Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Nottingham Forest occupied the initiative from the start of the game.
Inter Milan did not get to do the kickoff, so they withdrew and carried out the defense as soon as they came on. They first solidify the defense, and then conspired to attack. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest did not hold back and made the most of their kickoff advantage, keeping the football firmly under their feet and not rush to the goal. They patiently circled.
George Wood and Tiago were indeed further back in their positions than ever before. It looked like the distance between them and Şahin was wider than ever, but in fact the players were not wooden blocks. They would keep running and interweaving on the pitch. The formation of the team could only be used as a reference—if they were too far away, Şahin would know he could withdraw to receive. As for Wood and Tiago, they would also know to run up there.
The tactics might be set, but the players were absolutely alive.
To be able to use fixed tactics flexibly, that was the players’ level. Some players only knew to cling obstinately to the manager’s arrangements. One was one, two was two, and they would dare not go one step beyond the prescribed limit and had no ideas of their own. Such a player’s life was that of an ordinary professional player. But some players were able to develop their own ideas and make their own judgments based on their understanding of the manager’s tactical intent. Such players were often the master players who could see the situation clearly on the pitch and turn things around.
While Inter Milan retreated to defend, Wood and Tiago did not cling to their defensive midfielders’ positions and foolishly waited for the opponent to attack. Out of the necessary caution, they did not rush up at the same time, but took turns to plug in and take part in the offense. When Tiago was up, George Wood would stay in the back to defend. When Wood went up, Tiago would be in charge of the defense.
Nottingham Forest controlled the football under its feet and was in no hurry to send it directly to the Inter Milan goal. In the tactical meeting the day before the game, Twain arranged Şahin to start, but also specifically warned him that if he was not particularly certain in the game, he must not pass the ball directly. He was not to give Inter Milan the opportunity to intercept the ball to immediately fight back. He would rather he passed the ball back and forth on the periphery to jerk the Inter Milan’s defense around first.
Şahin habitually tried to send a threatening pass every time he got the ball. But when he looked up at the seemingly impervious wall of Inter Milan defense, he remembered the boss’s admonition. So, he turned around and sent a cross pass instead.
Şahin passed it to Bentley, who saw that Inter Milan’s rear defensive line remained calm when he was about to cross the ball, so he sent the football out with a long pass straight to the other side of the pitch. Matías Fernández received the ball and passed it to Leighton Baines, who plugged in from behind. Baines saw that it was not a good time, so he continued to pass the ball, which fell to George Wood’s feet.
The Inter Milan players certainly would not cower in their own thirty-meters zone like shrinking violets and let Nottingham Forest pass the ball back and forth outside. Ibrahimović at the fore front saw the ball fall at Wood’s feet and rushed up to try tackle the ball. Under his lead, Inter Milan’s overall formation began to slightly press out. There were finally some gaps in the originally impenetrable formation.
Wood ceded the ball to Rafinha when Ibrahimović pounced up.
Rafinha then passed the ball diagonally to Şahin and continued to run forward, as if he wanted to do a wall pass with Şahin.
The Inter Milan players were not fools. How could they tolerate such a conventional and simple coordinated move being made in front of themselves?
Chivu kept a close eye on Rafinha, and Cambiasso came up to pounce on Şahin.
Şahin did not receive the ball. He just made a move like he was going to receive the ball and then turned around to block Cambiasso so as to give the ball to Ibišević behind him.
“Ibišević takes the ball and he’s now on the edge of the penalty area. He faces the goal sideways. It looks like he’s got a chance to shoot!”
Ibišević did not shoot because the moment he tried to lift his leg, he realized that Samuel was close to him. It was not suitable to shoot. So, he changed his mind at the last minute and gave a shake with his ankle to pass the ball back to George Wood.
The pass was too familiar to Mourinho—the striker’s back was to goal, Wood faced the goal directly and the ball was passed to him from the striker’s position. He could shoot straight while running and without stopping the ball at all.
While some people always said how bad Wood’s shot was, it had been proven time and again that this player with a bad shot could always kick a world-class shot in this spot…
He raised his fist in the hope that the Inter Milan players on the pitch would remember what he had said to them before the game.
—George Wood is the most dangerous killer at the top of the penalty arc! It’s not alarmist talk. You have to keep that in mind and stop all possibilities of him from shooting in this spot!
Fortunately, his players had not forgotten that. Samuel was defending against Ibišević and they still had people who could step forward and defend against Wood. Burdisso stepped forward bravely and planned to use his body to block Wood’s startling long shot!
Wood gave a jab with his ankle. After he tricked Burdisso fell out of balance, he pushed the football to Şahin on the other side!
Şahin had turned and completely bypassed Cambiasso when he gave the ball to Ibišević. Now he faced the goal and there was no one in front of him.
