After Diarra blocked one of Gerrard's attacks, he kept looking at Wood provocatively. His meaning was obvious — don't hide at the back like a tortoise. Come on, boy!
George Wood, of course, understood Diarra's meaning. However, he was unmoved and continued to stay in the backfield to link up the team.
At first, Puel was still complaining that Diarra did not listen to his instructions. However, after seeing Diarra block the England team's attacks three times in a row, he did not say anything. The French team's backfield had obviously stabilized …
Tang En, of course, could not let this situation happen. Once the French team's defense was stabilized, they would readjust their offense. When that time came, it would be his turn to bear the pressure.
Gerrard was obviously at a disadvantage in the battle with Diarra. His age and physical disadvantage made him not as comfortable in physical confrontations as before. Tang En thought about it and decided to let Gerrard come back to replace Wood, while letting Wood participate in the offense. Both of them were midfielders who could attack and defend well. Exchanging positions would not cause chaos.
Tang En walked to the side of the field and whistled. Wood cast his gaze over. He made a gesture to exchange positions, and Wood immediately understood.
Then, taking advantage of the dead ball, Wood and Gerrard completed the handover of work.
Following that, Diarra was very happy to find that the person who rushed up this time was not Gerrard, but George Wood!
Although Wood did not have the ball, Diarra still maintained a high level of vigilance against him. He knew that Wood was the core of the England team. Although he did not know why he hid in the backfield and did not come up in the first half, it was not important. Now, he finally could not help but come out of his hole.
Sure enough, Agbonlahor quickly passed the ball to Wood. He encountered a bit of trouble on his side. After the French team's full backs did not assist, he could not display his advantage in speed. He could only pass the ball to Wood to reorganize.
Diarra saw that Wood had the ball and stuck close to him. Wood did not seem to have any intention of using speed to get rid of him. Instead, he turned around to protect the ball and waited for Diarra to pull it up.
In a head-on confrontation between the two great defensive midfielders, Diarra lost in strength.
He only felt that when Wood leaned back, his body lost balance and was about to tilt backward. At the critical moment, he grabbed Wood's clothes and regained his balance.
Wood did not give him a chance to continue pestering him. He leaned back and took advantage of the fact that Diarra was focused on maintaining his balance to pass the ball to Gerrard, who came up to receive him. Then, he turned around and rushed forward. Gerrard then sent out a straight pass at the right time. The two midfielders cooperated well and got rid of Diarra.
When Diarra rushed up to tangle with him again, Wood suddenly accelerated and got rid of him. He also went straight into the middle of the penalty area!
"He wants to break through from the center! Stop him! "The goalkeeper, Lloris, shouted from behind the defenders.
Wood's sudden breakthrough attracted the attention of all the French defenders. Sakho was in front of him and Clichy was also moving towards the middle. Seeing that the two sides were about to meet, Wood suddenly flicked his ankle and moved the ball to the side!
Although Mitchell and Rooney were still closely monitored by the French defenders, no one was marking Agbonlahor on the flank …
After seeing Wood pass the ball to the side, Mitchell and Rooney very tacitly plugged into the goal. Wood, on the other hand, stopped at the edge of the penalty area and did not rush forward.
The center backs were all attracted by the two strikers' sudden advance and ran into the penalty area.
In front of Wood, there was an empty space of three to five meters wide.
Diarra was the first to keenly perceive the opponent's intention. He hurriedly rushed to Wood who was ten meters away.
At the same time, Agbonlahor made a pass! The football did not fly to any of the England strikers. Instead, it rolled diagonally towards George Wood!
Diarra guessed right!
Wood stood in place, turned sideways to the ball and swung his right leg. He wanted to shoot directly!
How could Diarra let Wood get what he wanted? Even if he risked getting a card, he had to stop him from shooting!
Diarra, who had made up his mind, flew from the side to shovel at Wood's legs. Wood sensed the danger. If it was any other time, he would force his leg to shoot. But at this moment, he thought of his right leg and the next two games …
At this point, Wood gave up the idea of shooting directly. He let the football slide in front of his feet and jumped up.
He was still a little late. Although his right leg avoided, his left leg was caught by Diarra and he lost his center of gravity.
Everyone heard the referee's whistle when Wood fell to the ground.
They were nervous. Was it a penalty kick or a free kick?
Wood fell in the penalty area, but was the spot of the foul in the penalty area?
The referee ran to the spot of the foul and stopped. He did not continue to run into the penalty area, nor did he point his finger to the penalty spot.
"It's not a penalty kick!" The Frenchman breathed a sigh of relief.
The Englishman was a little dissatisfied. "This is a foul that is enough to send him off directly!"
