Chelsea did not score a penalty, and Nottingham Forest did not seize the subsequent opportunity to fight back. The two sides were even. Although everyone was unwilling, there was nothing they could do.
The Chelsea players' stamina began to show problems, and the experienced players slowed down their pace. They no longer carried out a full-field scramble. Instead, they withdrew their defensive line and compressed the space in their backfield, not giving the Forest team a chance to fight back quickly. They circled around and slowly recovered their stamina.
Nottingham Forest had thought that after seventy minutes, Chelsea would face a double blow in morale and stamina. However, they did not expect Carvalho's foul to seem to have aroused their fighting spirit. The full-court press was gone, but the retreating defensive line was well-organized, so that the Forest team could not find too many ways to attack their hinterland.
Off the field, Tang En did not expect the game to turn out like this. The Chelsea players seemed to be completely unaffected by the missed penalty. They were still in high spirits and wanted to contend with the Forest team to the end.
Tang En, who was sitting in the technical area, smacked his lips. "Contend? Well, I'll do it with you. Let's see who can afford it! "
He was not in a hurry. Anyway, the Forest team was leading in the overall score. If Chelsea was not in a hurry to attack, they would still be the ones to be eliminated when the time was up. Nottingham Forest would also be happy to take down their opponent without bloodshed. If Chelsea planned to fight back wildly at the last minute, the Forest team would follow the predetermined strategy to quickly counterattack behind the opponent. If they could score a goal, they could completely defeat the opponent. Even if they could not score, they could use constant sneak attacks to harass the opponent so that they could not fully commit to the attack.
"Pay attention to the defense!!" Tang En, who had made up his mind to play with the opponent to the end, stood up, walked to the sidelines, and shouted. He reminded the team to pay attention to the formation when defending and not to be sneak attacked instead. "Settle down. Don't rush! Play with them slowly! "He pressed his hands down to let the Forest team members on the field know what he meant.
Nottingham Forest, who had just wanted to ask Chelsea to play in the thirty-meter zone, followed suit with a full offensive rhythm. There were fewer forward passes, and more horizontal and backward passes. No one was a fool. Now that they were leading in the overall score, they should not be in a hurry to attack.
※ ※ ※
Five minutes passed. The score and situation on the field had not changed at all. Mourinho could not sit still. He looked at his watch and stood up from the technical area.
If he wanted to rest, he should have rested enough by now. There were still fifteen minutes left in the game. How could he relax?
Could he not run? That won't do. This was a crucial moment. Even if he had to risk his life, he had to run and snatch!
Seeing Mourinho standing on the sidelines with a serious face, the Chelsea players on the field knew what they had to do.
That's right, now was not the time to rest. As the lagging party, they did not have the right to rest, even if it was only for five minutes.
"There are still 15 minutes before the end of the game. Chelsea has become active again. They have once again launched a full-field scramble, which is very exhausting."
Tang En smiled when he saw Chelsea pressing forward again.
It looked like Chelsea had no way out. In order to score goals, they could not care less about defense. He decided to add the last straw to Chelsea's back.
In the 76th minute, the Forest team substituted. Anelka replaced Eastwood, who was too exhausted to run.
With the exception of van Nistelrooy and van der Vaart, the Forest team's attacking combination in the front field was all players with excellent individual skills and speed. Any one of them had the qualifications to be the spearhead in a quick counterattack.
Nottingham Forest was determined to carry on the defensive counterattack to the end.
Anelka was very active after he got on the field. He certainly did not do it for Twain. He was only doing it for himself. His two agent brothers had repeatedly reminded him that because he did not have many opportunities to play this season, the teams that were initially interested in him expressed that they needed to reconsider whether they would bring in Anelka. After all, it was too difficult to say what the condition of a player who could not even participate in a game was like.
If he wanted to leave Nottingham Forest this summer and find a team that satisfied him, then he needed to display his level in the limited opportunities to tell the hesitant buyers that everything was fine with Anelka, whether it was his body or his condition.
Because of this mentality, Anelka handled the ball a little independently every time he played. He tried his best to show himself, but at the same time, he slowly pushed himself away from Nottingham Forest, a team that paid more attention to the whole.
