The two exceptionally conservative teams in the Premier League did not choose to be conservative when they encountered each other. Instead, they unexpectedly launched an attack against each other.
The open-ended tactics and playing style surprised all the spectators watching the game and also made them exclaim in delight.
They discovered that it turned out that Chelsea and Nottingham Forest's attacks were very exciting. Because both sides did not lack good offensive players. It was just that because of the tactics, it did not leave a deep impression on everyone.
What was the pleasure when the forward did not have to frequently shuttle back and forth between the two penalty areas?
"Drogba! A long shot! Edwin van der Sar also made a beautiful save … The two goalkeepers were destined to be the busiest people when the two teams were in an offensive battle. "
"The football was passed in front of Chelsea's penalty area. Van der Vaart split the sides. Gareth Bale came up and he received the ball. Facing Chelsea's right back, Boulahrouz … This is a new opponent! "
Bale was not afraid of Chelsea at all, even though they sounded very famous. Playing against Chelsea, he had a greater psychological advantage than anyone else. Because his famous game was against Chelsea in the league tournament.
He did not care who was in front of him. Whether it was Paulo Ferreira, Carvalho, or the newcomer Boulahrouz, he only had one thought — break through and then pass.
Boulahrouz became famous because of his successful defense against Ronaldinho in the game against Barcelona. Facing Bale, he did not take it to heart. Could a kid be better than Ronaldinho?
If Bale wanted to break through, he would put himself in the path of Bale's breakthrough. As long as he sped over, he was sure to hit him.
"Bale!" Ribéry shouted next to him. He could see Boulahrouz's thoughts. He could not let Bale rush over. "Pass the ball to me!"
But Bale did not seem to hear. The little monkey, who appeared timid off the field, was like a battle-hardened veteran on the field.
Bale pulled the football to the outside and was almost close to the sideline. Boulahrouz was delighted when he saw his action. Bring the ball to such a dead end. Let's see how you break through!
The Dutch full back stuck his body inside and then stretched out his foot to intercept the ball. He calculated that Bale would never spike the football to the inside because he would be stuck in his position. When he spiked over, he would block sideways and the ball would be separated. Bale must have known this, and Boulahrouz had calculated that Bale would go outside.
Now that the football was so close to the sideline, it would be too easy for him to poke the ball out if he went outside …
Boulahrouz did not have to intercept the ball himself. As long as he forced the football out of the sideline by Bale himself, it would be a successful defense.
His action of stretching out his leg was only to let Bale poke the ball out himself …
Bale did kick the ball. He kicked the ball to the left with his right foot, but a second later, he stepped up with his left foot and knocked the ball out in a straight line. The ball rolled past Boulahrouz's side!
Boulahrouz raised his hand to signal to the referee that Bale's ball was out of bounds, but he did not hear the referee's whistle. Instead, he saw Bale skimming past his defensive zone.
"What a beautiful breakthrough! Boulahrouz did not expect this at all!"
After breaking through, Bale looked up at the penalty area. He did not choose to blindly pass the ball to the goal. Most young players would do that. It was an irresponsible and brainless approach. Bale didn't. He cleverly passed the ball to Ribery, who had just raised his hand for the ball.
"Shoot!" Bale even shouted as he passed the ball out. In the last league game, it was in this position. With this kind of coordination, Bale assisted Ribery to score a goal. He clearly wanted to do it again.
But Chelsea did not let him do as he wished. There were already enough Chelsea players around Ribery. It was already very good that he could stop the ball.
Ribery also did not want to shoot. He observed the situation around him before he received the ball. If he forced his foot, he did not know where the football would be kicked. He would not be so foolish to waste an opportunity to attack!
Huh?
Surrounded by the crowd, he suddenly saw a familiar figure.
Why was he there?
There was no time to think about it, and there was no time for Ribery to think. He pushed the football that had just rolled over with the arch of his foot, and the football drilled between Essien's legs.
"Freddy Eastwood!!"
Yes, the man who appeared in the blank area of Chelsea's rear defensive line was the low-key striker, Eastwood, who had been hiding behind van Nistelrooy!
When Bale broke through, he was still outside the penalty area. Van Nistelrooy alone in the penalty area attracted the attention of both Terry and Carvalho. For Eastwood's defense, Mourinho suggested that the players focus on his activity at the top of the penalty area. The Romani had scored a lot of goals this season, and most of them were long shots from this position. He was very good at long shots.
Everyone paid attention to his long shots, but no one thought that this man was actually a shadow striker.
What was a shadow striker? Hiding behind the center forward, waiting for the opportunity to strike, a deadly figure!
