"What a beautiful counterattack! George Wood's wonderful performance created this goal! "
In the strange atmosphere at Stadio delle Alpi, the Nottingham Forest players hugged each other tightly. This was the first goal they had scored at Stadio delle Alpi, which was a good sign!
Twain's buttocks had just touched the chair for a short while before he jumped up again. He waved his fists hard and vented his emotions to his heart's content. He was excited as if he had won the whole game.
"George is becoming more and more like the midfield core!" Kerslake was also excited and shouted excitedly at the side. "That escape and pass was beautiful!"
Ranieri shook his head in disappointment and turned to walk back. He was still chattering, "How can he pass the ball to the opponent's feet? I really don't know what he's thinking! "
The cause of the goal concede was Giovinco's pass error in the front field. It was too depressing to concede a goal like this.
By the time Sebastian Giovinco ran to the edge of the penalty area, the football was already lying quietly in the goal. He stopped and looked at the football a little absent-mindedly.
He felt that his performance today was simply like a piece of shit.
After a moment of silence, Stadio delle Alpi finally erupted with boos again. It was, of course, aimed at Nottingham Forest, but in Giovinco's ears, it seemed to be directed at him.
The boos continued until the end of the first half. Nottingham Forest entered the locker room with a one-goal lead, while the Juventus players looked a little confused — they thought the last five minutes should belong to them.
Ranieri had already left his seat and turned toward the tunnel when the whistle sounded for the first time. He was quite dissatisfied with the result and had something to say during the halftime interval.
Tony Twain was not in a hurry to return to the locker room. He stood on the sidelines of the field and patted the heads of every Forest player who came off the field and shook hands to express his congratulations and encouragement. After doing this, he turned and left. He was the last person to enter the visitors' locker room.
"Well done, guys!" Twain was in a good mood. His voice was loud and his movements were powerful. It could be seen that he was also quite satisfied with the result of the first half. "The game is in our plan. But we have to continue to work hard in the second half. A one-goal lead … "
"It's the most insecure score in the world!" Eastwood helped Twain say what he wanted to say.
Twain pointed at him and everyone laughed. Tang En always treated him with the most lenient attitude. Interrupting him in the locker room was unthinkable for others, but Eastwood could do it, and he almost never received any criticism.
"Freddy, I think you can be the manager in the future."
Everyone laughed again.
Eastwood chuckled. "How can I do that, boss?"
"I bet Ranieri is upset now." Tang En ignored Eastwood and continued, "His plan should be the same as the last time he defeated us, using the opening or the time before the end of the half to break our goal. Because he thinks that's the only time we'll relax. But he didn't expect to be tricked by us. "Tang En smiled happily and somewhat slyly.
"In the second half, they will definitely continue to attack for a period of time because they are not willing to lose to us on their home ground. That's our chance. Seize it! "Tang En clenched his fists.
At the same time, in the Juventus locker room.
Ranieri's face was gloomy. The target he faced was now sitting in front of his locker room cabinet with his head down and not saying a word. He held a towel in his hand to wipe his sweat, but he did not know where to wipe it.
Ranieri did not scold Giovinco, who had made a crucial mistake. He just glared fiercely for a while, then turned around and sighed.
"Let's see how we turn the situation around in the second half …"
He looked at the tactical board, which drew the formations of the two teams. In his eyes, Nottingham Forest's formation had retreated back to the front of the penalty area, putting on an iron bucket formation.
Since he took charge of Juventus, he had always emphasized not to let himself make mistakes. He wanted to catch other people's mistakes, but he did not want others to catch his weak points. But now, the only active mistake in the first half was caught by Nottingham Forest just like that. Tony Twain was also a man who was good at catching his opponent's weak points …
Now it was not good. Nottingham Forest was in the lead. With Ranieri's understanding of Juventus, he also understood what Nottingham Forest would do.
Defensive counterattack!
I'll do the same if I had to …
"We have to attack …" He said this a little weakly. "But we can't all press up. We have to pay attention to defending against their counterattack while we attack. In the second half, we'll focus our offensive forces mainly on the two flanks … "He said, pointing to the opponent's formation on the tactical board.
Judging from the formation, Nottingham Forest's middle was very solid, and the general attack would encounter strong resistance here. But the flanks were relatively empty. The resistance encountered on the flanks was small, and it was easier to pass through quickly.
Ranieri figured it out. Twain must have used the superior forces in the middle to seize control of the midfield. Ranieri did not play with him. He used the method of quickly passing through the flanks to directly attack the root of the problem.
"In the second half, Alessandro, you go up and replace Giovinco."
Although he did not criticize Giovinco's performance in the first half, his substitution had already shown everyone his attitude toward the midfield rising star.
Del Piero nodded.
