At the start of the second half, Nottingham Forest shrank their defensive line. Inter Milan took advantage of their kick-off to launch a fierce attack on the Forest team's hinterland.
Ibrahimović's shot from inside the penalty area bounced off the goalpost, causing all the Forest players to break out in a cold sweat.
Then there was chaos in front of the goal. Rossi fell to the ground in the chaos, and the football was received by the goalkeeper, Akinfeev. The Inter Milan players immediately raised their hands to signal that the Nottingham Forest players had fouled and that it should be a penalty kick. The Nottingham Forest players also raised their hands to show their innocence.
The referee made his own judgment. He gestured for Rossi to get up.
The Giuseppe Meazza Stadium resounded with deafening boos because of his gesture.
The Inter Milan players, on the other hand, did not protest much because it was really not a foul. They had only done that in the hopes of giving the referee the wrong information during the chaos and putting pressure on him to make a decision in favor of their side. They did not expect the referee to be so perceptive. Since that was the case, there was no need to continue to be entangled.
After five or six minutes of chaos in the opening, the situation returned to balance.
Inter Milan was the main attacker, but they dared not commit all their players, so they could not bring the greatest pressure to the Forest team's defensive line. Nottingham Forest was naturally able to hold on.
Nottingham Forest shrank their defense and was not too keen on the offense, which gave Inter Milan a chance to attack.
One side wanted to attack, and the other side wanted to defend. So the game was back in balance.
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Quaresma was more active than in the first half. He saw expectations in Mourinho's words at halftime. This was an opportunity that must be seized. He had a year and a half left on his contract with Inter Milan. If he could not produce any convincing performance, then leaving the Giuseppe Meazza would be inevitable.
He frequently raised his hand on the field for the ball.
Montolivo passed the ball to him, and Leighton Baines immediately leaned over. Quaresma was not afraid of one-on-one, or even one-on-two — behind Baines was the defensive midfielder, George Wood, whom they praised to be godly.
He intended to get rid of Baines first, and then face Wood one-on-one. He wanted to prove that he had the ability to stay in the Giuseppe Meazza by playing with the world's hottest defensive midfielder.
It was a pity that Quaresma did not get to see the final Boss, George Wood. He had hit a wall with Baines. He was too eager to break through and instead forced himself into a dead end. Not only did he delay the opportunity, but he also could not bring the football out. In the end, he was kicked out by Baines.
In any case, Quaresma used his superb skills to win a throw-in for Inter Milan …
After that, Quaresma insisted on fighting Baines one-on-one on the flanks, which made Mourinho very unhappy. In the end, he could not take it anymore. He stood at the side of the pitch and shouted Quaresma's name, reminding him not to keep loitering on the sidelines.
Quaresma had also discovered this problem. If he was always on the flanks, he would not be able to meet up with George Wood. That was because Wood also had to take care of the defense in the middle. It was impossible for him to run over to the flanks.
Although the Portuguese winger preferred and was more used to the flank, he decided to move to the middle in order to prove to the manager that he was a good player who could fight and win at a call.
The first time he came face-to-face with Wood, he used a beautiful bicycle kick to open a gap and then passed the football out. It was a very clever move, although Quaresma did not realize it at the time.
The first time he succeeded in deceiving Wood's center of gravity, the Portuguese was encouraged. He decided to directly challenge for a breakthrough the next time.
The second time, he changed to a feint. He dribbled the ball inside from the flank at high speed, and then used the change of his ankle and exquisite control of his speed to get rid of the defender. He succeeded in getting rid of Baines, but he did not get rid of Wood.
When Wood's powerful body leaned in, Quaresma suddenly felt that the football under his feet had become difficult to control.
A powerful force pressed down on him, causing him to lose control of the ball under his feet. The football bounced on the ground. He stretched out his foot to hook the football and at the same time leaned his body toward Wood. He wanted to fight with Wood's body? He failed.
Wood knocked Quaresma, who dribbled the ball horizontally, into a somersault. It was not a foul, but a reasonable collision.
Quaresma was furious with the referee's decision. He knelt on the ground and waved his fists hard. But no one paid attention to him.
However, the Portuguese winger was in good form for the game. In the third time, he took advantage of a sudden change of direction and his teammate's running to get past Wood.
Wood lost his center of gravity because of his swaying, and Quaresma easily broke through and passed the ball to Ibrahimović. The Swedish striker raised his leg to shoot again, and this time it was firmly held by Akinfeev.
The goalkeeper, Akinfeev, was obviously a little dissatisfied with Wood for letting the opponent break through. He held the football and was not in a hurry to drive out. Instead, he asked loudly, "George, what's wrong with you?"
