970 That Old Fox (1/2)

”Agbonlahor! YES! YES! YES! Agbonlahor!”

The England fans in the stands leaped from their seats, raising their arms high to cheer on their goalscoring hero. It as if there was an earthquake at the Bernabéu stadium. Even the camera lenses were trembling.

Amid the earthshattering cheers, Agbonlahor broke free of his teammates' tugs and hugs to run all the way to the technical area, where he gave Twain a strong hug. Everyone was aware that for him to be able to appear in the finals, it had a lot to do with Twain. And his goal was the best way to repay the trust of the boss.

”Ah ha! Twain's unexpected adjustment has left the Italians completely unable to respond! In the 24th minute, we are in the lead with one goal! Well done, Agbonlahor! Well done, Twain!” John Motson did not question Twain's substitution in his previous commentary, so at this point he was fully confident when he made these remarks at this time.

After he finished hugging Twain, Agbonlahor found Mitchell in the crowd and rushed up to embrace him.

”This goal is for you, Aaron!” An excited Agbonlahor roared in Mitchell's ear.

Mitchell was a little surprised, but he was soon caught up in the mood of the players around him. He leaned down to tightly hug his teammate who was 21 cm shorter than himself. They were teammates twice over, both in the national team and the club team. He felt that perhaps due to this relationship, Agbonlahor would take the initiative to hug him after the goal.

”Well done, The Flash! Score another goal!” Mitchell affectionately called him by the nickname he gave to Agbonlahor.

Twain was very satisfied to see the scene at the side. The atmosphere in the locker room was very harmonious. This team was united. With such a team, he was not afraid of any opponent.

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The English people cheered for their lead, while the Italians were collectively silent.

Lippi did not get angry on the sidelines for the goal concede. In fact, whatever the situation was, it was hard to see him show his emotions on the sidelines. Now he was just sitting in the technical area. His eyes hidden behind the gold-rimmed glasses, were staring at the field. He was thinking about the mistakes they had made before.

He did not think Twain would let Agbonlahor be in the starting lineup. It was really unexpected. As a result, he did not make any targeted arrangements for Agbonlahor in the pre-match preparations. This led directly to his players not knowing what to do with Agbonlahor on the pitch. If England's number 18 had played a little more actively, it would have been a good thing for the Italian players would know from experience that he was an important figure and naturally shifted their defensive focus to him. However, as it happened, Agbonlahor's previous performance was like a sleepwalk, so that everyone, including himself, had lowered his status by several levels in their minds. They thought there was no threat to this kind of performance...

Now it seemed that Twain was indeed a master of psychological control and very good at analyzing the psychology of other people. He had figured out what he thought...

Lippi admitted that he made an empiricist error and took it for granted when it came to studying Twain's starting lineup - James Vaughan was outstanding in the semifinals and there was no news of any injury during training these few days, so he thought he would definitely be in the starting lineup for the final game. He did not expect Twain to stubbornly stood up to the enormous pressure and put Vaughn on the bench.

This opponent was interesting.

He got up from his seat and walked to the sidelines, making hand signals to the players on the field.

He wanted Chiellini to step up his defense against Agbonlahor and not give him that kind of chance easily. He believed that with the ability of the Italian defenders, as long as they attached importance to Agbonlahor, the other party should have little room to play.

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Lippi's adjustment was well within Twain's anticipation because if he was still unmoved after seeing Agbonlahor play actively and score the goal, then Lippi must have been brain-swapped by the aliens and was not normal.

He was not worried that Agbonlahor would be closely marked. Now that they were ahead of Italy, it did not matter even if Agbonlahor was subsequently rendered ineffective from the marking. The important thing was to hold on to the one-goal advantage and then use that advantage to lure the Italians out to make their tight defense non-existent.

He just asked the team to pay attention to the defense for a while to come.

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Lippi did not intend to rush to equalize the score in the first half. Although the players were certain to be eager to fight back after the goal concede, it was only a matter of time before they returned.

The reason he was in no hurry to equalize the score was that a one-goal lead would be a huge psychological burden for the England team. Like running a marathon, it was an unwise move to be a leader from the start. No coach would let his own athletes develop such tactics. The person with real strength to win the title must be hiding in the second group, maintaining the pressure on the leader at any time and overtaking at the last moment.

Lippi's current thinking was the same as those of the long-distance running coaches. He had thrown the intense mental pressure of being in the lead upon his opponent. Because it was not a regular game. It was the finals, the final game of the UEFA European Championship. As time went on, a one-goal lead would become a huge psychological burden for the England players. Everyone would think in their minds – we must absolutely never concede the goal. Otherwise our championship will be gone...

This thinking would become heavier and heavier as time went on until England completely collapsed.

Lippi decided to make adjustments during the halftime interval and step up in the second half. By then, as long as the score was equalized, the huge psychological advantage would tip to the Italian side, and a fundamental reversal would happen to the situation on the pitch. At that time, there would be little time left in the game. Their morale would be boosted, while the England team would suffer a major blow. Ultimately, the victory must belong to the Italian team.

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The Italian team organized a few attacks after the game resumed, wanting to equalize the score. But in the face of England's tight defense readied in advance, they did not manage to gain any traction, so they simply retreated.

Twain was happy at first - the Italians finally pressed out. However, after a brief moment of delight, it did not take long for him to find a problem.

The Italians did not panic about conceding a goal in the final and stormed up to surround and bombard England's penalty area – even though that was what Twain wanted to see. After a few attacks without any results, they immediately retracted and returned to their previous defensive counterattack stance as if they were the leading team.

It obviously had to do with the white-haired old man who directed the game on the sidelines.

Twain bowed his head in deep contemplation for a while and he guessed Lippi's idea.

Just like what he had often said to his players, ”A one-goal lead is the least secured score in the world,” it was not of his original creation, but just a generalization of what he had surmised. All the football managers in the world were aware of this kind of reasoning. Even if they were proponents of 1:0, they often had to mentally suffer the pressure from being bombarded by the other side surrounding the goal in the game and fearing that they might be equalized at any time.

Lippi must have thought so, intending to pass the psychological pressure on to the leading England team.

From this point of view, it was not a good thing to be in the lead too early...

In a long marathon race, the Englishmen took the lead in storming out the majority of their forces. While the seasoned Italians, on the other hand, were mostly hidden among their forces, keeping an appropriate distance away from the leading England team. In the beginning, it was a battle of skill and strength. But towards the end, things like skills and strength were no longer important. Mentality would eventually determine the champion.

Since that was the case, then he would let the team continue to strengthen the offensive and make the one-goal lead into a two-goal lead!