Eastwood keenly found a loophole in Chelsea's defense that he could exploit. He did not know if Ribery would pass the ball to him because he did not tell Ribery that he would be there. He just resolutely plugged in and then believed that Scarface would see him.
Sure enough, when he looked back, he just saw the football rolling between Essien's legs …
Well done, Scarface!
Eastwood praised in his heart. At the same time, he moved sideways to let the football pass. Without waiting for Terry and Carvalho to pounce on him, and without giving Čech a chance to adjust his center of gravity, he directly raised his leg to shoot!
Čech did not expect the Romani to shoot so decisively and without any sloppiness. He directly raised his leg without adjusting. He did not have time to move over to block the angle. He could only try to pounce sideways, hoping to keep the football out of the door.
The Czech Republic national goalkeeper tried his best but could not stop the ball from flying into the goal from his side.
“GOOOOAL！ Beautiful coordination! This is Eastwood's sixth goal of the season! The Romani Rooney is back again! "
"Seeing such a beautiful goal, I have to think again … Why is he not a member of the England national team …"
Eastwood had been selected for the national team before he was injured, but it was not the England national team, but the Wales national team. At that time, he was not yet fully famous, and the England national team naturally looked down on such a small role. Because Eastwood was born in England, he had the right to play for England. But his grandfather was Welsh, so he could also play for the Wales national team. When it came time to choose which team to be loyal to, Eastwood chose to be loyal to his grandfather, Wales.
At that time, England did not feel that this choice had any impact on them. England had so many strikers, Rooney, Owen, Crouch, Walcott … They did not lack a Romani.
But now there were more and more voices regretting Eastwood's original choice.
If there was such a striker who could score goals consistently for England … how wonderful it would be!
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Regardless of which national team Eastwood played for, the Nottingham Forest fans must be the happiest right now.
"Nottingham Forest is ahead of Chelsea at their home ground … To be honest, I'm not surprised by this situation at all. Tony Twain's team is very experienced in playing against Chelsea …" The commentator said this, offending all the Chelsea fans.
"What do you mean not surprised? It's just a one-goal lead, what's the big deal?!" The Chelsea fans waved their fists at the television screen and shouted. "This damn Motson, now everyone knows he's a Nottingham Forest fan!"
※ ※ ※
At the side of the field, Twain's celebration was always the wildest and most attention-grabbing after Forest led Chelsea. Everyone still remembered last season, in this stadium, Twain did a somersault to celebrate after Bale scored the winning goal. This time, everyone saw Twain wildly waving his fists at the side of the technical area, as if he was boxing.
In front of Mourinho, he was not reserved at all. He was deliberately angering Mourinho.
Mourinho was attracted by his wild performance, but he quickly looked away.
"This clown …" He cursed in a low voice.
The best way to deal a blow to Twain's arrogance was not to rush up to his nose and call him an idiot, nor was it to let his own players go down to the other side's technical area to provoke. This would only make Twain more pleased. Mourinho knew what kind of person his opponent was.
The best way to make Twain speechless was to score a goal against the Forest team.
Now was a good opportunity to understand Twain's true intentions in this game.
Was Nottingham Forest planning to shrink their defense after scoring a goal, no different from before? Or were they planning to attack to the end and fight against Chelsea for 90 minutes?
Mourinho was not annoyed or impatient because his team had lost a goal. He did not even get up from his seat. Five minutes passed, and Forest had no intention of stopping. Under the guidance of Twain's tactical ideology of "attack, attack. Other than f * cking attack, it's still attack", Forest continued to put pressure on Chelsea's defensive line.
The players could not wait to have a hearty game against an old opponent on their own home ground.
Always defending and counterattacking, it did not feel good to be pressured and beaten by the opponent.
"Nottingham Forest actually did not pull back to defend …" Clark also saw it.
"That's good." Mourinho grinned. "Nothing changes. Play according to our rhythm."
Unlike Nottingham Forest's ferocious attack, Chelsea's away game was more stable. It was as if they did not care about conceding a goal. Conceding a goal did not change their rhythm. The players on the field performed as usual, and Chelsea's attack was unhurried, patiently looking for opportunities.
Mourinho had long told his players to be mentally prepared to concede a goal in the game against Forest and to be prepared for the game to be very difficult. This was not a whim. It was the experience after more than two years of repeatedly playing against Forest.
Therefore, it was normal for Chelsea's players to have this kind of performance.
Mourinho firmly believed that the fiercer Nottingham Forest attacked, the more holes there would be in their rear defensive line.
When the time came, as long as they seized it once … they could defeat Forest!
