Chapter 972: The End of the First Half!

FWEEE! FWEEE! FWEEE!

In the end, the referee finally blew the whistle, telling everyone that the first half was already over.

All the Bayern players left the pitch with frustration written all over their faces. It was clear that the first half so far didn’t meet their expectation, as they were being blocked in every direction and failed to get even one goal so far.

It didn’t happen a lot this season, but whenever they couldn’t get one, the game often ended up in either a draw or they lost everything completely.

’No, we are just playing against Schalke; we cannot lose any point today!’

Some players still thought that this was the Schalke that they played was the bottom-tier team that fought to escape the relegation team last year. Unfortunately, they were wrong here, as this team had already become a nightmare for any team in the league to face.

This time, all the Bayern players came back into the locker room with a grimace on their faces, as if they had already expected a good scolding from their coach.

True enough, even if Hansi Flick wasn’t infamous for his temper, the man still snapped the moment everyone was in the locker room.

"Honestly, I don’t even know what to say except that this is fucking embarrassing." He said it flatly, not even raising his voice. However, that made the temperature drop instantly as tension rose to the sky.

"I know that Schalke has been doing well in the last couple of games, but this..." His voice dropped. "Have you already forgotten that you are Bayern fucking Munich, and not just a small team from the fucking north?!" He roared furiously, his face turned red.

"Lewy, I don’t know what your problem is with that goalkeeper, but did you forget that you are supposed to be the best fucking striker in the world?!"

"Also, why are you guys forgetting that you can score on your own?! Why are you always passing to Lewy even knowing that he is not in form, for fuck’s sake?!"

"Have you already depended too much on Lewy that you forgot how to do it alone?!"

Everyone couldn’t escape from the scolding, as Hansi Flick didn’t hold back his words anymore. The atmosphere was so grim in the away team’s locker room that, if anyone didn’t know better, they would think someone had just died there.

This was a contrast scene compared to the home team’s situation, where it was like a party had just been thrown there.

Cheers could still be heard, with the head coach shouting and encouraging everyone for their excellent performance.

The one who was basked under the most praise was, of course, Morita, as Frohling had just learned what the boy had asked that allowed the team to seal Lewandowski earlier.

"Higo! Higo! Higo! I honestly lost any words to praise your craziness!" The boss shook his head in awe. "If I knew your plan was this screwed, I would never let you do that, you know?!"

"Well, fortunately, that works, right?" Higo smiled a little while he let the team’s physiotherapist massage his stiff calf and hamstring.

Frohling blinked for a second before he barked out a laugh, louder than ever.

"Yeah, good! That’s the spirit! As long as the result is good, I can allow some improvements here and there!" The man nodded in approval.

The other players just had the corners of their lips twitching at this blatant favoritism. They all knew that except for Morita, anyone else who dared to make an improvisation in the middle of the game would never survive the locker room.

Unfortunately, even they themselves knew that those two had all the right in the world to be favored by their boss.

They had done so much in carrying the team, and most importantly, they had never caused trouble for the boss, which made them an ideal player to be coached.

So, yeah, they could only have a wry smile, but the thought of envy or jealousy had never crossed their mind since they knew that those two Japanese dudes deserved all the praise here.

After the man was done praising Higo, his expression shifted to a serious one, enough to make the players know that it was time to talk about what they had to do next.

"While our approach is good enough to stop them in the first half, the second half will be different." The man stated bluntly, not beating around the bush.

"Even though they don’t know what we did in the first half, they would also realize that Lewandowski is less effective today, and while there is no way they would sub him off, they will change their scheme to get into our throat."

Everyone turned solemn, knowing that this would happen once the kick-off for the second half started.

After this, Frohling made some adjustments that he thought the team was lacking in the first half, like the support time from the midfield or even where to press to kick out the opponent’s attack from their territory.

He also pointed out the possibility of substitution, as Bayern still had two different types of wingers on their bench: Kingsley Coman and Jamal Musiala.

The first one was the speedy type like Leroy Sané, probably a little bit more aggressive since he was younger.

As for the latter, Higo remembered quite well that young man who debuted in the league against Schalke a few months ago, and how he managed to wreak havoc on their defense so easily, like it was just a walk in the park.

Once those two came in, the situation would be more complicated, especially when all the Schalke defenders were already reaching their exhaustion point.

The key should be on the timing of the substitution for Frohling and who he had to replace on the pitch, as some players like Rudy or even Nabil didn’t show up in their best state today.

Thinking about the trouble coming in the second half, even Higo himself couldn’t brush it off, finding the situation to be trickier than expected.

’Well, let’s hope that we can still survive the whole storm and come back alive later...’