However, the referee only showed a yellow card to Diarra, which caused the England fans in the stands to boo.
Wood was pulled up from the ground by Gerrard. This made Diarra, who was going to personally express his goodwill, a little embarrassed. He stepped forward and patted Wood on the shoulder and walked away. Although the fight was fierce, there was no need for him to become enemies with Wood. His special feelings for Wood were limited to on the field.
"Are you okay?" Gerrard asked after Diarra left.
Wood swayed his left leg and then shook his head. "I'm fine."
It looked like he was really fine because Wood's walking posture was normal when he left Gerrard. But he was stopped by Gerrard. "George, stay."
Wood thought it was strange, but he still stopped and looked back at Gerrard.
Gerrard stepped forward and said, "You just stand here. We'll do a free kick … "
※ ※ ※
In the case of Bentley not playing, Gerrard was responsible for the direct free kick. He also used free kicks to score many times at Liverpool. The Frenchman clearly understood it, so when he saw Gerrard standing in front of the ball, the human wall looked very nervous. On the one hand, they were afraid of being scored, and on the other hand, they were afraid of being hit by Gerrard's powerful shot … That feeling was not good.
Wood stood five meters away from Gerrard, but no one cared about him, including Diarra. Everyone in the world knew that George Wood did not know how to take free kicks. Whether it was at Nottingham Forest or the England national team, free kicks had nothing to do with him. He did not even have the right to be a cover.
Today, he stood there, and people just thought that he was simply standing there. If they thought about it a little deeper, he would at most snatch the ball on the spot after Gerrard's free kick hit the human wall and regain possession of the ball.
Gerrard very seriously placed the ball at the spot designated by the referee for the penalty kick, which was just on the line of the penalty area!
This position made the Frenchman feel afraid, and it also made the England people very unhappy — it was almost a penalty kick!
"A free kick on the line of the penalty area … is not a good position. It requires better skills to play here, otherwise the probability of the ball hitting the human wall is very high. " Motson frowned. This position was really not good. Not to mention that it was almost a penalty kick, it was not good to be too close to the goal.
Gerrard's free kicks never won with a curve. This place was really not suitable for him to take the penalty kick.
The onlookers did not have much hope for this free kick, but Gerrard did not see it that way. Standing in front of the football, he stared at the goal, his eyes like a torch. After placing the football, he stepped back and prepared to play the ball.
Wood stood five meters away from him, looking at the penalty area. Due to the need to defend this free kick, the people in the penalty area were mainly concentrated on the human wall. In order to block the goal as much as possible and share the pressure for the goalkeeper, this time the French team lined up seven people in the human wall, almost blocking half of the goal. And Buckingham nervously set up the defense on the other side.
Most of the England teammates wanted to squeeze into the human wall, but they were pushed out by the French players. They simply stood directly in front of the human wall, which of course caused the French players to be dissatisfied. They pushed hard and raised their hands to protest to the referee: Look at them, are they here to play football!
The referee had to signal Gerrard to wait a little longer. He ran in to mediate the conflict between the two sides and warned the cunning Englishmen not to block in front of the human wall. It was fine to line up on the side … He also warned the French players not to get involved. Both sides were not allowed to clash and push.
After a minute of struggle, the England team finally succeeded in squeezing in one person. Downing was stuck between Sakho and Mexiès. Although the other side was very unhappy, since he had successfully squeezed in, there was nothing he could do about it.
With the England players making such a fuss, everyone turned their attention to the direct free kick. In fact, even the England players thought so, thinking that Gerrard would shoot directly. Except for Gerrard himself and George Wood.
The referee finally retreated and he signaled that Gerrard could kick the ball.
From the time Gerrard started to run up, the French team's human wall was particularly nervous. One by one, they leaned back, one hand to protect their hearts, the other to protect their crotch, ready to jump at any time, but worried that the football that Gerrard shot would roll under their feet along the turf. Just as they were struggling, Gerrard ran in front of the football and swung his leg …
Is he going to shoot!
The French players shouted in their hearts.
Gerrard passed the football out horizontally!
"This is … George Wood!!"
Whether it was the English commentator or the French television commentator, they all exclaimed.
As the football rolled, George Wood appeared in the camera. This time he swung his left foot and his body slightly sideways. It was exactly the same posture as before, but this time there was no one to interfere with him at all …
"… Long shot —!!!"
Wood's left foot kicked the football hard, and the ball whistled like a cannonball toward the lower right corner of the goal!
No one could react to this sudden change. The human wall, which was nervous just now, looked at the football flying toward the other side of the goal in surprise. Buckingham did not even make a save. He just stood in place and watched the football roll past him into the goal …
"Huh?"
