This was Tang En's third visit to Camp Nou. The feeling was even stronger than the previous two times, because the nearly 80,000 home fans in the stadium were booing Forest with great momentum. The last time he came, he did not receive such a warm welcome. It was all thanks to the Catalan media.
When the Barcelona players stepped onto the field, the fans were still singing Barcelona's team song. At the climax of the song, the 80,000 people in the stadium shouted in unison, "Barcelona! Barcelona! Ba — sa! " Then in the blink of an eye, the Nottingham Forest players ran onto the field. These people were uniform as if there was only one person, and they let out ear-piercing boos.
"What a passionate master." Twain laughed.
Although the sight of eighty thousand people booing together was truly spectacular, it did not affect the Nottingham Forest players. As subordinates of the annoying Tony Twain, they were long used to being booed at away games. The only difference was the number of people. If there were fewer people, the stadium would be smaller, and the sound would reverberate. The more people there were, the bigger the field was. The sound would be carried out, so the side with more people would not have any advantage.
The Nottingham Forest players may be weaker than Barcelona in other aspects, but in terms of psychological quality, they think they are the second best in the world. No one dares to claim to be the best. Therefore, in the midst of the thunderous boos, they remained calm and composed.
George Wood and Puyol shook hands, exchanged flags, and then played the coin toss. He won against Puyol and obtained the right to pick the side. Actually, Tang En had always felt that the right to pick the side was not as important as the right to kick off. That was why he always hoped that Wood would lose the coin toss.
After the start of the game, Barcelona used the kickoff to launch an offensive, while Nottingham Forest retreated to defend.
"The game has just started and Nottingham Forest has to defend. The war of words before the match was so intense that I thought Tony Twain would attack fiercely at the start of the match. "The television commentator was rather critical of Tony Twain's shrinking defense.
The guest commentator next to him laughed, "Barcelona has the ball. Nottingham Forest wants to attack, but how can they attack without the ball at their feet? If nothing unexpected happened in this game, Nottingham Forest would still stick to defensive counterattack. Tony Twain is a smart man and he knows the outcome of a confrontation with Barcelona at Camp Nou. "
"But can they hold on at Camp Nou just by defending to the death? I think if we let Barcelona surround and attack, it's only a matter of time before a goal is scored. "The commentator also had his own opinion on this.
"You're right. If any team only thinks about attacking when they face Barcelona, then it's normal for them to concede a goal. On the other hand, if they only thought about defense, it was only a matter of time before a goal was scored. Therefore, Tony Twain did not want to go to two extremes here. Defense and counterattack were his trump cards. I think if Barcelona can't score, the game will go to Nottingham Forest. "
Guardiola also understood this. He knew that Tony Twain would play defensive counterattack in the away game, so the key was whether he could let him defend successfully. As long as Forest lost the ball first, Tony Twain's defensive counterattack would collapse on its own.
The key to this match was not how strong the defense was, but how sharp the offense was.
The best offensive line in Europe today was also up against the best defensive line. The contest between the spear and the shield was not as exciting as people thought.
Barcelona's attack was met with Nottingham Forest's tenacious interception outside the thirty-meter zone. George Wood and Tiago's defense was solid, especially Wood, whose tireless running ensured that he appeared where he was most needed. Both Xavi and Iniesta were in a lot of trouble.
Iniesta got the ball and stopped outside to observe for a while and found that there was no suitable opportunity to pass the football in. It just so happened that Messi found the same problem and withdrew to receive the midfield. Iniesta took advantage of the situation and handed the football to him.
Although Iniesta and Xavi were the brains of the team, Messi was much more popular than them. As soon as the little Argentinian man received the ball, there was a huge cheer in the stands of the stadium. Everyone was waiting for his magical performance.
Barcelona's number 10, known as the king of the new generation, was last year's European Footballer of the Year, FIFA World Player of the Year, double winner of the Champions League and World Cup. When he stood in front of you, it was as if his whole body was shining. Even if he did not do anything, he would become the most eye-catching target on the field. Then he easily bypassed Baines.