When he first came to Nottingham Forest, no one welcomed him, except for the manager. He and Tang En originally had a very beautiful "honeymoon period," but unfortunately, the honeymoon was always short. Now, he and Tang En's football was gradually drifting apart, and the beautiful memories from back then had long been left in Java.
Perhaps his transfer to Nottingham Forest was a "beautiful mistake" in the first place …
Anelka desperately wanted to prove himself in the limited opportunities he had. Once the football reached his feet, there was basically no hope of it being passed out. Van Nistelrooy was rather dissatisfied with this. He was a center forward, but when the team needed him, he could even sprint from the opponent's penalty area back to his own penalty area to tackle the enemy's attack. He would not even frown if he was needed to be a wall in the front field to pass the ball to his teammates.
In the heart of the Dutch veteran, serving the team as a whole was a normal thing. As long as the team needed it, he could sacrifice his own shooting opportunity and pull out to create space for the other teammates to plug in from the back. He and Anelka played two completely different kinds of football.
The two of them could not be said to have any kind of coordination when they were together.
Off the field, Dunn and Kerslake both saw the situation. Dunn was silent and did not raise any questions. Instead, it was Kerslake who could not hold back. He asked Tang En directly, "Tony, you let Anelka go up to fight the opponent's quick counterattack, right? But he disrupted the entire offensive rhythm. Was it an inappropriate substitution? "
Tang En looked at Anelka's back and shook his head. "No, this in itself is a kind of gamble. He's the only one in our forward line who concurs with the request, so we can only let him play. As for the problem of his existence obstructing our other offensive routes, the pros and cons are 50/50. There's definitely a risk. You can't expect us to take down Chelsea smoothly, David. Most of the time, people are always faced with this kind of choice. I like to use gambling to describe these choices. "
Kerslake shook his head. "You're really a fanatical gambler, Tony!"
Tang En laughed and said no more, continuing to stare at the game.
※ ※ ※
The Nottingham Forest players were in a good state of mind. Even though Anelka was outside the team's tactical system, it did not affect their interest in dealing with the increasingly anxious Chelsea players.
Time was poison. As time passed, the Forest team's mentality would become better and better, while Chelsea's anxiety would become more and more obvious, and it would be expressed through continuous proactive mistakes.
Tang En returned to his seat in the technical area, while Mourinho was already standing on the sidelines, no longer moving.
It was not that Tang En was necessarily better than Mourinho. In the final stages of the game, the two managers' contrasting performances stemmed from the results of the first round.
If that game had been Chelsea's 2: 1 home win over Nottingham Forest, then with the current score, the person who would be anxious and restless would be Tang En, not Mourinho.
Why could Sima Yi make Zhuge Liang feel helpless, and ultimately die in a foreign land and fall to the Wuzhang Plains? It was not that Sima Yi's ability was superior to Zhuge Liang's. It was because the two men had different experiences and different mentalities.
Zhuge Liang had to break through Sima Yi's defensive line and take down the Kingdom of Wei. He had to take the initiative and attack.
Sima Yi only needed to defend and not attack, ignoring the opponent's provocations from outside the formation. He did not fight and did not give Zhuge Liang a chance to fight to the death. He was like a tortoise hiding its head. Although it was a little embarrassing, the actual effect was very good — Sima Yi won that game of chess.
Just like this game, Mourinho was Zhuge Liang. In order to advance to the finals, he had no other way but to attack. And because of Tang En's victory in the first round, he could choose to deal with the myriad of changes by remaining unchanged, following Mourinho's adjustments and dragging Chelsea to death. At that moment, he was Sima Yi.
The game time on the big screen entered the last ten minutes.
The score next to the time was still 1: 1. It had not changed for a long time.
Chelsea pressed forward with almost all of their troops, completely disregarding the fact that nearly half of the empty space behind them would be used by the Forest team's group of fast offensive players.
In the last ten minutes, if they did not go all out, they would not have a chance.
This was a game that they had to go all out to win.
Chelsea received a corner kick, and Terry and Carvalho rushed into the penalty area. The corner kick was sent out, and Carvalho fought for a header at the front. Due to Kompany's interference, he did not head the ball. Instead, the football leaked to Terry behind him.
