Tang En placed his hand on the shelf where the tactical board was placed. The messily drawn tactical board had already been placed by his feet. He stared at the players who were ready and said slowly but firmly, "I only have one requirement for this game — to win!"
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What? Nottingham Forest wants to beat Manchester United?
If this sentence had been said half a season ago, everyone who heard it would have laughed out loud. It was as if they were watching a Mr. Bean comedy.
But now that the Nottingham Forest team said such a thing, there were not many people who dared to doubt it.
In half a season, Tang En had used half a season to change the impression that Forest was a weak team in the eyes of others. If they were a weak team, how could they still firmly occupy one of the top six places in the league in the 34th round and suppress Liverpool? If they were a weak team, how could they remain undefeated against the top four teams in the league? Against Arsenal, they drew at home. Against Chelsea, they won at home. Against Manchester United, they drew at home. Against Everton, they drew at home. That was the answer sheet handed in by the young Forest team. It was so satisfactory that they could not ask for more.
Before the start of the match, Ferguson and Tang En shook hands gracefully on the sidelines and bade farewell.
To be honest, Tang En did not dislike the old Scottish man at all. Even though the other party had mocked him, he was also mocking the other party at the same time. This kind of thing was very normal in a football match. The taunts between him and Ferguson had not developed to the extent of Ferguson and Wenger.
Although he didn't hate her, he still didn't give her any face when he should.
Tang En's Forest Team had to win this match. Manchester United also wanted to win.
Like Chelsea and Arsenal, they had played one game less and accumulated 67 points in 32 games. The fourth-placed Everton was 13 points behind Manchester United. It would be a little difficult for Everton to reverse the situation … They were only three points behind the second-placed Arsenal in the league. If Arsenal were to be defeated by Chelsea in an away game, then Chelsea would almost be able to claim the title in advance. Manchester United would also have the same number of points as Arsenal. In the remaining five rounds of the league tournament, the chances of them overtaking Arsenal were very high.
Ferguson did not care if he could get second place in the Premier League. He did not need this kind of reputation. He did not care. There was no difference between second and third place in the league tournament. If Newcastle United were in second place in the Premier League, Ferguson would probably not think much of it. Unfortunately, it was Arsenal who was pressing on top of Manchester United. Ferguson would not allow such a thing to happen — Manchester United would pull Arsenal down no matter what and rank above them.
Because both teams wanted to win, the game was in a fierce confrontation from the first second. For this match, both Tang En and Ferguson had deployed their strongest lineups. Tang En wanted to survive. He wanted to get into the top four of the Premier League and qualify for the Champions League. With the qualification for the Champions League, there would be more bonuses and dividends. With more money, he could buy more and better players, allowing the small club, Forest Team, to gradually realize that great goal.
Ferguson, on the other hand, did it for glory. He would never allow himself to lose to Wenger.
It had only been 20 minutes since the start of the match, and although neither side had scored, the total number of shots had already reached 24, an average of 12 per team. Nottingham Forest committed fourteen fouls and Manchester United committed ten. Manchester United was slightly more offside than Forest, 3: 2. Although the data was boring, it directly reflected the intensity of the match.
The Forest team was not conservative at all in the face of a strong opponent on their home ground. They brought out the momentum of offensive football and wanted to overwhelm Manchester United. Manchester United was not to be outdone. Ferguson was not a man who liked to pretend to be weak. If the opponent showed a strong side in front of him, then his Manchester United would also use a stronger momentum to overwhelm the opponent. Wenger's Arsenal was unwilling to bow down to Manchester United. They always wanted to suppress Manchester United and unify the Premier League. So, Ferguson and Wenger took on each other.
Both teams had the kind of temperament that was unwilling to admit defeat in front of the strong. They wanted to be strong and become stronger when they met the strong. This match was, of course, a clash between Mars and Earth — intense.
The live broadcast plan that Sky TV chose was not this match, but the other Chelsea home game against Arsenal. Although the Forest team's home game against Manchester United was more important in terms of what the outcome of the two games would determine, who asked Arsenal and Chelsea to have more things outside the football field?
Mourinho had only been in the Premier League for less than a season, and he had already offended everyone he could. Ferguson, Wenger, Benítez, and Tony Twain. Sky TV chose to broadcast this match live because Mourinho and Wenger looked down on each other. Such a match would definitely be explosive.
Unfortunately, they guessed wrong.
The game between Arsenal and Chelsea was very dull. Arsenal wanted to win, and Chelsea just had to draw. Therefore, Mourinho's team set up an iron bucket formation and let Arsenal attack like a tide outside. He just did not come out. A game without offense was not worth appreciating. The commentator, Andy Gray, yawned as he watched. He pulled off his headphones and covered the microphone as he muttered, "If I had known, I might as well have gone to commentate on the other game!"
The other game he was talking about was naturally the game between Nottingham Forest and Manchester United.
