"This is the first time AC Milan has played against Nottingham Forest in history and the first time they have played against Nottingham Forest in the Champions League final. For them, the Forest team is an unfamiliar opponent, even though they are from England like Liverpool. AC Milan will wear white jerseys in this game and attack from the right side of the field to the left. The white jerseys always seem to bring them good luck. AC Milan used to wear white jerseys to win the Champions League in 1963, 1989, 1990 and 2003. And this stadium also has good memories for AC Milan, even for the current Forest team captain, Albertini. In 1994, AC Milan beat Barcelona 4: 0 here and dealt a heavy blow to Barcelona's Barcelona Dream Team, coached by Cruyff. " The commentator took time to introduce some background knowledge to the television audience after the start of the game, analyzing from the side which of the two teams was more likely to win the championship.
"The referee for this game is the German Fandel. He has not refereed a game that Nottingham Forest has participated in, but he has refereed AC Milan's game, and AC Milan has won all five games! Perhaps these circumstances show us that AC Milan has a greater chance of winning this game? "
"I have a different opinion, Steve. If we analyze from a historical record, Nottingham Forest has reached the final three times and won the trophy twice. Their chances of winning the title are a little higher than AC Milan's. I don't think the historical data can explain anything. The winner of this game does not rely on historical data, but their level of play in this game. If AC Milan thinks they are going to win, then they are likely to capsize. Such a situation has happened many times in this Champions League. Of course, the target is not AC Milan. I think both managers have a deep understanding of this. "
Maldini beat Albertini in the guessing game before the game, so the Forest team was awarded the right to kick off.
Before the game, everyone thought the Forest team would continue to stick to the defensive counterattack they were good at in such an important game. But judging from the opening minutes, the Forest team was very proactive — they launched a siege on AC Milan's goal long after the kickoff.
Two shots in five minutes, both within the goalpost. It showed countless people that the Forest team was also capable of playing a threatening offense.
Was the Forest team going to play offensive football in this game to go against AC Milan?
How could Tony Twain, who enjoyed a "great reputation" in the European football world for his conservatism, give up defense in such an important final and choose to take the risk of attacking?
Ancelotti decided to bide his time. From Forest's performance in the past five minutes, he still could not figure out what Tang En was planning. Was the five-minute attack because the Forest team really intended to attack, or was it a normal attack launched because the football happened to be under the feet of the Forest players for most of the time?
He needed to continue observing.
He had expected the Forest team to implement defensive counterattack in such an important final, just like they had done all the way here, relying on a solid overall defense and excellent counterattack to defeat their opponents. This caused him to rack his brains.
AC Milan was not afraid of the teams that pressed out to attack them, but they could not do anything to the teams that defended the penalty area.
If the Forest team really wanted to press out and attack, Ancelotti would be more than happy to do so. That would only accelerate the other side's failure. If the Forest team still insisted on defensive counterattack, Ancelotti had also made arrangements. What AC Milan had been doing for more than a week was to practice how to break the opponent's dense defense.
Before the game, Ancelotti warned his disciples that no matter what tactics the opponent used, they only needed to stick to their own football rhythm, patiently deal with the opponent, find an opportunity to deal a fatal blow, and the game would be in their hands.
This was very similar to what Tang En said to his team. Did it mean that the two sides thought alike?
Five minutes later, AC Milan regained control of the ball. Ancelotti saw that the Forest team's retreat was not as fast as he had thought.
More often than not, Nottingham Forest counterattacked on the spot in the front field. If the strikers' counterattack was unsuccessful, they did not wait there for their teammates to intercept the ball and pass it to them. Instead, they immediately turned around and ran back to continue to participate in the defense. In addition to the counterattack on the spot in the front field, the midfield was also very fierce. George Wood ran without regard for his energy. From one end to the other, number 13 could be seen in almost every corner of the midfield. Beside him was the veteran Albertini, who assisted him.
"Full-field pressing?" Ancelotti frowned. He was still unsure.
From his observations of the Forest team's games, the Forest team seemed more accustomed to retreating into the penalty area at once and then shrinking in the thirty-meter area, allowing the opponent to pass the ball back and forth outside. It was no wonder that Tang En was criticized by the media for "conservative play and ugly scenes." Such a turtle-like football, although it could bring victory, was indeed disdained by many people.
Ancelotti looked at the back of the Forest team again. Although the players in the front field and midfield were busy, the players on the rear defensive line did not have the slightest intention of coming up to help. They did not move at the back and quietly waited for AC Milan's possible attack.
