Defense was a piece of cake for George Wood.
"George Wood's header clears the siege! Barcelona's corner kick did not pose any threat to Forest's goal! "
"Why was Tony Twain so confident about this game before the game? I think it has something to do with the fact that he now has a George Wood who can play. Wood has already fully proven his ability in the English Premier League, but Barcelona is clearly still somewhat unfamiliar with him … "
The commentator was praising Wood, while Ronaldinho was thinking about how to get rid of the annoying opponent in front of him.
At this stage, it was time for Barcelona to counterattack. George Wood was like a shadow following the Brazilian. Wherever Ronaldinho went, he went. Wood had not left his side since he had been shaken off once.
Now, Ronaldinho could only organize the offense through passing.
He had to take the ball as little as possible and send it out as many times as possible. This was Ronaldinho's current countermeasure.
Was there no other way?
Who was Ronaldinho? What kind of team was Barcelona? Would it be decent to be pestered to the point of being helpless because of one George Wood?
Rijkaard bit his finger as he thought of a countermeasure. Ronaldinho was the core of the team. Almost all of the offense revolved around him. If he was frozen by George Wood, how would the team's offense adjust?
※ ※ ※
Twenty-five minutes passed. The score on the field was still 1: 0. The visiting team, Nottingham Forest, was temporarily in the lead.
Barcelona was still relentlessly attacking and had no intention of relaxing because of the consecutive fruitless attacks.
Tony Twain had clearly underestimated Barcelona's energy. They were not demoralized after a few fruitless attempts. On the contrary, their morale was high and they repeatedly threatened Forest's penalty area. In the eyes of the Barcelona people, it was a great humiliation to be led by the opponent they did not want to lose the most in their own home ground. How could they take it lying down?
Ronaldinho realized that George Wood had no intention of leaving him to defend against someone else. He suddenly came up with a plan.
Xavi passed the ball up. The Brazilian turned his back to George Wood and transferred the ball to Deco. He ran horizontally, and George Wood followed.
With Ronaldinho taking George Wood away, the middle of Forest's penalty area was immediately empty. Xavi plugged in at the right time and Deco quickly passed the ball to him. Without Wood in front of Forest's penalty area, there was a lot less trouble.
Xavi pretended to pass the ball from the side, but suddenly lifted his leg to shoot!
Edwin van der Sar reacted quickly and flew to catch the ball.
Although the attack still did not break through the Forest team's goal, the Barcelona players saw hope. Ronaldinho was no longer the core of the attack, but he could distract Barcelona's defensive attention. Wherever he was, George Wood would be there. Once George Wood was pulled out, the pressure on Barcelona to attack from the front was reduced a lot. Look at Xavi's shot just now.
Rijkaard stood up from his seat and applauded Xavi's long shot. The team's approach was good.
George Wood stood beside Ronaldinho and looked back at Edwin van der Sar, who was climbing up from the ground.
He knew that he had just been pulled away from his defensive zone by Ronaldinho, which then led to the opponent's long shot. He knew, but what could he do? Should he remain unmoved in the face of such a situation and wait for the opponent to launch another long shot? The Barcelona players were not fools. They would definitely pass the ball to the unmarked Ronaldinho.
Was this a multiple choice question?
George Wood didn't know. The boss told him to freeze Ronaldinho, so he would freeze Ronaldinho. As for the rest, he would leave it to his teammates. He was not an omnipotent God who could take on all the defensive tasks alone.
Who was more dangerous, Ronaldinho or the other Barcelona players? George Wood chose the former.
As a result, Barcelona's attack became Ronaldinho leading Wood around in circles, constantly using triangular passes to create opportunities for his teammates. Other than passing the ball quickly, he had almost no other role.
Xavi and Iniesta became the team's real offensive playmakers. Eto 'o fell into the Forest team's dense and compressed defensive formation, and Messi became the most active striker.
Gareth Bale had to put all his energy into defense. It was still a little difficult to deal with Messi. The man was too much of a threat on the flank.
