Become A Football Legend

"Kim gets there before Kristensen as he clears the ball out of the penalty area. Bayern Munich could break on the counter— OH WAIT A MINUTE! The ball bounces perfectly in front of Brandt... BRANDTTTT!!!"

The ball looped up off the turf, hanging for a split second in no man's land. Lukas had already judged the bounce, timing his stride to perfection. As the ball rose just inches from the ground, his body coiled like a spring — left foot planted firm, right leg swinging through with controlled fury. The strike connected flush, leather smacking against boot with a sharp crack. The half-volley rocketed forward, skimming low but with venom, skipping once before tearing toward the bottom left corner of Neuer's goal.

Even with the number of bodies packed in the box, the shot evaded almost everyone. From Musiala, who sensed the danger and came out quickly to block the attempt at the last minute, to Dier whose legs were outstretched just in front of Neuer to deflect the venomous shot.

ALMOST everyone.

There was a wall in goal for Bayern Munich, though.

Neuer got down hard and fast. His arms fully stretched out as he got the slightest touch on the ball, tipping it out of target and out of play for a corner.

"Neuer with a lightning reaction and a world-class save!"

Toppmöller threw his hands up to celebrate the almost certain goal, but turned it to an applause after the save. He was very pleased with the response he was seeing from his team.

Kristensen jogged to the opposite side to take the corner, while Lukas positioned at the edge of the penalty area like he did previously. This time, however, he had Musiala for company right next to him.

Kristensen's corner wasn't of the same quality as Knauff's, though, as it was cleared by Müller right at the front post and Bayern launched the counterattack.

Musiala, who was initially standing next to Lukas, was off to the races. Olise and Sané also joined in the counterattack as they both flew forward.

Müller was running with the ball close to the right flank with Kristensen, who took the corner, chasing him closely. Theate and Højlund followed Olise and Sané down the middle and the left flank respectively.

Or they tried to.

It wasn't a close race, as the Bayern players pulled farther away with every stride.

Müller sent a through pass to Sané at the other end of the pitch once they got to the center line, and suddenly, it was a 3 v 2.

Olise, Sané, Musiala, against Lukas—the only player keeping up with the trio in pace—and Larsson who had stayed back during both corners.

"This is a dangerous situation for Eintracht Frankfurt. Sané with acres of space to run into and options to choose from. Will he go all the way? Fine pass to Olise at the edge of the box. Olise to double the lead... NO! He's been brought down by Lukas Brandt, or so he claims. And the referee concurs! Penalty for Bayern Munich!"

Sané put Olise through on goal at the edge of the penalty area. Olise took a touch to steady himself and raised his left foot to take a shot.

In the blink of an eye, however, he was on the ground as his boot seemed to have hit something akin to a brick wall instead of the ball. He looked to his side and saw Lukas get up quickly and Trapp collect the loose ball without wasting any time. He then turned to the referee with his hands raised as Sascha Stegemann put the whistle to his lips, blew it and pointed to the penalty spot.

Immediately, Trapp, Lukas, and Larsson ran towards the referee. "I didn't even touch him!" Lukas protested.

The referee did not say anything, he just put his hand in his pocket, and showed Lukas a yellow card. It was his first booking in his career.

"Let VAR take a look," Trapp said to Lukas and Larsson as he tried to get them to stop surrounding the referee so he wouldn't book them again. He turned to the referee, "He blocked the shot cleanly, he did not touch the player."

Stegemann, the referee, put his hand up to tell Trapp to pause as he put his other hand to his ear where the communication earpiece was connected and listened to the communication from the VAR.

"After the replays, the on-field decision is not going to stand. I don't think so. Brandt's tackle is clean, almost too clean. Olise hits the ball onto his tackling leg. It's a fair tackle.

The video assistant referee today is Robert Schröder with Holger Henschel as his assistant. They are currently communicating with the referee, I think they're gonna ask him to come see the replays."

Just as the commentators thought, Stegemann was asked to come to the on-pitch screen to see the replays by the VAR.

He blew his whistle, made the VAR sign in the air, and jogged to the touchline.

The jeers and boos from the Allianz Arena could not be understated. Even as the tackle was replayed over and over on the Jumbotron, the whistling just kept getting louder with each iteration. It was clear to them that the penalty was not gonna be awarded, but they tried to create an atmosphere where the referee would be hard-pressed to go against them.

But it was such a fair tackle anyone could tell the decision was about to be overturned. It wasn't one of those that could be left to the referee's interpretation.

So there was no surprise as Stegemann blew his whistle, and cancelled the penalty. He then jogged to Lukas, brought out his yellow card from his pocket, and cancelled that too.

Lukas smiled and gave Stegemann a thumbs up as he put the card back in his pocket and whistled for the continuation of the match.

From that point onward, Lukas became public enemy number one to all the Bayern fans in the stadium — some 60,000+ people.

The match resumed with an Eintracht Frankfurt goal kick. This time, however, they were in the game. Not as much as Bayern, but more than the first 20 minutes of the game.

They pressed in perfect rhythm, and although Bayern still maintained their quality, they were being forced into mistakes.

One such mistake came in the 34th minute.

Ito received the ball from Kim after a Bayern goal kick taken short. And immediately, Lukas pounced.

He had read the pass Kim was most likely to make, and once the ball left Kim's feet, Lukas closed down Ito immediately.

The fullback was caught off guard and before he could find a pass to beat the press, Lukas poked the ball away from him near the touchline at the left edge of the pitch.

Ito tried to recover the ball quickly, but Lukas didn't linger in possession as he threaded a through pass into Ekitike's run in the box.

Ekitike hit the ball first time but it was just off target as it blasted into the side netting.

Neuer berated his defense as they almost conceded the lead twice in less than 15 minutes after going one-nil up.

He had to pull out a world-class save once, and had to rely on luck the second time because Ekitike's shot was aiming for the roof of the net from his near post. If it was on target, he knew he wasn't saving that.

The resulting goal kick this time was launched into the midfield, but the Bayern defenders had now recognized the threat that was called Lukas Brandt. His ability to turn a situation around with one pass and his eye for goal was not lost on them.

Kompany, on the touchline, the ever-so-calm manager, was now screaming for his team to control the game. It felt like the game had been slipping away from their tight grip after the first goal.

"DO NOT GIVE HIM SPACE ON THE BALL! KEEP POSSESSION! CONTROL THE GAME!"

Those were the instructions he was screaming to his midfield and defense as the game went on.

Toppmöller, a few meters away from him, had a completely opposite mood. He stood calmly, his arms crossed behind his back as he watched the game unfold.

They were one goal down in the Allianz Arena, but it did not feel like it. The situation all changed after the youngest player on the pitch gathered his teammates after the goal and gave a speech. He still didn't know exactly what Lukas said. But whatever it was, it obviously had an impact on his teammates.

In the 41st minute, Bayern got a chance to double their lead before half-time. And by half-time, some Bayern fans were probably wishing they never had that chance.

Sané received the ball from Pavlović down the flank. With his first touch, he beat Collins as he curved his run into the box.

He had Müller, Olise, and Musiala for company in the box with him, but Sané decided to go for glory himself.

"SANÉ!!!!"