Chapter 977: So Close to the End...

Soon enough, in the 75th minute of the game, Bayern finally made three changes in a row.

The young French winger, Kingsley Coman, came to replace Leroy Sané, who hadn’t done well today, while their backup striker, Choupo-Moting, also stepped onto the pitch to add the gunpowder as he replaced Leon Goretzka.

Then, another aggressive wingback, Lucas Hernandez, also entered the pitch for Niklas Sule, as the team really needed another reinforcement from the defensive line.

Now, their formation switched to the aggressive 4-1-3-2, and in reality, the two center backs on the defensive line could even move forward to support Kimmich in reorganizing the game.

Honestly, this was the most offensive strategy that they could pull right now, intending to break Schalke’s defense to pieces.

However, Frohling also took an action immediately.

He saw that Nabil Bentaleb and Malick Thiaw had already slowed down a little bit due to exhaustion, so he took them off for Bastian ?zcipka and Jonas Hofmann to solidify the midfield.

Not only that, but he also brought another new defender to replace Fabian Reese, trying to add more numbers to combat Bayern’s aggressiveness.

So, the last fifteen minutes became way more chaotic, with Bayern trying their best to gain their first lead of the day.

"Kingsley, don’t hog it for too long! Pass the ball back if you cannot do it!"

"Eric! Keep pushing forward! Don’t think too much about anything else, just wait on the box!"

"Jamal! Get it through!"

Thud!

Another chance came for Bayern’s side, as Jamal Musiala finally managed to beat Sead Kolasinac for once before he whipped a low cross into the box.

Three players were there. Lewandowski extended his right foot far to reach the ball, Thomas Muller was waiting behind if the ball bounced back, and Choupo-Moting waited on the far post if the ball managed to slip through everyone else.

Fortunately, Higo shifted forward quickly before diving straight in front of Lewandowski, blocking the ball completely with his fist.

The rebound also went far outside of the box, which made Muller fail to get his foot on it first to put it on the empty net behind Higo.

However, David Alaba was somehow close enough to the box to receive the wild ball, and with a half-volley shot, he swung his left foot to whack the ball as hard as he could.

BAM!

’FUCK!’ Higo cursed as he hadn’t been able to recover quickly enough from his fall.

Well, he didn’t need to worry about anything else, as the ball just floated far above the crossbar.

"Damn! Omar! Jonas! Keep an eye on the midfield! Get ready to cover a long shot if they get the second ball! I cannot always be in position to do anything, for God’s sake!" He roared at the midfielders.

Those two had their face ashen, not just from the scolding, but also because they knew that this was a pure blunder on their part. After all, how could they not notice the opponent’s center back had already sneaked into their territory like that?!

The attack didn’t stop just like that. No, if anything, it grew wilder than ever, as more people encircled Schalke’s territory at this point.

Hell, Higo started to get a headache as he saw that almost 20 people were on the box, all fighting so close in front of him.

’It has been a long time since we truly faced this kind of encirclement, right?’ He muttered under his breath. ’Damn! This is too much for my heart!’

Well, even though he was complaining, Higo still showed his top performance, guiding the whole defensive system to support him while also guarding the goal with his own life.

He had faced so many threats at this point, from a shot so close to his face, a tap-in that should go in if not for the help of his clairvoyance ability, or even a shot from a difficult angle to test his limits.

It was clear as time ticked by that all the Bayern players were so frustrated beyond death, wanting nothing but to strangle Higo on the spot.

"Yeah, this is what having the best goalkeeper in the league will do for you." Michael Ballack nodded in approval.

"It doesn’t just protect your goal, but also raise your players’ morale as well. Look, everyone is willing to defend with all their blood and sweat, knowing that Higo would always have their back."

"This makes them think that their hard work will not be wasted, as even if they make a mistake, someone will still be able to sweep it under the rug."

"Now, Hansi Flick has to rack his brain to think of something here. He doesn’t have that much time left, and he has already used all of his substitution quota. Getting a draw here will be unacceptable for them."

The man described the whole situation perfectly. As they got closer to the 90th minute, it was Schalke who somehow gained the momentum. Even though they failed to get a win that they hoped for, a draw against Bayern was still a huge achievement nowadays.

Compared to that, it was Bayern who were under greater pressure. All of their players were sweating like bullets, trying to use everything in their arsenal to at least get closer to Higo again.

Hell, their frustration reached its peak once they found that the fourth referee had already raised the electronic board on the sideline.

4 minutes of additional time, nothing more and nothing less.

This made the panic grow bigger, as now they resorted to a desperate attempt from the most difficult position to score the goal.

It was less effective and logical, but they were desperate here, and people like them would always do anything, even the stupidest method, to cope with everything in their life.

Honestly, with how the game went, everyone had already thought that a draw should be in the bag at this point. However, in the 92nd minute, Kingsley Coman tried to lift the ball to the penalty box, just to get blocked by Timo Becker.

This resulted in a corner kick for Bayern, which was also going to be the last chance of the game.