Wood just passed the ball to Şahin’s front. All he had to do was to speed up and charge into the penalty area. Then he could directly face the Inter Milan Milan’s Brazilian goalkeeper, César…..
“A one-on-one face-off with the goalkeeper!!”
The commentator roared with excitement. The game had only began three minutes and Nottingham Forest already had such a good chance.
Şahin’s breakout was not so strong that he could dash to the front of the football with one step of his leg and then throw everyone off to kick the ball. Wood used too much strength to pass the ball in order to try to penetrate the opponent’s defensive line.
Şahin tried his best to charge up but did not manage to shake off the defenders.
The three players, Samuel, Burdisso as well as Cambiasso rushed at him from three different directions, intending to smother his shot in its infancy. Of course, since the football was already in the penalty area, they had to be careful not to foul…
But these three Argentines’ purpose had been achieved. They crowded Şahin and surrounded him. In this way, the angle with which Şahin could shoot was very small. Under the heavy siege, even if he just raised his leg to prepare to shoot, the football on the ground might immediately be removed—they could not do nothing just because of the possibility of a foul. To foul while tackling the ball might the work of a rough defender, but it would be an unqualified defender if they let the other side score a goal for fear of a foul.
If Şahin wanted to shoot, even if it’s a penalty-kick, these three people will be shoveling down!
Şahin did not shoot. He and the three men fell to the ground at the same time, but he just swept the ball across to the other side…
“Ibišević!! He’s completely unguarded—”
None of the Inter Milan defenders, including César, noticed Ibišević. They only had eyes for Şahin when the ball reached Şahin’s feet. But Şahin passed the football to Ibišević.
Now that most of the goal area in front of Ibišević was empty. It was very simple what he needed to do—
“He shoots! GOOOAL!! It’s too easy!”
The Nottingham Forest fans erupted in thunderous cheers at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
Ibišević ran with wide open arms to the corner flag and continued to do his slap in the face celebratory gesture.
The Inter Milan players, on the other hand, stood in a daze where they were and could not believe what they saw—the game had only started more than three minutes ago. How did they concede the goal? And lost so easily, so simply, so… inexplicably!
They were the people on the spot and baffled, but the onlookers saw it clearly.
“A beautiful coordination! It’s really a treat to watch Nottingham Forest’s coordination! It’s rare to see such a smooth coordination played so strongly in the middle in modern football. The offensive that started from George Wood had fooled all the three Inter Milan defenders.”
Şahin’s pass was crucial. If he was completely unaware that Ibišević would plug in from the side, he would have chosen to force a shot. No one would know the result if that happened. It was the moment when he pretended to shoot but passed the ball when he fell on the ground that completely tore up Inter Milan’s tight defense. Ibišević easily pushed the football into the goal as if he was facing an empty goal on the training ground.
The Nottingham Forest players rushed up to embrace him one by one after Ibišević had done a slap in the face move. And the Forest team’s technical area and substitutes’ bench off the field had long been in embrace together. Tony Twain also did not forget to brandish his fists to demonstrate in front of more than seventy thousand Inter Milan fans. His actions naturally once again won a lot of boos and abuse for himself. But he did not care. He was the winner at this moment, and those who insulted him were losers!
As Twain expected, Mourinho soon rose from the technical area. He walked back and forth on the sidelines, displeased. Just three minutes into the start of the game and Nottingham Forest had opened the gap from the middle to score a valuable away goal. Such a thing was humiliating for a Serie A giant like Inter Milan.
He knew Twain’s mind, so he instructed the team to must pay attention to the defense at the beginning of the game. . . But he did not expect the middle, which was the most difficult to break through, had become Nottingham Forest’s exclusive corridor. Looking at the coordination between the three players in the middle, they completely treated Inter Milan’s three defenders as monkeys to play with. They were dragged around by their running and passes and neglected the real focus in the end.
Which area did I miss and not cover?
He began to reflect on it much to his discontent.
Unfortunately, he did not come up with a reason why when the game resumed again.
He could only attribute it to an accident which could regularly happened on the field and no one would know when and why it occurred—at one point, a gap happened in Inter Milan’s initially tight defense due to some factors and was keenly seized upon by Nottingham Forest. It could not be said that Inter Milan played terribly, only that the enemy was too cunning.
※※※
The game resumed. Inter Milan suddenly gave up their defense, and actively pressed out by several lines, which disturbed Nottingham Forest for a while.
The Nottingham Forest players clearly did not expect Inter Milan to counterattack so crazily so soon—they thought Inter Milan would not be able to recover from the shock of conceding the goal so quickly in the opening of the game.
Nottingham’s red colored players made a mistake. Inter Milan was not as easy to deal with as they thought.
Amidst wave after wave of sounds from the home fans, Inter Milan launched a steady stream of attacks from the midfield, putting constant pressure on Nottingham Forest’s defense. Inter Milan seemed to be testing the limits of Nottingham Forest’s rebound.
