Mark Hughes was still having a headache over the fact that his flank tactics had been countered by Tang En in a tit-for-tat manner, but this goal gave him inspiration.
While the players were celebrating the goal, he called Elano off the pitch and told him to follow his own observations to decide whether to attack from the flanks or through the middle.
Tony Twain was the one who should be having a headache now.
Bendtner became more active after the goal, and his teammates consciously passed the ball to him for him to complete the final shot. It looked like the entire Manchester City team hoped that Bendtner would win the bet.
The Nottingham Forest fans' boos grew louder with Bendtner's liveliness. It could be said that when Bendtner received the ball, no other sound could be heard in the City Ground Stadium. Even on the other side of the Trent River, the ear-piercing boos could be heard clearly.
"I've never seen the Nottingham Forest fans treat someone so crazily …" Andy Gray was also shocked as he muttered.
"Maybe they were triggered by the goal concede, and by Bendtner's goal celebration. That's why I said this would be a very exciting match! Haha, it's only been four minutes and Nottingham Forest is already behind! How is Tang En going to play the rest of the match? "
※ ※ ※
Tang En was indeed having a headache. The problem now was that Elano was in the center, and he could decide whether to attack from the middle or the flanks. If he insisted on the full backs rushing in to assist, then George Wood and Tiago would have a hard time — they had to defend and take care of the middle at the same time. Forest would still concede the goal.
Tang En thought about it and decided to temporarily give up on the idea of the full backs assisting. It was more important for them to stabilize their defense during this period.
He walked to the side of the pitch and whistled, waving his hands to signal the two full backs who were still enjoying themselves to move back to defend.
Bale and Rafinha looked at the empty flanks behind them and ran over reluctantly.
George Wood and Tiago returned to the middle of the pitch, completely blocking Elano's path of passing the ball. Now that the full backs were not assisting, Nottingham Forest's offense was completely reliant on the two side midfielders.
However, Tang En felt that the effect was not good enough. After all, without the full backs assisting, the team's offense lacked depth and variety, and it was too easy to fall into the opponent's tight defense.
He signaled to the two defensive midfielders on the sidelines to take turns to assist.
George Wood started to become active.
Nottingham Forest deployed a 4-5-1 formation for this game. There were five players in the midfield. The distance between the attacking midfielder, van der Vaart, and the defensive midfielder was a little far. The striker, van Nistelrooy, was at the front alone. How could he connect the backfield and the front field?
One way was to rely on the wingers, which was Ribery and Lennon, but they were mainly active on the flanks. The tandem in the middle was inserted behind the defensive midfielder.
George Wood was now very familiar with plugging in and participating in the offense. He was no longer the hothead who ran up and didn't know what to do.
After getting the ball from Tiago, Wood dribbled the ball forward. When Elano came up to interfere, he passed the ball to Ribéry, who was withdrawing, and ran forward to do a wall pass with Ribéry before passing the ball to van der Vaart. He didn't go back. Instead, he continued to run forward, looking like he was going to enter the restricted area.
Manchester City was forced to disperse their forces to defend against him. The defensive pressure on van der Vaart lessened a little. He raised his leg for a long shot, and the ball went slightly over the crossbar.
At this time, Wood turned around and ran back to his defensive position.
※ ※ ※
Bendtner saw that after the Forest team changed their tactics, he had fewer chances to get the ball at the front. He began to retreat to get the ball.
Kompany wanted to follow, but was stopped by Wood with a hand gesture.
Bendtner had already entered George Wood's domain.
Bendtner raised his hand in the midfield to signal for the ball. After Robinho dribbled past Lennon, he passed the ball to him. The ball had just reached his feet when Bendtner felt a huge force coming from behind him.
He hurriedly leaned back to protect the ball, but in doing so, he also lost the chance to turn around.
He knew who gave him that shot just now.
