CHAPTER 106: THE WAKE UP (BY DEMYA_THE_HEALER)

The stadium, except for the 5,000+ Leverkusen fans at the away end, was quiet. They were being rocked in their own home. But the worst was yet to come.

The worst came four minutes later.

Started by Granit Xhaka again. He was having the time of his life.

Garcia had just won the ball off Götze in the middle of the pitch and passed to Wirtz to his left.

Florian Wirtz easily skipped past the challenge from Brown before passing the ball back to Xhaka.

Once Xhaka got the ball, Lukas, who was behind him, closed him down immediately. But he didn’t try to keep the ball, as he lobbed a pass from his own half over the entire midfield and backline into the path of Grimaldo towards the left side of the penalty area.

Grimaldo took one touch into the box, one glance at the middle of the box, and cut it back perfectly for Patrick Schick.

Schick, arriving in the box, struck it cleanly through the crowd of bodies and past Trapp as he ran to celebrate with Grimaldo.

"Like a hot knife through butter! Eintracht Frankfurt is being sliced through by Leverkusen. 3–0 in the 33rd minute. Still over an hour of football to play, this could get nasty.

Patrick Schick just can’t seem to stop scoring at the moment. He makes it 14 goals in his last 16 Bundesliga matches."

"There is someone else on the pitch with a record very similar to that — Lukas Brandt with 7 goals in 6 Bundesliga matches — but he has generally been kept quiet, at least for this opening half hour."

"That’s right, Wolf, we haven’t really seen the Lukas we saw at the Allianz Arena last week. That ability to pick out a killer pass or hold the ball even under immense pressure. Even his speed, which we know he has in great quantity, are all things we haven’t seen — so far, at least."

"But what does it say about this current Frankfurt team that literally a 16-year-old is who they are looking at for invention, for spark. A teenager with less than two months of professional football."

"I think it says more about the talent of the kid and the numbers he has put up right from his debut game. Looking at the numbers, even his half-season at the reserve level was unimaginable. But I think it’ll be horrible to judge someone like this based only on their stats. He will never be able to keep putting up such outrageous numbers as time goes on."

As the commentators discussed Lukas’s game so far, Lukas was having a discussion with himself.

"What on earth is going on? Xhaka keeps getting the ball in lots of space. Should I drop deeper?"

While he was still thinking, coach Toppmöller had already finished thinking.

"HUGO!" Toppmöller screamed out for Ekitike, who was walking up to the centerline, and gestured for him to come closer.

"Tell Lukas to drop deeper into the midfield and help Götze and Skhiri. If he gets the ball, you start your run. Tell him not to bother with the flanks. Tell Elly to follow Xhaka — do not give him too much space, especially not when he is in our half."

Ekitike nodded his head as he jogged towards Lukas, then Skhiri, to relay their coach’s instructions.

They both nodded as he told them what the coach had said before walking to the centerline.

Lukas, especially, glanced at Toppmöller’s direction as they exchanged a tacit nod. "I guess we both think alike," Lukas thought as he took a few steps backwards.

The referee’s whistle blew, and the game resumed with a fourth successive kick-off by Eintracht Frankfurt in only 33 minutes.

Ekitike passed to Larsson — as he did the previous three times — but this time Larsson had Lukas right in front of him telling him to wait. The Swede left the ball for Lukas — just trapping the ball and getting out of the way. He knew if Lukas was with the ball while facing the Leverkusen players directly, the chances of losing it were close to none.

Lukas collected the ball and, once he glanced up, he saw Schick arching his run to close him down from one side while Wirtz did the same from the opposite side.

Schick was the closest, and was by far the easiest to beat. Lukas feigned like he was going to move in the direction Schick was coming from, causing the Czech to check his run as he slowed down to block the escape route while throwing his foot forward.

The ball rolled from Lukas’s left foot to his right, and then forward into space as Lukas leaped above Schick’s foot to receive it before passing to Götze at the halfway line, right as Wirtz closed in on him.

His run, however, didn’t stop as he lost Wirtz — his marker — and got to the halfway line. Götze flicked the ball into Lukas’s path, and although he had to slow down a bit and stretch his leg backwards to get it, one touch was all it needed to be perfectly in stride with him, and he broke through the middle.

Aleix Garcia was the next victim in the casualty list as he came to stop Lukas’s run while Xhaka followed Skhiri, who was now making a run alongside Lukas.

Lukas, with his left foot, cut the ball to his right, then his left, then his right again, and just as Garcia stretched his legs to try and nick it, the ball went through his legs as Lukas skipped past him too while he turned and tried to grab him to no avail.

Lukas took one look forward and saw Ekitike in space just between Tah and Hermoso, and with the inside of his right foot, he played a De-Bruyne-esque pass.

It was something he did over and over in the LTC session when he summoned the KDB ego.

The ball rolled on the pitch as it curled around Hermoso and straight into Ekitike’s foot right at the edge of the penalty area.

Ekitike didn’t take a touch, didn’t look at the goal — just blasted the ball right into the top corner: an instinctive finish.

"FRANKFURT HAVE ONE BACK!"

"What a pass! Ohhh, what a pass! Lukas Brandt has provided the very much-needed inspiration to put Eintracht Frankfurt back in the game. You can keep him quiet, but not for long!"

Ekitike ran into the net, picked up the ball, and ran back down the pitch with the Eintracht Frankfurt players, high-fiving Lukas on the way as they both jogged back.

Lukas had provided the very first spark Eintracht Frankfurt needed to get back into the game, and from here onwards, they were in the ascendance.

A/N: First gift Chapter courtesy of Demya_The_Healer. Another will be released tomorrow. Thank you so much once again.

You all have a lovely week.

-Writ.