Chapter 33: Soul possession

Mark Hughes was still having a headache about his wing tactics being suppressed by Donn, but this goal gave him inspiration.

Taking advantage of the players' chance to celebrate the goal, he called Ellano off the field and told him to decide whether to play on the side or in the middle according to his own observations.

The person who should be in trouble now is Tony Don.

After Bentner scored, he became more active, and his teammates also consciously passed the ball to him to complete his last shot. It seems that the whole Manchester City team hopes that Bentner won the bet on the team.

The booing of Nottingham Forest fans became more and more crazy as Bentner was active. It can be said that when Bentner was picking up the ball, no other sound could be heard in the city stadium at that moment, and even the other side of the Trent River could be clearly heard.

"I've never seen the fans of Nottingham Forest treat someone so crazy..." Andy Gray was also scared and murmured.

"Maybe it was stimulated by the goal concealment, and also by Bentner's celebrating the goal. So I said, this game will be a very exciting game! Haha, just four minutes into the game, Nottingham Forest fell behind! How should Don play in this game?"

Done really has a headache. The problem now is that Ellano is in the center and he can decide whether this offense will play on the middle or the wing. If he insists on the full-back to assist, then George Wood and Thiago will work very hard - they have to make up for defense and take care of the middle. The Forest will also concede the ball.

Tang En thought about it and decided to temporarily give up the full-back assist. It is more important to stabilize the defense during this period.

He walked to the sidelines, whistled into the field, and waved his hand to signal the two full-backs who were still in front of him to retreat to defend.

Bell and Rafinia looked at the empty side road behind them and ran away reluctantly.

George Wood and Thiago returned to the middle. Elano's shot route was completely stuck. Now that the full-back does not assist, Nottingham Forest's offense relies on two full-backs.

But Tang En felt that this effect was not good enough. After all, without full-back assists, the team's offense lacked levels and changes, and it was too easy to fall into the opponent's intensive defense.

He also signaled two midfielders to assist in turn on the sidelines.

George Wood began to become active.

Nottingham Forest lined up a 451 formation in this game. Five people were placed in the midfield, and the distance between front midfielder Van der Fate and back midfielder was a bit far away. Forward Van Nisstruy was at the front alone. How to connect the backfield and frontcourt?

One way is to rely on the wingers. Ribery and Lennon, but they mainly act on the wingers. The middle lane is connected by the back of the midfielder.

George Wood is now very skilled in joining the attack, and he is no longer the one who is not sure what to do when he runs up.

He asked for a ball from Thiago, and Wood dribbled the ball forward. Ellano came up to interfere, so he passed the football to Ribery who was introverted, ran forward, and played a wall to cooperate with Ribery, and then passed the football to Van der Fate. He did not go back. Instead, he continued to run forward, stance to insert into the penalty area.

Forcing Manchester City to disperse its forces to defend him again. The defensive pressure on Van der Fate was slightly relieved, and he saw him shoot straight from a long shot, and the football was slightly higher than the crossbar.

At this time, Wood was turning around and running back to his defensive position.

After seeing the Forest change its tactics, Bentner had much less chance of getting the ball at the front. He began to retreat to get the ball.

Kompany wanted to follow him, but asked Wood to stop him with gesture.

Bentner has entered his George Wood field.

Bentner raised his hand in the midfield to signal the ball. After Robinho passed Lennon, he passed the ball to him. As soon as the football reached his feet, Bentner felt a huge momentum coming from behind his body.

He quickly leaned back and protected the football, but he lost the opportunity to turn around.

He knew who gave this just now.

The corners of my mouth were raised, such a confrontation was really rare...

He knew that he could not turn around now, and Ribery was returning to defense at high speed. Once he was double-teamed, it would be over. He could only pass the football to Robinho who ran up to pick him up.

Thiago entangled Robinho, while Wood was waiting for an opportunity to wait. Bentner ran forward while continuing to raise his hand to ask for the ball.

While Robinho was entangled with Thiago, he picked up the football with his toes, crossed Thiago, and flew towards Turner, who was running forward.

Bentner sideways to catch the ball, but what he is waiting for is George Wood's raised shoes - he kicked the football still in the air first.

"It's not easy to get rid of Wood!" Gray shouted. I don't know whether he regrets Ben Turner or praises George Wood's flexibility and courage.

When Bentner retreated to the midfield to get the ball again, George Wood didn't even give him a chance to protect the ball, and directly pushed Bentner down from behind.

Bentner jumped from the ground and signaled to the referee who was running over that he should give Wood a card, which was a foul behind the scenes!

Seeing his action, the booing sounded even more enthusiastically...

Even Pepe couldn't see it. He rushed up to question Bentner. Fortunately, Thiago was called to hold him back halfway, otherwise the two sides might have used this excuse to conflict.

Van der Fate was close. He did not directly question Bentner. He just applauded him from the side, and the sarcasm and disdainful meaning was obvious.

Bentner doesn't care what those fans and former teammates think of him. He is still pestering the referee and insisting on trying to get a card for Wood - it would be even better if it was a red card!

Wood did not come forward to argue, but he slowly got up from the ground. He waved his hand and let everyone go, there was no fun here.

Then he stood quietly, waiting for the referee's final penalty.

The referee still came over to show Wood a yellow card.

The booing is even louder...

Don was still sitting in his seat, and Chris Lack couldn't help it. He rushed to the sidelines and cursed Bentner, the "traitor": "Think about who raised you, bastard!"

Tang En looked at his colleague's excited back and shrugged at Tang next to him, saying, "From another perspective... at least Ben Turner has professional ethics..."

"Bentner's wish came true, and George Wood was carrying a yellow card. The next game will be difficult for Wood."

"That's not necessarily true. For George Wood, as long as he is not sent off, he will kick as much as he can."