Wood waved his hand and looked at Quaresma without saying anything.
This nimble kid was a little more difficult to deal with than he thought …
Quaresma was defeated in the next two one-on-ones.
Mourinho watched on the sidelines for a while and decided not to be silent anymore.
He wanted the team's offensive focus to be shifted to Quaresma, not to create the conditions for the kid to play individual heroics with George Wood. If this one-on-one continued, the team's offense would sooner or later be crippled by him alone.
Taking advantage of a dead ball, he called Quaresma over near the sidelines. "Ricardo, I let you be the main attacker, not to let you play one-on-one with the opponent. Haven't you played professional football before? "
Quaresma also felt that his performance just now was a little too much. He lowered his head and said, "I know, coach …"
"You played one-on-one with George Wood, and you fell into Tony Twain's trap! Wood's one-on-one defense is very good. If you continue to play like this, I can only consider replacing you, no matter how good your form is! " Mourinho spoke seriously with a straight face. He and Quaresma were both Portuguese, and there was no problem with the language at all. He could be sure that Quaresma would not be in a situation where he did not understand what he was saying and still continued to play his own way.
"If you understand, go back to the field!"
Mourinho pushed Quaresma back to his side.
There were some interesting changes in the ensuing game. Quaresma was still Inter Milan's main offensive direction, but he was no longer obsessed with one-on-one with Wood or Baines. He would only choose to break through if the timing was right. Most of the time, he would attract Wood over and pass the football at his feet.
This time, Inter Milan's offense was really alive.
Quaresma was no longer the end point of an attack, but more like a relay station — the ball would be passed to his feet, and he could choose to break through or pass the ball to the other teammates depending on the situation. Such an offensive routine was clearly better and more abundant than letting Quaresma bury his head to break through to Wood alone.
Nottingham Forest's defense also became more difficult. Previously, they only needed to defend against Quaresma, but now they needed to defend against all the Inter Milan players. They could not miss any position, otherwise it was possible …
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"Quaresma has the ball again, will he choose to break through or pass the ball …"
As soon as he finished speaking, Quaresma chose to force a breakthrough. Baines came up to shovel the football out, but he was easily bypassed by him. This time, he did not choose to go to the middle to meet force with force with George Wood, but picked up a relatively easy pushover.
After breaking through Baines, he could pass the ball and directly break into the penalty area. And once he was allowed to enter the penalty area, then Nottingham Forest's goal would be in danger.
George Wood certainly would not let that happen. He rushed over to stop Quaresma from breaking through, and at the same time, he had to be wary of his outside instep shooting.
Seeing Wood coming over, Quaresma swung his right foot. This time, he did not want to shoot directly — he passed the football to the front of the penalty area.
Cambiasso received the ball, and Tiago hurried up to fill the position. Wood also turned to rush back. Without the ball, Quaresma was not a threat, and Baines, who was free to return to defend, was responsible.
Tiago blocked the angle of Cambiasso's direct shot, but Cambiasso did not say that he was going to shoot. After he feinted to make a straight pass into the penalty area, he passed the football to the flank, the weakest part of Nottingham Forest's defense.
Maicon was like a bullet train that suddenly plugged in from the side and received Cambiasso's pass.
None of the Nottingham Forest players noticed his plug in, including George Wood. All of their defensive attention was attracted by Quaresma, Cambiasso, Ibrahimović and the others.
Maicon met the ball and directly volleyed it!
The football whizzed through the heavy human wall in the penalty area like a cannonball and flew to the far corner of the goal!
"Maicon's long shot —"
The commentator dragged out the end of his voice, accompanied by the cheers of the Inter Milan fans.
Everyone firmly believed that the ball would go in!
But there was one person who did not believe it.
Akinfeev took a step to the right and soared into the air. In the air, he stretched out his body, extended his arms, and flew toward the football.
It was as if the Scud had met the Patriots. The football was intercepted in the air by a pair of big hands.
The commentator's voice and the cheers of the Inter Milan fans came to an abrupt end.
Maicon let out a long sigh of dissatisfaction after he saw the scene.
Just as he looked up at the sky, Akinfeev, who had fallen to the ground, had already climbed up from the ground. Without caring about anything else, he threw the football out with his hand. This was a chance for Nottingham Forest to fight back!
The football was thrown to Bentley's feet, but he did not turn around to dribble the ball forward. Because he knew that he did not have the advantage of speed in the counterattack. If a person rushed to the front and could not find a passing point, he could only be intercepted by the opponent. Even if he protected the ball, he would lose a chance for a quick counterattack.
The best way was not to dribble the ball himself, but to pass the ball.
Who should he pass it to?
