"Ricardo Quaresma!! What a brilliant goal! "
The Giuseppe Meazza Stadium was like an erupting volcano. The blue fans turned into magma flames, boiling and burning in the stands.
"Quaresma's outside instep is very famous. Now he has shown us his unique skill in the Champions League. This goal has stunned the entire Nottingham Forest team! "
All the Nottingham Forest players were indeed stunned … Quaresma's goal was too imaginative … Although some of them knew that Quaresma liked to use the outside instep of his right foot to play such a goal on the right flank, no one expected him to succeed on his first try!
Tiago was Quaresma's teammate in the Portugal national team. He also reminded his Forest teammates before the game that Quaresma's individual skills should not be underestimated. He did it out of kindness and did not want Quaresma to play like that. He really did not expect his words to come true.
George Wood stood where he was. Quaresma had already run away from him and danced to celebrate the goal.
He suddenly felt that it was a disgrace to him, so he clenched his fists. He did not mean that he thought Quaresma was very good and made him feel a sense of powerlessness. It was because he relied too much on his experience, which led to him not being able to stop the opponent's shot. If he had not waited in front and had directly rushed up, he might have had a way to entangle Quaresma and not let him shoot.
Everyone else was praising Quaresma's amazing skills. Only George Wood thought that it was just his own mistake.
This goal concede was his responsibility. He had to find a way to make up for it.
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Mourinho was celebrating the victory on the sidelines of the field, while Tony Twain was swearing, "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! "
He did not know who to scold because Quaresma's goal was impeccable. He was not a perverted player like Wood who was strict with himself, so he would not scold Wood that it was his hesitation that led to the goal concede, nor would he scold his own tactics — it had nothing to do with the tactics at all. But he was really upset because the score was equalized not long after they had taken the lead. This was a blow to the team.
The morale and confidence of the players would be affected, and there would be a short period of inattention during the game. These could lead to serious consequences.
In addition, what made Twain even more unhappy was that if he continued to be in the lead, then his chances of winning the match would greatly increase. Unfortunately, this advantage was fleeting. He really couldn't accept this result calmly.
After venting the dissatisfaction in his heart with vulgarities, Tang En stood up again and walked to the sidelines. At this time, he was dissatisfied, but he had to cheer for the team and not shake the morale of the team.
The Nottingham Forest players did look a little distracted. They had only been leading for five minutes and the opponent had already equalized … It was a big blow.
Wood was not the kind of captain who would loudly give some hot-blooded speech to motivate his teammates. He would just bury himself in work. But in reality, someone had to come out and say a few words to stabilize the morale of the army. Where could one find such a person?
Actually, there was one on the sidelines.
"Bastard! You bunch of women! It was only a draw! Don't forget we already have an away goal here! What do you have to be depressed about! "Tony Twain stood on the sidelines and roared with his mouth wide open. "If we're equalized, then score another! If one away goal isn't enough, then score two away goals! Three away goals! Four away goals! "
Tang En did Wood's work. He was just short of giving the middle finger to the dejected players on the field.
In fact, in such a noisy environment at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, the players who were a little further away from Twain could not hear what he was shouting. But as long as they saw their boss appear on the sidelines and make some moves, their bewildered hearts would settle down.
What was a spiritual pillar? What was a natural leader? It was a pity that Tang En could not play.
Mourinho snorted when he saw Tang En's performance of jumping up and down on the sidelines. He heard everything Tang En shouted. As a Portuguese who knew many foreign languages, his familiarity with English was probably close to that of his mother tongue, Portuguese.
He had thought that having a heart attack would restrain him, but he did not expect this guy's temper to be as fiery as ever. His string of vulgarities was simply challenging the endurance of the public. Was he not afraid that he would get too emotional one day and have a heart attack again?
But … a feeling of nostalgia slowly welled up from the bottom of his heart.
It was rare to hear such explosive string of vulgarities and see such an explosive performance on the sidelines on the sidelines in Italy. But in England, the game between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest was much more exciting.
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After the game resumed, Inter Milan wanted to take advantage of the momentum of the goal and continue to launch a fierce attack on the Forest team's hinterland, striving to overtake the score as soon as possible. But Nottingham Forest's entire formation retreated and played a defensive counterattack tactic. This left Inter Milan at a loss.
