365 A Dedication to Eastwood Part 2 (1/2)

George Wood realized that the opponent's number 8, Lampard, who had been avoiding him throughout the first half, was actively engaging with him now in the second half. He was perplexed.

But, with such problems, if Wood could not think through it, he would simply stop thinking about it. Anyhow, Lampard approaching on his own initiative saved him trouble; he only needed to wait and defend.

In his mind, defending was several levels easier than going on the offensive.

He felt that Lampard was a little different from the first half; his hand movements were on the increase. But Wood was not at all bothered. When he defended, he also had additional movements like that. They were taught to him by the managerial team and his other teammates during training. In other words, while Lampard thought he was provoking Wood, Wood saw it as a very normal thing to do.

In the end…

Mourinho shook his head as he watched from below. He had miscalculated. He should not have gotten Lampard to do such a thing. Such an upright Englishman was not suitable for it…

There was no need to force it if it did not work; it was just a method he had come up with on the fly.

At that thought, Mourinho stood and walked slowly to the sidelines. He was prepared to signal to Lampard for him to stop whatever he was doing and to return his focus to breaking through Forest's gates.

Simultaneously, Forest launched an attack. It began with Edwin van der Sar who threw the ball to Chimbonda. The Frenchman then passed it to Ashley Young, who had returned to follow up on their attack.

William Gallas approached to press him for the ball. In response, Ashley Young and Arteta pulled off a quick two-versus-one pass. Passing the ball to Arteta, Ashley Young turned and ran forward. Tacitly, the Spaniard immediately sent out a kick that went over Gallas' head.

The ball did not land at Ashley Young's feet, instead flying towards his front. That was exactly what he had hoped for. He could widen his steps and make full use of his speed advantage.

Gallas' chase after Ashley Young was certain to fail. Carvalho then took off into the wings while Gallas sprinted towards the middle of the penalty area to momentarily take over the position of center back, filling in the defensive gap created by Carvalho.

”It's another rapid counterattack! The speed of Forest's flanks is not at all inferior to Chelsea, who has Robben and Duff!”

Although the brilliance and abilities of Ashley Young could not be compared with Ribéry, he was, at the very least, still frequenting England's National Youth Team. Things like flanking attacks were some of his best moves. His breakthrough was like a strong gust of wind, stirring up the red waves in City Ground's spectators' stand.

Carvalho leaped forward ferociously. With an abrupt knock with his back heel, Ashley Young took the ball inside, at the same time switching up the direction of his movement. However, the core center back of the Portuguese National Team was not so easily deceived. Seeing Ashley Young lift his foot, he hastily skidded to a stop. When his opponent stopped, that was when he would stop too.

”It didn't get past!”

But it wasn't over.

After changing direction, Ashley Young rapidly followed up with his right foot, kicking the ball in the direction of the end line, yet again changing his line of movement.

Carvalho's reaction was quick. Whenever Ashley Young moved, he followed. Although he could not keep up in terms of speed, he still had his legs. They were extremely close to the end line now. According to experience, Ashley Young would try to pass center; of all the midfielders in last season's English Premier, he had the highest count of passes to the center.

As expected, at the moment when Carvalho stretched his leg out to block Ashley Young's pass to the center, the core side midfielder of England's National Youth Team attempted exactly that.

Except that his pass route was a little higher than Carvalho's raised leg.

The football drew a high arc in the air, descending to the front of Chelsea's goal.

”A pass to the center!”

The pass was still affected by Carvalho's defense; its path was a little too high, a disadvantage for the forwards who had burst forward in their battle to get into position.

The three from Forest—Anelka, Mark Viduka, and Franck Ribéry—entered. Adding to that three rear defenders and a defending midfielder from Chelsea, seven people were crowded before the goal.

Faced with so many players crowded before him, Čech calculated quickly in his mind and decided there was a risk of losing the ball if they continued trying to hold onto it; he might as well use a powerful strike to launch it outwards…

His fist landed on the football and successfully punched it out of the penalty area. But, the one who received the ball on the outside was not Chelsea's player. It was someone in a red jersey—Arteta!

”Motherf…” Mourinho swore on the sidelines.

Arteta's first contact with the ball could not kill it properly, and it bounced up in front of him.

”Makelele-”