Neither the Real Madrid manager nor their players expected Nottingham Forest to take the initiative to attack at the Bernabéu Stadium. It looked like they were going to attack Real Madrid.
Real Madrid only had one shot in the opening ten minutes, but Nottingham Forest had two shots. Among them, the most threatening was the first shot at the start of the game, which almost broke through the goal guarded by Casillas.
"For more than a decade, Real Madrid has proven to us an unbreakable truth — their defense is equal to Casillas alone. As long as he is there, the other defenders on the defensive line can be ignored. " It was not clear if the commentator was praising Casillas or ridiculing Real Madrid's defenders.
Compared to the star-studded front field lineup, Real Madrid's defensive line was a little bleak. The most important player in the defensive line was probably the right back, Sergio Ramos. Garay and Luis played well, and Marcelo was stronger in offense than defense. He might be better as a left midfielder than a left back.
Fortunately, in addition to Casillas, they still had Diarra. The arrival of the French midfielder made Real Madrid's defensive line stronger. This was the starting point of Real Madrid's return to glory. It was a pipe dream for a team that could not even stand tall to say they wanted to dominate Europe.
This game was actually a contest between two of the world's best defensive midfielders. Unfortunately, the Spanish media was not interested in this topic. They were more willing to predict the exciting performances of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ribéry, and the forward trident.
Míchel was the manager after all, and his mind was different from the media. After seeing the team was at a disadvantage, he got up from his seat, walked to the sidelines and called Diarra's name, indicating for him to strengthen the interception and protection of the midfield.
He was not afraid of the Forest team attacking him. He was even afraid that they would not attack. As long as they were willing to come out, there would be an opening behind them. Attack? That was the least of Real Madrid's worries. Were they competing to see who could score more goals? Míchel was confident of winning.
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Gago took the ball again to organize the attack. In this game, his task was to attack, and Wood was responsible for protecting him.
Diarra stuck close to him. He had a low center of gravity, flexible movements, good explosive power, and fast speed. As a defensive midfielder, his physical qualities were impeccable, except that he was not good at headers …
The French defensive midfielder exerted some pressure on Gago from the side. His movements were so quick that Gago could not keep up with him. He stumbled and lost the ball!
"What a beautiful interception!"
The stands erupted with cheers and applause for Diarra. Nowadays, the Real Madrid fans love the small Frenchman. His presence allows Real Madrid's superstars in the front field to attack unscrupulously, and they can also enjoy the most beautiful offensive football. The Real Madrid fans knew how to play football. They could boo at a passive and conservative team, and they were not stingy with their praise for an outstanding defensive midfielder.
However, their applause and cheers seemed to have come a little too early.
As soon as Diarra intercepted Gago's ball, he was hit by another player from the side. The collision almost made him lose the ball under his feet.
Fortunately, his physical fitness played a role in the collision. He protected the football and ran to the other side.
The man was still hot on his heels. It looked like if he did not pass the ball, he would continue to follow him.
Diarra didn't need to look back to know who was chasing him.
"George Wood has forced Diarra into a corner! This is a head-on collision between two excellent defensive midfielders! Diarra's protection of the ball is beautiful. Wood can't do anything to him for a while … "
Yes, as a defensive midfielder, Diarra's technique was not bad. He could often dribble the ball alone and suddenly charge forward. He could pass the ball to his teammates in a row. It was a good thing that he was confident in his feet. However, it was also his weakness. As a defensive midfielder, he held the ball for too long …
George Wood stared at Diarra's dribbling movements. When he saw the ball under his feet move a little further, he immediately tackled it with his foot. Diarra instinctively felt the danger. He wanted to poke the ball away, but he missed.
The football was shoveled away by Wood. He kicked Wood's foot and fell to the ground.
The referee whistled and ruled that Wood had fouled the tackle. Wood was a little dissatisfied with the decision, but he did not explain anything to the referee. He just got up from the ground and shook his head.
Down on the field, Tang En could clearly see that Wood had not shoveled Diarra at all. He was a little upset and complained incessantly off the field, "Home ground, home ground …"
No one cared about his little grumbles. The fourth official did not even bother to look at him.
