Everyone was puzzled by Lippi's substitution, and unceremoniously questioned his substitution adjustment.
But the main character who was being questioned sat calmly in the technical area, as if he was not the one who replaced Balotelli.
Or maybe he did not see Balotelli's mistake at all …
In fact, of course he saw it. He knew it clearly. But he could not express his dissatisfaction with the player who had just been replaced. He sat on the sidelines with a calm face, but he was conveying such a message to the players —
Don't worry, we still have time and opportunities, don't panic.
When the players saw such a calm manager on the field, they were all relieved.
Why should we panic when the manager is not panicking?
Even Balotelli, who had just made a mistake, thought so.
In fact, Balotelli knew what this UEFA European Championship meant to him. Before the UEFA European Championship, his agent had told him that if he wanted to leave Nottingham Forest smoothly, he had to show a convincing performance at the UEFA European Championship. That way, he would have a way to lobby around.
Two seasons at Nottingham Forest had gradually made him lose his reputation in European football. At this time, he had to fight again like a newcomer.
Balotelli was very proactive with this idea. Although he made a mistake, he did not take it to heart. He only thought about scoring or assisting his teammates.
Balotelli played as a striker for the Forest team, but in this game, he played as a right midfielder. His main task was to help the team attack on this side, pass the ball, and let Foti fight for the header in the middle. But this was not enough to play to his greatest strength.
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Italy's Giovinco suddenly cut inside on the left side, he flashed past the unprepared Walcott, and when he was about to make a further breakthrough, he was knocked down by George Wood.
The referee whistled to give Italy a free kick on the left side of the penalty area, and at the same time gave Wood a verbal warning. Wood was also smart, he did not go forward to explain. He did not go for Giovinco, but Giovinco was thin and weak, and almost fell with a knock. This was the case in the first half, he did not bother to explain anything to the referee.
Seeing that Italy was awarded a free kick, Balotelli hurriedly ran over from the other side and held the football in his hands. All of Lippi's teammates were aware of Lippi's latest arrangement. Balotelli had officially taken over the right to be the main penalty taker for all the set pieces in the front field.
The Englishman was no stranger to Balotelli's free kicks. At Nottingham Forest, he and Gareth Bale were usually the ones to take the free kicks. Balotelli had often used free kicks to break down the goals of those Premier League teams.
Now that he put the football on the ground and looked like he was going to take the penalty, the England fans in the stands booed to disrupt him.
Balotelli's shot went over the crossbar amidst the boos.
The England fans cheered for their victory, while Balotelli looked at the turf beneath his feet in frustration. There seemed to be some unevenness there, causing him to miss his kick when he lifted his leg.
Judging from this free kick, Balotelli still hadn't found his form, which gave the commentators another opportunity to attack and criticize Lippi.
Fortunately, the television commentary could not be heard from the technical area. Otherwise, it was unknown how many managers would have abandoned the game and rushed to the commentator's seat behind to vent their frustrations on those who only knew how to talk.
Balotelli had performed poorly twice in a row, but Lippi was still unmoved. He had already made up his mind. Since he had already replaced the player, what was there to regret? As long as it was not a major mistake, he could not replace the player again, right? The precious substitution spot should not be wasted like this.
Balotelli's performance was not good, but the England team did not dare to underestimate him. Because in the first half, they took advantage of Italy's contempt for Agbonlahor, who did not perform well, to blast open the reinforced concrete defense of the goal. During the halftime interval, Twain also warned them not to underestimate the opponent and to be cautious.
Therefore, when Balotelli took the ball on the side, Joe Mattock did not have the slightest intention of letting his guard down. Although they were teammates in the same club, they were now working for different teams.
Balotelli intended to force a breakthrough. Although he had bypassed Joe Mattock, he was blocked by Downing who caught up from behind. With this slight delay, Joe Mattock caught up again, and the two men worked together to shut Balotelli out and forced their way near the corner flag.
Balotelli saw that there was no way to complete the pass, and it seemed difficult for him to break through, so he took a step back and asked for a corner kick. In the end, after the ball hit Joe Mattock, it did not bounce directly to the end line. Instead, it mysteriously bounced back and hit Balotelli's calf bone before bouncing out of the end line …
This time, he did not even get a corner kick. The assistant referee directly pointed the flag to the penalty area, which meant that it was a goal ball.
