Barcelona's locker room was gloomy, and Guardiola desperately tried to lift everyone's morale. In Nottingham Forest's locker room, it was a different scene.
"Well done, guys!" Kerslake took on the task of Tony Twain in the locker room. He had to continue to motivate the players with words. Dunn was only responsible for explaining the tactical arrangements.
The players were as happy as the coach. They were satisfied with the performance in the first half. They almost completely blocked Barcelona's offense and had the advantage on the field. They even had a chance to score another goal in the last five minutes.
Everyone sat down and began to discuss Barcelona's predicament in the first half. They chatted happily.
Seeing that their discussion was getting more and more heated, Kerslake had to use his authority as an assistant manager to quiet them down, because Dunn had something to say. "We did well in the first half. But we can't relax in the second half. I'm worried that you'll become arrogant and underestimate your opponent in the second half. You still have to pay attention to what kind of opponent Barcelona is. If you give them too much space, once they adapt to the field, the situation will not be good … "
The players' faces became serious. They knew that what Dunn said was right.
As the saying goes, a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. A team like Barcelona's strength was there for all to see. If they let their guard down, they might be unlucky.
"So in the second half, we'll continue to press them hard, forcing them to make mistakes and not organize an effective attack. We'll force them to rely on long shots and crosses from the flanks to complete their offense. Once they play high up in the air with us, they'll be much less of a threat. "
"As for our offense … Just pay more attention to improving our success rate. We had a lot of chances in the final stages of the first half, but we didn't score a single goal. We can't be like this in the second half. Tony always says that wasting chances will lead to retribution. A one-goal lead is also the most unsafe score in the world. I don't think he wants to see you satisfied with 1: 0 in the second half from the stands, right? "
Dunn finally had to borrow Tony Twain's image to add a little more persuasiveness to his speech. He could not control these players. This had been proven when Twain temporarily left work because of a heart attack. Everyone listened to him when the situation was good, but no one cared about him when the situation was bad. Bringing up Tony Twain at this time was like an imperial sword. Sometimes Dunn also thought that he might be an assistant manager for the rest of his life at Nottingham Forest because Tony's influence on the team was too far-reaching …
※ ※ ※
Twain carried a disposable cup of juice and returned to the stands with his companions. The second half was about to begin. The players from both sides who had been warming up on the field had already left. The fourth official and three referees appeared on the sidelines and gathered together to chat. Maybe he was talking about the stadium?
Tang En's appearance in the stands caused a small commotion. The other fans who recognized him rushed forward and asked loudly, "We will win, right, Tony?"
Tang En also replied loudly, "Of course!"
Then, a group of people raised the wine in their hands and shouted, "Forest, forest! Nottingham Forest! "
They kept shouting until the players from both teams entered the stadium.
When the Nottingham Forest players entered the stadium, they were cheered by the fans in the stadium. When the Barcelona players entered the stadium, it was much quieter …
Perhaps the situation of the two teams could be seen from the expressions of the players when they appeared on the field. The Nottingham Forest players were talking and laughing, while the Barcelona players looked grave and frowned. There was no exception, from the players to the coaches.
Messi, who was previously called the "World's New Football King" by the media, also pursed his lips with a grim expression. He almost completely disappeared in the first half and did not contribute at all. The awe-inspiring and unstoppable leader of the Argentine football world, the ace of Barcelona's aces, seemed to be sleepwalking.
He was thinking about how to salvage the situation in the second half and regain his form.
But it was a little difficult. The field was one reason, and the tight marking by Wood and the others was another. In this game, Tang En did not only let the full backs defend against Messi like in the previous round. When George Wood was free, he often took the initiative to find Messi to "talk about life ideals."
It was already difficult to control the ball on the uneven field. Coupled with Wood's close interference, it was almost impossible for him to get a good hold of the ball.
Maybe in the second half, he should be more active in running and have a wider range of movement …
※ ※ ※
After the start of the second half, Puyol and Piqué went to defend against Mitchell with all their might, and the situation changed slightly. Mitchell's height and header, as well as his jumping, were indeed excellent, but he was completely at a disadvantage in terms of experience. When Piqué and Puyol teamed up against him, he did not know what to do.
During this period, with Mitchell being closely marked, Barcelona gradually regained the situation on the field. They began to try to organize the attack.
Unlike the first half, Barcelona's offense began to rely more on the individual skills of the star players rather than cooperation. Because the failure in the first half proved that their cooperation could not be played on such a field.
