Bypa.s.sed by Zidane, George Wood did not get back up and continue to fight as usual. Instead, he sat on the ground in a daze for a moment before getting back on his feet. At that point, Real Madrid"s first attack was over.
Zidane ran from his side and went back to his position. George Wood stood nearer to the middle. His eyes were always on Zidane. It was a fierce gaze.
He felt humiliated, which was unacceptable.
That turn brought him back to a year ago at El Madrigal. That terrible night when he was utterly played by an Argentinian attacking midfielder.
That indifferent Argentine always glanced at him with a colder look, as if to remind him: who do you think you are?
He could not stand such contempt.
When Zidane ran past him, it was as if he did not exist.
In fact, that was normal. Who would care about a common opponent? But it gave George Wood a bad a.s.sociation.
He wanted to beat the Frenchman. No matter how formidable Ribéry had described him as, he was going to crush him and leave a deep impression in the man"s heart. Just like the impression that Riquelme had left on him.
Nottingham Forest"s offense could not enter Real Madrid"s thirty-meter zone. As they had very few players for offense, their pa.s.ses were cut off by Gravesen after the third pa.s.s.
This time, the football was not given to Zidane, but to Guti.
Like Zidane, Guti was a holding midfielder for Real Madrid. He was highly talented and had great pa.s.sing ability. However, he could not be a major player. It was only in this game that Luxemburgo needed the team to launch a large-scale offense, so he replaced the Uruguayan midfielder, Pablo Garcia.
When Guti made his debut, he played as a center forward, a forward player with the same prospects as Raul. However, as the years pa.s.sed, he played a lot of positions. He even occasionally played as a center back. Now he was fixed in the midfield. His scalpel-like pa.s.sing precision was his trademark.
But the biggest difference between him and Zidane was that Zidane was like a waterfall whereas Guti was just a fountain. He was like Duan Yu"s Six Meridian Divine Swords, only effective intermittently.
His role in this game was not to organize the offense, but to a.s.sist Zidane and help him share the pressure. When the seasoned Real Madrid saw George Wood mark Zidane one-on-one, they changed the player to organize the attacks.
Guti was Albertini"s opponent.
The people at the Bernabéu stadium were not unfamiliar with the Italian. During the short period he played for Atlético Madrid, Albertini had used a beautiful long shot to deal the fatal blow to Real Madrid in the final moments of the game. It was the Madrid Derby. After the match, Raul took the initiative to exchange jerseys with Albertini.
This time was a repeat of a similar scene. Albertini appeared to be very active. He beautifully defended against and intercepted Guti"s dribble. He then immediately organized the offense on the spot and sent the football to the front field with a beautiful long pa.s.s!
"Albertini"s long pa.s.s! And Anelka!"
Anelka, who had just rushed up to attack, had not had time to fall back to defend when he saw the football flying towards him. Anelka, who could never lift his spirits for the defense, suddenly perked up.
His chance was here!
He was mocked by others when he had played for Real Madrid. He had only scored two goals in one season. Although he had helped this La Liga giant to take down the Champions League t.i.tle that season, people ignored his contribution to the team when they tallied up the season. They could only see his faults and did not credit him for the Champions League champions.h.i.+p. The entirety of Bernabéu was his enemy. Until now, when he received the football, he could still clearly hear the hiss from all sides of the stadium, which was evidently a welcome gift for him.
He hoped to score a beautiful goal here and complete his revenge on Bernabéu.
"He stops the ball beautifully!"
Anelka stopped the football evenly. Salgado rushed up to defend. But Anelka did not hurry to charge forward. He first controlled the ball under his foot. When Salgado came up, he deftly pulled back the ball and staggered his ex-teammate with the feint.
Then, he abruptly started and cut in diagonally!
The plucky Salgado would never let Anelka go so easily. He turned around and gave chase.
Anelka stuck his opponent firmly behind his back and guarded the ball while he hurtled towards the penalty area.
Helguera rushed over to defend against Anelka.
It was another ex-teammate.
The French striker clenched his teeth and quickly contracted his leg muscles to stop fast. He suddenly leaned back. Chasing at his back, Salgado could not circ.u.mvent him in time. He forced himself to an emergency stop, but it was difficult to accelerate again. Anelka interrupted Salgado"s rhythm with the emergency halt and disrupted Helguera"s rhythm at the same time.
As a former teammate, Anelka was very familiar with Helguera"s defensive shortcomings. Regardless of the situation, he was used to facing his defensive targets with his back and bottom. Due to that, he used to regularly bypa.s.s Helguera with ease during training.
This was no exception.
Anelka"s sudden halt made Helguera think that the Frenchman was ready to shoot, so he hurriedly braked and then turned to block this shot.
The French striker had waited for the moment when Helguera turned. He nimbly pulled the football to the side, which removed the ball from Helguera"s view.
The loud hisses from the stands were heart-stopping, but Anelka could not hear anything. He only had eyes for the goal in front of him. He just wanted revenge.
Ramos dashed to save it but it was too late. Having skirted Helguera, Anelka quickly shot towards the goal!
But this time, "Saint Iker" did not save Real Madrid.
The football brushed past his fingertips and flew into the goal behind him!
"GOOOAL!"
"Nicolas Anelka!"
Twain raised his arms and stood up from his seat.
The Frenchman, who had scored the goal, placed his index finger in front of his lips and did a circle in front of the goal facing the stands.
I"ve never been happier!