Guardiola immediately stood outside the penalty area and shouted at the closed gate, "Tony Twain, you coward! What kind of man are you hiding inside! Come out and fight me to the death if you can!! "
Twain hid behind the high gate and the city wall and responded, "You're not qualified to judge whether I'm a man or not. Aren't you known as the best attacker in the world? Attack in if you can't! What kind of hero are you if you can't get in and you can only clamor?! "
"Come out if you can!"
"Pfft, I won't. Are you going to bite me?"
"You shameless old thief! Come out and fight me to the death! "
"I won't come out. What can you do to me?"
"Ha! Don't dare to come out and fight like a man. Women who can only shrink their necks and hide inside! "
"Haha! Do you want to come in and experience for yourself whether I'm a man or not? "
"You shameless Twain, I'll count to three. Are you coming out or not?"
"What are you going to do if I don't come out!"
"If you don't come out … If you don't come out, I'll go in!!"
"Alright, alright. If you have the ability, then go ahead and try!"
"One!"
"Go on, go on."
"Two …"
Before Guardiola could count to three this time, the city gate in front suddenly opened and a group of cavalry rushed out, catching him off guard!
※ ※ ※
"Pepe intercepted the ball that Bojan passed to Silva. He blocked accurately and judged the path of the ball in advance! He passed the ball to George Wood who picked him up! "
The man who dribbled the ball out was George Wood. He relied on his body to lean on Iniesta, who came forward to defend him, and then passed the football to Lennon on the sideline. Lennon led Nottingham Forest's quick counterattack.
"Nottingham Forest has rarely had a decent chance to fight back so far. Their counterattacks are not threatening because they have too few players in the front field. Will it be the same this time? "
No, it was very different this time!
After Wood passed the ball, he did not stay in the backfield to prepare for defense, but followed Lennon to rush through the midfield.
"Lennon is very fast! Barcelona pressed forward collectively and the rear defense is empty. This is a great opportunity to fight back! "
Lahm had just pressed forward to attack and was now desperately chasing behind Lennon. However, his speed could not keep up with Lennon's dribbling speed. So Piqué, who was in charge of the middle, moved towards Lennon, intending to block his former teammate in front.
Piqué was familiar with Lennon, and Lennon was also familiar with Piqué. When he saw Piqué rush up, he knew that the middle would be empty. At this time, it depended on whether he had the awareness and skills to change the football.
Who is in the middle?
Ibišević!
Lennon passed the ball when Piqué rushed up to block him, but he did not stop after passing the ball. He continued to run forward.
All the Nottingham Forest players did not stop after passing the ball on the counterattack. Instead, they continued to run forward. This was an important condition for a counterattack — playing in the same place for a lifetime would not be able to play a quick counterattack.
Lennon was running forward. On the other side, Matías Fernández was also running forward. Şahin, George Wood, and even Tiago were all sprinting with all their might. This was the chance they had been waiting for the better part of the match. They would not let it go!
After Ibišević received the ball, he did not wait for Puyol to come up and passed the ball to Fernández on the right side.
As Alves's assist was too far ahead, he was still chasing Fernández from behind. And Fernández's front was wide open!
"Barcelona's defensive line is completely empty! They did not expect Nottingham Forest's counterattack to be so determined and deadly! "
Outside the field, Tang En crossed his legs, a pleased smile on his face.
"Now it's three against two … No, four, five against four!"
Lahm successfully rushed back, but he did not chase after Lennon. Instead, he covered up the middle. At this time, the chances of Nottingham Forest hitting the ball to the left were too small. The end point of the offense must still be in the middle. Only by covering up the middle was the right choice.
Their defensive midfielder, Yaya Touré, also returned to his position.
After Matías Fernández cut inside the penalty area, Puyol leaned over. Ibišević had Yaya Touré to help him mark, so he could focus all his attention on Fernández.
Seeing that he could not shoot directly, Fernández made a sudden stop and passed the ball to the back.
