Manchester United scored two goals in five minutes in the first half to establish their lead, while Nottingham Forest scored two goals in ten minutes in the second half to smash Manchester United's advantage. Now the two sides were tied.
Although the result of a draw was considered to be beneficial to Manchester United, because even if it was a draw and each took a point, Manchester United would still win the title by one point. But a football game was not a simple math problem. Even a fool would know that Nottingham Forest's morale was high at this time to equalize the score. If they were not careful, they would score again.
Ferguson had to make adjustments.
Attack? Of course not. He was going to defend. He had to be conservative at the last moment.
He replaced Rooney with Park Ji-sung, who had more stamina and a better balance between offense and defense. He strengthened the defense in the midfield.
After Park Ji-sung came on, he relied on his abundant stamina and style of not running to death to launch a fierce tackle on Beckham. Beckham, who was exhausted, was a little embarrassed by this kind of defense. When the football reached his side, it was basically impossible to organize any offense.
Tang En also decided to make a substitution. He replaced Beckham with Lennon.
When Beckham left the field, most of the people in the stands stood up from their seats to applaud their former hero. Beckham waved to the stands. He was not only greeting the Forest fans, but also thanking the Manchester United fans.
"David Beckham was replaced by Lennon. He received cheers from almost all the fans in the stadium. No matter which team he played for before, he now deserves this treatment, "the commentator said affectionately. "This is the first time he has returned to Old Trafford as an opponent. No matter the result of the game, his one goal and one assist will make people remember him forever …"
After high-fiving Lennon off the field, Beckham stood on the sidelines and continued to wave to the fans. Then he turned and walked to the Forest substitutes' bench.
Standing on the sidelines, Tang En extended his hand to him. "I can only use the word perfect to describe your performance, David."
Beckham smiled but did not say anything. After shaking hands with Tang En, he went around to sit on the substitutes' bench at the back.
Tang En knew that he was in a complicated mood because he had scored a goal and an assist against his old team in this game. He did not know what to say, so he did not take it to heart. He turned and continued to watch the game.
This was a league match, not a cup match. If the match ended in a draw, then it would be a draw. There would be no overtime, and there would be no penalty shootout. There would be no need to determine a winner or loser. Once the game was tied, the Forest team would still lose the league title. This was not the ending Tony Twain wanted to see. He had meticulously prepared for so long and put in so much effort to inspire the team's fighting spirit. The team equalized the score at the most difficult time, but it was not to get a draw.
He turned to look at the big screen at Old Trafford, which showed the match time. There were less than ten minutes left.
How was he going to score another goal when Manchester United made a gesture?
Luring the snake out of its hole definitely wouldn't work. Ferguson's team would not be so stupid as to be fooled so easily. It was clear that it was better to defend to the death at this time. Manchester United's rear defensive line strengthened their marking of van Nistelrooy and other attackers. As the Forest team's center forward, van Nistelrooy found it difficult to even turn around, let alone shoot. Arshavin was forced to the side, and Ribéry was forced to the middle. The two of them swapped positions.
Then … strengthen the long shots?
This was a way, but it was unknown how effective it would be. Moreover, they had put their hopes of scoring goals on this. If every attack ended so hastily, it would inevitably affect the team's morale.
Twain stood on the sidelines with one hand pinching his chin. He frowned and thought hard.
On the field, the Nottingham Forest team was bombarding Manchester United's half of the field: crosses from the flank, grabbing points in the middle, cold long shots, individual breakthroughs, direct attacks in the middle … Everything was used.
For a moment, the situation on the field was reversed. The scene from the first half reappeared on Manchester United in the final moments.
But for the sake of the championship title, Manchester United accepted this little humiliation. Ferguson stood on the sidelines with a grim expression. He was worried that his team would not be able to withstand Nottingham Forest's fierce offensive and a gap would appear.
O 'Shea had returned to the rear defensive line as the third center back. As the midfield line and rear defensive line were close together, there was no need to set up a single defensive midfielder.
But Ferguson was still a little worried. It was reasonable to say that the Manchester United players on the field were strong in terms of individual ability and teamwork. He did not know what he was worried about …
Perhaps some of Nottingham Forest's reputation was interfering with his mood?
Tony Twain's team was a team that would not admit defeat even if they were beaten to death. As an opponent, they dared not relax until the last second, especially when they started to go crazy.
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Time ticked by, and the score was still 2: 2. Manchester United was less than five minutes away from their 10th Premier League title.
Attackers like Cristiano Ronaldo had withdrawn to the back half of the field to participate in the defense, and Manchester United had almost no counterattack to speak of. Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, pressed forward in full force. It could be said that, with the exception of Edwin van der Sar, almost all of them pressed past the half of the field. These players were well aware of what a draw meant for them.
