Without the ceremony of exchanging high-fives and hugs, the 16-year-old Gareth Bale ran onto the field. On the television, John Motson was telling the audience how young Gareth Bale was, how he had broken the record for the youngest player to play in the Premier League in the match against Manchester City, and so on.
On the other side, Leighton Baines hopped back on one foot with the help of Fleming. His right foot was wrapped with an ice pack and pressed against his swollen ankle.
Tang En saw him "walk" back and quickly went up to him, giving Baines a hug.
"Good job, Leighton. Have a good rest. "
When Baines returned to the substitutes' bench, Fleming came to Tang En's side and reported his injury.
"It's a little better than I expected. It's a sprain, but it's not broken to the bone. I'll be fine after a week or two of recovery. "
Tang En nodded. "It's indeed better than I thought."
Nottingham Forest only had two games in a week or two, and they were all concentrated in the six days after the end of the game, so it was not considered crowded. The Forest team could have plenty of breathing time.
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"16 years old?" Mourinho flipped through the notebook in his hand. It contained the information of every Forest player, as detailed as possible. These were all areas where Mourinho was a cut above others. When he was coaching in Portugal, the club did not assign him a dedicated scout, so he paid for Tan Tan to help him investigate the details of his opponents. Now he was using this trick in the English Premier League.
"Is there no one else Tang En can use?" He threw the notebook to his assistant and stood on the sidelines to think for a while. "Tell them that the main direction of attack remains the same. It's still that side."
He wanted to take advantage of the momentum from his team's goal just now to score another goal and complete the reversal. Mourinho was well aware of what kind of team Tang En was. It was only at that moment that the biggest blow to Forest's morale would be. For this kind of team, if you did not completely crush them, they would jump up and bite you back.
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The game continued, and Chelsea's consensus increased. Everyone could see that they were targeting Forest's left flank defense. After Leighton Baines left the field due to injury, Gareth Bale had to face Robben and Duff's repeated attacks.
Everyone was worried about whether the 16-year-old Bale could hold on. If he collapsed, the Forest team's game would be over. As a result, many people began to doubt whether Twain was right to send Bale. Not only would it harm his own team, but it would also harm the young Bale — taking on such an important role in such an important game, if he was overwhelmed by the pressure, then he would be trapped in a nightmare of failure for a long time.
But Twain was not worried, not at all. He had seen videos of Bale training and playing in the youth team. He was the one who brought Bale from Southampton to Nottingham. He knew how strong the previously shy kid was.
When he called him back to prepare to play, he still had the leisure to care about Mourinho's celebration, which showed that he was actually not nervous.
Right. Tang En remembered that Bale's father was still in the stands. He turned his head and scanned the stands. Of course, he could not find Bale's father among the sea of people, but Twain believed that he must be somewhere in the corner. Ever since Bale was officially transferred to the First Team this season, as long as Bale was announced to be in the 16-man squad, his father would definitely be there to watch the game, whether it was at home or away.
Even though this was not Bale's first appearance in the Premier League, he was in the starting lineup and played the entire game against Manchester City. But that game could not be compared to Chelsea's game.
This could be considered as receiving an order in the face of danger …
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Bale was really not nervous, not at all, not at all … He disappointed everyone who was waiting to see him make a mistake because of nervousness. Five minutes after he came on, he successfully defended and blocked Duff's pass out of the sideline.
On the field, Bale's mind was only on the game, his opponent, and Twain's words — "Baines is injured. You go up and replace him as the left back. When necessary, you have to plug in to assist."
That was it. It was very simple. He did not need to think about other messy things, such as how strong the opponent was, how disadvantageous the situation was, how he received an order in the face of danger, what heavy responsibilities …
He just had to play well.
Due to Chelsea's offense leaning heavily to the right, the left back, Gareth Bale, appeared on the television many times in the six minutes he came on, and there were several close-ups. All the television viewers could clearly see how serious the young player, who looked a little like a monkey, was on his young face, and how focused his eyes were.
Chelsea attacked again, and this time it was Paulo Freira who rushed up. But because his dribbling was a little too wide, it was cut off by the clever Bale who plugged in horizontally.
Bale, who intercepted the ball, stuck to his position and protected the ball. He did not immediately kick the ball out as Baines had done previously, but leaned on Paulo Ferreira, who was harassing him from behind.
It really made people sweat for him to control the ball for a long time in the rear defensive line. If it was intercepted, it would be fatal for the opponent to face the goal directly!
He did not know what was good for him at such a young age.
That was probably the only evaluation some people had of Bale's actions.