Most of his teammates were still defending in the backfield. There was no one who could appear in the front field at this time. He raised his head and glanced at the team captain.
Wood had wanted to help defend against Cambiasso, but Cambiasso passed the football to Maicon, causing him to pounce on thin air. But it was also considered to be a help to him. When Akinfeev pounced on the football, only George Wood was facing the direction of the attack and was in a sprinting state …
He looked back at Akinfeev and made the choice to continue running forward at the first opportunity.
As he expected, Akinfeev thought of the same thing as him — this was a great opportunity for Nottingham Forest to play a quick counterattack!
Bendtner passed the football to the only Nottingham Forest player who was running forward in his eyes.
When George Wood received the ball in the middle, he had already left a lot of Inter Milan and Nottingham Forest players behind him. Now he adjusted his direction of advance and was facing Inter Milan's goal!
Cambiasso rushed up diagonally from the rear. He wanted to intercept the football before Wood could accelerate and start. At the very least, he wanted to give a tactical foul.
Wood shoved the football forward. He did not shovel the football, but he shoveled Wood's foot.
The man who was shoveled in the foot did not seem to be George Wood. He just staggered, maintained his balance and continued to accelerate!
"George Wood dribbled the ball to avoid Cambiasso's shovel from behind! He's rushing forward! This is Nottingham Forest's best counterattack! "
The cheers of the Nottingham Forest fans suddenly increased.
"Stop him! He's only one person! "Cambiasso, who failed to shovel the ball, yelled as he lay on the ground. He certainly knew what it meant to let Wood escape. But maybe the situation was not that bad, because Nottingham Forest only wanted to fight back quickly. So, too many of their players had not gone up to support at the moment. If only George Wood broke through to the front alone, he could not do anything.
In the blink of an eye, Wood had dribbled the ball through the center line.
Burdisso rushed up aggressively, and the moment he hit Wood, Wood kicked the football out. But Burdisso did not care about such a small thing. His target was Wood, not the football.
Wood was knocked out of his original track by Burdisso's full-force hit and deviated to the right. Did Burdisso succeed?
No!
Wood's direction of kicking the football out also happened to be to the right … Burdisso's hit helped Wood and got him closer to the football. And Burdisso? He used all his strength and center of gravity in that hit just now. After he hit George Wood, he also fell to the ground with the mentality that he was going to destroy everything. Unfortunately, George Wood did not lie on the ground with him.
Chivu, who played as a left back in this game, could not keep up with Wood, who ran at full speed. Although the football was kicked to his side, he could only watch Wood's back figure speed through his defensive zone and turn into the penalty area.
Inter Milan's last line of defense was made up of two players: Samuel and the goalkeeper, César.
Samuel was smarter than Burdisso. He was not stupid enough to run headlong into it. He just stuck inside and forced Wood to the side. As long as he forced Wood to the side, he would win.
Wood walked into the penalty area and Samuel kicked up. He did not make a move and just ran with Wood. He was not afraid that he did not have the speed advantage because Wood had already slowed down and could not run in the penalty area.
Wood looked like he was going to shoot. Samuel leaned his body forward but did not throw all his center of gravity out. If Wood did not shoot, he would not have a chance.
George Wood decided to force a shot. Samuel and César? Just blast them away!
This time, Wood swung his leg again and Samuel continued to lean his body forward to interfere. Wood shot directly!
The football whizzed past Samuel and rushed to the near corner of the goal.
Although César had sealed the angle, the football still found a gap and hit the near post …
With a crisp sound, the football seemed to hit the hearts of all the Inter Milan fans, causing their hearts to collectively stop.
The scene they were most afraid to see did not happen in the next second. The football hit the post but did not bounce into the goal. Instead, it bounced out in the opposite direction!
"Hiss — —" The Inter Milan fans' gasps could be clearly heard in the noisy Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
César was lying on the ground, Samuel was lying on the ground, and George Wood was also lying on the ground. Was this the end of the attack?
Impossible!
"Matías Fernández!"
The Chilean appeared in the penalty area with Burdisso next to him, but he did not care so much now. He only had eyes for the football that bounced out.
The boss seemed to be roaring in his ear at this time, "Do you see that football? It bounces in front of you, laughing at you that you can't shoot in, can't shoot in, can't shoot in! Even if it's an empty goal, you can't shoot in!! You coward who only knows how to hold your head and cry when your first shot was blocked! "
Burdisso wanted to be the first to clear the football, but found that he could not move after being leaned on by Fernández — his position was completely blocked by the Chilean.
What happened next was simple.
Fernández swung his right foot and faced Julio César, who got up from the ground, and slammed the football into the goal!
"GOOOOOAL — —!!"
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