Terry and Piqué fought in the air. Eventually, the more experienced Terry pressed over Piqué and headed the football toward the goal.
Piqué did not completely fail. His fight for a header with Terry forced Terry to be unable to choose an angle in the air, and he could only win by throwing the ball. He threw the football directly into the arms of Edwin van der Sar.
Edwin van der Sar sent the ball out with a big foot, but soon the football fell at the feet of the Chelsea players, and another frenzied attack hit the Forest team's goal.
This time, Drogba's long shot from outside the penalty area was an anti-aircraft shot. Seeing this shot, Tang En laughed heartily below. This kind of shot was too much of a blow to his teammates' morale. They had worked so hard to pass the ball to you. In a situation where time was running out and every opportunity to attack was especially precious, you actually shot an anti-aircraft shot so carelessly!
"If we can finally advance, I have to go find that big black guy and give him a hug," Tang En said to the two assistant managers beside him with a grin.
Kerslake was not in the same mood as Tang En. He had been frowning as he paid attention to the situation on the field. He was afraid that under the situation of being besieged by the opponent, his side would make mistakes that they should not have, and cause all the efforts of more than 80 minutes to go down the drain.
He was not a manager who advocated defense. Every time he saw his team's goal being besieged by the opponents, he was always on tenterhooks, even though he had seen the Forest team's overall defensive ability many times during their usual training.
No matter how strong a defense was, there would be a day when it would be breached. Kerslake had a bad feeling in his heart.
※ ※ ※
Mourinho had already used up all three substitutions. The substitutions were all offensive players: Salomon Kalou, Ballack, and Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Other than that wonderful pass to Robben, Shevchenko had not integrated into Chelsea from the beginning to the end. In the end, Mourinho, who could not bear it any longer, finally replaced the star player that his boss valued very much. At such a critical moment, he no longer believed in the "nuclear warhead" who had once been awe-inspiring.
In the box, Abramovich still politely got up when he saw Shevchenko being replaced. With a smile on his face, he applauded his most admired star player and sent the former Soviet fellow countryman off the field. It was not known if he thought that the back view of Shevchenko bidding farewell to the field was also a scene that Chelsea was about to present.
After Shevchenko left the field and entered the substitutes' bench, and the people in the box could no longer see him, the Russian tycoon's face was livid. For four years, his team had never been able to take a step forward in the Champions League. The best result was to break into the semifinals. Three years ago, because of Ranieri's foolish performance in the Champions League, he fired the Italian tinker and invited the magical manager, Mourinho, who had just won the Champions League, in the hope that he would bring the glory that Chelsea had dreamed of.
He looked coldly at Mourinho, who was standing on the sidelines waving his arms to direct the game. His face was expressionless, like a piece of iron. No one knew what he was thinking at the moment.
There were only five minutes left until the end of the game. Unless a miracle happened, Chelsea would certainly be eliminated.
※ ※ ※
Twain did not want to give Chelsea a chance to create a miracle. He immediately used up the last substitution in his hands.
Unlike Mourinho's adjustments to the offense, Twain made a defensive adjustment this time. He replaced van Nistelrooy with Albertini. In this way, Anelka became the lone arrow, while Albertini partnered with George Wood in the middle of the midfield. Both of them played defense, like a pair of pliers, to cut off Chelsea's offensive line.
Albertini took the order to go on the field and quickly told everyone about the manager's latest tactics.
"We'll defend! Don't give Chelsea any chance! "
※ ※ ※
Chelsea turned out in full force, with a solemn and stirring feeling of "generously dying." On this slightly chilly night in Nottingham, tens of thousands of Chelsea fans could only bite their lips, unable to speak.
The Forest team's defense erected a thick wall in front of them, a Wall of Sighs. In the face of such a tight overall defense, what else could the Chelsea fans do but sigh?
Mourinho did not wave his arms, because it was pointless. He let the whole team press forward without thinking about defense. Now, except for the goalkeeper, Čech, everyone pressed past the center line. And once there was a chance for a corner kick, he had no doubt that Čech would also rush up.
