Loud boos rang out in the stands at the Bernabéu stadium, pouncing onto the field from the towering stands, putting tremendous pressure on the visiting fans playing here.
In fact, the Bernabéu fans were considered "gentle" compared to the fans at Camp Nou. There were not many boos aimed at the visiting team here, except for a few of Real Madrid's arch-rivals. Nottingham Forest, which was not a sworn enemy, was booed so harshly here mainly because of George Wood.
He had just pushed down Robinho, who was dribbling the ball, during a high-speed run.
The Brazilian cyclist was as nimble as a loach. He dribbled the ball past Wood's side when he was not paying attention. Wood, who was stuck behind, wanted to stop the opponent's attack. It was certainly not possible to use conventional means. He chose to tackle the ball from behind and push the player.
Robinho rolled several times on the ground. It looked scary, but he was not hurt at all. It was just that the home fans were very dissatisfied with the seemingly scary foul. They were even more dissatisfied that the referee only gave a verbal warning and did not show a card.
The current Brazilian, Robinho, was much stronger than when he first arrived at Real Madrid. He also had the upper hand in most physical confrontations. It was not easy for the average defensive player to easily push him down. But he lost his center of gravity when he was pushed by George Wood. It could only be said that the difference in physical strength between the two men was too obvious …
Defending against Robinho was just a temporary replacement. George Wood's target for the game was not the Brazilian kid, but Guti.
After Zidane retired, Real Madrid's offense once fell into a chaotic situation. There was no routine and no goal at all. It all depended on the individual abilities of a few players. If they played well, they could win. If they did not play well, any team dared to lose. The situation gradually changed after a season. Because the new manager, Schuster, who took over last season, gave Guti enough trust and promoted him to become Real Madrid's midfield engine.
For more than a season, Guti organized and launched almost all of Real Madrid's attacks. Guti was in good form. Real Madrid would not only have no problem winning, but they would also win beautifully. But if Guti was no longer effective, then Real Madrid would die a horrible death …
Although Sneijder was in excellent form at the beginning of the season and was praised, and Robinho wore Real Madrid's number 10 jersey and was called "Pele's heir", not to mention Real Madrid's front field was full of stars and looked very good and powerful. In fact, without Guti launching attacks and controlling the rhythm, this team was no different from a sheet of loose sand.
Therefore, in response to this situation, Twain had set up a strategy to contain Guti before the game.
Of course, George Wood was the main figure, but the other teammates would also come to help — not to help defend, but to help with fouls.
Guti was a talented but stubborn player with a terrible temper. The fact that he was never put in an important position in the early stages of his career had a lot to do with his personality. It was not until Zidane left that he slowly made his mark and became the core of Real Madrid's midfield. However, he was still hot-tempered and could easily lose control of his emotions. Once he lost control of his emotions, his standard of play would be greatly reduced, and he would make more mistakes on his own initiative. Then, his temper would become more irritable. This would cause the quality of Real Madrid's offense to plummet.
Therefore, the Forest team's tactics for this game were simple. Nottingham Forest would play defensive counterattack on offense and focus on infuriating and locking down Guti on defense. It would be best if they could infuriate him. If they could not, they would use the advantage of the overall defense to trap him so that he could not take the ball and organize the attack.
In terms of technique, Guti's advantage was that he was good at finding loopholes in the opponent's defense and making unexpected straight passes. His penetrating straight passes helped the team score many times. But his weakness was also obvious — he was thin and weak, and his ability to resist was not strong. Once the opponent closed in and added a little body collision interference, the chances of him losing the ball at his feet would greatly increase.
What happened to Robinho just now was purely an accident. Originally, Wood was going to defend against Guti, but Guti stabbed the football to Robinho first. Wood had to change his target to the BMX Boy who was closest to him. He did not have the time to play footwork with Robinho. After he was squeezed to his side, he immediately pushed Robinho to the ground and ended Real Madrid's attack.
He followed his usual style of making people hate him — he did not go up and reach out to pull Robinho up as a sign of friendliness. Instead, he turned and walked away.
Robinho lay alone on the ground for a while. The referee came up to ask if he was okay and if he needed a stretcher or something, and he dawdled to get up. He was not injured. The tumble looked scary, but it was because of this that he did not suffer too much damage, because the impact was offset during the tumble.
The boos in the Bernabéu stands continued until Real Madrid was ready to take a free kick in the front field.
Real Madrid's current number 23, Sneijder, took the free kick into the penalty area and asked Pepe to head it out. The football landed in front of the penalty area and immediately caused a scramble.
