michael, but don’t forget that out of them all, the only threat comes from that long shot from Julian Brandt."

"As for the others, their defense works well enough to shut down all the shooting routes, letting the ball fall onto Higo’s palm easily. The weight of those three is different; you cannot just say that those three possess the same threat."

Ballack frowned instantly, clearly not expecting Herzog to counter him like that.

However, a debate was also a part of the show, and sometimes, that was what the people wanted to hear in a game. So, he accepted the challenge and shook his head quickly.

"Yeah, you can say that the defense works so far. However, what would happen if it doesn’t? Higo will have to face a more dangerous situation later, one that could cost the team a game."

"No, they cannot afford to be this relaxed after receiving three shots on target. They have to fix the loophole in their defense, or it would collapse sooner or later."

That was a scary prediction from the man. Unfortunately, none of the players on the pitch could hear it, so they had just done all the best they could do while also praying for the rest.

For Schalke’s side, though, this kind of state was definitely the best one that they could ask for.

A slow tempo, the opponent getting frustrated after their attempt met a huge wall in Schalke’s defense, and even a waste-of-time tactic even when the game was still at the 20th minute was definitely a cherry on top for them.

Hell, some guys even started to dare to dream big today, wanting the team to win this derby.

Then, after waiting for a while, they finally had a chance to counterattack and take the lead.

This time, it all started from a mispass from Delaney, as the man failed to read Haaland’s intention. Instead of staying in the middle, the striker wanted to cut into the half-space and receive the ball there.

Unfortunately, that was not the scheme that the midfielder wanted. No, he just tried to pass the ball shortly, using Haaland as the wall to make a move.

That didn’t work well for them, and as a result, this opened up the wells for Schalke’s players to take action, as Higo had already seen his friend sneaking into the area in front of the opponent’s defensive line.

"RYUSUKE! HERE!"