"The match is about to enter its final ten minutes. Nottingham Forest is now tied with their opponent at 3: 3. The scoreline was due to an own goal by Ipswich Town's center back, Richard Naylor, in the 33rd minute of the match. The two teams played like crazy today. They scored a total of five goals in the first half! Ipswich only managed to pull the score back in the 66th minute. "
"There's bad news for Forest. There's news from Rotherham United that a goal was scored. The team that scored was the visiting team, Wolverhampton Wanderers. That dreary match is finally showing signs of a winner. But this is definitely bad news for Tang En. If this score is maintained until the end of the match, then Forest will be five points behind the fifth-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers. "
"… Let's see what happened … Oh! The ball's in! Marlon Hailwood! This is his first goal of the match and his 21st goal of the season! This goal must have made Tony Twain heave a sigh of relief! In the 79th minute, his team is once again ahead of the home team, Ipswich! "
"The match is over! Nottingham Forest has won their fourth consecutive away game as they wished! Tang En and his team are on the right path! "
April 5th, Round 41 of the Premier League. Tang En led his team to a difficult 4: 3 victory over their most direct competitor in the Premier League, Ipswich Town. Hailwood's goal brought the team three valuable points.
April 9th, Round 40 of the Premier League. Nottingham Forest lost to the second-placed Leicester City by one goal in their away game. This was a failure of the plan. Tang En had held back, so he was happy that his team only lost by one goal and performed more like a winner in the match. With eighty points, Leicester City was eleven points ahead of third-place Sheffield United. With five rounds left in the league tournament, they and Portsmouth, who had eighty-three points, had basically locked in the two spots for direct promotion to the Premier League. The remaining teams could only compete for the third place decided by the play-offs.
As the seventh-placed Ipswich Town had lost consecutive matches, they were getting further and further away from the sixth-placed team. Tang En was not worried about being overtaken. Therefore, he decided to conserve his strength to deal with his next opponent, the Wolverhampton Wolves.
This was a direct conversation between the sixth and fifth in the league tournament. If Tang En won, Forest would have the same number of points as Wolverhampton Wanderers. Then, they would rely on their goal difference to suppress Wolverhampton Wanderers and replace them. If he failed, the gap between them would widen even further.
Although the third to sixth places in the league were eligible to participate in the play-offs. However, according to the Football Association's rules, the play-offs would be a two-round knockout tournament. The semi-finals would be a home and away game, and the final would be decided in a single match at a gravity field. The teams were ranked third against sixth and fourth against fifth in the league tournament. Therefore, the higher one's rank was, the weaker the opponents they would encounter. This was also the reason why Twain had to find a way to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers and achieve fifth place in the league.
As this was a match that concerned their opponents in the play-offs, Tang En's considerations were naturally the same for the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager. Both sides sent out their main forces and made the best tactical arrangements. This was a head-on collision without any fancy tricks. Both managers had used up their three substitutions and made all the targeted adjustments they could.
Just nine minutes into the match, Wolverhampton Wanderers' striker, Nathan Braque, took the lead.
Then, in the 26th minute, Wolverhampton Wanderers' midfielder, Colin Cameron, sprinkled salt on Forest's wounds. 0: 2! The City Ground Stadium fell into a dead silence.
The one who stood up to save the team at the crucial moment was David Johansen. His goal in the 40th minute gave the Forest fans hope.
In the second half, both sides deployed their players. The two managers used the green field as a chessboard and played a high-level chess match.
Finally, in the 73rd minute, Tang En's reckless tactics paid off. The captain, Michael Dawson, who was pushed to the frontline by Tang En for the second time, scored his third goal of the season. The City Ground Stadium exploded in an instant. Huge cheers erupted from the stands. It was so loud that Tang En could not hear his own applause.
In the following match, even though Tang En gave his all and the Forest players ran until they had cramps, there was no way for the fans to win. They helplessly shook hands with Wolverhampton Wanderers on their home ground.
The draw in the match did not change the situation on the scoreboard. The top six names were still the same as before. Even the order had not changed.
Tang En's bad mood vanished the next morning when he woke up. That night was the time Yang Yan came to give him lessons. He felt that there were two things worth looking forward to in his current life. One was to win every match, and the other was to have Chinese lessons with Yang Yan.
Yang Yan would habitually exclaim in surprise every time she saw Tang En. Among all the foreigners she had seen, he was the fastest at learning the Chinese language and culture!
Every time he heard Yang Yan add, "I'm definitely not complimenting you," with a straight face after praising him, Tang En would nod his head vigorously in agreement. That was because he could speak Chinese and write Chinese characters. He was a Chinese born and raised in China and had lived in China for 26 years.
The Chinese lessons were just an excuse to get close to Yang Yan.
He just wanted to hear Yang Yan's voice, see her smile, be in the same room with her, breathe the same air, and talk about the same topics.
Basically, the first half of a lesson would be Yang Yan lecturing Tang En, and the second half would be Tang En lecturing Yang Yan about football.
But neither of them felt that there was anything wrong with doing so. Yang Yan gradually became a Forest fan, and Tang En's Chinese had also improved by leaps and bounds. This gave Yang Yan a great sense of achievement.
Tang En found it funny every time he saw his old classmate full of achievements. However, he could not reveal this. He definitely could not tell others his true identity. On one hand, he had already realized that he might never be able to return to that kind of life in the past. On the other hand, he liked the feeling of being a coach. Even if he was a replacement, he did not want to return this body.
As for Yang Yan … she was the only person who could keep in touch with his previous life. There was actually not much in his past life that Tang En missed, except for this girl. It made him occasionally remember that he had once studied in China and knew some people.
In a sense, Yang Yan could be considered his first love. However, first love mostly meant that there would be no outcome. Tang En did not intend to talk about the past. He would let it rot in the bottom of his heart. Maintain the status quo. I didn't know you in the past, and you didn't know me in the past. Now that we know each other, we can't have any more stories.
The excitement Tang En felt when he first saw Yang Yan was more due to the contrast between the present and the past, and the side effect of the intersection of reality and fantasy.
Now that the effect was gradually dissipating, he could also use a more peaceful attitude to look at each other.
Let bygones be bygones.
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