Became The Premier League’S Youngest Manager [EN]: Chapter 172

172. Reversal

There’s no time.

As the referee’s whistle blew, Lorenzo Luca thought, rolling the ball back to the center circle.

The regular 90 minutes of the game, plus 25 minutes of the 30-minute extra time, left only 5 minutes.

Even with added time, it would only be 2 or 3 minutes.

In the end, the opportunity to attack against Liverpool would be only once or twice.

Frankly, if they could create a proper attack, there would only be one chance.

And the Liverpool players, fully aware of this fact, retreated slightly and solidified their defense, a contrast to how they had been pressing and pushing Burnley throughout the game.

Lorenzo Luca, facing all 11 Liverpool players in front of him for the first time in a while, slowly began to advance.

Emanuel Vignato on the right and Jamal Lewis on the left advanced with him, drawing the Liverpool players’ attention.

“Luca!”

“Got it.”

Luca Sukic, a key part of Burnley’s central midfield, turned slightly at the shout from behind and sent the ball to Patrick de Paula, positioned over his right shoulder.

Then, Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson, who had been approaching him, hesitated and retreated to hold his position.

Luca Sukic clicked his tongue inwardly, watching the ball go from Patrick de Paula to Anselmo Garcia McNulty in the defensive line, and then back up from the defensive line to Nicolas Seiwald, and hurried to move.

Since Jordan Henderson didn’t take the bait, it was time to try against Harvey Elliott.

Despite his face being as pale as Luca Sukic’s from fatigue, the young Liverpool midfielder gave him a sharp look.

And though every second was precious, Luca Sukic suppressed his impatience and received Nicolas Seiwald’s pass from behind, with Harvey Elliott on his back.

“Harvey!”

As Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson’s warning echoed from behind, Luca Sukic grinned at the strong impact felt on his back.

Got him!

“Luca!”

Luca Sukic pushed the ball back to Nicolas Seiwald, who was rushing up to support him along with Patrick de Paula, and turned to the left to escape Harvey Elliott’s pressure from behind.

“Be careful!”

“Hold your position!”

Amidst the shouts of Jude Bellingham, who was trying to advance, and captain Jordan Henderson, who was trying to hold his position, Jude Bellingham quickly rushed in to fill the midfield space left by Harvey Elliott.

Frankly, the young midfielder’s judgment was better than the veteran’s this time, but Burnley had already sprung their trap.

“The ball!”

With Nicolas Seiwald’s short shout, the ball that Nicolas Seiwald had stabbed to Luca Sukic’s left flank appeared.

Facing Liverpool’s goal, Luca Sukic received the ball by extending his left foot to the left, glanced at Jude Bellingham, who was rushing fiercely on his right flank, and then strongly swung his right foot to kick the ball forward.

“Uh oh?!”

A lob pass that barely cleared the jump of Liverpool’s left-back Andrew Robertson.

The target of the ball, which drew an elegant arc in the air, was Jamal Lewis, who was sprinting towards Liverpool’s corner flag.

“Stop him!”

As captain Jordan Henderson and Virgil van Dijk, who was commanding the defensive line, shouted simultaneously, Liverpool’s center-back Ibrahima Konaté rushed towards the corner flag at high speed to support Andrew Robertson, who was desperately chasing Jamal Lewis.

But Jamal Lewis, who had already dribbled the ball to the corner flag, was raising his left foot to cross into the penalty box.

Ibrahima Konaté jumped into the air, spreading his body as wide as possible to block the incoming cross.

“Oh, wait, no?”

But Jamal Lewis smiled and kindly explained to his opponent, while lowering his left foot again and starting to break through directly towards Liverpool’s penalty box along the goal line.

“Damn it!”

Passing by the huge figure of Ibrahima Konaté, who was still flailing in the air, the right angle where Liverpool’s penalty box boundary line and the goal line intersected appeared in an instant.

“Support me!”

“Block the shooting angle!”

“No! Watch out for the cutback!”

As Liverpool players shouted to each other from all directions, nearby Liverpool players began to swarm towards Jamal Lewis like bees, except for Virgil van Dijk.

Andrew Robertson and Ibrahima Konaté, whom he had already shaken off, were chasing from behind.

In front, goalkeeper Alisson was blocking the path to the goal, standing slightly to the left of the center.

Jordan Henderson, who had come down from midfield to support, was running towards him diagonally from the right of the front.

With a total of four opposing players narrowing the siege towards him, Jamal Lewis confidently kicked the bottom of the ball with his left foot.

“Here I go!”

The floating ball passed over the head of Jordan Henderson, who was lunging to block him, and began to fall towards the center of the penalty box.

The Liverpool players looked slightly embarrassed, but they were not greatly shaken.

Although they had allowed a surprise attack to break through into the penalty box, their trust in vice-captain Virgil van Dijk, who was in the center of the penalty box, was unwavering.

On the other hand, Jamal Lewis and the Burnley players had only met Lorenzo Luca two weeks ago.

Frankly speaking, the depth of trust was on a different dimension.

