At fifty-nine minutes, de Roon switched the play with a diagonal ball to Lookman on the left wing, and the English winger brought it down perfectly before cutting inside onto his right foot, his eyes scanning for a shooting opportunity, but three white shirts blocked his path so he played it square to Demien instead.
The pass came to Demien's right foot and he controlled it facing forward, and this was the position he'd played from for years in David Drinkwater's body—central midfield, twenty-five yards from goal, time and space to pick a pass.
He could see everything developing: Højlund checking back centrally, Hateboer overlapping right with space ahead, Koopmeiners drifting into the right half-space between Sampdoria's lines.
The choice was obvious once he saw it—Koopmeiners arriving late where they weren't tracking him. Demien opened his body toward the right and swept a forty-yard diagonal across the field, the weight perfect as it dropped into Koopmeiners' path.
