When Barcelona came out, the Camp Nou stadium rang with a deafening song. When the broadcast introduced the Nottingham Forest players, the song turned into boos. The players were used to it when they were away from home.
When Tang En stood in front of the manager's seat, boos and curses constantly came from the stands behind him. Kerslake walked over and wanted to hand the iPod in his hand to Tang En. Tang En waved his hand and refused. "No need, David."
"Those curses …" Kerslake pointed to the stands behind him.
"It's nothing. I don't understand Spanish anyway. That's the benefit of learning one less foreign language … "
That was what he said, but it was impossible for Tang En not to understand the universal "F * ck." But he did not want to use his headphones to escape the boos in the away game today. This was not an ordinary league game, and the opponent was not the dispensable Reading. This was the Champions League round of 16, and the opponent was Barcelona. He had to hear for himself how strong the boos in Camp Nou were and feel the opponent's fear.
Yes, Tang En regarded this as Barcelona's fear. Why were their boos and curses so strong? Because they were afraid that if their team really lost to Nottingham Forest at home, they could only use crazy boos and insults to disrupt the Forest team's game.
Tang En shrugged. It was the same old trick.
Kerslake sat back down. He did not want to stand on the sidelines and be a live target for the Barcelona fans and be cursed along with Tang En. Tang En did not care. That was because he had good mental fortitude. He had not trained to that level.
Just as Tang En and Kerslake were talking on the sidelines, the players on the field had already begun to shake hands.
Ronaldinho was closely followed by the cameras. He was the well-deserved core of the current Barcelona team and the key figure to determine the outcome of the game.
Faced with this constantly provoking opponent, the happy Brazilian also put away the smile on his face and shook hands with the other side seriously. When he walked in front of George Wood, he deliberately took a second look.
Compared to the Forest team that they had played against previously, this Forest team had some new faces. However, he still knew most of them except for George Wood, who was still very unfamiliar to him. He had only heard the coaching staff tell him that this man's defense was very fierce and that he should be more careful in the game. He did not know anything else.
He was a handsome young man with wheat-colored skin and slightly long black curly hair. Based on his appearance, he might look more like a movie actor than a rough defensive midfielder. In his impression, England's players who played dirty must have ferocious looks, fierce faces, green stubble on their chins, clean and tidy hair that accentuated their character, and they would stare at you when they have nothing better to do.
The man in front of him had completely overturned his previous impression of the England players …
He extended his hand and shook George Wood's hand.
These were a pair of strong hands …
※ ※ ※
"Barcelona hasn't changed much compared to last year's Champions League final, while Nottingham Forest has brought in a lot of new players. But for this match, Tang En had sent out almost all the old combinations from last season. Van Nistelrooy and van der Vaart were on the bench. After joining the Forest team for half a season, the two men had proven their strength and occupied a solid position. What's Coach Tang En thinking of putting them on the substitutes' bench for this match? "
"It's like this … I think the media's analysis is very reasonable. Tang En's big talk before the game was just to divert everyone's attention. This game will be very difficult to play in an away game. He put the main players on the substitutes' bench to protect these important players in preparation for the next leg back at Nottingham's home ground. After all, this game was stirred up by his series of declarations before the game. If his players were injured in the game, it would not be worth it. Everyone knows that the Forest team's First Team has the least number of players among the 20 teams in the Premier League. They can't afford to be tossed around by injuries. "
The La Liga special guest commentator had some truth to his words. Looking at the Forest team's current lineup, Ayala was not eligible to represent Nottingham Forest in this game because he had already represented Valencia in the Champions League.
In such an important game, Tang En could only send out the young center back duo of Piqué and Kompany. This was also the main evidence that made the Barcelona media think Tang En was talking big. They did not think that these two kids could defend against the repeated attacks of Ronaldini, Eto 'o, Messi and the others.
"Piqué is an excellent player who came out of Barcelona's youth camp, La Masia. We acknowledge his talent, but he's still a little green to deal with an opponent like Barcelona in the Champions League. Kompany? As a young man, his performance in the Forest team is not bad, but he's too young. He's not even 20 years old! Tony Twain really has no one else to use. " The special guest was originally in charge of commenting on La Liga games. Because this game was held in Barcelona, he was invited by the television station to be a commentator. His review of the Forest team's game recordings was the media's coverage. In terms of real understanding, he might not know as much as Tang Jing, who was standing in the press box.
