Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After Diarra blocked one of Gerrard’s attacks, he looked defiantly at Wood opposite him. His meaning was obvious – don’t shrink behind like a coward. Bring it on, boy!
George Wood certainly saw what Diarra meant, but he was unmoved and continued to stay in the backfield to establish his position.
Initially, Puel was still complaining that Diarra did not follow his command. But he fell silent after seeing Diarra intercepted England’s attack in succession. The back of the French team had obviously stabilized…
Twain certainly could not let that situation happen. Once the French team’s defense was stable, they would attack again. At that time, it would be their turn to bear the pressure.
Gerrard was clearly the underdog in his fight with Diarra. His age and physical disadvantage had left him less able in physical confrontations than he used to be. Twain thought about it. He decided to let Gerrard move back to replace Wood and let Wood plug in to get involved in the offense. The two players belonged to the category of midfielders who were good at both offense and defense. Interchanging of positions would not create chaos.
Twain walked to the sidelines and whistled toward the inland. Wood turned his gaze over, and he made a hand signal to change positions, which Wood immediately understood.
Then, taking advantage of a dead ball, Wood and Gerrard completed the handover of positions.
Following which, Diarra was pleased to find that the man who came up this time was not Gerrard, but George Wood!
Although Wood did not take the ball, Diarra remained on high alert against him. He knew Wood was the core of the England team. Although he did not know why he was hiding in the backfield in the first half and not come up, it did not matter for now he had no choice but to finally come out of his bolthole.
Sure enough, Agbonlahor quickly passed the ball to Wood. He met with some trouble on his side. He was unable to play to his speed advantage after his attack was being blocked by the French full backs. So, he could only hand the ball over to Wood to reorganize.
Diarra stuck close when he saw Wood take the ball. Wood did not seem to have the intention of getting rid of him with speed. Instead, he turned around to protect the football and waited for Diarra to come up.
The two great defensive midfielders faced off each other, and Diarra lost on strength.
He only felt that Wood leaned back, and his own body lost its balance to tilt toward the back at the side. He grabbed Wood’s clothes with his hand at the crucial moment and regained his balance.
Wood did not give him the chance to continue to pester himself and leaned back again. When Diarra focused all his attention on keeping his balance, he passed the ball to Gerrard, who came up to receive. Next, he turned around and charged forward. Gerrard once again sent a straight pass just in time. The tacit cooperation between the two midfielders freed them of Diarra.
As Diarra rushed up again to tangle him, Wood suddenly sped up and got rid of him. He also went straight into the middle of the penalty area!
“He’s going to break through from the middle! Stop him!” The goalkeeper, Lloris yelled behind the defenders.
Wood’s sudden breakthrough caught the attention of all the French defenders. Sakho crossed in front of him, and Clichy was moving closer to the middle. Seeing that the two sides were about to meet, Wood gave his ankle a jerk and turned the football to the side!
While Mitchell and Rooney were still under the close watchful eyes of the French defenders, Agbonlahor was not marked by anyone at the side…
After seeing Wood pass the ball to the sideline, Mitchell and Rooney moved toward the ball in sync, while Wood stopped at the edge of the penalty area and did not rush forward.
The center backs’ attention were all attracted by the two strikers breaking through and ran into the penalty area one by one.
A three to five-meter-wide gap appeared in front of Wood.
Diarra was the first one to be perceptively aware of the other party’s intentions. He hurried toward Wood ten meters away.
Meanwhile Agbonlahor made a move and crossed the ball over! Instead of the football flying towards any of England’s strikers, the football was rolling diagonally towards George Wood!
Diarra guessed right!
Wood stood in place and turned his body sideways toward the ball. He picked up his right foot, and he was going to directly shoot!
Would Diarra give Wood what he wanted? Even if he risked getting a card, he had to stop the shot!
Once his mind was made up, Diarra slide tackled Wood’s legs from the side and Wood sensed the danger. If it were to be during normal times, he would definitely kick and force a shot toward the goal. But at the moment, he thought of his right foot, and also thought of the next two games …
At the thought of it, Wood gave up his intention to shoot directly and allowed the ball to cross in front of his feet while he jumped.
He was still a little late. Even though his right foot managed to dodge, his left foot was hooked by Diarra and he lost his center of gravity.
Everyone heard the referee’s whistle as Wood fell to the ground.
They became nervous. Was it a penalty shot or a free kick?
Wood himself fell into the penalty area. But was the location of the foul in the penalty area?
The referee ran to the location of the foul and stopped. He did not continue to run into the penalty area, nor did he point his finger at the penalty spot.
“It’s not a penalty shot!” The French people breathed a sigh of relief.
