"Sun Jihai has defended Nottingham Forest's goal! It's as if he descended from the sky and appeared in front of the empty goal to block Shevchenko's shot! Let's take a look at it in slow motion … After being bypassed by Shevchenko, he immediately got up from the ground and chased back. When all our attention was on Shevchenko and Edwin van der Sar, no one noticed that he had already charged back! What a terrifying fighting spirit! "
Motson threw all the praises to Sun Jihai. The protagonist was still pressed under the players' bodies.
The City Ground stadium was in jubilation. Those who did not know would have thought that Nottingham Forest had scored.
Shevchenko sat on the ground and looked helplessly at the celebrating Nottingham Forest players. Such a good opportunity … Such a good opportunity! He still could not score. It was as if God was playing a joke on him. It was impossible for him to play as perfectly as he did this time, but he still could not score.
The awe-inspiring world-class striker was blocked in his tracks by a Chinese player.
"Shevchenko must be regretting it now. If he had not pushed the half high ball but the ground ball, Sun Jihai would not have been able to stop it even if he had wings. However … under those circumstances, there was nothing he could have done better. We still have to look back and praise the resilience of the Chinese people. No matter the situation, they did not give up … No, this is not just the resilience of the Chinese people. This is the resilience of Nottingham Forest. "
When Mourinho saw Shevchenko and Edwin van der Sar one-on-one, he stood up from his seat and was ready to rush out of the technical area to celebrate the goal. He never thought that Shevchenko's shot might not go in. However, such a situation did happen after all.
When he saw Sun Jihai soar into the air and use a move similar to China Kung Fu to kick the football out of the end line, he punched the ground.
Damn Tony Twain, damn Nottingham Forest, damn Chinese players! Every single person here was so annoying!
Next to him, Tang En led the members of the coaching unit to applaud Sun Jihai on the field. Sun Jihai was a very diligent player. Whether he was playing as a starter or a substitute, he was very responsible. When Tang En first bought him, it was because of this point. Compared to many European and American players, he was much less impetuous. A team can't be full of people like him, right?
Tang Jing saw this scene from the reporters' seats.
When the Forest manager, Tony Twain, spent four million to bring in Sun Jihai from Manchester City, it really excited the country for a while because it was the highest price for a Chinese player. However, the good times did not last long. Sun Jihai did not defeat Chimbonda in the competition within the team. Most of the time, he could only play as a substitute. As a result, the English media believed that Tang En was a sucker who had been cheated out of 4 million dollars by Pearce using a defender who was on the verge of being eliminated from China. Even the domestic media was not optimistic about Sun Jihai's future in the Forest team, especially after seeing the Forest team's "grand" goal.
Unexpectedly, during Twain's "streamlining" operation at the beginning of the season, many people who could not keep up with the needs of the team left the team, but Sun Jihai stayed. Tang En rarely commented on China players in public. Whether it was praise or criticism, the media could not figure out what he was thinking.
Now that she saw this scene, Tang Jing more or less understood.
Sun Jihai had been in the starting lineup for almost every game in the last few games. His versatility was a good addition to the team. The team did not need to replenish players in multiple positions. One Sun Jihai was enough.
But if they only needed a jack of all trades, Tang Jing believed that Tony had more and better choices. Seeing the scene of Sun Jihai saving the team from danger, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind. Sun Jihai's style of not giving up and what Tang En had been preaching were very compatible.
Now it made sense. Why did Tang En value Sun Jihai so much?
When Tang En chose a player, it was not based on a person's age, nationality, or skill level. His first requirement was whether they were to his taste.
Sun Jihai was right.
Every manager had their own preferences. For example, Arsenal's manager, Arsène Wenger, preferred players who were not physically strong but had excellent skills. Tony Twain, on the other hand, preferred players with top-notch willpower. It could be seen from how highly he regarded George Wood. It was said that in the latest FM game, George Wood's mental attributes were the strongest among all the players.
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Sun Jihai's flash not only saved the team's goal, but more importantly, it boosted the team's morale.
Nottingham Forest was not hit by Chelsea's attack. On the contrary, it was Chelsea who was hit.
Just five minutes after Shevchenko's one-on-one goal did not go in, Nottingham Forest scored.
Wasting an opportunity would be punished. This saying came true for Chelsea.