The corner of his mouth curled up. This kind of confrontation was really rare …
He knew he couldn't turn around now, and Ribéry was rushing back to defend at high speed. Once he was sandwiched, it would be over. He could only pass the ball to Robinho, who ran up to receive.
Tiago was entangled with Robinho, while Wood waited on the side for an opportunity to defend. Bendtner ran forward and continued to raise his hand for the ball.
While Robinho was entangled with Tiago, he used the tip of his foot to lift the ball over Tiago and flew towards Bendtner who was plugging forward.
Bendtner turned sideways to get the ball, but what he waited for was George Wood's upturned shoe tip — he beat him to it and kicked the ball away while it was still in the air.
"It's not easy to get rid of Wood!" Gray yelled. It was not known if he felt sorry for Bendtner, or praised George Wood's flexibility and courage.
※ ※ ※
When Bendtner once again retreated to the midfield to get the ball, this time George Wood did not even give him a chance to protect the ball. He directly pushed Bendtner and the ball down from behind.
Bendtner jumped up from the ground and signaled to the referee who was running over that he should give Wood a card. This was a foul from behind!
Seeing his action, the boos in the stadium became even louder …
Even Pepe could not stand it anymore and rushed up to question Bendtner. Fortunately, he was stopped by Tiago halfway. Otherwise, the two sides might have used this as an excuse to clash.
Van der Vaart was close, so he did not directly question Bendtner. He only applauded him from the side, his sarcasm and disdain obvious.
Bendtner did not care what the fans and former teammates thought of him. He was still entangled with the referee, relentlessly trying to get a card for Wood — it would be even better if it was a red card!
Wood did not go up to argue. He slowly got up from the ground. He waved for everyone to disperse. There was nothing to see here.
Then he stood quietly in the same spot, waiting for the referee's final decision.
The referee still came over and showed Wood a yellow card.
The boos became louder …
Tang En was still sitting in his seat, but Kerslake could not take it anymore. He rushed to the side of the field and cursed the "traitor" Bendtner. "Think about who groomed you, bastard!"
Tang En looked at his colleague's agitated back and shrugged. He said to Dunn beside him, "From another perspective … at least Bendtner has professional ethics …"
※ ※ ※
"Bendtner's wish has come true. George Wood has a yellow card on his back. The next match will not be easy for Wood to play. "
"That's not necessarily true. For George Wood, as long as he's not sent off, he can still play however he wants. "
Martin Taylor was right. After the match resumed, George Wood's defense was still fierce. It was as if he did not care about the yellow card on his back.
However, Tang En could not ignore it. He instructed Tiago to share more of the defensive duties and asked George Wood to participate more in the offense, focusing his experience on how to equalize the score.
Yes, equalize the score. Nottingham Forest had to equalize the score before the end of the first half. Otherwise, the Forest team that entered the locker room would be dejected or impatient — it was not a team that Tang En wanted to see. On the other hand, Manchester City's morale would be high, thinking that Forest could not do anything to them.
Tang En looked at the watch on his wrist. Twenty-seven minutes had passed in the first half.
The match was now in a stalemate. Manchester City's offense met with Forest's impenetrable defense and was forced to stop. Forest's offense also met with Manchester City's tenacious resistance. Everyone had some chances, but no one grasped them again.
※ ※ ※
Van Nistelrooy was alone at the front, looking isolated and helpless in the opponent's penalty area. In reality, he was not the point. As there was only one forward in this match, his role was more to create opportunities for the people behind him to score. Unfortunately, Tang En canceled the two full backs' assists. Forest's offensive routine was a little simple — Ribéry and Lennon would either go down or cut inside. Whenever they saw van der Vaart approaching the penalty area, they would either do a long shot or pass the ball directly to van Nistelrooy. George Wood mostly came up to pass the ball. Manchester City's defensive formation was maintained fairly well. No matter how Forest moved, their defensive line would not fall into disarray. It could be seen that Mark Hughes had put a lot of effort into how to prevent Forest's sneak attacks. Although it was used to prevent sneak attacks, this kind of tight defense also caused Forest's positional warfare to be troublesome.
