From the beginning of the game, Nottingham Forest took the initiative.
Inter Milan did not get the right to serve, so they shrank their defense as soon as they came up. They first stabilized their defense and then plotted to attack. As for Nottingham Forest, they did not stand on ceremony and took full advantage of their kick-off to keep the football firmly under their feet. They were not in a hurry to hit the goal, but patiently dealt with it.
George Wood and Tiago's positions were indeed further back than before. It looked like the distance between them and Şahin was further than before, but in fact, the players were not wooden blocks. They would constantly run and intersperse on the field. The formation during the formation could only be used as a reference — if the distance was too far, would Şahin not know to retreat back to support? Did Wood and the others not know to run up?
The tactics might be dead, but the players were definitely alive.
How to use the dead tactics flexibly was the level of the players. Some players only knew to stick to the manager's arrangements. One was one, two was two. They dared not overstep the boundaries and did not have any ideas of their own. Such a player would only be an ordinary professional footballer for the rest of his life. But some players were able to produce their own ideas and make their own judgments on the basis of understanding the manager's tactical intentions. Such players were often those master-level players who could understand the situation on the field and reverse the situation.
When Inter Milan shrank their defense, Wood and Tiago did not cling to the defensive midfielder position and foolishly wait for the opponent to attack. Out of the necessary caution, they did not rush up at the same time but took turns to plug in and participate in the attack. Tiago went up and George Wood stayed behind to defend and protect. Wood went up and Tiago was responsible for defense.
Nottingham Forest controlled the football under their feet and was not in a hurry to pass the football directly to Inter Milan's goal. At the tactical meeting the day before the game, Twain arranged for Şahin to start, but also specifically warned him not to pass the ball straight if he was not particularly confident in the game and not to give Inter Milan a chance to immediately counterattack after the ball was intercepted. He would rather pass the ball back and forth on the periphery and pull Inter Milan's defensive line.
Şahin habitually wanted to make a threatening pass every time he got the football, but when he looked up and saw Inter Milan's defensive line in front of him like an impenetrable wall, he remembered the boss's warning. So he turned and passed the football out.
Şahin passed the ball to Bentley, who saw that Inter Milan's rear defensive line was not in disarray after he pretended to pass the ball, so he sent a long pass directly to the other side of the field. Matías Fernández received the ball and passed it to Leighton Baines, who plugged in from behind. Baines saw that the opportunity was not good and continued to pass the ball. This time the football fell at George Wood's feet.
The Inter Milan players were certainly not going to hide in their own thirty-meter zone like a tortoise and let Nottingham Forest pass the ball back and forth outside. Ibrahimović, who was at the forefront, saw the football fall to Wood's feet and rushed up to intercept the ball. Under his leadership, Inter Milan's overall formation began to slightly press forward, and a gap finally appeared in the originally airtight formation.
Wood waited for Ibrahimović to pounce on him before he stuffed the football to Rafinha.
Rafinha then passed the ball to Şahin and continued to run forward. It looked like he wanted to do a two over one wall pass with Şahin.
The Inter Milan players were not fools. How could they tolerate such a cliché and simple cooperation in front of them?
Chivu kept a close eye on Rafinha, who plugged in ahead, while Cambiasso came up to pounce on Şahin.
Şahin did not receive the ball. He just made a motion to receive the ball, and then turned around to block Cambiasso and gave the football to Ibišević behind him.
"Ibišević received the ball. He's now on the edge of the penalty area with his side facing the goal. It looks like he has a chance to shoot!"
Ibišević did not shoot, because the moment he intended to lift his foot, he found that Samuel was too close to him and it was not suitable for him to shoot. So, he changed his mind at the last minute and flicked his ankle to pass the ball back to George Wood.
The pass was too familiar to Mourinho — the striker had his back to the goal, Wood was facing the goal, and the football was passed to him from the striker's position. He did not have to stop the ball at all. He could directly lift his foot to shoot while running.
Although people always said how bad Wood's shooting was, the facts proved again and again that this player with a bad shot could always play a stunning world-class shot in this place …
He clenched his fists and hoped that the Inter Milan players on the field could still remember what he said to them before the game.
— George Wood is the most dangerous killer at the top of the penalty area! This is not alarmist talk. You must remember this and stop all possibilities of him shooting from this place!
Fortunately, his players did not forget this. Samuel was defending against Ibišević, and they still had someone who could come out to defend against Wood. Burdisso stepped forward, intending to use his body to block Wood's shocking long shot!
Wood flicked his ankle and tricked Burdisso into losing his center of gravity, but he pushed the football to Şahin on the other side!
When Şahin let the ball go to Ibišević, he had already completed the action of turning around and bypassing Cambiasso. Now he was facing the goal, and there was no heavy encirclement in front of him.