Well, regardless of whether it was Wood's foul, at least Nottingham Forest stopped Real Madrid's quick attack. It also proved that Tang En's analysis of every Real Madrid player before the match was correct. In the tactical meeting the day before the match, Tang En analyzed the characteristics of every Real Madrid player. Tang En told his men about Diarra's habit of dribbling the ball in the midfield. He did not look like a defensive midfielder, but rather an attacking midfielder or a side midfielder. This was something that had to be exploited. As long as they kept a close eye on Diarra, they would have the opportunity to steal the ball from under his feet and directly launch a counterattack. At that time, Real Madrid would be caught unprepared by their defensive midfielder's loss of the ball.
This time, Real Madrid and Diarra were lucky. Wood's clean and beautiful tackle was seen as a foul by the referee. No one in Real Madrid realized that it was a sign of danger. But what about next time? Their luck would not continue to be so good …
Tang En grumbled on the sidelines for a while before walking back.
"They're dead meat," he said to Kerslake in front of him as he unscrewed the cap of a water bottle.
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Real Madrid arranged for a 4-4-2 formation in this final match. In the midfield, Diarra was responsible for defense. At the same time, he connected the middle and front fields. He had to constantly run in the midfield, receive the ball, pass the ball, snatch the ball … His role seemed to be more of a core than Ribéry's. Ribéry was also in the middle, but his position was more forward. This was a midfield that was close to a diamond shape. He was responsible for organizing the attack and at the same time, he was good at long shots and directly threatened the opponent's goal. Cristiano Ronaldo was on the left and Higuaín was on the right. However, the two of them often changed positions, causing their opponents to scratch their heads. They had speed and technique. They were very impactful.
The two players in the front line were Benzema and Huntelaar. Huntelaar was a pure center forward. His task was simple. He was to wait in front for his teammates to pass the ball and then think of a way to send the ball into the opponent's goal. Benzema's position was more active. He wandered around Huntelaar's side or behind him, connecting the midfield and the front line. He was actually not the kind of striker who could make the final decision. He was well-rounded and could create opportunities for his teammates to attack.
Such a combination in the front field was perfect and powerful. It was like a flawless work of art.
It was a pity that such a beautiful piece of art collided with an iron plate headed by George Wood.
Real Madrid launched another attack. This time, Diarra held the ball for a very short time. He looked at Gago, who was about to close in, and passed the ball to Ribéry in front of him.
Ribéry completed his control of the ball at the same time as he turned around. This action was done very naturally. There were no excited screams from the audience, but it was a reflection of his skill level at his age.
Tang En could not help but shake his head when he saw this scene from the sidelines. From the original side attacker to the current central playmaker, Ribéry had not completely changed under him, but he had achieved it in Real Madrid …
Ribéry had just adjusted the ball when Wood closed in on him.
Before the game, Pepe had threatened him to be careful. Unfortunately, in an actual game, the probability of the two of them meeting was not high. The person he really had to be careful of was not Pepe, but the Forest team captain in front of him.
When the Frenchman saw Wood's posture, he immediately gave up the idea of dribbling the ball forward. It was a wise move — he was not confident that he could break through Wood's one-on-one defense.
He passed the ball to Ramos, who plugged in from the side. Higuaín, who was on the right side, attracted Bale's attention for Ramos. Real Madrid's second captain could boldly pass the ball from the byline.
He accelerated and passed the ball. Huntelaar headed the ball.
This time, it was Akinfeev's turn to perform. He jumped on the spot, stretched out his right hand, and pushed the ball that Huntelaar headed over the crossbar. The whole action seemed to be done with ease, but only the most professional goalkeeper knew how difficult it was — jumping on the spot was definitely not as high as a sprinting jump, and the header that was close at hand would not give the goalkeeper too much time to react. Everything depended on instinct. In a split second, the body reacted instinctively. Next … it was up to God.
Akinfeev did it. He pushed Huntelaar's header out of the goal. There was a round of applause from the stands. The Real Madrid fans cheered for this beautiful attack, while the Nottingham Forest fans were praising Akinfeev's brilliant save that was not inferior to Casillas'.