In the second half, the stands behind the England team's goal were filled with England fans. Seeing that Balotelli did not get a corner kick and instead gave a goal ball, the fans in that area roared with laughter.
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"He's been completely watched by our people …" Des Walker sighed. The England team's coaching staff had already done a thorough study of this Forest player. It was also thanks to the Forest team's poor performance in the past two seasons that Balotelli's form had also become worse.
If he did not know Twain well, he would really think that all of this was a conspiracy … It was too much of a coincidence!
Before the game, the England team's coaching staff had analyzed every single Italian player and made targeted arrangements based on their different characteristics, regardless of how many of them were able to play.
Balotelli was naturally among them. At that time, the England team's coaching staff analyzed two possibilities. First, Balotelli would definitely not be in the starting lineup, but he might come on as a substitute because he was a very unique player who was good at place kicks. And if the England team wanted to use a steady counterattack against Italy, breaking through the tight defense was a problem that Lippi had to consider. At this time, Balotelli could play a very good role.
Then when he came on, he might play as a striker, or he might play as a right midfielder because Balotelli could play in both positions. Therefore, they needed to make two different arrangements — what do we do when he is a striker? What do we do when he is a side midfielder?
When he is a side midfielder, Twain asked the full backs and side midfielders to actively return to defend, try to reduce the chances of Balotelli's passes, and at the same time, cut off his connection with the other players, and try to make him fight alone.
Joe Mattock and Downing had done a good job of blocking Balotelli's way of getting the ball out of the way with their actions just now. They had sandwiched Balotelli from the front and the back, effectively blocking Balotelli's path of getting the ball out.
For this final, Twain had done a lot of work, and now it was all reflected one by one.
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Balotelli's performance in the mobile game was average. After being sandwiched by the England team a few times, he began to pass more instead of dribbling the ball to break through. He knew that he had been targeted by Twain. When he played for the Forest team, he heard a lot about the man's legend. He always talked about him as if he was a god, as if he was not a football manager, but a wizard in medieval legends who had the power to bewitch people. Every staff at the Wilford training base always had a look of worship on their faces when they talked about Twain, and they did not feel much about the club's chairman, Mr. Evan Doughty.
Although he was frozen in the mobile game, Balotelli was not very worried. Because he still had a weapon, and that weapon was something that the England team would never be able to freeze. It was just that he had to try his best to warm up his feet now …
Faced with Joe Mattock's block, Balotelli forced a pass. Although the football bypassed his teammates in the Forest team, it was a little too high … Even if Foti was 2.3 meters tall, he could not reach such a "pass."
"It looks like he's really in a bad state …" This time, even the Italian commentator could not help but shake his head.
Next, Balotelli tried a long shot from outside the penalty area. This time, the shot was quite accurate, but it hit too straight, and was held in Joe Hart's arms.
"Ah ha! This is his best performance since he came on! "Motson said sarcastically.
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In fact, Balotelli was not the main character. In Italy's offense, Lippi did not ask the others to pass the ball to him and open up a gap from his side. De Rossi was still in charge of dispatching. He was the core of the Italian team, and Giovinco was also very active in front of the penalty area, causing headaches and tension for the England defensive players.
As time went on in the second half, the Italian team's offense became more and more fierce. It looked like they were turning out in full force.
Lippi also noticed the time. At this time, time was the most precious. There were 20 minutes left until the end of the 90-minute game. These 20 minutes might not seem short, but in fact, it could pass in the blink of an eye. If they did not hurry up, as time went by, the Italian players would only become more and more impatient, and the balance of victory would tilt towards the English.
Something must be done.
Lippi thought about it in his mind, and gave a few instructions to his assistant manager, Ferrara, who was sitting next to him.
Ferrara nodded as he listened, then got up from his seat and walked to the sidelines, waving his hand at the opposite side. Then, he saw the two Italian full backs began to plug in from behind to assist.
Italy's full backs threw themselves into the attack, and England immediately felt a huge defensive pressure, especially on Joe Mattock's side.
While Lippi let the full backs assist, he also let Giovinco and Balotelli change positions. Balotelli was not of much use on the right flank, anyway, it was better to change to the left flank, facing Richards who was stronger defensively, not to break through and pass, just to delay the opponent. Italy's main attack direction changed to their right flank, and England's left flank.
Paloschi also ran to the right flank to pull the side to join in the fun. With three arrows fired at the same time, Joe Mattock and Downing could not withstand it.
