Nottingham Forest was now down a player, which was a good opportunity for Barcelona. If they could seize it, they could win the game. Everyone thought that in the remaining time of the game, Tony Twain could only get the team to withdraw in order to withstand Barcelona's tidal attack. Otherwise, it would be a dead end.
But they did not expect that after bringing on Woodgate, Twain let the England center back bring a new instruction to the players on the field.
"Attack. The boss wants us to find a way to attack. "Woodgate took advantage of the dead ball to gather everyone together to announce the latest decision. "He said that Barcelona is now full of how to score our goal and will never think that we still have the strength to fight back, so their defense is useless. As long as we can seize the opportunity, the initiative will be on our side. "
The others nodded in agreement. Having been with the boss for a long time, they all seemed to understand this principle — riches come from danger. The more impossible the place, the more likely it was. The more dangerous the time, the safer it was.
When the game resumed, Barcelona continued to think about how to break the goal to take the lead. Their rear was indeed useless, as Twain said. Nottingham Forest first made themselves into a ball, like a hedgehog, so that Barcelona, eager to score, had nowhere to attack. Then those small, beady eyes began to look for a path to victory in the complicated situation.
The heavens did not disappoint those who waited!
Barcelona's attack was carried away. Alves, Lahm and even Puyol rushed across the center line, with the intention of playing a "half-court offensive and defensive battle" with Nottingham Forest. Even Valdés unknowingly moved his position outside the penalty area while paying attention to his own side's offensive.
Nottingham Forest, with one player down, had performed like a stray dog during this period. Who would have thought that such a team could still threaten the opponent's goal?
Nottingham Forest, the "stray dog," had done it.
Messi's sudden shot in the penalty area was saved by Akinfeev. After Woodgate received the ball, he was immediately closed by Bojan. Barcelona hoped to attack on the spot after the counterattack in the front field. Woodgate could not turn around, and he passed the football to Baines on the wing in a very difficult situation.
Seeing Baines take the ball, Messi also pressed forward.
Barcelona's use of the front field to press and snatch made it difficult for the Forest team to get the ball out, but it also left a problem — layers upon layers of pressing forward, causing their rear defensive line to press too high up. There was a large space behind the defensive line. A long pass would be enough to penetrate. There was no need for any technique at all.
Messi's tackle was a little amateurish. After all, he was not a professional defensive player. After Baines protected the football and saw Alves rushing up, he did not dare to delay any longer. He passed the football to George Wood, who came up to receive him.
Logically speaking, when Alves came up, he should pass the football to Fernández and open up the path from his side. However, Wood did not choose to do something so obvious. He turned around and suddenly did a long diagonal pass, passing the football in the completely opposite direction.
There, Lennon sprinted to catch the ball. As for Rahm? She had already been left behind by his sudden movement.
Wood's long passes were very accurate. He passed the ball from one flank to the other. He was also able to send the ball to the front of Lennon, taking full advantage of the latter's speed.
Lennon lived up to expectations and caught up with the football.
Next, Nottingham Forest counterattacked at full speed. Ibišević, Fernández, and even Tiago all rushed up.
The speed of Nottingham Forest's counterattack was surprisingly fast. Barcelona's replay speed could not keep up at all!
There were only two players in the backfield, Piqué and Puyol. Piqué went to defend against Lennon, while Puyol protected not far away and monitored Ibišević's movements.
After Lennon saw Piqué again, he glanced at the middle again. He saw that Ibišević was basically in place and Fernández was waiting at the far end. He was sure that his pass would be foolproof. He lifted his foot to pass the football out diagonally as he ran. The football went over Puyol's head and fell to the back.
Ibišević was half a beat slower and did not receive the football!
"Oh, what a pity …"
The Barcelona fans in the stands did not think so. Their boos suddenly became louder.
Although Ibišević did not receive the football, Fernández on the other side successfully caught the ball.
At the same time as he received the ball, Fernández also directed the football to the middle, stopping the ball and adjusting in one go.
Alves was still desperately chasing behind, but Fernández was only one step away from the penalty area.
"One-handed! He broke into the penalty area! "
Valdés abandoned the goal to attack, but it gave Fernández a chance to lob a shot. He lifted his left foot up as he ran and flicked the football over Valdés's head!
At that moment, the hearts of the Barcelona fans collectively stopped beating, and their breathing seemed to freeze. Everyone watched helplessly as the football passed over Valdés's head and fell into the goal …
The Nottingham Forest fans, who were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, erupted with volcanic energy at this moment. Their cheers resounded over the Camp Nou stadium.
"How incredible! Nottingham Forest actually overtook the score with one player down!! "The commentator was going crazy … He did not expect the game to end like this.