Taking advantage of Chelsea's slight drop in morale, the Forest team launched a series of fierce attacks. After continuously threatening the goal guarded by Čech, it finally allowed van Nistelrooy to knock open the Czech Republic's goal.
"Van Nistelrooy! This is his seventh goal for Nottingham Forest! From Manchester United to Nottingham Forest, he has shown amazing adaptability and integrated into the team at the fastest speed. He is now the best striker in the team! "
Čech, who had lost the ball, could only smash the ground hard to vent his frustration. He saved the opponent's two shots in a row, but he finally could not save the third one. Van Nistelrooy leaned on Terry and stretched out his leg to poke the football into the goal. At that time, he was still lying on the ground and had not gotten up.
The Forest team's offensive was too fierce.
Mourinho could see it clearly off the field. Now that the team was behind, defense was useless. They could only continue to strengthen their offense and strive to equalize the score as soon as possible.
Shevchenko had not adapted to the pace of the Premier League and Chelsea's football since he came to the team. But because he was personally appointed by the boss, Abramovich, Mourinho could not not use him. Therefore, on one hand, Shevchenko did not perform well and was in a slump. On the other hand, Mourinho had repeatedly exonerated Shevchenko in front of the media and found reasons for him to be in the starting lineup. Now that Shevchenko missed a one-on-one goal and did not perform well, Mourinho finally found a chance to replace him.
Soon, Mourinho replaced Shevchenko with the German national team captain, Ballack, who did not perform well.
Andre felt a little helpless when he came off. He had worked hard, but unfortunately, he was a little unlucky this time. If he had scored that goal, everything would have been different. Chelsea would not have fallen behind, and he did not have to come off …
When he came off, Mourinho patted Shevchenko on the shoulder to comfort him. To the outside world, the two men had a good relationship. But who knew that Shevchenko and Ballack were not the players that Mourinho wanted to come? This temperamental manager could not do anything about his boss, who was even more temperamental than him. The rich Russian boss liked superstars and liked his fellow Eastern European Shevchenko. Ballack and Shevchenko were unplanned signings for Mourinho.
If every transfer was done according to the boss' wishes, then the Chelsea locker room would have long been in a mess. Not to mention that they had any fighting power.
Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, Casillas, Raúl, Buffon … These were all players that Abramovich was interested in. Putting these people in a team felt very powerful and invincible, but in Mourinho's eyes, it was a disaster.
Others said that being a manager at Chelsea was good because he had money and could buy whoever he wanted. Only Mourinho knew the hardships of working under this rich boss. He was indeed very rich and could buy whoever he wanted, but many times, he bought whoever he did not want to buy in the end …
Not only did he have to take care of the boss' preferences, but he also had to keep lying in front of the media to say that the arrival of Shevchenko and Ballack was something that he had been looking forward to for a long time. It was an exciting transfer to maintain the harmonious atmosphere in the Chelsea locker room on the surface so that the opponents who were eyeing covetously did not notice that something was wrong. There was nothing more important than unity in a team.
After Shevchenko returned to the substitutes' bench, he gloomily threw the towel that the coach had just used to wipe his sweat on the ground. He did not know if he was angry because he did not score the goal or angry because he was substituted.
Mourinho was not in the mood to care about Shevchenko's mood.
If they lost this game, everyone would be in a bad mood, and no one would have a good life.
He did not care about Shevchenko, but turned his head to the home team's technical area. Twain was sitting in the technical area, crossing his legs and chatting with his assistant manager.
Mourinho wanted to grit his teeth when he saw his leisurely look.
There was one thing that he would never publicly admit in front of the media — sometimes he envied his nemesis. Because he was the king in the truest sense at Nottingham Forest. The club would do whatever he said. The club only cared about paying whoever he wanted to buy. The club chairman would never put pressure on whoever he did not want to buy. In the confrontation with the players, the club would definitely stand behind the manager. Just look at Anelka's current situation …
England's manager had the same absolute authority as the general manager. Now, with the rapid development of modern football, the division of labor between the various departments had become more refined, which slowly became a luxury.
Do you still remember what I said when I first entered Chelsea?
God, other than God, it's me.
Now he realized something was wrong. The actual situation should be:
God, other than God, Abramovich, and me.
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After Ballack came on, Chelsea played as a lone striker. Drogba alone was enough. Mourinho wanted to compete with Twain in the midfield. He could see that only by controlling the midfield could he completely strike a blow to Nottingham Forest's arrogance.