Wood just passed the football in front of Şahin. As long as he accelerated into the penalty area, he could directly face Inter Milan's Brazilian goalkeeper, César …
"One-handed!!"
The commentator shouted excitedly. The game had only started for three minutes, and Nottingham Forest had already gotten such a good opportunity.
Şahin's explosive power was not so powerful. He could fly in front of the football with a kick, and then shake off everyone to raise his leg to shoot. In order to try to penetrate the opponent's defensive line, Wood's passing power was a little strong.
Şahin tried hard to rush up, but he did not achieve his goal of shaking off the defenders.
Samuel, Burdisso, and Cambiasso rushed at him from three different directions, intending to strangle his shot in the cradle. Of course, because the football had already entered the penalty area, they had to be careful not to foul …
But the three Argentinians had achieved their goal. They crowded Şahin and surrounded him. Now the angle from which Şahin could shoot was very small. Under the heavy encirclement, even if he just raised his leg to shoot, the football on the ground might be immediately poked out — he could not do nothing just because it might lead to a foul. A defender who fouled because of a tackle might be a rough defender, but if he let the opponent shoot and score because he was afraid of fouling, then he was not a qualified defender.
If Şahin wanted to shoot, even if the frontline risked a foul to give a penalty kick, the three men would definitely shovel it down!
Şahin did not shoot. He fell to the ground at the same time as the three men, but he just swept the football horizontally to the other side …
"Ibišević!! He's completely undefended — "
None of the Inter Milan defenders, including César, noticed Ibišević. When the football was passed to Şahin's feet, they only had Şahin in their eyes. But Şahin passed the football to Ibišević.
Now most of the goal in front of Ibišević was empty. What he needed to do was very simple —
"Shoot! GOOOAL！！ It's too easy! "
The Nottingham Forest fans gave a huge cheer at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
Ibišević ran to the corner flag with his arms outstretched, and then continued his celebratory slap.
The Inter Milan players stood stupidly in place, still a little unable to believe what they saw — the game had only started for a little more than three minutes. How did they concede the goal? And it was so easy, so simple, so … inexplicable!
They were the authorities and might be a little confused. But the bystanders saw it very clearly.
"Beautiful coordination! Nottingham Forest's coordination looks like a pleasure to watch! It's rare to see such a strong attack in the middle and such smooth coordination in modern football. This attack launched by George Wood has fooled all of Inter Milan's defenders. "
Şahin's pass was very crucial. If he was completely unaware that Ibišević would cut in next to him, he would have chosen to force a shot. Everyone on Earth knew what the result would be. It was his feint to shoot but fall to the ground to pass the ball that completely tore apart Inter Milan's tight defensive line. Ibišević pushed the football into the goal as easily as he faced an empty goal on the training ground.
The Nottingham Forest players waited for Ibišević to finish his slap before they rushed up and hugged him tightly. Outside the field, Forest's technical area and substitutes' bench had long been in a huddle. Tony Twain did not forget to wave his fists in front of more than 70,000 Inter Milan fans to demonstrate his strength. His actions, of course, once again earned him a lot of boos and abuse. But he did not care. At this moment, he was the victor, and those who insulted him were the losers!
Just as Twain expected, Mourinho quickly stood up from the technical area. He paced back and forth on the sidelines in a somewhat displeased manner. Just three minutes into the match, Nottingham Forest had opened up a gap in the middle and obtained a valuable away goal. Such a thing was too embarrassing for the Serie A powerhouse, Inter Milan.
He knew what Twain was thinking, so he asked the team to pay attention to defense at the start of the match. But he did not expect the most difficult to break through middle to become Nottingham Forest's exclusive corridor. Looking at the coordination of the three in the middle, Inter Milan's three defenders were completely treated as monkeys. They were pulled around by their running and passing, and in the end, they had neglected the real point.
Did I do something wrong?
He began to reflect on his dissatisfaction.
Unfortunately, he could not figure out the reason until the match resumed.
It could only be attributed to an accident that often happened on the football field and no one knew when and why it would happen. At a certain period of time, Inter Milan's originally tight defense had a gap due to some other factors, and Nottingham Forest very keenly seized on it. It could not be said that Inter Milan was too bad. It could only be said that the enemy was too cunning.
※ ※ ※
When the match resumed, Inter Milan suddenly gave up their defense and actively attacked from several lines. For a moment, Nottingham Forest was in a bit of a mess.
The Nottingham Forest players clearly did not expect Inter Milan to counterattack so quickly. They thought Inter Milan would not be able to recover from the shock of conceding a goal so quickly.
Nottingham's Red Rangers made a mistake. Inter Milan was more difficult to deal with than they thought.