"Messi bypassed Bale. Beautiful. He broke into the penalty area! Shot! Blocked by Piqué! That was close! "
"Messi dribbled horizontally. Bale followed him. Foul! Barcelona got a free kick at the front of the penalty area. It's a good position. Ronaldinho came up to take the penalty. I finally see him again. Ah, what a pity. It brushed the crossbar and flew out of the end line! "
…
Similar situations kept happening in the second half of the first half.
Tang En could not sit still.
He got up from his seat, walked out, and paced around before returning.
"Tony." Kerslake looked up at Tang En standing in front of the technical area.
"I don't know if this was Rijkaard's idea." Tang En turned his head to look at the Barcelona technical area next door. "Sacrificing Ronaldinho to drag George out of the battle. They don't have Ronaldinho, but they still have Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Deco. Damn it! They tried to freeze someone else, but they were frozen instead. "
Hearing Tang En say that, Dunn raised his wrist to look at his watch. There were still 15 minutes before the end of the first half.
Piqué was shouting on the field for his teammates to get into defensive work. George Wood was entangled by Ronaldinho, and the team's defense needed everyone's help. After all, Barcelona's offense was too powerful. A little negligence could cause them to lose the ball.
"How about we let Wood give up marking Ronaldinho for now?" Kerslake said.
His suggestion was rejected by Tang En on the spot. "No. Ronaldinho is an extremely dangerous person. We can't relax our defense against him. I'd rather sacrifice George. Worst comes to worst, we'll play 10 vs 10! Our defense doesn't just rely on George. Without George, we'll be paralyzed. Piqué has done very well. He's in good form today. "
"Going back to Barcelona to fight must have made him a little excited," Kerslake said.
"Hold on for the remaining 15 minutes. We'll consider what adjustments to make during the halftime break." Tang En turned and returned to the sidelines. This match was not going to be easy.
※ ※ ※
Everyone could see that Barcelona's offense was like a tidal wave, threatening Nottingham Forest's goal wave after wave. If they were a little luckier, they might have already broken through the goal guarded by Edwin van der Sar.
Tang En adopted the strategy of shrinking the defensive line to prevent Eto 'o's speed. However, this left too much space for Barcelona to maneuver in the front of the penalty area.
The Barcelona players passed the ball back and forth in this area, mobilizing the Forest team's defensive line. Then, while the Forest players' attention was focused on one point, they suddenly passed the ball to the flank. Eto 'o had already left the middle and moved to the flank. He and Messi were on the left and right flank respectively, ready to receive the ball and cut inside at any time.
A sudden direct pass in front of the penalty area was a move that Barcelona was very good at. The Forest team had to raise all their attention to guard against this kind of penetrative pass. Once the football passed through, it would almost be a terrible situation where the opponent and the goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, were in a one-on-one situation. Edwin van der Sar could not be expected to be able to strike in time to resolve the crisis every time.
Ronaldinho became the center forward, appearing in the middle time and time again to attract the attention of George Wood and the others. Then, he would suddenly pull away to create opportunities for the others.
Time passed by, and the score was inevitably fixed at 1: 0.
Rijkaard also got up from his seat in the technical area and walked to the sidelines.
For him, he could not bring this score to the halftime break. That would be a blow to the team's morale. If possible, he would try to equalize the score before the end of the first half. That was a good way to strike at the Forest team's morale.
Standing on the sidelines, Rijkaard constantly used hand signals to tell the players on the field to press up and press up, to set off a frenzy of offense at the last moment.
On the other side, Tang En roared for the players to pay attention to defense. He also knew that it was best not to lose points before the end of the first half.
George Wood could not tolerate Ronaldinho pulling him away from the defensive zone again, and then watching his opponent wreak havoc in front of the penalty area.
When the football was passed to Ronaldinho again, he chose to suddenly circle to the front to defend from the side.
Ronaldinho did not expect George Wood to move so quickly. All he could do now was not to pass the ball out, but to protect the ball so that the opponent could not snatch it and directly counterattack.