Tang En jumped up from his seat and rushed to the sidelines with his arms raised. You send me off, and I score a goal for you. What a good deal!
"We're going to win, ahaha!" He laughed at Dunn and Kerslake.
The Nottingham Forest players, who had been repressed for the entire game, finally felt elated at the last moment, ran to the front field to hug Fernández and celebrate the goal.
But amidst such a joyous scene, the captain, George Wood, was shouting something in the backfield. Looking at his hand gestures, it seemed that he wanted his teammates to hurry back …
Did something happen?
"Wait, wait!" The commentator also shouted. "Offside! The assistant referee's flag is raised. When Lennon passed the ball, Fernández and Ibišević were both offside …? Maybe we can find out from the replay, but now … Barcelona quickly sent out a free kick while the Nottingham Forest players were celebrating in the front field! Now it's their turn to fight back! George Wood is calling for his teammates to return to defend. Now the Forest team's back half only has him, Woodgate, and the goalkeeper, Akinfeev. There is almost no defense! What's going on? Look at the expressions of the Nottingham Forest players. They're completely stunned and even forgot to return to defend! "
Only a few people were desperately running back, but at this time, Barcelona had already passed the ball to the front of Nottingham Forest's penalty area …
The referee did not stop Barcelona's attack. He thought that Barcelona did not violate the rules because the game was not suspended.
On the sidelines, Tony Twain could not believe his eyes. His hands, which had been raised to celebrate the victory, were now holding his head. He stared at what was happening on the field with an incredulous expression.
George Wood had only one way to save the team now. It was not to be Superman, to defend against all the Barcelona players and then kick the football out of bounds. It was … a foul.
He was like a heavily overloaded heavy truck, charging at full speed toward Messi, who was dribbling the ball. This time, even if he had to break both of Messi's legs, he had to stop Barcelona from scoring!
Messi saw his intentions. Before Wood rushed up, he passed the football out and then jumped to dodge Wood. Even so, he was hit by Wood and rolled in the air before falling to the ground. He looked very embarrassed, but his task was completed.
The football was successfully sent to Bojan's feet. It was not offside!
Before Woodgate came up to block, Bojan decisively kicked. The football flew past Woodgate and then Akinfeev, drilling accurately into the goal!
This time, it was the Barcelona fans' turn to cheer. And the assistant referee did not raise the flag that spoiled the fun. He just ran to the center line again — this meant that the goal was valid.
"The ball's in! It's really a game full of ups and downs! Nottingham Forest's counterattack just now was ruled invalid for offside, but Barcelona's counterattack is valid! 2: 1! Barcelona is in the lead! Now there are five minutes to the end of the game, and Nottingham Forest has suffered a heavy blow! "
The Barcelona players began to celebrate the successful counterattack, and the Nottingham Forest players angrily surrounded the referee, demanding an explanation from the other party.
"Why is our goal offside, but there is no problem with their goal at all?"
"Why didn't you call for a stop when they kicked off quickly?"
"Such a decision is too inexplicable! I was definitely not offside! "
"You bastard …" The man's mouth was covered by a teammate who still had some sense.
But someone scolded him for his foul language.
After discovering that Barcelona's goal was valid, Tang En was like TNT explosives that had been ignited off the field. At this time, even if the sky fell down, it would not stop him from swearing at the referee.
"You son of a b * tch! Don't you f * * king bring your conscience out today! What right do you have to stand on the field in that outfit? "He rushed into the field, pointed at the referee and shouted.
The referee did not immediately pay attention to him, but showed a yellow card to Wood, who had just collided with Messi!
The Nottingham Forest fans in the stands desperately booed the black-clothed referee.
This move was simply adding fuel to the flames of anger among the Nottingham Forest players. A group of people surrounded the referee and tugged at him, their mouths wide open as if they were going to eat the small referee in front of them. Fernández also received a yellow card for protesting the call. If someone had not pulled him back, it was hard to say whether he would have rushed up to the Italian referee and punched him.
"Ha!" Tang En laughed instead of being angry. "You even want my man to show a yellow card! If I were George and Matías, I'd f * * king give you a red card! You son of a b * tch! "
The fourth official came over again and said in a stern tone, "Mr. Tang En! Please watch your words … "
"Mr. Fourth Official, please ask your referee to pay attention to his conscience!" Tang En retorted with a bad attitude. "What is this? What is this? This is f * * king murder! You murdered our goal, and now you're biting back! That's great! Is this the UEFA's killing stunt? Send off my center back, blow off my goal, and blow a goal for Barcelona! That's great, that's great! I must applaud you! I'm proud to have you go through so much trouble to get rid of us! I'm so f * * king proud!! "
The more Tang En scolded, the angrier he became. His saliva sprayed all over the fourth official's face, and the fourth official's face gradually darkened.
