Godfather Of Champions

When Anelka put his index finger on his lips to make a “keep quiet” gesture, the Bernabéu stadium went quiet for a moment, but immediately got even louder.

The Real Madrid fans hated the French striker to the core. They did not hesitate to put up their middle fingers at the arrogant Frenchman and abuse him with the most commonly used insults in Spain.

Ear-splitting cheers rang out from Nottingham Forest substitutes’ bench and resounded clearly in the midst of the booing of the entire stadium.

The Forest team’s substitutes stood on the sidelines and applauded Anelka. Twain pumped his fists in celebration of the goal. He was not celebrating, he was demonstrating in front of Bernabéu.

Being ahead of Real Madrid was not very exciting to Twain. He had already done the same thing once in City Ground stadium.

Taking the lead over Real Madrid at Bernabéu was not considered a winning advantage. Still, Twain enjoyed the thrill of striking a blow to the team on their home ground.

As a result, he was very pleased to see Anelka put his forefinger on his lips to make the Bernabéu fans shut up.

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“What a surprise, Nottingham Forest takes the lead in Bernabéu! The English scored a goal in the first five minutes of the game!”

The ESPN commentator was right. It was normal to lead against Real Madrid, but it was astounding to take the lead within such a short period of time from the start of the game.

“I believe that this Nottingham Forest team, which has defeated Benfica twice, is definitely not a complete unknown who pulled off an upset in Portugal.”

The group points and ranking were displayed in the lower left corner of the screen. Real Madrid and Nottingham Forest occupied the first and second spots respectively, but they had the same points: ten each.

The television footage then gave Tony Twain, who stood on the sidelines, a five-second closeup. His face no longer showed the excitement and joy from the goal. It was replaced with a serious expression.

“The youngest manager in the UEFA Champions League has taken the lead at Bernabéu. Tony Twain seemed to be shrouded in a mist that we can’t see through.”

Twain did not know that the television commentator was commenting on his close-up. He stood on the sidelines for a while before he walked back to the technical area.

“The game has just begun, David,” he said.

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After the kickoff, Real Madrid was not adversely affected by the goal; instead, they soon launched a frenzy of counterattacks.

After all, this was a veteran powerhouse club. No matter what low point they were facing, their foundation still existed. It would be a sham if they were to be knocked out by one goal.

Wood once again became a busy man. Such a moment was rarely seen as the Forest team’s strength increased and their ranking in the Premier League rose. When the Forest team was weak and often pressed by their opponents’ positional warfare, George Wood was the most eye-catching player, which was one of the reasons why he quickly became famous even though he was young and had debuted less than two years.

More balls were sent to Zidane’s feet. It looked like they did not trust Guti, who was a brilliant but inconsistent playmaker.

More offense was concentrated on Zidane’s side, which meant that George Wood was under more pressure.

As the game progressed, Zidane made him feel bad again, whether Wood admitted it or not.

When an opponent faced the French baldie, he would always have a way to bypass his opponent. If he could not go around, he would immediately pass the ball and not leave his opponent with too much time to intercept.

This was not only a divergence in skill but also a huge disparity in experience.

Zidane took possession of the ball when he faced Wood and made a feint to move the ball to the left for a breakthrough. Wood quickly rushed out. Then Zidane calmly shifted the ball to the right flank as Salgado plugged in from behind.

Wood was not the only one under enormous pressure. The young left back Gareth Bale and the right back Chimbonda were equally so. It could be said that everyone in the Forest defensive line faced tremendous pressure. This defensive line was very young and the offensive lineup they faced was world-class.

Salgado did not break past Bale. But after he lured Bale to the vicinity of the end line, he passed the ball back.

And behind him was the right midfielder, Beckham!

“Beware the Englishman!” The commentator shouted in an exaggerated way.

Beckham did not stop the ball. Instead, he received Salgado’s return pass and made a direct pass.

The football drew a perfect arc in the air and almost hit Ronaldo, who was not good at headers, on the forehead!

“A header by Ronaldo… WOOOW!”

Close at hand, Edwin van der Sar made an incredible save. He deflected Ronaldo’s header with a single palm!

“Oh, what a shame! If the shot was headed by Morientes instead, it would have gone in.”