This time, it was Mourinho's turn to get up from his seat and make adjustments.
Mourinho used hand signals to tell his players to retreat and pay attention to the gaps behind them. The game against Nottingham Forest must not be pressed forward in one go. The more they had the upper hand on the field, the more dangerous it was. As Tang En's old opponent, he could be said to know his wretched tactical thinking and habits like the back of his hand. Don't be fooled by the current Forest team's so-called 4-2-3-1, and even glorified it as "Tony Twain's Christmas Tree", which had the intention of playing offensive football. In reality, this person was very utilitarian. If the offense could not bring victory to the team, he did not mind immediately turning against his previous tactics and using defensive counterattack to solve the problem.
The Inter Milan fans sang and danced in the stands, cheering for the team's dominant situation. Even the players were a little carried away. After Maicon rushed up, he did not want to go back. Did they think that their lives were too long?
Mourinho could not allow such a thing to happen under his watch. He must kill all the sources of danger in the cradle.
Perhaps Mourinho was not persuasive enough. Nottingham Forest used an attack to scare all the Inter Milan fans in the stands into silence.
Ibrahimović displayed his excellent footwork skills in front of the penalty area. After a series of feints, he could not shake off George Wood's center of gravity. Left with no choice, he passed the ball to Quaresma on the flank. Quaresma scored a goal in the beginning of the game, letting everyone know how good his form was today. During the game, his teammates also began to consciously pass the ball to him, especially after the Forest team began to shrink their defense. They all hoped to use his personal skills to tear apart Nottingham Forest's impenetrable defensive formation.
Before Quaresma could receive the ball, Tiago snatched the ball away midway.
Inter Milan had been besieging Nottingham Forest's goal just now. Almost all of the team had crossed half of the field. Even the two center backs who were at the back stayed near the center circle to see if they could take advantage of the situation.
What a good opportunity this was!
When the Nottingham Forest fans saw that Tiago had successfully intercepted the ball, they habitually began to cheer loudly as if they had scored a goal. The Inter Milan fans did not know what was going on. They thought that the Nottingham Forest fans were so useless that they were elated after the ball was intercepted … So they increased the volume of their cheers to the Inter Milan players, intending to drown out the cheers of the Nottingham Forest fans.
After Tiago intercepted the ball, he did not hesitate to pass the ball to George Wood, who was closest to him and also the easiest to pass.
Ibrahimović was right in front of Wood. He stretched out his leg to intercept the ball, but his defensive action was really amateurish compared to his offensive ability. Furthermore, it was obvious that his defense was just for show. Wood easily shook off the Swede.
Then, Wood brought the ball forward. While Cambiasso rushed up, he passed the ball to Şahin. Şahin turned to run to the side, and Ibišević also ran in that direction. The two men attracted the attention of Inter Milan's two center backs, Samuel and Burdisso. But Şahin suddenly turned around and passed the ball to the opposite direction of his own running!
The person who received the ball there was Fernández, who plugged in from behind.
Due to Şahin and Ibišević's movement to move Inter Milan's defense, when Fernández received the ball, there was no one in front of him …
The Inter Milan fans suddenly understood why the Nottingham Forest fans were so excited just now … Because at this time, the group of people were even more excited.
"Fernández received the ball!! There is a lot of space in front of him now, he can go straight into the penalty area! "
"Damn it!" In a moment of anger, Mourinho could not help but burst out with vulgarities. He did not need to turn his head to imagine how wide the smile on Tony Twain's face was at this moment.
Nottingham Forest pretended to be a coward for a long time, just waiting for this moment!
When he saw Fernández break into the penalty area, his heart went cold. He felt that the Forest team would definitely score … There was absolutely no reason for the Forest players, who were famous for their defensive counterattacks, to let go of such an opportunity.
"Charge, Chilean!" Twain excitedly blew the horn to charge on the other side.
Inter Milan's Brazilian national goalkeeper, César, chose to abandon the goal and attack at the same time when Fernández plunged the ball into the penalty area. But he did not directly pounce on the ball at the feet of the Chilean, which would only allow him to be easily bypassed. His attack was only to minimize the angle of Fernández's shot, while maintaining a reasonable distance, not only to block the opponent's shot, but also to avoid being easily bypassed after he got too close to the target.
