Godfather Of Champions

When George Wood appeared on the pitch, the England fans in the stands let out a huge cheer. They chanted Wood’s nickname “Saint George” over and over again, completely quashed the French fans’ bluster.

They could not help but get excited. It had been more than two months. Even though George Wood came on as a substitute in the games against Germany and Sweden, it was his first time in the starting lineup. What did it mean for George Wood to be in the starting lineup? Saint George’s right big toe had completely healed! They did not have to worry about anything in the next game.

But to those opponents who were observing the two teams in the stands and collecting first-hand intelligence, they were not focused on Wood’s comeback, but on Twain’s actions. Wood’s comeback was to be expected. Twain had brought the disciple which he was most proud of to Spain and it was not to keep him on the bench, so it was not surprising. But Twain’s unusually low-key style before the game kept his opponents on guard.

The opponents watching the game between two teams in the stands included Spain and the Czech Republic, which were the two teams likely to encounter in the semifinals, as well as Italy, which were likely to meet them in the final.

They were all coaches in their respective teams, and they arrived at San Mamés Stadium on a mission to spy on the competition. Few of them would have believed that Twain was really afraid of the French team even though the French team’s performance in the first few games were really eye-catching. But no matter which angle they analyzed from; Twain was not the kind of manager who would fear the opponent. On the contrary, when the opponent was stronger, the more combative he would be. Look at how he had led an unknown Nottingham Forest team to create a dynasty… It was almost a classic battle collection of David versus Goliath.

They were so concerned with Twain’s various abnormal behavior before the game that they treated the matter of George Wood in the starting lineup as inconsequential. It was as natural as where water flowed, a canal was formed…

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Puel was no longer thinking about what Twain said and did before the game. Now his mind was completely focused on the game – the madness of the English people was something he could never predict…

At the start of the game, it was the French team that kicked off. It was reasonable to say that the French team should have taken advantage of the opportunity to keep the football under their feet, and then launch wave after wave of successive attacks to threaten England’s goal. By right, they should score a goal first and drag the game into the familiar orbit of the French team.

However, their attack was not close to England’s goal and was blocked by George Wood and Gerrard working together to intercept it. Next, the French team had wanted to take back the ball in the midfield – Lassana Diarra and Flamini were in the central midfielder positions, which was closer to the other team’s penalty area. The adjustment from these positions showed the French team’s intention. They intended to use the offense in this game to completely suppress the England team. The ideal result would be the England team could not even go beyond the midfield.

This was in fact the reason why the French team had been very successful so far. Puel was not an idiot who only knew to attack. After the two powerful interception midfield positions were moved up, the French team’s attack was more oppressive, and made it convenient for them to counter press. Their tactic would really be effective and decisive when they encountered those teams which were not good or ill-prepared.

It was a pity they met with a combative and well-prepared England team today.

After seeing Gerrard take the ball, Flamini quickly responded and rushed up. While waiting to enter the stadium before the game, Diarra found his partner and told him that his target was George Wood, so he asked Flamini to stay out of the way.

Gerrard saw Flamini pounce toward him and simply passed the football to Wood, not far from his side.

Almost as soon as he passed the ball, Diarra made his move as well. Like a black panther, he pounced toward Wood who was ready to receive the ball. He was going to intercept the ball at the same time Wood was going to receive it. It was a good opportunity for him to take advantage of when Wood had not steadied his footing yet.

“Diarra goes up to defend against Wood … Beautiful!”

Motson cried excitedly.

At the same time when Diarra pounced over, Wood used his heel to directly knock Gerrard’s pass directly to Terry at the back. It was fine that Diarra pounced on the empty space. The important thing was that after he and Flamini had rushed up, the French team’s central backfield came apart, so there was a wide gap in the middle! It was because the French team’s two attacking midfielders’ positions were farther up front…

It was apparently what Twain specifically pulled Wood aside to specially advise him before the game: he must be good at exploiting the gaps in the opponent’s formation.

Terry also did not delay and immediately sent out a long ball directly to the feet of Moke, who had already rushed to the front!

