Martins’ shot did not lead to a goal. The Meazza fans in the stands might still be shaking their heads, but Mancini already saw hope because Nottingham Forest’s impenetrable defenses finally had a loophole.
Furthermore, the attack sent a positive signal to the Inter Milan players: if they closely marked Albertini, both Nottingham Forest’s offense and defense would fall into chaos.
In that way, their work was made simple. As long as they prevented Albertini from controlling the football, it was equivalent to preventing Nottingham Forest from controlling the ball.
George Wood was of no help to the Forest team’s offense. When Inter Milan stepped up on their offense, he was able to defend the middle and even help with the defense of both flanks. But what the Forest team needed now was not to hold, but to turn the defense into offense. He was powerless.
Albertini was closely marked by Cambiasso. Many of the Argentine’s actions bordered on becoming fouls, which made him very uncomfortable. But he could do nothing about it, because the referee did not blow the whistle, so it was not a foul. He was the team captain. He could not get angry over this or else the team’s core would be in an upheaval.
Who could he depend on now? If no one could relieve his pressure, he could only rely on his own strength to compete with the opponents’ midfield defense. However, as the game progressed, he was afraid of being worn down by the younger and stronger Cambiasso before long.
Should he pass to Ashley Young or Franck Ribéry?
They were both on the flanks and those positions limited their play. Passing the ball on the flanks required coordination because they could easily be blocked by the opponents if they played too narrowly.
Only George Wood’s position was the best in the middle. He could pass to the front, back and sides.
But did he have a choice?
Albertini passed the football to Wood. Compared to him, there was no defensive pressure on Wood. Inter Milan’s players clearly knew that Wood’s contribution to offense was almost zero, so no one was specially arranged to mark him.
When he saw that the football was passed to Wood’s feet, Mancini whistled off the field to signal for his players to press up with speed and rob Wood, forcing him to make a mistake.
This time, it was Juan who came up to rob him. Wood was somewhat helpless against the aggressive Inter Milan player.
“Get past him!” Albertini shouted.
Wood recalled the scene when he had bypassed Materazzi in front of the opposing penalty area, and he intended to repeat it.
But this time, it was different.
Wood’s dribbling in the Forest team might have to be counted down. The last time he was able to successfully bypass Materazzi was because the other had lacked preparation. It was not so much that he had bypassed Materazzi, but rather that Materazzi himself had hit a wall, and then was pushed down to the ground by the rebound force. But real bypass techniques? Wood practiced those in training, but it was a different thing to show what was practiced during training in a game.
Wood wanted to send out the football, but he did not expect Juan to be so quick. The football he kicked was stopped by Juan, who simply flitted past him without even stopping for a beat!
“George Wood’s ball has been robbed!”
Cheers broke out in the Meazza stadium. They finally saw the number one villain in their minds for this game being made a fool of!
“Dammit!” Twain stood up from his seat in shock when he saw George Wood lose the ball.
What was Wood’s position? He was the defensive midfielder, and behind him was the center back! Losing the ball in this position meant that Juan could go up against a flimsy central defensive line. His breakthrough, long shot, or passing could all pose a great threat to Edwin van der Sar’s goal!
When his ball was intercepted this time, George Wood did not turn around immediately. Instead, he froze for a moment, and then suddenly turned to rush towards Juan.
Juan dribbled the ball as Wood gave chase at the back. In a flash, both of them were in the penalty area. Due to that, Piqué dared not make a rash move in the front. He also had to pay attention to Adriano and Martins on both sides for fear that Juan would suddenly send the ball out.
After entering the penalty area, Juan deliberately slowed down. He seemed to be observing the situation.
George Wood charged up. He leaned against Juan from behind, trying to intercept the ball.
How experienced was Juan? When he saw Wood leaned over, he immediately shifted his body to put the football in front of him.
Adriano raised his hands up high on the side of the penalty area, “Pass it to me!”
At that moment, he forgot his feud with Juan. But he did not know if Juan hadn’t seen him, or he did see him and deliberately chose not to pass. In short, after he protected the football, he did not hurry to send out the ball. He was waiting for Wood’s follow-up action.
Wood did not intercept the ball for the first time. Instead, he was forced to the back of Juan. This time, he pushed his body forward and extended his leg to intercept the ball again with his arm raised up.
Just as he was about to intercept the football, Juan suddenly fell forward to the ground.
The referee’s whistle sounded!
“Penalty kick!”
The Meazza Stadium was a sea of joy.
“This is a penalty kick! No doubt about it!”
Wood was stunned. He had poured all his attention into taking the ball. How could he have fouled?
Juan stood up from the ground and opened his arms to welcome his teammates’ support. He had successfully induced Wood to make the action he most wanted to see. Wood might not think he had fouled, but he had actually pushed Juan down from behind.
Twain sat down on the sidelines, covering his face in agony.
Wood wanted to turn around and look for the referee and reason with him, but he was held back by Albertini.
“If you still want a yellow card…”
Hearing the captain, he stopped in his tracks.
“I’m sorry.”
Albertini shook his head. “Why are you apologizing? Just learn from this. Next time I’ll still pass the ball to you, just don’t look so unprepared.”
“But, I-”
“Remember, George. When you take the ball, even if you don’t know what to do, don’t show it. You have to look like you have a plan. You have to act calm and confident to make people feel that you already have a lot of ways to deal with the ball and keep your opponent’s guessing! If you think ‘I don’t know what to do,’ then you really don’t know what to do. But if you keep your cool and observe your opponents, you’ll naturally know what to do.” Albertini took advantage of the opportunity to give Wood a lesson. “It’s actually not that complicated. If you have a better route to pass the football, you pass it. If not, pass it to your nearest teammates. That’s it.”
Wood bit his lip and listened quietly.
“Don’t take this penalty kick to heart. We don’t even know if the ball will get in yet. Even if it does, it will just be an equalizer. It’s not the end of the world.”
Albertini patted Wood on the back and walked out of the penalty area. The opponents were ready for the penalty.
Wood gave Juan a glare and turned to walk out.
Adriano walked in with the football.