Giovinco's head was buried lower.
※ ※ ※
"I guess Ranieri will step up the attack in the second half, but he's not a fool. Look at our midfield configuration. It's a fool's dream for him to attack from the middle. So, he'll definitely focus his offense on the flanks. "Twain drew two lines on the tactical board. "Because it looks like our flanks are empty. So, in the second half, we have to make a little adjustment … "
"The two full backs will reduce the number of assists going forward. We'll adjust the formation to a 4-4-2 parallel position. George, you and Tiago continue to be responsible for the defense in the middle. Matías, you return to the left flank. Şahin, you rest in the second half. Lennon, go up. "
Şahin nodded and accepted Twain's arrangement.
They were both substitutions during the halftime interval, but Twain and Ranieri had completely different purposes. So, the emotions of the two players who were substituted were completely different.
"In the second half, we'll return to the flanks attack tactics we're most familiar with. Let's give Juventus another surprise! "
※ ※ ※
Before the start of the second half of the game, both sides prepared to make personnel adjustments near the sidelines.
Juventus replaced Giovinco with Del Piero, who made a fatal mistake in the first half, while Nottingham Forest replaced Şahin with Lennon.
"It's easy to understand replacing Giovinco. After all, his performance in the first half was too clumsy. But replacing Şahin with Lennon … What does it mean? Şahin's performance in the first half was remarkable … "The commentator was still puzzled by it, but Ranieri was keenly aware that something was wrong.
Lennon was a player purely on the flanks, while Şahin was a player purely in the middle. What did this adjustment mean?
Nottingham Forest was going back to the flanks!
He had just instructed his players to focus on the flanks, and now they were facing the Forest team head-on …
He believed it had to be Twain's plot. In the first half, he thought Nottingham Forest would stick to their traditional strategy of playing on the flanks, so he laid out a heavy force on the flanks and waited for Nottingham Forest to walk into the trap. He did not expect Tony Twain to uncharacteristically play the cards in the middle, which caught him off guard. In the end, the Forest team launched an attack from the middle and scored a point. During the halftime interval, he made his own countermeasures to deal with the situation, but he did not expect Twain to change again!
Twain had instructed the team to focus on the flanks in the second half, not only for the sake of offense, but also for the sake of defense. When the Forest team strengthened the flanks, Juventus' attacks in the flanks would inevitably be affected.
That was Twain's idea to counter offense with offense in the flanks.
The effect was very obvious …
After the game started, Juventus had wanted to besiege the Forest team's goal, but they were dragged into the quagmire of the midfield by Nottingham Forest.
Del Piero was able to control the ball when he came on, but George Wood's tight marking on him made it very difficult for him. To deal with the former Italian golden boy, who had excellent ball control skills but was not as good as before, George Wood used his excellent physical qualities and even committed fouls to successfully tire Del Piero out.
In the first half, Wood and Tiago still took care of the offense. But in the second half, they put almost all their energy into defense. They were like two meat grinders in the midfield, dragging in all of Juventus' attacks and grinding them to pieces. Such a midfield defense brought a lot of trouble to Juventus' offense.
The Juventus players had a feeling that no matter where they passed the ball to, there would be Nottingham Forest players who had the absolute advantage in numbers. It was as if their people were everywhere.
In terms of fitness, the Forest players had no problem at all. They dashed everywhere to intercept Juventus' ball.
The game fell into a deadlock. Neither side had any better chances. Most of the time, both teams kept making mistakes. Nottingham Forest used their own Premier League rhythm to drag Juventus, a graceful and elegant rich team, into a frenzy without any regard for their image. As time went on, the Old Lady could not take it anymore. Her proactive mistakes began to increase.
At the same time, the Forest team's mistakes also increased. But it was still within the range that Tony Twain could bear. They now had the lead. As long as they dragged Juventus into a mess, there would be plenty of opportunities for the Forest team.
Twain returned to the technical area, sat down, and crossed his legs. He was not in a hurry.
As time went on, it was Juventus who became more and more anxious.
The manager's seat in the Juventus technical area seemed to have a nail board. Ranieri's butt would be lifted up again as soon as he put it down. He would then pace to the sidelines, a little anxious and a little helpless as he stared at everything that was happening on the field.
He could only hope that Amauri could explode with the energy he had in the league tournament and break through Nottingham Forest's goal.
Unfortunately, Pepe had closely marked Amauri, and the powerful center forward had met a strong opponent. Moreover, Nottingham Forest had cut off the connection between Juventus' midfield and forward line. Neither Amauri nor Iaquinta could get support from the midfield. Most of the time, they had to fight alone and had to constantly retreat to receive the ball.