Ibišević took the lead and rushed to the front. The ball was clearly not passed to him.
When Şahin received the ball, there was no one to mark him. He did not hesitate to raise his leg to shoot!
"Şahin's long shot!"
Fortunately, Valdés reacted quickly and was focused at the same time. He was not deceived by Fernández's cut inside. While he was guarding against Fernández, he was also guarding against the Forest players in the middle.
Valdés had wanted to directly hug the ball, but the moment the ball touched his fingertips, he realized that the ball itself had a very strong rotation. His original gesture could not have hugged the ball, and he could only hurriedly hit it out.
The ball bounced off his fingertips when it touched his fingertips.
"Vedad Ibišević! He appeared at the point of the ball's landing … header! GOAL！ GOOOOOAL！！ GOOOOOAL — —! "
Yaya Touré lost his target the moment Şahin shot, because he turned his attention to Şahin, who had shot. Ibišević passed him from the side and waited for Valdés to release the ball.
The Barcelona players had doubts about Forest's goal. They thought that Ibišević might have been in an offside position before Şahin shot. But in reality, he only moved forward after Şahin shot, and was not in an offside position.
Tang En clapped hard and stood up from his seat. He was very excited. He finally got an away goal!
Guardiola, on the other hand, waved his hands somewhat helplessly. He knew that Nottingham Forest would counterattack, but he did not expect it to be so sudden … because that was when his team's offense was at its peak, and it seemed like they were only one step away from breaking the goal. He did not expect Nottingham Forest to go against the flow and equalize the score with just one counterattack.
After Ibišević scored, he celebrated by slapping his face. The English commentator was particularly excited. "This is Super Ibišević's 20th goal of the season! Hey, Mr. Carl Spicer, are you watching this match? Are you ready to say goodbye to your hair? Haha! "
Although the person Ibišević slapped was Carl Spicer, the Barcelona fans, who did not know the inside story, took this action as a provocation from the Nottingham Forest player, and booed loudly for a moment.
Amidst such boos, Ibišević changed to another celebratory action — he put his finger to his lips and signaled for the people in the stands to shut up. This was truly a provocation to the Barcelona fans …
"Well done, Super Ibišević!" The Nottingham Forest fans supported Ibišević from the stands. They used their singing to fight against the boos from the Barcelona fans.
The Forest players all expressed their congratulations to Ibišević, congratulating him for scoring his 20th goal and helping the boss win Carl Spicer's bet.
Tang En laughed to the people around him off the field. "Now that we're back in England, we have to urge Spicer to fulfill his promise as soon as possible. He'd better make a live broadcast of him shaving his head, ha! "
Tang En, who had scored an away goal, was in a good mood. He had already begun to look forward to humiliating Spicer. Perhaps he would have to call him "Bald Spicer" in the future?
※ ※ ※
The score was tied, which slightly affected the Barcelona players. Their offense was not as fierce as before, because they were always worried that Nottingham Forest would launch another sharp counterattack. Nottingham Forest's offense flourished for a while, and they planned to take the opportunity to score another goal. Scoring two goals would basically set the tone for the second leg.
Unfortunately, they were a little unlucky, and Barcelona's defense was not useless. Piqué headed the ball out of the penalty area twice in a row, dispelling Nottingham Forest's offense.
After that, the game returned to its previous state — Barcelona continued to attack, and Nottingham Forest retreated to defend. However, there was still a slight change: Barcelona began to pay attention to their own rear while attacking, and the number of assists by Alves and Lahm had clearly decreased. And Nottingham Forest was more determined and dared to put in their troops when they counterattacked.
It looked like no one wanted to end the game with a score of 1: 1.
※ ※ ※
When the game reached the 70th minute, Messi became active again. He successfully broke through the Forest team's defense in the middle and on the flank, but Akinfeev pounced on him.
After a little silence for a while, Messi used these two shots to tell the Forest team that he was the most threatening player in the game, and ignoring him would mean death.