There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect?
Ancelotti thought so. The midfield and front field were very close, but the distance between the back field and midfield was a little big. Were they not afraid of the space in the middle being used?
The AC Milan manager carefully recalled the performance of each of the Forest team's lines after the opening five minutes. The front field and midfield were very active in the offense, which made people think they were going to play offensive football. But the rear defensive line never pressed past the center line, and the two full backs did not come forward to attack. Tang En chose Leighton Baines, who was better at defense, in the left back position, instead of his favorite, Gareth Bale.
It looked like defense was still the main focus?
Ancelotti was observing, and so was AC Milan's field commander, brain, and midfield commander, Pirlo. He also saw that there seemed to be a "fracture zone" between Nottingham Forest's midfield and rear defensive line, which could be used.
Thinking of this, Pirlo took the opportunity to readjust the football under his feet and gave Kaka, who looked back at him, a look.
Kaka understood and plugged in there.
At the same time, the football flew out from under Pirlo's feet and rolled quickly along the turf toward Kaka. Ribéry shoveled midway but missed.
Kaka looked back to see the football rolling toward him, but at the same time, he also saw something else — a person.
Nottingham Forest's red jersey was eye-catching on the field. George Wood and the football rushed toward Kaka together.
The ball had to be received, but the person did not seem easy to avoid. Kaka decided to protect the football and take the hit with his body.
He received the ball and used his skills to turn the football over and protect in front of him. Then … then he was overthrown to the ground by Wood from behind.
"Beep!" The referee's whistle sounded along with the boos of the AC Milan fans.
"George Wood's foul! It looks like Wood will be closely marking Kaka in this game! "
Kaka lay on the ground and waited for his teammate Inzaghi to pull him up. He was helpless. Although it was not obvious from the outside, the other party was stronger than he thought.
Pirlo ran over to prepare for the free kick. He had no regrets about the interruption of the attack. At least he got a free kick in the front field, and he seemed to know why the opposing manager dared to leave such a gap between the rear defensive line and the midfield.
Because there was the strong number 13 who could not run to death.
With this person around, the blank area was not a blank area.
After thinking through this point, another question that puzzled Pirlo appeared: Tony Twain did not actually need to let Wood bear such a huge responsibility. He only needed to shrink the entire team back to its original size. Why did he ask the front field to press tight, but on the other hand did not let the rear defensive line come up to cooperate with the defense?
Pirlo decided to continue to find the answer in the game.
He would first take the free kick.
Wood's foul was very timely. If he had waited for Kaka to dribble the ball up before he fouled, on the one hand, he would be close to the goal, and on the other hand, he might have to use a shovel from behind to stop the storm-like Brazilian. At that time, it would not be as simple as a free kick.
Twain told him to place the spot of the foul a little further away from the dangerous area, and Wood kept it in mind.
The distance of the free kick was thirty-four meters from the goal on the television screen.
The success rate was not high if he directly hit the goal, so Pirlo decided to pass the ball.
Maldini appeared in the Forest team's penalty area. The last time AC Milan met Liverpool in the final, the first goal in the opening game was scored by Maldini. It was also a set piece at that time.
This was Maldini's eighth appearance in the UEFA Champions League final. He hoped to make this experience a legend and score another goal!
The two masters, Maldini and Nesta, were in the crowd in the Forest team's penalty area, waiting for the opportunity to head the ball into the goal.
The Forest team's reunion, van Nistelrooy, returned to the penalty area to defend. It looked like it was a full defense. But when no one noticed, Ribéry quietly ambushed near the center line.
Twain turned his head and smiled at Dunn, who was sitting next to him. He said nothing. Dunn understood what he meant and said nothing as well.
Albertini led Ashley Young and van der Vaart to form a three-man human wall in front of the ball. The others returned to the penalty area to defend, especially George Wood, who followed Kaka closely.
Kaka had seen this kind of treatment many times. He did not take it seriously and led Wood in circles inside. At this time, he was not the end point of the attack. His head was the key.
After Pirlo placed the football, he retreated. He found that the Forest team's human wall was too close and waved for the referee to come over.
Fandel naturally saw it. He ran over to Albertini to warn them to take two steps back from the human wall.
Albertini dilly-dallied and did as he was told. But when Edwin van der Sar turned to walk away, he and his two teammates came up with small steps. This was experience … I'm not going to retreat far enough. It's the best thing to let your free kick end here!
As he said before the game, when the game started, he forgot that he used to be an AC Milan player. He only considered the Forest team in every detail and from every angle.
