Bale's free kick did not go in, causing more than 20,000 Forest fans in the stadium to let out a huge sigh. They lost a good chance to equalize the score.
Three minutes later, van der Vaart's long shot was pounced on by Čech and hit the post. It bounced back and was kicked out by Terry.
Nottingham Forest really seemed to lack a little luck. Twice on the goalpost, they did not score.
Twain also found that his set of strong offensive tactics in the middle seemed to be seen through by Mourinho. Makelele's foul on Wood was definitely not an accident or coincidence.
Because as long as Wood plugged in, Makelele would come up to defend against him, not once or twice, but every time. If Wood did not come up, Makelele would protect the defensive line next to Essien. As long as Wood came up to participate in the attack, whether he took the ball or not, he would be closely marked by Makelele.
There were rumors before the season that Makelele would leave Chelsea because he was old and Chelsea did not need him. But in the end, because Abramovich competed with Mourinho on the transfer fee, Mourinho, who did not have the funds to buy new players, kept Makelele.
To be honest, although Makelele was old, the effect on the field was really different with or without him. With the defensive midfielder who ran tirelessly in the midfield to intercept, Chelsea's offensive players could have the energy to attack. The change was difficult to explain in a few words. It was complicated because it involved many aspects. Anyway, with him, Chelsea's offense was sharper and their defense was more stable.
Wood came up a few times but could not receive the ball. In the end, he could only be reduced to creating gaps for van der Vaart. There was only one effect in this way. Chelsea's defense was easier to deal with.
The Forest team's offense could not be helped. Playing around Chelsea instead pressed Chelsea's defense tighter and there was no space to attack.
It looked like this would not work. They had to retreat and counterattack.
The problem was that the other side was one goal ahead. They had no reason to press out and play as the Forest team expected. If Chelsea shrank their defense and waited for an opportunity to sneak attack, Twain really had no good way. He had often used this trick to deal with other teams, so he knew the power of this trick. If there were no accidents, the result was often the team that scored first and counterattacked won.
Of course, football games were always full of all kinds of accidents, and these accidents were the charm of football.
Twain still let the team begin to gradually withdraw. He did not believe that Chelsea would not have a loophole.
※ ※ ※
Nottingham Forest withdrew in the hope that Chelsea would attack. Chelsea relied on a goal in hand and just did not come out.
The two teams looked like they were saying, "Come out if you have the guts!" and "Come in if you have the guts!"
Chelsea's attitude of defending to the death after leading by one goal made the home fans very upset. Although the team they supported often did this in the game, it was not acceptable for others to use this trick on them!
Neat boos rang out in the stands. They were not booing the Forest team for falling behind the score, but they were booing Chelsea for not daring to come out and fight to the death with the Forest team.
Therefore, when the Forest team attacked or held the ball, there were no boos. It was all singing. When the football fell to Chelsea's feet, the boos would immediately ring out if they did not have a very clear intention to move forward. There was no one to command him, but he could control it freely.
Abramovich, who was sitting in the box, was livid in the face of this kind of boos that could not be clearer. His team had never been praised as "good-looking" since Mourinho became the manager. The media always evaluated Mourinho's Chelsea as "utilitarian," "conservative," "negative," and "ugly." Such football was not Abramovich's cup of tea.
Today, the thing that he hated the most happened in front of him without any concealment. How could he not be upset?
Mourinho was unmoved in the face of the home fans' boos that rained down on him like a storm. He had no intention of making any adjustments. He just stood on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets and watched everything that happened in the field.
He certainly knew that it was ugly to play like this and would give people a "passive game" feeling. At the same time, the boss, who was watching the game in the stands, would not feel very comfortable. But he did not care about the voices and the perception of others. He was willing to do anything to win the game, not to mention a trivial matter like an ugly scene.
He did not want it to be a reality that he had not beaten his opponent once in his coaching career at Chelsea.
A few years later, no matter how successful he was, people would recall his coaching experience with gossip and say, "Do you know who Mourinho's nemesis is? It's Tony Twain! He never beat Nottingham Forest when he was coaching at Chelsea! "
That would be a tragedy …
He would not let that happen.
※ ※ ※
Someone once satirized the turf of Chelsea's home stadium, Stamford Bridge, as a "vegetable field" to describe how bad the quality of the turf there was. But the turf of the City Ground stadium was a veritable "vegetable field" for this game. The original green field had been taken up by a lot of brown — that was the color of the soil that had been turned over.
The rain made the field wet and slippery. It was common to see the players' jerseys change color after they tumbled on the field. The soil and grass scraps brought up by the studs were scattered on the field, and no one was in the mood to fill them in again.
The field became full of potholes, and the football moved irregularly on it, making the path of the ball more difficult to grasp. It also caused the players on both sides to make more mistakes.