In short, Juventus' offensive system was messed up by Nottingham Forest, and Ranieri was at his wit's end. He was always a step behind Twain, and the adjustments he made were all aimed at Twain's previous deployment. The players were at a loss as to what to do.
※ ※ ※
The second half of the game was a hundred times more boring than the first. It was not until the game was about to end that Juventus set off a wave of counterattacks. They seized the last moment and launched a siege on Nottingham Forest's goal. Nottingham Forest also seemed to have no intention of attacking. They all retreated to defend and holed up in their own penalty area.
Twain was very dissatisfied with the situation. He stood on the sidelines and roared for the team to fight back.
But his voice was drowned out by the storm of cheers from the home fans in Stadio delle Alpi.
"This is Juventus' last chance! If they don't hurry up, they'll lose at home! "
Ranieri replaced Sissoko, who did not contribute to the offense, at the last minute and replaced him with Yago, an excellent midfielder produced by La Masia's youth training camp. He hoped to strengthen the offense and equalize the score at the last minute to create a miracle.
"Amauri's header into the goal!"
"Ah — Akinfeev! What a beautiful save! That's amazing! "
"Iaquinta fell in the penalty area and the referee blew the whistle! But it's just a free kick outside the penalty area. Kompany's foul was very timely. Any later and it would have been a penalty kick! "
"Del Piero came to take the free kick … and it hit the human wall! The Juventus players protested to the referee that the Forest team's human wall was too close, but the referee just signaled them to throw the ball out of bounds. "
…
The game only entered the real exciting moment in the last ten minutes. Juventus pressed on the Forest team to go in and play. Threatening shots appeared one after another. The Forest fans' hearts almost jumped out of their throats. The goal guarded by Akinfeev swayed in the wind and rain, as if it would be breached at any time.
Tang En also became nervous. If Juventus were to score a goal to equalize the score at the last minute and then see them hug and celebrate wildly, Tang En really did not know if his nuclear-powered heart could withstand the stimulation …
"Tony!" Dunn shouted loudly from the back. He was also worried about Tang En's heart.
"I'm fine, Dunn." Tang En waved his hands and rushed to the side of the field to yell, "Why are you hiding at the back? Are you a turtle? That head of yours is not a f * cking tortoise!! "
Under Tang En's crazy roar and body language cues, Nottingham Forest finally had two counterattacks, one of which almost scored a goal.
Juventus was not disturbed by Nottingham Forest's two counterattacks. They continued to press forward and wanted to score a goal before the end of the game. The old lady, who had always been cultured and elegant, finally threw away the veil that covered her face. She rolled up her sleeves and tied her skirt around her waist, intending to fight with Nottingham Forest to the death.
Unfortunately, it was a little too late for them to make such a decision …
When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, Del Piero kicked the football toward the stands behind the Forest team's goal.
As the captain of Juventus, he did not express his dissatisfaction with any one person. He was just unhappy with losing like this — they were ground to death by Nottingham Forest's defense …
Post-match statistics showed that they scored nearly a third more times than Nottingham Forest, but they did not score a goal.
At the end of the game, the Nottingham Forest players repeated what the Juventus team did at the Stadio delle Alpi two years ago — wildly celebrating the victory.
But Tang En appeared very calm. He did not even celebrate and got up to shake hands with Ranieri.
"This is really a wonderful game …" Tang En said in English, regardless of whether Ranieri could understand. In fact, the language barrier was not an obstacle for Tang En to express his meaning, because as he said so, his face was as bright as a flower.
Ranieri knew what kind of person Tony Twain was. Although he did not understand what he was saying, he knew it was certainly not good words. He ignored the opponent who sincerely wanted to show off in front of him. He shook hands with Tang En and turned to leave.
As soon as Ranieri left, the reporters swarmed up and surrounded Tang En. They wanted to hear what he thought about the victory of the game.
"Three consecutive wins." Tang En put up three fingers. "We're going to advance!"
"Mr. Twain, aren't you a little overconfident?"
"You're wrong, Mr. Reporter. This is not overconfidence. I'm just telling the truth. "
"Are you not satisfied with just a small victory over Juventus with only one goal?"
"No, I only care about three points."
"Two seasons ago, your team lost to Juventus in an away game in the Champions League group stage. How does it feel to have a successful revenge?"
"I don't feel anything now. Because we still have to face them at home. When that game is over, you can ask me this question again. "
"Can you talk about Nottingham Forest's goal in the Champions League this season?"
This time, Tang En was rarely modest. He smiled and said, "We'll do our best and see how far we can go."
As a result, the day after the game, his modest smile was interpreted as "Tony Twain's return to the Champions League title." In the photo, Tony Twain smiled mysteriously. A pair of narrowed eyes seemed to be really calculating how far his team was from the European Championship title.
Tang En was very innocent — "That's just a professional smile …"
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