He made the most correct choice at the most critical time. Fernández had intended to bypass the attacking César and then shoot, but when he looked up and found that César was in front of him but did not come up, which was different from his plan, he was uncertain.
But he could not let the ball stop here and think about how to deal with it. Because Samuel and Burdisso, who found that they were tricked, had already turned around and pounced back, along with a group of other Inter Milan players. The opportunity was fleeting.
In a panic, Fernández chose to directly raise his leg to shoot.
The football rolled along the turf toward the goal. César fell to the ground to pounce on the ball. His judgment was wrong!
Unfortunately, the angle of Fernández's shot was too straight. Although César's hand did not pounce on the football, the foot he left behind blocked the football!
At the moment when Fernández shot, the Inter Milan fans collectively held their breath. When César blocked the football, it was the Nottingham Forest fans' turn to be unable to breathe.
The fans of both teams experienced the process of great joy and sorrow at the same time. They should really hug each other and appreciate each other …
"Fernández shoots — Ah! Julio César! He saved the hearts of all the Inter Milan fans! "
In fact, after the football was blocked by César, it did not immediately roll out of the end line, but Fernández's heart clearly suffered a heavy blow. He stood in place and did not rush up to prepare for the follow-up shot. He just held his head in his hands and watched in disbelief as the football slowly rolled to the end line. That was until Burdisso dashed forward and kicked out with his foot.
Ibišević, who rushed up later, was very dissatisfied with Fernández's performance. He yelled at the Chilean who had his head in his hands, "What were you doing just now? You should go up and make the follow-up shot, not stand here in a daze! "
Fortunately, Şahin pulled him away, and at the same time, Fernández did not seem to hear Ibišević talking to him at all. He continued to stand there with his head in his hands.
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Mourinho felt as if he had just experienced a heart attack. There was a kind of lingering fear after surviving a disaster. He turned back to find a seat and wanted to sit down and rest.
Then he looked at Tony Twain on the other side. He clenched his teeth and stared at the field, unable to say anything.
Behind him, Kerslake and Dunn were thinking that Fernández's scolding during the halftime interval was absolutely inevitable.
Although there was no goal, the Inter Milan fans were collectively frightened into silence. The power of Nottingham Forest's defensive counterattack made the commentator start to worry for Inter Milan.
"If Inter Milan is desperate to score, then they have to be mentally prepared to be scored by Nottingham Forest's sneak attack. I bet this is not the scene that Mourinho wants to see. Therefore, the current Inter Milan must make adjustments. Pressing Nottingham Forest is a slow suicide! "
Fortunately, such a situation did not happen. Mourinho used rich body language and roars on the sidelines like Tony Twain to remind the team to pay attention to the defensive line and not to press too close. His players were clearly afraid of that counterattack and obediently retreated back and forth with Nottingham Forest in the midfield.
One goal was far from enough for Twain to score an away goal, so Nottingham Forest had to go up and attack.
The next game became Nottingham Forest's offense and Inter Milan's defensive counterattack. The 4-3-1 formation was indeed a very powerful offensive formation. Five midfielders and two defensive midfielders made Forest's defense impregnable in the middle. Inter Milan's offense did not dare to commit too many players at once, so there were not many ways to attack.
The game had been in a stalemate. Both sides occasionally had some very good opportunities, but no one could seize them. In this way, the game went to the end of the first half. The score was 1: 1. Nottingham Forest had a slight advantage because they had scored an away goal and were also pressing Inter Milan on the field. But no one could tell what would happen in the second half. After all, these two managers were the type who would make some changes in the midfield to turn the game around. Moreover, the fact that these two men met together was enough to say everything.
The commentator was still very satisfied with each team scoring a goal in the first half. "The game was not boring. Both sides had wonderful goals, and there were offensive attacks that almost scored. I believe that with these two managers, the game will never be boring. This first half has cited my point of view … "
What he said naturally made sense, because the two managers who walked back to the locker room did not look good, which meant that they were very unhappy with everything that happened in the first half. Since they were unhappy, they would certainly make targeted adjustments during the halftime interval. Then the second half would be very exciting …
How good would it be if every game was such a heavyweight duel!
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