Hughes's idea for this match was very simple. The backfield would stabilize their defense and use a tight defensive formation to reduce Forest's space and time to counterattack. They would use Bendtner, a strong center forward, and their outstanding ability to break through the flanks to score. It was just that they did not expect the flanks to not fight, but instead blossomed in the middle.
Although Tang En quickly readjusted his setup, it did not help the situation. Now that Manchester City was leading by a goal, as long as they continued to stabilize their defense, it was not impossible to take away three points with this away goal.
As Manchester City's manager, he knew about the bet his players made. But between winning and gambling, he would not hesitate to choose winning.
Seeing that the first half was about to end, Hughes decided to have the team retreat as a whole and shrink their formation, deciding to counterattack Nottingham Forest.
Tang En certainly knew what Hughes was planning, but now he had to press out and attack, because there was not much time left. He was not willing to go into the locker room with a disadvantage of one point behind.
With a big wave of his hand, Bale and Rafinha, who had been suppressed for more than 30 minutes, attacked again.
With ten minutes to go before the end of the first half, Forest launched their first frenzied attack of the match.
※ ※ ※
"Bring out your energy!!" Fat John roared at his partners behind him from the stands. "Don't always think about booing the Danish kid! What our team needs now is not to boo their opponents, but to cheer them on! Which one of you wants to see us go into halftime with a goal behind? I don't want to! I won't even have the appetite to drink if that happens! Guys, let's sing our hearts out — "
"Oh oh oh oh — Forest, Forest! Nottingham Forest! "
"… Forest, Forest! Nottingham Forest! We are invincible, we are invincible! We are the best team in the world … We make our opponents fear, we make them tremble with fear! Because the whole world is in the palm of our hands — "
"Oh oh oh — Wood, Wood, grow into a forest! Wood, Wood, grow into a forest! "
※ ※ ※
George Wood was taking the ball.
He still dribbled the ball forward from the back. Elano's obstruction was easily shaken off by him. The Brazilian's defense was purely symbolic …
It was only when he reached Ireland that he met resistance. But he also passed the ball to van der Vaart. Van der Vaart could not turn around, so he passed the ball to Wood, who passed it to Lennon on the flank.
Lennon raised his leg to pass the ball, and van Nistelrooy leaped to fight for the header!
The ball was headed out by Dunn.
It once again landed at George Wood's feet.
He looked like he was going to shoot, but no one fell for it — everyone knew how bad Wood's shooting was.
As expected, Wood did not really shoot when he was thirty-five meters away from the goal. He passed the ball to Tiago, who had caught up from behind, and retreated to defend himself. He and Tiago did a shift change. Now Tiago was in charge of the offense, and he was in charge of the defense.
Forest's offense was quickly ended by Manchester City's long ball.
Ashley Young dribbled the ball and sprinted along the flank. Bale went up to assist, and there was an empty space on this side. This was the perfect opportunity for Manchester City to increase the score before the end of the first half!
But his dribbling was stopped by George Wood. Wood used a beautiful shovel to intercept the ball from Ashley Young's feet. He then got up and dribbled the ball away from Ashley Young, who had just gotten up.
Tiago saw that Wood had come up, but he did not go back to defend. There was not much time left in the first half, and he wanted to stay in the front field to participate in the offense.
Elano was the first to block Wood again, and this time he almost succeeded. Unfortunately, he lost in the physical confrontation and could not stop Wood from breaking through.
After using his body and speed to shake off Elano, Wood gestured as if he was going to pass the ball to van der Vaart — he adjusted the direction of the ball and ran towards van der Vaart.
When Ireland turned his attention to the Dutch attacking midfielder, he passed the ball to Tiago beside him.
Then he ran to the front of the penalty area.
Tiago gestured to do a long shot, and someone believed him this time. Ireland turned around and pounced back. Tiago passed the ball to van der Vaart.