The combination of speed and technique was perfect. It was just a simple feint and then poke the ball to make Baines tumble. Such a gap was really discouraging — no, that was the general idea. For the Nottingham Forest players, if the opponent was too weak, they might be arrogant and underestimate the enemy, but if the opponent was too strong … they would be more excited!
Baines was shaken to the ground. When Messi was about to cut inside, Fernández was already in front of him. The agile Messi hurriedly turned the football to the outside to avoid Fernández. When he avoided Fernández's amateur defensive move with his excellent reaction, he was entangled by Pepe again, while Baines had rushed back to defend him from behind.
Deep in the encirclement, Messi still tried to protect the football, but he was kicked down from behind by Baines, who rushed up!
Baines kicked the back of Messi's right ankle. Messi screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his ankle as if in great pain.
There was an earth-shattering booing in the stands. The sound was enough to scare people with a weak heart.
The Barcelona fans hated all fouls against Messi, because it was not only killing artistic football, but also killing their football beliefs.
The referee's whistle was almost drowned out by the booing. Baines reacted quickly and immediately leaned over to comfort Messi and show goodwill to the referee. But the commentator did not let him go easily, "The game has just started and Messi has been violated by the Nottingham Forest players. This scene is simply too familiar. We have seen it a lot recently. As Barcelona's most famous and outstanding player, Messi has also been the focus of the defenders while he has reaped countless honors. Baines' foul is enough for him to get a yellow card! "
The referee did not give Baines a yellow card, perhaps considering that the game had just started and he did not want to affect the excitement of the game that followed. It looked like the referee from Italy was not an "iron-faced judge," otherwise he would never have escaped the yellow card.
The Barcelona fans near the sidelines were cursing Baines in Catalan and English for the foul, "You bastard! A coward who only knows how to kick people's ankles!! "
"You English savages! Football hooligans!! "
Baines turned a deaf ear to them. Seeing that the referee did not give a card and only gave a verbal warning, he turned and ran away after hearing it.
Messi looked in pain, which made Twain very happy off the field. He thought Baines's kick would send Messi off the field. But he was soon disappointed — Messi groaned for a while and stood up by himself …
Looking at the way he moved his ankles, he was probably fine.
Twain grinned and said to Dunn with some disappointment, "I knew it. How could such a light kick cause that?"
Guardiola was furious that the referee did not show a yellow card to Baines. He protested loudly on the sidelines until he summoned the fourth official. He only calmed down at the request of the fourth official.
"I'm wondering if Baines's kick was accidental, or if Tony Twain specifically requested it before the game …" the guest commentator said after seeing the scene.
"You'll know when you keep watching. But I bet it must have been deliberately arranged by Twain. He said he would do anything to win, so how could he not use such a popular tactic against Messi? "The commentator said.
In fact, they blamed Twain wrongly. He did not ask the players to use rough fouls and killing tactics against Messi before the game. He just told the players to keep a close eye on Messi, so the players themselves understood that it was difficult to defend against the football wizard with conventional defense. The simplest and most effective way was naturally to foul. As for whether to kick the ankles or the knees, whether to hit or pull people, it was just a formality.
Of course, it did not rule out the possibility that Baines was angry after being easily bypassed by Messi and turned around to retaliate by kicking Messi down.
※ ※ ※
Messi did not reduce the number of times he took the ball because of the violation by Baines. When the team could not open up the situation, he would always actively retreat to get the ball, and then insist on bypassing Baines one-on-one when facing him. Messi's activity allowed Barcelona to focus on the right side of the offense. Nottingham Forest's left side was under great defensive pressure. George Wood, Pepe and others began to consciously lean to this side.
At this point, Iniesta, who was responsible for distributing the ball, did not continue to pass the football to Messi. Instead, he moved to the right side and handed the football to Silva.
Compared to the heavily guarded left side, Nottingham Forest's right side was a lot more empty. Silva stopped the ball beautifully and suddenly cut inside and charged into the penalty area!
"Silva! This is Barcelona's chance! He tried to continue to go down in the penalty area. Rafinha was defending against him, but he did not dare to easily make a move … Breakthrough! It's done! "
Silva seized the opportunity when Rafinha did not dare to easily make a move. He pushed the football past him and then lifted his leg to sweep the pass. The football rolled quickly along the turf toward the goal. Such a ball could hit the goal if it was kicked down by anyone.