Pirlo had seen many instances of the referee overtly complying but covertly opposing the referee's request. Anyway, he did not intend to shoot directly. If the free kick moved a little forward, then so be it. It would be fine if he kicked the ball a little higher. It was not worth it to waste time pestering the opponent.
With a whistle, the referee signaled that Pirlo could take the free kick.
Pirlo intended to roll the football up and bypass the human wall, but he clearly underestimated Albertini's field intelligence. Just as he kicked, Albertini led Ashley Young and van der Vaart to sprint and leap forward. When the football flew out, the distance of ten yards (9.15 meters) had been shortened to eight yards. Pirlo's football was still rising and had not reached the highest point. He could not avoid the human wall that suddenly moved forward. The football hit van der Vaart's head and changed direction to jump high. The football that was originally flying toward the penalty area became straight up and down.
Pirlo raised his arm to the referee to protest the behavior of the opponent's human wall.
This posed a problem for the referee. Unless the video was replayed in slow motion, it was hard to say whether the human wall moved before or after Pirlo kicked the ball. The referee chose to be silent. He thought it was after Pirlo kicked the ball, which was considered a reasonable use of the rules.
When Pirlo saw that the protest was ineffective, he rushed up to grab the ball and launched an attack on the spot.
This time, his position was blocked by Albertini, and the landing point no longer belonged to him.
Albertini restrained Pirlo, turned his head to observe the situation, and then looked up to watch the football fall. He could feel from his body that Pirlo was not resigned to this. He was desperately squeezing in, trying to grab the landing point. Albertini would not give him this opportunity. He opened his arms to protect his position.
When he was still at AC Milan, Pirlo was regarded as his successor because the two of them had similar roles in the midfield and similar playing characteristics. In usual training, Albertini was always happy to pass on his skills to the other person. He was also proud of being able to cultivate another midfield commander for the team.
At that time, he never thought that his student would become a strong opponent on the field and have such a fierce collision.
He also did not expect that he would teach another person how to be a "midfield commander" who grasped the rhythm of the game in the future.
When the ball fell, Albertini and Pirlo jumped at the same time.
Pirlo already knew that he was doomed to not be able to grab the ball, but he could interfere with Albertini's possession of the ball and not let him comfortably control the ball to launch a counterattack. This was a chance for the Forest team to fight back. Even a fool could see that Captain Maldini, Nesta … His teammates were returning to defend, and he had to buy time for them.
As a former teammate, he certainly knew the strength of the man in front of him. If he was in good form, he absolutely could not give him a chance to easily control the football. Letting him control the football meant controlling the rhythm of the game.
Albertini felt the impact from behind in the air. He had to try to maintain his balance, or he would drop the ball when he landed. It was a little difficult for his current body, and he could only make up for it with his skills.
Pirlo wanted to force Albertini to use his header to get the football out in the air. That way, his teammates would have a good chance of grabbing the ball, and the players returning to defend would have time.
But Albertini chose to use his chest to stop the ball. He still used his chest to stop the football under Pirlo's close pursuit. At that moment, his skills and experience played an important role.
But in the end, his body was not as good as it used to be. Under Pirlo's constant impact, he felt that he had to use all his strength to protect the ball, not to mention control the ball and pass the ball.
He needed someone to help him share the burden.
Just when he could not hold on any longer, he saw George Wood.
Without hesitation, he passed the football to his second "student."
Pirlo suddenly felt that the pressure in front of him was gone. Albertini suddenly turned and ran away. The football was not at his feet! So where was it?
Number 13!
George Wood dribbled the ball to rush up. Pirlo did not even have time to think. He reacted entirely on his body's instincts — he pounced on Wood again.
When Wood saw Pirlo rush up, he passed the football out. His target was Albertini, who had already shaken off the defense.
The Forest team wanted to play a quick attack. Dribbling and adjustments were not allowed because it would give the opponent the time needed to return to defend.
After a clean pass, the football returned to Albertini's feet. Pirlo then had time to think about the problem — he found it bad.
There was no one around Albertini to mark him now!
"Defend him …" He turned around and shouted. At the same time, he saw Gattuso rushing toward the target, and the stone in his heart was lifted …
The Forest team has George Wood, and we also have Gattuso!
Albertini was familiar with everyone in AC Milan, whether it was Pirlo or Gattuso. He saw Gattuso rush up and suddenly swung his leg for a long pass!
The football went over Gattuso's head and flew to the sideline.
Franck Ribéry, who had been lying in wait, received the football.