Now it was up to who could seize and make use of the other's mistakes as much as possible on the basis of making fewer mistakes.
Tang En replaced Lennon. The field had become very unfavorable for breakthroughs. Lennon had already made mistakes during breakthroughs three times in a row and lost the ball. It could be seen that Lennon was annoyed with the increasingly bad field. With the score behind and the field interfering with his performance, he became more and more anxious.
At this time, Tang En decisively replaced him and replaced him with Beckham, who was constantly on the substitutes' bench due to minor injuries.
David Beckham's appearance silenced the boos in the City Ground stadium. Everyone stood up to applaud and cheer for the big star. His arrival had increased the Forest team's worldwide popularity.
This team, which had once defended the Champions League title, was quite famous in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But after more than 20 years, it had gradually become unknown in the world and Europe. Even if Tang En led the team to their third Champions League title, many people were still very surprised. Where did this unknown player come from?
This situation made the Forest fans, who were proud of their glorious past, very unhappy. Fortunately, Beckham's arrival helped them solve this problem. Because the media and fans wanted to pay attention to Beckham, they could not ignore the club he played for. For this team, which was already somewhat unfamiliar to the modern people, the media had to tirelessly introduce the glory they had once obtained. When the list of championships came out, many people gasped. This unknown team had actually won two Champions League titles before Tang En!
In fact, this was also what Evan Doughty and Allan Adams wanted to see: to promote and publicize the new vision of Nottingham Forest Football Club by bringing in a world-renowned football superstar.
David Beckham thanked the Forest fans who cheered for him before he went on the field. It was undeniable that he was a person who paid great attention to his personal image, knew how to maintain this image, and knew how to satisfy the wishes of the audience. But it was also undeniable that he was also an excellent professional football player at the same time.
Tang En did not bring him on to satisfy the sponsors and television viewers.
Beckham's appearance weakened the Forest team's ability to attack on the right flank, but his precise long passes and passes from the flank were strengthened.
Now that both sides had mistakes, Tang En thought that rather than relying on breakthroughs to find and grasp the opponent's mistakes, it was better to use simpler and faster passes. He believed that Beckham had that ability — to find loopholes and rely on passes to directly attack the enemy's base.
Since the field was in bad condition and not conducive to the movement of football on the ground, then they would use the air!
This change made Bendtner active again because his height and headers were the lighthouse of the Forest team's offense, guiding the direction of every pass.
Beckham almost used a flank pass to assist Bendtner to score in less than three minutes on the field.
Playing positional warfare required a strong center forward, and Bendtner fit this requirement.
With Beckham on the field, the Forest team also adjusted their tactics. Their offensive methods were no longer based on strong attacks in the middle or breakthroughs in the flank. Instead, they mainly relied on passes from the flank and long shots from the middle. At the same time, they hoped that the opponent would make some fatal mistakes in the game on such a muddy field.
Chelsea remained unmoved and continued to defend in front of the penalty area. At the same time, as the game went on, the number of times they counterattacked decreased, and the number of troops they put in to counterattack also decreased.
This was already very obvious. Mourinho was very satisfied with the one-goal lead and the luck that Chelsea had gained so far. He thought that relying on the 1: 0 score to suffocate Tony Twain was the best revenge.
In order to complete this wonderful revenge, he could completely ignore the chairman's murderous gaze in the box and the soaring boos from the home fans, as well as the mutterings of some players behind his back. He just wanted to win against Tony Twain. He wanted to win in the way that this man was best at!
※ ※ ※
The game time was getting shorter and shorter. The Forest team's number of shots were increasing, but the success rate was not high. There was only one way to pass from the flank and it was easy for the opponent to defend. However, Tang En was really out of moves. In the face of such "shameless tactics," he was also helpless.
He could only increase the intensity of the offense and crush Chelsea's defense. At the same time, he hoped that the luck that could not be found throughout the entire game would be on his side at the most crucial moment.
He did not believe in God, nor did he believe in Shakyamuni Buddha, or any other god, such as Allah, the Creation Titan, Amaterasu God, the Jade Emperor, Taishang Laozi … He did not believe in any of the gods from the Milky Way, the galaxy, the galaxy, the parallel universe, or the other world. But at this moment, he was asking for help from these gods in his heart.
I don't care who you are. Just come and help me out!
If there really were gods in this world, then these gods would definitely feel that this human was too shameless. He did not believe in them, yet he still asked for their help …
They were right. Tony Twain was such a shameless person!
Well, as shameless as it was, there might be some god who would hear Tang En's clamor in an extremely bored situation.
When the game time entered the last ten minutes, other than passing from the flank, Beckham began to try to use long shots more often. The Forest team's midfielders could switch positions, and Beckham would sometimes appear in the middle. His long shots were also of a high standard, and due to the addition of spin, it created an arc that made it harder for the goalkeeper to guard against.