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The game time went by, and both sides really gave the audience a wonderful offensive battle. The rhythm of attack and defense changed very quickly. Thirty seconds ago, the football was still in front of Chelsea's goal, causing the Chelsea defenders to be flustered. Thirty seconds later, the football flew to Nottingham Forest's goal, forcing Edwin van der Sar to make a pathetic save.
The audience certainly enjoyed watching this.
But a fast change in the rhythm of the game was not necessarily a good thing for the team, because it meant more proactive mistakes.
The players must be in a state of excitement when the game was played happily. They were full of energy under such circumstances, but they were not calm enough. Albertini and a few other veterans were the few who could still remain clear-headed. The others really only had "offense" in their minds.
The Forest team's proactive mistakes were gradually increasing. Mourinho looked at the mini laptop held by his assistant, which had the latest game statistics on it.
"In the thirty-seven minutes of the game, there have already been fourteen proactive mistakes …"
He believed his players would not have failed to notice this.
After Chimbonda intercepted Lampard's pass, he had intended to pass it to Ashley Young in front of him. However, he was caught off guard and allowed the extremely fast Robben to rush up from behind Ashley Young and steal the pass.
"Chimbonda's pass is too light!" The commentator, Motson, yelled.
Robben's speed was really fast. Even Ashley Young, after he reacted, could only follow behind the Dutch "Peter Pan" and could not overtake him to intercept the ball.
All he could do now was pray that Chimbonda in front could stop this fast horse and slow him down to give him a chance to steal the ball.
Chimbonda was indeed in the path of Robben's advance.
Robben's speed was very fast. He had no intention of slowing down. He did not make any extra moves when he faced Chimbonda. He pushed the football to the left while he bypassed from the right at high speed.
The ball was passed!
Chimbonda was supposed to turn to the football, but when he found that Robben was actually going to pass the ball, it was too late to turn around to defend against Robben. He also knew that once he let Robben break through like this, it meant that the defensive line was lost. Quick-Witted in a hurry, he suddenly stuck out his buttocks …
Robben did not expect Chimbonda to use such an ugly posture to defend in such a situation. He calculated the space for Chimbonda to turn around, so he used the shortest path and the fastest way to break through, but he did not calculate Chimbonda's buttocks …
In this way, he ran straight into it, staggered, and fell to the ground.
Ashley Young caught up from behind and easily got the football. At the same time, the referee's whistle sounded.
"Foul! Chimbonda's blocking foul! "
The referee ran over to show Chimbonda a yellow card. The Chelsea players were still a little dissatisfied and thought Chimbonda should be sent off with a red card.
"He's really fast …" Chimbonda, who had escaped, still had some lingering fear.
Ashley Young patted him on the shoulder and then gave him a thumbs up. "You did a good job. That butt is sticking out well! "
Of course, the referee would not change his decision. The Chelsea players came up to grumble and quickly retreated.
Because the location of the foul was on the side of the field, it was not particularly close to the penalty area. There were only two players in the Forest team's human wall. The others all came back to defend against the Chelsea players lying in wait in the penalty area.
The two center backs, Terry and Carvalho, rushed up and prepared to head the ball. They were naturally the focus of the defense.
Robben was in front of the ball. It looked like he was going to personally take the penalty.
There were some small frictions when they went in. The referee went over to mediate and warned the players on both sides not to have such pulling behavior again. As a result, he withdrew from the penalty area and blew the whistle for Robben to kick off.
The Forest team's players naturally had to put all their attention on the Chelsea players to prevent them from heading the ball into the goal. But Robben did not lob the ball into the penalty area as they thought he would. Instead, he did a 20-meter sweep!
This was not a missed shot. It was a genuine pass!
The target was — Frank Lampard! This midfielder, who had been hiding outside from the start and did not go in to join in the fun, had an outstanding long shot ability.
"Lampard shoots!"
There are so many people in the penalty area. How the hell is he going to shoot! Tang En cursed in his heart. A shot under such circumstances would most likely be blocked by the indiscriminate crowd. The Chelsea players must be blinded by their desire to equalize the score. Choosing a direct long shot under such circumstances was not blind.
Just when Tang En thought the Forest team would get through this crisis, he saw the football suddenly change direction after it went into the crowd. It was completely opposite of the direction Edwin van der Sar had pounced in! And from the looks of it, the football did not leave the range of the goalpost.
"F * ck!" Tang En watched the football slow down after it was rebounded. Then, it wobbled as it flew into the empty goal. He could not help but curse in Mandarin.
"Ah ah ah! How lucky! Lampard's shot hit … hit the Forest team's defender, Kompany. It changed direction and did not fly out of the end line. Instead, it entered the Forest team's goal! Chelsea has equalized the score! "
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