Godfather Of Champions

Lagerbäck thought that Twain subbed George Wood on to defend, but he soon realized that he was wrong.

After intercepting the ball from Ibrahimović, George Wood did not just clear the ball. Instead, he started to run forward with the ball. Ibrahimović tried to tackle for the ball from behind and gave Wood a push, however, he did not manage to push Wood to the ground, helping Wood to get away from him instead.

Wood running with the ball disrupted Sweden’s defensive plans. They did not expect that Wood was not here to defend, but to attack.

Wood eventually passed the ball to Chris Cohen when facing the defense of two Swedish players and Cohen scored from that.

For the rest of the match, Sweden realized that they could not go all out for a goal. That was because the England midfield became even more penetrative after George Wood’s introduction and it caused so much trouble for the Swedes.

Just like it was during the match against Germany, one could not tell from Wood’s performance that he was a “casualty” who had not fully recovered from his foot injury yet.

Tireless running, unyielding defense and stable mentality. He organized the midfield so well that the England fans felt doubly safe. This was the change that George Wood’s introduction brought to the people.

At that moment, nobody thought about something as trivial as, “We’ve not beaten Sweden for 48 years already”.

England had shown them with their performance that concerns like these were unnecessary.

England appeared to have the overall advantage. Even though Sweden changed to a long ball tactic and launched many high balls in an attempt to disrupt England’s defensive line, John Terry and Steven Taylor marshalled their defense well. And the 1.96 meters frame of Joe Hart increased his area of command so much that many of the high balls were collected by him. Goitom, who was also 1.96 meters tall, did not have many chances in front of goal.

Time passed very quickly and no matter how Lagerbäck adjusted his tactics, Sweden had no answer to England’s compact defense. As the match went on, instead of the England players, the Swedish players were the one who became more and more anxious. After all, they were trailing by two goals now.

So what if “we have not lost to England for 48 years!” Things like this were unable to allay their fears. There was not much time left in the match and they were still trailing by two goals. Coupled with England’s solid defense, even if God came to earth and played as the 12th man for Sweden now, they would probably still lose.

The Sweden team became more and more irritable as the match went on and their attacking qualities dropped. Lagerbäck could not stop himself as he shouted angrily on the sidelines for his players to remain calm. However, the more he shouted, the more his players panicked, and it became a vicious cycle.

This England team was not affected by destiny at all, which surprised Lagerbäck. Their mental strength was way beyond Lagerbäck’s imagination too. In the past, England’s mental strength was probably one of the worst in Europe…

That annoying guy changed all this.

Lagerbäck looked at the other side. The England manager was now seated on the manager’s seat with his legs crossed.

Just look at how at ease he looks, that’s so unbearable.

“The match has entered injury time. There will be three minutes of injury time! Looks like Sweden is done and dusted!” John Motson said excitedly, “We’re only three minutes away from breaking this damn destiny!”

Facing Sweden’s final frantic attack, England had the whole team defending within the penalty area for the final three minutes. The Sweden goalkeeper, Isaksson, even came forward for the corner that they had during the second minute of injury time. But to what effect? Even if they scored a goal then, they would still be trailing by a goal, it would not change the result.

The England fans were already singing and cheering in the stands. They could finally be rid of the nightmare in their minds for the past 48 years.

The corner from Sweden did not pose any threat to the England goal. The Swedish player who had already lost hope kicked the ball straight out of play for a goal kick. Joe Hart took his time placing the ball and the final whistle went off the moment he kicked the ball!

“The match is over! The match is over! We’ve beaten Sweden! We’ve beaten Sweden for the first time in 48 years!” Motson shouted in excitement. To him, ending this dreaded destiny was more exciting than reaching the quarterfinals. “Tony Twain’s team has defeated destiny! This damn destiny has finally ended!”

The Swedish commentator appeared rather disheartened, “Our psychological advantage over England that lasted 48 years has ended just like this…”

The three long whistles had just ended when the England bench rushed into the field to celebrate their victory.

Tony Twain did not do that. He did not forget to shake the hands of the opposing manager this time.

Lagerbäck appeared to be a little depressed. He shook his head slightly while completing the procedure of shaking hands. He then went straight towards the tunnel without staying long. On the other hand, Twain was surrounded by reporters. As the victor, it goes without saying that he would receive more attention.

“I have nothing much to say. I’m very happy that we have reached the quarterfinals. I’ve said it before, our target is to be champions and we’re currently heading towards the correct path. 48 years without beating Sweden?” Twain laughed, “That’s because I haven’t been managing England for the past 48 years.”

※※※

As Twain was being interviewed by the media, the team doctor, Derek Wright rushed onto the pitch to look for George Wood and asked, “How does your right big toe feel?”

Wood applied some pressure to the tip of his foot and told Wright, “No problem at all.”

Mister Wright gave a sigh of relief, “That’s good.” Based on his observation on the sidelines, Wood had a much easier time during these 30 minutes than the 15 minutes against Germany. It appeared as though his foot injury had almost fully recovered.

In that case, he should be able to meet Twain’s request to start the next game.

Wright felt that he was finally going to be freed once he thought about it…

※※※

England defeated Sweden and ended their destiny of not beating Sweden for 48 years. They also reached the quarterfinals and the English fans were exceptionally excited over these events. They partied the whole night after the match and drank to their fill. All the beer in the Seville bars were “emptied out” by them and there were naturally conflicts wherever people drank too much. The Seville police had their work cut out for them that night.

Twain did not bother himself about all these. He met up with Wright in the hotel and confirmed that Wood’s recovery from his injury was going well. He should be fit to start the next game. This made him very happy.

