Become A Football Legend Chapter 400: Halftime (2)

The young wing-back swallowed but said nothing.

Amorim pointed toward the pitch beyond the walls.

"I told you. Get close to him. Body. Use your body. Use your legs. Use your brain. Don’t let him turn. Don’t let him run at you. Don’t wait for him to decide what he wants to do. You are letting him choose everything. Every time he receives, you wait. Every time he moves, you react late. This cannot happen."

Dorgu dropped his gaze again, staring at the floor between his boots.

Amorim let the silence sit for a second before forcing himself to calm down. He looked away, exhaled, then turned toward the tactical board. Carlos Fernandes stepped beside him and handed over the marker.

"For the second half, we change the support. Amad, you help Patrick. Every time Brandt receives wide, you are there. Not five seconds later. Immediately. Double up. Force him backward. If he comes inside, Ugarte closes the lane. If he goes outside, Patrick, you show him the line and you make contact. No free running."

Amad nodded.

Amorim turned toward Bruno.

"Bruno, when you get the ball, do not take three touches. One look, then forward. Šeško, you run the back line every time Bruno receives. Every time. Make Dias and Gvardiol turn. We are not going to pass through City if we play slow. We go behind them. We make them defend toward their own goal."

Bruno looked up properly now.

"Understood."

"Good. Because if we go back out there with the same body language, they will score five or six. This is not about tactics anymore. This is about pride. You win the next forty-five minutes. Even if the game is gone, you win the next forty-five minutes."

Around the room, players began adjusting their socks and shirts. Boots were tightened. Tape was checked. Shoulders straightened. It wasn’t belief exactly, not yet, but at least the silence had changed into something that resembled readiness.

Across the corridor, Manchester City’s dressing room felt entirely different.

Pep Guardiola had already finished most of his halftime talk. The instructions had been sharp, controlled, and specific: don’t get emotional, don’t chase the fourth too early, keep Rodri protected, don’t allow Bruno to turn, and when United pushed wing-backs higher, attack the space behind them immediately. Nobody in sky blue looked satisfied. They were three-nil up in a derby, but Guardiola had made it clear that comfort was the easiest way to invite trouble.

As the players began standing to head back toward the tunnel, Pep walked across the room toward Lukas.

Lukas had just finished pulling his shirt back into place when the manager reached him, placed an arm around his shoulders, and leaned close enough that only a few nearby players could hear.

"Lukas."

The teenager turned.

Pep’s expression was serious, but there was a glint in his eyes.

"Get the hat-trick before the seventieth minute, yeah? Then I take you off, and they give you the standing ovation."

For a second, Lukas just looked at him.

Then he smiled.

Pep gave him a light smack on the back of the head and pushed him toward the door.

"Go."

Lukas laughed under his breath and jogged after the others, following Haaland, Foden and Bernardo back into the tunnel.

The second half was waiting.

* * *

The second half began with Manchester United carrying something they had completely lacked before the interval.

Fire.

They pushed higher from the restart, snapped into challenges quicker, and threw bodies toward City’s midfield as though Amorim’s words were still ringing in their ears. Every loose ball was attacked. Every City touch was pressed. The away section sensed it immediately and began to make noise again, desperate for one goal, one mistake, one moment that could give their team something to cling to.

The biggest change was obvious.

Lukas no longer had Patrick Dorgu alone.

Whenever the ball travelled toward City’s right flank, Amad immediately dropped back to help, forming a double wall around the German. Dorgu stayed close enough to block the line but far enough away not to be spun too easily, while Amad angled his body inside, waiting to steal the ball if Lukas tried to cut between them. It was cautious, but it was smarter than anything United had attempted in the first half.

In the forty-eighth minute, Bernardo Silva received possession near the right half-space and rolled it out to Lukas on the touchline. Before the ball even reached him, Dorgu was already there, shoulders low, eyes fixed on the ball. Amad closed from inside almost at the same time, and for the first time all afternoon, Lukas tried to force the duel. He dropped his shoulder, pushed the ball forward and attempted to burst between the two United players, but Amad timed his challenge perfectly, poking it away at the last second. Dorgu recovered the loose ball, immediately found Ugarte, and the Uruguayan moved it quickly into Bruno Fernandes.

Bruno did not delay.

With one glance, he switched the ball to Mbeumo on United’s right, where Nico O’Reilly suddenly found himself isolated. Mbeumo attacked him directly, pushing the ball down the outside and forcing O’Reilly into a sprint toward his own byline. The City full-back chased hard, but Mbeumo reached the ball first and clipped a dangerous first-time cross into the penalty area, where Šeško rose between Dias and Gvardiol and powered a header toward goal.

Donnarumma reacted sharply.

The Italian goalkeeper threw up a strong left hand and tipped the effort over the bar.

It was a real warning.

Lukas, still near the right touchline, raised one hand in apology toward his teammates, knowing the break had started from his turnover. Guardiola was already standing on the touchline, but instead of anger, he gave him a sharp clap and shouted across the pitch.

"Don’t worry about it, Luke! Keep going!"

Lukas nodded once, dropped his hand and jogged back into position.

United took the corner, but City cleared it, and for the next ten minutes the match tightened into something more physical. United’s double-team made it harder for Lukas to receive cleanly, and Dorgu, with Amad now beside him, began to regain some confidence. But City did not panic. Rodri slowed the rhythm when it needed slowing, Bernardo kept finding little pockets to escape pressure, and Foden drifted between United’s midfield and defence with the patience of a player waiting for one gap to appear.

It came in the 60th minute.

United had committed bodies forward again, searching desperately for a way back into the derby, but when the move broke down on the edge of City’s box, the counterattack opened down the left. Doku received and immediately turned Mazraoui, shimming past him with a burst of acceleration before driving into the space along the flank. Yoro came across to meet him, backpedalling toward the edge of the penalty area, while Haaland thundered into the box and Lukas began his own run from the opposite side, cutting diagonally from the right wing into the central lane.

Doku slowed near the corner of the box, feinting once, twice, teasing Yoro as if he might burst down the outside. Instead, he rolled the ball back to Nico O’Reilly, who had arrived in support. Šeško tried to close O’Reilly down, but the City full-back’s first touch took the ball away from pressure, and his second pass split the line beautifully into Foden’s feet.

Foden received with his back to goal.

Bruno was tight behind him.

Lukas was arriving on his left.

Foden saw it without needing to turn fully. With the outside of his boot, he flicked the ball around Bruno Fernandes and into Lukas’ path, then immediately spun away and continued his run into the penalty area. The exchange was so sharp that Bruno hesitated for half a second, caught between following Foden and stepping toward Lukas.

That half-second was enough.