In the end, van der Vaart brought the football out in the chaos and handed it to David Beckham, who received it diagonally in front.
When Beckham released the football, there was a burst of applause in the stands. The applause did not come from the visiting Nottingham Forest fans' stands, but from the home fans.
These fans thanked him for his efforts in regaining the league title for Real Madrid in the last season.
The scene touched the onlookers. But for Beckham, it had nothing to do with him. He had to wait until after the game to thank the Real Madrid fans for their love. Now that he was wearing the Nottingham Forest jersey and had the ball at his feet, his teammates were actively running forward, ready to fight back — it was not the time to show mercy!
A long pass!
Van Nistelrooy pulled to the flank and received the ball. Ribéry was plugging in at a high speed. His sudden attack attracted the attention of the Real Madrid defenders. Diarra followed him to retreat and Cannavaro also focused his attention on him. Van Nistelrooy passed the ball to his strike partner, Eastwood.
Eastwood was outside the penalty area, near the middle, and was temporarily unguarded. Because the defensive forces were pinned down by Ribéry. He did not hesitate to take a long shot on the spot!
The quality of the shot was quite high! Casillas, who was fully focused on defense, leaped into the air and held the football out with one palm. Although it did not go in, it startled the Bernabéu Stadium and made a gasp.
Eastwood exerted his strength on the spot and did not run up. He relied entirely on his body leaning back and the strength of his waist and abdomen to drive the shot. The shot was sudden. If it were not for Casillas's excellent form and someone else guarding the goal, he might really have been able to score …
Compared with the dazzling offensive lineup, Real Madrid's defensive line was a little pitiful. In this game, Schuster used Cannavaro and Heinze as the center back partners, with Marcelo as the left back and Ramos as the right back. Among the four players, the two full backs liked to attack. The center back partner lacked height and struggled to defend against high balls. In addition, Heinze was not a true center back. He played as a center back as a guest. The left back was his best position, so it was not difficult to imagine what kind of level he could play in this position …
Real Madrid's defensive problems had not been fundamentally improved. It basically depended on Cannavaro's form alone. When the former FIFA World Player of the Year was in good form, Real Madrid's defensive line looked decent. If the form was not good … Casillas could only accept the humiliation of picking up the ball from the net no matter how remarkable he was.
Real Madrid would adopt offensive tactics at home in this game. Their defensive line pressed forward and there would be a lot of gaps behind them. The Forest team's offensive tactics were very simple, which was to find a way to hit the opponent's back. They would use Beckham's long passes or van der Vaart's passes, as well as the high-speed cuts from the two flanks to create and find gaps. As long as their players were better at seizing opportunities, it was not impossible to capture the Bernabéu.
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest's corner kick came out and there was chaos in front of the goal, but no one headed the ball, which allowed Casillas to directly confiscate it. Casillas, who got the ball, threw the ball with his hand to launch a quick attack, trying to hit Nottingham Forest's counterattack.
He threw the ball to Higuaín in front. Higuaín had intended to directly catch the ball and turn around, but the football was poked away by George Wood who circled to the front to defend.
Higuaín turned around and got rid of Wood, but there was no ball at his feet. Nottingham Forest took advantage of the situation to launch another attack. At the same time, Pepe and Piqué ran back to the rear defensive line. Real Madrid's quick attack did not start. Instead, it allowed the Forest team to press in their own half of the field.
Real Madrid's defense was relatively passive. Passive did not mean that they did not put in effort. Rather, when defending, they were used to retreating to the vicinity of the penalty area and then setting up a defensive formation. In this way, their defense lacked depth and was easily penetrated. In fact, this was also a common problem in most La Liga teams. Their football style and national characteristics determined that they advocated offense more and ignored defense.
Now the result of their defense was that Nottingham Forest could pass the ball at will outside their thirty-meter zone and look for opportunities without pressure. If Real Madrid could not stand it and wanted to press out to snatch the ball, they would pass the ball back. The compressed formation gradually pulled back, and after pulling back, they would pull Real Madrid out. As long as their formation was pulled back, in the eyes of the Forest team, there would be a lot of loopholes. It was up to them to grasp it.
Taking into account the height and air defense ability of Real Madrid's rear defensive line, Tang En asked the Forest team to mainly attack with high balls and fight for the second point of landing.
Through his research on Real Madrid, he believed that the Real Madrid players were not too concerned about fighting for the second point of landing in the defense. Van Nistelrooy did not have to be the arrowhead in the offense. He was mainly a bridgehead and a tactical center forward.
Van Nistelrooy had an ability that was quite valuable, and it was slowly becoming less and less for many strikers nowadays.