Bojan managed to find a spot in the crowd, but his shot was blocked by Akinfeev's body, who was in an excellent position!
"Bojan shoots! Oh, what a pity! It didn't go in! "
The football that Akinfeev blocked fell to Iniesta's feet. He made a long shot under Wood's close marking, but he hit it high.
In the ensuing period, Barcelona completely suppressed Nottingham Forest. For a while, Nottingham Forest could not even pass the football over half of the field, let alone fight back. George Wood and Tiago's job was to keep snatching the ball, snatching the ball, and snatching the ball again.
※ ※ ※
In the 24th minute, Tiago fouled Messi and finally received his first yellow card of the game. At that time, Messi suddenly switched to the middle and broke through Tiago head-on. Tiago, who turned half a beat too slow, could only stretch out his hands and drag Messi to the ground like a wrestler in order to prevent Messi from successfully breaking through.
It would not make sense not to give such an obvious foul. The referee took out a yellow card to warn Tiago, but the Barcelona fans still did not let it go — they felt that the referee on duty for the game was too soft. Many of Nottingham Forest's fouls were just verbal warnings. For example, George Wood tackled Iniesta from behind. After he intercepted the ball, the referee actually signaled that there was no foul and the game continued! At that moment, the earth-shattering boos were directed at Wood and the referee.
The Nottingham Forest players became bolder after they discovered this and stepped up their defensive actions. It was not until the 24th minute of the game that the referee showed the first yellow card of the game. Tiago's action with his hands on his waist was under the referee's nose. There was really nothing to say … The football game was about to become a wrestling match. If no cards were shown, perhaps the game would further become an unrestricted fighting contest.
The referee's yellow card made Nottingham Forest's actions a little more restrained. But within a few minutes, when they found that as soon as they restrained, Barcelona's offense became active, and they immediately forgot about the yellow card warning.
Messi was directly pushed out of the field by Baines when he dribbled the ball on the flank this time and hit the billboard. The scene looked as if he was already dead, and it was quite a visual impact. So, the boos instantly became louder.
The referee took out a yellow card from his pocket this time and gave it to Baines. When Baines saw that he had eaten a yellow card, he simply did not pretend to be a good person … So, Messi did not pull and turned to run away.
In fact, Messi was not injured. He got up himself and spread out his hands somewhat helplessly. He had encountered this kind of treatment countless times, but he could not get used to it. The defensive players always looked fierce when they saw him and wanted to break all the joints in his body.
Nottingham Forest's image in the minds of the Barcelona fans had fallen to rock bottom because of the repeated assaults on the Barcelona players. At the beginning of the game, the home fans still maintained basic courtesy to the visiting team. But after thirty minutes, as long as the Nottingham Forest players touched the ball on the field, they were inevitably "welcomed" with a burst of boos.
Another thing that made the Barcelona fans feel anxious was that the game had been going on for thirty minutes, and Barcelona's offensive could be said to be fierce. At the most dangerous time, Nottingham Forest's goal looked like a small boat in a storm that could capsize at any time. But even so, the score on the big screen was still 0: 0.
"Time flies. Thirty minutes have passed in the first half before we know it. But Barcelona did not score. They had countless opportunities to shoot in the thirty minutes and seemed to be able to break the goal guarded by Akinfeev every time. But things did not go as planned. Until now, they and Nottingham Forest are still 0: 0! This is too embarrassing for the Barcelona fans. The only thing to watch in these thirty minutes may be that Messi was put to the ground again and again? I think he should change into a new jersey in the second half, otherwise we won't be able to tell the number on his body … "
"But the effect of Nottingham Forest's actions is obvious. Messi is heavily marked and Iniesta and Xavi have no better way to deal with Nottingham Forest's heavy players in the middle. Due to Messi's great activity, Silva's side appears a little deserted, and Bojan is completely submerged in the middle of the Forest team's strong defenders … Tony Twain is really good at defense. Guardiola should consider how to deal with it. Maybe he should make some adjustments? His offense is a little too reliant on Messi. Twain is clearly targeting him and sending people to attack Messi in turn. "
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