When Wood and Zidane shook hands before the game, he made a point of looking at the Frenchman. Before the game, he had heard a lot about the man. There were many legends about him. The most talked about were the two headers in the World Cup final in France and the volley shot in the 2002 Champions League final.
Ribéry was the one who talked the most because he had just spent time with Zidane in the France game. For him, Zidane was a legendary figure. He had always thought he could only watch from afar. He did not expect to have the opportunity to come into close contact, train and compete together, and now become an opponent.
Ribéry told Wood very seriously and seriously that Zidane was very, very good. Wood asked at the time, "Is he better than Riquelme?"
Ribéry laughed happily for a long time before replying to Wood, "They're not in the same league."
Thus, Wood had the most direct impression of it. Previously, no matter how many times others told him about Zidane's strengths, he did not feel it. He felt it was illusory. But with Ribéry's comparison, he was clear. He had personally experienced how good Riquelme was. Now that Zidane was even better than Riquelme, he had to deal with him seriously.
The 33-year-old Zidane was no longer the young lad he had been in Cannes. People always said he was balding, but now he was actually bald.
The Real Madrid players were solemn when they shook hands with the Forest players. Even the always cheerful and optimistic Roberto Carlos had a taut face.
Clearly, they knew how important this game was to them.
After losing to Barcelona, everyone was under a lot of pressure. If they lost to Nottingham Forest again, they did not know what kind of blizzard would be waiting for them.
Rosenberg stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed and frowned as he looked at the field.
In contrast, the visiting Forest team did not have much pressure. Even though the manager had told his players to win before the game, the players did not appear to be too nervous because of the heavy burden.
After a simple ceremony, the players from both sides stood in their respective halves, waiting for the kickoff.
Tang En walked back to the technical area and sat down.
The referee stood outside the center circle and looked at his watch for the last time before the game to confirm the time. When he raised his head again, he blew the whistle in his mouth.
The game began!
※ ※ ※
The match was kicked off by Real Madrid.
In this game, Rosenberg had sent out the strongest lineup he could.
The goalkeeper was Spain's number one goalkeeper, Igor Casillas. The two center backs were Sergio Ramos and Elguerra. The two full backs on the left and right were veterans. Roberto Carlos was on the left and Míchel Salgado was on the right. There were four players in the midfield, with Zidane on the left, Beckham on the right, and Gravesen and Guti in the middle. The two strikers were still Ronaldo and Raúl.
On the bench sat Robinho and Baptista.
This time, Luxemburg did not deploy a pair of defensive midfielders in the midfield. On his own home ground, at the juncture of losing the game of the century, he hoped to use offense to show goodwill to the angry Real Madrid fans in order to save his precarious position as manager.
In the stands of this game, there were already slogans saying "Luxenberg Scram."
So for him, there were two goals in this game — one was to win, and the other was to win beautifully.
These were also the two principles that Real Madrid had traditionally adhered to. Real Madrid's football was like this. For them, victory was common and not something to boast about. Winning beautifully was something they could be proud of.
In other words, the Bernabéu fans might care about how many consecutive minutes Casillas could not concede a goal, but they were more concerned about how many consecutive games their strikers could score more than two goals.
For most other managers, leading the team to victory was a remarkable achievement. But for the Real Madrid manager, if the team he led could not play well, it was useless to win many games. There was only one final outcome — he might go to Madrid's Plaza de Rede Nacional to celebrate with the people because of a season's championship title, but the next day, the major media might be full of the latest news of his dismissal.
So, it was really difficult to be a manager at Real Madrid.
Luxemburg had experienced the glory and glory of being a manager of a powerhouse team. Now it was his turn to experience the cruelty and ruthlessness of a powerhouse team.
"Real Madrid launched a fierce attack on the Forest team's hinterland from the beginning of the game. It looks like the Brazilians are determined to destroy the Forest team with offense. How is Manager Tony Twain going to deal with it? "The ESPN commentator asked in the commentary.