“England’s quick attack!”

When Stewart Downing stopped the ball, there were only three French defenders in front of him, while England’s two strikers and another winger, Agbonlahor, had already rushed to the front of the penalty area. Gerrard rushed up again after passing the ball to Wood. It was Wood who continued to hold tight in the backfield after passing the ball back to Terry.

Twain’s starting lineup was different from the first two games. Chris Cohen and Moke, the two Nottingham Forest players did not continue to be in the starting lineup. Instead, they gave up their places to Downing and Agbonlahor. The latter two players shared a same feature – fast speed.

Twain expected the French team to press heavily and strive to score a goal first. At this time, the most important thing for the England team’s offense was not the possession of the ball but speed. Cohen was balance in offense and defense and had good endurance, Moke was excellent in ball control and his technique was skilled. But they were not players who had speed. Downing and Agbonlahor had excellent speed and quite good during counterattacks.

Furthermore, the squad was a big surprise to the French team. Puel certainly did not expect Twain to give up the only real right midfielder when the England team’s right midfielder was in danger and opted for Agbonlahor, who first played as a striker.

Downing did not stop and stay when he got the ball. Instead, he passed the ball across. Rooney, who came back, picked up the ball and sent the ball over to Agbonlahor’s side. The French team’s left back, Clichy, who had rushed up to participate in the attack just now, were still running back to defend at this time.

Agbonlahor also did not hold back. After receiving the ball, he directly cut inward to plug into the penalty area!

The French team’s center back had wanted to defend against Mitchell and Rooney, but he did not expect the England team to move the football to the other side so quickly. He also did not think that Agbonlahor would be so determined to plug into the penalty area that he did not hesitate at all…

After Agbonlahor broke through the penalty area, he then swung his leg to make to look like he was going to shoot which tricked Sakho to tear in to block it, only for him to pass the ball across to Mitchell in the penalty area…

“Aaron Mitchell is now unmarked… and he shoots…”

The football flew straight toward the goal, and the goalkeeper, Lloris flew to save. But unfortunately, the distance was too close, and Mitchell used all his might to shoot. No matter how strong the goalkeeper was, he could also do nothing at this time…

“GOOOAL! GOOOOOAL! GOOOOOOAL!!!” John Motson, BBC 5 station’s trump card commentator jumped from his seat.

He might have been the first to react, because when the shot that Mitchell had sent out hit the net, neither the fans in the stands nor the viewers in front of the television had registered it in their minds yet – what was going on? The game had only started a little more than a minute. How did this happen?

Equally surprised were all the members of the French team. The coaches sitting in the technical area as well as the French players who were just desperately defending on the pitch, they were all looking at their own goal at this moment. In there, the football was spinning and rubbing against the net.

Meanwhile, in all the big and small pubs in England, on the big screens in the squares and on the radios of taxis, only John Motson’s voice was shouting, “This is the fastest goal in the tournament. It is also the second-fastest goal in the history of the UEFA European Championship! One minute and thirty seconds, Mitchell takes the lead for England! We’re ahead! The lead comes as a surprise, but we are really in the lead!”

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After a few seconds of standstill, huge cheers broke out from the stands at San Mamés Stadium.

The commentators of all the countries also declared England 1:0 ahead of France in the way they were good at in succession.

To be honest, even the England team’s own people did not expect their opening to be so smooth, taking the lead in just over a minute and a half once the game started. It was Tony Twain reacted the fastest. He rushed out of the technical area with open arms and did a provocative butt twisting dance near the French team’s technical area, as if to deliberately annoy Puel.

Agbonlahor, who passed the ball, rushed up and toppled Mitchell. Then more England players stacked on top one by one. Even the goalkeeper, Joe Hart ran up from the back. It could be seen how excited the English players were.

Indeed, they were excited because they not only were ahead of the French team, they also showed the boss, the French team which he had lauded as a strong opponent, the stuff they were made of! They were simply unable to withstand a single blow!

“Benzema, Gourcuff, Ben Arfa… the group of geniuses from the French team are at a loss over the goal concede!”