"There's no problem with our goal. You can watch it a thousand times! Barcelona's goal should not have happened at all! You bunch of UEFA bandits! Shameless! In Paris in 2006, you snatched our championship title. What do you want to snatch this time? Do you want us to not advance? Don't be too happy! Don't be too happy too early! "
Tang En used his head to block the fourth official and scolded him.
The fourth official pressed the microphone clipped to his ear and notified someone to deal with the mad dog in front of him.
It was not easy for the referee, who was heavily surrounded on the field, to break through. So, the fourth official was spat at by Tang En for nearly a minute. During this period, the game could not go on normally. After the Barcelona players celebrated the goal, they waited for Nottingham Forest to kick off, only to find that they were all surrounding the referee to ask for an explanation. On the sidelines, the Nottingham Forest manager was arguing with the fourth official. The Barcelona fans in the stands kept booing Nottingham Forest.
It was a complete mess!
Guardiola stood on the sidelines and enjoyed the show. After all, he had nothing to lose if the game dragged on. The only one who would be unlucky would be Nottingham Forest. They had received so many yellow cards in this game, and it looked like Tony Twain did not want to stay in the technical area anymore. In the next round, even though it was their home ground, Nottingham Forest would not be a threat.
Right now, he especially hoped that Tang En would scold more harshly. It would be best if he directly made a move. Although he did not have any grudges with the UEFA, this would definitely ensure that Tang En would be sent off.
The referee finally broke through the heavy encirclement of the Nottingham Forest players and ran to Tang En. Along the way, the Forest players chased after him and continued to protest, but the referee turned a deaf ear.
He ran to the sidelines, and the fourth official turned to leave the range of Tang En's spit. He lowered his head and said a few words to the referee. Then, he saw the referee walk to Tang En and point at him sternly. "You need to take responsibility for every word you say, Mr. Manager."
Tang En had a playful expression on his face. "Of course I'll take responsibility. Do you want me to repeat what I just said in front of you? I'd be happy to, Mr. Referee. "
"I'm warning you, Mr. Manager."
"Stop pretending, Mr. Referee. You blew away one of our goals and helped Barcelona score the winning goal. You put a knife to my neck and snatched away our victory. Now you have the cheek to come here and point it at my nose to warn me? What are you warning me about? Warning me to tell the truth? Warning me that I've accidentally hurt your soft little heart? Oh, baby, I must have done it on purpose … "Tony Twain had a glib tongue. His quick rebuke left the referee speechless for a long time. However, he had his own way of dealing with it.
He put his hand into his chest pocket. When he did this to a manager, he would definitely not pull out a yellow card immediately.
Tang En began to applaud, his mouth still incessantly provoking, "Beautifully done! What a goddamn beautiful job! Mr. Man in Black, why don't you send off the entire team? Look, half of them already have a yellow card. All you need to do is find an excuse and they can all scram! "
The referee ignored Tang En's provocation and showed him a red card.
The stands behind the Nottingham Forest technical area rang with gloating whistles and laughter.
"Look at what's happening on the sidelines! Tony Twain was sent off with a red card for contradicting the referee! For Nottingham Forest, this is really … too bad, too bad! They've sent off a center back, are down 1: 2, and the referee has been chased out of the stadium. The match can already be declared over early, right? "
"But this match is really 'exciting.' At the end, there were climaxes one after another, wave after wave …"
Tang En turned and walked towards the tunnel. The fourth official shouted at his back, "I'll write all of this in detail in the match report, Mr. Twain!"
"Up to you, Mr. Bandit from the UEFA." Tang En waved his hand nonchalantly.
"I'll remember that too!"
Tang En ignored him. When he walked to the entrance of the tunnel, he decided to do an action to vent the anger in his chest.
He raised his right hand high, and under the attention of several cameras and more than 80,000 people in the stadium, he made a money-counting gesture.
The smiles on the faces of the Barcelona fans who were watching the show froze, while Dunn turned his face away, unwilling to watch anymore.
After a brief uproar, lighters, coins, cell phones, and everything else that could be thrown rained down on the entrance of the tunnel.
But as for Tang En, he had long disappeared into the tunnel while they were stunned.
"…" The commentator opened his mouth after being shocked into silence for a while. "I can guarantee that Tony Twain's action will bring him a lot of trouble after the match. This is not just a matter of a red card and a two-match suspension. Does he know what he's doing?"
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