Martin Taylor said nothing wrong. After the game started again, George Wood was still fierce in defense. It seemed as if he didn't care about the yellow card behind his back.

But Done must not ignore it. He instructed Thiago to share more defensive tasks, asking George Wood to participate in more offenses and put the experience on how to equalize the score.

Yes, equalize the score.  Nottingham Forest must equalize the score before the end of the first half. Otherwise, the Forest team entering the locker room will be a team that is depressed or restless - it is not a team that Don En wants to see anyway.   And Manchester City will be very morale, thinking that Forest team can't do anything about them.

Tang En looked at the watch on his wrist and it had been twenty-seven minutes in the first half.

The game is now in a stalemate. Manchester City's offense encountered the iron wall of Forest and was forced to stop. The Forest's offense was also subject to tenacious resistance from Manchester City. Everyone has some opportunities, but no one has grasped it again.

Van Nisstruy was standing in front and seemed a little isolated in the opponent's penalty area. In fact, he was not scoring points, because only one striker was arranged in this game. His role was more to create a chance for scoring for the people behind. Unfortunately, the two full-back assists were cancelled by Donn. The Forest's offensive routine was a bit simple - Ribery and Lennon either went down to the bottom or cut in. Seeing Van der Fate approaching the penalty area, he just had to shoot from a long shot or pass Van Nisstruy directly. George Wood was more likely to come up and pass the ball. Manchester City's defensive formation was kept quite complete, no matter how the Forest moved it. Their defense line would not be messy. It can be seen that Mark Hughes put a lot of effort in preventing the Forest's sneak attacks - although it was used to prevent sneak attacks, this intensive defense also caused trouble for the Forest's positional battle.

Hughes's idea in this game is very simple. He is stable in the backcourt and uses dense defensive formations to compress the space and time of the Forest's counterattack. The frontcourt uses Bentner, a powerful center and excellent breakthrough ability on the wing to score. But he didn't expect that the wing did not start playing, but instead blossomed in the middle.

Although Don En quickly readjusted his arrangement, it would be useless. Now Manchester City is leading with one goal, as long as they continue to stabilize their defense. It is not impossible to get three-pointers away with this goal.

As Manchester City's head coach, he knows the bet the players make. But between winning and gambling, he will choose to win without hesitation.

Seeing that the first half was about to end, Hughes decided to let the team retreat as a whole, shrink the formation, and decided to fight against Nottingham Forest's counterattack.

Of course, Donn knew what Hughes was trying to do, but now he had to push out and attack because there was not much time left. He was unwilling to walk into the locker room with a point of falling behind.

With a wave of his hand, Bell and Rafinia, who had been suppressed for more than 30 minutes, attacked again.

With ten minutes left before the end of the first half, the Forests launched their first offensive frenzy in this game.

"Take your energy out!!" Fatty John shouted to the friends behind him in the stands, "Don't always think about booing the Danish boy! Now our team needs not booing their opponents. But cheering them on! Who would you like to see us fall behind with one goal and enter the midfield? Anyway, I don't want to! Then I don't even have the appetite to drink! Men, sing our song-"

"Oh oh oh - Forest! Nottingham Forest!"

"...Forest Forest! Nottingham Forest! We are invincible, we are invincible! We are the best team in the world... We make our opponents scared, we make them scared! Because the whole world is in the palm of our hands-"

"Oh oh--Woodwood, grows into a forest! Woodwood, grows into a forest!"

George Wood is getting the ball.

He still dribbled the ball from the back and stepped forward. He easily threw away Ellano's blocking, and the Brazilian's defense was purely symbolic...

When he arrived in Ireland, he encountered resistance. But he also passed the football to Van der Fate. Van der Fate turned around and couldn't pass the ball to Wood, who kicked Lennon on the wing.

Lennon made a cross, and Van Nystruey jumped up to compete for the top!

The football was pushed out by Dunn.

It fell to George Wood again.

He acted to shoot, but no one was fooled - everyone knew how bad Wood's shooting was.

As expected, Wood did not really shoot at 35 meters away from the goal. He passed the football to Thiago who caught up from behind and retreated to defend himself. He and Thiago made a handover. Now Thiago is responsible for the offense, and the defense is up to him.

The Forests' offense was soon ended by Manchester City.

Ashley Yang ran wildly on the Yanbian road. Bale assisted up, and it was empty here. This is a great opportunity for Manchester City to expand the score before the end of the first half!

But his dribble was stopped by George Wood. Wood used a beautiful shovel to break the ball under Ashley Yang's feet. Then he got up and strided the ball and threw away Ashley Yang who had just gotten up.

Thiago saw Wood coming up and did not go back to defend. There was not much time left in the first half, so he wanted to stay in the frontcourt to participate in the offense.

Ellano was the first to block Wood again. This time he almost succeeded, but unfortunately he lost in the physical confrontation and failed to stop Wood's forced breakthrough.

After throwing away Erano with his body and speed, Wood made a posture to pass the ball to Van der Fate - he adjusted the direction of the football and ran towards Van der Fate.

While Ireland turned his attention to the Dutch midfielder, he distributed the football to Dithiago next to him.

Then he ran to the front of the penalty area.

Thiago made a long shot, but someone believed it this time. Ireland turned around and rushed back. Thiago passed the ball to Van der Fate.

Van der Fate directly pushed the football into the crowd in the penalty area without stopping the ball.

"George Wood!"

Wood received the ball sideways, and facing Dunn's defense, he rushed up without fear.

The two people collided and the football jumped out. Dunn fell to the ground, and George Wood seemed to be about to dive and hand it over.

At this time, his strong body played a role again, and he immediately climbed up from the ground with his hands and feet!

"Wood was fouled?"
To be continued...