Benjamin Sesko, with whom he had built trust over the past season, or Karim Adeyemi, who was now gone but had a trustworthy feeling that he could always pull something off, were different.

But he asked them to trust him, and frankly, there was no alternative, right?

As Jamal Lewis looked at the falling ball, comforting himself in that way, two huge figures soared into the air.

Virgil van Dijk, the world-class defender that Liverpool boasted.

Lorenzo Luca, who had been preparing for the new season in the Italian second division until two weeks ago.

But the young Italian striker, whose signing had made football officials scratch their heads, had a clear advantage, and he made the most of it.

“Uh oh?!”

A jumping ability that was a whopping 10 centimeters taller than Virgil van Dijk, with overflowing elasticity.

And the heading he had desperately practiced while swallowing tears as he wandered from team to team as a journeyman.

Along with a powerful header reminiscent of German national team legend Miroslav Klose, the ball flew into the upper left corner of Liverpool’s goal.

“Uwaaa!!!”

As Burnley fans and players shouted in unison, as if they couldn’t believe it, Lorenzo Luca, who had scored a debut goal in the UEFA Super Cup, knelt on the grass and raised both arms to the sky.

“Amazing!!”

“This is crazy!!”

“Hey, if you could do this, you should have scored earlier!!”

The cheering Burnley players swarmed over Lorenzo Luca.

The clock on the scoreboard stopped at 120 minutes.

With a dramatic equalizer, Burnley once again pulled Liverpool down from the championship podium.

***

“Don’t worry, just kick it comfortably.”

“Yes!!”

As Hyungmin finished his last words to the players who were gathered around him, he looked up and saw Jürgen Klopp, who had finished his last encouragement to the Liverpool players across from him, raising his upper body.

Now, after exhausting 120 minutes of regular time and extra time.

It was time for the penalty shootout, called the roulette of 11 meters [a tense and unpredictable situation].

With all the players on both teams unable to hide their tension, Liverpool’s Jude Bellingham successfully made the first kick.

Then, the first kicker among the Burnley players, who were lined up side by side on the halfway line with their arms around each other’s shoulders, walked out.

Jamal Lewis, who assisted the equalizer with a beautiful lobbing cross today.

The ace of the Northern Ireland national team listened to the referee’s final instructions, adjusted the position of the ball once, and then slowly stepped back.

The tense appearance was evident to the Burnley players watching from behind, and as his shoulders slightly lowered as if exhaling, Jamal Lewis strode towards the ball and swung his left foot.

“Uwaaa!!!”

The shouts of the Burnley players and fans were closer to relief than joy.

He briefly clenched his fist and waved it towards the stands, but soon rejoined the Burnley players who were standing with their arms around each other’s shoulders, and the Burnley kickers waiting for their turn swallowed hard.

Liverpool, and Burnley.

One by one, the kickers from both teams succeeded in shooting.

Liverpool started with Jude Bellingham, followed by Diogo Jota, Darwin Núñez, and Jordan Henderson.

Burnley started with Jamal Lewis, followed by Luca Pellegrini, Luca Sucic, and Lorenzo Luca.

When Hyungmin first conveyed the list of penalty kickers, the Burnley players joked that they were selected based on having ‘Lu’ in their names.

But with both teams not allowing a single miss and the score tied at 4-4, the tension in the stands and on the field escalated to an unbearable level.

Liverpool’s last kicker was their ace, Mohamed Salah, who was in charge of penalty kicks.

Burnley’s last kicker was captain Nicolas Seiwald.

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool was the first to kick the ball.

The ace of the Egyptian national team, who stroked his trademark lion’s mane and curly beard, stared at the ball and then took a quick step and powerfully shot.

“Ah ah!!”

As the Burnley players let out a regretful exclamation, the ball, which had brushed past the bottom of Burnley’s goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi’s desperately outstretched arm, was sucked into the goal net.

“Hooa…”

Nicolas Seiwald, who took a long breath, released his arm around his teammate’s shoulder and slowly walked towards the penalty box.

As he passed Mohamed Salah, who was walking towards the Liverpool players with an expression that was more relieved than happy, the referee, who had already placed the ball on the penalty spot, was waiting.

“You kick after I blow the whistle. Got it?”

“Yes.”

After giving a brief explanation for the last time, the referee stepped back, and Nicolas Seiwald picked up the ball placed on the penalty spot, turned it around once, and then carefully placed it back on top.

It was slippery, and he didn’t know if it was because the ball was wet or because his hands were sweating.

As he slowly stepped back, he saw Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson, who was moving slightly from side to side 11 meters away from the ball, waving his arms wide.

He couldn’t see the opponent’s pupils from this distance, but he could at least see that he wasn’t as nervous as he was.

As he fixed his eyes back on the ball, he finally heard the referee’s whistle.

Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think.

Nicolas Seiwald, repeating to himself, strode towards the ball and powerfully swung his right foot.

“Ah ah!!!”

This was the lament of the fans filling half of the stadium.

“Uwaaa!!!”

This was the cheer of the fans filling the other half of the stadium.

Nicolas Seiwald tightly closed his eyes.