Peter Drury felt it coming before the pass was played. "Brandt again... Dorgu commits... and Brandt escapes him again."
Gary Neville's voice was quieter, almost resigned. "You can't keep diving in like that. You just can't."
Lukas was still close to the halfway line when he struck the pass. With the outside of his left boot, he wrapped his foot around the ball and sent a curling trivela through the air, bending it around Luke Shaw and De Ligt as if the pass had been drawn with a compass. Shaw was labouring to get back, legs heavy after an afternoon of chasing shadows, while De Ligt stretched desperately to intercept, throwing one leg into the passing lane. The ball swerved around the end of his boot by inches and dropped perfectly into Haaland's path just outside the penalty area.
Bayındır froze.
