It was not just Gerrard who knew very little about the Macedonian team. Even Tony Twain was not familiar with the opponent they were about to face.

Not to mention Twain, perhaps most British people would not be able to locate where Macedonia was on earth with a map in a moment and a half. Had it not been that they were participating in the UEFA European Championship Qualifying tournament, the citizens of the United Kingdom would have thought the little-known country would have been somewhere in the continent of Antarctica.

Long ago, Twain had thought that Macedonia was in Western Europe. He only found out later he was severely mistaken. Macedonia was part of what was once called Yugoslavia, and their football prowess had little to boast about. FK Vardar, the country’s most successful football club, had played in three major European tournaments eight times, but the best results they achieved had only been to advance to the second round twice…

As to the current Macedonian team, the man whom Twain was most familiar with was Goran Pandev, who still played for SS Lazio. The thirty-one-year-old Pandev was also the Macedonia team’s number one star player and team captain. He was also the only player who could pose a threat to England’s rear defensive line.

In fact, England’s coaching staff had focused the research on how to stop Pandev. They were largely unconcerned about the other players. After all, there was a large disparity in England’s strength and that of Macedonia’s. The only teams in the group that could pose a threat to England’s advancing to the next stage were Denmark and Serbia. England’s intelligence-gathering work had long begun for these two fierce rivals.

The Macedonians could sense England’s contempt. As the manager, Tony Twain did not once mention Macedonia in front of the media. But he talked repeatedly about Wales, because after playing the game against Macedonia, Twain’s England team would play against the neighboring Wales.

When accepting an interview from the reporters, Mitchell, as the team’s main force, was asked the question “Do you know where Macedonia is?”, his answer had greatly incensed the Macedonians –”Maybe it’s in the north? I don’t know…”

In response, Pandev proclaimed in an interview that they would teach England a lesson. “… Although we are the away team, I am glad that we have the opportunity to tell them where Macedonia is in the world. Hopefully they can firmly remember it after the game.”

Macedonia appeared to be aggressive, but Tony Twain was still unconcerned. He discussed his friendship with Bale in the media and continued to put psychological pressure on Wales… even though the match between England and Wales would only start in October.

“The provoked Macedonia team will attack the moment the game starts. They must be in high spirits now. I can imagine how the opposing manager has goaded them—” Twain imitated the manager of the Macedonia team, the Slovenian, Srečko Katanec, and brandished his fists as he growled, “They have a low opinion of you! They look down on you! Teach them a lesson and let them know the cost of underestimating you!!”

The coaches next to him all laughed.

Twain also looked at this group of colleagues who were in stitches. He waited till their laughter subsided before he continued.

“If Katanec were a smart man, he would make use of our contempt to inspire the team’s fighting spirit. Originally, it would have been hard to raise the players’ spirits in an away challenge against a strong opponent. Now we’ve given them a great excuse and opportunity, which they will definitely seize it. So, once the game starts, they will take the initiative to attack and we will attack them as well. Their rear defensive line has a lot of loopholes, which we can seize and make the most of it. Try our best to score early and as time goes on, Katanec will know he is taken in. So, he’ll start to withdraw his defense. If we haven’t scored at that time, he will feel that maintaining a draw and obtaining one point in the game will be a great victory. If that’s the case…” Twain analyzed unceasingly to his coaches about the course of the game.

“We’ll press on. I’ll hand Pandev to George. We don’t have to take special care of the others. Next we have to pay attention to the mental state of our players. If the score continues to be a draw, it will be more and more unfavorable to us. This kind of situation has to be avoided, so I hope the team can score as early as possible. If Macedonia withdraws its defense, we will have a lot of opportunities for positional play. We have to seize this point to try to breach their goal.”

“This is not a problem. We’ve been practicing our positional play these few days.” Walker interjected next to him.

“We’ll just cover these topics today… No matter how complete a plan is, it can’t be compared to the changes in an actual game.” Twain clapped his hands and ended the meeting with the coaches regarding the preparations.

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It was the first time George Wood had worn the England captain’s armband to play in a match. Before the game, Twain pulled him to one side and instructed him to keep a close eye on Pandev. Formerly a striker, Pandev was now getting closer to the midfield as he became older. Now he was at the core of Macedonia’s offense. It was all up to him to organize and end the attacks. By marking him closely, Macedonia could not stir up any trouble.

Wood nodded as he listened to Twain’s tactics. His expression was very focused.

Once he was finished, Twain patted Wood on the left arm and said, “Before this game, there are still a lot of voices questioning and objecting to your being the team captain. What do you think of it, George?”

“I’ll prove I deserve the captain’s armband.”

Wood’s answer greatly satisfied Twain. He laughed loudly and said, “Yes! That’s more like it! If they mock and doubt you, then you use actual performance to give them a slap in the face! Didn’t we do that when we were in the Forest team? In fact, there’s no difference being the captain of the national team and the Forest team captain. Play the game well and then all problems will go away.”

Twain liked this point about Wood the best. He would not mince his words and say overly self-effacing words like “I’m flattered and overwhelmed to receive the captain’s armband” or “I’m surprised that I can be the team captain because Terry and Gerrard are more suitable than I am.” He would only confidently express that he had the ability and he deserved to receive such a treatment. This kind of attitude would seem arrogant to most people. But like Tony Twain, he was entitled to be arrogant and conceited.

As Gerrard aged, the twenty-eight-year-old George Wood had indeed become England’s number one midfielder in the country. For Twain to give the captain’s armband to him, it could not be considered as nepotism. It should be said to that he “appointed people to important posts based on merits, even if it were to be his own son.”

※※※

Leading England to play in its first official senior international matches (previously, all the matches with the Forest team were against the club opponents and could not be counted as senior international matches). It would also be a test for Twain. He knew that the competition played with the Forest team was just a warm-up. From now on, he was officially on the path to his conquest of the world.

Standing in front of the technical area and listening to the British national anthem