934 The Damned Group of Death (1/2)

The scene today must have come as a surprise to all England people, especially those English players who were doing their warm-up while playing around at Camp Nou last night.

In their minds, the Wales team was just like ants which could be crushed to death with only one finger. The game was used to adjust their state.

But now the ants had taken hold of the elephant, the England team and took a bite in the nose of the elephant. The elephant was in such pain that tears fell.

Three minutes ago, ...

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Tony Twain knew Wales would choose a more conservative tactic playing against England and it would be a nice result to be able to tie with England and obtain one point. Accordingly, he also changed his tactics and did not let the team continue to use defensive counterattack. Defensive counterattack was a weapon used against strong teams, or those that consider themselves as strong teams. To fight the weaker teams, taking the initiative to attack was the way to win the game.

Consequently, the situation in this game and that of the last game had been turned around. In the previous game, the Portugal team had fully pressed on the England almost all of the game. While in this game, England would show the fans of the world, both in the stadium and in front of the television, their equally strong attacking ability.

When the other team could not threaten his own team, Twain would also do some ”vanity project.”

But the England team had faced unexpected headwinds.

The Wales team must have closely studied the England team's recent games, especially the games in which they defeated Argentina and Portugal, and then stole England's ”defensive counterattack” tactic during training.

Breaking tight defense was a problem for coaches all over the world. Twain was still feeling smug that he had confounded Queiroz in the last game. But he himself had to face such a difficulty in this game.

What if we could not get into the penalty area? Twain asked the team to step up the long shots. But the team only had Gerrard who was an expert in long shots, so the points of attack was fewer. Wales could easily mark Gerrard and block him from doing his long shots.

Rooney would also pull out to do long shots, but it was not very effective. Mitchell simply disappeared surrounded by the other team's tight defense.

Wales' defense was very successful. In terms of offense, their players seemed to have no central core. They would fail nine out of ten times as long as they made physical contact with the England players.

The referee also seemed to have an inclination to favor the weaker team. In more than half of the physical contact between the two teams, it would result in the referee judging that the England players had fouled. Wales was awarded with a lot of place kicks as a result. It was just that the place kicks were not very close to the goal. They were not within an effective range, so there was no way to directly threaten England's goal. The England players did not take them seriously either.

Twain certainly saw through Toshack's cunning plot. But he was not worried because it was easy for the Wales, which was lacking in offensive strength, to get a free kick that could directly threaten the goal. After his roars to warn the team off the field, the England players would always pay attention in the spots of their fouls and try their best not to give Wales any place kicks in the danger zone. Even the corner kicks were rarely given to the other team.

Both sides played a dreary first half. The England team could not score, and the Wales team lacked the power to fight back.

Just four minutes into the second half, the Wales team took advantage of their kickoff to go on the offensive for a while and was finally awarded a place kick, directly facing the goal.

”This is the best free kick position Wales is awarded up until now! The distance is a little bit far, thirty meters, but directly facing the goal and attainable on the right and left. Wales should be able to threaten England's goal as long as they grab hold of the chance and restrain their attacking spree a little.” Even Wales' own television commentator did not expect Wales to score. To him, Wales' tactics were nothing more than to ease the pressure on their own defense.

When Toshack saw the team finally received a well-placed free kick, he got up from his seat and walked to the sidelines, watching the field nervously.

They had endured for forty-nine minutes... No, ever since the game with Germany, they had been pretending to be weak up until the present. Now was the time!

He saw Gareth Bale held the football, walked over to the other team's penalty spot and carefully placed it on the ground.

As an experienced veteran manager, he also felt a little nervous.

Twain Twain was also equally as nervous as Toshack. As the man who personally poached Bale from Southampton to the Forest team, he knew how good Bale's free-kick ability was. He was already excellent ”before.” Later, he became even better after going through his own deliberate cultivation.

George Wood, who had been sitting motionless on the substitutes' bench like a wax figurine this entire time, had a change in his expression. He looked up and stared at the field with some interest. He was frowning slightly.

A position from thirty meters away might seem a little far, but for Gareth Bale, that was exactly his best range. Bale's free kick was fast and powerful. Coupled with the right arc, it was downright lethal. He was not the kind of free kick player who would win purely by relying on the arc. So, the longer distance was more helpful to his play instead. Being too close might cause his shot to hit the human wall, or directly overshot the crossbar. Thirty meters... was a good distance instead.

Bale placed the football on the ground. He got up and looked around before he leaned over to rearrange it again, putting the Adidas logo directly facing the goal. Then he got up and took a few steps back. He did not stare at the goal and the human wall but turn his head to look at the sidelines.

He saw the Wales manager, Toshack as well as Tony Twain, who was also standing on the sidelines.

He really did not expect to encounter the boss at such an important game. He had previously promised the boss he would go to Spain, but he also did not expect to become the boss' opponent in Spain...

Twain noticed Bale looking at himself, so his tense face contorted with a hint of a smile. He would not let the little monkey see his nervousness.

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England's human wall was finally formed, and the referee backed away to signal that they had to wait for his whistle to carry out the free kick.

Bale did not pay much attention to it.

He found a lot of distracting thoughts popping up in his mind before he carried out the free kick. He thought of a number of things, from his first meeting with the boss off the pitch at Southampton, the first professional contract he signed, and the first goal he ever scored in a game against Chelsea, as well as the boss' promise to show him a more unconventional celebratory gesture than what Mourinho had.

In the twelve seasons at Nottingham Forest, the memories were always happy as long as they had something to do with the boss. He was unwilling to let go of that feeling.

But it was not right for them to appear at this time...

Bale shook his head and tried to drive away these messy thoughts from his own mind. He was currently competing in the game. How could he let such things interfere with himself?

Gareth Bale stood in front of the ball and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. His lips moved a few times soundlessly, ”We are enemies now, boss...”

In Tony Twain's teachings, he never allow his players throw a game out in the face of the enemy.

Because Twain instilled a sense of pride in the Nottingham Forest players, the proud Nottingham Forest players could never deliberately throw a game. Wherever they went, the Nottingham Forest players took pride in their origins which made them appear manifestly superior. Being uncompromising and arrogant were their collective trademarks. This was the imposing manner that the team had to dominate European football over the past decade. Even when the boss had already left, the imposing manner remained in the hearts of the old players at Nottingham Forest.

The referee put down his raised-up arm and blew the whistle in his mouth.

Bale glanced at the positional relationship between the human wall, goal and the goalkeeper. He started to run up after he determined how he was going to kick in his head.

The Welsh fans in the stands clapped in rhythm and shouted, ”Bale! Bale! Bale! Bale—”

I'm Gareth Bale and I'm from Nottingham Forest. I've played for that championship team for more than a decade. Now please take a look at the pride of a Nottingham Forest player!

Bale said this in his heart and raised his leg to kick the ball.

The football quickly flew over the jumping human wall and spun into the net before the goalkeeper Joe Hart could even respond!

The thirty meters gap seemed to be closed in the blink of an eye. The English people had not even reacted when the ball was still spinning in the net inside the goal.

Was that how the ball got in?

It was too easy; it was that easy?!

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