The Englishmen were a little disgruntled and complained, “It was enough of a foul for him to be sent straight off the pitch!”
The referee only showed Diarra a yellow card, prompting boos from the England fans in the stands.
Wood was pulled up from the ground by Gerrard, which made it awkward for Diarra, who was supposed to have gotten ready to show some goodwill himself. He went up and patted Wood on the shoulder before he walked away. Although the fight was fierce, he did not have to start a feud with Wood. His special feelings for Wood were limited to the pitch.
“Are you all right?” Gerrard asked after Diarra had gone.
Wood shook his left foot and shook his head, “It’s all right.”
It looked like he was really okay, because Wood was walking normally when he left Gerrard’s side. But he was stopped by Gerrard who shouted out, “George, stay.”
Wood felt strange, but he stopped in his tracks and looked back at Gerrard.
Gerrard stepped forward and said, “You just stand here. We can coordinate to do a free kick…”
※※※
Under the situation of Bentley’s absence, Gerrard was in charge of carrying out direct free kicks. He scored several times at Liverpool using free kicks. The French players clearly knew it, so when they saw Gerrard standing in front of the ball, the human wall looked very nervous – on the one hand, they were afraid that he would score. On the other hand, they were scared of being struck by Gerrard’s powerful shot… It would not feel good.
Wood stood five meters away from Gerrard, but no one paid any mind to him, including Diarra. Everyone in the world knew that George Wood did not carry out free kicks, whether at Nottingham Forest or in the England national team. He would have nothing to do with free kicks. He did not even qualify to act as a cover.
He just stood at present and people treated it as he was just standing there. If they were to consider it at a deeper level, he was going to counter press at best after Gerrard’s free kick hit the human wall so as to regain possession of the ball.
Gerrard carefully placed the football in the penalty spot designated by the referee, which was just right on the line in the penalty area!
This position made the French players afraid, but also caused the English people to be extremely displeased – it was almost a penalty shot!
“A free kick on the line of the penalty area … is not really a good position. Playing here requires better technique, otherwise the probability of the football hitting the human wall is very high.” Motson frowned. The position was really not considered good. Not to mention that it was almost a penalty shot, it was not good that it was too close to the goal.
Gerrard’s free kick never scored based on the radian. It was unsuitable for him to carry out the penalty in this spot.
The onlookers had little hope of the free kick succeeding, but Gerrard did not see it that way. Standing in front of the ball, he stared at the goal with shining eyes. After putting the football in place, he stepped back and prepared to kick.
Wood stood five meters away from him and was looking at the penalty area. As they had to defend against the free kick, the players in the penalty area were mainly concentrated in the human wall, in order to block the goal as much as possible to share the burden with the goalkeeper. This time, seven players lined up in the French team’s human wall. It almost blocked the half of the goal. Lloris, on the other hand, was nervously laying out the defense on the other side.
The England teammates mostly wanted to squeeze among the human wall, but they were pushed out by the French players. So, they simply stood directly in front of the human wall, which of course caused the French players’ displeasure. They pushed back hard while raising their hands to protest to the referee: Do you see what they’re trying to do here?!”
The referee had to signal for Gerrard to wait a while. He ran over to mediate the contradiction between the two sides, warning the cunning English players not to stand in front of the human wall and that it was fine to stand beside it… while he also warned the French players not to get started. Neither side was allowed to have a conflict, nor were they allowed to push.
After a minute of effort, England finally managed to squeeze one man into it. Downing was stuck in between Sakho and Mexès. Although the other team was upset, they could not do anything about him since he managed to squeeze in.
With the disturbance from the England players, everyone put their focus on the direct free kick. In fact, even the England players thought so too. They thought that Gerrard would shoot directly. Except for Gerrard himself and George Wood.
The referee finally moved back and signaled that Gerrard could play.
As soon as Gerrard started to run up, the French team’s human wall was particularly tense. One by one, they leant their bodies back with one hand to protect the chest and the other hand to protect the crotch area. They got ready to jump and were also worried that the football Gerrard shoot would roll from under their feet covered with grass. Just as they were at odds about it, Gerrard ran to the football and lifted his leg…
Is he going to shoot?!
The French players cried in their hearts.
Gerrard passed the football to the side instead!
“It’s … George Wood!!”
Whether it was the English commentator or the French television commentator, they were all stunned by it.
As the football rolled, George Wood appeared on camera. This time, he lifted his left foot up and his body slightly to the side and adopted the same posture as just now. But this time no one came up to interfere with him…
“… A long shot ——!!!”
Wood’s left foot hit the ball hard, and the football ball whizzed into the bottom right corner of the goal like an artillery shell!
