"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!! Mario—Balotelli!!"
"One-one! One-one! Beautiful! Beautiful! AC Milan have equalized! The 83rd minute! AC Milan have equalized!!"
In the commentary box,
the commentators roared in unison.
The entire San Siro erupted.
On the pitch,
Balotelli's celebration after scoring was extremely showy.
He spread his arms and nodded toward the stands with an expression that clearly said, "That's all?"
But the rest of the AC Milan players were nowhere near as calm as Balotelli.
They swarmed him in a frenzy, smashing his head, chest, shoulders, and even his backside in excitement.
Their shouts were carried across the world by the television broadcast.
Then the screen switched.
The replay showed the entire move.
Thiago, who had come on as a substitute, tried to send in a cross to find Costa.
But veteran Ambrosini read it perfectly and intercepted the pass in midfield.
Ambrosini then launched a long ball out to the flank.
On the wing, the breakthrough specialist El Shaarawy received it, drove down the line, and whipped in a cross from near the byline. In the center of the box, Balotelli rose above Godín and headed the ball into the net.
AC Milan had completed a very simple, very quick counterattack.
Two passes.
A header from Balotelli.
That simple.
And yet it had blown the whole San Siro wide open.
"This is Italian football..."
He Wei shook his head.
"Now it looks like that 73rd-minute substitution was something Allegri had already planned. He was waiting for this exact moment!"
"All that slow tempo earlier was just to lull Atlético Madrid into a false sense of security!"
"Allegri really is Allegri!"
"He had been waiting for this moment all along!"
In the media area,
the Italian reporters were ecstatic.
The camera locked onto the touchline.
Allegri was running around with his arms raised.
Not far away, Simeone looked frustrated beyond words.
"We took the bait, damn it!"
Simeone spat.
Now Atlético had a problem.
There were still about ten minutes left, including stoppage time.
AC Milan had just scored and their morale was surging, and they were still at home.
As for Atlético?
They had been playing at a slow tempo for most of the match.
Simeone couldn't help worrying whether, if Milan came forward in waves from here on, Atlético would still be able to attack properly.
His eyes drifted toward Shane.
Then he sat back down on the bench.
Because Shane was already gathering the players on the field for a meeting.
...
"I want to apologize to you, brothers."
Shane took the blame onto himself.
"We underestimated them too much. We even thought their deep defending was basically surrender—but we forgot what kind of team they are. They are AC Milan. They have seven European Cups. How could we possibly have looked down on them like that? This goal is the punishment for underestimating them!"
The Atlético players formed a circle.
Shane stood in the middle.
"Next, they will definitely push forward. This is their home ground, and they will not be satisfied with a draw!"
"And the simplest way to kill their momentum is to score. Brothers, get yourselves up! Let's hit them with another one! If they were pretending to surrender before, then we'll break them with our attack!"
Shane roared through gritted teeth.
He knew he had fallen for Allegri's trap.
That guy had been waiting for this moment from the very beginning.
This opponent... really wasn't simple.
But I am even less simple!
Shane was fired up.
Beating this opponent would give him enormous satisfaction.
...
Allegri stood at the touchline in excitement, shouting for his team to push up and attack.
But when play restarted,
he immediately noticed that Atlético's morale had not dropped after conceding.
Shane took control of the attack.
Atlético's shape quickly pushed forward.
Allegri's brow tightened.
He waved for his team to drop back into defense again.
Soon,
three Atlético players were pressing into the box.
Costa, Griezmann, and substitute Thiago.
The ball was at Shane's feet.
He drove it to the top of the penalty area.
Then he laid it off sideways to Raúl García and moved into the box himself.
By that point,
there were already four Atlético players inside AC Milan's box.
And since Shane was a midfielder who had pushed into the penalty area,
all the defensive responsibility was being left to Mario Suárez.
At that moment,
AC Milan also saw a counterattacking chance.
Shane's movement into the box had drawn the defense in, leaving some of the other zones open.
"You think we're idiots?"
Muntari muttered.
He stayed tight behind Shane while his teammates moved to intercept the ball.
If they could win it there,
AC Milan could counter and make it 2-1.
Even if Atlético had an away goal,
the match would still be in Milan's favor.
As expected,
Raúl García passed the ball to Shane, who had his back to goal.
At that instant,
Ambrosini and Montolivo both surged toward Shane.
His run into the box was too obvious.
So they had already prepared for it.
But at that very moment,
Shane moved too.
He did not wait in place for the ball.
He attacked it.
After slipping slightly away from his marker, he met the ball, and with his back to goal, without stopping it or laying it off, he did something else entirely.
He raised the instep of his right foot.
The ball struck the instep and, while still rolling upward, he gave a slight flick with his lower leg.
He chipped it diagonally backward.
"A beautiful little chip! Costa!!"
The commentators had no time to admire how exquisite Shane's pass was.
The ball flew over the defenders' heads.
And landed in the most dangerous place of all—the six-yard line!
Only 5.5 meters from goal!
Costa was turning his body, looking ready to smash it first time.
"Stay on him!" Abbiati shouted.
AC Milan's two center-backs dropped back, while Muntari, Ambrosini, and the others rushed back to cover.
Almost everyone's attention was on Costa.
As a striker, standing just over five meters from goal,
even with defenders in front of him, the first instinct was surely to shoot.
But...
to everyone's surprise,
Costa did not shoot.
Instead, with Mexès on his back, he used his left instep to push the ball backward.
"Watch out!!!"
In the commentators' cries of alarm,
the ball flew behind the direction of the attack.
Because of the pressure he was under,
Costa had originally intended to keep the ball low.
But instead it popped up into the air.
Shane was already running onto it...
If he took a touch, the chance would be gone.
So...
under everyone's wide-eyed stare,
he lifted his leg...
"SUUUUUUUUUU!!"
"A VOLLEY!!"
Amid the gasps,
Shane leaned back slightly, planted his left foot firmly on the ground, drove power through his core, and swung his right leg like a whip at the dropping ball.
Bang!
A thunderous sound rang out.
Everyone instinctively closed their eyes.
The next second,
when they opened them again, the ball had already bulged the net and was spinning inside it...
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