They were really at a loss. They were still standing motionless in front. Who would have thought that their first offensive failure would lead to a goal concede?

Twain walked back after he finished his butt twisting dance in front of the French team’s technical area. He walked toward Des Walker with a look of anticipation and smiled as he said, “A storm is approaching, Des.”

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Yes, the storm had come. The first gale toppled the roof of the greenhouse above the French team’s head, and those delicate flowers shivered with cold and faltered amid the howling wind and torrential rain.

In fact, at this time, the French team very much wanted to get support from their grandstand. However, at the present moment, the French fans chose to be silent. Even if they wanted to make a sound, they were silenced by the singing of the England fans. Only the England fans’ singing could be heard at San Mamés Stadium, and only England fans’ voices could be had. They turned Deportivo de La Coruña’s home ground into a Premier League stadium.

Twain’s compliments to the French team before the game not only angered the England players, but also angered the England football fans. Seeing their own team take the lead over the French team so quickly, they were happy to embarrass Twain with their singing.

As the game went on, the French team could not lift their morale amid the singing voices of the England fans. They wanted to attack but found the England team’s backfield invulnerable to attack. More importantly, they lacked the experience to deal with such a situation. Their manager did not tell them before the game how they were supposed to play next should they concede the goal in the opening minute and a half. Should they continue to attack as per the original plan, or should they slightly withdraw to pay attention to defense?

After the goal concede, Sakho loudly berated his teammates in the front field, asking them to actively come back and defend. Otherwise they would not be able to defend and hold with just four defenders. Not to mention that out of the four defenders, two full backs liked to assist in offense. But the players in the front field did not listen to him. Now their minds were filled with ideas on how to equalize the score. The French team’s front and back fields gradually came apart.

Puel also lacked a counter tactic. He watched powerlessly on the sidelines. Because he could not make up his mind – was the goal concede an accident or was it the opponent’s premeditated ruse?

In the end he thought it was just an accident, and eventually instructed the team to continue to attack and try to equalize the score as soon as possible to get the game back on track again.

But he thought wrong.

The stronger the gale from the England team, the more torrential it rained. The big beads of rain hit the faces like hail.

In the 23rd minute, the England team seized on a chance and fully pressed on while the French team was in a hurry to equalize the score. Through a quick counterattack, the lead was extended to two goals with a goal personally scored by Agbonlahor.

After the goal, Agbonlahor opened his arms wide and ran towards the corner flag. But he did not escape the fate of being crushed by people.

“2:0! England has completely taken the initiative and they are two goals ahead of France! It’s a situation that we really did not think would happen before the game… France, once considered the favorite to win the title, is beaten twice by England in 20 minutes and unable to fight back!”

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing here. Our team is two goals behind … What’s going on? Have Benzema, Gourcuff, Ben Arfa and Nasri all disappeared? And what about our defensive players? It’s shocking that the talented goalkeeper, Lloris, who had only conceded one goal, actually lost two in a row within 20 minutes.” The French commentator was absolutely gutted. He himself could not understand why the French team had such a performance. The French players and coaches did not understand it as well.

The England players in front of them were almost like lions who had been starved for days. Not only did they not lose their strength, they became even more ferocious and dangerous. Even their exhaled breath had a strong smell of blood, as if they had just come out of the depths of hell.

They were fighting with all their strength in every corner of the pitch against the French players. Even if the shots fired were not 50-50, they would also try to tackle it, which caused the French players to be very afraid. Not only that, when they got the opportunity to attack, they would do their best which made it very difficult for the French defenders to defend. It was a completely irrational style of playing and the French team still had no way to take them on.

After England took a two-goal lead, they did not stop there. Instead, they got more and more energetic. With wave after wave of attacks, the French team could only withdrew their defense and they had no way to threaten the England team’s penalty area.

But it was also because of this reason that the French team did not continue to concede the goal in the later part of the first half. When the referee blew the whistle at the end of the first half, all the jittery Frenchmen breathed a sigh of relief – they were safe for at least the next 15 minutes.