Chapter 970: Higo in Action! (II)

"A cross from Gnabry to the far post! Everyone is watching the ball!"

"No! Lewandowski and Alaba are there! Can they get the ball?!"

"Oh! Higo is flying! He snatches it straight in front of everyone’s eyes!"

"What a catch from Ryusuke Higo!"

On the broadcast studio of DAZN, it was clear that Daniel Herzog enjoyed this far too much more than any game he broadcasted before.

After all, usually, a team fighting against Bayern would lack the fighting spirit to create a miracle. Hell, even Borussia Dortmund themselves trembled before Der Klassiker, and they were supposed to be Bayern Munich’s biggest rival in the league.

The only few times Bayern lost a game in this season, it could be contributed to their lack of concentration rather than the opponent’s fighting spirit.

Hell, at that time, the opponent only truly believed that they could win the game once they were close enough to the end. Before that, they would never dare to think that they could snatch three points from Bayern.

Now, though, they had Higo, who had never shown fear, always facing Bayern straight ahead and got the best team in the world so frustrated beyond their mind; this was definitely a refreshing scene to see.

"If they want to try using a high cross like that, they will find that Higo is basically unbreakable," Ballack grunted.

"He is the best one when it comes to aerial claim, having at least 4 crosses on his hand per game. Not only that, he has never conceded a single goal from a heading scenario this season. If anything, a combination play with a low cross would give them a better chance to score a goal today."

In fact, Bayern also knew this, and Hansi Flick also showed his dissatisfaction when he saw Serge Gnabry sending that kind of a cross.

"Keep it on the ground! Play it slowly, no need to rush! We still have time here!"

Still, it wasn’t like Gnabry could be blamed for this case. After all, Bayern was also the best team when it came to the aerial battle inside the box, having scored 12 goals already from that scenario.

That number was the highest in all of Europe, so they definitely had the confidence to do that.

Now, though, since they were down by one goal, no matter how confident they were, the coach would prefer a safer method to deal with this situation.

Fortunately, even though Bayern was a group of world-class players, they were not so stubborn as to not follow the instruction. No, if anything, they knew that the coach was right, so they didn’t hesitate to abandon that method for now.

For the next period, both sides suddenly engaged in a battle of control in midfield.

Not only the trio of Omar, Morita, and Nabil, but even Fabian and Benito Raman also tucked inside to participate in defense, constantly pressing forward and forcing the opponent to clear the ball hastily.

However, Bayern’s passing and possession were indeed far stronger than any other team in the Bundesliga today.

With the help of David Alaba and Jerome Boateng, Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka strung together successive one-touch passes, constantly pulling and stretching Schalke’s defensive line to open up space inside the home team’s territory.

In the 20th minute of the game, they got another chance to score.

This time, Bayern launched an attack down the left flank again, trying to utilize Alphonso Davies’s speed and mobility to break through Rudy’s side that had already been proven to be weak.

After a sequence of short passing combinations that even pulled Muller to the flank, Davies somehow managed to cut inside to the edge of the penalty arc, having already pulled his right foot to take a shot by himself.

Of course, there was no way Schalke’s midfield would let the wing-back do that.

No, Omar Mascarell and Nabil Bentaleb reacted immediately, shutting down all the space to Higo’s area and forcing Davies to cancel that shot.

Since he had already lost momentum from trying to take a shot, Davies decided to spread the ball to Josua Kimmich, who stared straight at the goal, having no one to block if he wanted to take a shot directly from that spot.

However, the box in front of him was too crowded with people, and even though there was a chance for the ball to slip in, he didn’t want to bet this ball on that.

If anything, he saw that Lewandowski was trying to make a run from behind Stambouli, so he just chipped the ball high, getting through Schalke’s territory from above.

Thud!

"Yes! Nice, Jo!" Lewandowski grinned as he put his body in front of Stambouli, using his superior strength to get in front of the ball first.

"SHIT! I CAN’T!" The French defender cursed as he fell on the ground, unable to stop it at all.

In the end, Lewandowski didn’t take too much time to pause. No, he knew that in such a crowded place, controlling the ball too much would be his downfall.

So, while leaning his body a little, he swung his left foot immediately, intending to shoot the ball with a half-volley technique.

BAM!

Unfortunately, this time, he aimed straight for the middle where Higo was standing, and even though the power was decent, since the target sucked, the goalkeeper could just deflect the ball with one hand, letting it fly high into the sky.

"ARGH! AGAIN?!" Lewandowski couldn’t help but groan, covering his face in frustration.

The Polish striker hadn’t realized it yet, but he always had this little impatience whenever he played against Higo. It couldn’t be helped, since the boy was probably the only goalkeeper he still failed to bag a goal against in his career.

Still, Higo noticed this, and he made a quick signal to Stambouli.

"After this, let him escape to that side again. Rather than letting them roam freely to a place that I cannot predict, just get the ball on Lewandowski on that side again, and let him waste his team’s time hitting a brick wall!"