Godfather Of Champions

The duration of halftime went by torturously slow for Inter Milan’s players; for them, it was a period of having to withstand the manager’s rebukes and the enormous pressure brought about by their fans’ expectations. But who had asked for them to be a powerhouse? In contrast, Nottingham Forest’s players felt the time pass quickly. With traces of relaxed and joyful smiles yet to fade from their face, the second half had already started.

Tang En leaned back on his seat and crossed his legs. So long as his team continued defending like this, Inter Milan would certainly press forward heavily in an attempt to equalize the score as soon as possible. Only in that way would they have enough time left to try to overturn the scores. When that happened, numerous gaps would appear in Inter Milan’s backfield. Then, Albertini could make another long pass and Anelka would get another flash of inspiration, ending the match!

Everything was under control. Tang En believed that strongly in his heart.

“The second half of the match has just begun, and there’s no difference at all from the first half. Inter Milan is launching a tidal wave of attacks on Forest’s penalty area while Nottingham Forest has gotten more resolute, determined to defend after having taken the lead. Although it does not look good appearance-wise, this is the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Victory is the number one priority!”

The commentator got it exactly right. Whether it was Forest, who looked like they were being beaten to a sorry state, or Inter Milan, who was going full-out with offensive-styled football in their anxiety to equalize the score, both teams knew in their hearts that defending or attacking were only the means. In such a competition, their aim was certainly not to please their audience or neutral fans. Their aim was victory.

After five minutes, Inter Milan’s attacks began to recede. Forest gained an opportunity.

At that point, Albertini was the first to feel the difference; when he held possession of the ball, the defensive pressure he faced significantly increased.

Cambiasso tightly latched onto Albertini like he had been drugged, using both his hands and feet to make Albertini extremely uncomfortable. His opponent’s style had changed so suddenly, Albertini knew Mancini must have made some adjustments during halftime. Just as Mancini understood him, he also understood Mancini.

Fortifying their defense against him was indeed a good method to curb Forest’s offense; he was the brains of the team, the command tower.

Under the overwhelming pressure from Cambiasso, Albertini felt he had no choice but to pass the ball to Ribéry in the wings. Ribéry then faced overbearingly aggressive defense from Zanetti and ending up passing the ball back to Leighton Baines, having no confidence to break through. This time, Figo leapt forward to defend.

Even though Inter Milan was still suppressing Nottingham Forest, the situation was, in fact, already greatly different from that of the first half.

Seeing Baines forced into a corner and being unable to kick the ball out after a long while, Albertini ran over to receive the ball. In the end, Cambiasso followed along with him.

Albertini looked again at George Wood, who was being utterly unhelpful, standing at the side. He really wished Wood could become a well-rounded talent comprising abilities in both offense and defense. In a situation like now when he was being tightly marked, there would at least be one other person who could step up to organize the attacks. If they wanted to change the set situation of having one player attack and one player defend, they would need to change out a defensive midfielder and send in Arteta. But, who should they change out? Changing out any of them would not be good. If they took out Albertini, Arteta would still be quickly marked down when he came in; Inter Milan would just have a different target to mark, that was all. What if they changed out George Wood? Then, what would they do for defense?

Albertini, a hardcore fan of the CM series, unknowingly began to consider that question from a managerial perspective.

Despite knowing Wood’s low contribution to their offense, Albertini still decisively passed the ball to Wood after receiving the pass from Baines. There’s no time to let you practice going on the attack on training grounds, George!

Ever since pulling his thigh muscle and not playing for more than two months, Albertini acutely felt the changes taking place in his body. He was old, truly getting old. No matter how unwilling he was in his heart, his body was perhaps unable to hold on for much longer.

If I retire, who in Nottingham Forest’s midfield would be able to take control of the pace?

AC Milan’s loyal subject had, unconsciously, started thinking for the future of Nottingham Forest.

George Wood received the ball and looked at Albertini as well as his shadow, Cambiasso…

He spun around, looking at his surroundings, but seemed unable to find a suitable spot to pass the ball to. Every one of his teammates had Inter Milan players lurking nearby, waiting opportunistically. They were just waiting for him to pass the ball over so that they could surge forward to press and steal the ball, counterattacking from there.

Inter Milan had already shifted their defense from their half of the field into Nottingham Forest’s half.

The ball stayed under Wood’s foot for half a minute, but he could not find a suitable target to pass to. An Inter Milan player finally rushed over. Stanković wanted to intercept Wood’s ball, and Wood had no choice but to use his body to block the other party. Then, the ball was again passed back to Albertini.

After making that round, the ball still returned to its starting point. Nottingham Forest’s offense continued spinning in circles at the same spot.

This time, under Cambiasso’s man-to-man marking, Albertini finally made a mistake passing. While originally intending to launch the ball over to Ashley Young on the other side, he was intercepted mid-way by Stanković. After the interception, Inter Milan immediately switched to offense from defense.

Stanković looked up. Martins was running diagonally into position, directly entering the penalty area; this was an opportunity!

“Inter Milan intercepts the ball and counterattacks… a direct pass to Martins! A beautiful pass!”

The pass was indeed beautiful. With a kick, Stanković made a direct pass. The football passed through the space between Pepe and Chimbonda, appearing perfectly on the diagonal route Martins was running. The swift Nigerian horse did not need to kill the ball, simply moving forward with it. Accelerating, he passed Piqué who was following behind. His speed was doubtlessly fast enough! Once he was given a sliver of space, he immediately grasped the opportunity!

But!

After Martins used his speed to forcefully pass Piqué, he found the shooting angle to be extremely narrow. Finally, Martin’s decision to make a brutish shot at the goal deposited the ball straight into Edwin van der Sar’s arms.

Inter Milan’s threatening attack in the second half ended in that manner. Mancini was rather dissatisfied with Martins’ selfishness in the final moments, but he at least saw a hope of equalizing the score. Meanwhile, Tony Twain had already uncrossed his legs, sitting up again on the comfortable seats of Giuseppe Meazza Stadium.

He smelt a whiff of a coming thunderstorm.