This was the first reaction of Buckingham and the other French players.
Loud cheers soon came, washing away their doubts without a trace — they were three goals behind!
"A beautiful long shot! From the set-piece cooperation between Gerrard and Wood! England is three goals ahead of France! "Motson shouted.
After scoring the goal, Wood did not even have time to celebrate before Gerrard pounced on him and hugged him. Then, more teammates rushed up and surrounded the two of them to celebrate the goal.
The goal was scored in a timely manner and completely dispelled the morale and fighting spirit of the French team. In an international competition like the UEFA European Championship, few teams could reverse the situation when they were three goals behind.
England's substitutes' bench was also jubilant. A three-goal lead was basically the winner. It was only a matter of time before they advanced to the semifinals.
The French could not believe what they saw with their eyes. They had planned to fight back in the second half, but they did not expect England to score another goal … Such a blow almost drained all their strength. Watching the English players hug each other to celebrate the goal, they just wanted to fall to the ground and never get up again.
Twain was as excited as his players, but this time he did not go to Puel to do a butt shaking dance because he did not need to do that. The French team was about to become a thing of the past. A loser who had been trampled in the mud by him, did he need to look at him again?
※ ※ ※
After the game resumed, the French team was a little absent-minded, or in other words, lost. At 0: 2, they could still tell themselves that there was a need to fight, but now it was 0: 3?
Puel also did not know what to do. Trailing by three goals, the possibility of turning the game around was too small. And most importantly, in the face of such a situation, did he have any solution?
England was not a philanthropist and would not give the French team the time. Now that the French team had suffered a heavy blow and looked lost, it was a good opportunity for England to attack. There was no need for Twain to remind them on the sidelines, the England players naturally knew what they had to do.
After a flurry of attacks, England scored again. The England fans were even a little numb, and some French fans even began to leave the field early more than 20 minutes before the end of the game.
This time it was still Mitchell who scored the goal. He received a pass from Downing on the flank and headed the ball into the goal. From this goal concede, it was obvious that the French center backs were absent-minded and lost. So much so that Mitchell, the tall center forward, could easily jump in front of the goal to head the ball into the goal. No matter how good Buckingham was, he could not save the situation. He did not even scold his center back after conceding the goal. He just gloomily kicked the ball back into the goal.
"The game is over, the French are finished." Twain opened his arms and turned to his partner, Des Walker. Even Walker did not expect England to beat France so easily in such a manner …
"4: 0 …" Motson could not believe his eyes. "The French team, who was known as the favorite to win the title before the game, was so vulnerable in front of England … Is the French team too weak, or are we too strong?"
No one could answer his question at this time, because even the most hardcore England fans could not believe what was happening in front of them, and their brains could not understand it …
※ ※ ※
Although there were still 20 minutes before the end of the game, it was already clear that the French were not in the mood to continue to play. Only Diarra was still working hard, but his efforts could not find the goal …
After England took a 4: 0 lead, Twain replaced George Wood with Michael Johnson. He was still worried about Wood's right big toe. Since they had already won, there was no need to continue to let Wood on the field. In case a French player became angry and rushed towards Wood with the mentality of destroying both sides, it would be too late for him to regret it.
Twain's move to replace Wood also meant that the game was over early. In the subsequent game, the French team was unable to organize an effective attack. The front field attack lineup, which was placed high hopes on before the game, did not play a role at all. The French commentator was somewhat exasperated and claimed that no one in the French team's performance in this game was up to standard.
What he said was not wrong, especially when it came to the front line attack groups that were touted by others. Under George Wood's iron curtain, all the stars were dim.
From the start of England's fourth goal, the England fans kept singing in the stands until the referee blew the whistle at the end of the game. The singing suddenly turned into loud cheers to send the French off.
"The French team ended their trip to Spain with this humiliating score … England's unexpected victory, the first to advance to the top four! Tony Twain had already made the whole of Europe understand one thing – his team was very strong! Very strong! "
The Spanish coach who was in charge of watching the game and observing the opponent wrote this final summary of the game in his notebook:
Watch out for England.
※ ※ ※
Recommend a friend's new book:
Dugu Tianhan, the author of "The Overlapping of Spring and Autumn Years", has published a new book — "A Journey of a Condor in a Different World".
A man was swallowed by a black hole and came to a foreign land
He was struck by lightning as soon as he showed up and did not show off.
He was born into a condor.
A young condor who grew up in the depths of the forest and his parents suddenly disappeared. He was alone and starving. He had no long hair and could not move freely. Let's see how he will survive in this different world. Will he succeed, or will he dance in the sky, or …
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