The broadcast of Giuseppe Meazza Stadium was reporting the player names of the away team. Most of Forest’s players were unfamiliar to Inter Milan’s fans, so they remained unmoved when hearing their names. This was just a required procedure that occurred before the commencement of the match. However, upon hearing a person’s name reappear in this place, loud jeers started up immediately.
“Demetrio Albertini!”
The jeers were not targeted at Albertini himself, but rather at the 14-year period with AC Milan that he represented. As their arch-rivals in the same city, it was enmity that would not fade even with the passing of time.
Faced with such a scene, Albertini remained impassive. He had long ago become used to it. In fact, he was not yet used to not hearing the same jeers in England whenever they played against a rival from the same city. Now that he got to hear this again, it felt somewhat dear to him.
The captain of Inter Milan was still the Argentinian, Javier Zanetti. The same captains from the two teams back then clasped their hands together once again.
“Welcome to Giuseppe Meazza,” Zanetti said.
“It’s San Siro,” Albertini answered.
The feeling of a derby returned to Albertini’s body.
Ever since Albertini had pulled his thigh muscles at the beginning of the season, his condition was no longer the same as before. Pulled muscles were injuries caused by fatigue. It was considered a chronic issue that was difficult to treat completely. There was the chance of a relapse whenever he became overly fatigued. Adding to that was Albertini’s increasing age; his bodily functions were beginning to deteriorate, making it easier for him to pull his muscles.
As a result, Albertini had suffered a small injury a few rounds before the current match. The duration of his field appearance became unstable. However, in fighting this Champions League match, Tang En still insisted on putting Arteta on the substitutes’ bench, allowing Albertini to be a starter instead. If there were no accidents, he also planned on letting Demi play the full 90 minutes.
Why?
Simply because their opponent for the match was Inter Milan. Albertini, more than anyone else, would have immense motivation in playing against that team, and would more easily perform at his highest level.
But… Tang En felt somewhat regretful at times. If only their match opponents were AC Milan… Would Albertini be even more spirited?
In the coin toss, Zanetti won and attained the right to kick off.
Players from both teams positioned themselves accordingly; the match was about to start.
Tang En had sat down on the managers’ seat but leaned out again to look back at the spectators’ stand.
He wanted to see if Shania had come.
Even though the girl had already told him she needed to work today, and he had also said it was okay not to come if she was busy, he still hoped, deep in his heart, that she would turn down work to come and watch the game instead… Perhaps it was a little selfish, but it was natural.
The ticket he had given to Shania was not a luxury box ticket. This was not Nottingham, and he was not the manager of Inter Milan. Long before the season started, even a few seasons before, Giuseppe Meazza’s VIP luxury box tickets had already been swept clean. Shania could only watch from the spectators’ stand like any other normal football fan, if she wanted to come.
Tang En only casually glanced over the stands; it was much too difficult searching for someone among the 80 thousand-strong crowd.
Not managing to find her did not mean she was not here. Tang En comforted himself that way, and then refocused his gaze on the football field.
The match had begun.
※※※
Inter Milan, second only to Juventus F.C. in their fame among Italians, had numerous fans. The Champions League quarter-final match filled Giuseppe Meazza Stadium almost to its maximum capacity; “almost” only because they had to leave a segment of empty seats as a buffer for safety considerations.
For this match, the Italians greatly emphasized the safety standards; after all, the two nations most renowned for their football hooligans in Europe were the UK and Italy. Having England’s football team come to Italy for a match would have large numbers of English fans inevitably following. When they drank too much, anything could happen.
On Italy’s side, the good news for them was that Nottingham Forest was a small team; there were only two thousand fans that came to Italy.
Italian fans on the spectators’ stands were loudly singing Inter Milan’s team songs to cheer them on. They completely ignored the presence of the two thousand fans from England.
Right from the start of the match, Inter Milan made use of their home ground advantage to launch a continuous streak of ferocious attacks on Nottingham Forest.
When Roberto Mancini first took over Inter Milan, the style of football he initiated was attacking football. His appearance made numerous Inter Milan fans jump for joy. However, with the season’s progression up until now, the position of that accomplished and cultured manager had become unstable; the results of the team were lacking. Mancini also knew that in an elimination competition such as the Champions League, defense was a better guarantee than offense.
But in this match, he still chose to let his team go on the offense, pressing forward; an oppressive style of offense… This was their home field. If he held back from attacking here, he would not have the opportunity to in the next round.