Without George Wood to frantically press and run in the midfield, this was Chelsea's chance. They could use their advantage in numbers to recapture the midfield.
When the time came, as long as they completely controlled the midfield, Chelsea could attack however they wanted.
After bringing Ballack on, Mourinho brought on Joe Cole to replace Makelele, leaving Essien alone to take care of the defense. This substitution gave the Chelsea players a clear signal — Mourinho was going to go all out.
At this point in the game, there were only over 20 minutes until the end. If they did not go all out, were they going to wait until the last ten minutes to fight?
Twain certainly would not defend just because they were ahead by one goal. If Wood was there, he could do so.
The best thing to do now was to continue to attack and go head-to-head with Chelsea, using their own offense to replace defense.
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How could a score of 2: 1 be enough in such an open game?
In the 73rd minute of the game, Chelsea retaliated with a tooth for a tooth, relying on a corner kick to create chaos in the Forest penalty area. Following that, Drogba scored the equalizer.
This goal finally gave Mourinho a chance to vent his emotions. He ran out and rushed into the crowd of people celebrating the goal.
Everyone was used to the two managers doing all kinds of things that were out of line, so the commentator, Motson, did not make a fuss. He just laughed in front of the microphone.
At the end of the game with 17 minutes left, Chelsea equalized the score.
Was the game going to end just like that?
Obviously not. Twain did not agree to it. What was originally a win with a lead became a draw. How could he take this lying down?
Mourinho would not agree to it either. When he came here, he had not thought of taking away a point. A draw was still a failure for him, because he still had not broken his embarrassing record of not winning against Nottingham Forest.
At the last moment, Twain brought off van der Vaart and brought on Arteta to continue to strengthen the offense. Mourinho did not use up his last substitution. Twain similarly still had a substitution in his hand. This was a card he used just in case and to stall for time when they were ahead at the last moment.
Time moved towards the end of the game. However, both sides fighting on the field seemed to be unaware of the passage of time. They continued to attack each other, hoping to score another goal.
This time, Chelsea, who had been led by Nottingham Forest twice, finally turned the tables.
"Michel Essien! A beautiful combination of hitting the wall in front of the penalty area! He rushed in … and shot! The ball went in! All of this happened too quickly. Edwin van der Sar and the Forest defenders could not react in time! "
Essien was tightly pulled from behind by Drogba, who then threw him to the ground. The two black men rolled together and were then drowned in more blue.
Mourinho jumped up and applauded the goal. In the 80th minute, they had turned defeat into victory!
Twain's face was gloomy. He did not express his anger at conceding a goal at the last minute … but everyone could clearly see that he was storing up his emotions.
No, at the last minute? There were still ten minutes left!
After the Chelsea people celebrated wildly, Twain stood up from the manager's seat.
Unexpectedly, he did not roar loudly or wave his arms fiercely this time. He just stood on the sidelines with his arms crossed over his chest, a grim expression on his face. Twain knew that there was no need for him to remind his players of how terrible the situation was.
They had taken the lead twice and gained the upper hand, but both times they had been equalized by their tenacious opponents. Now, just as they were focused on taking the lead for the third time, their cunning opponents had taken the opportunity to launch a sneak attack and overtake the score! Could Nottingham Forest accept such a defeat on their own home ground? Could their unbeaten record against Chelsea be ended in such a way?
There were still ten minutes left. Other than attacking, they had no other choice. Even if they were to be sneakily attacked by their opponents again …
Twain's thoughts were not bad. The Forest players were well aware of their current situation. They had also seen the overcast expression on their boss's face. If they let their opponents have it easy, they themselves would not have it easy either.
"The match is nearing its end. Nottingham Forest is still persisting in their offense. Their offense … is very frantic. Chelsea has no choice but to withdraw their defense. Mourinho has called up Lassana Diarra from the substitutes' bench. He's prepared to bring on the French defensive midfielder to strengthen their defense in the last few minutes. "
Mourinho wanted to strengthen his defense, so Twain naturally strengthened his offense. When Mourinho called up Diarra, Twain also called up Bendtner.
Both sides substituted players at the same time. There were still six minutes before the injury stoppage time.
"Play a high ball? I don't think that's a good idea. Chelsea's defensive line's air defense is not weak … "Mark Lawrenson once again raised doubts about Twain's substitution.