"Look at the stitches again. There's no experienced striker like van Nistelrooy. It's another young man! The Danish striker, Nicklas Bendtner. He's already been selected for the Danish national team. But what level is the Danish national team? "The sarcasm in these words was clear enough. "Eastwood is a good striker, but his form is not very stable after his injury. And he's only good. I think in this starting lineup, only Franck Ribéry can be considered a real star. He's an excellent player who can decide the direction of the game. Rijkaard must also be able to see that as long as he keeps a close eye on Ribéry, the Forest team's offense will not be a threat. Then when faced with that kid's defensive line, the Barcelona fans only need to think about how many goals they can score, not whether they can score or not. "
This half-baked commentator completely ignored George Wood, who wore the Nottingham Forest captain's armband. Fortunately, this was a commentary and commentary for the Spanish audience. Otherwise, the Nottingham Forest fans would surely point at the television and give this person a good scolding.
Almost right next door, the commentator and guest commentator from England were also worried about Tang En's arrangement of troops.
Such a lineup was almost no different from last year's final. The Forest team did not beat Barcelona last year. Could they beat Barcelona with the same lineup this year? The difference between them and their Spanish counterparts was that they did not ignore George Wood. "Of course, we have George Wood in this game. But what can we do? Wood is a defensive midfielder. His task is definitely to assist in defense. After all, the Forest team's two center backs are too young. Speaking of which, Wood is also young enough. But his steady performance on the field always makes us forget that he's only 21 years old. Wood's task is defense. What about the offense? The core playmaker, van der Vaart, and the main center forward, van Nistelrooy, are not in the starting lineup. This is a puzzling arrangement. Just relying on Ribéry? Ribéry's performance this season has slightly declined compared to the previous two seasons. In short, it makes people very worried about this game. We certainly don't want to see England's representative, Nottingham Forest, lose in an away game. No one likes to lose, even if this team was very annoying in the domestic league. "
While everyone was puzzled by this lineup, Twain stood on the sidelines and received the baptism of the opposing fans' boos.
Only he and the Forest team's coaching staff knew why he made such an arrangement.
Why not use the new players who joined the team last summer? It was not to preserve their strength for the second leg of the game, nor was it to worry about the players getting injured. Twain had other considerations. He spent so much effort before the game to stir up the players' hatred for Barcelona, to let them understand how humiliating it was to lose to this team last year. But these were only effective on the old players. For the new players who had not experienced the humiliating defeat last season, such incitement was somewhat strange in their eyes, and the effect was not obvious.
In an away game, momentum was the most important. Twain let the players who had experienced defeat play in the starting lineup in order not to waste the momentum he had stirred up. So, van Nistelrooy and van der Vaart, who were not injured or sick, nor did their condition decline, still had to sit on the substitutes' bench.
Only those who had experienced that unforgettable defeat would fight desperately to win the game and prove themselves anew.
※ ※ ※
As the commentator chattered on and analyzed that the Forest team was bound to lose, the game had already begun. Because Nottingham Forest kicked off first, the referee's whistle had just sounded when it was drowned out by the loud boos in Camp Nou.
Eastwood returned the ball that Bendtner had kicked to Mikel Arteta and ran forward himself. Camp Nou could hold nearly 100,000 people. The boos blanketed the Nottingham Forest players, but no one's legs would turn to jelly under such circumstances. Currently, the Forest team carried Twain's unique stubbornness. It was a little like a spring. The harder the opponent pressed, the more powerful the rebound.
It might have been better if the Barcelona fans did not boo. The more they booed, the stronger the Forest team's desire for revenge.
After Arteta stopped the football, he did not rush to pass it forward. Although he was anxious for revenge, he still had to maintain the necessary calmness as a midfield commander on the field.
He transferred the football horizontally to the captain, George Wood.
The information that Barcelona had learned was that George Wood was an outstanding defensive midfielder. He formed a solid barrier in front of the center backs. His technical characteristics were ferocious tackles, excellent headers, amazing speed and explosive power, as well as a stamina that could not run to death.
That was all the information. As for his offensive ability, the intelligence in Rijkaard's hands did not mention a word about it.
The football rarely stayed at Wood's feet for more than half a minute. He would always quickly pass the ball and rarely dribble the ball, whether it was horizontally or vertically.
The Barcelona coaching staff believed that this man would only cause a little trouble for their offense. Defensively, they did not have to worry about him at all. So, they placed the focus of their defensive work on dealing with Ribery.
After Arteta passed the ball, he ran forward himself, which attracted the attention of the Barcelona midfielders. From the experience of last year's Champions League final, Wood, as a defensive midfielder, should pass the ball to Arteta, who plugged forward, and let the Spaniard organize the attack. What about Wood? After passing the ball, he stayed in the backfield to prevent the opponent from intercepting the ball and counterattacking.