Downing was not the kind of player who was good at defense, and it would not be effective for him to specialize in defense.
Twain frowned as he watched from below, then he turned to his assistant manager, Des Walker, and said, "Go and call Cohen and Vaughan back from their warm-up."
Walker knew what he was going to do, and without saying anything, he nodded and ran away.
When Vaughan heard that Twain wanted him to go back, he was a little surprised. Coming out to warm up was just a routine, the coaches always had a group of players go down to warm up regularly, and he was naturally among them. But in the next second, he thought of what Twain said to him at the end of the halftime interval.
He looked down at the T-shirt inside the collar of his shirt.
It was already soaked in sweat, and he hoped that the handwriting on it would not be blurred.
Vaughan and Cohen both appeared in front of Twain at the same time. Twain glanced at the two of them and did not say much, and began to lay out the specific tactics.
For Chris Cohen, the focus of Twain's request was on defense. He wanted him to go up to help Mattock and reduce the pressure on his defense. It was not a good idea to always let Wood cover the flanks, because there was still Aquilani and De Rossi in the middle.
As for Vaughan …
Before assigning tasks to him, Twain looked up at him.
"James, are you still upset that I did not let you play in the starting lineup?" he asked.
Vaughan was not a fool. If he honestly said, "Yes, I still can't figure out why it is like that," then he would be finished. He just shook his head and said, "I'll listen to you, boss."
How could Twain not hear that his words were a little forced? But he did not care, this was the effect he wanted. "Let's not talk about why I did this first, I just want to know, do you still have enough passion and desire to play in the game? Now that I let you play, are you going to give me a surprise, or muddle along until the end of the game? "
"No one wants to muddle along, boss." James Vaughan said this sentence without any reluctance at all. "This is the final of the UEFA European Championship."
Vaughan felt that Twain asking such a question was an insult to him. Which professional athlete wanted to muddle along until the end in such an important game?
Who did not want to go down in history by scoring one or two goals in such a game? Wouldn't it be better if he could become the hero who saved the team in a crisis?
Twain looked at Vaughan's unfriendly expression and was amused.
This was the effect he wanted. If Vaughan did not get angry after holding it in for 70 minutes, then it would be a failure.
"Well then, don't say that I didn't give you a chance, James." Twain's current look fell into Vaughan's eyes, more or less a little "shameless." Only giving him 20 minutes, was this a chance?
However, it was already like this. Not to mention 20 minutes, Vaughan would even want 10 minutes. He did not say any other nonsense, he just nodded and did not want to waste any more time.
Twain saw through his thoughts and did not say anything else. He directly told him the task, "Your task is very simple, Vaughan. Just like in the semifinals, score a goal. You go up at this time, when the Italian defenders are at their weakest and their minds are the least focused. They will press up heavily, there will be a lot of gaps at the back. Seize them for me. "
Vaughan nodded.
Twain gave him another push and pushed him to the sidelines. Then he patted him twice on the back, hoping that he could understand the deeper meaning.
※ ※ ※
"The England team requests a substitution!"
Just then, Gerrard tripped Aquilani on the field and the Italian team was awarded another free kick at the front of the penalty area.
The referee signaled for Balotelli to wait before taking the penalty. The England team wanted a substitution.
Downing, who was building a human wall, saw the sign in the hands of the fourth official off the field and got out of the human wall. He slowly walked to the sidelines. Chris Cohen replaced Downing.
Then Agbonlahor also turned to the sidelines after being reminded by his teammates. James Vaughan was going to replace him.
When the two men came off the field, they received the latest instructions from Twain on the sidelines —
"Slow down! Come down! Don't run! "
So, the two men slowly moved to the sidelines under the loud boos of the Italian fans and the dissatisfied protests of the Italian players. Cohen and Vaughan completed the handover.
Twain first shook hands with Downing and then gave Agbonlahor a hug. "Well done, boy, ha!"
Agbonlahor was the one who strongly advocated for him to be in the starting lineup. He scored the only goal in the game so far and did not embarrass him. Of course, he had to give him a good compliment.
If this was ancient China, Agbonlahor would certainly say, "I am fortunate to have accomplished my mission!" But now he just asked cheerfully, "Boss, we will be the champions, right?"
Twain nodded vigorously. "Yes, who else can it be other than us?"
As he said this, he looked at the field. Vaughan and Cohen had just come on and both of them were drilling into the human wall. The English and Italians were fighting around the human wall.
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