"Their heights are similar, and their experiences are similar. Even their names are similar — Igor. The duel between Casillas and Akinfeev did not disappoint us. This is really a match full of highlights! "
In fact, it was Casillas's brilliant performance that stimulated Akinfeev. He did not want to lose in front of his idol.
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"The two teams are tit-for-tat, going back and forth. This match has been considered beautiful so far. I'm very happy that in such a match, Manager Tony Twain did not choose to be conservative. That's why we can enjoy such a match. But I'm worried that this situation won't last long … If Nottingham Forest takes the lead, they will definitely shrink their defensive line and start to defend and counterattack. This set of changes by Twain is simply uncreative … In order to ensure the excitement of the match, I hope that Real Madrid takes the lead … "
The commentator was slandering Twain again. This made many Forest fans very unhappy.
"You damn crow's mouth!"
"Shut your stinking mouth! Bastard! "
The fans who could not go to the stadium to watch the match waved their fists at the television. Some of them were even holding beer glasses. The beer in the glass spilled with their intense movements, dripping on the people around them. But no one complained and no one cared. These people were all roaring loudly, as if they could really scold the commentator on the other side of the screen.
"Hey, Tony, don't let that bastard succeed!"
"Score a goal for those Spanish players!"
"Get ahead of them! So what if it's their home ground! "
Then this group of drunk fans began to cheer for the Forest team again. The full glass of beer was spilled to less than half a glass. But who cared about that? They could order more beer if they ran out. It would be terrible if they let Real Madrid score first. They would not have the appetite to drink beer earlier!
※ ※ ※
Míchel's team was focused on scoring. Fifteen minutes had passed in the match. The score was still 0: 0, and from the looks of it, their opponents were not at a disadvantage. This made a portion of the Real Madrid fans in the stands a little impatient — they were always like this. As long as it was a match at the Bernabéu, if Real Madrid did not score within the opening 20 minutes or had the advantage, sporadic boos would begin to ring out from the stands. After thirty minutes, the booing would become a continuous stream and eventually become overwhelming. It brought great psychological pressure to the home team players.
Twain did not like to coach in this kind of environment because he could not tolerate the fans in the stands booing their own players so unscrupulously. If it were him, he might give his middle finger to the fans in the stands.
But now he enjoyed this kind of booing. At this moment, he knew that the Real Madrid fans would become Nottingham Forest's twelfth player. Those sporadic boos rang in the hearts of the Real Madrid players and gradually accumulated … until one of them could not take it anymore. It was like a time bomb — with a boom, it exploded in their own camp.
His team faithfully executed his tactical arrangements: they did not care about their physical strength to press forward and create a tense atmosphere. No matter how skilled the Real Madrid players were, they could not attend to one thing and lose sight of the other. They could not play a smooth offensive coordination. At the same time, every counterattack in the front field would be launched on the spot, so that the Real Madrid defenders did not dare to rush forward. Especially Marcelo and Ramos.
Twain chose Marcelo's side as the main direction of Nottingham Forest's attack. He knew that Marcelo focused on offense and light on defense. It was impossible for Míchel to stop Marcelo from attacking. Otherwise, it would not be in line with the coach's football philosophy. The two full backs had always been Real Madrid's specialty and one of the reasons why Real Madrid performed so well this season.
As a result, Marcelo was completely dominated by Forest since the start of the game. He could not even plug in to participate in the attack, even his defense was full of loopholes. If it was not for Diarra's help, he was afraid that his side would have been broken into a sieve by Forest.
"Here they go again!"
The commentator shouted.
"Here they go again, damn it!" Marcelo cursed in his heart.
The combination of Bentley and Rafinha made Marcelo miserable. Ronaldo, of course, would also help him, but he was not a professional defensive player. His main task was to attack.
This time when Rafinha swept past him, Marcelo reluctantly followed and retreated. Then he saw Bentley pass the ball to Gago in the middle instead of Rafinha. What could he do? If he did not follow and run back, the ball would definitely be passed to Rafinha, and then it would be a direct pass from the byline.