For more than two seasons, the Forest team's midfield had almost always used this routine. The only difference was that George Wood's partner might change. In the beginning, it was Albertini. Later, it was Arteta. Then, it was van der Vaart this season. If Wood was suspended because of a red card, his job would be handed over to Albertini or the China player, Sun Jihai. The task Tang En gave them was to focus on defense. This man was a conservative manager. If he were to coach Barcelona, he would be thrown off the stage within a month by the picky fans.
So, after figuring out the usual routine of the Forest team's midfield, as long as George Wood's connection with the other midfielders was cut off, the Forest team's offense would be paralyzed. It did not matter who Wood passed the ball to. What mattered was who received the ball.
Because it was a home game for this match, Rijkaard deployed his favorite 4-3-3 offensive formation. None of the three midfielders were specifically responsible for defense. They were all offensive players. This formation mainly relied on powerful attacks to suppress the opponent's midfield. So, when Arteta plugged forward, the three Barcelona midfielders just let him go and let the defenders at the back handle him. They believed that as long as the ball returned to their feet, they would be able to firmly control the pace of this match.
Ronaldini ran towards him. From the looks of it, he wanted to intercept the ball. Wood glanced at his opponent for this match and swung his leg to send the ball out.
Rijkaard saw this scene off the field and leaned his body back against the back of his chair. It was exactly as the intelligence had said. George Wood did not know how to do anything other than defense.
This made things simple. It became a matter of how Barcelona quickly blasted open the Forest team's goal in their half-court offense and defense, causing them to collapse in a chain reaction.
Ronaldinho saw that the ball had been passed out, but he did not turn around to chase it. Defense was not his job. You could not expect an artist to do the work of a mason, could you?
But just as he was about to brush past Wood, he saw Wood run straight forward!
What … is going on?
After Arteta received the ball, he did not dribble it at all. He kicked the ball back, and it landed right at the feet of George Wood, who had plugged forward!
"Barcelona wants to use offense to crush Nottingham Forest at home. Tang En's team also has no intention of playing defense in an away game! George Wood dribbles the ball and plugs forward! "
Arteta's sudden pass of the ball back to George Wood was indeed out of Barcelona's expectations. But if they were so easily tricked, Barcelona would not be Barcelona. They quickly adjusted their defensive target. This time, they directly targeted George Wood, who was not good at dribbling the ball.
Their thinking was simple. Wood did not know how to dribble, so it would be easy to intercept his ball. That was still fine. After intercepting Wood's ball, they immediately launched a counterattack and avoided having to face this defensive midfielder who defended fiercely.
Just as Puyol pounced forward, Wood passed the ball again. He did not pass it to Arteta, who was closest to him, nor did he pass it to Ribéry, who was closest to him. Instead, he made a long diagonal pass of nearly thirty meters, directly passing the ball to the right flank, where Ashley Young was.
"This … is really a precise pass!" The commentator's mouth was agape for a long time before he exclaimed.
He was not bragging. The pass was indeed accurate. Ashley Young hooked the ball down with his leg while running at high speed.
Seeing this scene, Tang En, who was standing on the sidelines, glanced back at the substitutes' bench and happened to meet Albertini's gaze. The two laughed at the same time. Half a season's hard work had not been in vain.
After Ashley Young took the ball, he attracted the attention of the Barcelona players. No one noticed that George Wood, who had passed the ball, did not run back to defend as per usual. Instead, he continued to move forward.
Facing Barcelona's left back, the newly crowned world champion, the Italian Zambrotta, Ashley Young went up fearlessly. Then, at a very close distance, he suddenly spiked the ball and cut inside. Zambrotta reacted quickly and immediately turned his body sideways to block Ashley Young's path to continue his breakthrough.
No more chance?
No, Ashley Young did not even think about dribbling the ball into the penalty area. He glanced at the middle and directly passed the ball out.
It was not a high ball pass to the front of the goal. It was a low ball sweep outside the penalty area.
"George Wood — WOOOW! That was close! "
The person who rushed to the middle and directly did a long shot without stopping the ball was not Ribéry, nor was it Arteta, nor was it Eastwood. It was George Wood, who was least likely to appear in this position and make such a move.
His direct shot was slightly over the crossbar, causing Valdés to break out in a cold sweat. He tried his best to jump up but did not touch the ball. Seeing that the ball was about to fall into the net, he did not expect it to fall but to fly out in a straight line.
Although it hurt a little from the fall, Valdés breathed a sigh of relief. If he had let someone score on his first shot in the opening match, he would have been too ashamed to show his face.
"Ah! What a pity! What a pity! "The English commentator could not wait to swear to show the intensity of his pity. "It's rare for George Wood to shoot such a high-quality long shot. Barcelona was completely unprepared. At the top of the penalty area, when Wood shot, there was not a single Barcelona player around!"
Tang En walked back. Kerslake said to him, "Looks like George is in high spirits today."
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