Van der Vaart did not stop the ball, and directly pushed the ball into the crowd of people in the penalty area.
"George Wood!"
Wood received the ball sideways, and in the face of Dunn's defense, he rushed up fearlessly.
The two men collided, and the ball bounced out. Dunn fell to the ground, and George Wood looked like he was about to dive and fall on the ground.
At this moment, his strong body showed its use again, and he used both his hands and feet to climb up from the ground in an instant!
"Did Wood foul?"
"No, it's a reasonable collision!"
Manchester City's goalkeeper, Joe Hart, saw that his opponent had already brought the ball into the penalty area, and hurriedly attacked.
Wood had already adjusted his body's posture and center of gravity, and now he was behind all the Manchester City defenders, facing Hart and the goal behind him. He swung his right leg.
Hart spread out his arms and pounced forward. He wanted to stop Wood's powerful volley!
Richards did not care if he would be awarded a penalty for shoving the ball from behind in the penalty area, and he slid the ball diagonally towards Wood from behind.
When they saw Wood swinging his right leg, everyone was sure that it must be a powerful volley — because it matched the image that Wood had always given people.
When Hart and Richards went to defend against this ball, they also did the same thing — they went to pounce down the three paths — if Wood shot the ball up the three paths, there would only be one result: a miss.
No one would believe that Wood would shoot. His raised right leg quickly whipped down, and it hit the ball like a whip.
Then …
The ball leaped up high, bypassing Richards' leg and Hart's body, drawing a parabola, and fell directly into the goal …
At that moment, time seemed to stand still. Everyone's mouths were agape, and they stared dumbfoundedly at the ball that was still bouncing around in the goal.
What happened?
Andy Gray's hysterical scream broke the silence, "Ah ah ah ah ah ah! What did I see? A hook? A lob? A curveball?! Oh my God! Someone tell me that this must be an illusion! That George Wood, who would shoot into the air even when facing an empty goal, actually managed to score such a beautiful goal! Something must be wrong with this world … "
Tony Twain, who was sitting in the technical area after Bendtner's goal, rushed out of his seat at this moment, holding his head. He looked at George Wood in the distance as if he was looking at an alien, and he muttered, "Diego Maradona, Bruno Conte, Francesco Totti, at this moment, their souls are possessed …"
The three names he muttered were all world football's experts at lob shots.
"I can't believe it …" Kerslake was also holding his head in shock like him. "… His own eyes."
Only Dunn was calmer. "When I gave him extra shooting practice, he tried it before. But he didn't succeed even once … "
※ ※ ※
After George Wood lobbed the ball into the goal, he was tackled to the ground by Richards, who could not stop his feet. He had just stood up when he was pushed down again by the players who swarmed him. Bale lay on top of him and held his head. Their noses pressed against each other, and he asked loudly, "How did you do it?!"
"I … I don't know. I just thought that if I lob the football, the chances of scoring would be higher …"
Ribéry slid in from the other side. After hearing what Wood said, he hugged his neck hard and said, "So you did it on purpose! You kid … You stole all of our limelight! "
"What else do you know about shooting? How about a 'Scorpio' kick next time, George! "Van der Vaart smiled and patted his head.
Everyone in the stands stood up from their seats. They raised their hands high and waved the scarves in their hands. They jumped in the stands and sang praises in unison.
The people on the Manchester City side were all dumbfounded. They knew how good George Wood's shooting skills were. It could be said that everyone in England knew — they all knew that he was not good at shooting.
They did not expect Wood to use such a difficult shot to break through the goal guarded by Joe Hart and equalize the score at 1: 1!
Even Bendtner and Ashley Young, who had played with him before, were astonished. Was that blockhead injected with hormones? How did he suddenly learn how to shoot with a spoon?
"Well, no matter what's wrong with this world, and no matter how George Wood did it, I don't care. The fact is that he scored the equalizing goal. Before the end of the first half, Nottingham Forest pulled the game back to the starting point! "
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