As Manchester United's defense was tight, Nottingham Forest's offense was somewhat "all bark and no bite." Although it looked aggressive on the field, it did not achieve any results.
In the end, George Wood could not help but take a long shot from outside, and it was sent flying.
"It looks like Nottingham Forest is a little impatient. Such a sloppy offensive mistake is really unnecessary. If this goes on, it will only make Manchester United more confident in holding on to the draw and make the rest of the Forest team more impatient. George Wood is the captain. He shouldn't show any signs of anxiety. "The commentator criticized George Wood mercilessly.
Off the field, Twain and the commentator had completely different views. He rushed to the sidelines and shouted, "Shoot more!"
Perhaps shooting would waste the opportunity, but not shooting would not even have a chance. In any case, now that Manchester United was fully on the defensive, there was no way to threaten Nottingham Forest's rear. Under the Forest team's pressure, their ball could not even cross the half of the field.
Since that was the case, they would shoot more. As long as they hit within the range of the goalpost, there was a chance to break the goal. As for whether they could score a goal or not, it could only be up to fate.
After Wood sent the ball flying, van der Vaart also took a shot. His shot was within the range of the goalpost, but it was too direct and was easily intercepted by Ben Foster. The Forest team then stepped up their long shots, which looked a little like a desperate last-ditch struggle.
The fourth official appeared on the sidelines again and raised the electronic notice board in his hand. This time, it was not a team that wanted to make a substitution, but a reminder of the injury stoppage time — four minutes!
"There are only four minutes left for Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United is only four minutes away from their tenth English Premier League title. Now, every attack by Nottingham Forest will make the Manchester United fans nervous. I really hope Ferguson's heart can still take it … "
Twain decided to make a substitution. He replaced the center back, Piqué, with Bendtner. This was a desperate substitution. It was either succeed or die trying. After Bendtner came on, he could increase the Forest team's strength in the penalty area and create some trouble for Manchester United's rear defensive line. At the same time, his strength and stamina could also become the deciding factor at the most crucial moment.
Bendtner ran onto the field. At this time, the game had just entered injury stoppage time, with four minutes left.
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Cristiano Ronaldo saw the Forest team replace a center back, and he suddenly had an idea in his mind. He pulled Scholes aside and said, "Paul, I think we can try to fight back."
Scholes glanced at the Forest players and then nodded, "They are almost defenseless now …"
"Give me the ball." Ronaldo felt that he was in good form today. If the entire Manchester United team could not press out, then let him dribble the ball alone to kill a bloody path. "One more goal and this game will be over. Even if we don't score, we can remind the Forest team not to attack too fiercely. "
Scholes agreed with his idea. After the Forest team finished another attack, Scholes asked Edwin van der Sar not to kick the ball away, but to pass the ball to him instead. After he got the ball, he passed it to Ronaldo.
Next, it was up to Ronaldo to perform alone.
Ronaldo caught the ball and used his outstanding footwork to shake off Bale, who came up to intercept. Then he suddenly accelerated and started, dribbling the ball alone to kill in the Forest team's back half.
At this moment, the Forest team's back half strictly only had Pepe and Edwin van der Sar. With large swathes of empty space, the Portuguese could make full use of his speed and excellent skills to dribble the football towards the Forest team's goal in big strides!
Seeing him like this, the Forest team rushed back to defend. Bale, Rafinha, Lennon and the others all hurried back to catch up with Ronaldo. But the man who took the lead was George Wood. He began to retreat to prepare for defense after Ronaldo got the football. After seeing Ronaldo shake off Bale, he cut diagonally from the central area to Ronaldo's dribble route.
Pepe came out at the same time. Everyone was in a killing frenzy at the last minute. Who cared about slowly retreating to buy time? Pepe just wanted to intercept the ball from his Portuguese national teammate and then take the opportunity to fight back. As a result …
"Ah! Ronaldo easily bypassed Pepe. He's really fast! "
After bypassing Pepe, there was only Edwin van der Sar left in front of Ronaldo. He had many options, but no matter which one he chose, he was very, very close to scoring.
The fans in the Old Trafford stands began to cheer loudly. They seemed to have seen the golden championship trophy in front of them. Everyone stretched out their hands as if to caress the cold trophy …
Ronaldo looked up at Edwin van der Sar. The other side seemed to be hesitating to attack. He smiled. Whether he attacked or not, the result was the same. That was …
"Poof!"
With his center of gravity suddenly gone, Ronaldo saw the turf in front of him getting closer and closer. He felt a sharp pain in his knee when he landed, and then there was a violent impact. The inertia caused him to roll on the ground continuously and almost rolled out of bounds before he stopped.
He did not care to see who the murderer was because he was holding his knee and rolling back and forth on the ground in pain. The cheers in the stands were all replaced by deafening boos. The sound was so loud that it was suffocating!