Mancini planned to make use of their offense and momentum, being on the home ground, to score more goals and attain three points. Later, when they got to the away field, he would implement the Italians’ tradition of Defensive Counterattacking, and eliminate Nottingham Forest. In other words, he planned to use his own attacks to curb Nottingham Forest’s.
What a pity. Tang En’s calculations were the same as Mancini’s; he intended to use defensive counterattacking in the away field to score away goals and minimize goal losses, thereafter capitalizing on scoring goals to crush their opponents in the home field when all factors—place, time, and people—were advantageous for them.
So, as a result of that, Nottingham Forest appeared to be in a rather sad state. They were being suppressed by their opponents, and it looked as if their goal was in imminent danger of being broken through by Inter Milan.
But in truth, Tang En knew that Forest’s goal gates were safe up to this point.
He could tell because George Wood continued performing steadily as per the norm.
At times, Tang En felt somewhat tired of that scene. He hoped that Wood would, in a series of matches, perform irregularly and have his condition fall to rock bottom… That would make Tang En feel that the child before his eyes was a normal person. Now, if not for the physical examination conclusively telling Tang En that George Wood was indeed human, he would have truly suspected that Wood was a humanoid robot who had traveled through time and space from the future. If a normal Chinese football fan like him could transmigrate to the UK to become a professional football manager, why couldn’t a 22nd century “humanoid weapon” transmigrate to be a professional footballer? Maybe his true aim was to assassinate a devilish foe who would come to threaten world peace in the future. And maybe, in the process of transmigrating, his enemies suddenly launched an attack on the time machine and caused it to malfunction, losing what information he had had and leaving him without knowledge of the mission that brought him to the 21st century. Perhaps not even aware of his true identity, he could only make a living through working as a mover to take care of the kind-hearted mother who took him in. This was until he met Tang En, who had also transmigrated… Wait, Tony, hold up. This is a YA football novel built on the basis of reality!
Unhappy jeers sounded from Inter Milan’s fans on the spectators’ stands. The match had been going for three minutes, and they had finally found a jeering target in place of Albertini; it was someone whom they could not help but dislike at a glance: George Wood.
Earlier, when Stanković had tried cutting inward from the wings with the ball, he was knocked down unceremoniously from the side by George Wood. Even though the referee had blown quickly on the whistle, signaling a foul, it still failed to stop the deafening jeers sounding from Giuseppe Meazza’s stands.
In the eyes of the fans, Wood’s actions of raising his head and turning to leave after his foul were truly arrogant and annoying. After committing a foul, most players would, in an act of friendliness or to escape being given a card as punishment by the referee, help up their opponents who had fallen. Patting their heads, they would say a word or two of apology, or something resembling it. But Wood never did that. It was not just against Inter Milan, so the fans from England were already inured against that oddity; when playing within the domestic leagues in England, Wood was as unlikeable as he was here.
Wood only pursued victory. Just like Tang En, it was easy for him to become engrossed and view his opponents in matches as enemies engaged in a life-and-death battle. Since they were his enemies, it was unnecessary to show any shred of pity or goodwill. That would just make him feel as if he lacked the will to fight, as if he had betrayed his teammates who were pursuing victory alongside him.
Oh, yes. George Wood’s world of football was that simple; other than his teammates, everyone else was his enemies. So, in these few years of his professional career, he had only once exchanged jerseys with his opponents. That was also only because he had scored a goal at the very last minute and was in a good mood after helping his team to equalize the score. To add to that, the other party was the one who had initiated the jersey exchange. The instance in question was the one where Roy Keane had exchanged jerseys with George Wood. Other than that time, Wood had no other history of exchanging jerseys.
An exchange of jerseys? If I were the victor, why would I care about the thoughts of the loser? And if I were to lose, why the hell would I still want to do such a thing with a smug winner, making myself lose face?
So, George Wood’s fans were Nottingham Forest fans. Beyond that, the supporters of any other team, without exceptions, hated him to the bone.
Now, Inter Milan’s fans were also rapidly beginning to dislike him.
What a boy he was to leave such a deep impression.
※※※
Paying the price of committing a single foul, Wood ended Inter Milan’s three minutes of crazed attacks from the opening of the match. After Adriano headed the ball high, Inter Milan’s offense began slowly receding.
Nottingham Forest started to go a little on the offense, although the troops they invested into it were few.
Mancini could tell. Tony Twain was intending to go on the defense in the away field, taking a minimal loss as a win. In that case, the best result for them would likely be a draw. This made him even more resolute about attacking in their home field.
However, the Italian general had only gotten the first part right. Indeed, Tang En intended to defend in the away field, but his aim was not to “take a minimal loss as a win.”