Chapter 498 - 104 — Fulham Away (IV)

Fulham’s attacking players started visibly tiring past the seventy-fifth minute, though Ten Hag waited a little longer to change things since United had begun controlling possession again on their own.

Demien’s stamina had become impossible to miss by this point.

Palhinha was still physically strong, but he wasn’t closing with the same frequency he had in the first half.

Eriksen arrived a fraction later to every second ball now.

Half the pitch had slowed down around him.

Demien hadn’t.

Ten Hag made his next moves around the seventy-eighth minute — Mount for Eriksen, Martial for

That changed Demien’s role again.

With Eriksen off, he became the primary controller sitting behind Bruno and Mount, Mount’s fresher legs allowing him to press higher up the pitch, Martial offering a completely different central movement pattern — checking away from the center-backs instead of constantly occupying them.

Demien used it almost immediately.

Martial dropped short.

One center-back followed him.

Garnacho attacked the space that opened up behind.

Demien saw it.

「LEGENDARY SKILL ACTIVATED」 「Mesut Özil — Eye-of-Needle」

The pass split Fulham’s line cleanly.

Garnacho reached the box and drove a shot across goal.

Leno got down for it, or the recovering defender got enough on it to turn it behind — either way, it went out, and the goal still wasn’t there.

United kept getting closer without arriving.

In the eighty-fourth minute, Demien won the ball off Palhinha in midfield and drove straight at Fulham’s retreating defense.

Palhinha tried to stop him physically, throwing his weight into the challenge.

「TRAIT ACTIVATED」 「Press Resistant」 「STATS ACTIVE」 「Strength: 99 | Balance: 99」

Demien stayed upright and kept going.

The center-back in front of him refused to step, remembering exactly what had happened the last time Demien had a runner released behind that same hesitation.

That gave him room to shoot.

He could have taken it.

Bruno had drifted into a slightly better position instead, and Demien chose the pass over the shot.

Bruno struck it.

Leno saved.

The rebound was cleared, the clock ticking past eighty-eight minutes now.

Fulham started accepting the draw, their lines dropping, restarts slowing wherever they could get away with it, Palhinha stationed directly in front of his own defense rather than chasing anyone.

United pushed higher instead — dropping two points after City and Newcastle would still sting no matter how well Demien had personally played.

He started taking bigger positional risks now that the game state justified it, moving beyond Mount on one attack, receiving inside the right half-space with two Fulham shirts collapsing on him at once.

He laid it back to Bruno rather than force his way through both of them.

Bruno’s delivery was cleared.

Ninetieth minute. The board went up.

United attacked again.

Fulham cleared once, but Mount collected the second ball and sent it wide.

Pellistri chased Robinson into the corner and refused to let him get an easy clearance away, forcing the issue.

Robinson tried to knock it clear under pressure.

Pellistri got a touch on it and kept the attack alive.

The loose ball reached Demien outside the box.

Three Fulham players moved toward him at once — giving him a free shot from there would have been suicide, and everyone on the pitch knew it by now.

"Square it!" Bruno was already shouting, arms out, wide open a few yards to his left.

Demien didn’t try to beat all three.

He gave it up first time.

Because Fulham had committed toward Demien, Bruno received it facing an open goal rather than a set defense.

Fulham scrambled across.

Bruno shifted the ball away from the first challenge, another defender closing fast, created half a yard for himself, and drove it low toward the corner.

Leno got down.

Not enough.

FULHAM 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITEDBruno Fernandes 90+1’

Demien reacted instantly, sprinting toward the celebration piling up near the away end.

Bruno grabbed him first, pulling him in by the back of the neck. "That’s yours as much as mine," he shouted over the noise.

"Just finish it next time and I won’t have to hear you complain about my through balls," Demien shouted back, and Bruno laughed, still half-screaming, dragging him deeper into the pile as Garnacho and Mount arrived.

The reaction was real — ninety minutes of work finally paying off — but nothing about it felt like they’d won a trophy. There was still time left on the clock.

Fulham restarted with everything they had left, nothing left to protect now.

United dropped deeper, Demien staying central, using his stamina to keep closing down the first pass every time it came near him.

One last Fulham delivery came into the box.

Maguire won the first header.

Mount attacked the second ball.

Demien collected the clearance and didn’t waste it on some pointless solo counter — he carried it toward the corner, shielded it under contact, and forced Fulham into either a foul or a throw-in.

United killed off what was left of the clock.

The referee blew for full time.

Fweeeeeetttttttt!

FULHAM 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITED

The away end erupted.

On the pitch, the players’ reaction read more like relief than triumph — United had answered Newcastle with three points, nothing more dramatic than that, and nothing less important either.

「MATCH COMPLETE」 「FULHAM 0 — 1 MANCHESTER UNITED」 「MISSION COMPLETE」 「Pass Accuracy: 95% — COMPLETE」 「Central Pressure Escapes: 6/5 — COMPLETE」 「Possession Progressions: 9/6 — COMPLETE」 「Defensive Recoveries: 4/4 — COMPLETE」 「Clear Chances Created: 2/2 — COMPLETE」 「Manchester United Win — COMPLETE」 「MATCH RATING: 8.4」 「Reward: +90 MP」 「Bonus Reward: +10 SP」

Demien checked it once and let it go.

Bruno had scored the winner.

Onana had made the saves that kept them level long enough to find it.

Pellistri had changed the entire right side the moment he stepped on.

The defense had survived Fulham’s strongest spell of the match.

He’d controlled the midfield battle from start to finish without a single goal or assist to his own name.

That combination was the actual reason United had won — not one player, all of them.

In the dressing room, Ten Hag gave them only a short word of acknowledgment before cutting off any chance to sit in it too long.

"Good response," he said. "Recovery tomorrow. Then Europe."

Copenhagen away, Wednesday.

Demien sat at his place while the noise from the away end still carried faintly through the walls, boots half-unlaced, the Fulham match already turning into something behind him rather than something still happening.

「NEXT MATCH」 「UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE」 「FC COPENHAGEN vs MANCHESTER UNITED」