974 Five Minutes (1/2)

When Italy scored the first goal, they still brought the football back to the center circle, hoping for the match to restart as soon as possible. However, when they scored the second goal, they simply embraced each other in their celebrations. The football was sitting alone in the goal and nobody cared about it.

That was because they were leading then, and they were the ones who needed to waste time.

Twain merely cursed a little on the sideline before recovering from the negative emotions of conceding a goal. He stood on the sideline and kept waving his hand, indicating for his players to bring the ball to the center circle and prepare to restart the match.

To the England team, there was really no time to lose…

Without counting injury time, they had only less than 18 minutes left.

”England is in a difficult situation now. From one goal up to trailing by one goal. Let's see what Tony Twain has planned for the last 20 minutes!”

What plans could he have? It was nothing more than attacking more and be wary of the Italians' counterattack.

Italy knew that England would be attacking now that they were trailing. They had the initiative and they could retreat and play on the counter, which was what Lippi and Italy were best at.

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The England players did not perform up to standard from the start of the match up till now. Many of them were dealt a heavy blow after conceding two goals in two minutes. The goals came too quickly and all of them were not prepared for it…

In the match afterwards, they did not demonstrate the ”increased offense” that Twain asked them for, instead, they stayed in their own half, not knowing what to do.

The Italians wanted to make use of the opportunity to attack while the English had not reacted yet and get another goal to seal the match. They surrounded the England penalty area and dispatched balls after balls into it. For a moment, Joe Hart became the busiest player in the England team.

”Long shot by De Rossi! Not far wide…”

”Giovinco with the ball…he's through! What a move! He shoots… Saved by Joe Hart…”

”Long shot by Paloschi, over the bar… He should have passed the ball to Foti at the side…”

”Balotelli is not backing off against George Wood, he's trying to get past him… Foul by Wood! Free kick! Great, Italy has another free kick!”

Wood could only shake his head helplessly at the current situation. He is not superman and no matter how well an individual performs; it is pointless if the team does not support him.

He was furious at the current situation. Were they going to give up just like that?

Balotelli had another chance to take a free kick and the Italy fans were filled with anticipation. They hoped to see Balotelli scoring twice with free kicks. These people had totally forgotten that they had complained about Lippi sending him on to ”waste chances”.

”Super Mario! Super Mario!! Oh oh!” The Italy fans were chanting Balotelli's name in the stands.

The England fans got nervous as the Italy fans chanted. They were trying to disrupt Balotelli with their jeers, but they did not know whether it was effective at all…

Twain stood on the sideline and bit his lips as he stared at Balotelli on the pitch. His heart was pounding rapidly beyond control, but he could not care much about his heart now.

Balotelli took a run-up and kicked… The ball flew over the wall straight towards the goal. Joe Hart did his best to dive towards the ball, but he was not able to touch it. The ball did not drop into the goal, flying over the cross bar instead.

That was close!

Twain gave a long sigh of relief. There were thousands of England fans who did the same.

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At the 80th minute mark, England's attack did not get better. On the other hand, Italy were doing better as they were more relaxed after taking the lead and they were able to perform all sorts of combinations.

The England fans watching from England stared at the television screen for fear of missing out on any scene that might be the crucial moment that changed the direction of the final match.

England's performance disappointed them a little, but they did not give up hope. After all, there were 10 more minutes to go in the match and they were only one goal down. There was still hope.

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Lippi took a look at his watch and saw that 80 minutes had already gone by. He looked at the situation on the pitch and decided to play it safe. If they continued to attack like this and there was a weakness in defense that England took advantage of to score, then everything would be over… Tony Twain was a sly one, how could it be possible for him not to do anything at the final moment?

He walked to the sideline and indicated to his players in the pitch to drop back and focus on defense. They would be victorious if they could drag till the end of the match.

The England players felt the pressure on them lessen and they knew that it was the final moment.

The Italians have dropped back, what should we do? There's almost no need to think at all, we must attack of course!

Twain stood on the sideline and called out to Vaughan. It had been 10 minutes since he was substituted in but he did not perform at all…

”James! Do you remember your task?!”

Vaughan remembered of course. However, his team was being suppressed in their own penalty area, they had no chance to counterattack at all. No matter how good he was, there was no way he could score from his own penalty area…

In fact, even if Twain did not remind him, he knew it was time to perform. Agbonlahor started the match and he got a goal. Yet he had not made any contribution even though he was expected to be starting the game. If England was the lose the match, then it would undoubtedly be his responsibility… People would start thinking: If Agbonlahor was still on the pitch, would they have still lost the match?

Lippi was also a little surprised that Twain only brought Vaughan on in the final 20 minutes. However, his team managed to comeback afterwards, so he did not mind so much. There was only 10 minutes left in this match, if they could hold on, even if Twain brought 11 Maradonas on, it would not have mattered.

Lippi brought in defender Fabiano Santacroce for Giovinco next as Giovinco did not have the stamina to continue and to strengthen the defense. Italy was playing a 532 formation now and the three center backs did not give England any chance to attack.

In the last 10 minutes, Italy started to use all the tricks in the book to waste time.

They would fall whenever someone touched them and they would take their time to get up. In the span of two minutes, there were three players who went to ground because of cramps.

Twain was furious about that and he kept protesting with the fourth official. The fourth official was powerless as well, ”We can't possibly pull them to their feet using force, right?”