The Chelsea radio commentator roared at the top of his lungs, "Goal! Goal! We just need one goal to change everything! "
In the London bars and in the stands of the City Ground stadium, some of the Chelsea fans dressed in blue had already closed their eyes in pain and could not bear to watch anymore.
But the game was not over yet, and the Chelsea players were still fighting. How much they wanted to hear the cheers from the stands at this time? Unfortunately, there were only the cheers of the Nottingham Forest fans and the red fireworks that were set off in advance in the sky.
The fourth official raised the electronic sign on the sidelines. The number on it was the game's injury stoppage time, which would also be Chelsea's last hope to advance.
5。
"There are five minutes of injury stoppage time. Everything is not over yet. Chelsea still has a chance. In five minutes, as long as they score another goal, they can equalize the total score and cancel out the away goals scored by both teams at the same time. At that time, the game will be dragged into overtime. It can be seen that the Chelsea players are exhausted, but I have to say that even if they go into overtime exhausted and fight for another thirty minutes, they will still fail here! "
As he spoke, Chelsea received another corner kick. It was their tenth corner kick of the game. Sure enough, Čech ran out of the goal and sprinted all the way. Lampard, who was in charge of the corner kick, also stopped to wait for Čech after he saw him running to his side.
"The 1.97-meter-tall Čech appeared in the Forest team's penalty area. He is now the tallest player in the team. Maybe …"
Lampard sent out the corner kick and went straight to Čech's head. He put his bets on Čech, who was very tall and stood out from the crowd.
"Petr Čech! He swings his head to attack the goal — Chimbonda! Chimbonda, standing at the nearest goalpost, blocked Čech's header on the goal line! The Forest team has once again escaped a disaster … "
Čech, who did not score, did not turn around and run back to the goal. Anyway, it made no difference if they lost 1: 2 or 1: 3. It was better to stay in front to find a better opportunity and be a hero one last time.
The football was at Chelsea's feet, and the Chelsea players passed it back and forth.
On the Forest side, the substitutes and coaches stood side by side on the sidelines, waiting to rush into the field to celebrate.
Kerslake roared on the sidelines, "Grab their ball! They're an empty goal! Grab it … Damn it! "
George Wood's tackle on Lampard was bypassed by the opponent. Just as Lampard was about to hit the goal, Albertini charged out from the side and cut across Lampard's shooting route.
He was the first to poke the ball at Lampard's feet, and then took advantage of the situation to poke again and pass the football to van der Vaart.
The City Ground stadium rang with deafening cheers. At that moment, the live commentator could hardly hear what he was saying even though he was wearing soundproof headphones. He could only keep raising his volume and roar as if he was quarreling, "Chelsea has lost the ball! Čech hasn't gone back yet … Nottingham Forest is facing an empty goal! Van der Vaart chose to shoot directly — "
The football drew a parabola in the air and fell toward Chelsea's empty goal seventy-five meters away!
Čech ran halfway and looked up at the football that had flown in front of him. He slowed down and stopped running. It was useless to run. No matter how fast a person was, could he catch up with a flying football? He could only do one thing now, which was to pray to God to make the ball miss.
Everyone's eyes were attracted by the ball. Everyone looked up and followed the football flying in the air. The hearts behind these eyes were either surprised, excited, full of expectation, or flustered.
The football carried these emotions and fell from the highest point like a comet dragging its tail.
"Van der Vaart! Van der Vaart! Van der Vaart — Oh! "
The commentator cried. He saw the football fall to the ground in the penalty area in front of the goal and then bounce high. Then it bounced off the crossbar and landed above the net …
"It didn't go in! What a pity! If this ball had gone in, it would have been the best goal in the Champions League this season! "
Nottingham Forest was unable to break through Chelsea's goal again in the end.
Van der Vaart held his head in frustration, and a number of Forest fans did the same.
On the sidelines, Tang En was indifferent to it. The current score and time were enough to ensure that he advanced to the final.
With half a minute left in the injury stoppage time, Chelsea was beyond saving.
He pulled his arms back from Kerslake and Dunn's shoulders, raised them high, and clenched them into fists amidst the tsunami-like cheers.
He maintained this posture until the referee blew the final whistle.
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