Duff saw that Bale seemed to be in trouble and was entangled by Freira, so he decided to go up and attack and intercept the ball!
But he did not expect that just as he ran up, Bale would poke the ball toward the sideline. Seeing that the football was about to go out of bounds, he stepped on it with his foot and sent it forward gently. The football actually rolled along the sideline from Ferreira's feet to behind the Portuguese defender!
And what about Duff, who came up to intercept the ball? He was blocked by Freira's forward direction.
Bale turned very quickly and overtook from outside the field, bypassing both Freira and Duff at the same time!
As the Portuguese defender rushed up to assist, there were no defensive players on Chelsea's right flank within a certain distance.
Ribéry saw Bale break out of the tight encirclement and immediately ran to the middle, pulling Diego to run with him. As a result, the side corridor was completely empty.
Bale did not pass the ball to "senior" Ribéry, but dribbled the ball forward himself!
"A beautiful escape!"
Tang En, who was watching the game on the sidelines, clenched his fists and shouted, "Good lad!"
Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers! This breakthrough was a great morale boost! In a situation where the Forest team was pressed by Chelsea to the point where they could not lift their heads and kick out of the half of the field, Bale, who had just come on, used a beautiful and resolute breakthrough to break out of the encirclement of two Chelsea players and break out of the layers of heavy encirclement. This was not just a simple breakthrough to send the football out of Chelsea's encirclement.
George Wood, who had been silent on the field, suddenly roared, "All of you, go up!!"
He was also angered by Chelsea's pressing style of play. Always in such a sorry state, and even injured a player. If we don't even fight back, is it right? Is it still like a team playing at home? Who is willing to always let the opponent press on top of their heads?
So, looking at his somewhat dazed teammates, he could not help but let out his first roar.
As if awakened from a dream, the Forest players pressed forward on a large scale, sweeping away the haze of being pressed down and unable to lift their heads.
Sensing that something was wrong, Thiago hurriedly dropped Ribéry and rushed to Bale.
Anelka ran to the flank to support Bale, but Bale still had no intention of passing the ball. He stopped abruptly and turned around, his back facing Thiago. Just as Thiago thought Bale would pass the ball to Anelk, who came up to receive him, or Arteta, who was not far away, Bale suddenly used his heel to knock the football between Thiago's legs!
Thiago did not see this scene, but he saw Bale suddenly flash in front of him and then disappear!
"He turned around and broke through again! Beautiful! Beautiful! Gareth Bale, his appearance brought the entire Forest team to life! "
It was another overtake outside the field. Thiago hurriedly chased back, but his speed could no longer keep up with the young Bale.
Carvalho could no longer defend in the middle. Now that there was not a single Chelsea player in front of Bale, he could pass from the byline or cut inside to shoot. He had to go up and stop him.
Burying himself in dribbling the ball, he did not care who the person in front of him was. There was only one thought in his mind — bypass him!
But the strength of the Portuguese main center back could not be underestimated. Bale still wanted to stop and turn around, but Carvalho slammed forward to knock away the slightly thin and weak Bale and poked the football out of the sideline neatly.
Bale, who was running at high speed, was knocked off balance by Carvalho and tumbled out. He rolled several times on the ground before stopping. Loud boos rang out in the City Ground stadium, but the referee did not rule that Carvalho had fouled. Instead, he gave the Forest team an out-of-bounds ball.
Bale got up from the ground as if he was still in a dream. The young player, Bale, who had calmed down after being knocked, could not believe that he had dribbled the ball all the way from his own end line, passed three people in a row, and rushed to the vicinity of the opponent's end line. Chelsea's defensive player, Carvalho, had to rely on a "suspected foul" to stop him. His heart was still beating fast. Even he did not know if it was because he was tired or for other reasons.
Despite their dissatisfaction with the referee's performance, the fans in the stadium gave the warmest applause to the sixteen-year-old Gareth Bale. He had led the team out of Chelsea's layers of encirclement, and his performance was fully worthy of such warm applause.
When Bale heard the applause, he looked up at the technical area, wanting to see the manager's evaluation of his performance. In the end, he saw Tang En giving him a high thumbs up.
Well done, boy, well done!
Bale finally laughed, even though his laugh was still a little bashful.
Motson also threw all the praise at him. "Gareth Bale! Please remember this name, everyone! In the next few years, he will gradually grow into the main force of the Forest team. This long-distance raid was too wonderful! That kind of forward momentum and calmness in handling the ball is really hard to believe that he is only sixteen years old! "
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