No one had reacted to this sudden change yet. The human wall of people who were nervous just now, were looking at the ball flying to the other side of the goal in amazement at this time. Lloris did not even pounce to make the save. He just stood there and watched helplessly as the football roll past his side into the goal…
“Huh?”
It was the first reaction of Lloris and the other French players.
Thunderous cheers quickly struck, scurrying their doubts away – they were three goals behind!
“A beautiful long shot! From a positional play between the two players, Gerrard and Wood! England leads France by three goals!” Motson exclaimed.
After the goal, Wood was hugged by Gerrard before he could make his celebratory action. Then more teammates rushed up to surround the two of them to celebrate the goal.
The goal was scored in a fairly timely manner and completely demoralize the French team and killed their fighting spirit. In an international competition like the UEFA European Championship, few teams could reverse the situation in which they were three goals behind.
The England team’s substitutes’ bench was also a scene of jubilation. Their victory was basically sealed with a three-goal lead. It was only a matter of time before they reached the semifinals.
The French players could not believe everything their eyes saw. They had intended to have a showdown to fight back in the second half but did not expect England to score another goal… Such a blow drained almost all of their power. Watching the English players embrace and celebrate the goal, they just wanted to fall to the ground and not get up.
Twain was as excited as his players. But this time he did not go to Puel and twist his buttocks to dance in front of him because he did not need to do that anymore. The French team was about to become the past. Was there still a need for him to take another look at a loser who had been trampled in the mud by him?
※※※
After the game resumed, the French team was a little distracted, or to put it more accurately, they were dazed. When the score was still 0:2, they could still tell themselves that it was necessary to fight. But how about now when the score was 3:0?
Puel did not know what to do as well. Trailing behind by three goals, the possibility of reversing the game was too small. And most importantly, was there any solution when they were up against such a situation?
The England team was no philanthropist and would not give the French team the time. Now that the French team had suffered a heavy blow and appeared to be in a dazed state, it was the England team’s wonderful chance to go on a large-scale offensive. Without needing Twain to remind them on the sidelines, the England players naturally knew what to do.
England scored again after a flurry. The England fans even became a little numb, and some of the French fans even began to leave the stadium early with more than 20 minutes to go.
This time it was still Mitchell, who scored the goal with a header into the goal after he received Downing’s pass from the sideline. It was clear from this goal concede that the French center backs were distracted and not present-minded. So much so that Mitchell, the tall center forward, could easily leap in front of goal to score with a header. Lloris was unable to turn around a hopeless situation no matter how good he was. After failing to save the goal, he did not even have the energy to scold his center backs. He just frustratedly kicked the rebounded football back into the goal.
“The game was over, and the French players are finished.” Twain said as he opened his arms and turned to his partner, Des Walker. The game turned out to be like this, which even Walker did not expect that the England team could beat France so easily…
“4:0…” Motson could not believe his eyes and said, “The French team that was named as the hottest favorite to win the title before the game, was so vulnerable in front of England… Was it because the French team was too weak, or were we too strong?”
No one could answer his question at this time, because even the most hardcore England fans could not believe the scene that was happening right in front of their eyes, and their brains could not comprehend…
※※※
Although there were still twenty minutes to go before the end of the game, it was already clear that the French players had no heart to play further. Only Diarra was still working hard, but he could not find a target with some of his efforts….
After England’s 4:0 lead, Twain brought on Michael Johnson to replace George Wood. He was still worried about Wood’s right big toe. Now that the win was locked in, there was no need to continue to let Wood be on the field. It was just in case a French player flew into a rage out of humiliation and had a go at Wood bearing a destructive attitude, then it would be too late for him to have any regrets.
Twain’s move to replace Wood also meant that the game had ended early. In the ensuing game, the French team had been unable to organize an effective attack. The offensive lineup which everyone placed high hopes on before the game, ended up ineffective. The French commentator was somewhat dismayed to claim that no one in the French team played well in the game.
He said it right, especially for those players who had been touted as a front-field attack cluster. Under George Wood’s iron curtain, all the star players were dim.
The England fans sang non-stop in the stands once the England team scored its fourth goal, until the referee blew the final whistle of the game. The singing suddenly turned into thunderous cheers to send the French players off.
“The French team ended their tour in Spain with this humiliating score …With the England team’s surprise crazy win, they are the first to reach the semifinals! Tony Twain has made one thing clear to all of Europe – his team is very powerful! Very strong indeed!”
The Spanish coach, who was in charge of watching the game and observing the opponents, wrote only one thing in the final summary of the game in his notepad:
Watch out for England.