It seemed to have been planned long ago. The Forest team switched from defense to offense in a short time, and it was completed in three passes. It perfectly demonstrated Tang En's pursuit of efficient football concept. At that time, the AC Milan defenders had just run past the center circle — Maldini and Nesta were not defenders who were known for their speed.
When Ribéry received the ball, he did not tangle with the opposing full-back Oddo on the sideline and wait for his companion to plug in to receive. The moment he stopped the ball, he sped up to break through and left Oddo behind.
"A sharp breakthrough from Franck Ribéry!" There was no need to make a fuss about announcing that Ribéry had successfully broken through Oddo. The Frenchman had long proved that he was a world-class player with his performances in the past few seasons and in the World Cup.
Break through Oddo? Wasn't that a very normal thing?
Ribéry did not break through along the sideline. After he picked up his speed, he plugged in diagonally to the middle. This made it more difficult for Oddo to catch up. If he only broke through on the sideline, he could squeeze Ribéry out of bounds, and the space that Ribéry could use would be very narrow. Now that he was in the middle, it was not up to Oddo to stop Ribéry.
Because it was a hasty return to defend, there were not many AC Milan players in defensive positions. There was enough space to run in front of Ribéry.
Nesta and Maldini had returned to the front of the penalty area. They could see that Ribéry was deep in alone, so they were not afraid that the opponent would be offside. One of them stayed behind to protect, and the other went forward to snatch. They formed enough strategic defensive depth, which was most suitable to deal with the striker who relied on speed to break through.
They had entered the thirty-meter zone, and a shrill alarm sounded over AC Milan's defensive area.
Maldini was at the back, and Nesta pressed forward.
How could Ribéry not see what they were thinking? Nottingham Forest itself was an anomaly in the English Premier League. The manager took pleasure in studying a variety of defensive tactics. How could they not understand defense as players?
Ribéry did not give Nesta time to press forward. He suddenly swung his leg to shoot at a distance of twenty-five meters from the goal!
There was no preparation before. The speed of the high-speed dribbling became his run-up force. The football swept past Nesta's side like a cannonball.
Whoosh —
A gust of wind.
The football bypassed Nesta and Maldini, who was building strategic depth at the back. It drew an arc in the air that was clearly visible to the naked eye, and then circled the Brazilian goalkeeper Dida's right fingertip to hit the inside of the far end of the goalpost. Then …
Everyone saw the football bounce into the net.
"Boom —" The Olympic Stadium of Athens was like a volcano filled with TNT explosives that exploded in an instant.
"It's only been eight minutes since the start! Just eight minutes! Nottingham Forest has taken the lead! Who would have thought that AC Milan's defense would be so vulnerable? A long shot from twenty-six meters away from the goal actually penetrated Dida's ten fingers … God! Nottingham Forest has shown their confidence in winning the title with their actions! Franck Ribéry, at this moment, is the hero in the hearts of the Nottingham Forest fans! "
Seeing the football enter the goal, Ancelotti turned and punched the plastic baffle of the technical area. At the same time, Tony Twain did the same action on the other side.
The former was because of the frustration and anger of conceding the goal, while the latter was because of excitement and excitement.
"1: 0! Just eight minutes into the game and we're in the lead!! "The commentator from England became a Nottingham Forest fan at this moment. "The great Franck Ribéry, Zidane the Second!"
"0: 1. In just eight minutes, AC Milan is behind. This is really bad luck … Although Ribéry's long shot was wonderful, I have to say that Demetrio's long pass was the highlight of the attack!" The Italian commentator's tone was chagrined, but he still praised Albertini from their country. Perhaps this would make him feel a little better?
Maldini did not have time to be upset about conceding the goal. He had seen such scenes many times. He just stared at Demetrio Albertini, who was celebrating with the Forest players.
He was also familiar with the ball that Demetrio passed to Ribéry. When he was at AC Milan, he did not know how many times he had seen that kind of pass every season. Some were eventually converted into goals, and some were more unfortunate. Among the people who received his passes were Basten, Marcelo, Bierhoff, Shevchenko, Roberto Baggio, and so on. Now it was Ribéry.
He used to only pass this kind of ball to people wearing AC Milan jerseys and the Italian national team jerseys. Now the target of his passes had become AC Milan's enemies.
— I'm serious about beating AC Milan. I want to go all out to beat you and help the Forest team become the champion. This is the farewell game I want. Do you understand, Paulo?
Of course I understand, Demetrio …
Well, I'll give you the farewell game you want!
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