Almost any team that used multiple star players would consider relying on individual skills to decide the game in such a situation. Barcelona's team had Messi, Silva, Bojan, Iniesta, Xavi, Alves … and a group of star players. Any one of these players had the ability to decide the outcome of the game on their own. It would be a waste not to use them.
After Silva received the ball, he chose to work alone on the flank. He successfully broke through Nkoulou, who was too tall and had a high center of gravity. But his pass was easily headed out by Kompany.
The next to try was Xavi. He directly did a long shot and deliberately hit a ground ball. He wanted to use the uneven field to create trouble for Akinfeev.
But the Russian, who had trained on such a field for a week, had long adapted to this kind of ball. Tang En had specially done similar training during training. He fell to the ground and pressed the football firmly under his body, not creating a chance for Bojan to make a follow-up shot.
Then it was Messi.
He pulled to the flank to receive the ball and faced Joe Mattock's defense. He feinted to go down, but suddenly spiked the ball and cut inside, shaking off Mattock.
If it was at Camp Nou, Messi would have been more confident. Now he could only choose to cut inside early. As expected, George Wood came up to him.
The football bounced on the uneven turf, and Messi struggled to control the ball. His skills were indeed excellent. He still controlled the football under his feet under such circumstances and had not lost it.
Wood saw that his control of the ball was steady, so he was not in a hurry to make a move. He just leaned his body over.
Messi also knew that once Wood leaned over, he would have no chance to break through. So he suddenly stopped, dodged Wood, and changed to pull toward the flank.
He intended to cut a bloody path through the gap between Wood and Mattock and straight into the penalty area!
He pushed with his left foot and hooked with his right foot!
He successfully dodged Joe Mattock's tackle and intended to rush out through the gap. But Wood's explosive power was amazing! When he pushed the ball with his left foot, he had already seen through his intentions. He took a big stride first and cut across Messi's route. Messi hooked the football forward with his right foot, and Wood just separated him from the ball. He successfully blocked the ball!
Messi couldn't stop in time and crashed into George Wood. He felt as if he had hit a wall. Fortunately, he had just started. If he had been running at high speed, he might have immediately become dizzy …
Messi collapsed to the ground, and the Barcelona fans and Nottingham Forest fans in the stands booed at the same time. The Barcelona fans thought that George Wood had blocked for a foul and should have given a free kick or a penalty kick — the place where Messi fell to the ground was very ambiguous. It seemed to be outside the penalty area, but also seemed to be in the penalty area …
The Nottingham Forest fans booed because they thought Messi had dived. It was too exaggerated for him to fall to the ground in such a close collision.
The referee did not blow a whistle for Wood's foul, nor did he signal for Messi to dive. He did nothing and the game continued.
Although Wood stopped Messi's attack, Nottingham Forest was not out of danger yet because Bojan came up.
At the same time that Messi failed, Bojan plugged in from the back and wanted to grab the ball. He thought that Wood had all his attention on Messi at the time and would not have the leisure to pay attention to him. But he was wrong.
After Wood blocked Messi, he twisted his body again and locked Bojan behind him.
Bojan and Messi crashed into each other like that. Although they did not fall to the ground, they also lost the chance to grab the ball.
George Wood's ability to defend against Barcelona's two top offensive players on his own. After protecting the football, he did not choose to blindly kick. Instead, he passed the ball to Joe Mattock, who had already pulled to the flank, to let him pass the football out to organize the attack.
Several consecutive attacks did not yield any results. It looked like Barcelona's plan to rely on the star players' individual skills to score goals could not work …
※ ※ ※
The game was interrupted in the sixtieth minute.
Someone was injured!
But it was not a Barcelona player or a Nottingham Forest player who was injured this time. The person who was injured was a little unexpected.
At that time, Barcelona's ball was intercepted in the front field and Nottingham Forest launched a quick counterattack. Both sides were moving at high speed. The referee naturally had to quickly run from Nottingham Forest's half of the field to Barcelona's half of the field. Just as he started, he sat down on the ground!
It was not until Nottingham Forest completed the attack that people noticed that the referee was still sitting in the center circle with one hand covering his ankle …
"Ha! What did we see? The main referee is injured! "The commentator laughed. He sounded like he was taking pleasure in the other team's misfortune.
There was also a burst of laughter over the City Ground stadium. The scene was really too funny.
