God Of football

Chapter 1004: Last Of Dying Breed!

Harry Kane’s pass back to start the game went farther than intended, as the moment he sent it back, Kimmich let it go past him.

And in doing so, he let Dayot Upamecano step onto it first.

The French defender glanced forward before sliding it square to Kim Min-jae, who, in turn, quickly sent it to Laimer on the left, but Arsenal had still not pressed yet.

They just hovered, with their frontline being the only thing in the way of the Bayern players, while the midfield stood just behind their side of the halfway line.

On the sidelines was Vincent Kompany, who was a bit surprised at the freedom and extended time on the ball that the Arsenal players were giving his men and that made him glance a bit towards Arteta.

"What are you trying to play at?" he muttered, and as if he had heard, Arteta turned to face Vincent Kompany before nodding towards the Bayern Coach.

Kompany nodded back before looking back at the pitch where his players had started occupying the spaces left by the Arsenal team.

"Bayern Munich... feeling their way into the night. Probing the edges of this Arsenal side that has made Europe sit up and listen," Peter Drury noted as Kim carried the ball forward a few strides before feeding it out towards Serge Gnabry on the left flank.

Taking the ball in stride, the German forward didn’t hesitate for a second and just pushed it ahead with a sharp first touch and accelerated down the left, the wet turf spraying beneath his boots.

Jurrien Timber tracked him patiently, not falling for the bait that Serge Gnabry was trying to pull him into.

And seeing as his tricks weren’t working, Gnabry slowed and then cut the ball inside before laying it off to Lennart Karl, who was drifting into the half-space.

"Lovely pass by Serge Gnabry. And now the new gem that has been unearthed, Lennart Karl has the ball in tow."

The latter tried to glide past his marker with one of those tight, delicate turns that made him so difficult to read, but Declan Rice stepped across at the right moment with a firm shoulder and perfect timing.

The Emirates went off as the ball popped loose, but Arsenal didn’t counter as Bayern expected.

Instead, Zubimendi, taking hold of the loose ball, immediately touched it back to Rice, who took a touch, looked up, and then calmly sent the ball back deeper into his own half, inviting Bayern to step forward again.

Drury hummed approvingly.

"A careful opening exchange... like two fencers testing distance but Arsenal now have the ball."

However, Drury’s words were like a curse as Rice immediately lost the ball to Kimmich, who had stepped up way out of position.

The German clipped a diagonal toward the right, with the ball zooming over the head of Myles Lewis-Skelly and into Micheal Olise, who cushioned it with the outside of his boot and darted inward, gliding across the wet grass with the kind of pace that forced Arsenal’s defensive line to shuffle quickly.

William Saliba stepped out to meet him, long stride matching the Frenchman’s burst.

In the next second, the former backed out of the one-on-one slowly and tried to slip a pass toward Kane’s feet at the edge of the box, but Saliba stretched just enough to nick it away.

"Ow, that was necessary. That could have been the ball in the back of the net had Saliba allowed it to go past him."

The ball spun awkwardly away from the edge of Arsenal’s box, skipping once on the grass before drifting toward midfield.

For a brief second, nobody seemed certain who would reach it first, but eventually they all saw Izan gallop towards the ball drifting back from the forward line as the play unfolded, and now the loose ball rolled straight into his stride.

Behind him, Aleksandar Pavlović suddenly appeared and planted himself like a barricade, ready to close the space, but that still didn’t slow down Izan.

Instead, he nudged the ball past Pavlović with the outside of his boot in one quick motion and spun after it, trying to slip around him before the midfielder could react.

But Pavlović reacted immediately, stretching an arm across the chest before tugging at Izan’s shoulder.

Izan tried forcing it, seeing the space ahead and what could be if he could go, but at the last moment, his balance broke, and the referee’s whistle followed immediately.

"Eyyyyyyy," the Emirates roared in outrage, but in the gantry, Peter Drury had a different perspective.

"Call it what you will," he said calmly over the chaos, "but that’s smart."

The replay rolled briefly across the broadcast, and some could see why he said that.

"Because if Pavlović lets him through there," Drury continued, "... it’s suddenly Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min-jae, and Josip Stanišić staring at Izan Hernández with fifty yards of grass ahead of him."

Drury let that image settle for a moment.

"And we’ve seen him dismantle far better defences than that."

On the pitch, the referee walked toward Pavlović with a raised hand, offering a stern warning.

The Bayern midfielder accepted it with a nod.

He then reached down and grabbed Izan’s arm, pulling him back to his feet.

While all this went on, the Emirates noticed two red shirts moving forward, namely, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães.

They were jogging up from the back, and all could see their destination and that got the crowd on their feet instinctively, which made Drury chuckle softly.

"Well, it seems... Arsenal have now embraced the ’Set-Piece FC’ conversation with open arms."

Players began to cluster inside Bayern’s box with shirts from both sides jostling for position on the damp turf.

Izan, standing over the ball, glanced once toward the penalty area, watching as the final bodies settled into place.

Then he stepped back, three paces before the whistle sounded.

Then, with a slow run-up, he struck through the ball with his laces.

The contact was clean, but it suddenly began climbing higher than expected.

For a moment, confusion rippled through the stadium as some fans even began to murmur.

But then the ball began to dip.

Violently.

The entire box erupted into movement, anticipating where the ball would drop.

"Goodness me, look at the drop on that!" Drury exclaimed as bodies collided beneath it.

Upamecano leapt.

So did Kane.

But rising above them all was Gabriel.

The Brazilian powered upward, meeting the falling ball with a thunderous header.

"Gabriel...!"

Drury screamed as the header screamed toward the goal, but then,

"Against the crossbar!!"

The metal rang across the stadium like a gunshot as the rebound exploded back into the air.

And this time, Upamecano reacted first.

The French defender jumped again and headed the ball clear, sending it looping away from danger toward the edge of the box.

Bayern fans exhaled as relief flooded the away section.

For about half a second.

Because they saw who was standing underneath the dropping ball.

And suddenly, Drury’s voice rose in the gantry.

"HERNÁNDEZ!"

The camera found him just as the ball fell, but Izan didn’t control it.

He simply watched it descend.

Then he lifted his right leg and met it perfectly.

The volley cracked like thunder as the ball tore through the rain in a straight, savage line toward the roof of the net.

Manuel Neuer moved instantly, springing across his goal with arms outstretched above his head, but it was already past him.

The net bulged violently before pandemonium, chaos and reverie broke out all at once and all of a sudden.

"THERE IT IS! OH, THERE IT IS! THIS IS THE APEX. THIS IS THE PEAK OF FOOTBALLING ABILITY! A TECHNIQUE THAT HAS BEEN LOST IN THE TECHNICALITIES OF CURRENT FOOTBALL, IZAN SHOWS THAT HE IS THE LAST OF A DYING BREED!"

Drury almost laughed through the chaos.

"THAT IS GOAL NUMBER NINETY-ONE, AND HE HAS ETCHED HIS NAME ONCE AGAIN IN THE ANNALS OF FOOTBALL HISTORY! LEVEL WITH THE ONE MOST SEE AS THE GREATEST OF THE SPORT!"

The roar of the Emirates rolled like an avalanche as Izan sprinted toward the corner flag.

Halfway there, he dropped into a slide across the wet grass, arms stretched wide as the red number ten on his back shimmered beneath the drizzle before he was swarmed by his mates.