Eastwood's return gave Tang En a great deal of confidence. What confidence? It was the confidence to go further in the Champions League.
There were basically no major injuries in the team now, and the players were all in order. In this season, Tang En could finally arrange his team without considering the factors of injuries.
After the away win against Glasgow Rangers, Tang En had a meeting with the coaching staff to readjust their goals for this season — not to fight for the league title and let Chelsea defend their title. As long as the Forest team could maintain its current ranking, they could focus on the Champions League. As for the FA Cup … their next opponent was Chelsea. Tang En still decided to send players who usually did not make many appearances to play in this game, regardless of the outcome. It would be great if they could eliminate Chelsea. If not, he had nothing to be unhappy about.
Where was the best stage to make a name for oneself? It was not the domestic league, nor was it the "oldest cup competition" of little value. It was the UEFA Champions League favored by television broadcasters!
Of course, as a former China fan, Tang En still had a bit of a "Champions League complex."
This goal was the same as Evan Doughty's. Therefore, when Tang En told him the team's future direction, he was very supportive. Nottingham Forest no longer needed to prove anything in the domestic league. Now that everyone recognized the strength of Forest as a first-class team in the country, Tang En needed to prove it abroad, to the European continent, and to the whole world. Through the Champions League, he had to let everyone know about Nottingham Forest. He had to let AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus … let these powerhouse teams know that from now on, they had one more powerful opponent to steal their money and girls … uh, it was the Robin Hood who stole their money and glory!
So, even though there was still one round of the game, the outcome of Glasgow Rangers had already been decided in advance.
※ ※ ※
Before the second leg of the game against Rangers in Glasgow, the Forest team lost to Everton in an away game in the league tournament, but no one was surprised by this. Because Tang En had hidden most of the main players, even the main goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, who had always been in the starting lineup, was on the bench for this game. Everyone knew what Tang En was thinking.
Eastwood, who had scored the winning goal in the last game, did not start. Instead, he continued to sit on the bench to watch the game.
Tang En had given him 15 minutes for this match, and his performance was average. The Romani striker still lacked rapport with the team, but he no longer needed to score goals to prove himself. He had already proven himself in the last round of the league tournament. Now no one doubted that he could no longer play.
Moyes's team sent out their strongest lineup to face Nottingham Forest, who only had half of their main roster. Everton might never forget that it was Nottingham Forest who surpassed them in the final stages of last season and became the fourth team to represent England in the UEFA Champions League.
Looking at the Forest team's current glory, the Everton people inevitably thought — if it was them, they would be just as glorious!
Therefore, the game against Nottingham Forest had some special significance. In the first half of the season, they lost to the Forest team in an away game. Moyes did not want to lose again this time back at home.
He got what he wanted. The final score of the game was 1: 0. The home team, Everton, defeated Nottingham Forest. Even though this was a Nottingham Forest team that had deliberately reserved their strength, three points were three points, solid three points. There was nothing more important than this.
After the game, Moyes was also in a good mood after winning the game. As a friend, when he shook hands with Tang En, he also wished the Forest team a good result in the other arena.
"I think, the best result would be for Everton to get second place in the league tournament at the end of the season, and for you to become the Champions League champions."
Hearing this, Tang En laughed heartily, not the slightest bit depressed about losing the game. "You're too unambitious, David. If it were me, I would say — the best result would be for us to become the league champions, and for you to become the Champions League champions. Everyone would be happy. "
Moyes also laughed. "No, it's not your style, Tony."
"It's not?"
"Yes, it's your style." Moyes lowered his voice and said in a hoarse voice, "The best result would be for us to win the league tournament at the end of the season, and for us to win the Champions League."
Tang En scratched his head. He was still a distance away from those days. Even though he wanted to say that, he and the Forest team did not have the confidence at the moment.
Because of their loss to Everton, and Manchester United's away 2: 1 victory over Wigan Athletic in the same round of the league tournament, Nottingham Forest's points gap with Manchester United had shrunk from nine points to six. Ferguson's team was aggressive, but Tang En had no time to care about it.
Three days later, in the City Ground stadium, the Nottingham Forest fans waited for their opponent in the round of 16 — the Scottish Premier League team, Rangers.
Playing at home, Nottingham Forest waited at ease, taking advantage of the right time, location, and people. Their morale was high, while Rangers was under heavy pressure. This match was very difficult for Team Ke. Not only did they have to defeat the Forest team, they had to win by a large margin.
Nottingham Forest's three away goals were like three mountains pressing down on the Scots' heads.
But that was not the only thing that was worse.
Three minutes and forty-one seconds into the match, the home team scored a goal.
This time, it was Arteta who scored. His long shot penetrated the Glasgow Rangers goalkeeper's ten fingers.
The City Ground stadium immediately went into a frenzy. The 27,000 people seemed to be cheering for 270,000 people.
"4: 2! Nottingham Forest has extended their lead to two goals! Rangers is now facing a predicament. Before Arteta's goal, they needed to win against the Forest team by two goals in this match. Now, they need to score three goals without allowing the Forest team to continue scoring! But looking at Nottingham Forest's performance and momentum, I think this is an 'impossible task.' "
This goal greatly shook the confidence of the Rangers players. Because it came too quickly, they were completely unprepared.
In the next few minutes, the away team desperately wanted to score. They constantly launched attacks on the Forest team's penalty area. But there was no strategy. The Scottish team played simply and crudely, using long passes to charge. In front of defensive players like George Wood, Piqué, and Pepe, they were least afraid of this kind of physical attack.
In fact, when the Rangers players were attacking, they might be asking themselves in their heads: Score three goals and still not allow the home team to score. Is such a match possible? We can't do it at all!
So, they really couldn't do it …
Ten minutes into the second half, the match completely fell into Nottingham Forest's rhythm. The home team wantonly passed the ball around on the field. The Rangers players fought fiercely for the ball, but it was useless. The Forest players were already in form and could play with any kind of coordination.
In the 79th minute of the match, Mark Viduka headed the second goal of the match in a positional battle and completely sealed the victory.
The Rangers players gave up on the idea of continuing to resist, and the match entered garbage time.
The 5: 2 score was a completely insurmountable moat in the hearts of the away team players.
In the last ten minutes of the match, the thick smell of gunpowder suddenly disappeared. When Nottingham Forest controlled the ball on the field, the Rangers players did not go forward to fight for the ball.
The Nottingham Forest fans in the stands had long started celebrating in advance.
Returning to the UEFA Champions League after 24 years and charging into the top eight in one fell swoop, it was truly a remarkable result!
The television cameras began to frequently give close-up shots of Tony Twain. It was this man who created everything in front of them. The revival of Nottingham Forest officially began the day he took the position of Forest manager.
"The match is over! The biggest dark horse of this season's UEFA Champions League has appeared out of nowhere — Nottingham Forest has eliminated Rangers from Glasgow and advanced to the top eight! The scene from 24 years ago seems to have reappeared in front of us: When that small team led by Clough first appeared in the Champions League, did anyone cast any special glances at them? Did anyone treat them as the same thing? Did anyone think they would be a threat to their own team? What was the final result? From now on, the powerhouses of Europe will have to seriously consider this problem! "
(To be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log on to WWW. CMFU. com. More chapters. Support the author. Support original reading!)
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