How to deal with it?
Twain had asked himself this question many times.
He knew that Luxemburg's coaching style at Real Madrid was defensive and counterattacking. However, after watching Real Madrid's loss to Barcelona, Tang En believed that it was impossible for Luxemburg to persist in a defensive and counterattacking style of play in this game, a style that made Bernabéu boos everywhere.
In order to please the fans and for his position as manager, he would certainly let the team press out to attack and play the "beautiful football" that the Real Madrid fans liked to see. In this way, although the Forest team's defensive pressure soared, there was a large space behind Real Madrid's defensive line that could be exploited.
Twain changed his mind and decided not to engage in any passionate offensive battle with Real Madrid at the Bernabéu. The current Forest team was definitely no match for Real Madrid when it came to playing offense, even if this Real Madrid was just a "sick horse."
Many teams would be caught in a dilemma when facing Real Madrid — offense or defense? Offense was to compete with Real Madrid for goals, which was too demanding for many teams. As for defense? They would also worry about whether their defensive line could hold up for 90 minutes in the face of Real Madrid's storm-like attack.
But Twain was not worried about this problem. He understood Real Madrid. He understood the current Real Madrid.
He knew how to defend in order to contain the attacks of Real Madrid's superstars.
That was — a full-court press.
Starting from the front line, they would build the first line of defense. If they lost the ball, they would counterattack and immediately get close. Their kicks had to be fierce and fast, and they would have to collide more with their bodies. They would use shovels, fouls, and any other permissible method to disrupt Real Madrid's offensive rhythm, forcing the arrogant superstars to be at a loss and impatient.
Then, they would use highly effective counterattacks and sneak attacks to end the game.
This was Twain's wishful thinking.
To this end, he demanded that Anelka must defend in this game and counterattack at the first instance. If he could not do it, he would replace the Frenchman.
※ ※ ※
The ball passed to Zidane's feet. George Wood immediately pounced to intercept the ball. He thought his speed would be so fast that the opponent could not react. In such a narrow space on the sidelines, unless Zidane kicked the ball out of bounds, there was no way he could avoid him.
He did not expect Zidane, who was facing him, to suddenly step on the ball and turn 180 degrees, swinging past his feet.
"Woooow — Marseille Turn!"
Wood sat on the ground and stared blankly at Real Madrid's number 5 as he elegantly turned past him.
This was the first conversation he had with the football legend, and he was utterly defeated!
Zidane, who had swung past Wood, sent a straight pass to Robert Carlos, who had plugged in from the flank. The small Brazilian defender plugged in from the back like the wind. Chimbonda went diagonally to block, but he was broken through by Carlos in an unreasonable way. Carlos slammed the ball forward and then accelerated again to bypass Chimbonda, who needed to turn around.
The cheers over the Bernabéu Stadium had started from the moment Zidane swung past Wood. By the time Carlos forced his way through Chimbonda, the cheers had already reached their peak.
Amidst the deafening cheers, Twain stood up from his seat.
Robert Carlos glanced at the penalty area. From the corner of his eye, he saw Chimbonda chasing back. There was not much time left for him.
A pass!
It was a classic Robert Carlos style pass — a powerful sweep and the football was whipped into Nottingham Forest's penalty area. It was chaos in front of the goal. As long as someone stretched out their foot to touch the football, there was a high chance that they would get into the Forest team's goal.
Raul poked the ball forward, but he poked the football sideways.
The cheers at the Bernabéu Stadium turned into sighs.
Nottingham Forest had escaped a disaster.
Twain sat back down again.
"Isn't it a little too much to let George defend against Zidane? Don't you want Demetrio to help him? "Kerslake turned his head and asked as soon as he sat down.
Twain shook his head. "I can't spare any manpower. I also know it's a little difficult for Zidane to let Wood keep an eye on him now, but there's no other way. Let George grit his teeth and hold on. "
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. More chapters. Support the author. Support the original reading!)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