Amid the waves of cheers from the home fans, Inter Milan launched a steady stream of attacks from the midfield and continued to put pressure on Nottingham Forest's defense. Inter Milan seemed to be testing the limits of Nottingham Forest's spring.
In the eighth minute, after Cambiasso intercepted Şahin's ball, he dribbled the ball in the middle but was closely defended by Tiago, and the football was intercepted. Fortunately, Montolivo did not rush too fast, and the ball that Tiago intercepted just rolled to his feet. Inter Milan's attack continued.
Montolivo did not intend to attack from the middle like Cambiasso. He directly passed the football to Quaresma on the side.
Quaresma had been famous for a long time at a young age. Unfortunately, he did not seem to be a powerhouse. Whether it was at Barcelona or today's Inter Milan, his position was not stable. His gorgeous footwork skills seemed to be out of line with the team's overall tactics. Mourinho had high hopes for him at the beginning, but unfortunately he could not adapt to Inter Milan's tactics and Italian football style when he came to Italy. His footwork skills and outside instep magic skills that could win the world's cheers in Portugal could only become the main target of the defenders in Italy and the culprit who dragged down the team's offensive tactics.
After adapting for several seasons, Quaresma was still a peripheral figure in the Inter Milan lineup. He was also called up for this game because Mancini Jr. was injured and could not play in this game …
But do not underestimate the Portuguese because of this. Although he sometimes seemed out of line with the team's tactics, his individual combat ability was still very good. Mourinho might also want to use Quaresma's individual ability to contain the Forest team's attack on the left flank.
Quaresma seemed to be in good form for today's game. After he received the ball, his movement with the ball reflected a good body's flexibility, and then he accelerated to break through on the side!
Matías Fernández caught up from the side behind, intending to overtake and intercept the ball.
Quaresma noticed Fernández, who was approaching him at high speed. He calculated that when Fernández intercepted the ball, he suddenly stopped, hooked the football back with his right foot, and then pushed forward with the arch of his left foot, bypassing Fernández in this way!
Then he accelerated again, shook off Fernández, caught up with the football, and directly faced Leighton Baines. Not far from Baines was George Wood, who was eyeing him like a tiger, waiting for him to bypass Baines and rush up to intercept the ball.
Fernández saw Wood next to him and gave up the pursuit. He believed that the captain and Baines together would be able to defend against Quaresma.
Baines alone could not defend against Quaresma. He only let Quaresma's heel stop to knock the ball over. Next, just as Quaresma was about to enter the penalty area, George Wood pounced on him.
The football was on the left side of Quaresma's body at this time. He was a right-footed player and needed to adjust. That was Wood's chance!
Wood's entire body was like a taut bowstring, his eyes fixed on Quaresma's movements.
He saw Quaresma make a sudden stop to bypass Baines and then start to turn around. He expected that he would first use his left foot to hook the football back, and then cut into the penalty area. Wood planned to cross the road and wait for him to crash into him.
But then he saw a scene that made his eyes widen —
Quaresma did not continue to dribble the ball. He pushed hard with his left foot, turned around and swung his right foot to influence the football …
At that moment, George Wood's eyes widened and he did not react at all. Because he saw … Quaresma use the outside of his foot!
The football flew in front of Wood's face and drew a strange arc. Looking at his movement, it was not a shot at all, but to say it was a pass …
Did anyone see a pass that went past the goal?!
The football leaped high, bypassed everyone in the penalty area, and then fell straight into the far corner of the goal. The goalkeeper, Akinfeev, was caught off guard. When he jumped up, he stretched out his hand with all his might, but he could not reach the ball.
Everyone at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium witnessed Quaresma's iconic goal.
"What _ a _ great _ GOOOOAL — —"
The football fell from the boundary between the goalpost and the crossbar and fell into the net.
George Wood's eyes followed the football, and his heart sank. What did he see? The outside of his right foot drew the football in an arc, bypassed all the defenders, and drilled into the goal from the most impossible angle …
This was completely out of his expectations!
"Quaresma — — a beautiful goal! Just five minutes later, he single-handedly equalized the score for Inter Milan! This player, who was once rumored to be purged, pulled his team back with such an exquisite goal! I bet this goal will be among the top ten goals of this season's Champions League! So beautiful! The Nottingham Forest players have no reaction to this goal! "
After the goal, Quaresma was a little agitated. He tore at his jersey and said something that no one understood. But his teammates did not care what he said. They swarmed up and pressed him to the ground.
Mourinho also stood up from the technical area and waved his fist vigorously. It was really lucky to equalize the score so quickly … He was still worried about what the situation of the game would be like if Nottingham Forest continued to maintain their lead.
Now it's all good … He turned his head to look at the furious Tony Twain, and a proud smile appeared on his face.
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