Conceding a goal made Ferguson stand up from his seat. He stood on the sidelines. Although he did not say anything, the Manchester United players felt tremendous pressure. The nickname of "hairdryer" was not in vain. Those who had not been a player in Manchester United could not understand the horror of being scolded by Ferguson while pointing at their noses.
After taking the lead, Nottingham Forest seemed to have forgotten that their opponent was Manchester United, the "Red Devils" led by the Premier League's best manager of the decade, Sir Alex Ferguson.
Twelve minutes after they scored, Manchester United equalized the score.
The goal was scored by England's golden boy, Wayne Rooney. This time, he gave full play to his individual ability. After receiving a pass from Roy Keane outside the penalty area, he used his outstanding explosive power to suddenly shake off Piqué, then rushed into the penalty area and shot a ground ball. The football flew along the turf and straight to the back corner of the goal. Edwin van der Sar was helpless in the face of such a tricky shot. He could only watch the football fly in front of his fingertips, hit the back post, and bounce into the goal.
Rooney was very excited after the goal. He tugged at his jersey and demonstrated to the 27,000 Forest fans in the City Ground Stadium.
The last time the two sides met, Rooney did not score and did not perform much for almost the entire game. After the game, he was criticized, believing that his low form was the key to Manchester United's failure to beat the Forest team. This game, he finally vented the resentment in his heart with a beautiful goal.
Tang En saw such a strange scene off the field: his impression of Manchester United's future main goalkeeper was blasted open by Manchester United's main striker in the game. He remembered that there were still two and a half years before he transmigrated. The future he could control was getting less and less, and he had to hurry up. Tang En was so busy thinking about this problem that he forgot to be upset about the goal concede.
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Roy Keane was Manchester United's captain, but he was once the Forest team's star of hope, just like George Wood was now. Tang En doted on George Wood, and Clough doted on Roy Keane. But now that 13 years had passed, Clough had gone to heaven to compete with God for the top spot, and Roy Keane returned to Nottingham wearing a Manchester United jersey. Although they were both red jerseys, the badge on his chest was different.
Keane received a tsunami-like welcome in the City Ground when he came on the field before the start of the game, but his performance after the start of the game made it impossible to see how much he was loved here.
The lineup Tang En sent out for this match was no different from before. Arteta, who had just joined the team, was not even on the roster. He was a spectator in the stands.
Roy Keane's range of movement in the midfield was wider than the last time the two teams played. When defending against the Forest players, he was ferocious and did not shy away from physical confrontation.
What made the commentator excited was that in the last match between the two teams, Keane and Wood did not have many direct conversations. But this time, after 30 minutes had passed in the first half, Tang En and Wood had faced each other twice. Twice, Wood defended against Keane, and the other time, Keane took the initiative to rush up and intercept Wood's ball.
The result was a complete 3: 0 victory for Keane over Wood. In front of the mature and experienced Keane, Wood was like a newborn baby.
In this match, Ferguson had clearly strengthened his watch on Wood, which could be seen from Keane's snatching. In the last match, the Forest team equalized the score at the last minute. In addition to Wood's unexpected tenacity, there was also the fact that Manchester United did not pay enough attention to the Forest team and were unfamiliar with them. Ferguson had made very detailed and ample preparations for this match. Since the last round of the league tournament, he had spent a full five days studying Nottingham Forest, just like how he had studied Wenger and later studied Mourinho.
Nottingham Forest was already an enemy that required Manchester United and Ferguson to go all out to deal with.
In this match, Manchester United's midfield had complete control of the situation. After the Forest team equalized the score, their morale dropped and they could only choose to defend.
Tang En sat motionless in the technical area. He admitted that he had no good way to solve such a situation. The team had been too incited by him and lost their cool. In addition, Ferguson had indeed studied his team very carefully. Every tactic was targeted.
He went through the February schedule in his mind and made a decision — to give up this FA Cup match. The team itself was fighting on two fronts: the league tournament and the UEFA Europa League. There was no need to add another FA Cup now.
The Forest team's goal this season was not to win a domestic cup title. In the longer term, playing well in the league tournament was fundamental.
In the second half, the Forest team made adjustments, replacing Albertini with Gunnarsson, replacing Viduka with Crouch, and finally replacing Ashley Young with Aaron Lennon.
It looked like changing three players in one go — although that was in fact the case — but the effect it produced was that the players who were replaced worked especially hard and created a lot of trouble for Manchester United.
The score on the electronic scoreboard was fixed at 1: 1 for about 20 minutes. The two sides were in a deadlock. It looked like Tang En would reap another pleasant surprise. In the 21st minute, Manchester United scored.
This time, it was Giggs who scored. It was a direct free kick. Edwin van der Sar could not save in time, and the football went into the net!
Since Beckham's departure, Manchester United's first free kick candidate had become Giggs. This was not the first time he had scored a direct free kick.
Seeing Manchester United's players celebrate the goal in their own stadium, Tang En and David Kerslake looked at each other and did not say anything. They just shrugged.
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Subsequently, the Forest team launched a counterattack, but under Manchester United's tight defense, Carlo did not suffer too much of a test. Roy Keane, who returned to the City Ground stadium, was in surprisingly good form. During defense, he held the front of the penalty area by himself. As the midfielder that Tang En replaced was purely defensive, the Forest team did not have many ways to attack. They could only simply play long passes and let the two flanks take turns to attack. Without delicate front field cooperation and imaginative passing, it was difficult to win the game against Manchester United.
The 90-minute game ended quickly. Nottingham Forest lost 1: 2 to Manchester United on their home ground and was eliminated from the FA Cup.
In the post-match press conference, there was no expression of chagrin or unwillingness on Tang En's face. Instead, he was relieved.
"We can put more energy into the league tournament and the UEFA Europa League. Congratulations to Manchester United."
Ferguson, who had won the game, grinned and praised the opponent, thinking that the Forest team had played very tenaciously. After all, Ferguson also saw how strong Chelsea's momentum was this season. Now, the gap between Manchester United and Chelsea in the league table was 11 points. It was almost impossible to reverse the situation. Compared to ending the season empty-handed and not being able to win the league title, it was also good to win the FA Cup. It was reasonable for him to be happy.
After the press conference, Ferguson invited Tang En to have a drink together, and Tang En did not refuse.
This should have been an invitation made by the home team's manager. Now that Ferguson was so proactive, it could be said that his good mood at the press conference was from the heart.
Looking at the two managers beaming with joy, the reporters really did not know how to comment on the game's significance to the two teams. Was it a win-win situation?
(To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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