"We've been guessing who would be injured because of the bad field. Maybe Messi, maybe Iniesta, maybe Bojan, or maybe even Nottingham Forest's own players … But we just didn't expect the first person to be injured to be the referee … He seems to have sprained his ankle? Let's see what happened at that time … "
A replay appeared on the television screen. When it started, the referee's foot happened to step on a protrusion, so …
"Well, I don't think this referee will be able to referee this game anymore …"
As he said that, the television showed a shot of the fourth official warming up on the sidelines.
"We wish the fourth official good luck and hope he doesn't sprain his ankle as soon as he gets on the field. Ha! "
Tang En also saw the scene in the stands. He laughed happily like the other fans. Because of what happened at the end of the first leg of the game, the Nottingham Forest fans did not have a good impression of the UEFA referees.
Even the players from both sides, who had been fighting fiercely on the field just now, put aside their antagonism at this moment and surrounded the referee to watch the show, with a playful smile on their faces.
Kompany even took the opportunity to reminisce with Piqué.
"Hey, man, how have you been lately?"
"Hey, it's been like that. How else could it be …"
The main referee's injury added some comedic color to the tense match, and it also eased the atmosphere a little.
Then the injured referee left the field with the help of the staff, and the fourth official went into the field. When the two men handed over their work, the referee specifically warned him, "Be careful of the turf near the center circle …"
A fan shouted at the fourth official in the stands, "Hey man! Are you sure you've warmed up? Be careful, don't sprain your ankle —! "
"Ahahahaha —" His shout was met with a burst of gloating laughter.
After the original referee came down, he was still describing how bad the turf in the City Ground stadium was to the people around him who asked him how bad it was. He spread his hands, shook his head and shrugged, looking helpless.
※ ※ ※
When the game resumed, the ease shown by the players on both sides immediately disappeared without a trace. Kompany and Piqué also did not have the warmth of smiling and chatting together. The tense atmosphere returned to everyone.
After all, this was the last leg of a quarterfinal game that determined who would advance and who would be eliminated. They could not be careless.
Messi suffered at Wood's hands, but he did not give up. He did not even bypass Wood to find another breakthrough point. He seemed to have to compete with Wood today.
This time he succeeded in shaking off Wood, but he still could not easily break through into the penalty area. He could only shoot from the outside.
Akinfeev pounced the football out of the end line to give Barcelona a corner kick. Perhaps this was a victory for Messi?
Piqué rushed up to fight for a header, and Kompany was ordered to mark him. When the two men went up, Kompany chuckled next to him. "Don't even think about scoring, you kid!"
"You talk a lot of nonsense …" Piqué glanced back at Kompany. "Don't pull my clothes!"
"I'm not pulling!" Kompany raised his hands.
Piqué kept changing his position in front of the goal. He was hiding from Kompany.
Xavi ran to the corner kick. He was waiting for the situation in the penalty area to become more chaotic …
Piqué was still wrestling with Kompany. Although his center-back partner was more often Pepe at Nottingham Forest, he also had the market to cooperate with Kompany because Tony Twain was always in rotation. After training and playing together for so many years, he was familiar with Kompany and knew how Kompany was used to defending corner kicks. And Kompany was also familiar with him and knew his habit of fighting for headers and his positioning. Piqué knew that it was not good for him to continue to be entangled like this. He gave Puyol next to him a look. Puyol understood and suddenly inserted himself into the battle, separating the two men. Piqué took the opportunity to get away and retreat to the outside line.
At the same time, Xavi kicked the football toward the goal!
Kompany knew it was Barcelona's tactic, but he could not do anything about it. He desperately wanted to get rid of Puyol's defense, but he was still a step too late.
The football drew an arc and turned slightly outward. Piqué, who got rid of Kompany's marking, sprinted inside and leaped. A powerful header!
The distance was too close for Akinfeev to react. He just raised his hand and the football flew past him into the goal!
"GOOOOOAL — —" The Catalan commentator roared for a full minute before stopping. Every time you thought he was going to give up, he would immediately raise his voice a notch and continue to roar.
"Piqué's powerful header! He blasted open the door of his former club! "
Piqué did not celebrate after the goal. His teammates swarmed up to hug him, but he did not say anything. He was like a wooden stake, letting them hug and slap him.
He scored because he was now a Barcelona player and naturally had to play for his club. But he grew up and became famous at Nottingham Forest. He liked everything here, including the fans who booed him in the stands. There were only sporadic boos in the stands. Most of the Forest players still could not hold a grudge against Piqué. The treatment he received when he returned to the City Ground stadium was completely different from that of Bendtner.
But if Barcelona eliminated Nottingham Forest because of his goal, how would the two sides feel at that time?
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