George Wood sat on the ground, and not far in front of him was the agonized Ronaldo. Amidst the overwhelming boos, he heard a crisp whistle.
Yes, he did not hesitate to make a flying tackle from behind when Ronaldo was about to cut inside. He did not think about shoveling the ball first and then bringing down the player. He just wanted to shovel the player and the ball at the same time. He already knew what the consequences would be. Without waiting for the referee to come up and chase him away, he stood up from the ground and slowly walked out of the field amidst the boos. The referee ran over and flashed a red card behind him!
"This is a very, very bad foul. A straight red card is not an exaggeration at all! Nottingham Forest finally paid the price for their reckless attack! "
Seeing his beloved player get shoveled, Ferguson flew into a rage off the field. He urged the team doctor to quickly go on the field to check on the injury.
Tang En watched expressionlessly as George Wood walked towards him.
The score was a draw with a difference of one point. There was not much time left until the end of the game, and now George Wood was sent off with a red card. Was this the end?
Wood walked off the field. When he passed by Tang En, he said in a low voice, "I'm sorry."
Tang En looked steadily at the field but said to him, "Don't go. Stand at the entrance of the tunnel and wait for the game to end."
Wood obediently retreated and stood at the entrance of the tunnel. He leaned against the wall and looked up at the game in the field.
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Ronaldo was carried off on a stretcher. It looked like his injury was not light. Fortunately, Ferguson still had a substitution. He called Tevez down from the substitutes' bench behind him, intending to use this substitution to delay the game.
The other members of Manchester United were preparing for this free kick in the front field. It was 34 meters away from the goal and slightly to the right. If handled well, it would be a great threat to the Forest team's goal.
Vidic stayed in the backfield and Ferdinand ran up. As long as this attack was successful, the game would be over. Nottingham Forest absolutely did not have the ability to score two goals in a row in the last minute and a half.
Edwin van der Sar was nervously directing his teammates to defend against the opponent in the penalty area. Bale was the only one in the human wall.
"Don't give them any chance!" He shouted. "Push them out, push them out!"
Ferguson stood on the sidelines with Tevez next to him. He did not make a substitution immediately. Instead, he decided to wait for this free kick. It would be good if it scored. If it did not score but went out of bounds, then he would make a decisive substitution and use this substitution to waste a little more time.
The free kick was taken by Hargreaves. None of the Manchester United players managed to grab the spot. Instead, it was Pepe who rushed out first.
The football did not go out of bounds and fell at van der Vaart's feet. Van der Vaart directly passed the football to Lennon on the sidelines.
Seeing Lennon take the ball, O 'Shea wanted to come up and tackle it, but the faster Lennon poked the football between his legs. Then he bypassed O' Shea and accelerated to chase the ball. He fished the football back just as it was about to go out of bounds!
"Counterattack, counterattack!" Tang En waved his arms off the field and shouted.
This was the only chance …
Thanks to George Wood's foul, Nottingham Forest had this last chance to quickly counterattack!
Lennon dribbled the ball at high speed on the sidelines. He saw that Evra had the intention of sticking close to him and did not give him the chance. He suddenly kicked the football ten meters out and then accelerated to chase the ball again, easily shaking off Evra!
It did not matter if he broke through. Once he activated the whole body, Manchester United's entire defensive line moved to this side to prevent him from cutting inside. Vidic crossed in front of him, Brown filled in in the middle, and Ferdinand and O 'Shea desperately chased back.
"This is Nottingham Forest's chance, but if they can't grasp it, this game will end here!"
Lennon glanced at the situation in front of him. He realized that it would be more difficult to break through on his own. Or … He glanced in front of him. Van Nistelrooy was in front preparing to run diagonally …
Chance!
Lennon pushed the football at his feet straight out and it rolled behind Vidic. Van Nistelrooy happened to plug in diagonally and receive the ball!
Vidic raised his hand to signal that Van Nistelrooy was offside. But the assistant referee ignored him and ran forward with Van Nistelrooy.
"A beautiful pass and run combination. It's not offside!"
After Van Nistelrooy received the ball, he cut into the penalty area. Wes Brown rushed to stop him from shooting.
"Don't wait, just shoot!!" Twain roared anxiously off the field, wishing he could go up and shoot the kick himself.
Van Nistelrooy felt the threat from diagonally behind. Ben Foster blocked in front of him to block his shooting angle. At this moment, there was only Van Nistelrooy in Manchester United's penalty area. He could not rely on a pass to deceive the opponent's defenders. The acumen of a natural striker played an important role here.
After Van Nistelrooy saw Ben Foster's position, he decisively raised his leg to shoot. Before Brown could shovel the ball to intercept, he shot the football out!