Messi was very clear about one thing. Pepe, Baines and Tiago all had a yellow card in front of him. No matter what, he had to ensure that one of the three would be sent off. If possible, it would be best if it was the center back.
So, he cut inside from the flank many times to look for Pepe.
Pepe also discovered Messi's intentions, but he could do nothing about it. Because he could not choose to run away just because he had a yellow card. He could only pay attention to his defensive actions and not give Messi a chance to succeed. In addition, if he had to foul to stop the opponent, the spot of the foul could not be in the penalty area.
In the 77th minute, Messi forced a break through George Wood in the middle. Wood wanted to use a foul to stop it, but the opponent's figure was so flexible that he flashed out of the tiny gap. Now he could face Pepe directly. If he bypassed Pepe, there would only be Akinfeev left in front of him!
Pepe stretched out his leg to intercept the ball, but Messi pushed the football away first. Messi, who pushed the football away, did not follow Pepe. At that moment, his body seemed to become extremely clumsy. It looked like he could not dodge in time and hit Pepe head-on. He rolled over and fell to the ground. He did not forget to cover his ankle.
The referee's whistle rang out together with the boos from the Barcelona fans.
"A foul for blocking! And he kicked Messi down! Pepe looks like he's in trouble … "
Pepe pulled Messi while he reached out and shook his hand at the referee to indicate that he did not foul. The reason why he was so anxious was that he had seen the referee reach into his chest pocket …
What did that action mean?
"No!" Twain also shouted when he saw this scene off the field. "This is not a foul! This is definitely not enough to get a yellow card for a foul! You f * * king referee, are you doing this on purpose! "
His shouting could not stop the referee from showing Pepe a second yellow card. The Brazilian was sent off the field!
A group of Nottingham Forest players swarmed up and surrounded the referee. They could not accept such a result.
"In fact, there's nothing to argue about. If Pepe did not foul, Messi would have broken through him and directly faced the goalkeeper, Akinfeev. That was a one-on-one! It's not wrong to give a yellow card! "
Twain flew into a rage off the field when he saw the referee pull out a red card. They had equalized the score. As the game went on, the situation should have become more and more favorable to Nottingham Forest. Now that the main center back was sent off, how could Nottingham Forest fight in the face of Barcelona's bombardment?
In a game against a team like Barcelona, one less player and the same number of players made a big difference. There would never be a situation where one less player was the same as one less player.
The fourth official came up to tell Twain to calm down. Only then did Twain turn around and walk back, swearing. Pepe's sending off was unchangeable. In all fairness, it was also a foul. Even if he was unhappy, he could only accept it.
The referee dispersed the crowd and urged Pepe to quickly leave the field. Only then did the Brazilian defender leave amidst the boos of the home fans.
However, he did not return to the locker room. Instead, he stood at the entrance of the tunnel and continued to watch the game.
※ ※ ※
Pepe was sent off and Twain was forced to make a substitution. He replaced Şahin with Woodgate. When Şahin left the field, Twain went up to shake his hand and comforted him. This was something that could not be helped. Şahin's performance was not bad. He even indirectly assisted Ibišević's goal. However, under such circumstances, the two defensive midfielders could not move. The forward could not either, because Twain still wanted to counterattack. If the two flanks were to be replaced, it would be imbalanced. Then, the only person who could move was the attacking midfielder, Şahin.
"You did well, Nuri. There's nothing to be depressed about. It's just that our luck … is a little bad. "
Twain said this to Şahin and to himself.
This game was difficult to play. Defending this goal was perhaps the highest goal.
※ ※ ※
"Barcelona has stepped up their offense. Faced with Nottingham Forest, who is down a player, they are pressing on with all their forces, intending to take this opportunity to finish off their opponent! Pepe's unexpected departure has caused a lot of trouble for the Forest team. Perhaps Tony Twain should consider it. Being able to leave Camp Nou with a score of 1: 1 would be the greatest victory. But will Guardiola give him such a chance? For Barcelona, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! I think Nottingham Forest is in danger. "
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