This was where Beckham's long shots were more terrifying than ordinary long shots.
In the 84th minute, there were only six minutes left until the end of the 90-minute game. The commentator began to bring up the old topic again. "Since Mourinho took charge of Chelsea, he has defeated countless opponents. At the same time, he also has a record — in an eleven-on-eleven match, his team has never lost to Barcelona. But he also has a record that he is very embarrassed about and does not want to be asked about — in the league tournament and Champions League, he has met Tony Twain's Nottingham Forest many times, but he has never won once … But those are in the past. So far in this game, Chelsea is likely to win three away points. It's just three points. It's not much help for Chelsea's current situation, but it's considered a matter of closure for Mourinho. "
The television broadcast gave a close-up of Mourinho's side profile. He still had a straight face, pursed his lips, and a serious expression. From this face, you could not see the slightest hint of joy from him … Of course, this also had something to do with the game not being over yet.
Twain also stood on the sidelines, still frowning. But his expression was a true reflection of his heart, and it was different from Mourinho's coolness.
※ ※ ※
Beckham appeared in the middle again. He received a pass from van der Vaart, and George Wood plugged in at high speed. The game was almost over, and the kid's stamina and speed were still very good. Makelele followed him and retreated, creating a brief blank space in front of Beckham.
Beckham seized the fleeting opportunity and directly raised his leg to shoot, almost without a run-up. It was as if he was shooting a free kick in a mobile game. His body leaned back, and his right foot kicked an arc straight to the top corner of the goal!
Čech's line of sight was blocked by the wall-like crowd in front of the penalty area. When he realized that Beckham's kick was not a pass, but a shot, it was too late for him to get up and block it. Because the speed of Beckham's ball was so fast that he did not even have time to jump. He just turned his head to look in the direction of the football.
The ball hit the net head first and splashed water!
This was not the side net, but … a goal!
"David Beckham!" The commentator could not help but laugh. "A goal in the 85th minute! Nottingham Forest equalized the score at the last minute! This is his second goal since his return to the Premier League! He ruined Mourinho's good work! "
Seeing Beckham's goal, Mourinho, who stood on the sidelines like a sculpture, finally made other moves. He waved his arm angrily, turned around and walked back to the technical area. He circled in front of a group of people, grumbling incessantly. He had personally overthrown the "cool" image he had just established.
Twain, on the other hand, calmed down at this moment. He did not celebrate wildly, but turned back to high-five Dunn and Kerslake.
Beckham ran to the corner flag area with open arms, welcoming the thunderous cheers of the fans. Although he had sustained minor injuries and missed a few recent games, he still proved his ability to the fans. At the same time, there was a deeper meaning to the goal at this time — he sent a signal to McClaren: There's nothing wrong with my form. Bring me along. I'll never run away when England needs me!
The commentator shouted amid the thunderous cheers of the audience, "I really hope McClaren is watching this game. Ashley Young is busy flirting with women. Did he forget that we still have David Beckham?! McClaren had only allowed such an excellent player to play in garbage time! Someone once said that Beckham gave up going to the United States and chose to return to England so that the national team manager could observe his form in the nearest place. When we are facing the possibility of not being able to qualify, why not believe in this man again? He saved us once (against Greece in the last game of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers). Why can't he do it again?! Hey, Mr. McClaren, are you watching this game? If you're still upset that there is no hero to stand up for you at the crucial moment, look, there's one here! He just saved Tony Twain's unbeaten record against Mourinho! He can still continue to save England! "
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The television commentator was right. Beckham's goal saved Tony Twain's unbeaten record. Throughout the entire match, Forest Team basically did not have a plan. No matter what method of attack they used, they were all calculated by their opponents and had corresponding countermeasures. Just when Tang En thought that the match would end like this and was very unwilling to accept it, a certain deity finally heard his incessant grumbling. Unable to bear the endless nagging, Beckham's luck flashed for a moment …
The score was finally fixed at 1: 1.
When the 90-minute game ended, Twain turned and walked over to Mourinho. He took the lead and reached out his hand, shouting loudly at Mourinho from a distance, for fear that the other party would ignore him and walk straight away.
"What a pity, Mr. Mourinho!"
Mourinho heard his voice and turned to look at the smiling Twain. He said with a straight face, "It's strange. This is the first time I've seen a manager so happy after a draw with a visiting team on his home ground."
With that, he did not shake hands with Twain and turned to walk out.
Twain was left in the cold. He also realized that his behavior was a little off. He retracted his outstretched hand and awkwardly scratched his head. He only thought of humiliating Mourinho. He did not expect to humiliate himself.
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