That was, as a true center forward, van Nistelrooy could not only shoot and score, but his body and skills could ensure that he could control the football in the encirclement, wait for his teammates' support, and then pass the football to the feet of his teammates who got a chance. When needed, he could go up to suppress the opponent's entire defensive line, or withdraw to tear apart the opponent's defense and create opportunities for his teammates. In simple terms, a center forward like van Nistelrooy would hold the ball with his back to the direction of the attack. Now, many strikers were basically useless once their back was to the direction of the attack.
In fact, this was also the difference between a "striker" and a "center forward." Eastwood was a striker, and van Nistelrooy should be considered a center forward.
Beckham once again passed the football into the penalty area. Ramos played the role of a center back this time. He jumped up and headed the football out.
The second point of landing was taken by the Forest team.
Van der Vaart passed the football to Ribéry. Ribéry attracted the opponent's attention on the flank, and Gareth Bale plugged in at high speed. Diarra, who ran to the flank to fill in, hesitated and chose to follow Bale to retreat and let go of his defense against Ribéry. Ribéry took the opportunity to dribble horizontally and looked like he was going to shoot.
Cannavaro immediately moved sideways to block.
But Ribéry just made a feint and passed the football to van der Vaart's feet in the middle.
Van der Vaart also looked like he was going to do a long shot, causing Heinze, a particularly easily agitated defender, to fall to the ground and shovel.
The football had already rolled to Beckham's feet on the right flank.
It turned around and turned back.
As soon as Beckham took the ball, he attracted the attention of two Real Madrid players. Marcelo blocked directly in front of him, while Sneijder was on the side to protect the middle.
Rafinha saw the ball on the right flank and did not hesitate to plug in. He attracted Marcelo's attention, and as a result, Marcelo followed to retreat. Sneijder came over to fill in the position tacitly.
Just as Sneijder came up to steal, Beckham passed the ball. It was not a high ball diagonally into the penalty area, but a straight shot!
It was not passed to Rafinha on the right flank, but to George Wood behind Sneijder!
Yes, George Wood decisively plugged in and received Beckham's pass.
"George Wood! He appeared in the flank of Real Madrid's defensive line! "
Wood did not pass the ball after he received it, nor did he continue to dribble forward. He suddenly lifted his leg to shoot!
The football flew straight to the near corner of the goal like a cannonball.
George Wood rarely lifted his leg to shoot so decisively. Casillas only patted the football out in a hurry and did not pounce to the end line. Because the ball that Wood shot out had some external spin … Maybe he was going to pass, but it turned into a shot …
The football was pounced on by Casillas, but it bounced in front of the goal.
The scene shocked countless people in the Bernabéu stands to exclaim.
Van Nistelrooy rushed out of the crowd and headed the ball at the goal!
The football flew to the goal, but it was kicked out by Ramos, who rushed back in front of the goal line. The football flew outside the penalty area, and the second point of impact was still taken by Nottingham Forest. Van der Vaart shot directly, but it went wide. The football scraped the turf and turned to the left. If no one blocked it, the ball would roll out of the end line, and then it would be a false alarm …
A leg suddenly stretched out from the crowd and firmly intercepted the ball!
"Franck Ribéry! He stopped the ball! "The commentator exclaimed.
Casillas's reaction speed was really fast. He jumped up from the pass as soon as he landed and pounced to the back corner, intending to block the Forest team's attack.
Ribéry, who intercepted the ball, did not hesitate. He turned around and swung his leg to whip the football toward the goal …
At the same time, Casillas leaped into the air and pounced on the football.
He was half a beat slower …
The football flew over before his hand reached it and went straight into the net!
"The ball's in —"
Along with the commentator's shouts, the Bernabéu suddenly quieted down for a moment.
It had only been nine minutes and eighteen seconds since the start of the game, and Real Madrid's goal was lost.
The proud Real Madrid people could not accept it for a moment.
"This defense is terrible!" Schuster, sitting in the technical area, clapped angrily and complained to the assistant manager next to him. "I need a center back, but they brought me Robben who can't play …"
Ribéry celebrated the goal wildly. Schuster's frown grew tighter. He thought of the recent rumors. At the end of the season, when he still needed a defender, would Mijatović and the others bring him another Ribéry?
The people around Tony Twain were celebrating the lead, and so was he. But soon he put down his raised arm. Because he had just turned around and saw the podium above the stands. Like Schuster, he also thought of the recent rumors. Would Ribéry's performance in front of the Real Madrid president further stimulate them to poach him?
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