Seeing that the ball was passed to the middle, Rafinha also stopped sprinting. He stopped near the sidelines and had no intention of continuing to run forward. On the other hand, Marcelo retreated to the middle and cooperated with the team's defense to reduce the space in front of Forest's penalty area.
At this moment, Gago passed the ball and it flew directly towards Rafinha!
Marcelo felt like a monkey being toyed with by the Forest players. He turned around and ran back.
Rafinha passed the ball to Bentley. Ronaldo came up to defend, and Bentley passed the ball between Ronaldo's legs to Gago.
This time, Diarra did not watch the game and rushed up to defend against Gago.
Gago passed the ball to Wood.
For a moment, Nottingham Forest continuously passed the ball in front of Real Madrid's penalty area, and the Real Madrid players could not even touch the ball.
This was simply a great humiliation.
The sporadic boos from the stands became louder.
After Wood got the ball, Diarra left Gago and rushed towards him. This was the disadvantage of a lone defensive midfielder. He had to keep running, from one end to the other, and from the other end to the other end that was even further away … He would look at this and miss that, just like a blind bear trying to break out the corn.
Wood turned around and passed the ball to Bale who plugged in from the back.
Bale did not directly dribble the ball from the side, but after bypassing Higuaín, he cut inside diagonally and plugged in diagonally to the middle!
His move had disrupted Ramos' defensive plan. He originally wanted to stick on the sidelines and wait for Bale to crash, but he did not expect Bale to change his line. And Fernández immediately pressed to the side, in front of Ramos, so he did not dare to move to the middle — he was afraid that if he ran to the middle, Bale would pass the ball to Fernández who was completely unmarked on the side.
Ribéry returned to the middle and pounced on Bale.
Bale did not see who pounced on him. He passed the ball to Wood beside him and continued to plug in.
After Wood received the ball, he did not stop the ball and immediately passed it back.
The two players played a one-two in the middle of Real Madrid's penalty area!
This time, Ramos finally did not guard the side because Bale was about to break into the penalty area. He left Fernández and turned to run into the penalty area, intending to join forces with Garay to keep Bale out of the penalty area.
Bale, who dribbled the ball at high speed, ran head-on into the two players, and suddenly Real Madrid's penalty area was in a mess!
Fernández raised his hand to signal Ramos for a foul. This position was too sensitive.
The referee did not give a penalty, not because he did not see Ramos' block, but on the contrary, he made a gesture of stretching his hands horizontally forward — the offensive side had the advantage, and the game continued!
Bale pushed the football away horizontally the moment before he collided with Ramos.
Mitchell was pressed in Real Madrid's penalty area, and Şahin had also run past. Who was the ball passed to?
"George Wood —"
As the commentator roared, Wood swung his thick right leg on the penalty area line.
When he saw his leg swing, Casillas reacted and he pounced in the direction of the goalpost on his right side. His premonition and experience told him that Wood would shoot directly, and he would definitely shoot in that direction!
He guessed right!
This was a direct volley without stopping the ball!
The football flew straight in the direction where Casillas pounced, and it did not spin in the air at all.
"Phew —"
The speed of the ball was so fast that it even made a whistling sound … No, maybe it was the boos from the Real Madrid fans in the stands that created such an illusion.
The speed of the ball was so fast that Casillas was still a step slower.
The football flew over first, and Casillas's palm only reached it.
The ball hit the crossbar and made a crisp sound.
The sound made the Real Madrid fans, who were on tenterhooks just now, think they could breathe a sigh of relief.
A dramatic turn of events occurred in the next moment …
The football hit the goalpost hard and bounced back, and Casillas just flew at this time. The football hit his back and refracted again. This time it flew directly over the goal line and flew into the goal …
"Unlucky Igor …" Real Madrid's live commentator lay prone on the workbench and let out a mournful cry.
In the 23rd minute of the game, Nottingham Forest blasted open Real Madrid's goal at the Bernabéu stadium, and the person who scored this time was … Real Madrid's strongest barrier, Saint Igor Casillas!
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