"At a time like this, the only way is to play a high ball, right?" Motson said. "The first time the two teams met in the English Premier League, on this field, wasn't the one who scored the goal Bendtner? Twain might think that this Danish kid can bring him a little luck. "
"Then I'll have to sincerely wish him good luck …" From Lawrenson's tone, there was no hint of "sincerely wishing him."
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After Bendtner got on the field, Nottingham Forest indeed played a concise long pass. Albertini and Arteta's long passes were good. Coupled with the passes from the two flanks, they were all aimed at the heads of Bendtner and van Nistelrooy.
Although van Nistelrooy was 1.88 meters tall, he was not a center forward who relied on headers to make a living. Most of the time, Bendtner was the key figure in Forest's final offense. Whether it was a header to directly attack the goal or to ferry the ball to his teammates, he had to rely on his 1.9m height and excellent header skills.
After Chelsea saw Bendtner come up, they also strengthened their defense against aerial balls.
The tactical intentions of the previous 1.9m center forward were too obvious.
Mourinho also shouted from the sidelines for his players to pay attention to high balls.
Terry won the fight for a header with Bendtner and headed the ball out. He suddenly felt that this Bendtner beside him was only so-so. If he could not even block the ball, what was the point of fighting for a header?
Terry's clearance did not really resolve the situation. He only kicked the ball out of the danger zone. The football soon fell to the feet of the Forest team. Anyway, the game was about to end. Outside the penalty area were all Forest players, and the Chelsea players were used to it. They just had to raise their spirits and defend again.
Ashley Young took the ball on the right flank. Seeing him hold the ball, the Chelsea players only had one thought in their minds — it must be a high ball again.
Since Bendtner came on, Ashley Young had passed five consecutive aerial balls to the goal without any change. The kid liked to assist and led the Premier League in the number of passes, but did he not know how to change his method? There was no challenge in defending against such a ball.
Ashley Young glanced at the penalty area and faced Ashley Cole, who came up to defend against him. He gently poked the football and looked like he was going to pass the ball. Ashley Cole naturally jumped up to block his pass route. Even a fool would know he was going to pass a high ball.
Ashley Young laughed when he saw Cole jump up reflexively. Only a fool would think I'm going to pass a high ball!
Young suddenly spiked the ball back, and it just missed Cole, who had jumped up.
"Idiotic defense!" Mourinho cursed angrily when he saw the scene off the field. "Who taught him that?!"
"Ashley Young broke through Cole's defense and he inserted into the penalty area diagonally. This move was completely unexpected by the Chelsea defenders. Carvalho rushed over to cover the defense. "
Seeing the chaos in front of the Chelsea goal, Young proudly waited for Carvalho to rush up before he passed the football out.
A high ball?
No! A ground ball!
Terry had originally pulled Bendtner to prevent him from jumping for the header, so he exerted force downward. He did not expect Ashley Young to pass a ground ball, and Bendtner just took advantage of his force to fall down.
Was he trying to cheat for a penalty?
Of course not. He was going to shovel!
Tall people had the advantage of heading the ball when they jumped up, and they also had the advantage when they lay down. It was the same for height and length.
Terry understood what Bendtner was going to do, and he followed suit and shoveled. At this time, how could he care about whether it was a foul or not? If he shoveled, it might just be a foul. If he did not shovel, at this distance, as long as he was shoveled, the football was almost certain to enter the goal!
But he was still half a step too late.
"Nicklas Bendtner — YES! Its_GOOOOOAL！ Čech made a pouncing motion, but the distance was too close for him to do anything! The game has just entered injury stoppage time and Nottingham Forest has equalized the score again! The game between these two opponents, we really don't know the outcome until the last minute! "
"It's the last second." Mark Lawrenson added helplessly. He certainly hoped that he would not know the outcome until the last second, because then he would still have a few minutes to look forward to.
But things did not go his way. Nottingham Forest's offense, which had equalized the score again, could no longer pose a threat to Chelsea's goal. Both teams were unwilling, but they could only accept the result of a 3: 3 draw.
"The game is over. Chelsea and Nottingham Forest have tied at the City Ground stadium. Looking at the faces of both managers, it's clear that they are not satisfied with the result at all."
The two managers came together to perform the post-game ritual of shaking hands.
"Let me state first that I'm very dissatisfied with the draw. We could have won." Twain said with his head held high.
"I'm very sorry that you didn't lose." Mourinho countered with a straight face.
After saying that, the two of them left in different directions.
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