Ronaldo put his hands on his hips as he looked at van der Sar, who had gotten up from the ground, in disbelief. He had thought that this ball was set to go in.

In fact, when he saw Beckham swing his leg to kick, Twain’s heart leaped as well. At that moment, when he saw the football hit Ronaldo’s head and then change direction to fly towards the goal, his heart almost came out of his throat.

Fortunately, van der Sar’s outstanding performance put Twain’s heart back in its place. But it was still thumping wildly.

After taking the lead, Twain experienced that keyed up state where a heart attack might happen at any time.

1:0 was not secure at all.

However, the Forest team must now persevere with the defensive counterattack. They had to hold fast under their opponents’ constant onslaught and wait for the opportunity to sneak attack again.

This was not just testing the mettle of the players on the field, but putting this manager’s heart to the test.

Very soon, Twain was unable to sit still in the technical area. He stood up and held onto the awning of the technical area. He continued to keep a close eye on the situation on the field.

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This was not the first time that the Forest team was confronted with a situation in which they were under enormous pressure from their opponents. They had recently had a taste of it in the league game with Chelsea.

It was painful, but they must bear it.

This was also a game experience.

Once there was a breakthrough by Zidane which resulted in a corner kick. Albertini pulled George Wood aside.

His hand slipped. He almost could not grasp Wood’s arm. Albertini realized that Wood’s arms were very sweaty.

“George.”

Wood turned his head to look at his captain.

“Let’s switch. I’ll defend against Zidane.”

Wood, who always listened to the team captain, shook his head this time. “No, Demetrio. The chief told me to defend-”

“But…” Albertini wanted to say, “But you won’t be able to.” However, before the words came out of his mouth, he swallowed them back. Those words would be too much of a blow.

George Wood was not a fool. He knew what Albertini wanted to say. He gasped, “He’s really good. But the chief said to let me defend against him. Unless I’m being brought off, he’s mine.”

After that, he ran past Albertini and returned to the penalty area to participate in the defense.

Albertini shook his head as he looked at Wood’s back, and then ran to go back.

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Kerslake noticed that Albertini had pulled Wood aside to discuss the matter. He turned to Twain.

Twain shook his head and said nothing.

Kerslake turned his gaze back to the field.

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The situation did not improve. Zidane was still very active. Pressing on, Real Madrid still bombarded the Forest team’s penalty area. It looked like they wanted to regain the dignity and position they had lost.

Twain stood up from his seat again and walked to the sidelines. Edwin van der Sar was preparing to kick off the ball. He placed the football twice. He had been wasting game time since the first half began.

Wood stood on the right side of the center circle, and not far from him was the Frenchman.

Twain took a breath, and then suddenly shouted Wood’s name. “George!”

Not only Wood but almost all of the Forest team and even some of the Real Madrid players heard it. They all eyed Twain at the same time.

“Did you forget what I said to you? Restrain him!” Twain pointed at Zidane. “I don’t care what you do, use any means! By hook or by crook! Use whatever damn means!”

He pounded his fist in the palm of his hand.

If Zidane could be hurt and brought off the field without Wood even getting a yellow card, that would be the perfect outcome in Twain’s mind.

However, that was not likely.

Real Madrid’s right flank was on the side of both teams’ technical areas. Beckham heard Twain’s expletive-peppered English clearly. He glanced towards the indecorous visiting manager and frowned.

Zidane also looked toward the sidelines. He saw Twain point in his direction as he shouted and knew in all likelihood that it was related to himself. It was merely to let the boy mark him. Zidane had seen much of that in his career. Almost every manager would instruct the same to his team’s main defensive players.

Except, the disparity between him and this Forest team’s number 13 seemed to be too big. Up until now, everything was well within his control. He did not feel that the game was too hard. Other than conceding a goal, which was an accident, the Forest team was completely misfiring now.

Ever since they took the lead, they had not even fired a single shot at the goal. Everyone had withdrawn to their side of the field. As long as Real Madrid continued to attack like this, an equalizer was only a matter of time. Things would be simple once they equalized the score. The opponent would surely collapse. At that time, it would be a home victory for Real Madrid.