Yugoslav Football's Final Swan Song?

The LED scoreboard hung high above Old Trafford.

The clock had reached 88:49.

2:1.

As they watched Bayer Leverkusen's number 10 on the pitch,

Manchester United fans inexplicably felt a little nervous.

Bayer Leverkusen's fans were growing excited.

Everyone knew how powerful the Chinese player's long-range shots were.

But his set-piece ability was a complete mystery.

In modern football, the technical gap between long shots and free kicks was like the gap between a mule and a stallion!

"Here comes the suspense!"

"Watching this scene from the bench, Çalhanoğlu must be dying to have another go!"

"If Bayer Leverkusen seize this free-kick opportunity, they'll equalize!"

"Difficult! De Gea is in excellent form. Even Çalhanoğlu's free kicks couldn't beat him!"

"Judging by the position of the wall, Leo Kang can't hit this directly. He'll probably set it up for Kießling!"

Tweet!

The referee blew his whistle.

Leo Kang still wore a calm expression.

He began his run-up.

Within God's Perspective,

the passage of time seemed to slow severalfold.

The area of shadow in his mind spread wildly.

Before him,

a black phantom wearing the number 11 shirt suddenly appeared.

With every step he took,

the black phantom became clearer.

Its movements and posture were beyond reproach.

The negative emotions it radiated also frantically devoured Leo Kang's consciousness.

Turmoil.

Disintegration.

Shattering.

Unwillingness.

Regret.

It was Yugoslav football's final swan song.

Leo Kang's steps and movements gradually synchronized with the phantom.

As he reached the ball,

he completely overlapped with the black phantom.

Within God's Perspective,

a shooting trajectory wreathed in black smoke abruptly appeared!

There was no wildly exaggerated shooting posture.

No explosive boom of a cannonball strike.

No elegant turn of the Crescent Moon Scimitar.

Old Trafford fell silent.

Every spectator and staff member stared fixedly at the ball's path!

That terrifying, bizarre arc!

It seemed ready to tear apart every player in the wall!!!

De Gea braced himself and shifted his feet.

The instant the ball cleared the wall,

he violently pushed off the turf with both feet!

Every curling shot,

just like Çalhanoğlu's free kicks,

was useless against him!

Just as his red gloves were about to pluck the ball from the air,

its trajectory changed.

De Gea's pupils contracted!

A sudden acceleration.

A sudden plunge.

It silently brushed past his fingertips.

Skimming the post,

it thundered into the net.

2:2.

The entire stadium was silent.

Time seemed to freeze for several seconds.

Then,

Old Trafford erupted in gasps of astonishment.

Even the commentators were so shocked that they could barely speak coherently.

"A free kick beyond words!"

"It defies the laws of physics!"

"What kind of divine technique does it take to make the ball change direction after clearing the wall!"

"A seventeen-year-old youngster actually possesses such exquisite free-kick mastery!!!"

"Leo Kang! A direct free-kick goal! He has helped Bayer Leverkusen equalize!"

In China's livestream chatroom,

the big screen replayed the goal in slow motion.

Only then did the fans notice

that the ball's spin was unbelievably violent!!!

The comments flooded the screen!

-

[Holy shit! You can only feel how insane that free kick was in slow motion!]

-

[It's like a work of art! Unfathomable!]

-

[Only Mihajlovic and Juninho could hit free kicks like that, right?]

-

[Who are those two? When it comes to free kicks, Carlos and Beckham were the best—the Heavy Black Iron Sword and the Crescent Moon Scimitar!]

-

[Look carefully at the replay—Leo Kang's kicking motion.]

The instant the ball went in,

all the negative emotions in Leo Kang's mind vanished at once.

He looked up at the match clock.

He once again refused his teammates' celebrations.

He retrieved the ball from the net

and ran toward the center circle.

The Manchester United fans at the stadium clearly had not fully recovered from their shock.

Bayer Leverkusen fans watching from home were stunned.

Quite a few fans who had criticized the club over the number 10 shirt incident felt secretly ashamed.

Who said Çalhanoğlu was the new generation's king of free kicks?

At the sideline,

Van Gaal furiously crushed a bottle of mineral water.

"Damn it! Can't we even hold on for the final few minutes?"

"Is that kid Balotelli? Or does he think an equalizer isn't enough?"

"Fuck! We push forward too!"

Giggs hurriedly handed him a new bottle of mineral water.

On the other side,

BellArabi and Çalhanoğlu lowered their heads deeply.

As normal human beings, embarrassment outweighed the joy of equalizing.

Schmidt and his assistant coach celebrated wildly.

"Defend! We have to hold on to this draw!"

"How much stoppage time is there again? Quick! Tell the players to defend for their lives!"

The fourth official raised the stoppage-time board at the edge of the center circle.

Three minutes.

Play resumed from the center circle.

Martial passed back to Herrera.

Manchester United pushed their formation forward like mad!

Having two goals pulled back late in the match had left too great a psychological scar!

Unfortunately,

Fellaini, that big clumsy brute, made a minor mistake coordinating with his teammate during the advance.

Son Heung-min completed the interception.

He immediately sent the ball to Leo Kang's feet.

Leo Kang gestured to push forward.

Yet none of his teammates made forward runs.

Captain Bender shouted from the back, "Pass it back! Leo!"

Schmidt and his assistant coach were also roaring wildly, "Defend!"

They were already satisfied

just to have equalized.

Modern football was not a one-man sport.

A trace of negative emotion arose in Leo Kang's mind.

Manchester United's players were pressing forward frantically.

Huge gaps had long appeared in their back line.

This was the best possible counterattacking opportunity.

He could only pass the ball back to Kramer.

"Bayer Leverkusen aren't in a hurry after equalizing. They want to slow the tempo of the match."

"Schmidt may be looking to take the advantage of two away goals into the second leg!"

-

[Bayer Leverkusen's coach still wants to crush Manchester United in the second leg? Rooney and Mata haven't even come on yet!]

-

[All he knows is clinging to that away-goals advantage. Pragmatic football is disgusting.]

-

[Leo Kang had just built up the team's momentum, and this idiot coach snuffed it out!]

In the final three minutes,

Leo Kang remained the focus of Old Trafford.

Manchester United launched a frantic assault.

Possession changed hands several times.

Yet Bayer Leverkusen's number 10 always appeared in the right place at the most crucial moment, disrupting the opposition's advance.

Manchester United's passing combinations in tight spaces

were also easily read by him.

Lingard and Martial on the front line were completely bewildered.

It was as if their intended runs

were also under the control of Bayer Leverkusen's Chinese player.

Van Gaal crushed another bottle of mineral water. "That kid is too damn weird!"

In the end,

the referee blew the final whistle.

Manchester United 2:2 Bayer Leverkusen.

The fans of both sides had complicated feelings.

I got back from overtime too late today, sorry. I'll thank everyone one by one in the next chapter. No more talking—I need to keep writing. There's no time.