In the eighth minute, after Cambiasso intercepted Şahin’s ball, he quickly dribbled the ball in the middle forward but encountered Tiago’s tight defense and the ball was intercepted. Fortunately, Montolivo did not rush too fast and Tiago’s intercepted ball rolled right under his feet. Inter Milan’s attack continued.
Montolivo did not intend to attack from the middle, as Cambiasso did. He sent the ball directly to Quaresma on the side.
Speaking of Quaresma, he was also a young man who became famous for a long time, but unfortunately did not seem to be a big name. Whether it was at Barcelona or currently at Inter Milan, his status had not been stable. His gorgeous footwork seemed out of step with the team’s overall tactics. Mourinho had high expectations with him at first, but it was a pity that he simply could not adapt to Inter Milan’s tactics and Italian style of football when he came to Italy. His footwork skills and divine outer instep skills, which could win international acclaim in Portugal, could only be a focus of defensive attention in Italy and the main culprit for dragging the team’s offensive tactics.
Having adapted for several seasons, Quaresma remained a fringe figure in Inter Milan’s lineup. He was in this game because Mancini was injured and could not play the game …
But the Portuguese was not to be underestimated. Although he sometimes seemed out of step with the team’s tactics, his individual combat ability was still very good. Mourinho might also want to use Quaresma’s individual ability to restrain the Forest team’s offense on the left flank.
Quaresma seemed to be in good shape for today’s match. After he received the ball, he showed a good body flexibility when he simply followed the ball movement, and then accelerated on the side to break through!
Matías Fernández rushed up from the back and tried to overtake to tackle the ball.
Quaresma noticed Fernández accelerating and approaching. He calculated precisely when Fernández made a move to intercept the ball to suddenly make a stop. He hooked the football back with his right foot and then pushed forward with the arch of his left foot to bypass Fernández!
Next, he started the acceleration again, shook off Fernández, caught up with the football and directly confronted Leighton Baines. Not far from Baines was George Wood, lying in wait for him to bypass Baines so that he could rush up to tackle the ball.
Fernández saw Wood on the side and gave up the chase. He believed the captain and Baines would be able to hold off Quaresma.
Baines did not manage to defend Quaresma alone. He was bypassed by Quaresma with a back heel and a quick stop. Following which, just as Quaresma was about to enter the penalty area, George Wood pounced toward him.
The football was on the left side of Quaresma’s body at this time. He was a right-footed player and needed to adjust. That would be Wood’s chance!
Wood’s entire person was as if he were being pulled with a tight bow string and his eyes were fixed squarely on Quaresma’s movements.
He saw Quaresma made an emergency stop and bypassed Baines. After which, he started to turn around. It was expected that he would use his left foot to snap the ball back and then simply cut into the penalty area. Wood planned to cut cross to meet him on the way and hit him head-on.
But then he saw a scene that widened his eyes—
Quaresma did not continue to dribble the ball. His left foot stepped on the ground with force and he turned around to lift his right leg toward the football… and volleyed!
In that moment, George Wood’s eyes widened, and he was unresponsive. Because he saw… Quaresma used his outer instep!
The football flew in front of Wood’s face, drawing a strange arc. Looking the movement of his lifted leg, it did not look like a shot but to say it was a cross pass…
Had anyone ever seen a cross pass into the goal?
The football leaped high to bypass everyone in the penalty area and then fell straight into the far corner of the goal. The goalkeeper, Akinfeev was unable to defend in time. When he jumped up and tried his best to reach out, his extended hands could not touch the ball.
Everyone witnessed Quaresma’s signature goal at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.
“What a great GOOOOOAL——”
The football fell into the net from the junction of the goalpost and the crossbar.
George Wood’s heart sank as his eyes followed the football. What did he see? The right outer instep volleyed the ball in an arc and bypassed all the defenders to drill into the goal from the most unlikely angle…
It was a complete surprise!
“A beautiful goal from Quaresma! Just five minutes later, he single-handedly equalized the scores for Inter Milan! The once-rumored to-be-purged player pulled his team back with such a brilliant goal! I’m willing to bet this goal will be among the top ten goals in the Champions League this season! It’s so beautiful! The Nottingham Forest players did not react to the shot!”
Quaresma was a little excited after the goal. He pulled his jersey and said words that no one understood. But his teammates did not care what he said. They rushed forward and pushed him to the ground.
Mourinho also rose from the technical area and waved his fists hard. It was lucky to have equalized the score so soon… He was previously worried about how the game would turn out if Nottingham Forest had continued to be in the lead.
It was all good now… He turned his head to look at the thunderous Tony Twain on the side and a proud smile emerged on his face.
Your lead was fleeting. You’re still at my home ground. I want to see how you’re going to play next, Tony Twain!