Seeing Wood bump into his body from the side, Ronaldinho cleverly chose to fall forward. George Wood bumped into him again and stretched out his leg to poke the football away. But he heard the referee blow the whistle. He had fouled!
"George Wood has fouled! Ronaldinho has protected the football well, and Barcelona has now been awarded a direct free kick about … twenty meters from the goal. This might be an opportunity. Ronaldinho had a free kick that was just slightly over the crossbar. "
George Wood felt a little wronged. When he played in the English Premier League, he often circled around to defend. Even if he pushed the opponent to the ground, the referee rarely whistled for a foul. But he did not go up to argue with the referee, which was not what he was good at.
He imitated Albertini and stood in front of the football to prevent Barcelona from kicking the ball out ahead of time. But he was obviously overthinking. The Barcelona people had no intention of taking the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. The players ran forward. Ronaldinho and Deco stood in front of the ball and quietly watched the Forest team line up the human wall, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle.
Wood saw that they had no intention of kicking the ball immediately and also retreated. He did not participate in the formation of the human wall. He stood on the other side and stared at Messi.
Deco stood in front of the ball and looked down to discuss with Ronaldinho how to kick the ball.
Xavi squeezed into the Forest team's human wall, intending to use it as a breakthrough point. The Forest players were trying to push him out. There was some physical contact between the two sides, and the referee ran over to mediate. As a result of the mediation, Xavi naturally occupied a place on the leftmost side of Nottingham Forest's human wall.
Deco retreated. He had no intention of kicking the ball. Now everyone's eyes were focused on Ronaldinho. It was a direct free kick. He could choose to shoot directly or pass the ball. But would he choose to pass the ball?
No.
Ronaldinho retreated and widened the distance between them.
George Wood looked at Ronaldinho with one eye and glanced at Messi next to him with the other to guard against the kid taking the opportunity to shoot.
For the entire first half, Ronaldinho was frozen by George Wood. Other than a spectacular individual breakthrough, there was that annoying fly buzzing around him at all times. It was so annoying.
Now that there was no George Wood around him, he could comfortably swing his legs and do the action.
He looked at Nottingham Forest's human wall, then at the goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, who was waiting behind the human wall, and then at the referee who had retreated to one side. Finally, he set his eyes on George Wood in the crowd.
A smile appeared on his face when he saw Wood standing next to Messi.
This time … you can't stop me at last. "
Ronaldinho showed a confident smile! This cheerful football wizard, when he smiles, he is definitely in his best form! Let's enjoy his performance in peace … "
Nottingham Forest took it seriously and lined up six players to form a front human wall. Xavi, wearing the red and blue Barcelona jersey, was like a gap in the wall, appearing on the left side of the human wall. The Forest players were putting pressure on him, intending to squeeze Xavi out as soon as Ronaldinho kicked the ball and quickly fill the gap.
They did so. When Ronaldinho shot the football, Xavi ran to the side. The Forest team's human wall immediately broke in the middle. Half of the people stayed in place to jump to prevent the football from easily passing over their heads, while the other half squeezed to the left to seal the space created by Xavi's departure. They thought Ronaldinho would definitely shoot the football there. Otherwise, why would Xavi try so hard to squeeze in?
But they all miscalculated. The football did not fly to the left side of the human wall. Instead, it went straight to the middle and passed between the two halves of the human wall!
Edwin van der Sar's line of sight was blocked. In addition, he did not expect Ronaldinho to shoot the football from this place. He could not save in time and watched the football bypass his hand and fly into the goal!
"A wonderful goal — Ronaldinho! The king of Barcelona! "
Camp Nou burst into thunderous cheers and applause in an instant. Rijkaard raised his arms high and leaped up from the ground.
On the other side, Tony Twain waved his hands fiercely, but a look of disappointment flashed across his face.
Although he was a little disappointed, conceding a goal was indeed expected.
The Barcelona players celebrated wantonly on the field. Edwin van der Sar picked the football out of the net and kicked it to the front field.
George Wood turned his head to look at Ronaldinho, who was surrounded by the Barcelona players, and then turned to run to the center circle.
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