Judging from the data transmitted from the various venues, the game between the Forest team and Manchester United was indeed intense. With a minute to go in the first half, the two sides were already tied at 2: 2. On the other hand, it was still 0: 0 at Stamford Bridge. It's so depressing …
The first half was over. Andy Gray watched Martin Taylor take off his headphones and handed him a glass of water.
"Thank you."
Gray shook his head. "Off-field factors, off-field factors … So what if there are a lot of off-field factors in this game? They can't even tell which game is more important. What are those idiots at the television station thinking? "
Taylor smiled and put the empty glass back. "Stop complaining. I'm afraid you'll be commentating on his games until you puke next season."
Gray said sternly, "That's impossible. He's an interesting guy."
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While the two commentators were privately evaluating Tang En, the first half of the game in the City Ground stadium had just ended. The score on the electronic scoreboard was 2: 2. Forest had a goal each from Viduka and Crouch, and Manchester United did not show any weakness. Every time Forest took the lead, they would quickly equalize the score. What contributed to Manchester United's success was their powerful forward combination, van Nistelrooy and Rooney.
Hierro was old, after all. When faced with Rooney's attack, he appeared to be somewhat powerless. Fortunately, George Wood knew what he had to do. Without needing Tang En to yell at him, he would take the initiative to help Hierro share some of the defensive pressure.
During the halftime interval, Tang En praised the players' performance, even though they had allowed their opponents to score two goals in half a minute.
"Well done. Continue to play like this in the second half!"
After the second half of the game began, Forest had the home advantage. Amidst the shouts of nearly 30,000 fans, they launched wave after wave of attacks on Manchester United's penalty area. Without Edwin van der Sar, Manchester United's defense still had a big problem. Ferguson also knew this, so he had no intention of withdrawing his defense in the second half. Instead, he made the exact same choice as Tang En — continue to strengthen their strong point, the offense.
Tang En brought on Arteta to continue to strengthen the offense, while Ferguson brought on Alan Smith. They were all offensive players.
Offensive. The fans were overjoyed. The two managers, on the other hand, stood on the sidelines with their brows tightly furrowed, closely watching all the changes that happened in the field.
The pace of the transition between offense and defense quickened, and both sides initiated more mistakes. The scene looked good, but the technical and tactical content was reduced.
Tang En did not have any good tactics to use. He believed that Ferguson was the same. There were very few things a manager could do in this kind of contest. It depended more on the performance of the players on the field.
A flash of inspiration could decide the outcome of the game.
Arteta suddenly dribbled the ball and broke through from the middle. Roy Keane stepped forward, intending to stop him. After seeing Keane come up, Arteta suddenly passed the ball to Ribéry. After receiving the ball, Ribéry did not pass the ball from the byline. Instead, under the pincer defense of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gary Neville, he suddenly cut inside and rushed toward the penalty area!
This change was beyond Manchester United's expectations. They hurriedly mobilized a large number of troops to surround and intercept him. After Ribéry attracted the attention of three Manchester United defenders, he did not continue to break through. Instead, he made a feint and passed the ball to the top of the penalty area.
"Mikel Arteta!"
Arteta did not stop the ball and directly shot a long shot!
Keane did not expect Ribéry to pass the ball back so quickly. He also did not expect Arteta to not run into the penalty area, but to stop outside and wait for the pass.
Carlo's reaction could not be said to be slow. He did his best to save and successfully saved the ball. But the ball did not fly out of the end line. Instead, it bounced back inside. The football leaped high, and when everyone could only look up, Crouch rose from the ground and smashed the football into Manchester United's unguarded goal with a header that he was not good at without anyone interfering!
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At Stamford Bridge, Andy Gray yawned. The score was still 0: 0. No matter how much the media hyped it up before the game, this game was not worth the ticket price at all. There was a small monitor in front of him, and the words below it attracted his attention.
Nottingham Forest 3: 2 Manchester United. Goal scorer: Peter Crouch, 79th minute.
His eyes widened.
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The cheers in the City Ground stadium continued from the moment Crouch scored until the end of the game. Manchester United tried everything they could but could not break through the Forest team's defense. They could only helplessly accept this result.
Ferguson stood in front of Tang En and extended his hand to him with a straight face. "Every time I see you so young, I think … Am I already too old?"
"Ah … Well …" Tang En did not know what to say. Logically speaking, he had won the game and should say some nice words to comfort Ferguson. But he always felt that Ferguson was not the kind of loser who needed the consolation of a winner.
"You're joking. Seeing you, my plans to retire will have to be postponed again. " The old manager slapped Tang En's palm hard, then turned around and led the Manchester United coaching staff into the players' tunnel.
Tang En watched Ferguson leave the field before turning to look at the excited players.
"Well done, boys. Well done. "
(To be continued, if you want to know what happens next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support the original reading!)
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