Arteta"s appearance on the field indeed ended up disrupting Inter Milan"s planned defense. Cambia.s.so"s man-to-man against Albertini completely lost its meaning; when Albertini was being marked, Forest"s players could pa.s.s the ball to Arteta instead. Alternatively, if they sent some of the defending troops to guard against Arteta, the pressure on Albertini would inevitably be reduced… Regardless, the two Forest midfielders demanded all the defensive capabilities of Inter Milan. Any one of them could independently take charge of organizing the attack. It was as if there were two cores. Placing a limit on only one of them was useless. Left with half of the second half, Nottingham Forest with their double core began gunning their engines. Inter Milan"s players gradually started feeling that something was wrong.
After gaining the lead, Inter Milan"s press for the ball became less severe. Following Mancini"s request, they gradually retreated to attract Forest to advance in their attacks, while Inter Milan took available opportunities to counter.
Mancini knew that the Forest Team, who was now behind, faced two choices. One was naturally to go on the offense to equalize the scores, while the other was to ignore Inter Milan"s retreat and continue buckling down on defense in hopes of defending to the final second. For them, it would mean bringing back the results of gaining an away goal and losing a goal back to the home field, strategizing from there.
Regardless of which situation it would turn out to be, both were advantageous to Inter Milan. If Forest advanced forward to attack, the defense in the back would surely have many gaps that could be made use of. Inter Milan could take the opportunity to counterattack and steal a few goals. If they chose not to attack, it was also a good option for Inter Milan to get a victory in their home field.
Tang En chose the first option; that conformed even better to Mancini"s hopes than the second would have. But Mancini had not expected Tang En to be that bold. Not only did he remove a full back whilst facing such enormous defensive pressure, he even put two playmakers in the midfield. Wasn"t he afraid of an overlap in their positions, or a clash in their intentions?
Unexpectedly, the two cores did not conflict with each other at all. Instead, they complemented each other so well as to draw out each other"s capabilities.
Furthermore, even with only three rear defenders, Forest"s defensive line stabilized after letting George Wood focus only on the defense.
"How could it be…" Without managing to even warm the seat under his b.u.m, Mancini stood up again.
Nottingham Forest had very simply split into two parts of offense and defense. The defense cared nothing about the offense, while those going on the attack were almost entirely relieved of defensive duties. Both parties could put all their energy into their primary function. In this way, Inter Milan began feeling the strain.
After Albertini faked a pa.s.s to Arteta, he pulled the wool over Cambia.s.so"s eyes and took the ball for a breakthrough instead. When Cambia.s.so managed to refocus his aim on him, Albertini did a one-two combination with Ribéry via a wall pa.s.s. After entering the 30-meter range of Inter Milan"s field, he executed a beautiful long shot, announcing his awakening in the match.
"What a pity, it grazed the crossbeam and flew out!"
"Dammit… mark him closely…" Outside the field, Mancini was biting his lip tightly.
"Oh, oh! Mikel Arteta! Breaks through into the penalty area and shoots! Júlio César"s extraordinary performance saves Inter Milan! This is unexpected. Manager Twain made only one subst.i.tution, but it"s managed to revive Nottingham Forest."
"Anelka! It slipped right by the goal!"
"Mark Viduka! The header is too strong, but this disappointment is to be expected…"
During that period, the words emerging from the commentator"s mouth were mostly filled with the names of Nottingham Forest"s attacking players. With the rise of Nottingham Forest"s offense, the jeers in the air of Giuseppe Meazza Stadium also increased.
Both managers stood at the sidelines. Mancini bit his lip tightly with a serious expression, while Tang En stuck both hands in his pockets with a calm face. Each was worrying about something.
※※※
Ten minutes pa.s.sed, but Mancini did not see what he was hoping for. Listening to his words, the team did retreat. Forest Team also pressed outward as he had expected. However, Inter Milan"s attacks were unable to find any path in. The match pace was beginning show signs of leaning towards Forest; that wouldn"t do.
"Go out on the offense! You guys have retreated too much!" Mancini finally could not stop himself from shouting from the sidelines.
"This won"t do…" he muttered, and then turned to walk towards the subst.i.tute"s bench. He pointed to an Argentinian forward, Cruz.
"Cruz, go warm-up and come back immediately!"
Cruz obediently ran out. Mancini turned and pointed at another person on the bench.
"Recoba, you too."
Very well, Tony Twain. If you want to go on the offense, I"ll go head-on with you!
Three minutes after, Inter Milan made a subst.i.tution. Mancini subst.i.tuted in two attacking players in one go. Cruz subst.i.tuted for Verón, who had been performing just averagely, while Recoba subst.i.tuted for Stanković. Inter Milan transformed into a formation with greater offensive capabilities, 4:3:3.
The mighty Inter Milan finally forced Forest to show some restraint. The short duration of the crazed tidal wave of attacks stemming from the "double core" receded. The situation on the field became more balanced. Both parties had opportunities that they failed to capitalize on. But it was no longer the scene of any one side suppressing the other.
Looking at the time, there was still 10 minutes before injury stoppage time. Tang En decided to make another subst.i.tution. This time, he put in Eastwood and changed out Mark Viduka. Of course, he was not putting the skinny Eastwood in to be a center-forward and face-off with the ferocious Italian rear defenders. Instead, he pushed Anelka up and situated Eastwood behind him. Neither of them was the traditional sort of center-forward; both had extremely strong capabilities in playing independently. After Tang En"s overall adjustment to the strategy, he did his best to send in another player with the potential of creating miracles on their own. No matter what method he used, he did not want to lose this game!
Especially when Shania was watching on from the spectators" stand. They had not met in a long while; his first meeting gift with her must not be a loss.
In truth, Tang En did not know if Shania had really come to watch the match. Before the match, they did not communicate, and he was also too busy then to care about it. However, he believed. He believed that Shania, who had said "I have to work tomorrow," would certainly come. At that time, her tone had sounded as if she said it only in a moment of pique…
The match was close to its end, but neither side gave up. Inter Milan"s players were unwilling to beat Nottingham Forest by only one goal, while Nottingham Forest"s players were unwilling to lose to Inter Milan on the away field. Everyone"s spirits were high, going all out to the final moment.
Albertini could no longer run much. Many times, he only stood in the front field, panting as he waited for his teammates to pa.s.s the ball to him. Then, he would dribble the ball a few steps for show and pa.s.s it to someone in front the moment he had an opportunity. If he saw no openings, he would pa.s.s it back again.
The close-marking from Cambia.s.so earlier had forced him to use up large amounts of his stamina. Now, he truly had the heart and will, but not a body that could comply.
The trust from his teammates caused the ball to once again be pa.s.sed to him. Cambia.s.so also came up to guard against him at the first instance.
While Albertini was focused on dealing with Cambia.s.so, he did not expect him to be just a decoy. Inter Milan"s captain, Javier Zanetti, suddenly abandoned his position and dashed out from his diagonal, stealing Albertini"s ball from the other side.