Even though Twain led the team to taking the lead against Germany and Sweden without George Wood, he was still indispensable if they were going to become champions. It did not mean that Twain was incapable when he placed so much importance on Wood. Any manager would have a favored player. A manager could not bring his team to victory alone, he also needed players supporting him on the pitch. Jacquet had Zidane when he led France to their first World Cup. Just look at how hard France had to fight for their victory when Zidane was suspended for two games. Then look at the France team who dominated Brazil in the final. That was the difference that Zidane made to the team. Zidane became the hero of France, but nobody ever said that Jacquet was incapable.

A meritorious manager would pair up with a meritorious player and become legends together. If Twain was to write his own legend during this European Championship, then he would require George Wood’s help.

England’s quarterfinal opponent was decided the next night——France. They defeated Netherlands 2:0 in the round of 16.

Ever since the “Group of Death”, England had been meeting strong teams every game. The only weaker team that they played against was Wales, and they lost. It was strange but England had performed very well against strong teams. Twain did not have much concerns even though they were facing France next.

The English media was a little concerned though. It was good that Twain had repeatedly mentioned in public that his target was to be champions. However, just look at the opponents that England had faced so far: Portugal, the “Brazil of Europe”, Wales, who was the only team to defeat England, their sworn enemy Germany, Sweden, whom they had never beaten in the past 48 years, and now France, the technical team of Europe… What other strong teams did they have to meet next?

If England were to defeat France and reach the semifinals, they would most likely meet the host country, Spain. And what about their opponents? The team that had the best route to the finals was Italy. They did not really face any strong teams at all. Wales were in high spirits after reaching the last 16 but they eventually lost to Italy. Greece and Croatia were teams that basically could not pose much threat to Italy. If the Italians deal with them with caution, they should not have much problems reaching the finals.

Of course, the English were hoping that Greece or Croatia would perform an upset and eliminate Italy. If that were to happen, the biggest threat to England winning the competition would be gone. Too bad chances of that happening was too low. The Italians had always been steady, and they were a team that would never lose to a weak team, but they might lose to a strong team…

※※※

There was a five-days break between the round of 16 and the quarterfinals. Twain gave the team a day off the next day after the match against Sweden. It looked like he was not worried about France as he actually allowed the players to go shopping on the streets.

In truth, he had already flown to Barcelona with his assistant, Des Walker, to watch the match between France and Netherlands at the Nou Camp.

The French ace striker, Benzema, was the best performer in this match. He scored all the goals for France in this game, a brace, and Netherlands could not deal with him at all.

The midfield core of France, Gourcuff also did well in this match. He assisted Benzema for one of his goals and started the move for the second goal.

And there was also the new generation of goalkeeper for France, Lloris. Netherlands had their chances in this match, but they were all saved by Lloris.

France was filled with talented players, they were strong and definitely not a team to be underestimated. This batch of French players were basically the leading players of Europe in their respective age group a few years back. Benzema, N’gog, Nasri, Gourcuff, Ben Arfa, Clichy, Lars Diarra, Sagna…

Twain frowned as he watched their impressive performance against Netherlands.

“This is a very strong French team. No wonder they were one of the hot favorites even before the competition started,” Walker remarked as he organized the recording devices in his hands.

“We’re also one of the favorites,” Twain said without batting an eyelid.

Walker looked at him happily.

“Let’s go Des,” Twain ignored him as he stood up and walked away with his hands in his pockets. The two of them were lost in the crowd as they left the stadium and returned to Seville overnight.

※※※

When Walker woke up in the morning and knocked on Twain’s door to invite him to breakfast, he found out that Twain was seated in front of the television with his eyes glued to the screen. He went closer and realized that it was a recording of yesterday’s match that he recorded.

“You’ve been watching this the whole night?” He asked, shocked.

“How is that possible?” Twain turned to look at him, “I just woke up not too long ago.” He turned back to watch the match on the screen.

“France’s style is quite pleasing to the eyes…” Des Walker muttered next to him, “They have many different attacking methods and various ways to attack. They also have technically good players. If we talk about talents, they have way more than us… This is not an easy team to deal with.”

Twain shrugged his shoulders, “They’re just a bunch of protected players.”

Walker laughed as he heard Twain say that, “You’re found a way to deal with them?”

Twain shook his head, “Not yet.”

He stood up and said, “Let’s go for breakfast. I’m hungry.”

Walker made a face at him behind his back and followed him out.

※※※

“Our team is filled with talented players! It won’t be a problem defeating England!”

The French media was filled with such opinions. The French were full of confidence after defeated a strong Netherlands team.

Even Benzema said that he believed France would definitely defeat England and it would not be a problem for them.

As the leading goal scorer for the competition for now, many people agreed with what he said.

For a moment, there was a wave of optimism in France and everyone felt that France had already reached the finals and were going to revive an old rivalry with Italy as they avenge the 2006 World Cup final. They did not even think about England or their semifinal opponents anymore.

However, there was still some people who would act as wet blanket at this kind of times.

Benzema’s previous teammate at Real Madrid, the retired ex-Nottingham Forest star, Ribery appeared in front of the media and expressed his concern regarding their optimism.

“…I don’t think it is wise to think about the final now. If France underestimate England, we will definitely be on the losing end. I have no doubts about it and the reason is simple. Their manager is Tony Twain. He just led the team to a victory over their rival Germany and ended their 48 years winning drought against Sweden. This proved that England had always been a very scary opponent… I’ve played for Nottingham Forest for many years and I understand what kind of manager Tony Twain was. Whoever looks down on him or underestimates him will end up very badly…”

However, his opinion was drowned out by the optimism of the public very quickly. Who cares about what a retired football star had to say?