The football bounced on the ground, went over Ben Foster's hand, and flew straight to the back corner of the goal.
At this moment, whether it was the Nottingham Forest fans or the Manchester United fans, whether it was the people sitting at the scene at Old Trafford or the people watching the game in front of the television, they all held their breath and had their hearts in their throats.
In the next second, the fate of all of them was decided.
As soon as the football was kicked, Brown's leg reached it. Van Nistelrooy could not care about maintaining his balance and fell to the ground, but his eyes were fixed on the football he shot out.
The "king of the small restricted area" at this moment, his heart was beating wildly uncontrollably. If it went past the goal, then the team's hard work for a season would be in vain.
He did not close his eyes like some people, afraid to look. He stared at the football.
He saw the football hit the inside of the goalpost, then bounced over the goal line and fell into the net.
"Ah ah ah ah — this is simply incredible! The ball went in! The ball really went in! Van Nistelrooy's final shot at the last moment! He kicked his former team to hell with one kick! Nottingham Forest reversed the score in the last minute and decided the title with one counterattack! "The commentator was almost crazy. In fact, he was not a Nottingham Forest fan …
Tony Twain did not jump up after he saw the football enter the goal. Instead, his knees went weak and he knelt on the ground. This was too exciting, and he almost thought that it was over. At that time, not only would the team lose the title, but he would also embarrass himself in front of the entire English media. For someone like him who wanted to save face, it was no different from killing him.
Thank God … thank Van Nistelrooy …
Kerslake suddenly hugged Twain, who was kneeling on the ground and looking up at the sky, from behind and roared in his ear, "Tony! Tony! We're the f * * king champions, aren't we? There's no hope for Manchester United, right?! "
Twain let him hug him. He had no strength at all and could not stand up even if he wanted to.
George Wood, who was watching the game at the entrance of the tunnel, first saw the commotion coming from the Forest team's substitutes' bench. His teammates were all celebrating with their arms raised high. He knew van Nistelrooy's ball went in.
He leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. If the ball did not go in, he would be the sinner for the team to lose the title …
※ ※ ※
After van Nistelrooy saw the ball go in, he stumbled up from the ground and ran to the technical area with his arms raised and cheered. He had just run to the sidelines when he was pressed to the ground by a group of Nottingham Forest players.
The players who were celebrating on the substitutes' bench also ran up to join in the fun. A group of people celebrated wildly on the sidelines.
Running back, Rio Ferdinand saw the ball go in and suddenly knelt on the ground. He held his head in his hands and lay on the ground.
Ferguson looked up at the sky. He couldn't even utter a single curse.
This ending was really … They could even overtake with a two-goal lead. Was there anything in this world that they could not do? How could they completely destroy this team?
He could only find the answer next season.
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"The referee blew the whistle to end the game! The Nottingham Forest players are still celebrating. There's no need to continue the game … Congratulations to Nottingham Forest! They won the 07-08 English Premier League title! This is the second top league title in their club's history! Thirty years ago, Brian Clough and his disciples picked up the first top league title in the club's history! After a full 30 years, Tony Twain has once again created the club's history! "
Tang En finally had the strength to break free from the man's embrace. He did not run onto the field to celebrate with the other players. Instead, he walked to the entrance of the tunnel and pulled George Wood out to let him go up and enjoy this moment of championship with his other teammates.
Then, he walked towards Ferguson with his hand extended.
Although they had lost the championship title, Ferguson still showed enough grace in front of his opponents. He took Tang En's outstretched hand and said, "Congratulations. You are … champions."
Tang En smiled politely and said, "Thank you."
Without further words, Ferguson turned around and walked towards the tunnel. Behind him, the dejected members of Manchester United's coaching staff followed.
Watching Ferguson leave, Tang En had just turned around when he saw a large group of players running towards him. He thought the players were going to play the "scary game" of human pyramid. He was about to run when he was blocked by a group of reporters.
"Mr. Tony Twain, talk about your feelings on winning the championship!"
"This was really an exciting game. Were you sure your team could win the championship at the last moment?"
"Manager Tang En, you won the Champions League title last season and the Premier League title this season. Nottingham Forest has risen so quickly. Do you have any secrets that we can talk about?"
Before Tang En could answer these people's questions, he was lifted up by a group of excited players and thrown into the sky.
"Oh, oh, oh! We're the champions! "
The reporters followed the players' movements and pointed their cameras and microphones at the sky.
"Manager Tang En, talk about your feelings at this moment? Let the readers and audience share your joy! "The reporters below shouted loudly.
"Feelings?" Tang En turned his head and said as he went up and down. "Right now … Right now … I feel like I'm … flying! In the clouds! In the clouds! Ahahaha — we're the champions! "He raised his arms and shouted.
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