Martins' shot did not result in a goal. The fans in the Giuseppe Meazza Grandstand might still be shaking their heads and sighing about it, but Mancini had seen hope because Nottingham Forest's impenetrable defense finally showed a loophole.
And the attack sent a positive signal to the Inter Milan players — keep an eye on Albertini. Nottingham Forest's offense and defense would be in chaos.
Now, the job was simple. They just had to find a way to prevent Albertini from controlling the football, which was tantamount to preventing Nottingham Forest from controlling the ball.
George Wood was of little help to the Forest team's offense. When Inter Milan pressed up to attack, he could defend in the middle and help defend on the two flanks. But now the Forest team did not need to defend. They needed to turn defense into offense. At this time, there was nothing he could do.
Albertini was closely marked by Cambiasso. Many of the Argentine's actions were very close to fouls, which made him very uncomfortable. But he could do nothing about it, because if the referee did not blow, it was not a foul. He was the captain and could not get angry because of it. Otherwise, the team's morale would be in chaos.
Who could he rely on now? If there was no one to relieve the pressure on him, he could only rely on his own strength to contend with the opponent's midfield defense. But he thought about his age. As the game went on, he was afraid that he would be worn down by the young and strong Cambiasso.
To Ashley Young or Franck Ribéry?
They were all on the flanks, which limited their play. They looked for coordination by passing on the flanks because it was easy to be blocked by the opponent if they played too small.
Only George Wood's position was the best. In the middle of the field, he could pass to the left, right, front, and back …
But did he have a choice at this time?
Albertini passed the football to Wood. Compared to him, there was no defensive pressure on Wood's side. The Inter Milan players clearly knew that Wood's contribution to the offense was almost zero, so they did not arrange a dedicated player to mark him.
Seeing the football passed to Wood's feet, Mancini blew a whistle off the field and signaled his players to press up quickly to force Wood to make a mistake.
This time it was Veron who came up to snatch the ball. Wood faced the aggressive Inter Milan player and did not have much of a way.
"Get past him!" Albertini shouted.
Wood remembered the scene when he passed Materazzi in front of the opponent's penalty area and planned to do the same thing.
But it was different this time.
Wood's dribbling would probably be ranked last in the Forest team. The last time he could successfully get past Materazzi, it had something to do with the opponent's lack of preparation. Rather than saying that he had shaken off Materazzi, it was more like Materazzi himself had hit a wall and then was pushed to the ground by the reaction force. Wood took advantage of it. Truly exceptional skills? Wood had practiced those things in training, but it was completely different from displaying them on the field.
Wood wanted to push the football away, but he did not expect Veron to move so quickly. The football he pushed out was blocked by Veron. Then, before he could do anything, Veron swept past him!
"George Wood's ball has been intercepted!"
There were loud cheers in the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. They had finally seen the number one villain in their hearts make a fool of himself!
"Damn it!" Seeing George Wood concede the ball, Tang En stood up from his seat in shock.
What was Wood's position? Back! Behind the defensive midfielder was the center back! Conceding the ball in this position meant that Veron could now directly face a thin center back line. His breakthrough, long shot, or pass could all pose a great threat to Edwin van der Sar's goal!
This time, when the ball was intercepted, George Wood did not turn around immediately. Instead, he froze for a moment before he suddenly turned and pounced on Veron.
Veron dribbled the ball and Wood chased behind. In a flash, both men entered the penalty area. This time, Piqué, who was blocking the way in front, did not dare to rashly make a move. He also had to pay attention to Adriano and Martins on both sides, for fear that Veron would suddenly pass the ball away.
After entering the penalty area, Veron deliberately slowed down. He seemed to be observing the situation.
George Wood rushed over and leaned towards Veron from behind, trying to intercept the ball.
How experienced was Veron? Seeing Wood lean over, he immediately moved horizontally to protect the football in front of him.
Adriano raised his arms high on the side of the penalty area. "Pass it to me!"
At this moment, he had forgotten about the grudge between him and Veron. But he did not know if Veron did not see it, or if he saw it and deliberately did not pass it. In short, after he protected the football, he was not in a hurry to send the ball out — he was waiting for Wood's follow-up action.
Wood did not intercept the ball on the first shot. Instead, he was squeezed behind Veron. This time, he pushed his body forward and stretched out his leg to intercept the ball again. At the same time, he raised his arm …
Just as he was about to intercept the football, Veron suddenly fell forward to the ground!
The referee's whistle rang!
"A penalty kick!"
The Giuseppe Meazza Stadium was jubilant.
"This is a penalty kick! No doubt about it! "
Wood froze. He put all his attention on intercepting the ball. How could he foul?
Veron got up from the ground and opened his arms to welcome his teammate's hug. He successfully lured Wood into making the move he most wanted to see. Wood might not think he had fouled, but in fact, he had pushed Veron from behind …
On the sidelines, Twain sat down on the ground and covered his face in pain.
Wood turned to argue with the referee, but he was held back by Albertini.
"If you still want a yellow card …"
He stopped when he heard the captain say so.
"I'm sorry."
Albertini shook his head. "Why should I apologize? It would be good to learn from this lesson. I'll pass the ball to you next time. Don't look like you're unprepared again. "
"But, I …"
"Remember, George. When you have the ball, even if you don't know what to do, don't show it. You have to look confident and calm. You have to make people think that you already have a lot of ways to handle the ball. Let your opponent guess! If you think to yourself, 'I don't know what to do,' then you really don't know what to do. But if you keep calm and observe your opponent, you'll naturally know what to do. "Albertini used this opportunity to give Wood a lesson. "In fact, it's not that complicated. If you have a better passing route, pass the football over. If not, pass it to the nearest teammate next to you. That's it. "
Wood bit his lip and listened quietly.
"Don't take the penalty kick to heart. We don't know if it'll go in or not. Even if it does, it'll just equalize the score. It's not the end of the world. "
Albertini patted Wood and walked out of the penalty area. The opponent was going to take a penalty kick.
Wood glared at Veron and also turned to walk out.
Adriano walked in with the football.
(To be continued. If you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. COM. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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